Practical Strategies to Build Your Business With God at the Center With Polly Payne

Hey Friend!

I’m excited to jam on practical strategies to build your business with God at the center with my dear friend, Polly Payne. You guys have heard her on the show before. You know that she is in my circle. She is my friend. I’ve spoken on her stages before. She is this beautiful presence, bringing a lot of peace wherever she goes. Polly brings Godly wisdom; I know this conversation will inspire you. I hope that you are encouraged by it.

Stef: Hi Polly. Welcome to the podcast!

Polly: I am so glad to be here.

Build Your Business With Someone Who Has Done It Herself

Stef: Polly, to get started, take a moment to tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Polly: I am Polly Payne, the founder of Horacio Printing, a beautiful product-based business. We sell the dream planner, Bible studies, and journals. I am also a mom to two sweet, beautiful children. I am a daughter of the King, a wife, and a professional laundry folder!

Stef: All the things that glorify God, including folding our laundry!

Today, we discuss practical strategies for building a business with God at the center. When I think of somebody who embodies this concept, I think of Polly. Polly’s first creation was her planner business.

Polly, tell us how that came to be because it truly represents this conversation. It was a practical strategy that became a business. You now teach other people to create incredible, high-quality printed products. Tell us about that evolution and how keeping God at the center has been important as you’ve created different businesses.

God Pursued Her So That He Could See His Plans Realized

Polly: I have dreamed of starting a business for a long time. When I was little, I loved playing games like store, teacher, and all the others we played as children. But I specifically loved playing store and wanted to start my own business.

I worked for many startups in New York. I watched each one grow from a small, tight-knit thing into something beautiful. I’d always dreamed of doing something, and I was searching for my “thing.”

I have always loved planners. I am forgetful, scatterbrained, and disorganized, so if I don’t write down my thoughts, they will not happen. So, I thought I would make a customizable planner. Christians could put scriptures in it. Moms could add what they wanted. Professionals could add whatever components they needed. You could take a quiz, and it would spit out a planner for you.

This was my initial idea. I sketched it out but I could never figure out the puzzle piece to print high quality on demand. So, I let this sit on the back-burner with all my other dreams. It collected dust while I was living my best life in New York as a senior sales director.

But then I started on a path back to Jesus and formed a relationship with Him again. God kept pursuing me and my heart. I was inspired by a traveling preacher, Erwin McManus. He was on a book tour and was teaching from his book ‘The Artisan Soul.’

Create Your Masterpiece on the Canvas That Is Your Life

Polly: The concept of his book is that you are an artist because you are created in the image of God. And your life and everything you create in it is your masterpiece. Your life is your work of art. We have to look at our lives as a canvas. It is something that we have power over and that we have authority over. Something that we can touch, create, and work with.

We are not powerless. We’re not a victim. We have authority over our time. And it is up to us to set the boundaries and create. At that moment of hearing this, I decided I had to get my life together. I decided I had to make the planner. And it was at that moment that I decided that it had to be a Christian planner. I knew that if I was not doing this with God, then I was not doing it.

I had this pivotal moment with Him in the quiet of my room that night, and He really blessed my business. This was the catalyst that made me decide to start it and be unapologetically Christian about it. Many people in my life were surprised by this, and I experienced real imposter syndrome at the thought of making a Christian planner. But I knew that I was being called to be unapologetically Christian about it.

The Enemies Plants Lies When You Are Building Your Business

Polly: I think there is this big lie that people believe that when they finally turn their business into a Christian business, people will unfollow them. I used to believe this lie, too, and it was scary. The lie says, ‘Jesus, if I trust you, you will leave me destitute’. It says that I will have a lot less if I truly lean in with Him. I am going to experience scarcity and be in trouble.

It is, in fact, the opposite. When we finally trust God and lean in, He can bless our business and use us. It was like this for me. I had no idea how big it would grow and how successful it would be so quickly, but I was all in, win or lose, that it had to be Christian.

Stef: I wrote down two things that you said because they were so powerful:

Number One: Your Life Is Your Masterpiece. It Is Your Canvas.

I pose this question to you, who are reading this: What is your canvas when you consider creating an online business or any kind of business?

My masterpiece is my podcast—it is my life’s work. For Polly, it’s her planner and, now, her business. Take some time to journal about what your canvas and masterpiece will be.

Number Two: If I Trust You, Lord, I Will Be Destitute.

Also, take some time to write about this in a journal. You can start with the sentence, ‘My fear around trusting God fully is…..’ or ‘If I trust you, my fear is…..

For Polly, this meant that she might become destitute. For me, it meant that my business wouldn’t be successful. I was holding on so tightly to control my business’s success and the money it made. The truth is that it is all God’s anyway. These are lies that the enemy plants in our hearts.

So, there are two things for you to think about: What is your canvas? And what is your fear around when it comes to trusting God?

How Polly’s Business Became More Than She Imagined

Stef: Back to you, Polly! You created this incredible planner company, which turned into something more. Tell us a little about what this has morphed into and how keeping God at the center of it has played out for you.

Polly: It is a great story, Stef! Around years three and four, many people reached out to me asking how I started my business. They would tell me that they had a dream to start a business. I was asked if I could coach and help them or meet for coffee. At first, I was happy to do so.

Then, the number of questions and requests started rising. As a result, I opened my first small group business coaching program. I had previously participated in business coaching programs, where I learned many skills. My background in marketing, sales, and advertising technology was useful.

I understood how to run Facebook ads and set up websites and pixels. This meant that I was helpful to people starting out, but how I was helping them wasn’t scalable. I didn’t have a good structure around it.

Starting a Podcast Helped Polly Build Her Business

Polly: Fast-forward to about 2020. I met a wonderful woman named Stefanie Gass, who told me I should start a podcast! We started diving into my bigger dreams and goals for impact, although I felt like I was too busy to start a podcast. I shared, “How could I start sharing my gifting in a space other than creating products?”

From this deeper dive, I created the Dream Crafting Course, and from there, I created the Faith-Filled Business Blueprint, which is a masterclass of all the things in a business from beginning to end, including marketing, branding, email, etc., for both product and service-based businesses.

At this point, I finally ripped off the bandage and decided to create Print School, which is a look at how to run a printing business, a very small niche. I launched this in June 2022, right after the Faith-Filled Business Blueprint, specifically for those who want to learn about printing.

Her Business Now Helps Others Build Their Own Business

Polly: And now, we have had so many people create and launch their own thing both through the Faith-Filled Business Blueprint with various businesses and through Print School where people are publishing their work and touching others with it.

This is what I want, and I have held on to it so tightly for so many years, either because I was pressed for space or because I felt I had worked so hard for this information that I didn’t want to share it or give away my trade secrets. But surrendering and releasing that has been so freeing, and it was what God wanted all along. It is exciting to be in a place where I can help and empower other people.

Build on the Foundations and Take Your Business to the Next Level

Stef: If someone were to ask me who could help them with all the pieces that go with business creation, like marketing, branding, and bookkeeping, I would immediately say, ‘Call Polly.’ And her offer pairs so perfectly with Clarify Your Calling and Podcast Pro University.

Polly, one last question on this before diving into some practical strategies. How does it feel to go from a time-for-money, commission-based, working for someone else state to owning your own business in a scalable, passive, organic, flourishing way where you see people coming to you from your different long-form content outlets, applying and buying your offers?

What do you say to people who have a dream to be in this place and to create a business that would be passive like this?

Build a Business That Makes Impact and Income

Polly: It is surreal and incredible to finally get to that place where you have niched down, you have built systems and you have figured it out. You have the funnels that lead to your offer and it is making an impact.

The other day, I woke up to an email from someone who said that they were in the course and that it was so good and well worth the money. I couldn’t believe it! I had no idea it was going to be this good and it is so surreal. It is so exciting. I love my product-based business and I love my service-based business. I have these two babies running around, these two sides of the company and I am so grateful. It is hard to even put into words!

Stef: Polly, I am so happy for you! 

And this is possible for you too. With the exact steps laid out for you in Clarify Your Calling and in Podcast Pro University, you can then move into Polly’s course and into our friend Chelsi Jo’s course, Systemize Your Biz, to implement all that Polly has implemented and get to this place of gratitude and excitement in your business.

Build Your Business So That You Can Achieve Godly Success

Stef: Polly, let’s talk more specifically about some of the concepts of your course. Of course, there is the marketing and sales and all those pieces. But there are some other foundational pieces in your course, too. I wanted to ask you about the first one of these, which is Godly success. What do you have to say about this as a concept and a conversation that is so critically important if you want to have a successful, God-led business?

Polly: For me, Godly success is rooted in your confidence in God. Earlier, we were talking about the lie that the enemy plants. We need to say, ‘Jesus, deliver me from the lie that trusting you will leave me more destitute. Deliver me, Jesus’. This prayer is a part of the prayer The Litany of Trust.

Godly confidence comes from confidence in God. We must spend time with Him to grow in that confidence and take steps to see Him and His faithfulness. Look at Joshua Chapter One, where He says in verse seven, “Be strong and very courageous.”

Build Your Business to Make an Income and to Make Kingdom Impact

Polly: He says Be strong and very courageous many times. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Godly success is rooted in Godly confidence that He is going with you. And for me, the success is yes, I want to make a profit. Yes, I want to have revenue. I want to see it flourish, which means it has to continue. This means that to continue, it has to make money.

But true Godly success is when the business has an impact that is Kingdom impact. It is touching people other than yourself. It is not a self-focused dream, even though my planner started off as a ‘me dream’. I needed the planner, but it was about touching other people and the ripple effect of that and what that could mean for their home and how it runs or how they can speak life into their home.

Godly success is rooted in Kingdom impact. We have to be really clear about what this dream is and why it matters. We must always return to trusting God in the process.

Learn the ‘Hows’ With Those of Us Who Have Done It Already

Stef: And that is such an evolution, such a journey. The beautiful piece around this is that when you have coaches and mentors and courses that begin and focus on this as a foundational principle, you learn the ‘hows’.

For so long, I had no idea. People would talk about these concepts, and I didn’t understand what they meant by confidence in God, trust in God, and surrender to God. In my courses and Polly’s, we offer real tactical steps around the ‘how’s, digging into the tactical work of creating this connection and deeper trust and reliance on Him.

I can attest to the impact of this in my work and my business. When I fully surrendered my business and did the big rebrand, it was terrifying. And I didn’t see the fruits of that decision for a long time afterwards. But I kept faithful and I stayed true and 12 months later, it completely exploded!

We must remember that God doesn’t give us the outcome because we may not continue to rely on Him. We must continue to persevere in trusting and relying on Him as He opens up the next Kingdom impact that we are called to do. He is waiting for us to surrender.

Dig the Ditches Before the Floods Come

Stef: Polly, I love that this focus on trusting God is part of your course. And once you get these pieces locked and loaded, you move onto the concept of digging the ditches. Can you tell us more about that?

Polly: This is another thing we talk about in the very beginning. It is a high-level concept to start with and then we go and do the work. I want you to first understand the importance of digging the ditches because, let’s be honest, it is not fun! You are going to have calloused hands and are going to get sweaty and it is going to be hard.

What I mean by digging the ditches is doing the work of getting your website built. When someone signs up for your newsletter, they get an email; then, three days later, they get another email. You have to dig this ditch to nurture that person and turn them into a client or into someone who is a raving fan who will come back and shop later.

The Lord Tells His Children to Dig Ditches

There is a story in 2 Kings Chapter Three in which the Lord tells His people to dig ditches because the rain will come. At this time, there was a severe drought. But God tells His children to dig ditches, and they are faithful and do it. As soon as they finish digging, at the end of verse 20, water suddenly comes from Eden, filling the land.

It doesn’t rain but the water comes up from the ground and the thing here is that if they had not dug the ditches, the whole camp would have been flooded. And that is what happens. I have seen this with businesses where they are suddenly an ‘overnight success’.

Dig the Ditches So That He Can Bless You

Polly: A while ago, I talked with a company that exploded so quickly that it had to grow painfully. It had to outsource so much at a high cost, hurting its profit. It is doing fine now, but growing so quickly, without the ditches being dug, will flood you out. And that is when a blessing becomes a major burden.

So, you have to dig ditches as you build your business. For example, you might need to build the correct website platform or connect all the pieces when someone orders a product so they get the emails they need. You might also need to organize and clean your accounts and taxes. These are the kinds of ditches that we can neglect. We might think this is not a real business yet, and we don’t expect to grow big, so we can keep it cute and small. 

But God says, ‘I need you to get a backhoe and dig the ditch so that I can bless you. Right now, if I blessed you, you would flood out and burn out, and every part of your life would be affected: your marriage, your finances, your home, and your dwelling place. I need you to dig these ditches so that I can bring the water.’

In my course, we do a lot of preliminary ditch digging. I give you a pre-business checklist, and we build your business model so that you can understand how money flows in and out of your business, how products are shipped to customers or services are delivered to them, and how you nurture customers. We look at the money side and, as I said, your accounts and taxes. We work on getting all these things in place and all your ducks in a row.

Learn Which Ditches to Dig When You Build Your Business

Stef: I think that what is so important about this course is that it helps those who are new business owners or those who have a business but are not yet at a level of profit they want find out what ditches to build. We don’t want you to build unnecessary ditches like we did, doing all this back breaking labor and digging all these ditches that are not where God is creating the floodwaters for you.

Polly’s course will tell you the exact ditches to build and how to build them that align with the simple, streamlined process of how I teach you to build a business: getting clarity, using podcasting to grow, using email marketing, and using a community. We speak the same language.

Shift Into Godly Productivity vs Striving

Stef: The last concept I want to touch on related to your product, Polly, is this concept of Godly productivity versus striving. We think that if we go go go and do do do and see how many things we can do in a day, that will make us successful. Then, we stop moving at the end of the day and are tired and burned out. And we look up and don’t know what we did. We have not made any progress in our revenue. We have made no progress in our impact, yet we are completely burnt out.

Why is this happening? And how do we shift this and turn it into Godly productivity?

Polly: Stef, I think you do this really well. You have your CEO meetings with God. It starts with surrendering your day to Him. I think that structurally, it looks like starting your day with prayer and surrendering that time to Him.

What I see people living in is the tyranny of the urgent. They deal with what is urgent and with people-pleasing tasks. Someone needs this. Someone needs that. They live in their Facebook group, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because they think this is what you do to build a business but they have not done any work.

Bring Your 100% So That He Can Bless You With His 100%

I think Godly productivity is where you spend time in the places God has called you to, working on those core projects that are going to get the task done and get the goal met.

The other big trap I see is that people sit in a place of thinking that if God wants it to happen, it will happen. We get complacent and think that we are supposed to trust so we sit back and wait for God to make it happen.

God calls us to excellence. We are called to give our all, and then God will give His. I’m a big fan of messy action. I spelled Horacio wrong because I was going so fast! We must show up and give our all; God will give His. The cool thing is that His 100% is much better than ours! But we are still called to show up.

This is not to be a place of striving but of surrender. Godly productivity is anchored in surrendering the outcomes and being open to where God is leading.

Show Up and Build Your Business Out of Love

Stef: I think that what helped me solidify this concept in my mind was that we are going to do our absolute best and take big audacious action because we love God so much. Out of love, I am excited to show up. I am excited to give and to serve not because I have to or because it is going to give me recognition from God but because I am so honored that I am chosen to do this work. I am going to do it to the best of my ability with all that I have in me and pour myself out and God is going to use that for His glory.

This mindset shift helped me show up with everything I had. When I did that, God blessed me with balance and Chelsi Jo’s system, which helped me regain my time. He gave me your blueprint, which helped me learn how to dig the ditches instead of running myself ragged. God will bless you when you show up for Him because it is a two-way relationship.

The Blueprint That Can Bless You as You Build Your Business

This course is such a blessing for those who are struggling with what to do and how to do it in order to really make your business successful. Polly, tell us a bit about the modules in your program that will help people to do this.

Polly: We go through product development whether it is a product-based business or you are in the service space. And then we dive straight into money. We look at what God says about money and about profit and the systems of money and how to set that up. I take you through Profit First and I bring my accountant in to talk about QuickBooks so that you can understand how to do that and when and how to hire an accountant.

We go through branding and my marketing channels. I give my unfiltered advice on every channel I have ever tested and what the revenue return has been and which ones I would start out with if I was just starting a business.

The podcast channel is naturally promoted because it changed my life! I now have the Dream Printing Podcast, which brings in weekly leads.

Nurturing leads

I am really excited about nurturing and teach a lot about nurturing leads and retention so that you can launch something, have customers buy it, and then come back and buy the next thing. You do not constantly worry about the next lead because you have returning customers.

If you constantly worry about new leads and do not focus on retention, you leave a lot of money on the table. This is also where the impact is. They have bought your product, so now you teach them how to use it and ensure it doesn’t become dusty. You want to ensure their success. Your retention rate allows your business to succeed in years three, five, and ten.

You have my community, where we meet monthly to check-in. At the end, we wrap up by creating your 90-day plan. What are you doing for the next 90 days?

Stef: Polly, thank you for spending this time with us and blessing us with this amazing conversation. Where can everybody come and hang out with you?

Polly: You can visit Horacio Printing and hang out with me. My courses are also available there. My podcast is the Dream Printing Podcast.

Stef: There is so much in this conversation that you can use to inspire you and help you build your business.

I pray this blesses you!

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