Podcast Transcript: Episode 8

INTRO 

COURTNEY: Welcome to the Women & Work podcast, the show that inspires you to confidently step into your God-given calling & view your work as meaningful to the Kingdom of God. 

I’m Courtney Moore.

MISSIE: And I’m Missie Branch. We want to introduce you to women who through their own unique vocations are seeing what they do make an eternal difference.

COURTNEY: We pray these conversations will inspire you in your own calling to honor God, image Him to the world through your work, and leverage your potential for His glory. 

MISSIE: Thanks so much for joining us today.

SPONSORSHIP:

“Women & Work is grateful to partner with Elevate as the exclusive sponsor of this podcast and the entire Fall Podcast Season. Elevate equips and empowers families around the world by helping them create sustainable work through small businesses. 

Their leather products are beautiful and well-crafted. Please see the impact they are having and their products on their website at Elevatepeople.com! 

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Thank you, Elevate!

GUEST INTRODUCTION: 

MISSIE: Well, welcome to show! Today we have with us Kristin Schmucker. She is the founder and CEO of The Daily Grace company, which is a company that equips disciples in the word of God. She is also a wife and a mom who lives in Maryland and whose business is based out of there. We’re so excited to have you here.

KRISTIN: Thank you so much. So yeah. The bio was great there, my husband Jeremy and I have been married for about 12 years now. We live here in Maryland. We founded the Daily Grace company seven years ago, which is hard to believe, and live in Maryland now, but I grew up in Pennsylvania. My husband and I actually met in college in Florida, and then he went to seminary in Texas, so we’ve lived all over, but we’re here in the DC area, and we really love it.

COURTNEY:That’s great. Okay, so how long did you say you’ve been in the DC area?

KRISTIN: About two years.

COURTNEY: Okay, right. Okay, and so you grew up, you said in Pennsylvania, now, did you become a Christian when you were young, or did you grow up hearing the gospel, what was your kind of backstory with your salvation? 

KRISTIN: Yeah, I was raised in a Christian home, and I’m so grateful for that. I was in church really from the time I was about five years old, and I really understood the Gospel and became a believer when I was 11. Just really recognizing my personal need of a Savior, and more than just being a good girl and going to church like I had grown up, and so that’s really when the Lord transformed my life. And so just kind of through those high school college years is when I was becoming really grounded in my faith, and then early into adulthood that I really understood what discipleship was, what it meant to study the word of God and how God’s word intersects with our personal lives, and that was just kind of my journey of discipleship that kind of really transformed the course of my life.

MISSIE: Well, at the beginning of each one of our interviews, we like to do what we call rapid fire questions, and what we like to do is just ask you three questions, they’re kind of silly but we love to learn more about you and help our audience learn more. So I’m gonna get us started. The first one is: As a kid, what did you wanna be when you grew up?

KRISTIN: I was not one of those kids that had one thing that I wanted to be… I kind of… I was changing my mind all the time, but if there was one thing that was pretty consistent, it was that I wanted to be a lawyer. And so that did not happen, but that is kind of a… Even the way I like what I chose in college as a major… It was all about being a lawyer.

COURTNEY:: Okay, so what did you major in in college?

KRISTIN:: I was actually a history major, but the reason for that was I wanted to focus on the law so that I could be a constitutional lawyer, but like I said that we didn’t follow that path.

MISSIE: I wanted to be a lawyer too.

KRISTIN:: I love it!

COURTNEY:: Very cool. I never wanted to be a lawyer [laughter] I’m glad you guys did. So what was your first job?

KRISTIN: My first job was working at Hollywood video, which is funny because those don’t even exist anymore, or if you don’t know what that is, you’re too young for that, it’s kind of like a block buster. So I worked at the cash register, people would come in and rent DVDs or VHS tapes. Takin us back there- it was actually a lot of fun!

COURTNEY:: Okay, do you know what’s hilarious is that when I was in high school, I interviewed for a job at the Movie Gallery, the same exact thing. Yeah, but do you know what? They didn’t hire me.

KRISTIN: Oh no. What were they thinking? !

COURTNEY:: I have no idea. I did not get the job at the movie gallery, so I don’t know. I was 16 and had a car-I think that’s the major qualification- if you can get there, but no, they passed me over, so… I’m glad you did it. You did it, girl.

KRISTIN: I lived a dream.

COURTNEY:: You did.

MISSIE: Last question what kind of work do you want to be doing when you’re 80 years old?

KRISTIN: I want to be working at The Daily Grace co. I love what I do, I love the work that we do equipping believers, and I truly can’t imagine anything being more satisfying and fulfilling than what I’m doing right now.

COURTNEY:: That’s amazing. Okay. Well, we wanna hear more about The Daily Grace Co. Okay, you said it started seven years ago, but just for people who are just… They’re listening to our podcast, maybe somehow they’ve missed you, and this company, tell us just kind of what type of products are you selling, what are you got… How are you equipping disciples in general sense?

KRISTIN: Yeah, so The Daily Grace Co exists to equip disciples to know and love God and His word by creating beautiful, theologically rich, and accessible resources so that God may be glorified and the Gospel made known. And so our company began around our kitchen table in a tiny apartment in seminary housing when my husband was in seminary, and it was really just our desire to share the hope of the Gospel and the beauty and comfort that we had personally found in God’s word with those around us. So we began with one small devotional and an etsy shop, and my husband and I were packaging orders with our shipping label printer literally propped up on top of our stove because we had no counter space in this tiny apartment. And so we just popped it up on the stove, made sure the stove was off and then now, 7 years later, the Lord has just continued to grow our company. He’s just used the resources that our team has created to encourage and equip disciples around the world, which we are just so grateful and humbled by. We currently have about 50 team members, we have two warehouses here in Maryland, we have an online shop, a podcast, an app, a blog, lots more things, and this year we are on track to ship about one million Bible studies around the world.

COURTNEY: Unbelievable, Kristin.

KRISTIN: We are so grateful.

MISSIE A lot of people would look at this success and they don’t see the seminary housing, the stove top, they don’t see the hard days, and they assume that it was an easy overnight sensation, but how… That’s usually not how God grows ministry. He almost never does it that way. So will you share what was the genesis… What was the birth of this incredible ministry that you have?

KRISTIN: Yeah, so the desire to equip disciples was really birthed out of the loss of our daughter. Sophia was still born when I was 37 weeks pregnant, and it was just through that loss that the Lord taught us so much about himself, about our need for the church, about our need for his word, and really about the comfort and hope that we find in Word of God as believers. And so it was really… It was during that incredibly difficult season that my husband Jeremy just encouraged me to think about what we were facing and this kind of life-altering event that we just were not anticipating, and how God could use that suffering to bring glory to Himself and how He might use our lives to play a small part in that. I had kind of through this process, really just begun sharing on Instagram and social media what God was teaching me just about His character and His faithfulness in those days after lost our daughter. And so our first devotional in that little etsy shop was really taken directly from the pages of my journal as I studied God’s word in those weeks after we had lost Sophia. And so we put it into this small booklet, and we launched it in this etsy shop and I think we were expecting like, Okay, our moms are going to buy this, maybe a few close friends, and that was about it- and we sold hundreds of copies in that first week. We were just kind of blown away, ’cause again, we’re shipping from our kitchen table and our stove. And we were just blown away. And really the last seven years have just been one more step of faith and step of obedience, and one more resource that we’ve worked to provide and just continue to add team members. Obviously, it was just the two of us when we started, and now we have this team of over 50 people. So it’s just been one step after the next, but really it started with so much suffering, and I think that’s just a testament to how the Lord works, like you said, Missie, that He uses sometimes the hardest thing to bring about blessings that we could have never imagined. I don’t think I would have ever even dreamed of The Daily Grace Co years ago.

MISSIE: It’s just like him to take something so tragic and yet really transform our entire lives, and then see him get glory from it. Isn’t it crazy? Amazing.

COURTNEY: Well, and I keep thinking too how that sorrow and death… Now, you look at, there’s so much life about a life with these disciples, and it’s just the redemption he brings is, no, none of us wanna walk through those things, but I think it’s so hope-filled to think of what He can do through those things, and so we’re grateful that you guys decided in those hard moments to turn back to the Lord, all you could do, I’m sure. But thank God that he gave you the grace to do that and then birth this ministry out of it. It’s amazing. So before you even sent out those first studies from your journal from the Etsy shop, I’m sure you had in your mind, Okay, my husband’s in seminary, he’s gonna be doing… I’m sure you guys had some kind of idea of what type of ministry He would be in- what were you thinking about yourself before all of this began? Did you think, Okay, I’m gonna be just a wife and mom, this is how I’m gonna pour my life into this… Go back to those days and share.

KRISTIN: It’s so interesting to think back because there’s not a ton of job opportunities out there for a woman with seminary degree, I’ll throw that one out there, and I don’t think that it was on my radar to start something like The Daily Grace company. I wasn’t really sure what the next steps would be. At that time, obviously were preparing to have her second child, I was a wedding photographer at the time, so I think that entrepreneurial bug was kind of rooted deep. And I do remember when I was in college, so even before seminary, being in college and a friend doing a Beth Moore Bible study with a friend. And I had really never been exposed to a woman teaching the Bible before. And so this was my first experience with that. And I remember telling Jeremy- we weren’t even married at the time we were still dating- saying, if I can have a dream job, and in that time, it really was just a dream job, it wasn’t something I was gonna go pursue. I said, I would love to teach women in the Bible. And it’s so funny because years later, after we lost Sophia, he was the one that reminded me of that dream, and said- remember in college when you said that? And now the Lord is opening doors for you to teach women and really to show what God has done in your life, and just describe the hope that comes even in the darkest suffering. And it was that reminder of that dream from him that really propelled me to literally pick up a pen and a piece of paper and just start writing as I was studying scripture.

MISSIE: Wow. Gosh, wow, that’s really… That’s beautiful. Well, it sounds like you’re just naturally gifted, ’cause you were a wedding photographer, you have a entrepreneurial bug, you’re writing Bible studies- you even had dreams of teaching women. What are some of your unique gifts and skills and what are the things that you love to do and that you would even think, this is something that could be a business?

KRISTIN: So obviously the initial passion that I had that the Lord gave was just to show believers the beauty of the Gospel and point them to scripture, and that was something that I loved so much and that I still do. That passion for our mission is truly still what gets me up out of bed every morning ready to lead our team. But I think that the Lord also sometimes shows us some of those unique skills, talents or passions that we didn’t even know that we had. And so for me, one of those was leadership. I had never really thought much about leadership, but now, I love leading our team of men and women in our mission. And so if you meet the members of our team, you would know that the mission of The Daily Grace CO is their life mission for each person on this team, and it’s a joy for me to be able to lead them in that. But I say that saying that as our company began to grow pretty rapidly, we started out very small, we kind of grew study at the beginning, and then we started to grow up quickly. I distinctly remember, this is not a joke, Googling how to be a CEO, because I did not feel equipped to lead this team that now I am leading. And so I think it’s just the way the Lord works sometimes, that now it is just one of my biggest passions, and I didn’t even know that that was something that he was developing in me already and giving me a passion for, and now it’s truly one of my favorite parts of my job.

COURTNEY:: That’s so fascinating, I think you’re exactly right, is that the Lord put us where we feel ill-equipped and we just have to depend upon him, but let me ask you this, besides Google, which is literally a help and YouTube, I’ll throw in YouTube. How did you… Besides trial and error as well, were there some books that stand out in your mind that helped you become a better leader as a woman, because I think there are so many… I mean, I hear you say that, and even myself, I think the same thing, I wasn’t trained in how to be a leader as a woman in the Church, and so just if there’s anything that just kind of stands off the top of your head like, Oh, that was a really helpful tool to help kind of grow those muscles.

KRISTIN: Now, when it comes to leadership, there’s a book from Michael Hyatt called The Vision Driven Leader, and that is one of my favorites. I think it’s just so helpful in thinking through why you do what you do, how you meet people and help them not to just… As a leader, our goal is not for people to do what we say, it’s for them to believe in what we believe in. I think that book was really helpful for me in that… Patrick Lencioni has a ton of books. I love his book The Advantage- So, so good. And there’s just… There are so many resources out there. For me, I don’t think I knew all those resources existed until I started digging into one or two, and then the next thing you know, your reading list is like 100 books long. So those are two that jump to top of mind.

COURTNEY:: That’s great. Well, kind of going back to, Okay, so you majored in history to become a lawyer, and then the Lord plants this ministry, births this ministry out of you, and now you’re using these leadership skills, you’re in business. You’re running a business, right? So I’m sure you didn’t start out thinking, Okay, as a Christian, Here is how I’m gonna run a business, here are some must-haves, right, but no doubt, over the last seven years you… The Lord has taught you, and you guys, even you and your husband as you work through how to do this, are there some kind of must-have foundational truths for yourself and for other women, as you think about not just providing Biblical content, but running your business in a Christ-like way is kind of what I’m getting at. What are those things you would say, This makes us distinctly Christian in our operations.

KRISTIN: Yes, I love that question. And so I would say that the big principle that we try to run our business with and also to instill in our entire team is that we work so that God may be glorified. And so I mentioned earlier, our company’s mission statement, and I’ll repeat it again, it says The Daily Grace co exists to equip disciples to know and love God and His word by creating beautiful, theologically rich, and accessible resources so that God may be glorified and the gospel made known. And I would say that the glory of God is the lens through which we have to view our business, and so everything that we do has to be done in order to accomplish that end goal. So whether that is our content team who are busy writing Bible studies or recording podcast episodes, or design team, they’re busy designing these beautiful resources, or our marketing team, sharing on social media or even our warehouse team who are shipping hundreds of thousands of packages. We work for God’s glory, we work to accomplish that end mission of equipping disciples. And I once read a story about NASA, and when they were seeking to put a man on the moon, if someone was interviewing employees, and they interviewed a custodian at NASA and they asked him what his job was, and he did not say that his job was to be a custodian. He said that his job was to put a man on the moon. And I have told that story to our team so many times because that is how I want us to view what we do. Ultimately, our job is to glorify God and equip disciples, and so that is going to look different for every member of our team. For some of them it is looking at financial spreadsheets with passion because we believe in the mission of our company, or answering customer service emails with joy, because we know that’s part of our mission, or going to meetings and pursuing productivity for God’s glory. I think it could be easy to think that because our resources are Christian, that it kinda makes it easier to be a distinctly Christian business in our operations, but I think really those principles of working for God’s glory translate to any aspect of business, any aspect of work.

COURTNEY: And I feel like too, I’m just looking at your core values, going above and beyond, I mean, that’s just screams like we’re doing this for God’s glory. Better Together, just the passion and aspect of IT; innovation, missional, efficient, adaptable, all of those things I feel like too, or just really baked into that foundation of like, Yes, this is all for him and make him look good no matter what aspect.

KRISTIN: Yes, yeah. And so when we talk about our core values, we talk about missional being kind of this Cornerstone core value, which is exactly what I think you’re seeing there. Its- we go above and beyond because we believe in our mission, we are passionate because this mission is our life mission, not just the work that we do. And so, yeah, really all of those things are about the mission of glorifying God and I think they could apply to whatever work you’re doing.

COURTNEY: I think you’re right.

MISSIE: Now, I’m just curious, when you started this business, it’s you and your husband and you’re in charge of everything, you are shipping, you are writing, you are thinking, you are dreaming visionary, but as the business grows and you have more and more people, your hands become less and less involved in the minutia of everything. As a leader though, was that an easy transition for you or did you find that hard to begin to let pieces go?

KRISTIN: It was a little bit difficult at times, and I still love knowing what’s going on in all the departments, but I will say that really for us, the key has been, if you have the right people on your team, you can trust to delegate things. We have a phenomenal leadership team, and I know that I don’t have to micro-manage them or check every little thing that they’re doing, because I know that they are passionate about our mission, and they are committed to our mission, our core values, and that they are going to get it done. And so I would say having the right people is really just such the biggest key factor in making that, being able to let go a little bit and delegate some of those things so much easier.

MISSIE: That’s awesome. Well, I know being a CEO, you also probably have to be pretty organized, and I believe that we read that you enjoy planning and being organized. I follow these people I follow like Planner companies and things like… So what are some of your favorite digital tools and paper planners and different things like that, how do you organize your life and your day as a CEO?

KRISTIN: So I love all things organization, productivity and efficiency, I just love those things. So when it comes to digital tools, we use first like the G-Suite or Gmail, Google Drive for calendar, we love those for the collaborative effect of them that our entire team can use them, we can be working on the same spreadsheets, the same documents, and it makes it super simple. We also love connecting with our team through Slack, that is just so much fun, and so… Yeah, it’s the best. And then we love the software click-up, which is an amazing project management tool, so that kinda keeps our whole team on the same page as far as projects that are coming out, because a lot of times our projects are moving through several departments before they’re ready to launch. Paper tools that I love, I love the full focus planner. I know I mentioned one of Michael Hyatt’s books earlier. Our team right now is reading his book Free to Focus, we love doing like a team Book Club. We’re reading fun, productivity work-related books, which is really fun, and then I also love power sheets from Cultivate what matters, they’re a helpful tool that our team to keep track of quarterly goals. So those are some of my favorite things. One of the tools that’s been really helpful for me in kind of keeping things organized is planning out the ideal week. And so I will say that this does not always happen the way that I’ve planned, but usually quarterly, I’ll try to take a look at my week and I do it quarterly because it really does change from month to month- and think through standing meetings that I have, different events or maybe ministry things that I need to put into my schedule, and I just block it out in a Google calendar. And that has… I block off time for different aspects of my job, and then I even share this with my executive assistant that way she can know when to schedule meetings, when I’m free. It really helps me to be more disciplined in my work, to make sure that I am doing the things that are really helpful in leading our team. It’s so easy to get bogged down as a leader, kind of in all the little things, all the emails all about, like putting out the little fires- and never take time to think big picture about the vision of the company. And so I just block out some time each week to do that. For instance, one of my favorite little productivity tips is that studies show that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week for over 90% of people, and this is definitely true for me. So one of the things I do is I block off Tuesdays, and I don’t have any meetings on Tuesdays so that I can accomplish my to-do list. So Monday’s meeting Monday, I usually have six to eight meetings all day stacked up on top of each other, and what happens is then I have a bunch of to-dos, and if I’m in more meetings on Tuesday, it’s just… They never get done. So I block of Tuesdays, I work through my to-do list and it’s super helpful. And then Friday mornings, I always block off for vision, big picture planning, dreaming up new resources, because that’s something that’s easy for me to just kinda shove out of my schedule because other things came up. So I love just thinking about practical ways to kind of block out my week and make sure that the most important things are always getting done.

MISSIE: That’s wonderful. Do you even schedule breaks, or devotion time, or workouts and things like that?

KRISTIN: Yes. So I schedule, all of those things right into my calendar and give them time blocks and make them to do lists. So it’s like this time that’s my workout is right there in the calendar, makes me do it. So.

COURTNEY: Kristin, let me ask you this, what is your Enneagram number? Are You into the Enneagram?

KRISTIN: I’m a one, but I also score very high as three… I would say I’m one, but the productivity side, I think that’s a little bit of my three coming out.

COURTNEY: Because I hear you, and it’s very inspiring to me, and I think could I do it? Even if I block the calendar, could I stick to the calendar, you know, I don’t know, I want to.

KRISTIN: And I’ll say this that I don’t always stick to the calendar because life happens, sure. But it’s helpful in having the calendar blocked that way, because then I have a place to look back on and say… Right. Okay, this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now.

COURTNEY: Well, and I feel like too, even when I take the time to think through exactly what you’ve done and just create goals for myself like that, I’m so much more productive rather than, Okay, I’m gonna get up and of course, you probably have your own… If you have kids in the home, there’s a morning routine you’re doing with your children every single day anyway, so you’re doing that regardless. But if I have those certain things where I know like, no, this has to get done this week, you’re gonna do it… If you have been intentional to go ahead and think through those things, so… That’s great, that’s really good. Wow. Do you also schedule… I feel like we’re talking so much about your work, but you also have a home life, do you schedule… Are you adding in kid stuff to the work… I’m sure. Are your kids all in school in person right now, or what are the ages of your kids? ’cause you’ve got five kids at home. We’re not talking…

KRISTIN:Yeah we’ve got a whole bunch. Yeah, yeah, I do schedule breaks. I work a pretty typical workday schedule during the week. There are definitely seasons where hours can be a little longer depending on what’s going on, I do really try to set aside weekends, just be with a family to rest, to be able to be in church and just spend time outside with the kids and that kind of thing, but there are definitely times of year where work happens on a Saturday, it just happens, and we try to be flexible with that as long as it’s not… The majority of the time. I definitely do struggle sometimes to put work down, and I think that’s especially true because I love what I do, I really really do. So planning things that kinda get me out of the office and doing things with my husband and kids- it’s just helpful. And just even planning to have time to rest and read a book and go for a walk, and trying to prioritize sleep. One big kind of adjustment my husband and I have made recently is we do not allow our cell phones in our bedroom because I could be on my phone, answering emails and slack messages until two minutes before I go to sleep. So we put our phone to plug them in downstairs, and we go upstairs to bed to relax and we don’t have that added distraction. So I think sometimes just thinking through some of those little things like setting work aside or leaving your cell phone downstairs can be very, very helpful.

So we do have five kids, they are not in person school right now due to covid, and our schools haven’t fully opened up yet, but we are hoping in the fall that everything should be hopefully back to normal, and then they’ll be in public school then.

MISSIE: Okay, so this is interesting. So you are CEO of this ministry, this business, this company, and you work alongside your husband, so as I’m listening to you talk about how you’re balancing out work and home, but you work with your husband- he’s the CFO of this company. So how do you guys maintain this, how do you maintain the work relationship and the home relationship, but then how has it been just working with your husband everyday?

KRISTIN: Yeah, so we love working together, we truly do, and I know it, that is not for every couple, so I totally get that. But we really operate as amazing partners, both in work and at home, and we value each other’s input and just have this foundation of communication and teamwork that really makes things go as smoothly as possible with a growing business, five kids, ministry, all the things. We really do love it.

MISSIE: I love that.

COURTNEY:: That’s awesome. So is it difficult at all for… I’m thinking if you’re the CEO and you’re kind of in charge at work, right, and then you come home and he’s leading your home, is it difficult at all for you to transition that shift, or are you guys like, No, we’re just so… On target here?

KRISTIN: Yeah, I think we’ve never really had a huge struggle there, I think we just have this vision of partnership and work and home that has made that pretty smooth and just easy transition for us, so… Thankfully, that’s never really been a struggle.

COURTNEY:: That’s great, awesome. So you have three biological children in the home too, that you adopted from Costa Rica, which is so fun to me because I lived in Costa Rica for two years as part of the Journeyman program for the International Mission Board. It was years ago, so I loved reading that about you, that you… And you guys went down there. How long were you there when you adopted your children?

KRISTIN: About two months that we stayed in Costa Rica.

COURTNEY: Were you in the city? Were you in San Jose or where…

KRISTIN: We were mostly in San Jose and then we kind of stayed in an Airbnb right outside the city.

COURTNEY:: Okay, we’ll have to talk about after we air like what, if you were able to go to any beaches or… Oh yeah, I have some beautiful spots down that the Lord made for us to enjoy. Okay, so how did it come about that you guys decided, Wow, we’ve got this ministry, we’ve got the already these three lovely children at home, let’s bring two more in from Costa Rica! How did the talk come about and… Just talk about that a little bit.

KRISTIN:: Yeah, so we really have thought about adoption for years, really since the beginning of our marriage, and I think that was just the call of the Book of James- that true religion is caring for orphans and widows, and that does not always mean adoption for everyone, so I wanna make sure to say that. But for us, we felt like God was calling us to adopt, and so we just decided to begin the process, and it kind of just… We began, and the Lord let us to use Lifeline Children Services based out of Birmingham, and we used them, and then we just began the process and we have been really grateful. Adoption is something that stretches us but we’ve just been so grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness and leading.

COURTNEY:: And so your children did not speak English right off the bat and you guys do not speak Spanish, right?

KRISTIN: We do not -very, very minimal.

COURTNEY: How did that happen?

KRISTIN: Yeah, we had enough Spanish while we were in Costa Rica to kind of get by. Like I said, we lived there for about eight weeks, so we had to get to the grocery store and do all of those things, but the kids picked up on English so quickly. And we’re really grateful for that. They learn pretty quickly.

COURTNEY: So continuing with the mom aspect of your life, Kristin, so I’m thinking of the summer months or even now with them in person, or not in person, sorry- at home, doing school, how are you… I mean, you must have some help, I’m just thinking, how are you making it work to fulfill all your work duties and then obviously be faithful to spend time and love them and take care of them. I know everybody’s different, so there’s no one answer for this, we could talk to 20 women and there would be 20 different answers, but are there some ways that you found like, Oh, we found… This was super helpful.

KRISTIN: Yeah, I think the big thing has probably been being really flexible, especially with covid, it’s been crazy that things are… Have they not always gone according to plan, especially in this past year, the way we’ve thought things were going to go, they often didn’t, or schooling plans or child care plans, things just don’t always happen the way you think they’re going to happen. So for us, really just being flexible and pretty regularly evaluating what is our plan, communicating- Jeremy and I, my husband communicating like what’s working, what’s not working, is there something that we can change? And really over the past year since we’ve adopted and we kind of got home from Costa Rica about three weeks before covid locked down, so it was a crazy transition, but we’ve just evaluated and our plans have changed. We started kinda… We would split the day, so I would work these early mornings and he would be with the kids, and then he would work afternoons and I would be with the kids. Then we kind of divided and conquered. It was like… He had a couple of kids, I had a couple of kids, so we’ve tried all different things, and I think just that the aspect of being flexible has been really important for us, and making sure that we are just meeting each other’s needs and making sure that what we need to accomplish is being done, and no one’s too overwhelmed though we might all be a little overwhelmed at times. But just trying to help each other as best as we can.

COURTNEY: wow… That’s great, that’s helpful.

MISSIE: So… Well, we read that You’re an avid reader. Yes. So first, I wanna know where you get the time… Do you put that on your calendar? That’s the first one. Yeah and I too am an avid reader so I would love to know how many books you read a year and whether you do Audible and things like that.

COURTNEY: Do you set goals for how many books you wanna read?

KRISTIN: Yes, I do set goals for how many books I wanna read. So I typically read, I would say between 70 and 100 books a year, and I do put it on my calendar. It’s not the only time I read, but I usually just try to block off a half hour in my work day, usually to read some sort of business-related book. Like I said, we usually are reading something as a team, I’m usually reading something with our leadership team, and then I read a lot at night after I put the kids to bed. I try to do more reading than TV, though, hey, sometimes you just need a break. Then I tend to read- most of my reading is probably on the weekends when I am trying to kind of block off… Just some time to rest and relax. So I’ll do that and Yeah, I really, I love reading. I think it’s helped me in so many areas of life just to grow and be able to learn new things and all those things, so.

COURTNEY: That’s a… Sure, I’m thinking… I feel like I would read more if I didn’t have my phone next to me, you know, you talked about leaving your phone downstairs at night, do you really discipline yourself… I know a lot of people can put a timer on their app after you’ve looked at this app for such and such time, it won’t allow you to use that for the rest of the day. Is that a struggle for you at all, or… How are you thinking about that?

KRISTIN: Yeah, I don’t use any of those screen time apps necessarily, but I do think that leaving the phone downstairs has been a big help, obviously, a lot of what we do… We have a lot of social media marketing and things like that, so I tend to be on social media a lot, but when it’s during the day, it’s distinctly work-related. So that’s where leaving the phone downstairs stops me from the endless scroll at night and helps me to be like, Okay, let’s have a conversation or pick up a book, or do you… Something other than just scroll… And again, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely times where I’m like, Okay, I need a break, I’m just gonna scroll for a little while and see beautiful pictures on Instagram.

COURTNEY: I understand. Well, for women who are listening who they… Maybe they wanna be an entrepreneur, maybe they have dreams of running a business, maybe that’s really their wiring and their giftedness, what advice or warning or encouragement would you give to those women specifically? You’re seven years in now… No doubt you’ve learned so much along the way. Are there things you would warn them of or encourage them with?

KRISTIN: Yeah, like I said, I really, I love being an entrepreneur, I think there’s something fun and exciting about it, but I would say that it’s really important for your identity not to be wrapped up in your accomplishments. And it’s easy for us to kind of get this like I need to do these things and to put our identity and our hope in that. Ultimately those might be great things, but ultimately our identity and our hope has to be in Christ. And so I think that would be my biggest maybe warning to someone that has that kind of entrepreneurial spirit, which I love and I think it’s great and I will cheer you on while you do it, and just remind you to not get so lost in the things that you do that you forget who you are in Christ, which is just so much more foundational than your accomplishments. 

MISSIE: So thinking that way, what would you say has been one of your greatest joys in ministry?

KRISTIN:I know I mentioned earlier about just leading our team, and that is definitely just one of the biggest highlights of what I do, but I think the one other thing that I would say is hearing from our customers is just something that never gets old. So in our team meetings, we always have a section when we just read some of the mail, the comments, the messages, the emails that we’ve gotten from customers, and so many of them are just so great to hear about. Women that maybe grew up in church and had never studied scripture on their own, and now using our resources, they’re studying the Bible! I would say that the one message that we get on a pretty regular basis that just never, ever, ever gets old is just hearing about women who for some reason, the Lord brought our resources across their path and they were not believers, and then the Lord used our resources to just show them what the Gospel was. And so that just- usually our whole team is kind of a bucket of tears, seeing, hearing about those things and it just… It’s such a joy to hear how the Lord so sovereignly and providentially somehow gets those resources into the kinds of people who had never even don’t even know much about Christianity or the Bible. And they just kind of a scroll Instagram and see, Oh wow, that’s a really pretty book, I think I’ll buy it, and we’re just kind of like What? The Lord did that, and it’s so amazing to see and just, it’s a joy.

COURTNEY: Speaking of beautiful products and such, what is your favorite product that you sell or that you use all the time in your own life where you’re like, Oh my goodness, I’m so thankful for this?

KRISTIN: Oh wow. That’s a great one. So we have a set of journals that- they’re called the story of redemption journals, and it’s basically a set of four journals that has journaling space for every chapter in the entire Bible, and I love it ’cause they’re just beautiful and kind of like this heirloom item but I use them personally. I’m using them right now in my personal devotional time, and it’s so neat and I can’t wait till I finish the set, ’cause I feel like it’s gonna be such a neat heirloom to pass down to my kids and be like, Here is everything have written on every chapter of the Bible. And then I would say another thing would be just thinking about some of our Bible studies, a study that I wrote called Even If, which is a study of the book of Habbakuk that really just talks about God’s grace and guidance and sovereignty, even when the worst possible thing happens. I just look at my own life and the Book of Habakkuk has been such a comfort to me, that even if the worst thing happens, which for me, I look back and I think that’s how I felt when we lost our daughter, like This is the worst possible thing that I could experience. And now I see his goodness and I see his grace and sovereignty and mercy that so undeserved, and I just kind of left in awe at His goodness and His faithfulness to us. So that one personally just kind of holds a really special place in my heart, just because of that message of God’s faithfulness.

COURTNEY: That’s great, that’s right. Well, we’ll have to… In our show notes, we’ll make sure we’ll obviously include a link to the Daily Grace co, but we’ll put a special link to those things that you just mentioned, so women can find that easily. Alright, well, Missie as we close, we’re gonna go ahead and wrap up, Kristin, as we close, is there one piece of advice that you would leave with women who wanna honor God through their vocational calling, just women in general, not just entrepreneurs, but…

KRISTIN: Yeah, I would just say- in everything that you do work for the glory of God. There are going to be days when you lose that focus, and so just remind yourself the reason that you’re doing the work that he has called you to do is for His glory. Preach that truth to yourself on a regular basis, and he’ll be faithful to remind you of it.

MISSIE: Kristin I feel like I’ve learned so much. I’m so excited to pull out my planner and start doing all of the things you do.

COURTNEY: Well, also go to Kristin’s stories because you have a highlight, right. Kind of… What is it? All of your planning, how you plan a check her out, we’ll include that as well. We’ll put that link to your Instagram on there. 

MISSIE: So thank you so much for spending time with us today!

Kristin: Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

COURTNEY:: Absolutely, yeah, we’ve loved it, and I feel like Missie- I’ve learned a lot, been inspired, I just feel like I’m walking away from the conversation feeling like be more intentional with just my time, and just to think through, we only get the same 24 hours in a day, and we really do want it to count for the Lord, I was just reading, this is more than I believe about our lives are just a vapor, and we’re here today, we’re going tomorrow, and we really do want it all to count for the glory of the Lord. So being intentional is a huge part of it. Well, thank you so much.

KRISTIN: Thank you!

CONCLUSION

MISSIE: And thanks to our listeners for joining us today. Be sure to check out our website at women work.net for today’s show notes. There will be more information about today’s conversation there.

COURTNEY: While you’re there, take a look at the Women and Work podcast discussion questions. We’ve provided those so that you can lead your friends from work, your neighborhood, or your church into useful conversations that will encourage you as you take  *your* next step of faith into your calling. 

MISSIE: If you enjoyed today’s show and don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe in Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We’d also love for you to take a minute to rate and review our show so more listeners can find us.  

COURTNEY: And with that, we hope you’ve been inspired to more confidently step into your God-given calling and view your work as meaningful to the Kingdom of God. 

See you next time!