If you had told me years ago that I would build a business helping entrepreneurs find clarity and confidence in their marketing, I would have smiled and changed the subject. At the time I was on staff at a church in Lake Charles. I served for almost twelve years. When I started there were roughly seventy to one hundred people in the seats. When I left we were serving more than thirteen hundred. I was the marketing director and I saw growth as my scoreboard. I loved the work and I loved the people.

Still, there came a moment when the role I had and the work I was called to do stopped lining up. You know the feeling when you become so good at the job you wish you had that you start getting bad at the job you are actually paid to do. That was me. Eventually someone had to pull the bandage off and it was not me. They sat me down and said with love that my time had come. Ministry is family, so that moment hit my heart and my bank account at the same time. I went from broke to really broke overnight.

I had always moonlighted a little. Video work. Photography. Websites. Brand building. I did not think of it as entrepreneurship. I thought of it as helping. Suddenly that little side thing was the only thing. And in October of twenty eighteen I made a private promise that changed the entire trajectory of my life.

“If I can make enough money to double our emergency fund by the end of the year, I am not getting another job.”

That was my line in the sand. I set a goal that scared me and honored my family. I refused to drift. I picked a number, circled a date, and went to work. I started calling everyone I knew and a few people I barely knew. I said yes to filming. Yes to editing. Yes to design. Yes to whatever would serve the client with excellence. I worked seventy to eighty hour weeks and I learned that hunger is a great teacher when your purpose is bigger than your pride. In six weeks the goal was done. I had replaced my salary and doubled our emergency fund. I will never forget the relief and the faith that settled into my bones when I saw that bank balance cross the number I had written in my notebook.

At the end of twenty nineteen I officially made the business real. I was doing work I loved and work that mattered. Then the world changed. The year twenty twenty arrived and everything shut down. Projects disappeared. Budgets froze. For six months I did not make a dime. The only thing between my family and fear was the cushion I had built during those first seven months of wild hustle. That margin was not just money. It was proof that the goal mattered and that the goal works when you actually hit it.

Faith becomes real in those moments. Not the Sunday version everyone nods along to. The weekday kind that shows up when the invoice is late and the mortgage is not. The kind that asks whether you trust the Giver more than the gifts. I learned that trust is not an idea. Trust is a calendar item and a bank transfer and a deep breath when the numbers do not add up yet.

The Lesson I Wish Every Entrepreneur Learned Sooner

Here is a pattern I see over and over. Someone keeps the full time job they hate while trying to moonlight the business they love. They keep saying when I make enough I will start the thing. They say it again the next year. Then again. Years pass. They get comfortable in the plane with the door open and the wind in their face and they call it preparation. It is not preparation. It is postponement dressed up like prudence.

I am not telling you to be reckless. I am a dad and I will never celebrate the starving artist myth. That might be romantic at twenty. It is not okay at forty when little ones are looking up at you. Stewardship matters. Wisdom matters. Margin matters.

What I am telling you is this. At some point you have to stop pretending the plane is the point. Skydiving only counts if you jump. The longer you wait the heavier your fear becomes. Fear eats faith for breakfast if you let it sit around long enough. So pick one clear goal. Put a number on paper. Put a date on the calendar. Build a smart cushion for your family. Then move your feet. Goals are how faith gets dressed for work.

When people ask how I knew it was time my answer is simple. I took the question out of the abstract. I did the math on my life. I gave myself a test with a real score. Replace the salary. Double the emergency fund. If I hit the target I go all in. If I miss it I reassess without shame. That frame removes fog. It makes boldness measurable. It turns hope into a plan and a plan into progress.

I also learned that your network expands at the speed of your courage. Every phone call I did not want to make became a story I was grateful to tell later. Every invoice I was nervous to send became a new baseline for the next project. Every deliverable I obsessed over became a little piece of proof that excellence is a referral strategy all by itself.

And because you asked for scripture, let me put this right in the middle. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11. That verse carried me through more quiet mornings than I can count. Pair it with this one. “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1. Plans and hope. Reality and evidence. That is not theory. That is the logic of stepping out when the spreadsheet is not clapping for you yet.

“Betting on yourself when you have no plan B is the best thing you can do. It is like learning how to fly from the plane to the ground because you got thrown out without a parachute.”

Please hear the nuance in that line. No plan B does not mean no wisdom. It means you stop secretly negotiating with your future. It means you commit to the skills God put in your hands and you build a structure that honors your family and your faith. It means you stop asking whether you are allowed and start asking how you can serve at the highest level possible.

From Calling To Career Without Losing Your Soul

For a while I wrestled with guilt about leaving church staff. It felt like I had stepped away from something sacred. Time has taught me that calling is not a department on an org chart. Calling is wherever obedience and service meet. Today my pulpit looks different. Sometimes it is a stage at a conference. Sometimes it is a Zoom room filled with tired founders. Sometimes it is a one on one coaching session with someone who has all the talent and none of the confidence. The mission is the same. Help people see the potential God already placed inside them and give them the language and structure to bring it to life.

Marketing is just communication with empathy and a clear ask. Sales is just service with a next step. When your message connects to the heart, trust grows and results follow. That was true when I was helping one organization grow. It is true now that I serve many. The tools changed. The assignment did not.

What I Tell Every New Entrepreneur

Start before you feel ready. You will never feel fully qualified. Courage does not wait for a certificate. Courage creates momentum and momentum creates clarity.

Set one clear and honest goal. Do not chase a vibe. Chase a number that matters to your family and your future. Hit that number with integrity. Let that win teach you what to aim for next.

Work like it matters. Excellence is not loud. Excellence is consistent. Deliver on time. Communicate proactively. Make it easy to work with you. Let the quality of your work be your loudest marketing.

Plan for valleys. Build margin. Save more than you think you need. Remember that wise preparation and bold faith are not enemies. They are teammates.

Believe in what you bring. Confidence is not pretending to know everything. Confidence is trusting that what you do know is enough to help someone today and that you will learn the rest by doing the work tomorrow.

Do not confuse delay with denial. Some doors open slowly on purpose. Keep knocking with kindness and skill.

The Freedom On The Other Side

Today I get to coach entrepreneurs, pastors, and creatives who feel exactly like I did. Stuck between a safe life and a meaningful one. I remind them that growth lives on the other side of the awkward phone call, the honest price, the brave offer, and the first piece of content that feels a little too vulnerable. I remind them that you can serve deeply and sell ethically at the same time. I remind them that clear language is a ministry to tired people who just want to know what to do next.

Starting the business was not a straight line. It was messy and beautiful. Scary and freeing. I learned to trust the Provider more than the provision. I learned that goals are spiritual when they are set with stewardship and pursued with integrity. I learned that the confidence you want is waiting on the other side of a result you can only produce by starting.

From Stage To Story

When I shared this story on stage the room laughed at the funny parts and leaned in for the hard parts. I could feel the recognition. Entrepreneurship is just faith in motion. It is a decision to treat the gift in your hands as an assignment worthy of your best effort.

Maybe what feels like an ending in your life is a beginning wearing unfamiliar clothes. Maybe the job that ended or the client that moved on or the season that shifted is not a verdict. Maybe it is an invitation. The plans are good. The future is full of hope. That is not poetic. That is a promise.

You do not need permission to start. You need courage. Pick the goal. Set the date. Build the cushion. Make the call. Deliver the work. Serve people with clarity and compassion. Let the results speak. Then do it again.

I will finish with this. The fall is never the end for people who choose to grow on the way down. You learn the shape of your wings in the space between the plane and the ground. If you are standing at the door with the wind in your face and the story in your chest, I am cheering for you. Jump.