This is Sword and Savvy, a video-chat style interview show, like grabbing a virtual coffee with a Christian business mentor. Guests are established Christian entrepreneurs who talk about how their faith impacts their business and how their business impacts their faith. Click to learn more, including how to become a guest.

In this episode…

  • How to recognize what God is blessing (4:21)
  • Taking immediate action on ideas (13:52)
  • Marketing and selling as a Christian business owner (21:33)
  • Working for free and giving ideas away (32:41)
  • One practice to increase your ability to hear from God (51:52)

Guest Bio:

Ray Edwards is a world-renowned copywriter and community communication strategist writing for some of the most powerful voices in leadership and business, including New York Times best selling authors, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, the authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Tony Robbins. Ray’s a sought-after speaker and author, host of a popular weekly podcast, and blogs at RayEdwards.com.

Check out Ray’s site (RayEdwards.com), where you can get his current free offers, podcast episodes, and social links.

💬 LEAVE A COMMENT – who do you want to see next? What did you learn? What would *you* have asked Ray?

Bible Verses, Links, and Quoted Sayings:

• John 5:19 “Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.'”
• Matthew 10:16 “‘I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.'”
• The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Quoted: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” (quote by Dwight D Eisenhower)
• Quoted: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” (quote by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder)
• 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
• Isaiah 48:17 “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.'”
• Deuteronomy 8:18 “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
• Proverbs 25:28 “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.”
• Luke 10:7 “Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”
• Proverbs 11:26 “People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.”
• Story of the rich young ruler (Ray referenced Luke’s version): Luke 18:18-30, Mark 10:17-27, Matthew 19:16-22
• Ray’s site: RayEdwards.com, where you can get his current free offers, podcast episodes, and social links

Quotes from this Episode:

“I just have a no regrets policy. I have a core belief that life happens for us and not to us. […] I believe everything in our life happens for a purpose. Sometimes it’s a bad purpose. I think there’s two forces at work in our lives. There’s the good force and the bad force, and the good force will always win in the end, but sometimes we’re under the influence of the other side, but even that is I think the universe is built and constructed and directed in such a way that it all bends toward our favor no matter what happens to us.”

“I tell people that I think our ideas have a half life. We have an idea and we’re excited about it. And then if we wait a day or a lot less excited about it, wait two days or three days, it’s done. We’re not going to do it.”

“The more action you take, the more results you get.”

“Now I tend to be pretty focused when I need to be but sometimes something comes along and I feel God speak to me about something and I’ll take the entire day and just trash it. Say, okay, cancel all the appointments. I’ve got something else I have to do. And usually I’m right about it. Not always. Sometimes I’m wrong about it, but I’d rather be wrong with the intention of serving God than be right with the intention of serving myself.”

“Marketing is something that we do for people, not something we do to people. If you’re doing it to them, then something’s wrong with the way you’re doing it. […] So I think the the idea of marketing, instead of persuading people or selling people on something, think of it like you’re creating resonance. […] When we’re marketing properly, we’re telling a story about our product or service that resonates with our customer and it gets their attention and they get excited. They get enthusiastic, not because we manipulated them or because we’ve said some magic turn of phrase that caused them to be hypnotized. It’s because we struck a chord with them literally in their spirit that said, ‘Oh, that could be the answer’ and that you’re doing it in service to them. You’re awakening them to a solution that will make their life better. And in what way is that wrong?”

“I think whenever we pray something always happens. People ask me sometimes ‘I prayed about this and it didn’t happen. Nothing happened.’ They’ll say no, and I’ll say, well, that’s never true. Something happened. You just don’t know what it was.”

[on charging for our services] “It’s a matter of the amount of respect and power we feel as an individual. And I don’t mean power over other people. I mean power over ourselves. I think a powerful person is a person who has power over their own behavior and their own attitudes. The scripture says that ‘a person who cannot guard his heart is like a city with broken down walls’ [Prov 25:28]. So you’ve got to have that power within yourself to say, ‘I’ll answer this question, but that thing that you’re talking about, that’s what I do. So we should make an appointment’ and don’t feel bad about it.”

“You may not think you’re super spiritual, you like, you may not think you hear from God, but I believe we all do. It’s a matter of learning to listen.”

🎞 Watch another episode: “Double down on your own work” – Interview with Jon Jorgenson | Sword and Savvy 101

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