Kat Kuan

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Slowing Down to Speed Up

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I used to have a tendency to live life a million miles a minute. If there was a blank spot in my calendar, where I wasn’t physically meeting someone, I would fill it up with something else. I didn’t account for driving to/from places, and I didn’t account for being tired from going to an event or driving somewhere farther away. So I would pile in many things into my schedule for a single day, and when that day came, as I was rushing from place to place, I would get so tired and wonder why I agreed to all of those things in the first place.

For awhile now, I’ve been working on slowing down my life. Although my mind is very curious and wants to try and experience all these great things, it’s hard for my body to keep up. I realize that scheduling so many things into my calendar wasn’t giving me time to rest or even sit down and breathe. And I needed that alone time to process what just happened or to think about what I wanted to do next.

Having such a full schedule also robs us of the chance for spontaneity in life. On one hand, having a full day of plans already booked is great and time-efficient, but on the other hand, there’s something wonderfully glorious about a blank day with nothing on the calendar. I love those types of days because they are full of possibilities and full of surprises and joy.

I’m not saying that we should just slow down to a sloth’s pace and be couch potatoes for life. I just believe that slowing down to rest helps us get back out there and do our work at a much faster pace. By recharging (before we burn out), we can re-energize and be productive, and then go back to resting – like a sinusoidal curve.

When we slow down, we become more intentional with our time. We may realize that certain things cause us stress or anxiety, so we can adjust or remove those things from our schedule. Then we can have more energy for things that we want to focus on – for that particular time in our life. And the things we want to focus on will also change over time like a sinusoidal curve. There are seasons of life where we focus more heavily on career, then we focus more on health, then family/friends, then back to career, etc..

So in a world where “being busy” can sometimes be a status symbol, I am rejecting that notion. To me, not being busy is a luxury. We don’t need to fill up all our time with activities. We don’t have to be 100% productive all the time. We don’t have to do everything we’ve ever wanted to try in this immediate moment. Instead of cramming 10 things into 1 day, we could aim to do 3 things slowly and but enjoy them in the process.

What speed are you operating at these days?

It is a mistake to think that moving fast is the same as actually going somewhere.”

Steve Goodier

Related articles:
A Time for Everything
Measuring Our Success
Less is More

How to Host a Webinar

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One of my goals for 2019 was to work on my public speaking skills by doing monthly speaking events. But finding speaking events is not necessarily straightforward, so to reduce dependencies, I decided to take it upon myself to host a webinar (an online talk) each month for the whole year, with a different topic each month.

Advantages

The thing with having a webinar, unlike hosting an in-person event, is that there’s no pressure for a certain number of people to come. Whoever wants to come can come! And if they don’t, that’s okay too. Takes some of the pressure off, so I could focus on my speaking part.

First Webinar

I just hosted my first webinar last weekend and the topic was: Making Your Dreams Com True in 2019! I was very happy with how it went. There was 10 of us and we had guided reflection time so we could write / plan out our goals and also talk about them too. It was really great connecting with like-minded folks and being able to share openly about struggles and also tips for chasing our dreams. I can’t wait for the next one!!

Which Technology to Use?

I had to do some research to figure out what technology to use for the webinar. I wanted a low or no-cost option because this is really an experiment, so I had to rule out the platforms that had monthly fees.

  • GoToWebinar is a popular platform that I’ve seen a bunch of online entrepreneurs use, but when I checked out the pricing, I was like hmmm no, too expensive for me now – it was $90/mo for the cheapest plan. I wouldn’t use it frequently enough for it to remotely pay off.
  • YouTube Live is another option by just livestreaming on your YouTube channel. It didn’t feel as intimate though, feels more out in the public (which could matter for the participants of the webinar), so I didn’t go with this option. This is a free option, but you just have to meet certain eligibility requirements before livestream is enabled for your channel. Meaning, I don’t think it’s available for brand new channels.
  • Instagram Live and Facebook Live are also options, but again they don’t feel as intimate. I think people also tend to causally drop in and drop off on those live feeds, if they happen to be scrolling in the app at that time.
  • Zoom is something I’ve used quite a few times already for video conference calls in groups. They have a free plan, but they also have a paid plan if you want more features (see pricing). They also have a paid plan of $40/mo for “Zoom webinars” with some fancy features to moderate the group and stuff. It would probably make more sense when your business is at a bigger scale.

Picking Zoom

So after all that, I decided to go with a Zoom call. It’s not exactly like a webinar format with a host and participants, but it’s more like a group conference call. It actually worked out quite well for our group size. People could turn on their video and microphone and chime in.

A Zoom call does have limitations though. The free version limits your group calls to 40 minutes. We did end up signing off the call, and then signing back in at the 40 minute mark lol. A tiny hassle. And there is a limit to 100 people per call too.

For your purposes, it’ll depend on what your needs are, what audience size you have, and what type of engagement you want with them. If you’re starting off, I would test out the waters with some free options first.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  • Pick a date and time for your webinar. Put it into your calendar so you don’t flake out.
  • Create an image to promote the webinar (refer to my tutorial on creating graphics with Canva).
  • Announce it on social media, your newsletter, and to friends & family. I mentioned that the webinar login instructions would be sent out to my mailing list, so I directed people towards signing up for that.
  • I created a new “meeting” within Zoom, and gave it a title and time.
  • A Zoom web link will be provided, or people can dial in with their phone as well. These instructions are located in the Zoom meeting description page, when you click on the “Copy the Invitation” link.
  • I sent out the webinar instructions to people on my mailing list so they could have access.
  • I started prepping the content – first with an outline, then with practicing it and creating slides. I used Google Slides to make a simple presentation.
  • I did a webinar dry-run to test out the technology. I gave the link to my fiance and he hopped on the call so we could test it out: test out sharing the screen, playing my presentation, the audio and my computer microphone, the group chat feature, etc..
  • I did some more reminder social media posts and a reminder to my mailing list again.
  • Then I did the webinar!! Woohoo!

Backup Plan

Technology doesn’t always work when we want it to, and I know other people have had technical difficulties with their webinars (on much larger scale with more complicated technology, but still). So having a backup plan is always good. I had a backup plan of using YouTube live in case the Zoom call didn’t work. But luckily I didn’t need it!

All went smoothly with the Zoom call and I’m looking forward to the next one in February!! Hope you can join me for that one! You can also join my mailing list so you don’t miss out. I’ll be announcing the next topic soon!

Two Types of Discipline

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As an entrepreneur, it’s so hard to be the boss of yourself. You work on something for a goal or deadline, but you’re also the one setting the deadline on yourself, so you can just as easily change it. With better tools, I’m learning to manage myself better, and I came to realize that there’s 2 types of discipline in this world.

Discipline Out of Fear

This is the type of discipline I grew up with. Being in an Asian household, there are strict expectations to study hard and do well in school. In school, there is pressure to do well on homework and exams, otherwise you could *gasp* get a bad grade. School turns into the myriad of college entrance exams and college applications where the constant driver is to do well otherwise *gasp* you may not get into a “good college.”  The pressure doesn’t let up in college either. You vie for good grades otherwise you may not get a “good job.” And once you land in a good job, there’s the fear of getting a bad performance review or disappointing someone who’s a higher-up, so you work and work. It’s really a culture of fear that we’re brought up in. And it’s quite toxic because we do things because we’re afraid of disappointing others or bringing shame onto ourselves. We fall prey into thinking that if we can’t do something, it may reveal that we’re incompetent or not good enough.

All this to say, I got very good at being disciplined out of fear. I could crank through lots of work and memorize my way through a class to remember the content long enough to pass a test and then forget it afterwards. I was able to pull through on an extremely challenging deadline by sacrificing my own health and well-being, but it was for a good pat on the back or a good grade / performance review.

But when I left the normal world of formal education / corporate America, I found it very hard to get things done because I had operated so long on discipline out of fear. Sure, I was afraid of failing at my business or being embarrassed that I couldn’t meet a goal that I had announced publicly on social media. But that fear wasn’t enough to get me out of bed and to the gym, and taking care of myself, and doing the hard work of building a business every day. 

I learned that I needed a different type of discipline.

Discipline Out of Love

I’m starting to learn that there’s a new source of energy, a new source of motivation which is much more boundless than fear. It is doing things out of love. You can be disciplined in your work and show up raring to go every day because you love it so much. You’re so pumped to make progress towards a dream that puts you on Cloud 9 just thinking about it. You can be disciplined in how you take care of yourself – exercise and eating healthy because nourishing your body feels good to you.

Here’s another way to put it. You can eat healthy because you fear dying early or getting some incurable disease. Or you can eat healthy because it feels good in your body and gives you energy. 

For a long time, it felt weird to do things out of love, especially out of love for myself. But when you do things that make you feel good, or find a way to make something feel good (finding a form of exercise you really like), then you are much more willing to stick with the consistency of discipline because it feels great each time.

I also had a mental block on this because sometimes “feeling good” in our society is labeled as indulgent or short-sighted or irresponsible. We’re conditioned to expect that we need to suffer in the short-term for a happy future. But actually self-inflicted suffering just cripples our energy and enthusiasm for life. So I call BS on that. I think “feeling good” is a good thing, and we should pursue more of it, in a healthy way of course.

Instead of doing things out of obligation, I continually challenge myself to do things out of love for myself, love for others, or love for my work. It’s definitely a mind shift, but I think one that will ultimately change the course of my life. 

What mode are you operating in these days?

Grow Your Instagram Following

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This is intended to be tips for people and small businesses who want to grow their Instagram account.

I know number of followers are a superficial metric, and there’s all sorts of biases like fake followers and people who just temporarily follow and unfollow you later. And I also know that there are many more people with a ton more followers.

Regardless, to build a solid following on Instagram, you have to be able to show up consistently, create quality content, engage authentically – all of which doesn’t just happen “on accident.”

In any case, it’s been about a year of intentionally working on growing my Instagram account @kat.kuan to develop my brand and presence online. I even booked a session with a social media consultant to get feedback and advice on my profile. So these are 5 takeaways I wanted to share with you. First off, I want to start with why this matters.

WHY INSTAGRAM IS IMPORTANT

Sometimes I think Instagram is the fastest way to reach people. Once I post something, folks can “like” my post WITHIN SECONDS!!! I don’t think people check or respond to their email nearly as fast!

For anyone creating a business or having a job in a creative industry (such as art or cooking or fashion – something where you create something), I think it is vital to have an Instagram account to show your portfolio of work. The economy is rapidly changing and I like to think of an Instagram account as a quick-glance resume of what your work is like.

For example, my friend is a hairstylist and captures all the haircuts and hair coloring she’s done for clients on her Instagram @hairstyle_by_natalie. That way, future clients can also check out her Instagram and see her work on past clients within a quick glance.

For my profession of personal styling, my Instagram showcases outfits I’ve created so that people can decide if they like my aesthetic and want to work with me.

1. POST CONSISTENTLY

Content creation is hard. Some creators swear by posting multiple times a day. I tried that, and it’s a little too much for me. I feel like it floods the audience with too much of me, and it’s hard to come up with so much content.

So settle on something that feels right to you. For me, about 5 days a week (basically 1x per weekday) is a good target to aim for.

Your account will grow with time. Here’s the analytics for my account from the InsTrack app. You can see sometimes it goes up faster than others, and there are dips as well. Also, for the time periods where it grew the fastest, I was spending way too much time on there that I was in a bad state of mind. So growth at all costs is not worth it.

And go easy on yourself if you didn’t reach your target. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions trying to be consistent. I would get really motivated and post multiple times a day, and then get busy in my life, and not post for weeks. So I would be super active, then not active, and then super active, etc.. Now I try to be a more moderate amount of active and try to keep that steady.

Because our schedule can vary widely from day to day, the best way to make sure you have consistent content is to plan it out ahead of time. I’ve tried various tools but now I just use a Google Sheets spreadsheet that I call my “Content Calendar” and keep track of the date I want to post it, the name of the post, what format of content it is (social media post, YouTube video, blog, etc..), and any notes.

2. DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT PERFECTION

Especially when you’re first starting off, I think there’s a desire to make everything look “Instagram worthy” and beautiful and editorial like the mega influencers, but sometimes it’s just better to get it out there and do it consistently. Then you can work on slowly raising the bar for the quality of content – better photography, better graphics, better photo editing, etc.. Just don’t try to aim for all those things at once in the beginning.

It took a while to develop the look-and-feel of my content. I really like clear and concise images. Clarity is super important, and I use Canva for any graphics that involve text. I wrote a tutorial for using Canva earlier, which can be found here.

Let your style and subject matter content naturally evolve over time.

For example, back in September 2017 (over a year ago), I posted random things – quotes, food, personal pictures, drawings, stuff about my children’s book.

Then I started to post more pictures of myself and book stuff – some lifestyle / food stuff sprinkled in here and there. Posting pictures of yourself (while it feels weird and self-centered in the beginning), it’s important because it helps people see and recognize you.

In the summer of 2018, I moved more boldly into posting fashion photos for my personal styling business and developing an aesthetic with the bold text, and using that consistently.

And these are my most recent posts – fall of 2018. It’s includes photos of me, fashion (photos taken by photographer friends), and a consistent font style.

3. SHOW THE PROCESS

Instagram is great for telling a story with visuals. A great image tells a story without any words, without even reading the caption. And over time, the all the images you post will tell another story – a broader story about yourself or your business.

To keep it interesting, I think it’s important to show how you evolve and show timely events and show a growing / transformation process. So if you’re working on creating a product that takes a long time, show the process.

That provides values to your followers and allows them to “follow” your journey.

Example: This is how I documented the journey of writing my children’s book Use Your Voice.

kat kuan learn to illustratecreate a business kat kuan kat kuan use your voice book announcement kat kuan first store for use your voice book kat kuan instagram local newspaper

Sharing your story is SO important because it differentiates you from the other people/businesses out there. If you have a clothing line, it can be hard to differentiate from the many other clothing brands on Instagram. Glam shots with beautiful people modeling the clothes can only go far. BUT sharing how you designed / manufactured / and tested out the items can make people more invested in your business and want to be a part of your journey too.

4. BE AUTHENTIC, USE INSTAGRAM STORIES

People come on Instagram to be inspired and to connect as well – to relate to others. I know that the advice of “being authentic” is overused and vague. My tangible tip for that is to use Instagram stories.

This is where you can record short video clips or post images and use their creation tools to add text / emojis on top. The stories only last 24 hours. The stories content DOES NOT need to look perfect. In fact, the more rough-around-the-edges, the more real it feels.

 

On another topic of authenticity, create genuine connections with people by writing thoughtful comments on their posts and responding to comments on your posts. I think this is an area of improvement for me, sometimes I get carried away on the content part, that it’s easy to forget that the whole point of this platform is to bring people together. So connect and grow your community by encouraging others and cheering them on too!

5. HAVE BOUNDARIES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

You could get addicted to social media and start scrolling / liking / commenting on stuff all day long, but that is incredible draining and I start to hate Instagram after a day like that.

The reason I stick to weekdays is because social media can be a sinkhole of your time. And too much social media can be unhealthy for mental health because you’re seeing all these other things and can feel FOMO (fear of missing out) or feel like you’re comparing yourself to others, or sometimes people get negative comments, etc.. So I think having limits with social media is good for having balance in life and also having time to focus on just living life, being present, and not worrying about having to capture it for the ‘gram.

To check out my profile, visit @kat.kuan.

kat kuan instagram

RELATED ARTICLES

Why Life is like Leaning In For a First Kiss

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THE FIRST KISS

In the movie Hitch, Will Smith plays a dating coach named Hitch, who teaches guys how to win over the woman of their dreams. It’s a fun romantic comedy, and there’s a scene where Hitch is teaching Albert about the art of the first kiss. Hilarious clip here.

They talk about the 90-10 rule, where Hitch says, “The secret to a kiss is to go 90% of the way, and then hold… Hold for as long as it takes, for her to come the other 10.”

Hitch explains that most guys make the mistake of going all in, at 100%, while his technique makes the girl work for it. With his move, the guy should be so irresistible that the girl leans in at least 10% for the first kiss.

LIFE LESSON

I think of this scene as an analogy for life, except we are the ones receiving the kiss, and we have to go the 10%.

I think about this a lot because I feel like life is giving me all these signs. First of all I have to be observant about them – or be quiet / reflective enough to realize these signs. The signs can include: go talk to this person, or go to this event, or write / create a video about this topic. There’s all these things that I get hinted about. And I write them down, but sometimes I don’t have time to get to them. Or maybe I get too intimidated and don’t want to follow up on them. But then we don’t get the results we’re hoping for.

ENTREPRENEUR

I think the mistaken belief I had as a new author and new entrepreneur was that good things would just come to me automatically – at 100%. I believed that they would just land in my lap.

What I’ve realized over the last year is that we must take that 10% step to meet life halfway – or not even halfway. Life already brings good things into our life, but we still need to take initiative to grasp them and make them ours.

For example, life will plant a seed in my mind about a certain event to go to. It may be through the form of an email in my inbox about the event, or it may come up when talking to someone. Then my curiosity is piqued. Then it’s me to register for the event on time, and then to get dressed and show up to the event. Life / fate / God can’t magically transport me to the event. I have to put in the effort to get myself to the event. What ends up happening is I meet someone new or something positive happens, and I’m glad I went!

SELF-DOUBT HOLDS US BACK

What makes the process difficult is that sometimes we’re tired and we don’t want to take that step towards our goals, or sometimes we’re too overwhelmed by self-doubt. For scarier opportunities that require more visibility, we may feel like we’re not ready for them and we’d rather hide in the shadows than be seen.

So I think sometimes our mind will rationalize all these excuses and try to talk ourselves OUT of going.

COMMITTMENT

And I think that’s where commitment comes in. Being committed enough to our dreams and goals, means that we are willing to do whatever it takes to seize each opportunity as it comes.

Because unlike the first kiss strategy, “the guy” or “the opportunity” won’t always wait forever. Sometimes the opportunity is only available for a limited time window, and then disappears. And all you get left with is regret for not acting soon enough.

I feel the tides are turning. I’m realizing the signs that God has given me, and that it’s really my choice and responsibility to act on them. Some days, He will give me wonderful surprises all the way, but I think He wants me to work for it and to learn what’s really involved in building a successful business from the ground up. There’s a long road ahead and I’m going to need lots of bravery and guts.

I’m going to say it here, so I am publicly accountable: Regardless of my doubts and fears, I commit to leaning in to life. Hurrah!

Thanks for reading. XOXO

kat kuan

Is there a time in your life where an opportunity came up and you had to lean in to accept it?

OTHER ARTICLES

How to Stay Focused & Manage Your Time

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a procrastinator. I’m also super ambitious and have tons of things on my to do list. But it’s hard to gather the energy to do what I need to get done, especially for the more challenging tasks that I’m not sure how to do yet.

I’ve tried all sorts of routines and things to stay on top of my tasks. These are the tips that worked best for me.

1. SETTING A COUNTDOWN TIMER

I use the countdown timer in Google search on my computer. You can use a physical timer or one on your phone if you prefer. I set it to 30 minutes and then start working on a task – like writing this blogpost!

google countdown timer

That makes me feel like I have a short term deadline to get the task done, instead of feeling like I have all afternoon or an infinite amount of time. Otherwise the task will drag on and fill up the entire space that I allow for it.

If I start to feel antsy and want to do something like get up to get a snack or take a break, I’ll tell myself that I can do it after the 30 minutes are up. Hence it reduces distraction because the timer is running. Seeing the timer jolts me back to focus at the task at hand.

If the task takes longer than 30 minutes, then I can reset the timer, but then I’m conscious that now it’s taking me an hour. And so on, if I need more time. This is helpful rather than letting hours slip by unconsciously. If I reset it a couple times, then I realize I should hurry up because it’s taking longer than it should. Or maybe the task is too big and needs to be split up into parts that can be done in smaller time increments.

2. TRACKING TIME SPENT PER ACTIVITY

At the end of the workday, do you ever think, “Wow, where did the whole day go? I got nothing done!” Well, I’m sure you got something done, but maybe not the right priority item.

In any case, tracking what you did and for how long can bring you awareness of where your time is actually going. I use the Toggl website, which is a free tool. You can start/stop/pause the timer when you change activities. I’m not the best at remembering to always start the timer, but you can go back and add entries if needed.

toggl time tracker

I wish I could be better at tracking everything because Toggl has this cool aggregate report where they show you a breakdown of what you spent your time on for the week. As you can see, I got lazier with tracking as the week went on. It’s hard to remember to track things when I’m driving around and not sitting at my computer. In the column on the right, it also shows what you spent the most time on.

toggl dashboard

Anyhow, Toggl has a bunch more features like tracking multiple projects, tracking for a whole team, track billable hours worked for a client, etc…  There’s so many features, I haven’t dug into them much yet. I use the basic free plan. I don’t know if Toggl has a countdown timer, so I use it in conjunction with Google’s countdown timer.

3. PLAN AHEAD OF TIME

In the SELF journal I use, there are 30 minute time slots to schedule each day from 6am – 9pm. The 30 minute slots are really important than just a big old blank space for the whole day. I find the 30 minute time slots force me to be very specific and account for what I will do throughout the day, instead of hand waving approximately how I’ll spend my time.

self journal day planner

Hence I started planning my days the night before, trying to block out time for eating, gym, cooking, meetings, content creation, even accounting for driving time to get to places.

I definitely don’t follow the plan exactly, but sometimes I try to pencil in how long actual tasks took so that I can learn how much time to allocate for them next time.

One thing I learned is that my morning rarely goes as planned in the journal. -_- And that sleeping past my alarm makes me go off schedule as well. Ah well, tomorrow’s another chance to stick to the schedule!

CONCLUSION

Trial/error with these different techniques is the only way to figure out if they work for us or not. It often requires repeated attempts at the same technique to get it to work.

I’m still grappling with how to manage my time. Time is our greatest and most precious resource. So I hope that by all this planning, tracking, observing, and reflecting, I can get a more realistic view of how I spend my time and be more intentional about how I use it.

Alright, well checking the clock, I’m 10 minutes overtime already, so it’s time to wrap this baby up and go take a break! 😛

toggl timer

What techniques do you use for managing your time? Would love to hear what works for you!

 

Rebbl: A Drink to Fight Human Trafficking

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Something you may have seen at the grocery stores (like Sprouts and Whole Foods) is a brand of drinks called Rebbl.

rebbl drinks whole foods

I first learned about it about 2 years ago, when I first found out that there was human trafficking in the Bay Area. Yes I know, I was naïve because human trafficking (modern day slavery – forced labor, sexual exploitation, etc…) can happen anywhere. Even in the places we think we know so well. Even under our noses.

I started digging into it more and found this group called the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition that educates people and organizations on the issues and ways to fight trafficking in the San Francisco Bay Area.

bay area anti-trafficking coalitionSomehow after watching some videos on the BAATC website, I stumbled on this below talk by David Batstone. He was a venture capitalist, who discovered that his favorite SF restaurant was the center of a human trafficking ring that brought hundreds of teens from Bangalore into the restaurant for forced labor, and then onto other terrible situations. He started fundraising and started a nonprofit called Not For Sale to initially build a village in Thailand for young kids who had been rescued from trafficking.

He was persistent in deepening his understanding about the cycle of slavery. He kept wanting to go “upstream” to figure out the roots of slavery. He was able to fundraise money to support these children once they were freed from slavery, but he calls it “pulling bodies out of the water” in the sense that it was already after the trauma has happened. He wanted to come up with something more sustainable than a charity where he had to ask people for money over and over. He called it “opening his heart, but shutting off his brain.” He wanted to start using his brain to think about how he could come up with a sustainable business model to fight trafficking.

Hence he gathered a bunch of bright business leaders to come up with a business plan that would empower tribes in the Amazon rainforest. The goal was to create money and jobs for people in these areas, where there were rich natural resources but a lack of economic opportunities.

Rebbl was born. The business creates drinks with ingredients from places like the Amazon rainforest by engaging the local community and supply chain, connecting them to distributors abroad, and finally to the end consumers, including the Bay Area. I’ve tried a couple of their drinks like the Maca Mocha and Chocolate flavors and they’re pretty good!! It’s a great alternative to try at least once instead of a iced coffee drink from Starbucks. 😉

rebbl drinks trafficking rebbl drinks proceeds not for sale

They’re committed to creating a ethical business that has a strong bottom line and a strong positive impact on each person it touches along the product lifecycle. Learn more about Rebbl in the below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKxbwkghJD4

The Not For Sale organization has gone on to work on projects in other parts of the world to create self-sustaining businesses that empower the survivors of trafficking. It’s a fascinating idea on how we can fight trafficking by creating new economies and jobs for those who need it most.

Here are links to the organizations I mentioned: Rebbl, Not for Sale, BAATC.

Do you know any social impact organizations with for-profit models to sustain themselves?

Grace Over Grind

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Grace Over Grind is a fantastic book for entrepreneurs who are looking for a solution to the unending hustle and grind every day without rest. This is a Christian book, where the author Shae Bynes offers an alternative solution: to work and rest in God’s grace where you can accomplish infinitely more than you ever could on your own strengths and abilities.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR

I was looking for resources from Christian business owners because I was wrestling with how can I build a business while also serve God at the same time. They seemed to be two opposites – to optimize for revenue $$ OR to optimize for serving God. And all the resources I had listened to up until now, were for the former option.

HER PODCAST

I stumbled upon her podcast called Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur. I listened to a couple of episodes and loved the stories that were shared. They explain how doing business and serving God can be aligned together. Hence, I was curious to check out her book.

HER BOOK

Grace Over Grind is a quick read, it’s only ~ 150 pages, and I finished it within a couple days. The author emphasizes how important it is to do the exercises in the book, so that’s what took me the longest because I was taking time to reflect and write out my answers. There were questions like what are you grinding away so hard at? If you were to dream with God on your business, what would that look like?

AHA! MOMENTS

I realized that being an entrepreneur isn’t about working until your eyeballs fall out. Too often, we get scared, try to seize control of the situation and try to do it all through our own efforts. We get bogged down in our own frustrations of why things aren’t happening even though we’re putting in all this effort. But things happen on God’s time and if we can trust in that, we can turn over our stresses and worries to him. The author clarifies that resting doesn’t mean sitting on the couch and doing nothing. It means continuing to take action but with guidance from God. It’s about surrendering control, being willing to ask God for help, and going where he leads you because it’s ultimately for your best and for the world’s best.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Too many believers in business idolize hard work. They exalt hard work over the presence of God in business.”

“Some people refuse the favor that God has granted to them because they don’t feel worthy of it. Favor isn’t all about you and has nothing to do with your worthiness; it’s about the assignment God has placed on your life.”

“You will have peace in the midst of seeming chaos, and joy, in the midst of unfamiliar levels of hardship or criticism. […] Live within the grace of one day only. That’s how we experience the sufficiency of God’s grace.”

CONCLUSION

Honestly, I also feel like the book could be applicable to people who are in the workforce, who aren’t necessarily entrepreneurs. Living in Silicon Valley, I can literally feel how stressed out people are about their jobs or where their career is headed. The book talks about working intentionally in partnership with God and taking it one day at a time. It put my heart at ease, and if you read it, I hope it does for you too.

Grace Over Grind:
How Grace Will Take Your Business Where Grinding Can’t

I actually got this book for free by signing up for a free month trial with the Kindle Unlimited plan. It gives access to tons of other Kindle books and audiobooks. Let’s see what else I can get through this month!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.