I Wrote This Eight Years Ago. It Took Me This Long to Live It.

Eight years ago, I wrote an article for Christian Women in Media Association called Standout... For Such a Time as This.

I hadn’t read it in years.

And when I recently pulled it out again, I had one of those strange experiences where you realize your younger self was writing something she understood intellectually—but hadn’t quite figured out how to live yet.

I wrote about feeling called out from behind the scenes. About wanting to build my own platform. About fear, perfectionism, self-doubt, and being afraid to plant my flag.

I even ended the article by declaring:

“So I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. I’m planting my flag.”

I meant it.

I just didn’t know it was going to take me another eight years to really do it.

WHAT I WROTE THEN

I’ve lightly edited the original article for clarity and removed a few references that were specific to the audience it was originally written for, but I’ve intentionally left the heart of it—and much of the language—untouched.

Most of us have more influence than we realize.

If you lead a business, build a platform, serve clients, manage a team, create something, teach something, or simply have people who trust your perspective, you’re influencing the way someone thinks, decides, or moves through the world.

The question is: what are you doing with that influence?

Are you showing up in a way that clearly reflects what you believe, what you value, and the difference you want your work to make?

Or are you doing what so many capable people do—trying a little of this, a little of that, stringing together random marketing tactics and hoping something finally clicks?

I’ve seen that pattern for years.

• A new social strategy.
• A new offer.
• A new website.
• Another course.
• Another template.
• Another round of “maybe this will finally work.”

But tactics can only take you so far when the deeper things still aren’t clear, like:

• Who are you really here to serve?

• What do you want to be known for?

• What do you believe is genuinely valuable about the work you do?

• And what kind of impact do you feel responsible for making with what you’ve been given?

Those are the questions that matter first.

For me, those questions are inseparable from faith.

I believe our gifts, experiences, opportunities, and even the hard parts of our stories are not accidental. They become part of what we’re entrusted to steward.

And that makes the question bigger than, “How do I market myself?”

It becomes: How do I faithfully use what I’ve been given to serve the people I’m meant to help?

When you know who you’re here to serve, the problems you can genuinely help solve, what makes your work valuable, and what you want to be known for, it becomes much easier to discern which strategies actually deserve your time and attention.

That’s it. That’s the “recipe,” which I’m sure is no real surprise to you.

So, what's stopping you? What’s stopping me? What’s getting in the way?

I’ve been asking myself these same questions lately as I sense God calling me out from behind the scenes to build my own platform. I certainly know what to do, but I am my own worst client.

Limiting beliefs. Self-doubt. Fear. Perfectionism. Procrastination. An unhealthy relationship with money. Not wanting to put myself out there. Fear of rejection. Fear of not being “enough”. Afraid to “plant my flag”, do less, get really focused and go all in and serve at a higher level.

It’s disabling and it’s kept me stuck, continuing to do what I’ve always done, just staying in my comfort zone with my comfortable and fairly predictable business, just getting by.

Can you relate?

Here’s what I’ve learned...

Aside from circumstances outside of our control, the life we have today is the result of our cumulative decisions, actions and habits. The fear, uncertainty and discomfort of growth and change isn’t going to go away. We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable! If we want things to be different, we have to become different. In order for things to change, we have to change.

Steven Pressfield in his book, The War of Art, says “‍

‍The unlived life is driven by the optimal you, the best you, the confident you, the healthy you. The you who shows up with your best stuff, making things happen, making a difference, and living a life of significance.

THE UNLIVED LIFE WITHIN YOU

I want THAT life. I want to be the optimal me. I want to be and live as the amazing woman God made me to be. I want to get out of my own way and use my gifts, talents, experiences and life lessons to make a difference and help people in a deeper way. I want to live out my purpose and calling to impact this crazy world we live in for Jesus!

But, as Andy Stanley says in his great book, Visioneering, “Everybody has a mental picture of what could and should be for his life. But not everybody will pay the price to turn that mental image into reality.” Will you? Will I?

THE POWER OF VISION

What mission or dream has God put in your heart?  Do you have a compelling vision that creates passion and pulls you to something bigger? One that just won’t go away and almost feels like you have a moral obligation to take action on it? Is there something that makes you frustrated, brokenhearted or angry that you believe you should do something about?

That’s no accident. Lean into it. God has placed you and me in this time of history for a unique purpose—for such a time as this. Whether our work takes place in explicitly Christian spaces or the broader marketplace, we have opportunities to influence the people around us. You see, it’s not about us. It’s about the people we are supposed to help. It’s about what God wants to do in His Kingdom through us.

“But I’m not ready."

"There are other people who can do it better than me."

"I’m not ‘enough.’ "

"I don’t know what steps to take."

"I don’t have enough money."

"What if it doesn’t work? "

"What will people think of me? "

"Who do I think I am?”

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Stop with that thinking!

Our thinking creates our experiences in life. Proverbs 23:7 is true. As a man thinks, so is he. Our thinking drives our beliefs, actions and results. If you’re not getting the results you desire, look at your beliefs. Examine your vision. Uncover your true gifts. Pray and ask God to reveal His calling and the path He intends for you. Then trust Him and step into it. He will equip you.

All throughout the Bible, God used imperfect people to accomplish His purposes—not based on their titles but based on their hearts.

I have a client who helps people figure out their purpose in just two words through his unique Jailbreak Leadership framework. I discovered that my purpose is Empowering Potential and I do it every day—whether it’s creating the marketing and design for a national franchise convention or helping an entrepreneur with a big heart and a big vision show up to the right people with the right message at the right time. The latter is my passion.

Our work and our business should be a vehicle for Kingdom impact. We should shine like a city on a hill so that people pay attention and God gets the glory.

I want to see people equipped and empowered to do what they’re called to do with excellence, serve people well, and create real value in the marketplace. That’s the kind of influence I want us to have—for such a time as this.

So I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. I’m planting my flag.

My social media platforms aren’t up to date. I don’t have professional photos yet. I don’t have a blog yet. I’m not doing all the things I have my clients do yet, but I’m taking imperfect action today. Very difficult for a perfectionist like me who strives for excellence.

I want to encourage you to plant your flag!

Stand for something.
Lead in a way worth following.
Be strategic, wise and bold—and see what God does.

Eight Years Later

I read those words now and feel tremendous tenderness toward the woman who wrote them.

She knew.

She knew she had stayed behind the scenes for a long time. She knew there was something more she wanted to do with her experience. She knew she needed to plant a flag.

She just wasn't ready yet.

It wasn't for lack of trying. I had friends who encouraged me and pushed me. I even co-founded a mastermind called Next-Level Kingdom Builders and publicly declared what I wanted to do. One friend finally told me, “Don't be so lame. Just do the thing.”

[She wasn't wrong.]

I wanted to. I just couldn't seem to get myself all the way there.

Apparently, knowing and becoming are not always on the same timetable.

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What Happened

I didn't abandon my business after writing that article. I went right back to doing what I knew how to do—excellent work for clients, largely behind the scenes.

And thank God I did.

Those years supported my family. They brought extraordinary clients and meaningful work. They deepened my experience and  sharpened my judgment. They taught me things I couldn't have learned any other way.

What I couldn't see then was that God wasn't wasting the years between the calling and the clarity.

He was building something in them.

And eventually, I became able to see it too.

When I finally put myself through the same deep discovery process I'd spent years taking clients through, I began to understand the real value of what all those years had produced.

I'd always known the strategy mattered. What I could finally see was just how much of my value lived there—and that it didn't need all the execution afterward to make it valuable.

I wasn't simply good at building websites, creating marketing materials, or making brands look better.

My deepest work happened before I ever pushed a pixel.

I could help people see what they were too close to see themselves. Connect the dots across years of experience. Find the thread. Recognize what was valuable and distinct. Get clear about what she wanted to be known for—and then build a brand capable of faithfully representing it.

I could finally see what had been there all along.

And once I saw it, I believed it.

That's when I finally understood what it meant to plant my flag.

Today, for the first time in 19 years of running my branding and design business, I have an online home under my own name that feels like me.

I'm writing. I'm speaking. I'm recording a podcast. I'm sharing ideas that have lived quietly in me for years.

And I created Brand with Bravery to help other people do the deep work I finally had to do myself.

Eight years ago, I wrote that I wanted to use my gifts, talents, experiences, and life lessons to help people in a deeper way.

That's exactly what I'm doing now.

It just took longer than I thought. And maybe I needed those years more than I knew.

Maybe you're living somewhere between the thing you know you're being called toward and the clarity or courage to fully step into it.

Don't assume the years in between are wasted.

Pay attention to what keeps pulling at you.

Pay attention to what you're learning.

Pay attention to the work that gives you life and the problems you feel unusually compelled to solve.

You may be closer than you think to recognizing the thread that's been running through your story all along.

Perhaps this really is your time to plant your flag.

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