Finding Discernment When God Says Jump with Samantha Brown (part one)

Hey Friend!

It can be hard to know what God wants us to do and when — especially when it comes to starting a business or taking your business in a new direction. 

It doesn’t always look like what we expect or happen on our time table!

Today on the show I have a special guest. Her name is Samantha Brown and she’s a clutter coach over at Her Healed Heart (herhealedheart.com). 

On this episode Samantha shares her wisdom and personal story about how God called her from her traditional job into being her own boss. She’s also gives us some practical tips for how we can have that discernment for ourselves.

No matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, there are nuggets of wisdom in here for you.

Enjoy!

— Kayla

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Mentions + Links

Samantha Brown, Clutter Coach at www.herhealedheart.com

Her Healed Heart Podcast

Transcript

Kayla: So welcome Samantha. I’m so excited to have you here on the show. I listened to some of your podcasts where you coach clients like live on the air. I love that. And what you’re doing there is just so good. I really enjoyed listening to it. Listening to the transformations that are happening. Just right there on air. But before we kind of dive into everything, tell us a little bit more about what you do and who you help. 

Samantha: Thank you for having me. So who I, or who I am is a wife, a mom, you know, all of the things and the women that I help are the women that are just like me. We do all of the things for all of the people in our lives and we don’t get support anywhere, or we don’t feel like we get support. We may get support from our husbands a little bit or our families a little bit, but there’s no one in our life that we can be a thousand percent honest with that we feel like has been there before is not judging us for what we’ve been through and that we can just be raw and vulnerable with.

Kayla: I love that that’s so important and you’re right. There’s just really not. There’s really, for, for most people, there’s not that outlet, especially even our friends, right? Even our friends, , you know, they love us and they support us, but we don’t feel like we can be completely vulnerable or completely honest with them because we also want them to think a certain way of us.

Samantha: You know, we have those certain friends that we can be. Somewhat honest with, but no matter who is in our daily life, there’s a point that you get to with them and, you know, it’s different for each person in your life, but you can only be honest up to that certain point, because like you said, you want ’em to see you a certain way. You care what they think. And so I think that’s why a lot of us truly don’t have that person that we’re like, look, they’re not gonna judge us. It doesn’t matter what I say to them. She’s there just for me. And that’s why I love life coaching and the podcast, like my goal for it is just to give the everyday Christian woman support. Right where she’s at.

Kayla: Love it. I love that. I think it’s so important. Being completely honest. Even just with ourselves, which is really difficult, but being honest with ourselves, that’s, that’s exactly how we heal. you have to bring that stuff up and bring it too light in order to heal it. So awesome work that you’re doing. 

Samantha: And a lot of us, I don’t think realize, and I didn’t even realize about myself until actually a few months ago when the podcast journey started that I had a lot of, I had forgiven everyone in my life. But I had never thought about forgiving myself. And when I was at church one morning and when the holy spirit brought it up, I just started weeping. You know, because I had never thought about it. Like I had, you know, done everything for my family. I had forgiven my husband. I had forgiven my parents. Like I had done all of the quote unquote, the work. But it had just never been brought to my mind. Hey, you need to forgive yourself for… I didn’t even know what I was forgiving myself for, but it broke off of me. 

Kayla: Yes. Right. And I think it’s especially important for women, like you were talking about.  I’m, you know, I’m right there with you. I’m somebody that tries, we wanna do all the things, wanna do all the things and we wanna do them. Well, that’s kinda how, how I see things. And so whether it’s really something that other people would think we would need forgiveness for, we, we. We need to forgive ourselves because we fall short in our own minds, these ridiculous standards that we set for ourselves.

Samantha: Absolutely. And I completely am your listener. Like the woman that you know is trying to do all the things, you know, ditch the fear and the doubt. And that’s what started me on this journey. And I love what you’re doing of helping that woman. Because for me, I’m helping more of the, like her daily life, like her inner work, but you’re helping her also in her like outward work.

Kayla: Yeah. There’s so much marketing online, especially in the online space and about, you know whenever it comes to business that, that it shows, you know, make a hundred thousand dollars or make six figures or make multiple six figures by doing this, by doing that. And. Or they’re all really, that’s a lot of advice that you get. And then there’s also a lot of really tactical advice, which is great about how to do you know, how to set up an email list or how to structure your business, or, you know what I mean? That kind of really tactical stuff, but I feel like there’s a gaping hole whenever it comes to all of the mind drama that comes up whenever you’re starting. Whenever you’re starting a business or whenever you’re wanting to pivot your business into a different direction. For me, I found that to be really what is the, like the challenging part more so than anything else.

Samantha: Yes. And I mean, I would agree cuz at this point I have started one. Like four businesses total over the past decade. And you know, of course, one of ’em was like the network marketing, you know, like selling pink zebra to all my friends and family. And cuz I knew God had called me to something and I knew that I had that entrepreneurial spirit in me, but I also still had to pay the bill. Right. You know, so trying to figure out that balance, especially when your kids are younger is really hard. Yeah. And so now that I’ve learned all of those life lessons over the past decade of when, you know, hearing from God, having him help me start my business. Now I’m flourishing because I’ve done all of that work. I’ve allowed him to help guide me and to like partner with Him and it’s working. 

Kayla: I love it. I love hearing, I love hearing the stories of that. Like I love hearing the struggle and then how it, like, how it transforms, how it turns around, that tipping point where things really start to work out. And I think we need more stories like that, which is exactly why I’m having you on. I wanna hear about your journey, you know, from the, just tell us about your journey. I’d love to hear all of it, the struggles and the transformation and how it started working. 

Samantha: Yeah. So. Originally I got married about 15 years ago. I had two kids very early on. I was still in my mid twenties and right after I had my second one, which was my son right after I had him, I started working at a place with autistic children. And of course at first I thought, oh, this is awesome. This is so special. And it was at first, but then the. They used to be a private owned company. So we would only have like three kids we were responsible for. So you felt like you were actually helping those kids and then they got bought out by a corporation. And so all of a sudden they’re expecting you to watch 10 kids or 12 kids compared to just three autistic children. And then what used to be just autistic children then became behavioral kids. Okay. And so it was this extremely excruciating, struggling place to work. Most people on average last about six weeks there. God had me stay for a decade. 

Kayla: Okay. Tell us about that. Tell us about that. 

Samantha: So when I first started there, I honestly felt like it was my calling. Like I was called to help those children. I know I was, and I even had almost like this covering over me because the kids that we had at that place were very physical. So they would come at you with their fists. They’d spit on you hit you. Like it was a very physically demanding job and a lot of them. When, when they would go off and for whatever reason, and I believe it’s because I had the holy spirit in me and because I loved on them as best I could, and God truly had called me to that place.

They would be in the middle of hitting someone else, turn to hit me, see it was me and then move past me and go on to somebody else. Like I had a covering over me for that place truly. And. I knew in my spirit that God had not released me from there. And so I used to sit in my car and I would be like, God, I can’t go to work.

Samantha: I mean, I was, I’d get anxiety EV cuz I worked third shift. So I would get anxiety the whole day leading up to the third shift of what if I get hurt tonight? What if I have to go to the hospital tonight? What if like all the, what ifs, you know, like you were talking about in your brain, it’s the same with business. It’s the same with anything we do. And, but I kept feeling God, tell me not yet. Not yet. And you know, you go through so much time that you’re like, well, is it ever gonna happen? Are you ever gonna release me? And then you go through these like ebbs and flows up and down if it goes well for a while. And then it goes really bad again.

And then it goes good for a while and then it goes really bad again. And. That’s what I love the most about that time of my life. Now, looking back, it has taught me how to hear God for myself? 

Kayla: Yeah, I would love to know. Really how you knew that, that God was wanting you to stay there versus sometimes we just, you know, we’re just afraid, right?  We’re just afraid to do it. So there’s kind of that discernment that we need that, you know, to help us figure out, okay, is this me and my own brain and my own fear in doubt, keeping me from stepping on to the new thing or stepping out in faith in the next thing, or does God really just want, really want me here right now?

Samantha: Yeah. And. I think that that truly boils down to, for one our faith, like our journey walk with God, because the longer you walk with him, the louder his voice gets. And the more that, you know, it’s his voice. But at first it was more of a knowing is the only way to describe it. Like, I just knew that God had called me there and anytime I tried to do something different or I was like, okay, on my own, I’m gonna go apply somewhere else. I quit. I’m over this. It would never work out ever, you know? And so that was almost like confirmation of okay. If God wanted me somewhere else, he really would help me open those doors. 

Kayla: So how did you, what happened or how did it work where you transitioned working for somebody else to. Working for yourself. 

Samantha: So after the decade, I got to this point where I assumed, okay, God’s just gonna keep me here forever. Like I’m stuck for the rest of my life. cause it had been so long and I was spending time with God at my spot one day and I very clearly felt the holy spirit. Tell me Samantha, it’s time to jump. But at the time I wasn’t even praying about work or anything. And I’m like, jump, what do you mean? You know, like, what do you mean jump?

Samantha: Where am I jumping to? And then after spending a few minutes with God and just talking to him, and it was just, just that knowing and that feeling of, okay, it’s time to leave work. And at that point, I was excited, but I was so not stuck in my ways, but I had been there for 10 years, but I’m telling you when God told me to jump, it was like the covering came off of me. And those kids, the night, the night that I finally quit, there was a kid that had been there for every bit of eight years. He would always attack everyone else. He would come close to attacking me, but then he would go on to someone else when he would see that it was me. And he’d be like, he’d be in the middle of getting ready to punch me and be like, Hey, miss Sam, and then turn and punch someone else.

Samantha: Then after God told me to jump it, wasn’t a few days later that kid attacked me. And the anxiety of being there all of a sudden were before I had peace. Now I had anxiety. Like before I would have anxiety up until I got to work, but once I got to work, it would be fine in the 10 years, you know, like it would always work out. I’d end up having peace. I’d pray on the way to work. But then all of a sudden, after God had told me to jump, I no longer had peace at work. 

Kayla: So you had not only a change in your external circumstances with this kid now, you know, being violent towards you, but you had an internal shift as well. So you kind of had both of those things happening at the same time, not to mention, you know, God telling you to jump. So you have, you have confirmation that there are things happening from a few different angles. 

Samantha: Yes. And that’s what I love about God. I call him my neon sign moment. But it feels like it’s happening on multiple different levels from multiple different ways. And it’s like a neon sign of the same thing, or like a record repeating in your life. And for me, I’ve found that’s when God’s trying to nudge me one way or another. 

Kayla: Yes. Same thing. I used to think back in the day, whenever I wasn’t walking as closely with God, I would think that it was just a coincidence or something, things that would happen, but I will get literally the exact same message from like three different unrelated sources within a span of like 24 hours. And so now I, now I know, and I told my husband the other day I had this, the same thing happen only. It was two. Two messages. And I was like, I think, I think God knows that now it, I just need two. I don’t need three. I used to need, I season to like really hit me over the head with things before I pay attention. And now I’m, I’m picking it up a little bit faster. 

Samantha:  And that’s amazing. Like even those little shifts that we have in our lives, Being able to celebrate those. And like you said, realizing, Hey, I must, I’m doing something right. Cuz now it only takes me two times instead of three right.

Kayla: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, okay, I’m growing, I’m I’m getting in tune.

Samantha: And that’s one thing, just a side note real quick, but it kind of with this that’s one thing I’ve learned over the years is super important are celebrating those little wins. Because if you don’t, you’re gonna get so burnt out, waiting for that big win that may never happen, or like you’re gonna be so stressed out in this journey of becoming your own boss or working for yourself or whatever your journey is, even if you’re still working for someone else.

Samantha: But if you’re like, oh, well, I’m not gonna celebrate until I get the raise or until I get the client or until whatever you’re gonna be waiting. And then you’re gonna be stressed out and burn out by the time you get to that moment. Like I have a client the other day that I was telling her, even if she realizes that she has been kind to someone like the smallest little win walk around the corner and do a little dance and be like, oh yeah, I did it. I did it. You know, because if you don’t, you’re, nothing’s gonna change for you. But if you start celebrating those little wins, your body, your, your. Mind your heart, your energy, all of that’s gonna shift because all of a sudden you’re having fun along the way. 

Kayla: Yeah, exactly. And there’s, there’s, it takes a lot longer to get to the big wins than I feel like is marketed to us and is sold to us. And that we think is the way it’s gonna happen. We think it’s gonna happen way faster, because maybe it does happen for some people that way. I’m sure that it does, but for me, it’s definitely been baby stepping it a lot. And some things have taken years to come to fruition, you know, years and years of setbacks and having to overcome them.

Kayla: And, you know, thankfully now looking back at some things, kind of like you were saying, looking back, I can see how that was equipping me for where I am now. . But at the same time, it’s really hard when you’re in it. So having that mindset of, okay, I’m going to, I’m gonna celebrate the little wins.

Kayla: I’m gonna celebrate the little things and. And bring attention to them and bring light to them because we have to do that. Or else our brains will naturally just wanna focus on all the negatives. 

Samantha: Oh yeah. And we can, one thing that’s been amazing to me that I just recently figured out is we can choose what we think about. No one ever taught me that, you know, I always thought. Whatever thoughts come into my head. I guess those are my thoughts. So I’ve gotta go with ’em and, but no, we honestly are able to look at our thoughts, which is amazingly one of the things that God has given me since I’ve started the, her healed heart is a way to look at our thoughts and see what lies were believing. And I think that is so powerful. Because we don’t even really pay attention to what we’re thinking, but whatever we’re thinking will come to fruition. 

Kayla: Yes. It’s so funny. You know, I had read the passage in the Bible where it says to take every thought captive. I don’t know how many times, you know, I’ve read it or heard it throughout the years in church or in Bible study, but it always seemed like, oh, okay, take every thought captive. Like I never really thought about what that meant or a practical. Way that it applied to my life. Until I got involved in coaching and started to realize exactly what you’re saying, that how the power of thoughts and exactly how they, you know, create our reality, create and affect our, our feelings, our actions. It just seemed like a nice little verse in the Bible, like so many do until you have kind of the revelation or you get to a point in your journey where you start to have that understanding that you didn’t have before. 

Samantha: And it’s also a matter of, I used to think that taking every thought captive meant pleading the blood of Jesus over it in Jesus name I’m or, you know, I rebuke you enemy and the name of Jesus, and then just going on with your life. That is not what that means. You know, like those are good tools to have, and those are good things to do for sure. But God gives us the tools and the mind and the way to examine our thoughts.

Samantha: And it even talks about that in the Bible. Like we need to examine our thoughts and take a fearless, moral inventory of what we are talking about? What are we thinking about what’s going on internally for us?