Welcome back, friends. This is The Abundant Christianpreneur Podcast. I am your host, Kristin Dronchi. Today we have a special guest with us. She has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and always being so organized people would ask her how she did all the things without losing her mind. That was kind of how her business Woman of Noble Character got started. She wanted to help women navigate through what it means to be a proverbs 31 woman in today’s world. So she took a passion she had deep down and created something from that. She created her powerful, profitable and impactful online business to help other faith-filled women.

Susan Nelson is an author, speaker and blogger and founder of the Woman of Noble Character Ministries. She has a passion for supporting and equipping Christian women to grow closer to God through relationship, bible study, and creative worship. She also works to encourage couples to put God at the center of their marriages in order to create and maintain a three-chord strand. She lives in western Missouri with her handsome and hilarious husband with a ton of dogs and cats. She runs on coffee, Jesus, and not enough sleep. I can definitely relate to that.

Before we dive into this week’s episode, I want to talk to you about a free masterclass, I have starting October 21. It is a free class that’s going to walk you through how to start creating your online business utilizing your expertise while still at a nine to five. My goal is to help you that nine to five faith-filled Christian career woman who’s at a nine to five that is draining you and you know you have a bigger purpose to make an impact and do what you love serving who you are meant to serve.

Grab your seat in this free class that will be starting October 21. Go to kristindronchi.com/October. You’ll be able to pick your day and time. If you’re ready to turn your years of experience and expertise or a hobby that you just absolutely love into a thriving online business that allows you to live life on your terms. doing what you love making that impact you crave. Well, then head on over and grab your seat at kristindronchi.com/October.

All right. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Do you know you have a bigger purpose than that nine to five? Yes, yes, you do. Welcome to the Abundant Christianpreneur Podcast. I am your host, Kristin Dronchi. I am a wife and mom who loves Jesus. And I’ve also been known to bust a few moves to some old school rock and roll.  

Right now you are joined by other faith-filled women who are using their commute to redefine their life, change their mindset, and turn their passions, knowledge, life experiences or even their hobbies into a powerful online business that allows them to have the freedom to do what they love.

My goal is to inspire you to take a step of faith and transition from that employee mindset to the Christian CEO. And create that powerful, profitable, and impactful business that has been on your heart. This is your show to learn from me and other Christianpreneurs, tactical tips that will empower you to bring that dream to life. If you’re ready to live your life by design, make an impact and have the financial and time freedom to do what you want. When you want, then crank up that volume and let’s do this.

Welcome Susan, I am so excited to have you on the show. Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. So tell us a little about who you are, what you do, and how God led you to start your own online business Woman of Noble Character.

Well, I am a mom of two stepmom of two. They’re all grown. We have five grandchildren all under the age of six. So life is busy, but I have been in human resources my entire adult life. Other than a few years when I stayed home and homeschool my children and when it was time for me to return to work, I returned to HR. It’s what I knew, but I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

I never really wanted to work for someone else. I hated to have to. I don’t want to say follow the rules. But when I saw things that I thought could be a little bit different or improved, I was always the one that was jumping in and say, Hey, why don’t we do this. So I’ve always had a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit.

For several years, I ran an online art website for art journaling. And I had an online store and ended up closing it because the entire industry, the art industry, tends to be very woo-woo and spiritual. Where I have a deep faith in God. And so I found a little bit of a mismatch there. So I took a break for many online businesses. And I’m a hyper-organized person. Like, my spices are in alphabetical order.

And I always had friends asking me, you know, how do you keep so organized? How do you get so much done, I can’t believe that you’re involved in this, this, and this, and yet you don’t seem to be losing your mind. And that’s kind of how Women of Noble Character was born.

We have this idea in the Bible that King Limulu’s mother was telling him what you should look for in a wife. And while that is not words from God, it is what we, as Christian women tend to hold ourselves to. So I decided to start a website to help women navigate what it means to be a proverbs 31 woman in today’s world. Taking my entrepreneurial spirit, I’ve listened to readers and what they wanted and develop courses, I’ve written three books. And the plan has always been to transition from what I call my crummy day job.

I mean, HR pays the bills, but it’s not my passion, and supporting any equipping Christian women to grow closer to God, to better manage their homes, to give a try or get better at creative worship, like Bible journaling, and more binders. That’s where my passion is.

So the plan was kind of a three-year plan that I would leave HR after we got to a certain point with a Woman of Noble Character. And we were on track. For the first two years, I tripled my income each year. And this year, we were on track to do that again. So the plan was at the end of this year, I would exit HR.

But two things happened. One, I have colon cancer in 2017. And it recurred. We found out about it in late 2019. So all of a sudden, every plan got derailed. And now I was planning for chemo and surgery and all of that, and then COVID-19 hit. So I’m not sure that this year is going to be the year that I can step back completely. And I think that’s God’s plan. I think that he knew when I’m supposed to he knows when I’m supposed to step back.

What this year has done has really brought me closer to him, and allowed me to listen to him more. I’m such a planner and so organized, as I mentioned, and our plans are not his plan, right. So you know, when this COVID-19 gets behind us, and I know that it will in his timing. And once I get through my treatments, which will be God willing, early September, then I can kind of reevaluate and see where we are, and then listen to him. He’ll tell me when the right time is.

Amen. Yes, he always has our best interests in mind. And I love that, you know, that even though you’re going through a rough time, that you can just take a step back, you can breathe, and you can listen to what God is telling you. Because as a Christian woman, you know, he has your best interest in mind.

He does and you know, that’s something you know, I’m such a type-A personality. I have my lists upon lists, and I have my goals and my trackers. And sometimes I just want to say hey, wait, God, but I had this down to happen now. You know, can you work with me here and then I have to take a step back and think you know, you have always had me and I know you have me in the palm of your hand now.

So I just need to rest in you and Amen. Sometimes it’s a lesson that’s not the easiest to learn. Right? Well, I love that you took your passions and your desires, and you created something from that because you are at a job that secure but it’s just not something you enjoy doing. So you took your passion, something you love to do and you create Woman of Noble Character, can you tell us a little bit more about what that is?

Absolutely. I know that people come to my site from a lot of different places all over the world, really. Some of them have a desire to get to know God in a different way. Some are seeking Bible study, some are seeking creative worship, a lot are seeking how to strengthen their marriages. So those are the three main areas that I focus on.

But I also write a lot about managing the home. Because I think, probably in the top five questions that I get from readers, is, we have all these responsibilities, how are we supposed to do it all.

And I have learned a lot through the years on routines and block scheduling and meal planning. And I like to share ways that women can manage that overwhelm, whether it’s they work in the home, or they work out of the home, or their stay at home, Mom, we all have overwhelmed.

Yes. So we knew noble character provides free resources as well as courses and books so that I can meet people where they are. And as women, we tend to try to do everything ourselves. And sometimes we have a hard time asking for help. It’s hard, like you said to be a wife, a mother, a business owner, manage at home and do all the things. Do you have some time saving tips that you could offer us?

Absolutely. One of? Well, I’d say there’s three areas that have made a tremendous difference in my life. One is block scheduling. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a stay at home, Mom, you work out of the home, or you work from home as an entrepreneur, we tend to be all over the place, you know, okay, I have five minutes, I could fit this in here. Oh, wait, let me just grab that, Oh, I didn’t check email. So I like to do block scheduling. And a lot of us, particularly those of us that own their own businesses, we have a lot of irons in the fire, and every day might look a little different.

So for block scheduling, it’s not just for schools, it really can make a big difference in how you manage your days. I like to first look at the week, say, Okay, I know I need to take care of emails, I know that I need to write my newsletter, I have two posts that I want to write this week, I’m still working on this course. Oh, wait, I need to look at my Pinterest and create some new pins.

So I tried to put lists together and see what matches what left brain versus right brain designing a pin is way different than researching a blog post on, let’s say, Daniel into the Bible. So you were using two different sides of our brain. So I try to batch them together.

And then the night before, I have an index card, and I write down any meetings that I have. And then block schedule. So I’ll put from five in the morning until about nine, I work just on my site. So from five to nine, I’ve got block scheduling on what I’ll be working on with woman of noble character, nine, I usually transition to HR. And then early afternoon, early to mid, I’ll switch back over.

But you also have to look at things like errands. Maybe you know that Thursday, you have a dentist appointment. So try to batch all of your errands around Thursdays because you’re going to have to be out in the bed anyway. Rather than try to bounce back and forth. You waste a lot of time loading the car, loading the kids in the car doing all of that. So I definitely recommend block scheduling and not being a slave to your inbox.

My kids tell me that I’m very OCD. It took me a long time to not look at the shiny new notifications on my phone or on my computer. So I had to let that go. I was always Oh wait, I got a notification. I had to look to see what it was. Oh, I just heard my email. The email just went off.

I better to see what that is. I can totally relate to that. And I don’t know if it’s fear of missing out if it’s Oh wait, maybe it’s a great opportunity. If it’s just a time waster. Oh, if I look at that, I don’t have to go watch the kitchen floor. But whatever it is, I had to get let go of that.

So I recommend checking email just twice a day, first thing in the morning. And then before you walk out of your office or before you cook dinner twice a day. If it’s something that’s urgent, then they’ll email back or they’ll call so learn to. Let go of that notification new, shiny notification. So try to let go of that.

Because you don’t realize how quickly those five minutes just add up. And the next thing you know, we’ve wasted an hour, but that’s definitely a big one. Another one is routines. I’m really big on routine. Every day, I set aside three blocks of 15 minutes for routine. And my routines change depending on what the day is.

But like a typical evening routine for me would be after dinner, I make sure that there’s nothing in the kitchen sink, if I have to run the dishwasher, I will if there are extra dirty dishes that won’t fit, I wash them by hand and wipe out this thing. Then I look at the meal plan for the next day. And take the protein meat out of the freezer if I need to. If it’s something that has to be cooked in the crock pot, I might prep that too. If I have a little extra time, put it in the fridge.

So all I have to do turn the crock pot on the next day, I’ll just do a quick scan and make sure that everything is put away on the main surfaces in the living room and dining room. And then I’ll prepare the coffee for the next morning. I can’t function without coffee, I make sure that all I have to do is press the button the next day.

The other thing I do in that 15 minutes is if I need to run errands or go anywhere, I’ll grab everything I need for the next day. So whether it’s dry cleaning or things that need to be repaired shopping lists, if you have kids, you want to make sure that you have any permission slips or anything that needed to be signed, or they have practice for the next day you get that.

Then I let the dogs out. I take out my clothes for the next day I brush my teeth to take my medications. And the last thing I do is my husband and I do our devotions. So that with the devotions, it takes a little more than 15 minutes. But I’ve accomplished so much in that time. And my next day is ready to go. So I’m not having to rush around and grab a permission slip or Oh, what did I do with that dry cleaning receipt or, or wake up and have that dread when you see all the dishes in the sink and think Oh, I got to fit that in somewhere.

So I like to do routines a few times a day. And that 15 minutes, my morning routine might just be throwing a load of laundry and wipe down the kitchen counters. So it may not even be as long but it sets you up. You’re getting things done all week. And when you do a little bit each day, you’re not spending your entire weekend catching up on the cleaning or doing all the things you forgot the last huge tip.

And to be honest, this was one of the biggest time savers and stress savers was meal planning. I don’t go bonkers with it. I don’t you know, use Trello or any of that. Although I do have a really great guest post on my site, about using Trello for meal planning. But I have a printables free on my website. And it lists the days of the week. And there’s a box at the end. And the box will tell me I can put an F if I need to remember to take something out of the freezer, I can put a see if it’s something in the crock pot.

And I work about 10 days ahead. So my shopping list is done. After I’ve done my meal plan. There is no more Oh shoot, what are we going to have for dinner? I forgot to defrost the granby. And you can you know if you really wanted to, you can do that alongside the shopping circular to see what’s on sale. But it has saved us time.

Before I did this. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to defrost something. So what do you do you order pizza or you get takeout? It costs more money. It allows you to have a variety of different meals. So you don’t have red meat three days in a row, mix it up and put your family’s favorites and be able to plan ahead. So that has saved me more time and aggravation than I can begin to tell you so I’d say those are probably my top three, to manage, overwhelm and be able to fit in everything that I do in a day.

Right. So block scheduling, routines, and meal planning. Those are amazing. Because it’s going to set you up for success. It’s going to set you up to be more productive throughout the day. Even though you may be a stay at home mom, like you mentioned or work a nine to five and you want to come home and you want to work your business and you’re trying to do all those things. So if you set up your time blocking schedule routines, so you can do what you need to do.

And then meal planning. So I love that. And really when I have to do it all. As an entrepreneur, we think that we have to be on Facebook, on Pinterest on Twitter on Instagram. Um, you know, we have to do this, that and the other thing, and you really don’t take what you enjoy. You know, I don’t love Instagram, I know a lot of people do, I don’t. So it’s not something I focus on, I focus on the things that I enjoy, that are going to bring traffic to my website. So you don’t have to do it all.

And if you can outsource and have somebody else help it because you’ll end up reaping that money back much quicker than if you were to do it yourself frustrated, right? Yes. And you can definitely find a lot of inexpensive resources to outsource certain things, and you’re blessing someone else, by giving them a job and something that they love to do.

Okay, you mentioned you have a plan for leaving your nine to five and you talked, you know a little bit about that. Because there’s a lot of things you need to consider when you’re going to leave something that’s secure. And you take that step of faith and listen to God’s calling in your life.

What are some things that you would say? Or what are some tips that you would give our listeners who are fearful to take that step of faith and leave something that secure? How do you get over that fear? Well, I think fear is a liar. We all know that. I think that the number one thing to do is pray about it.

And not just one, continue to pray over a period of time, fast, if that’s something that that you choose. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, a week long, fast, it could be a day, but just where you’re putting all your focus on God. I would also journal about it too, because when I journal, God reveals things to me that he, I can’t necessarily hear him say, when I’m just praying, I also think that you need to be realistic and look at numbers.

If you’re currently making a six-figure salary, and you’re just starting a blog, can you afford just to stop put the brakes on and not have that income coming in? Probably not unless you have income coming in from somewhere else or a spouse that does very well. So you have to be realistic, what’s your bottom line number, what’s the number that you can live comfortably, even if it’s a little bit tight, but that you know that you’re going to be okay, and you’re going to be able to continue to pay your bills and do everything that you have to do.

And I think when you do that, you also have to look at the cost of your business. Because you know, when you’re just getting started off the ground, there are expenses that you have. And too often people will look at you, okay, I need this much money to pay bills. But did I remember that I need this much money to run my business as well.

So you have to be realistic, you have to give it to God, and then come up with a plan. If you’re making $500 a month on your business right now. And you’ve decided you need $4,000 a month to be able to live comfortably. Where’s that other 3500 coming from?

What other income streams Can you come up with that will resonate with your audience that will bless your audience and allow you to add them so that you’re increasing your income as well. So you definitely need to have a plan. That’s why I said mine was a three year plan. I knew that I didn’t have full time to dedicate to the site.

I had maybe four hours in the morning, and then a little bit of time on weekends. You know, if all of a sudden you happen to be laid off. And that’s you know, your all your full time at home looking for a job.

That may be the time that you put the pedal to the metal and decide I’m not going back to work. I’m going to give it to God and He will provide and then listen to him to make sure it’s not just you saying that. But it really does come from him. Right? Yes, he definitely. Like we said at the beginning has our best interest in mind. For sure.

So Susan, what was your biggest struggle in starting your own business? And how did you overcome it? Well, it’s twofold, actually. One is that I had that imposter syndrome. We hear that a lot. I didn’t go to seminary. I’ve been a Christian for many years, and I study the Bible and I’m an absolute Bible nerd. I have books upon books and study guides and concordances and Hebrew, Greek dictionaries.

I have that and I study it and I have a passion for the word. But what people really take me seriously, Midwest mom and grandmom that studies the Bible and has a passion for Jesus and happens to love to do art and creative things as well. Are they going to listen to me? Are they going to care what I have to say? That was the First thing and the second thing was.

I thought I knew what my audience wanted to hear about and wanted to read about wanted to learn about. And my struggle, in the beginning, was learning that what I thought they wanted to hear was not necessarily what they wanted. So it took a lot of interaction with my audience, a lot of asking questions, polling. I even got on the phone with 15 of my readers that tended to pop up a lot and comment on my Facebook page, and ask them what they wanted to see and hear about.

So the first was self doubt the imposter syndrome. And the second was not making it about me, but making it about my readers. Exactly. And that’s where that market research definitely comes into play and asking your audience, honestly, I hear that all the time from entrepreneurs, that was one of their biggest struggles was just offering something or creating something that they knew they would like, but not necessarily their ideal client would like.

And once you really tap into that, and you listen to your audience, and you ask the questions you need to ask, then it all starts coming into play. And I think we all deal with some type of imposter syndrome. I mean, I’m too old, I think I’m too young, I don’t have a degree to do certain things. But you don’t need that.

You just need to tap into who God created you to be what your passions are, what you love to do, and then just do it, because people will resonate with you, and they want to know what you have to offer. Absolutely. And it may take a little time, until you funnel that down, and realize who your ideal audience is and what they want, what they’re looking for what problems you can solve for them. Mm hmm.

I love that. So looking back on your journey, if you could just change one thing, what would that be? That’s an easy one. When I decided to jump back into the online world and start woman of noble character, had a little bit of background and blogging thought I knew it all. But I realized I didn’t. So I bought a million courses. I was studying SEO and Pinterest and setting up a site and different categories and content and Pinterest and Instagram.

I tried to do everything at once. And what I did was stalled myself and slowed my progress. What I should have done was to say, Okay, here we go. We’re starting a new blog, what’s the most important thing we need with a new website, we need content, and focus on what I call Epic Content. Then once I’ve got the content down, I could have gone to the next and said, Okay, let’s study SEO, or let’s study something else and focused on one thing at a time mastered it and moved on.

But instead, I drove myself bonkers. I was in the office for 14 hours a day taking classes reading, tweaking the website, and I wasted probably a good year. Yes, I focus on one thing at a time. Right? That is so important. It’s so important. I definitely found myself doing that too, with Pinterest or blogging, and oh, my website just all over the place. And it’s kind of what goes back to block scheduling, kind of just focus on what you need to focus on and master that. And then move to something different. Or outsource your website, have someone else do it for you.

Right, right. And when I know I’m not a technical person, I know enough to be dangerous. But when you don’t know those things, and you tried to Google them to figure it out, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken my own website. So I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes it’s worth spending a little money to get something fixed by a professional than trying to do it yourself.

Right. Amen to that stay in your own area of expertise because that’s where Yes, yes. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Susan. I would love it if you could tell our listeners how they can connect with you. How can they find you? How can they get your resources? Absolutely.

You can find me at womanofnoblecharacter.com. I’m also on Facebook as womanofnoblecharacter.com and everywhere else. I’m at womanofnoblecharacter. I’m also going to share with you Kristen, a PDF resource that has some basics about block scheduling, how to set up your own routines and the meal plan that I use. That’s super simple and doesn’t require a whole lot of research, study or prep, just to get meals on the table. So I’ll be sending that over, and you can share it with any of your listeners.

Yay, I’m so excited. Thank you so much for providing that free resource to the listeners. And I will be linking all of Susan’s information and all these resources in the show notes. So thank you so much, Susan, for spending time with us today. It was my pleasure. And I wish you all a beautiful and blessed day.

That’s it for today. Friends, it’s your time to step into the role of The Abundant Christianpreneur. And put to use the gifts God has given you. There is only one you and you are the expert. Someone is out there waiting to hear from. I want you to know this. Feel this. And most importantly, be this. Never underestimate the impact and power you have.

And hey, real quick before you go, do you want to win a free private coaching call with me? Take a screenshot of an episode and post it on your Igy stories. And take me @kristindronchi using the hashtag, #theabundantchristianpreneur.

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