Midlife Pivots: When God Calls You to Something Different with Stefanie Gass

Midlife Pivots: When God Calls You to Something Different

Graced Health Podcast

Host, Amy Connell

Guest, Stefanie Gass

Amy: I am so thrilled today to have Stefanie Gass, the host of the Online Business for Christian Women Podcast, with us today. We're talking a little bit about something a little different than what we normally do with health, but I think that you'll find as we get into the conversation that this may apply to you more than you realize. So I want you to stick with us.

Also, Stefanie and I were kind of laughing beforehand—Stefanie, I'm just thanking you in advance for your patience, and if you are listening, for your patience as well. I have right outside my door a smoke alarm that will not stop chirping. I spent 30 minutes trying to get this thing off. I replaced the batteries. I took it down like it's not even—

Stefanie: I swear they have a mind of their own. Besides getting up with a hammer and crushing it, sometimes they just will not stop. We have had that happen to us as well.

Amy: Yes, yes. I'm all sweaty and I'm in this cute shirt and I thought, my sweat's gonna show. So I'm like up on this big ladder with my slippers and my jeans and no shirt on because—it's just—but you know what, I was thinking about this. I thought, okay, here is when the gift of being a Christ follower is in my mind. My mind can very easily go to like, "I can't believe this is happening. What in the world?" You know, like catastrophizing everything. But instead I think about, "Oh, God knew. This is why God had me exercise before my first training client this morning," and I normally don't. And this is why He had me shower in between my clients because one of them happened to have canceled, whereas normally I would've been working out in between them, and then right after taking a quick shower, racing up here four minutes before I hit record.

Stefanie: Yes.

Amy: So I'm just grateful for the gift of that, even though things are still chirping. And if you're listening, if you're watching, I will be trying to mute while Stefanie's talking, so hopefully we don't hear as many chirps. But thank you for sticking it out, y'all.

Stefanie: You know, and I think that's just a lesson in going with the flow and knowing that there's always going to be little hurdles, and it's how we jump over that hurdle. We all know how to tune our kids out, so we can tune out the beeping and the chirping. Amy, you're good.

Amy: That's so true. That's so true. Oh, goodness. Okay, so Stefanie, you and I were talking a little just a few minutes before we started, and I was surprised to hear that you and I had similar formal educations in finance, and you and I are both not doing that as much anymore. I think you're probably better at it than I am, but you know, I thought what a great example of the conversation that we're going to have today, which is basically shifting in our careers, having these transitions that maybe we didn't even plan for or didn't expect to. So I would love to hear a little bit about your story real quickly, if you don't mind, pivoting away from a successful corporate and networking or marketing career. And then just what helped you trust that God was really calling you into something new? Because sometimes it can be hard to be like, "I don't know, is this me or is this God?"

Stefanie: Oh yeah. Well, it started out graduating college. I had a double major in finance and accounting. And we were speaking about this before we hit record—it was just what you do. You go to college. My dad was the first person in his family to go to college, and so that was just non-negotiable. So I had a full-ride scholarship in the state that I live. I went, had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I figured that I would just pick the thing that made the most money—business. So I went into business, decided to just randomly go into finance and accounting. Not passionate about numbers. I would actually say I like data. I like looking at my KPIs now as a business owner—those of you in the business space, you're like, "Yeah, data, numbers"—but I am not the girl you come to with your math homework. Okay? I've got my sixth grader and he goes to Dad. So if that lets you guys know, sometimes we just do the things because we think it makes sense. So that's what I did.

I got a really great job in corporate at a solar company, and if there's one thing about me, I've always been a very high achiever, that Type A personality. I've been a leader since I was a kid. Obviously, it became more apparent as I got into the workplace and started to recognize it really felt great to be successful. And so one of the idols in my adult life became money, recognition, success. And I just started to chase that ladder with all the audacity that I had. And I did a great job. I came in at the bottom of the finance department, and a few short years later I was literally the head of the finance department for one of the sides of the organization, going to Germany, going to Spain. I was the controller for this company, which is crazy at the young age that I was. And at the same time, really unfulfilled, finding a lot of—I was loving the money, I was loving the recognition, the validation, but I was also just seemingly empty on the outside of work.

And so that's where I was drinking a lot. I was looking for any kind of fulfillment in all the wrong places. I was saved at nine years old, but I was not in relationship with Jesus at this time. And so you're just constantly looking for that thing that you can't put your finger on.

So my company ends up shutting down. They close their doors here. The plant locally that I was working at—I got offered a job to go to Germany, but at this time I was about to get married, we were about to have kids, my entire family's here where I live, and it was like, "I don't think this is a great time to move to Germany." So I decided to take a pause. So I'm on unemployment for a minute, going, "Am I gonna get a new corporate job?" And I think I might wanna be home with my kids. We were on the verge of ready to start a family right away. And so my husband said, "Why don't you just stay home for a while and take a crack at maybe doing something from home?" We had this tiny house. It wasn't that expensive at the time, and I was like, "Great, permission—all I needed."

And so my mother and I end up going to this network marketing presentation randomly that my grandma invited us to. We get roped into joining a network marketing company. Now, this was back in 2012, so it was before the rage of network marketing—we got in at the very beginning of this one particular company. It was brand new, it was a skincare one. And again, I'm like, "Tell me I can't do something," because everybody was telling me, "That's so dumb. You have this great career. You're such a successful person. Why on earth would you do this?" And I just took it as fuel.

And so long story short, I basically went all in on that. It became an obsession. And within four years, I was the top 1% of that company, had walked the stage, $50,000 bonus check, the trips, the free car, all the glitter. I was posting on social media because that's what we were told to do, and sharing and bragging and just loving all the attention. And at the same time, having massive panic attacks, feeling sick all the time. I was taking calls 24/7. I was imploding. I was putting my family last after this career and telling myself the lie that it was all for them.

And so I end up walking the stage. It was this moment where you made it, and I talked to 20,000 people about the success and why it's worth it. I walk off that stage, Amy, and something happened. I felt like this big moment was gonna make it all worth it. And it wasn't. I felt nothing. I felt even more emptiness.

Amy: Wow.

Stefanie: So that's when I started to question things. "What am I doing? I've basically sold my soul out to this thing that I don't own. I'm not happy. The money isn't—I mean it's great, but why do I feel this way?" We were living that lifestyle too, because you were told to, so you're spending everything to show all your success, not saving it. And what's crazy is within one year from that day—one year, 12 months—within 12 months, it went to an eighth of what my business had been. 'Cause I had thousands of people underneath me, which is how you make money in network marketing. And no shade to the industry—I definitely have some issues with it, but if it hadn't been that, I probably would've idolized something else in my life at that time, right? Because that's what the journey God had me on.

And so everything was stripped away. I didn't have the money. I had just had my second baby. I was dreaming about the day I could drink alcohol again. I was eating all my feelings, and I was a complete failure. Everybody knew my business had crumbled. Everyone left to go to the next shiny thing. So I had nothing, nothing left. And as hard as I could work, I couldn't rebuild it. And it was this moment where I finally realized, "No, in my own strength, I cannot do this. Everything I build for the world slips away every time, and I have to sell my soul to get it."

And I finally had this moment, this reckoning. Amy, I went out to my husband sitting in the living room and I said, "We can't pay the mortgage this month. The money is gone." And he said, "Oh my goodness. We will just borrow that money from Miles"—who's our oldest son—"from his savings account, and we'll replenish it when I get paid." It was the worst thing he could have ever said to me because it was wrapped in so much grace and so much kindness that it was the worst.

And so I went to a corner of my home with a journal and I cried out to God, really cried out to God for the first time in decades. And just, you know, we had been kind of starting to go—my husband definitely had his faith, we were going back into church—but I had this wall. And this moment where I could no longer hide behind my own success and the idols that I was coveting so deeply—everything was stripped and there was nothing but me and God. And I just cried out and said, "Lord, I don't know. I don't know who I am without the money. I don't know who I am without the success. I have no idea. I've been punishing my body. I need your help."

And I just cried out to the Lord and I started journaling, and now I realize it was the Holy Spirit writing this prophetic plan for my life. And I started writing like, "You run a kingdom business"—I didn't use that word, I didn't know what that was—"You're sober, you're a present wife, you're an intentional mom, you lead people." All these things are just coming out of this pen. And I'm like, "Lord, must be nice to be her. I dunno how to do any of that."

Amy: It was not relatable at that time.

Stefanie: Not at all relatable at that time. And so I basically picked the first thing on the paper, which I had written down, which was to get healthy. And I invested in a gym that we couldn't afford 'cause they had two hours of daycare that I felt good about. I went in for an hour and would work out, and the other hour I would figure out how to connect with the Lord. I bought a Bible I could understand. I started fumbling my way through prayer because I didn't know how. I had never been taught those things. It was so far from natural for me. But the Holy Spirit helped me, and I just continued to chase after God. And so I would do one thing at a time, which ultimately led me—to your question of how did I trust that God was gonna bring me where I am today—I just would seek Him and listen. And then when I would hear something, I'd move. I would just do it. And I had no idea how, and I had no idea how it would make sense, but I was so tired of forcing it myself that I just had no other option but to trust God.

And so I started doing these trainings in Facebook groups, Amy, and I was—I'm very put together these days compared to old Stef. I had the crazy mom bun. I had a baby on my hip. I had those crazy t-shirts. And these women would go, "Wow, she looks a mess, but she knows her stuff." I knew sales, I knew marketing. I knew how to help people grow a business. That's what I had done for most of my life, was sales and marketing. Even before corporate, I was in sales. And so I started getting them reaching out to me saying, "Do you coach? Hey Stef, I need clarity." And I was like, "Clarity?" And I was like, "God, do we coach?" And God's like, "You coach." And I was like, "Great. We coach."

So I'm meeting with these women, Amy, and I'd get a couple a month. It was slow and the money was definitely not good, and I was finding I had to be on Instagram 24/7, and the same discernment alarms were going off in my heart. You know, "I don't wanna be on social media all the time. I feel addicted to that now. I don't wanna be addicted to anything but Jesus anymore. I'm done."

And so I started praying, "How do I get these women? How do I connect with them? How can they find me?" And so I was spending four to five hours a day on Instagram. That's where I would get my leads from. And I had a dream in 2018—this went on for a couple of years. It was a struggle for sure, trying to get my business back off the ground, a brand new business. Didn't really know what I was coaching on, didn't really know what it was, but God just kept saying, "Keep going, keep going, keep going."

And I had a dream in 2018, and God spoke to me very clearly. It was just prophetic. It was like the words—I could see it, and it said, "Start a podcast." I said, "What? I don't listen to podcasts."

Amy: You didn't even—

Stefanie: No, I didn't listen to podcasts. I had nothing. No concept. That day, I started one. I got the microphone that I had in the corner in my closet. I created the worst art you've ever seen. Do not do that. Do not recommend. My microphone was staticky and I talked about random stuff. Don't do that either, but I was like, "God said so, I guess I'll do it."

Amy: Obedience.

Stefanie: I plugged it in. Yeah, obedience. I plugged it in. I started talking, and 12 months—and at the same time I was going through a social media whole revelation and I was getting off on the weekends, which ultimately led to me getting off for a month, which ultimately led me to staying off for two whole years. This is kind of in tandem as the podcast is growing. Within one month, Amy, God had replenished everything I had been making in network marketing. Within two years it was doubled that, and today I am a top 20 podcast and He's created this kingdom, seven-figure company that is funding people who work for me and the church and tithing and my family, giving and being able to support other people. And it's the redemption that God had of me trusting Him to ultimately lead me today to growing a business through podcasting so I can teach other people how to do that and to create the business that they have in their heart that doesn't have to steal from their family, that doesn't have to become an obsessive idol, that doesn't have to depend on social media where you don't have to go hide how much you're in pain through all these other things in your life. You can say, "I love my work. I have time because I show up in my work this way." And because it's so yoked with the Lord that it feels easy, light, simple, and free. It's so cool and it's so big that it can only be God. So looking back, 2020 going, "God, is this you? God, is this you? God is this you?" It was 100% Him the entire way.

Amy: Oh goodness. You've got a lot of really good stuff in there. One of the things that I don't wanna gloss over, 'cause you said some really rich things, is we do the things sometimes because they make sense.

Stefanie: Mm.

Amy: I think a lot of us think like, "Well, this is what I went to college for. This is what my entire career has been in. So of course it makes sense to keep going with that." It's funny—I know I asked you ahead of time, but Arthur Brooks—I'm a big fan. He wrote a book called From Strength to Strength, and basically it's going from one strength in your career to a broadened version. It can be a total pivot. It can be all kinds of different things. He talked in a podcast I was listening to of his today—Office Hours is the podcast—about four different types of careers. And one of them is spiraling. And his definition of spiraling is kind of what you were talking about, similar to what I have done, which is you go to school, you start off in one career, you take a pivot, whatever that looks like for you. And that was both—you know, staying home for a little bit, stepping into something else, you're on phase four, right? I mean, if you wanna start counting all of those. But just how those actually can work together, work really well together. And, you know, for those who are believers to be able to see God's hand in all of it. And how, you know, as you were talking, all of the things that you were teaching on—one thing that stood out to me is you were doing trainings on things that you learned when you were in a season that maybe your heart wasn't aligned with where God wanted you leaning on Him.

Stefanie: The way, yeah, the way He wanted me to do it. Yeah.

Amy: And so as I'm sitting here listening to your story, you know, most of the women in my community are forties, fifties, sixties, and it can be scary to make a change. A lot of people are gonna feel like, "I don't know, it's just too late. I'm 55 years old, it's too late in life to go back and do something else or try something new. I've got this mortgage I've gotta pay for." I mean, we can all have our own examples that we can do. What would you say to women like that? Because I have to imagine there are women in my community who are like, "I would like to make a change, but I just think it's too late."

Stefanie: I mean, God's timing is not limited to age. God's timing isn't limited to past decisions. I mean, think of Abraham in the Bible. You know, his promise came when he was young. I mean, he's living his whole life out just like, "Is this ever gonna happen?" To the point of laughing at God when they were so old—it was like over 90 years old, right? And then to see God's promise come through. I think we just have to not put God in a box and understand that your life here on this side of heaven is never over until it's over. And I really hope and pray that in my sixties and seventies and eighties and maybe nineties, God is still going to be using me because I'm gonna have more wisdom. I'm gonna have more failures that I get to share and make people feel seen in. I'm gonna be so healed from those traumatic things that I've gone through in my life that I'm gonna be able to then pass that encouragement and that belief to other people, and that just grows and grows and grows as you grow and as you get older and as you age.

So I think shift from comparison because also who told you that you were too old to do something new? "See, I'm doing a new thing. I'm making a river in the wasteland."

Amy: That's right.

Stefanie: You are not too old to do a new thing ever. And so shift from that comparison and from that old belief system and that old wiring to "God, I'm content in You and I have confidence in this new thing You're taking me into," and just pray that over yourself. I think the way you move into it is you give God your yes. Just say, "I don't know where this finds me, Lord." And you can be honest with God—"I feel too old. I feel too stuck. My knee hurts," or whatever the thing is that's coming up for you in your mind that you think you have to hold back. But begin the prayer of, "I wanna give You my yes, Lord. Change my thinking, change my emotional resistance to this. Open up doors for me and just push me through, Lord," because I promise God wants to keep using you.

Amy: Yeah, that's great. And you're so right. I think we have so much potential. Arthur Brooks—not to keep quoting him, but he calls that crystallized wisdom. So once we get to kind of 50 and above, we're able to see all of the different pieces out there and pull that together, versus the fluid wisdom, which is kind of younger, of like, "Yeah, I can say things really quickly. I can—" You know, my—and I'm almost 51 years old, or 51 by the time this comes out. Like, I'm just not as quick as I used to be. The words, they're gone from my head sometimes.

Stefanie: I don't know, girl, you're still climbing the ladders. You know, still climbing that ladder to take that—you're still up there doing the work.

Amy: Climbing the ladders for this stupid—

Stefanie: For the beeping, for the beeping, you know.

Amy: The beeping, the incessant beeping. I'm so sorry about the beeping. But the point is like, we're not done.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: He's still using that. I don't have to—I mean, like I was having this really good conversation with my son the other day, and because he's in college, I don't see him very often. And just for me to be able to take all these different pieces of his life and put it together and put some words to that, you know, that I don't think I would've been able to do five years ago.

Stefanie: Sure.

Amy: And certainly not when I was his age. Stef, you talk a lot about building a business that honors both your calling and your capacity, and I'm wondering what that looks like, especially for women over 40, women in my community who are navigating burnout or transitions. And also, when we're redefining capacity.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: Because the capacity of what I had in my own business is very different today than it was a few years ago.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: And so I'm sitting here trying to figure out like, "What does that look like? And God, where do You want me focusing?" Because, as you know, as a small business owner that's online-based, it's never-ending. I could work 24 hours a day for all the things I'm quote "supposed to do" and not get it done. And this is why you don't see me on Instagram anymore, by the way.

Stefanie: Praise the Lord.

Amy: But that calling and capacity and balancing that is tough.

Stefanie: Yeah, it is. You know, it's interesting because if you were to look at my business when it was a baby and when I was running all around like a chicken with my head cut off and making pennies, and now you're looking at it today and it's very profitable, it's successful, I work less than 20 hours a week, and it's crazy. The capacity has grown and grown and grown, which doesn't make sense, right? And so we have to recognize and realize that if God has created each of us to be some version of the Proverbs 31 woman, right—she wasn't just called to work, she was also called to steward her body, to spend time with God, to teach and be a leader to her children, to be a helper in her home, to keep her home tidy. But we don't hear all of that with chaos. We don't hear it with pressure. We hear that it was available for her, that she was capable of all of that. And when we even look at biblical order, I just did a YouTube video on biblical order and it was like, you know, if God says that we put God first and then we focus on Jesus and surrender of our own heart so we're operating out of the Holy Spirit, and then we put our marriage, and then we put our children, and then we put our neighbors, and then we're supposed to serve, and then we're supposed to have community, and we're supposed to do our health—wouldn't God make a way for all of those to fit? And isn't that supernatural to consider that?

And so I wonder, how are we operating our life from a place of self and constantly running outta time versus operating our life in a godly order, and then therefore He's giving more and more and more and more time? That doesn't even make any sense. When I'm living my life in godly order, in biblical order, it's crazy. It's strange. How do I have time to meet with the Lord in the morning? How do I have time for a workout in the middle of the day? How do I have time to get through all my calls? How do I have time to go pick my kids up and take them to their sports? How do I have time to sit on the couch and actually speak to my husband without dying of tiredness? Like how does all of that make sense? Because of His order.

And so the first thing you need to do is reframe your mind. Number one, you gotta stop speaking death over your life by saying, "I don't have capacity. I'm so busy, I'm so tired." Those are limiting. Those are words of death over your life. We speak life and light into our existence. So it's like, "Lord, gimme extra capacity today. Let me operate on Heaven's timeline today. God, give me all the time to do everything I need to do." And that first is what we do.

The second thing we do is we have to have a vision and make it clear. So when's the last time you wrote out a perfect vision of your life? What is the dream life that God has for you? What does it look like? Every year in December, I write a vision of my life. I make the vision and I make it plain for the next year. I've been doing this for eight years, and it is insanity because I am telling you I've become this woman that God's painted this picture of every year. And I think it's when we create and we stop telling ourselves that everything has to be so hard, and we start painting the vision of like, "What does Godly success look like? What do boundaries look like? What does capacity with honor—what does it look like when I trust God, when someone needs my help, that He will redeem that time? What does that all look like?" And you journal it and you paint this picture. And when you have that picture of what that looks like, you now know how to say no to more. You know how to say yes to only the things that actually matter in life to move the needle. And then as you let go and get rid of a lot of stuff that isn't working in your life, all this capacity comes up for the godly order and the things that do actually matter.

So that's the last piece of that puzzle. After you make that plain, you do an audit in every area of your life, and you say, for example, business. And you write all that stuff that you're doing Monday through Sunday for your business, and anything that is not bringing you joy, bringing you leads, making revenue, or God said, you scratch it off and you stop showing up in the stuff that He didn't ask you to show up in. And for me that was social. You know, for me it was—I was doing a hundred things. I was making t-shirts on Amazon. What was I doing? None of that was the call, right? And so there's also just things in your life that you need to say no to right now. And I think you all know exactly what it is that I'm speaking about. There's something in your life coming up right now. It's a no. Today's the best day in the world to just put it down. And the thing we need to pick up—the Bible, the prayer life, the journaling, the things that are inherent to your healing journey—it's never too late to heal. I've been learning a lot about that because I'm real good at putting things in boxes, but I've been opening boxes, healing through things, and that is also creating more capacity because a healed person heals. A healed person pours out. A healed person overflows, and all of that's just gonna come from God. So a lot of tips in there for you.

Amy: Oh my goodness. Yes. So many tips. Stef, before we move forward, 'cause I've got some questions, but can you send me that biblical order YouTube video that you did?

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: I want to include that in the show notes. I think that'll be something—

Stefanie: Sure.

Amy: Perfect.

Stefanie: I just recorded it, so by the time you air this, there'll be a link, so I'll just make sure to tell Courtney to send it to you as soon as it airs.

Amy: Perfect.

Stefanie: Or we can just link my—yeah, we'll send you the direct, that way they don't get lost in the YouTube channel.

Amy: Yeah, it can be. Yeah, that sounds good.

Stefanie: Cool.

Amy: Okay. So you've given us a lot of really great tips here. I love how you talk about reframing your mind. I mean this is such a God-ordained conversation because I mean, these are words that I am needing in what I'm doing.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: And that's been my prayer is like, "God, bring me clarity with what I'm doing and renew my energy and enthusiasm for it is that You want me doing."

Stefanie: Hmm.

Amy: The writing your vision, I mean, gosh, what an actionable tip. And, you know, it's funny 'cause it can be kind of scary or it's like, "I don't know, what if I get it wrong? What if I—" You know, but entering into that with prayer. And then I also love how you guide us with that's gonna help us know what to say no to.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: Which is really powerful.

Stefanie: Hmm.

Amy: So, as you know, I feel like we could talk for hours on this. If someone's listening and she's feeling convicted like, "Okay, it's time. It's time. I need to take that next step."

Stefanie: Yep.

Amy: "Write the vision. I am gonna pray for the clarity. I'm going to start reframing my mind with, 'God, what do You want me doing?'" All of that. What's the next step? Because, you know, let's just say this is someone who's in a typical corporate job and she's making enough money to pay her bills,

Stefanie: Yep.

Amy: but also it's sucking the life out of her.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: So what now?

Stefanie: Yeah, yeah. You know, I think that one of the best lessons—two lessons that are really important—is one, we don't jump off the bridge with—we don't jump off a bridge with no water under it. So there's a reason God's positioned you where you are. So just know that, first of all. I know sometimes it can feel hard and dry and, "Oh, I'm tired of this." Just remember, everywhere God puts you is holy. And so the first prayer is, "God, help me steward where You've already placed me." Look what's in your hands, right? We see that verse that reminds us, be grateful for what's already in your hands. Sometimes when we don't have gratitude for the things—we become weary in—we're not ready for the next thing. Gratitude unlocks the next new thing in your life, so "Lord, help. Thank You. I'm so grateful for a job today, Lord. Just renew my spirit. Gimme an opportunity to be refreshed today in this workplace." When's the last time you prayed life into where you've been placed? And same thing in a home, in a dry marriage, even with your health, with your body. When's the last time you hugged your body and said, "I'm so freaking grateful for you. Thank you for my legs. You are walking me around today. Thank you that I still have this incredible heart that's beating within me to pour into my home, and I'm so excited I even have an opportunity to do something new."

This posture of gratitude—the "Thank You, Jesus"—just let it resonate and reverberate from your mouth, from your lips, from your heart constantly. And what that does is because you're grateful in the now, God will bring you the new. And we begin to start praying and giving God the yes. "I'm ready, Lord, what's next?" I'm in that season right now because there's just been this storehouse with the business that God and I have built together. It's like, "What are we doing, God? What's next?" And for so long I was like, "I'm so good, God." Now all of a sudden it was like, "Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. God's doing a new thing." But He was waiting for me to say, "I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's go, Lord."

And so now that yes will unlock that next new thing. And that is scary to your point, because we don't know where God is taking us. You never know. But I can promise you a million percent it's better than anything you've dreamed of. It's not gonna be comfortable. Nothing new is ever comfortable in your life. Do you remember the first time you stepped into a new job or the first time you stepped into a gym and you didn't know what to do? You're like, "What is that weight? I'm so embarrassed. I did not know how to do this," right? But you learned and you figured it out, and you got better because of that hard thing. And so this is no different. We have to trust God in this. So don't wait for the perfect opportunity to start. Know that you're already positioned for that new thing.

Amy: That's really good. And a lot of what you're sharing there resonates with when I was transitioning into doing what I'm doing and just saying, "Yeah, God, I'm ready."

Stefanie: Mm-hmm.

Amy: You know, and being grateful. Gosh, there's so much neuroscience as well to being grateful, and of course it's like, well—

Stefanie: Oh yeah.

Amy: Science is catching up with what Paul was telling us.

Stefanie: Oh yeah, exactly.

Amy: Yeah. We do.

Stefanie: We just get so bogged down by—

Amy: We do.

Stefanie: —the little things. We let the little things trip us up more than we let the things we're grateful for light us up. And I've just been on this journey of like, "Don't you dare steal my joy."

Amy: Yeah.

Stefanie: I'm just gonna be joyful in whatever is happening, and it's a battle, but it's a daily discipline. And the more that you—to your point of we can literally rewire the way our brains work—it is malleable, if that's the word.

Amy: Yeah.

Stefanie: It can be completely retrained. And so I've been for the last six years reteaching my brain and my body that it is safe and that it is happy and joyful. And we turn to positivity. We turn to gratitude, turn to thankfulness instead of what the enemy wants us to turn to, which is—for a lot of us—the wiring you have. And it doesn't mean you're broken. It means you have an opportunity and you're stronger than the old wiring.

Amy: Yeah.

Stefanie: And you're not too old, and you're not too far gone. You are very much available for this new life and vision that God has for you and in your healing journey as well, in the journey you're going on in your health, in your heart, right? And if you are in the business space, the corporate space, maybe you have grandkids at this point, it's like this is the perfect time to wake up and say, "Today's a new day, and there is air in my lungs, and I'm ready to just choose to be joyful and grateful today." And then watch how the new just starts appearing and the clarity starts dropping in and you're like, "It's that easy?" You know, "God's revelation is that available for me?"

Amy: Right.

Stefanie: It's almost like opposite of what you think is possible.

Amy: Well, it's the word you used earlier in the conversation, which is supernatural.

Stefanie: That's right. Yeah.

Amy: Yeah, it doesn't make sense because it's God.

Stefanie: Yeah. 'Cause it can't.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Stefanie, I have a few questions that I ask all my guests.

Stefanie: Okay.

Amy: One of them is I love learning about people's tattoos.

Stefanie: Yeah.

Amy: Because when people put tattoos on their body for the rest of their life, they oftentimes have a meaning behind it. So I was wondering if you have any that you would be willing to share? And if not, if you don't have any, but you had to get one, what would it be and where would it go?

Stefanie: Yes, I have two tattoos. I have one very, very stretched out tribal on my lower stomach, which is—I would actually get them all removed if I had the patience for this at this point in my life. But this one was a necklace that my sister gave me. I dunno if you guys have ever heard of James Avery. That's the jewelry brand. And there was a silver heart and it had all the—kind of like a tribal looking heart. And she gave that necklace to me. She and I were not close. It was one of the only things we ever did together. Only thing I ever got from her. But she ended up dying of a drug overdose. And that year I went and got that heart tattooed on my stomach, and now it's gone through two pregnancies and it's very much a blurred black heart, but it does still mean a lot.

Amy: Yeah.

Stefanie: And then the other one, I totally just—"I'm gonna get a tattoo"—and I have words down my whole side that say, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, and pray for tomorrow." Which is kind of funny because it is very much a mantra that I do still believe in, you know, and it's fun that it says "pray" in it, even though at that time in my life I was not praying. And those are my two tattoos that I have, and I've told my boys, "Just don't get 'em because you may regret 'em."

Amy: Well, no, I think they were both perfect. And tell me your sister's name?

Stefanie: Yeah. My sister's name is Dawn.

Amy: Dawn. I'm sorry to hear about her.

Stefanie: Thank you.

Amy: I know that that is a lot for a family to go through, and if it was a drug overdose that was not just a one and done.

Stefanie: Yeah. Yeah.

Amy: There was probably a lot to go along with that. So thank you for that. And yes, I have told my boys, I'm like, "You just need to know, just be prepared to have it on your body for the rest of your life."

Stefanie: Which doesn't—as a kid, you're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

Amy: I know.

Stefanie: But now I'm 40 and I'm like, "I still have my tattoos. They're still here and they're fuzzy. Do we want the fuzzies?" Let's ask that question. Okay. When you're 18 and your skin's all tight, it's looking real cute. I'm like, "We're fuzzy now." So there's that.

Amy: Yeah, just be aware this is your future. This is your future. Okay. Stef, you have talked a lot about different Bible verses and I love how you were able to just about repeat half of the Proverbs 31, but do you have one particular meaningful Bible verse that you would like to share?

Stefanie: The one that comes to mind is Proverbs 16:3. I'm just obsessed with that. I'm obsessed with the whole Bible, but "Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed"—not "they may not," "they might not," "maybe." If we are just committed to the Lord and whatever it is we're doing, it will succeed. And so this looks like, you know, for those of you listening, a lot of you are on this health journey, health and healing journey, and it's bring God into that piece. I kept compartmentalizing Him like, "Okay, well I definitely need Your help when I pray for my kids, but I don't need Your help in my health journey. I don't need Your help in me trying to get strong and feel confident and figure out how to nourish my body. I don't need that. I just follow the plan." But yet I kept messing up on the plan and going back to old habits that were harmful to me. And when I finally was like, "God, I wanna commit this piece as well. I wanna release this fear to You. I wanna release this old thing. I need to confess this thing. I need to just really give all of it to You, every tiny crevice of my whole life 'cause You know it anyway. I'm just inviting You into it." That's committing it to the Lord, and then your plans succeed.

It's crazy. I'll either have the right mentor show up, the right book falls in my lap. I'll have a dream. I'll have a word in the shower 'cause that's where my words come in. It's like, "Oh, I got a word. I was in the shower." What is it about that? It's 'cause we don't have our phone in our hand. That's why. Exactly.

Amy: Yes. We have no other inputs besides—yeah.

Stefanie: Yeah. And that verse is an anchor in every season. We want success. Commit it to Him. Period. In every area. And I know that's easier said than done because God is often the afterthought, but we are called to give Him our first fruits, and that is figurative and it is literal. So my first fruits are in the morning. You're gonna get the best stuff I have. A fresh cup of coffee. I'm so excited. And so I've learned if I wait to give my best to God at night, He's getting my leftovers. So just wake up with God. Is it 10 minutes? Great. Give it. He'll take it. He's excited to spend time with you. And I think if we can reposition our thought to—it's not about me serving God all the time, which we are doing, right? It's not about that. What God actually wants is to just love you. That's all God wants. And so in order to love you, we have to look at Him. We have to sit with Him. We have to open our arms to Him and to receive the love that He has because that love is going to permeate each and every area to create—when someone is well loved and safe, what are the two things we need as children? Love and safety. We still need those as adults, and every single person listening to this episode, something was lacking for you because we live on this side of heaven. But God's here to restore that for you. But we have to look at Him and commit it to Him in order for that restoration to happen. Stop running from it. The goodness of God is available, ready, and you're going to have such a fullness in your life when we finally just let Him in.

Amy: That's so good. Okay, Stef, I know people can—if they want to connect with you, if they are wanting more of Stef Gass in their life, they can go tune into the Online Business for Christian Women Podcast. Any other places you wanna point people to, especially if you're not on the socials?

Stefanie: Yeah, absolutely. So my website is stefaniegass.com. It's S-T-E-F-A-N-I-E-G-A-S-S dot com. Everything's there. But I also have a fun gift for you guys because you are Amy's family. If any of you—I know some of you might be interested in maybe a new thing, you're at this crossroad, "What could my new thing be?" Whether it's a new business venture, something new, ministry, you don't know, you want clarity, you're feeling confused on what it could be, and you're interested in maybe doing this the way that I've done it, the way that Amy's done it by thinking about maybe using your voice, starting a podcast, or building something that could reach people. I have a five-day bootcamp and I have a code for you guys to get it for free as a listener of Amy. So if you all go to—you can grab your gift—stefaniegass.com/bootcamp, and the code is AMYCONNELL, all one word. A-M-Y-C-O-N-N-E-L-L, and y'all can get that free. And it's five days of training on building a business that is partnered with God from scratch.

Amy: Perfect. Oh, that's awesome. Super cool. Thank you so much.

Stefanie: You're welcome.

Amy: Okay, Stef, you get the last word here on the podcast.

Stefanie: Yeah. Yeah.

Amy: I would love for you to give us one simple thing to remember, big or small, but just—we've covered a lot. You've given us a lot of things to think about, especially if we are interested in or if we're feeling called to maybe transition. So what's the one simple thing that you would like us to remember?

Stefanie: I think the big thing I want you to remember is that your breakthrough will come from action. It will come from movement, so stop waiting. Take the first step. Even if you think you're gonna fall off the cliff, you won't. There is someone there to catch you,

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Stefanie: and then He'll give you the next step because that's how He operates.

Amy: Yeah.

Stefanie: Stop waiting to take the step. It's worth it.

Amy: Awesome. Okay, that's all for today. Go out there and have a Grace Day.