Chasing Your Dreams with Melissa Murphy-Steely
On this week's episode, Mike visits with special guest, Melissa Murphy-Steely, or we like to call her, the girl on fire. Melissa is a Virtual CFO that handles the backend so business owners and entrepreneurs are free to focus on the front end, i.e. what they do best! After parting ways with big oil/gas a few years ago, she took her severance package and decided it was time to invest in herself. It was almost paralyzing for her to make that decision, overthinking the pros and cons repeatedly, but deep down she felt a nudge in her faith from God, to step out and believe in herself. A situation that many "would be" entrepreneurs find themselves in.
“Where do I start?” she asked. “How do I tailor this to small / mid sized businesses?”
Unsure, she spent 3 months mapping and dreaming it all out, before finally picking one piece to start with in month 4. All by herself! Surrounding herself with good people as fast as she could, she bootstrapped and figured out how to run a profitable business before the cash ran out. That’s why she was dedicated to making it work and helping others not find themselves in the same situation she was in. She also quickly learned that outsourcing the things she wasn’t strong at was the best thing to do, rather than burning time trying to get better at them at the expense of leaning in to her strengths.
As a business owner, she’s pursuing purpose, looking for ways to love on other people while developing a career that removes the debate about choosing between family and work. With a super supportive husband everything has been so much easier and she credits that support with giving her the mental freedom to do anything she sets out to do. Mike also talked about the question most faith based entrepreneurs struggle with…. Do I trust that God is enough or not? There is a fear that comes with intentionally building things around Jesus, and giving away resources that could be used to grow the business or simply enjoyed as fruit from it but the reality is that He IS enough, and often times being involved is enough. It’s the journey vs. the destination that He’s most interested in.
Create profit that we can fuse and use for Kingdom work - Mike
We don’t have to reinvent everything, we just need to get on the train together, in community so we can work together to deliver impact and help society.
KEY QUOTES & NOTES
“You know where you’re meant to be and you know who you’re meant to serve”.
“Who am I serving, why am I serving them and how am I going to do that?”
“I can’t help the next small business to take off if I can’t pay my staff”
“You can’t be successful if you don’t know your numbers. You have to know your numbers.”
“Be careful that you don’t want growth more than the staff you’re trying to help! - MT
“A lot of people don’t give enough thought and intentionality to who they want to be” MT