EP 15. Developing A Pioneer Spirit

Sometimes we get so hung up on what we see other people building that when we are building the raw and primitive version of what we want to do, we end up quitting or giving up or being way too hard on ourselves and getting distracted because we see somebody else's grand vision, grand palace that they've built. While we're looking at a one man show of the simple thing that we're trying to walk out.

What I would describe as someone with a pioneering spirit or mentality is somebody who wants to do something new in a new space of something that has either never been done before or not in the way that you desire to produce it. So if that sounds kind of convoluted or not descriptive enough, let me break it down a little bit more.

If you see a particular gap in your community or in the world in general that you long to fill. Like, for instance, if you see that there's not a lot of books around one particular topic and you're like, I really want to write a book and speak to this space because there's not a lot of people talking about it or there's not a lot of people coming from the perspective that I want to bring.

Or there's maybe not a lot of women talking about this, and I want to bring a female perspective or whatever would be the definitive factor for you. But the point is that you see a gap. You see an area or terrain that is just not developed. And you want to go in and you want to bring something new and develop something new in that space.

So I hope that brings a little bit more clarity as we start this discussion. And if you're still like, Oh, what is she talking about? I want you to continue to listen in because it will get more clear as we dove in here. So the first thing that you need to think about from the perspective of a pioneering spirit or mentality is spotting a need or a gap, like I just mentioned, seeing a space where you feel like you have something to give.

You have ideas and thoughts and concepts that are swirling around in your brain and you're like, I feel like I could really speak to this space. I know for me in developing called Forth, I felt like there was a need and not a lot of voices being lent to issues that ambitious women of faith in their thirties and forties go through there.

I felt like there was a lot of people speaking in the space for a younger generation, women in their twenties and just starting out. But for the ambitious woman who is still coming up against a wall and she feels like she hasn't broke through and she feels like, gosh, shouldn't I have it figured out by now? Why is it that I keep coming up against a wall and I still can't figure out what I meant to do and what my purpose is?

Why am I still struggling and going around the same mound over and over again? I felt like there wasn't a lot of voices lent to that specific experience. So I developed called forth from the space of wanting to fill that gap. So maybe for you you can start to think about what is something that you've noticed is a need and you feel like you have a passion for it and interest in it and you have something to give in this space that is the place to start.

When you are thinking about How can I develop this pioneer spirit, this pioneer mentality, where I start something new and I step into a space that I feel like is underserved or undeveloped? The second thing to keep in mind is, do you have a passion for it? There's a million needs out there. There's a million gaps that you could fill.

But where is your specific passion? What are you passionate about? Because you're going to need that passion when you're walking this out and you're not getting the immediate results that you want and you're walking it out and you're coming against resistance. And it's not going to be easy. You're going to need that passion to lean into, and it needs to not be tied to an end result.

Meaning, just like I describe how your happiness can't be tied to an end result because you can't control the destination. You might see this need, you might want to fill it and you're going to work towards it, but you can't necessarily control whether you have a guaranteed outcome that you originally have in your mind for what it's supposed to look like.

In the end, you can hope for that. You can cast a vision for that, you can go for that. But in the end, you can't control whether or not it unfolds in the way that you want it to. So you need to untie your passion and untie your happiness from an end destination and know that if you have true passion for this area, even though there might be times along the way where you come discouraged and frustrated in the end, that gap and that need that you see in that drive, that you have to fill it, you still hold on to a passion for it, whether or not you have this quote unquote success at

the end of the day. And I'll kind of lay down another example of where I was starting to pursue something that my passion just didn't land with. I started off trying to do some business coaching, really more marketing coaching, because that's what I had a lot of training in and I did have interest in this area and I had a lot of experience in marketing.

But when it came down to it and I tried to start to develop coaching programs and courses and just content around marketing and specifically business marketing. I kept coming up against this wall because I would get so sick of talking about it. I might put out a piece here and there when my passion would move me, but when it came to creating consistent content and really building a business around teaching small businesses how to market themselves, I realized I don't really have a passion for that.

And the thing is, I am so glad that I started to walk that out because if I hadn't, I could have always looked back years later and wondered what would have happened if I had built this huge business around marketing. I might live with the thought that I missed the mark or I missed out, but because I decided to walk it out, I really began to refine and fine tune and realize this isn't really my thing.

So if you've had experiences where you've started to walk things out and they didn't go as you thought that they would and you realize you didn't really have a passion for it, I don't want you to look at that experience as wasted at all. Actually, it was a great guiding experience because then you realized, okay, this is at my zone of genius.

This is not my thing. I'm not as passionate about it as I thought I was. This is going to lead into my next point. Here is the willingness to step into undeveloped territory, because as you are willing to step into undeveloped territory, as I mentioned before, you're going to find out, do I truly have a passion for this?

Is this really the lane? And you will find out whether or not you need to pivot to the left or to the right. It's not like the marketing experience and training that I have doesn't serve me now. It serves me in all of the different capacities and roles that I fill, but it's just not really what I want to teach and how I ultimately want to serve my audience.

But you have to be willing to step out and see and find out and also know that just because you start off filling one gap doesn't mean that as you grow and mature and change and developing really get to know who yourself and what you're all about. But you won't still have the ability to pivot or shift as you realize that maybe your passion no longer lies here.

So many people start off in business and they have a specific idea in mind only to find out as things move along and they build their business that maybe the particular business that they started with isn't the business they want to retire with. It is a very normal thing. I mean, back in the day, our grandparents would get a job and they would stay in it for the duration of their lives.

Like that was the goal. Get a really good job, stay there, retire with a good pension and you did not see them leave that unless it was through an unfortunate circumstance. And now we are in a day and age where somebody might switch careers six or seven times and that's not a bad thing. You know, I have children who who are interested in multiple things.

And one thing I always used to tell my daughter, she's like, I don't know what how to decide on what I want to do. And I would say, honey, you can do all of those things in the course of your life. You don't have to only choose one thing, and that's the only thing that you have to do.

So sometimes we have to get out of our own head a little bit and realize you're allowed to pivot. What you start with doesn't mean that's the thing you have to stick with and stay with forever. And I'm not saying you should jump ship too early and always be bouncing back and forth because there is a reward for sticking something out and pursuing it and pushing past the resistance.

So for you, you just have to evaluate as you move through this pioneering territory. What is the Holy Spirit telling you? Is he telling you to stick it out and keep moving forward and you're just facing some resistance? Or is the leading and guiding that you just need to shift and your passions have been revealed and now, you know, you need to move on to something different.

That's only a question that you and I can answer in conversation together. But I will tell you, you're never going to get to that place until you're willing to step out into this territory that you are considering occupying. The next thing that you need to do, you need to cast a vision for where you want to go. And I want you to think about what it was like as a pioneer moving into an undeveloped territory.

They had to cast a vision for what that would look like. Now, naturally speaking, they're probably just trying to get there and get a house built. It was survival mode, but there was an element where they where they needed to cast some vision. Was it better to put that house on the top of the hill? Was it better to put their home near a water source?

They really had to think about the future and cast a vision for the space that they were going to occupy. And you need to do the same thing when you are considering building something new, doing something new, maybe for you you want to write a book or you want to start a business or create a service, or you want to start a nonprofit, whatever it is for you.

Cast vision for what you want that to look like. And it doesn't mean that the vision that you cast is going to look exactly to the t what you've dreamed up in your head, because oftentimes it can look vastly different or somewhat different than the vision you originally cast. But the point is you cast the vision to then be able to walk out what is needed to bring that to life, and you make adjustments along the way.

The next thing that you need to consider is that what you're spending time to build will not always yield a quick result. Meaning if you have in your mind this needs to unfold in six months, this needs to unfold in a year. All of these things need to happen by this specific time. You need to be prepared for your timeline, maybe not matching the reality of what happens.

And it doesn't mean that you don't set a timeline or there's not value in setting a timeline, but it's willing to have that flexibility to adjust and adapt to life as it happens and not to get so stuck in the timeline that you're not willing to revisit and redevelop the timeline if you don't meet those milestone deadlines that you have for yourself.

I mean, how many times do we set New Year's resolutions? At the beginning of the year and then July comes and we're nowhere near where we thought we'd be? Well, do you keep going down this timeline that, you know, six months in is not going to be now realistic? Or do you reevaluate the timeline and set different goals still connected to the timeline?

But now six months in, you really realize some of these other dynamics that maybe you didn't consider before, because we can set lofty expectations, but then be disappointed by the reality of life and and our ability to do as much as we want to. You know, there's a saying that says we overestimate what we can do in a short amount of time, and we underestimate what we can do in a long amount of time or an extended amount of time.

And this is very true. So I think reevaluating timelines is not a bad thing. It doesn't mean that you quit or you're a failure. It just means that you are going to see that success that you're going after because you're willing to adapt and adjust and keep moving forward. So to go back to the point I was really trying to hone in here and that is knowing that the time that you spend at the beginning of pioneering something new won't always mean that you get a quick result, but that's where your passion is going to come in, because you've identified that you truly, truly have passion for this, and it's going to help get you

through those times where you're working, you're grinding it out, you're trying, and the results just aren't there yet, at least not in the way that you would have hoped and wanted them to be. So a pioneer knows that you're not going to get the Taj Mahal in the first six months. You might get the stick built version, you might get the raw, the rugged, primitive version of what you're building.

And each day and week and month and year that you build, that Taj Mahal is coming closer and closer. But a pioneer knows not to let discouragement allow them to quit just because the vision feels so far away. Sometimes we get so hung up on what we see other people building that when we are building the raw and primitive version of what we want to do, we end up quitting or giving up or being way too hard on ourselves and getting distracted because we see somebody else's grand vision, grand palace that they've built.

While we're looking at a one man show of the simple thing that we're trying to walk out. So that's why it's so important that you remember, pioneers have perspective. Pioneer knows that to build a great city, you have to start with the first building. And the first building is not going to look anything like what the last building will look like.

Because when you're first starting out and you are a solopreneur, you're starting something out for the first time and you're a one man show. You're doing all of the things. It's going to feel like a slow build. But as you grow, as you develop, maybe as you over time develop a team, you're going to get to the phase in the space where you can execute much more quickly and much more effectively.

But if you get too caught up in comparing yourself to somebody else, you're not even going to get through the first build. And it's going to take even longer than it normally would have because you're too distracted on comparison. So leave distraction and comparison by the wayside. You don't have time for it. The next thing that I want you to do, and this isn't necessarily next in line in sequence, it's something that you need to be doing throughout.

But that is spending time in prayer, contending. I know my husband and I have a vision for a media production company and we are nowhere near the beginning phase of walking that out. We don't have the equipment, we don't have the finances, we don't have the team. We don't have the connections for the talent that we would need to attract in order to walk out a media production company.

But what I do have within my hands is the ability to pray and contend, meaning I speak life over that dream and that vision. I pray into that dream and that vision my husband and I both do. We confer back and forth. We develop what we can. I've identified how I want this media production company to be different than other production companies.

I have identified the gap that I feel like is in the market that this media production company can fill. I have cast vision like I'm doing all of these things that I am recommending that you do when you're trying to pioneer a new space. And one of those things is prayer and contending. And sometimes we get focused on the big flashy thing, the actual work and the things that everybody can see.

Like, for instance, when you're building a company in a building and building a brand, you want to get your website up and running. But if you're not doing the foundational work of what is my business all about, who am I really serving? You can have this big flashy website without the foundation of the business being really established and firm.

So prayer and development is a key part of a pioneer mentality. Prayer is that behind the scene work that nobody sees that might feel initially like it's not going anywhere. But I guarantee I guarantee you, the Bible says that I pray that the prayer of a righteous man avails much, and prayer is a key part of this pioneer spirit and pioneer mentality.

The other thing a pioneer knows is that when you start to build something, you attract other people into your fold. Sometimes you feel like or we feel like we need a team to get started. We need multiple people with us and on board with us to get started. But more often than not, you are pioneering something on your own to begin with.

Of course you have God with you. You're not completely alone. But as far as having a team, you often don't always have a group of people with you. You might have friends that cheer you on, but they're not necessarily involved in the day to day work that it's taking to pioneer this underdeveloped, undeveloped space that you're going after.

But I will tell you something, as you step out to build and grow and develop the area that you want to serve in, you will attract that team to you. I know for me, I serve in a girls youth mentorship program called Passport to Purpose, and my good friend Jody Out started this nonprofit organization, and I had seen photos of them having this really fun French mystery dinner one year.

And I'm like, What is this all about? This looks like so much fun. And I kind of let time pass and I didn't really look into it. And then I just started getting this stirring on my heart, like, Don, you need to start volunteering again, because I've always felt like it's an important part of our life to give back to our community and serve in some way.

And at the time, I was really busy with my children and I just, you know, I had stepped away from volunteering. I had volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center when we lived in Connecticut. I always volunteered with the church, always helped out with nursery youth group, all of the things. And then I just kind of went through this space in my life.

There was just a season where I stepped away from that and then I felt like God was stirring in my heart again to serve in some way. And so I started thinking about where is my passion and my interests lie? And then I actually gave a call to someone who works with youth and because I really kind of felt like I was meant to serve some way with youth, but it wasn't necessarily in the church's youth group anymore.

I knew there was just I was just considering some other options. And she said, you know, there's something called passport or purpose. And this lady Jody's out started it. Maybe you should give her a call. So I gave Jody a call and it was like, Hey, I was just interested. If you were taking volunteers. I volunteered off and on most of my life and I just feel like God's leading me to work with youth.

And I met with her and I found out their need at that time was social media. And actually, ironically enough, the night before I called her, I started to get some clarity and feel like maybe I'm supposed to do something in social media. And so when she told me that was their need that they had, we connected on that, and I became their social media marketer for the first year I was with them.

I then came on to become a mentor, but all of this came together as only God can make happen. And because she stepped out to build something, she attracted her team. Now, that's not to say that she hasn't asked people to come on board. And like everybody calls her and says, Can I be a part of this? Because there's not an element of where you don't still have to reach out and make connections.

But the point is, when you step out and what you want to pursue and do, and in your pioneering spirit, in your pioneering mentality, you do attract. Now, if you're somebody that says, well, I've started plenty of things and nobody's contacted me, I'm not saying that it always happens the way I just described with passport to purpose, but I think often you will find when people know that you are known for a space that you have been developing and occupying, you'll find that people come to you with questions about how to walk out certain things because they know that you're doing something.

They know that you're a mover and shaker and you're a pioneer, and you'll get contacted and asked questions. So whether you know it or not and whether you see it or not, your pioneering spirit will attract people. I hope this episode has encouraged and inspired and empowered you to develop a pioneering spirit. That's all we've got for this episode of the Called For Podcast.

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