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Episode 64: Giving Yourself Permission to Share How God Has Gifted You with Kari Minter
166 Plays5 years ago
When you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s one of our favorite phrases because it is so true. But how do you pay the bills? You provide something of value people are willing to pay for!
In our latest podcast, we dig into that concept with our guest, Kari Minter. Kari has spent her life mentoring and helping women understand how to live life aware of God’s presence. For years, as a pastor’s spouse, she just did this as a member of the church as a way to give back—which was great!
But what if you could share your gifts beyond your local congregation or social group? That would be amazing. Kari’s gift is writing and speaking about discipleship and understanding the Bible more fully. Now she is using those gifts at Kariminter.com so not just her local church gets the benefit, but the world!
How has God gifted you? How could you share those gifts more fully with the world? Finding answers to those questions is what this episode is all about.
what you will learn in this episode:- How to use the gifts God has given you
- Permitting yourself to use those gifts to earn money
- Why a supportive spouse can make all the difference in pursuing your uncommon dreams
- How to set up a plan to step into your Uncommon Life
- Understanding your weaknesses and finding help in building your Uncommon Life
- Finding balance in a relationship when one of you is pursuing an entrepreneurial dream
- How to strategically build a value ladder
- The importance of investing in yourself
Recommended
Transcript
Defining the Uncommon Life
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring.
Meet the Hosts: Brian and Philip
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey. Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project, where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Gosh, doesn't it feel good to hear your voice? It feels good. It does. It does, man. Welcome back to our show. Man, we enjoy this. Is this your first time listening because you want to listen to our Rockstar host, our guest? We're so excited you're here. I feel like you're a Rockstar too.
00:00:57
Speaker
Well, I was mainly talking about you. But we really do what we love. We love what we do. And we're financial advisors who try to put you in front of the plan and try to make you your best asset. And this is so counterintuitive than what everybody's taught, which is like, hey, I'm going to meet with an advisor and they're going to try to take all my money in my pocket.
00:01:19
Speaker
and give it back to me when I'm retired. That's not our approach. In fact, our job is to try to get you to love your life as fast as we can. So we give you customized plans for financial freedom. And if that's appealing to you, or you have more questions about the show, we would love to listen and talk to you.
Guest Introduction: Carrie Mentor
00:01:37
Speaker
Schedule your 15-minute free consultation, and let's start the process of seeing if this uncommon path is for you.
00:01:43
Speaker
But we have a guest on the show. I cannot wait. Let's introduce her. Let's get her on the show and let's rock. All right. I'm going to do the bio.
Carrie's Faith Journey
00:01:51
Speaker
All right. She is a pastor's wife, a mom to three pre-teenage kids, incredibly passionate about helping women cultivate a deeper walk with God. And that is why she is here with us today and why she started CarrieMenter.com. Welcome to the show, Carrie Mentor.
00:02:07
Speaker
Hi, it's so fun to be here. Thanks for having me. I feel like we need to have like an audience clapping. I feel like that's what we're missing. Like just a stadium. I know you've got the green screen on your thing now and it's like, I feel like we need to go to the audio board.
00:02:22
Speaker
I know, I know. Carrie, thank you for being on the show. And I cannot wait to unpack your uncommon life and how you are stepping into it in such an amazing way. And it's been a joy to be able to watch you from, I mean, we had, I'm just be really honest, we had an initial consultation with Carrie and her husband. And one of my favorite thing was, is her husband was like, well, you want us to buy a rental property? And I'm like, hmm.
00:02:50
Speaker
I appreciate you listening to our shows and I appreciate you thinking what you think you want to do. Like, that's the last thing I want you to do. But like, real estate is a great avenue for people. It's not for everybody. And knowing what her husband does, he's a pastor. That's what her bio says. The last thing I wanted him to be doing is snaking a toilet at 12 o'clock at night.
00:03:10
Speaker
for a rental property that he's like, why did Philip just get me into this? And honestly, like he was tapped out. Like he is a busy man and God is using him in amazing ways at his church. And in fact, it's my church as well. Quite, quite fun. Full disclosure. Full disclosure. Right.
00:03:28
Speaker
I knew that he was kind of tapped out, like God is using him in amazing ways. But what I knew is Carrie had a gift and a passion. And so let's just start out, Carrie, give us kind of a synopsis on how God has brought you to where you're at now. But like, I want to start from like in college where, or even your parents or who mentored you in your life to get you kind of stepping into faith and kind of what's your God's story. Let's start there.
Church Involvement and Content Creation
00:03:53
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in a Christian home, accepted Christ when I was pretty young, like at vacation Bible school, I can still remember like the seat I was sitting in. They, it's like the four spiritual laws. And it was just like this moment of I have got to talk to her, went home and had my, pulled my little sister into our bedroom and told her like, Hey, do you understand the gospel? Do you understand that Jesus wants to be, have a relationship with you? And then, but I was young enough. It's like, I think you have to pray with an adult for it to be real. You know,
00:04:20
Speaker
So I pulled my dad into the room. Gives me goosebumps. But through teenage years, you always sort of question, you're just trying to figure out, and God is abstract, and it's really hard to understand that abstractness of Him when your brain's still developing. And so when I was my senior year of high school, I signed up to go overseas on a mission trip. And I didn't sign up because I wanted to tell people about Jesus. I signed up because I wanted to know if God was real or not.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I thought I'm gonna go overseas I'm gonna be away from everybody that knows me and I and God if you're real I just want you to show me that you are and he showed up big time that summer like completely transformed my mind like I went from thinking Christianity was this behavior modification to understanding that he's alive and active and he's actively working in every single moment of your life and
00:05:11
Speaker
And that summer just sort of radically changed the direction of my life. I just was no longer satisfied with just what the path of my life had been, you know, like going to college and having a job and working and whatever. I just was like, I just want to tell everybody, I don't think people understand how amazing God is. Like, I don't think that they've tapped into that he's alive, that he's with you. And so I sort of wandered. I was like, well, maybe I'll be a social worker, you know?
00:05:40
Speaker
And then my social worker advisor after my freshman year of college, like, listen, you don't have the personality for this. Like your heart engages too much. You'll get burnt out. And I was like, well, what am I supposed to do now? And so I transferred colleges and majored in, decided I was going to major in English education because I could travel the whole world and always find a job teaching English wherever I lived. That was my plan.
00:06:06
Speaker
And so in the course of that, I went overseas again on this leadership development team. I lived in Israel for a while. I did all sorts of different stuff. And I just was like, the thing that makes me most alive is to write and create things to help people understand God better. And so when I ended up meeting Brent, when we got married, he's a pastor. He was a youth pastor at the time. Huge hunk. Huge hunk. I might just say myself. Oh, yeah. Amazing. I mean, like, whoa. Whoa. He is pretty amazing.
00:06:33
Speaker
I got lucky when I met him and uh, but yeah, so it's just sort of that's just sort of where god's always used me it's like i'll I taught in the public school system As a career but did all my passion stuff for the church like created always was leading mentoring creating programs different things for that all with the purpose of just helping people understand who god was and so We've been married 17 years here in a couple weeks or next week. I think we celebrate celebrate our 17th anniversary
00:07:02
Speaker
So for 17 years married to him, that's what kind of I've been doing before I met him. That's just where God has given me the desire and the passion and the giftings to just invest in women.
00:07:15
Speaker
and the avenue, right? Like being a pastor's wife is the whole thing. We need to get into that, but not right now. We need to go back for a second. We'll come out. We went through a lot. I just covered like 20 years of life in five seconds. Which is
Challenges of a Pastor's Wife
00:07:29
Speaker
great. It was good synopsis, I'll say. But how old were you when you pulled your sister in the room and was like, we got to like, this is real. How old were you?
00:07:37
Speaker
Um, I was seven or eight. Oh, love it. Cause my, my daughter just went to camp church camp and she comes back today and I've been praying like God, just meet her where she's at. So, okay. That's exciting. Second thing I want to say is like your counselor at college. What an amazing insight to have and tell you, listen, your heart gets too engaged for you to be a social worker.
00:08:04
Speaker
Like I feel like sometimes little things like that can help direct you because I feel like you're a pretty driven person. Like social work is where we're going, you know? Yeah, absolutely. That one person just to say, hey, let's course correct here because I see such amazing things in your life, but this doesn't add up to that. What a great like kudos to you and crazy how God used that one person in that one moment to kind of like redirect.
00:08:30
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Like at the time that was like, what? How dare you tell me I'm not good enough to be a social group. I mean, I feel like that's like the first instant when you hear that, especially as a 19 year old kid. Um, but looking back, you just see the sovereignty of God and all that, like him stopping me when I was chasing in the wrong direction. And by the grace of him, I listened, um, and changed direction. So in that cadence, you were saying like, you knew that you wanted to create content.
00:08:58
Speaker
and understanding about God, right? Like at a younger age? Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to, because we're going to pick up on that vein now. And you had that for a decade or more, sounds like. Which you were thinking that maybe before content was cool. But that's how God used it with English, like just how you write, just how you're wired. You were thinking through that. So cool to see how God has
00:09:22
Speaker
like in his sovereignty, like you said, work this path of where you're absolutely using all your gifts and all your experiences that he's given to you up to this point. Like that is what the uncommon life is all about. So, okay. And I also want to make another caveat. Carrie and I went to the same college and I remember meeting Carrie. She was my roommate or my cousin's roommate. We played Farkle together. So I'm just saying, okay.
00:09:45
Speaker
It was in this living room and there was like 28 people were playing Farkle. If you don't know how to play Farkle, it's like Yahtzee on steroids. But anyway, way more fun. Right. But it's been fun how our paths have crossed and then they kind of come back forth. And so
Financial Advice Sparks New Venture
00:10:00
Speaker
Carrie has been a good friend of my cousin for a long time. And so it's been fun to kind of see her.
00:10:05
Speaker
grow and how God's used her in an amazing way. But as a pastor's wife, I want to be able to talk to that because it is not a role for the faint of heart. So can you speak to that? And Brent has not always been a lead pastor. He's been in different roles and in different churches. How have you come alongside of him and supporting him in his roles? And then how has that shaped you to who you are today? These are huge questions. So
00:10:35
Speaker
That is a huge question. And I'm like, oh, just boil that down. No big deal. Just distill that in about a minute.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, okay, so when we met and got married, he was a youth pastor, an associate youth pastor, and he did all the music, and then he kind of transitioned to leading Sunday worship, and is at a huge mega church in San Antonio, Texas, on TV type, that sort of environment. So I am not musical. I would go and help supervise things, and he tried to teach me how to run the soundboard,
00:11:07
Speaker
I'm not, that's just not my guess. I tried to be the supportive girlfriend and new wife, but that wasn't where I shined. And so I just jumped in and I created things for the girls in the youth group. I created like overnight.
00:11:22
Speaker
Just like investment types mentoring opportunities paired up one-on-one. I started a college Mentoring thing with the college girls that were going to a local college there in San Antonio and then used like invested in them they would come to my apartment and
00:11:37
Speaker
We'd meet with them and then paired them up one-on-one with the high school youth group or high school girls. And so just, I always went through the discipleship lens is how can I support you in your ministry? Well, I can help disciple the people under you so that they can follow God better. And so that's always been the avenue. He was a youth pastor, then he was a worship pastor at a church in Fort Worth.
00:12:00
Speaker
And that we had three kids in three years shortly after there. So I would say like I wrote some devotional stuff for some overseas trips and mission strips. I'd write stuff like that. I created a women's mentoring ministry that I sort of oversaw there. But I wasn't heavily present outside of those things that I were creating because I was home with that was where my my season of life was. I was home with the kids and and just really investing in them and keeping our family.
00:12:26
Speaker
together and then we moved to a mobile church where he's the worship pastor here in Iowa and loading in and out. So that's just all hands on deck, but I was hired on. A little different than a mega church. A little different. Yeah. I know. It was funny when we were making the decision to move, we had this joke like you haven't even had to plug your own guitar in and now you're going to have to load and unload in a truck in February in Iowa.
00:12:51
Speaker
So, um, why did we cultural shift? Yeah. Um, but it was good, but I actually was hired on staff there shortly after moving. Um, they hadn't had anything for women at that church, like specifically organized. I mean, there'd been women in the church that had done stuff, but organized, they wanted to kind of make it a push. And so they hired me to, um, to begin a women's equip type class and then write the training materials for their connection group. So,
00:13:19
Speaker
That's just sort of
Carrie's Business Venture
00:13:20
Speaker
always been in the background what I've done and how do I support him? How do I help be a part of this church that we're serving in? Those are kind of the avenues I've just done. Perfect. Okay, so let me ask you this, and hopefully other women or other wives of pastors are going to listen to this. What do you think is the hardest dynamic to be a pastor's wife?
00:13:43
Speaker
into your eyes. The hardest dynamic? Yeah. Like what's the hardest part of it? Cause like, it's just not easy. Yeah. Um, so I try not to focus on the hardest parts. Like I try to pretend like those don't exist sometimes. Um,
00:13:58
Speaker
but I would say like probably the staff not really knowing how to relate to you. Um, and I can unpack that a little bit is like, I'm just me, right? Like I'm like, this is my church. This is my place. This is my, my people. Like how can I help and serve? But in the back of their mind, I'm still the boss's wife, right? And so there is a little weird dynamic that I forget about, but then every once in a while it pops up and then I'm like, Oh shoot, that's,
00:14:27
Speaker
that kind of stinks, you know? And so that's probably the hardest thing to navigate is just that awkwardness that people feel. Let me try to help you put some words to that. It's like a millionaire who kind of forgets he's a millionaire until he gets around his friends and then all of a sudden it's like, wait, maybe you're just my friend because I'm a millionaire kind of thing. Like, not really. But do you know what I'm saying? Like, there's this, oh, like a little glitch of like, well, are you just, oh, like, I guess I am the pastor's wife or the boss's wife. Like, huh.
00:14:57
Speaker
okay yeah i guess when those moments come up and you're like oh i guess that is like and you feel like oh i'm not just me i'm right there it is defined by my like who i'm married to or defined by the position um that's probably the hardest thing all right
00:15:12
Speaker
So let's go back to like, so Brent asked me, hey, will you meet with, you know, Carrie and I, my wife and I just talk about finances. And I couldn't be more excited about it because as people know, and avid listeners, our first meeting has really nothing to do with money.
00:15:28
Speaker
and more about how God uniquely gifted you and how can we unlock that. And so it was such a, one of my probably favorite initial consultations that we had, because we started realizing that it wasn't a rental property that we wanted to pursue. It was how do we unlock Carrie's gifting?
00:15:49
Speaker
And so I'd like to hear this from your perspective in that meeting of how did we start switching over to like, wow, we really need to somehow unlock what Kerry has to offer other women and the Lord to glorify him.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think in that initial meeting, you sort of got rid of some lies that I was believing, inadvertently that I didn't even know. So when we were at the church where I currently, I had been working for the last four years, creating a women's equipping course.
00:16:23
Speaker
just voluntary on the side, but wrote all the curriculum, taught, raised leaders, did all the training for it, simply just for women to have a voice and have a place to just press into God. I mean, obviously that's sort of the theme throughout my story, right? And you said, you looked at me and said, what, if you could do anything
00:16:45
Speaker
in the world, what would you do? And I said, I would keep doing that, but I can't do it for the church for my husband, right? Like I can't, I don't think that's healthy. And you were like, then why don't you do it outside of the church? Step outside, it's okay to step outside of the church and use the gifts that God's given you. And I hadn't ever
Planning Carrie's Transition
00:17:03
Speaker
really thought
00:17:05
Speaker
that I could do that for money, I guess. If that makes sense. Like I had been like, I'll just work two jobs on the side and get up super early and like, I'll just do all this other stuff so that I can do what I love. And you just said, Carrie, you don't have to live your life, like move, like working a million jobs. Why don't you do what you love?
00:17:25
Speaker
and figure out how to make money doing it. And it was just a shift in my mindset at that moment where I was like, I think I even looked at you and went, do you think that's possible? And like, just like, and my husband was like, Hey, man, I've been selling that for years. But I was just like, you're just my husband. You're supposed to think that like, you know,
00:17:44
Speaker
Um, so I think like you just were able to speak some truth in that moment and open my eyes to there is a different way to live like there I don't have to have a nine to five job and do a hobby on the side Like I can make money out of doing a hobby It's hard work and you have to have a plan and you have to have structure but you can do it and so I think you you shifted that mindset you gave me the confidence to um, I guess as y'all say live an uncommon life, so
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah, for me, it was the first time Carrie saw this potential of her kind of spreading her wings a little bit of like, wait a second, I don't have to be in the wake of Brent when God has uniquely gifted me in a passionate way that I could do that and I wouldn't feel like I would work a day in my life.
00:18:31
Speaker
And people feel like there's a tremendous amount of value in that that people can now step into. You just need to give them an avenue to do so. And you've done this your
Brent's Role in Online Presence
00:18:41
Speaker
whole life. So it was really fun for me to see like, whoa, the potential here is great. Here's another thing that we talk about tremendously on the show is the support of the spouse. And in this point, it was Brent that was supporting Carrie.
00:18:57
Speaker
And the way that God's uniquely gifted Brent is he's kind of an entrepreneur at heart. And he's an entrepreneur with an artist kind of slant. So although he doesn't have a lot of time to be putting, definitely snaking other people's toilets or his own rental properties, but what he does have time to is build websites.
00:19:17
Speaker
and figure out how to create, like how to content and how to do an email system. Like that's the way Brian or Brent gets jacked up. And so to see him have an avenue to support his wife and then use his giftings in a unique way that he hasn't been able to flex those muscles for a while. Like both of them were on fire for this. Like this is exciting. And for me, like, come on, let's go.
00:19:43
Speaker
This is amazing. And so to watch people get excited about something they never thought could, and it was like, let's be honest, I didn't do anything other than just ask a couple of questions and try to unpack that. It really was. And then watching them take and do the hard work out of that. So what their plan looked like was more or less, listen.
00:20:04
Speaker
how do we now step into this? Because a lot of times that's now the, I'd say, the challenge, right? And so what we did is put a plan together of like, hey, if this obviously has to be someone monetarily benefiting or else eventually it's just gonna be like, you know, Carrie loves writing stuff, which is fine too, but it wasn't part of the plan and we put a plan together and kind of laid it in front of Carrie. And this is what I think is important.
00:20:32
Speaker
is we put a plan that wasn't crazy. Like the dollar amounts weren't like, and you need to make 400 grand the first year. And in fact, it was actually very small. And my point of putting something in front of both Carrie and Brent was to see if like, is this, are you going to take this serious or are you not? And if you're not, that's okay. But then let's don't have expectations of this blowing up. Let's just call it what it is and like have an avenue for you to, you know, use your unique giftings. And
00:21:00
Speaker
And you guys not only did that, but then put a plan together to not only build a website, and then do all these things. And then even like, I would say invest in training for you. It's been so fun to watch. And I think this is where the uncommon life really takes hold is because honestly, it's been a lot of hard work. But in that hard work, you've learned a tremendous amount. And then it's been fun for us to partner and come alongside you as a co pilot of kind of navigate some of these things.
00:21:30
Speaker
So,
Monetizing Passion in Christianity
00:21:31
Speaker
okay, questions. Sorry, I kind of got on a soapbox because I get excited. Brian, do you have any questions before I move on? Because I got a lot. I got a couple of things. I think it's important, you know, people are in different situations. And I think it's, you're in a very high visibility space as the pastor's wife, your church is growing, growing one of the fastest growing communities in the country.
00:21:57
Speaker
And it was just refreshing to hear you say of like, my husband's been saying that, but I wasn't able to hear it. I've had about 30 of those moments with my wife.
00:22:06
Speaker
in the last two years. And it's just like, that's normal, you know? And I think sometimes too, we hear this a lot of like one spouse is telling another, but they couldn't hear it for whatever reason. It doesn't make it bad or wrong or any of those things. It's just, you know, God's timing, I think is huge. And so I think that is the value of whether it's Philip Wright or someone else of getting, you know, someone else's perspective. And then you hear that, oh yeah, he has been saying that. And you get that validation. Yeah.
00:22:35
Speaker
and it helps you get propelled forward. I don't know if you can relate to that, but yeah. Absolutely. Your spouse is supposed to say that about you. They're your spouse. But when someone else says it, it's affirming, I think. Yeah, absolutely. We talk a lot about, I guess, just one other point is just that no one teaches you how to monetize your passion. No. I think especially as Christians,
00:23:03
Speaker
I don't want to take this on a whole other table, but it's hard as Christians to make money, I think, truthfully. And especially being a pastor's wife and maybe feeling like, well, this is all just the church's asset or content or benefit, you know, local church, not big church. And I think that's where, you know, God through Philip was able to say like, no, like the whole church needs to be able to hear what you're doing and saying, you know? Yeah. So that was really cool. Yeah.
00:23:32
Speaker
It is hard, I think, as a Christian, especially to say, I'm going to make money doing this because you feel like you should give everything for free. But then you can't. I can't send my kids to college if they give everything for free. And then like to like work through that in your brain and be like, it's OK. Like everything else in life, it's OK for things that are being created for you to chart. Like if I paint you a sign, you want to pay me for it.
00:23:55
Speaker
So if I create content for you, then it should be the same. But it did take me a while to shift in that mindset and not feel like I was wrong in asking and being able to make money at it. So I think the church is from a tax perspective, being set up as a nonprofit also adds ambiguity or gray to that.
00:24:14
Speaker
you know, that as well. Cause you know, people are tithing or whatever. And, and whether they take the tax deduction or not, it's just like, Oh, that's not a for-profit thing. You know what I mean?
Website and Business Expansion
00:24:24
Speaker
And to charge on the other side, probably even creates more, you know, conflict or tension in your mind. But what you're doing is so valuable to so many people and you know, you gotta. So let's talk about that. So what is it that you and Brent have created to this point? Like, how do people enter in and what are you helping people with? Let's just start there.
00:24:44
Speaker
Absolutely. Okay. Um, so we, I did, I started, well one, we started by saying, okay, what are my weaknesses? I have spent my whole life speaking, teaching, writing, creating. I have never once in my whole life run a business.
00:25:01
Speaker
or know how to do it. And so I did sign up for this, this course, it's called Elite Blogging Academy. She takes you step by step. How do you set up an online business? How do you kind of, what is SEO? What is like all this language that I didn't know? So I started that pull processes. So within that we created a website. It's just my name, CarrieMenter.com.
00:25:21
Speaker
K-A-R-I-M-I-N-T-E-R dot com. And on that website, it's broken into different sections. So you can request if you need a speaker for some sort of conference or event or anything, you can request through there. There's a blog where I write three to four times a week. I try to put up fresh content. I'm actually in seminary right now. So a lot of
00:25:45
Speaker
what i'm putting up right now currently is things that i'm just learning in class and different things that i'm um exploring and that blog's kind of broken into categories like are you wanting to how do you live out your faith how do you know god better how do you influence your family or those around you how do you lead as a christian you know so there it's bro you can pick which kind of category of content you have and then i have a shop
00:26:07
Speaker
that i'm slowly adding material to so um right now there's a bible study over first john in the shop that's just a really short bible study there's there's a free resource right there on the site just how to read your bible so if that's something you struggle with it kind of takes step by step and then the first john study takes those steps that you get from that free resource and helps you immediately apply and practice them so at the end of those five days you'll you'll walk away a little bit more confident being able to read your bible on the own and then
00:26:35
Speaker
I have another resource called interacting with God and that is just it's 32 ways to invite God into your daily moment. So it's how do you live your life aware of God's presence constantly and not just read your Bible, shut it and then go on with your life. And so how do you kind of start to walk in his presence on a continual moment? And so that's the resource up there and then have several more in the works, but those are kind of the two that are up there right now.
00:27:01
Speaker
Nice. So ideally, in five years, where do you hope this, where do you hope God uses you in this way? Ideally, I love to teach the Bible, love to teach it. And so ideally, I would love to be teaching and speaking more about what God's, what God has taught me and is currently teaching me. I have a ton of Bible studies I've written that I've sort of rewritten
00:27:26
Speaker
that i'm rewriting right now for the general public i've written them for small church contexts right now and so i'm kind of reframing them um so i would love to have like ongoing online bible studies and one-on-one coaching helping women for some reason reading the bible and investing in god's word and understanding that it's a personal thing it's just really hard especially after you start having kids and the season of life changes and what's worked when you engage with god in college no longer works
00:27:53
Speaker
And so I'd love to start coaching one-on-one and just mentoring women in a way that helps them unleash what God wants to give them. That's great. That's great. It's like, okay, what are we doing? Sign up now. Okay. So when you and Brent like sat down and you started coming up with a plan, like who was, it sounds like Brent was very instrumental in helping you walk through the steps that needed to be done today.
00:28:22
Speaker
because it can be intimidating like yeah i got this big vision but how in the world am i gonna get from here to there. And so how did he best communicate and maybe he was the one so who helped you do that maybe it was this elite blog academy. Like what were the steps and how are they like how did you go about setting for the plan right foot left foot right how did you do that.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah, so Brent is really, really good at systems, at creating systems and plans and running organizations. So we actually went to the library when he has Fridays off usually. And so we went to the library one Friday while the kids were still in school before life went crazy and sat down and he's like, okay, the year's broken up into quarters.
00:29:07
Speaker
We're going to have goals for each quarter. So quarter one. And so we brainstormed. He just kept asking me probing questions. What do you want? And then we'd work back. OK, well, that's more of a quarter four. That's a Q4 goal, Carrie. You can't get that in Q1. You're in Q1. So what is Q1 going to look like? And he kept until we had it all written down. And then everything for the year. What was every step? He's like, OK, now don't get overwhelmed. And don't look beyond Q1. You're in Q1. Here we go. Let's do it.
00:29:36
Speaker
And so he, I just don't naturally think, or I've never been in a position where I've had to think in that direction. And so he just slowly used that process to help me make small goals and reach them. Designing a website like that. And when we had little kids, his side gig, he would create websites for people.
00:29:57
Speaker
and make some money on the side that was kind of what he did and he self-taught like he just figured it out one time he wanted to do with something for the church in order to do it he had to know how to make a website so he just taught himself how to do it and so that full circle came through he sat down and he made me think through strategically how do you what do you want like there are categories how can how can the navigation be easier for people to get to what they need to go to and so um
00:30:22
Speaker
I would say all the strategic thinking that's gone through, he's helped me understand so that what I love to do and what I'm good at, I can then flourish. Was there any tension points there? You're pushing me too hard here.
00:30:38
Speaker
Um, no, I don't know the tension points. There was a moment when I was like, I don't know the balance of you still have a full time job, but I'm like, let's go. You know? And so what's the balance of you still have a full time job. This is a side gig for you. Um,
00:30:57
Speaker
We still need to be husband and wife. Yeah, so how do I balance not asking too much of you and when do you need to communicate and make sure that I'm not pushing you too hard with that? Because he would totally do it. Like he loves me, he's support, he's been waiting for years, he wants to see me flourish. He would totally burn the candle at both ends. And so trying to find that balance has probably been the best part for her.
00:31:23
Speaker
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I think the bigger word is boundaries. And I think, you know, that's you were kind of sharing. That was the hardest part maybe of being a pastor's wife is just, you know, where is that boundary? And it is hard as as entrepreneurs and husbands, wives, parents, all these hats that we put on to find established boundaries, you know. So looking forward,
00:31:46
Speaker
You know, as Phillip mentioned, what can you walk our listeners through? Maybe like your value ladder and a simple step. You've kind of talked about speaking, when I want coaching, you know, things they can purchase, Bible studies they can purchase. Do you have kind of like a strategic value ladder that's guiding those things?
00:32:06
Speaker
I do. So on the website, like I'm putting free content out specifically in ways to help you follow God, like influence, raise your children different ways, like different free content, constantly I'm writing for that. At a good, probably 50% of the content that I publish, I also add free resources to the bottom of it. Like, hey, if this was helpful for you, why don't you go through this short questionnaire or this, try implementing this. And so,
00:32:33
Speaker
handing out free resources. So I try to make as much as I can free and easily accessible and then every month I do send out a newsletter with some just content upgrades. So this was a post so this is something in addition that I'd love to give to anybody that subscribes. So that's probably the low part of the value ladder right there is just as much as I can be helpful
00:32:57
Speaker
and give the resources that need to be had. And then I build off those. So like the first John study in the shop is only $7. It's not expensive, but it builds off that free resource, how to read the Bible. So if you get the free resource, you're like, this was super helpful. I need to go one more step. I want to provide an opportunity. And then after the first John, if you're like, okay, I think that I know how to read my Bible. Well,
00:33:21
Speaker
I need to go one step further. Like that's more than just a 10 minute reading my Bible or 30 minute read my Bible. Like he's more than that if he's alive and active. So how do I take it beyond just read my Bible? Well, now there's another, there's a little, another resource in the shop for you. So
Business Beginnings and Family Impact
00:33:35
Speaker
that's kind of how I'm building the value ladder is I try to provide the content, the basic content for free as much as I can. And then if you need another step, it just kind of goes up from there. So, and then the top would be either speaking or coaching.
00:33:48
Speaker
Absolutely. I want to be very candid. What quarter are you in right now? I'm Q2, so this is still super early. I know.
00:34:03
Speaker
Who knew? I love it. I love it. And I love this because we get a lot of, I'd say, guests on the show that are a little bit further down this uncommon life. And so to have somebody a little bit newer is refreshing. So I want to just edify you on that. Well, good. Because I definitely do not have it all together yet, but I am passionate and I'm excited and I'm chasing after it as hard as I can.
00:34:28
Speaker
Good. How have your kids viewed this new Carrie? Have they viewed you in a different way? Let's just start there. Have they viewed you in a different way? It's been actually really fun to watch them, I think.
00:34:43
Speaker
a couple things. I think that I have two daughters, two teenage daughters, and they've always seen me do everything for free for the church, pretty much. And so them watching me do this as a job, I think has changed their mindsets a little bit. We've had some good conversations of like, this is possible as a woman to make money doing what God's created you to do in ministry. And to have those conversations as a gun, but also one of my daughters
00:35:12
Speaker
uh specifically she said i can't even remember the situation but they were
00:35:17
Speaker
somebody was asking me to do something and the other kids like, mom, can we go, can we do that? And my, one of my daughters stepped in and was like, listen, mom's worked really hard on this business. She doesn't need a distraction. She needs to keep going. And I was like, Oh, like, you know, as a teenage girl to see that and to stand in and be like, no, like mom deserves a shot. Yes. And
Investing in Personal Growth
00:35:41
Speaker
so that, that's been really actually really, really fun. So, um, like that's,
00:35:45
Speaker
They're learning, they're stinking sponges for good and bad. And so for them to be able to see you in a place where I would say the biggest thing is just your passion. It's not hard and you're not selling when you're actually excited about something. And it's just, this is what I love to do. And for your kids to see that,
00:36:04
Speaker
at a young age like what a cool trajectory that they're on now that they have this because a lot of people just don't like my dad hated his job like this isn't me but a lot of people are like oh my parents hated their job all their life and then you know died it the year after they retired or something like that like that's really all they know yeah they just don't have this example of somebody doing something different and getting paid for something they love to do so kudos great job
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah. And I think the other thing I noticed when you're kind of sharing your story is that I don't have any business experience and you, you paid for a course. Hmm. You know, we talk about this a lot, especially like where your kids are at, you know, we have no problem as parents like, Oh, you need a ballet coach or you need a softball coach or you need this camp, that camp. You know, then our kids get out of college and then it's kind of like they don't really have any coaching anymore.
00:36:54
Speaker
You know, we use that desire or whatever. I don't know what it is, but we just don't invest in ourselves really in that way that we did from, you know, really five to 20, let's say. And so I think that's also an important point. If you go down this path, you're going to have to invest in things and you're going to really have to invest in yourself because you're not going to know it all. And you can't cheat that, you know, if you want to go faster. And so you had a good partner and your husband and you hired to the things that you're like, I don't know how this works.
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's what makes the shift from it being just a hobby to like, no, I'm gonna, I want this to be something like a business. I want this to be a place that God uses me. And if I was to go buy a brick and mortar store and try this, I would all over the place pay for investments in order to do that well. And so I want to make sure that I'm doing that with this adventure as well. So
00:37:48
Speaker
Right. And sometimes it like, that's why we make some of our client, like all of our clients pay for us because like, we want you to have skin in the game. So you take it serious. Like it's hard for Bryant. Like we're horrible at this. Like, well, we'll do it free. But at the end of the day, like, no, they actually take it more serious when they pay for it. And so that's a huge component of it. Carrie, you are
Podcast Conclusion
00:38:08
Speaker
a rock star. You're going places. I'm so grateful to be talking to you too. Cause, uh, 10 years down the road, you'll be like, who are you again? You're going to be going.
00:38:17
Speaker
Hi, so thank you for what investing yourself and just taking that leap of faith and to see where God has met you where you're at now is not only encouraging for me, but I think all of the people that are seeing you witnessing it and then also the listeners on this show. And so thank you for being vulnerable and transparent and uncommon.
00:38:43
Speaker
because it's not only transparent, but it's attractive. And I think God's using you in amazing ways. So if our listeners wanted to get in touch with you, what would be the best way they could do that?
00:38:54
Speaker
probably just through my website. It's CarrieMenter.com. And right on there, right at the top, you'll see in the navigation bar that there's a place that says contact me. You can just go right there and it'll send me an email. That probably the quickest and easiest way for you to go. So it's just, my name is K-A-R-I-M-I-N-T-E-R.com. Perfect. Thank you for taking the time. You've been listening to the Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Thanks for listening. Have a good day. Bye bye.
00:39:24
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.