Latest / Christian Business Growth Podcast / You Are Enough: From Nurse to Kingdom Entrepreneur

Transcript

You Are Enough: From Nurse to Kingdom Entrepreneur · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm here with Shakwita Goldsmith.
• 0:05
  I was trying not to mess that name up.
• 0:07
  I've said it a hundred times.
• 0:08
  uh Shakwita, good to have you with us.
• 0:11
  You originally were a nurse.
• 0:12
  So tell us, how did you go from being a nurse to being an entrepreneur?
• 0:15
  Tell us what the story looks like for you.
• 0:17
  Okay.
• 0:17
  Hello.
• 0:18
  Hello everybody.
• 0:19
  I am Shakweeta Goldsmith.
• 0:21
  I am a registered nurse.
• 0:23
  This is my 27th year in 2018.
• 0:28
  God spoke to me to write my first book, How to Move Beyond Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
• 0:34
  When the book got published, I formed a business, Free To Do Me Foundation, LLC.
• 0:41
  So I am currently
• 0:43
  still a registered nurse, but I am only working less than part-time hours and I am working my business full-time hours.
• 0:53
  Okay, and tell us a little bit about that business.
• 0:54
  What does it do?
• 0:55
  Okay, at Free To Do Me Foundation, we are transforming lives with our products and our services.
• 1:01
  Our services include motivational speaking events, transformational life coaching, utilizing the Free To Do Me Foundation intrapersonal development curriculum, books and
• 1:13
  journals written and published by me.
• 1:16
  book writing, book editing, book publishing services, educational classes and consultations, as well as unisex apparels and accessories by designs by Shakwita.
• 1:29
  that's great.
• 1:30
  And those earrings, assume you did those yourself, didn't you?
• 1:34
  I got to point those out.
• 1:37
  I saw you wearing those at one of our network meetings.
• 1:38
  That's how we met.
• 1:39
  So it's great to have you there.
• 1:41
  So you've written how many books now?
• 1:44
  I've written and published nine literary works.
• 1:47
  They include books, journals, and a curriculum.
• 1:51
  So a total of nine.
• 1:54
  And if somebody was kind of curious, they're like, I've always thought about writing a book.
• 1:59
  What would you tell them to get out of their head and get it going?
• 2:03
  I would tell them to get them a journal, whether it's a notepad or even a note or digital notepad and just start writing every time God gives them something for the book.
• 2:16
  Just start writing and writing and writing.
• 2:19
  And then eventually at the conclusion, get, go ahead and format your book.
• 2:26
  Find your publishing company.
• 2:28
  Free to do me foundation can help you or self publish yourself.
• 2:33
  Okay, so if I'm a writer and I'm waiting for God's inspiration, I'm looking at this blank page, I just start writing, what should I start doing?
• 2:42
  Just start, you're looking at this blank page, write what's on your soul.
• 2:46
  I'm gonna give you an example of me.
• 2:48
  So in 2007, I transitioned to being a single lady with two children, one in college and one was back and forth with her dad and me.
• 2:59
  And I had a blank journal that someone had gifted me with 10 years prior.
• 3:04
  And the Holy Spirit say, pick that journal up.
• 3:06
  Every single day.
• 3:08
  From 2007 until today, I write in my journal and I start my journal out with Dear God.
• 3:16
  And I just start thanking God for his blessings.
• 3:19
  And then I talk to God in the journal about the matters of my heart.
• 3:25
  I write down the visions that I see that God has given me and I write down the desires of my heart.
• 3:32
  And I end it with in Jesus name, amen.
• 3:35
  And then under God's letter,
• 3:38
  I write myself a letter.
• 3:41
  So this is every single day and this has been going on for 18 years.
• 3:46
  So every year since 2018, I've written and published a book pretty much based on my transformation.
• 3:57
  That's great.
• 3:57
  That is awesome.
• 3:58
  So you're writing a letter to God and then writing a letter to yourself and then using those to impact others.
• 4:03
  That's a cool concept.
• 4:04
  I'm glad you shared that.
• 4:07
  So tell us what is God currently doing in your business right now?
• 4:10
  Well, in my business, my business is expanded.
• 4:14
  So currently I am having every weekend, have a vendor's event and or a author's event at the vendor's event.
• 4:23
  I get to sell my products.
• 4:25
  I get to sell my books.
• 4:26
  I get to sell my earrings.
• 4:27
  I get to sell my hats.
• 4:29
  I also design hats and also I get to meet people.
• 4:33
  form healthy relationships, tell them about my company, and then they call me for services.
• 4:42
  And the beauty of it is I met uh someone at a networking event.
• 4:47
  I do a lot of networking events.
• 4:49
  God opened those doors, and I met someone who introduced me to you, Lyle.
• 4:54
  So every event, God has opened up a door for another event.
• 4:59
  Previously, I met someone at an event and she wants me to come now and do prison ministry and talk to the prisoners.
• 5:05
  And I was like, okay, God, if that's you, you sending me out, I'm ready.
• 5:09
  So God is really expanding the business with I'm meeting new people, I'm selling my products and I'm selling my services.
• 5:18
  That's great.
• 5:18
  you're going to different events.
• 5:20
  You're not hosting these events.
• 5:21
  You're attending events that other people are hosting.
• 5:23
  Is that correct?
• 5:24
  Exactly, I'm attending events that other people are hosting.
• 5:27
  Yes, yes, yes.
• 5:29
  And are these events paid events?
• 5:30
  You have to pay to be like a sponsor type thing?
• 5:33
  Tell us a little bit about that because some people don't know anything about how that works in business.
• 5:37
  Okay, so in business.
• 5:40
  A lot of crafters that are small business owners, they get to go to different events and normally they pay for the event themselves and they recoup the money once they get there
• 5:51
  and sell their products.
• 5:52
  And you just Google events in your town.
• 5:56
  So I pay for these events and actually some of them are free.
• 5:59
  Like I'm going to on this weekend is free.
• 6:02
  So it just depends on who's hosting the event.
• 6:06
  And because I'm an author,
• 6:08
  I have book signing events at a particular bookstore.
• 6:13
  I'm going to say Half Price Books has been very, very, very good to me.
• 6:18
  God has really blessed me to go into Half Price Books every year and take my books, introduce my books to the communities, the different cities that I go to, and sell my
• 6:31
  books to the Half Price Books community.
• 6:33
  And I just want to thank Half Price Bookstore for their generosity in me doing so.
• 6:39
  What a blessing.
• 6:40
  God gave you favor to be in connection with these people.
• 6:44
  That's good thing.
• 6:45
  So one of things we'd like to talk about on this podcast is what can we do to help other people grow their business?
• 6:51
  You've already given us a couple of really good tips, but what else can you add to that?
• 6:55
  um to grow your business
• 6:58
  You are the business.
• 6:59
  So you have to be the business every day.
• 7:03
  You have to network.
• 7:05
  You have to market and marketing and networking may just mean speaking to someone in the grocery store, starting a conversation.
• 7:14
  And then they may ask you what you do for a living, because most of the time people want to know what you do for a living.
• 7:20
  So that's when you can tell them about your business.
• 7:24
  As for me, since I'm a designer,
• 7:27
  I wear my brands every single day and I keep business cards on me.
• 7:33
  So networking and marketing are very, very, very pivotal in business expansion.
• 7:41
  And networking also includes social media.
• 7:44
  I utilize several social media platforms to network, to market, and to advertise it.
• 7:52
  But if I can say, when I spend most of my time with my business, it's networking, it's advertising, and it's marketing.
• 7:59
  And it's really a blessing, because I'm meeting a lot of people all over the world and forming healthy relationships.
• 8:08
  That's great.
• 8:09
  And so let me kind of dig a little bit here.
• 8:11
  What's something that you had to go through to transition you to give you that confidence to be able to go out there and just talk to people about everything you're doing?
• 8:20
  fear of rejection.
• 8:22
  God had to deliver me from fear of rejection because at first I didn't want to get on social media and I was like, wow, all these people going to be seeing me and responding to
• 8:33
  me and commenting on me and God delivered me from fear of rejection.
• 8:39
  Uh, and now I am so confident in it.
• 8:43
  I post
• 8:44
  two to three times a day.
• 8:47
  I respond to the comments.
• 8:49
  I rarely get negative comments because my platform is such inspirational.
• 8:56
  I usually always get inspiring feedback.
• 9:00
  So your fear of rejection.
• 9:02
  God didn't give us the spirit to fear, but power, love, and a sound mind.
• 9:07
  And if God called you to do something, He's going to provide for you.
• 9:11
  So He continues to open all the right doors for me.
• 9:15
  I'm just going in.
• 9:17
  I'm just being obedient.
• 9:19
  That's a great way to look at it.
• 9:20
  And a lot of people when they start doing social media, they're like, nobody wants to hear from me.
• 9:23
  I talked to a guy recently and he said, you know what, there's 12 other people, there's 200 other people that are saying the same thing I'm saying.
• 9:30
  So why would anybody even listen to me?
• 9:32
  What would you tell somebody who says that?
• 9:34
  I would tell somebody, think if I'm correct, isn't it eight billion people in the world?
• 9:39
  It is eight billion people in the world and your story can impact one person.
• 9:47
  If it's just one person, that person need your story.
• 9:51
  God blessed us all to be vessels and he blessed us to minister to a certain group of people.
• 9:59
  Our ministry is not for everybody.
• 10:02
  My products and my services are not for everybody, but who they are for, God is sending those people who they are for.
• 10:11
  So if your story can touch one life, your story is not in vain.
• 10:17
  Yeah, this gentleman, he was talking about how these people have tens of thousands on their social media.
• 10:21
  I was like, look, if I put you in a room with 10 people who really cared about what you had to say, you would be all over it, wouldn't you?
• 10:28
  He's like, oh yeah.
• 10:29
  It's like, then quit looking at the numbers.
• 10:31
  Look at the impact.
• 10:32
  When you look at the impact, because your words, the story you have is going to impact somebody differently than the story I have.
• 10:39
  So we can tell different stories.
• 10:40
  We can tell the same story.
• 10:42
  And two different people will hear two different things because we're two different people.
• 10:45
  Exactly, exactly.
• 10:47
  how I love that God created us all individually, all different.
• 10:50
  That's what's beautiful about it.
• 10:51
  Now our last podcast now, I will tell you, those of you who are listening, we had a flub up on and I'll just, I'll blame myself on our previous recording, but I want to touch base
• 11:00
  on something you covered on the previous one, because I want you to really dig into this a little bit.
• 11:05
  You talked about, your phrase was, you are enough.
• 11:09
  Expand on that a little bit, because I know you're an inspirational person.
• 11:11
  I'm just going to turn you loose.
• 11:13
  Be inspiring.
• 11:14
  Okay, you are enough, but I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you this my fifth book is a I am affirmation workbook God spoke to me and said
• 11:26
  I didn't know that I had a little seed inside of me that I didn't know that I was enough.
• 11:34
  So I overcompensated and everything.
• 11:37
  So God had to break those strongholds.
• 11:40
  And that's why the fifth book, I am enough is written.
• 11:44
  And I'm going to expand on not knowing that you are enough for me born in America.
• 11:53
  born in Mississippi, a dark skinned lady, I was not the favorite because of my color.
• 12:02
  And if living in America, there are statuses here, socioeconomic status, there are race status, there are gender status.
• 12:13
  And if you don't fit into one of these status, you are looked at as not enough.
• 12:21
  So I didn't know that the effects that colorism had upon me and colorism is racism in your own race, dark skin, light skin.
• 12:35
  And God had to pull back the layers of me and show me that I didn't know that I was enough because of my skin color.
• 12:43
  So he had, but he had to dig deep in transforming my soul.
• 12:48
  So my fifth book, I am enough.
• 12:51
  God's grace is sufficient for us.
• 12:53
  He is able to make his grace abound for us.
• 12:56
  And I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God in his own image.
• 13:01
  My soul knows right well now.
• 13:04
  So now I'm on this I Am Enough campaign.
• 13:08
  I'm letting everybody know you are enough.
• 13:11
  I don't care what you look like.
• 13:12
  I don't care what you've gone through.
• 13:15
  I don't care your socioeconomic status.
• 13:18
  You are enough in God's eyes.
• 13:21
  And another thing I want to expand on the word I am.
• 13:26
  God told Moses, go tell Pharaoh to let my people go.
• 13:32
  Moses, not knowing he was enough said, well, who should I say sit me?
• 13:38
  And God said, tell him I am that I am period.
• 13:46
  God is
• 13:47
  I am period and we are, we are God's children.
• 13:53
  So we are enough period.
• 13:57
  So you are enough.
• 13:59
  It doesn't matter.
• 14:00
  It doesn't matter what happened, what didn't happen, what you look like, what you don't look like.
• 14:05
  You are enough period.
• 14:09
  Exactly.
• 14:10
  And that's a very powerful statement because our identity is based on not just how we're treated, but our perception of how we're treated.
• 14:18
  And when we take that perception away and say our perception should come from God only, how He created us to be a beautiful, wonderful, enough person, it's a gorgeous thing.
• 14:30
  So tell me, just in a quick story, tell me what was little Shakweeta like different than she is today?
• 14:39
  Well, not much different.
• 14:42
  Not much difference.
• 14:44
  Little Shakweeta, uh first of all, God given me a gift of exhortation in Corinthians 12.
• 14:49
  God give many gifts, but one spirit.
• 14:52
  Little Shakweeta has always been an exhortator.
• 14:55
  She's always lifted up people.
• 14:56
  uh won a, I was an orator.
• 15:01
  I won a contest in the third grade.
• 15:03
  So I'm so accustomed to speaking.
• 15:05
  Little Shakweeta has always been intelligent.
• 15:09
  always been inquisitive.
• 15:11
  The only thing that I would tell little Shakweeta is you are enough.
• 15:17
  That's what I would tell her.
• 15:18
  I would give her a big hug and I hug big Shakweeta every day and I would tell little Shakweeta, you are enough.
• 15:26
  So that's the only difference between big Shakweeta and little Shakweeta.
• 15:30
  Little Shakweeta didn't know she was enough.
• 15:32
  Big Shakweeta knows she is enough.
• 15:35
  Yeah, too often we try to work for our worth or work for who we are, who we need to be, resting in God's presence and moving forward in the vision He's given us.
• 15:46
  Well, thank you very much for sharing these stories.
• 15:48
  I think it's going to impact a lot of people.
• 15:50
  I know God's going to use this podcast.
• 15:52
  if you're listening in and you haven't subscribed, do that now if you've subscribed or whether you have or not.
• 15:58
  Make sure to tell somebody else about this because God may want to use Shaquita's story to impact someone else's life.
• 16:03
  And we want to share that as
• 16:04
  much as possible.
• 16:06
  Thanks again for being with us.
• 16:07
  Give us one quick word of wisdom as we leave here.
• 16:11
  One quick word of wisdom is, Help me, Holy Spirit.
• 16:18
  You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, period.
• 16:24
  Thank you for that.
• 16:25
  You're worthy.