Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#92-Joyful Productivity: Getting In Position For What's Next with April Stallworth

• Leslie Martinez • Season 5 • Episode 92

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Discover the secrets to navigating life's transitions with joy and purpose alongside our insightful guest, April Stallworth, a respected leader and certified Christian life coach. April shares her unique wisdom on recognizing signs of change and preparing ourselves mentally, spiritually, and practically for new beginnings. With her guidance, we uncover the importance of cultivating contentment and readiness to embrace what lies ahead, exploring how feelings of discontent can signal the onset of a new season and how self-care plays a pivotal role during these times.

Journey with us as we discuss aligning your life with a clear vision inspired by biblical principles. April and I reflect on the vital role of having a vision and setting goals, while also emphasizing the need for flexibility, especially in the face of unpredictable circumstances like the pandemic. We dive into the significance of seeking divine guidance through tools like vision boards and retreats, and the strength found in community and accountability to remain steadfast in your purpose. Through these practices, we can prevent external circumstances from swaying us and instead stay aligned with our true calling. Join us on this transformative journey of finding joy and confidence through divine guidance and the wisdom of our wonderful guest, April Stallworth.

Connect with April:
Website:  https://aprilstallworth.com/
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilstallworth/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aprilmichellestallworth/

Connect with Leslie:

Follow on IG: @yourjoyfulorderstyle

Website: https://www.yourjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
to schedule- Speaking Events, Interviews or Life Coaching Sessions

Shop my SOAP the Gospels Journal on Shopify:
https://shopjoyfulorder.com/

Listen to this Episode on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXoAYIM2mfclNtYiaOzIUw

Shop my Journal (Gratitude, Goals & Prayer Journal) on Amazon:
https://a.co/d/09Djvaw

Book a FREE 30 Minute Discovery Coaching Call: https://tidycal.com/joyfulordermedia/30-minute-meeting

Speaker 1:

Welcome, friends, to today's episode of your Joyful Order podcast. We're diving in to the theme of joyful productivity, and our topic today is getting in position for what's next. Whether you're navigating a transition or sensing that a shift is on the horizon, this episode will equip you with tools and insight to step confidently into your next season. I am so thrilled and honored to be joined today with my special guest, april Stallworth. She is a respected leader, a certified Christian life coach and chief of staff at TD Jake's Enterprises. April's expertise spans not just transformation but purpose discovery, healthy relationships and self-care, all while working to combat systems of racial injustice. She also serves as a Propel Women's Co-Work coach and is passionate about empowering individuals from all walks of life. So welcome to the podcast, april.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you, Leslie.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you. Now April and I met. She was one of my coaches in the Propel cohorts and I had the honor and privilege of not only having her as a season for a coach but also attending one of her breakout workshops, where she just brought fire. So I just want to set up our intentions for this episode, because today we want to help you to understand how to recognize when it's time to shift in a new season and also how to position yourself mentally, spiritually and practically for what's next. So I want us to explore some visionary behaviors that guide us through transitions, and April just brought some great knowledge and wisdom to these topics of what's next and creating visionary behavior. So, April, in your experience, first, let's just talk about what does it mean to get in position for the next phase?

Speaker 2:

Sure. So we spend most of our lives kind of in that conundrum of shifting to what's next in God, because there's always more, there's always a deeper level we can go to, there's always more ways he wants to use us. So I feel like that's really where we spend the majority of our life, versus being somewhere and being settled and I'm all about contentment. So I'm a contented woman in wherever God has me, but I always know there's a preparation that continues to happen for what's next, and so we all know kind of that feeling I really. I mean, I'm going to stretch myself out there to say we all kind of know when something's starting to rumble, when something is starting to move in our spirit, when we're starting to see glimmers of what God wants to do in our lives, in our ministry, in our family, in whatever space of influence that you're in.

Speaker 2:

I want to help women and the men can get some of it too. I want to help us to be constantly aware of this fact of God moving in our lives to get us to what's next, content in what we're currently doing, but always preparing for what he has for us, because I just feel like there's so much he wants to give to use, to position us for in our lives. It far outspans even our lifetime, I think. But I'm of the notion that I want every single thing, I want every single opportunity to be used. I want every single relationship. I want every single job, career, ministry that he has for me on this side. I want it all, and so I want to do all I can do, and then I want to release the rest, because there are some things that I know only he can do, but there's a whole lot I got to do so that when the opportunity door opens, I can bust right on through it.

Speaker 2:

And so when I talk about that, that's kind of my heart behind it.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, you know. So what is your best words of wisdom to give to someone on how they can identify a season of change approaching?

Speaker 1:

Because, like you said, we all kind of like know but, I know that there's a lot of listeners out there that they know Jesus, they have a relationship with him, but they're not necessarily in the word all the time to where some of that wisdom and knowledge comes from. So how? Because a lot of that discernment comes from just having your nose in the word right. You know when you're, when you're seeing, when you're reading the Bible and you're understanding, and then you're relating it to the season you're at in your life. How can someone that is just kind of tippy towing with their faith and their walk right now, how can they approach those seasons of change and kind of see the red flags of it coming so?

Speaker 2:

Are you starting to feel a discontent? So by that I mean I'll break it down real, real easy. It's not starting to get on your nerves, let me just get. Let me just get a little secular with it. Like, is there an irritation that's starting to happen with conversations, with environments, with the work that you're doing? Now?

Speaker 2:

Sometimes and I said this, I think, in the session with you sometimes you just need a nap and some water. You're dehydrated and sleepy. Okay, so first do a self-care check. First do a self-care check. First do a self-care check, because sometimes it's that. So if we're all systems go on self-care, you know we've got a decent amount of sleep, we eat fairly good, we're getting the body moving and it's still there. Is it? I need more time with God? Is that the discontent right now, that self-care is okay, but the part of self-care, that spiritual self-care, is neglected. Okay. So those are the two places I go first. Okay, check, check. I still just I'm not feeling right, I'm something's off, and then I start really listening intently and seeing some of the things that are starting to happen around me and so I'll use an example of my own recent transition to give more context and make it hopefully take it home.

Speaker 2:

So I knew when I got my last position, which I was in for a couple of years, I knew right off the bat, even with the excitement, it was a big promotion. Moving into a whole different field, I went from being an executive support professional which that's the work I've done over 35 years to now I'm going to be an executive director of communication partnerships for a school district. I knew when I got that job I just felt the Holy Spirit telling me don't get comfortable, you're not going to be here that long. Okay. So I was tuned in and open enough to feel that and I'm like what? I just got this job. Okay. So I put that in my pocket and I said, okay, got into the job. Me and my team, we're killing it, we're doing the stuff that I set out to do. I'm happy. I got a significant financial increase. Life is good, so things are going along.

Speaker 2:

So then that discontent starts and I'm just like how many years can I do this? Okay, check, check. What else? Now there's still opportunities for me to affect lives. I was working with young folks, high school students, and you know what's happening in schools these days okay, in a fruitful field, but I'm like this ain't one for the long haul. So then what I was originally told came right back to mind and so I'm like, okay, got to get prepared for what's next. Good, I'm doing good work, it's fruitful, but you got to start getting prepared for what's next. So what did that look like to me? I think it's going to involve relocation. I just had that feeling. Words that I was hearing in the people that I'm called to listen to, in terms of pastors and preachers and teachers, started to line up.

Speaker 2:

I was going to be moving you to a new territory. I start really going back over my journal notes, all the words that I've been hearing, the scriptures I've been reading. What's the common theme there? It's going to involve relocation. It's going to involve you getting further into your purpose. It's going to be this. It's going to be that Start getting your house in order. So that means physically.

Speaker 2:

I started getting my house in order. I started purging. I started getting stuff house in order. I started purging, I started getting stuff ready to actually move and I didn't know where I was going. Then I said, okay, financially, what do I need to start doing? What conversations do I need to start having with trusted advisors, like all the things I know to do when I'm preparing for a move, career-wise, personally.

Speaker 2:

And I started getting discontent with being in cold weather because I lived outside Chicago. I had been there 13 years and it was starting to get on my nerves. I need to get somewhere warmer. I don't know where, but Lord don't let it be Texas or Florida. I live in Texas, y'all. It was just too volatile politically. I'm like I don't want to be in a weird environment and God sent me to Texas. So you know God lasted what, what we planned out, what I said. But after I said, please don't let it be these two places, but let it be warm, then I said but nevertheless, your will be done, and so I have my preferences, but God has his plans. That's kind of what it looks like in the practical, in the natural, when some of this starts happening.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so good, you know April, so everything you're saying right now, I'm trying to relate to what you're saying and you know it's so funny because how you said that the first thing is like things start getting on your nerves, you become kind of unhappy, right? And so God moved me and I used to say to myself that this was like abrupt, like sometimes he's just going to pick you up and move you right away. As you're sharing some of these like red flags and signals, I'm sitting here thinking and I'm like you know what I had these red flags and signals. I'm sitting here thinking and I'm like you know what I had these red flags and signals. I just chose to ignore them because for me that shift came April, which is crazy.

Speaker 1:

I was working at a church full-time, in ministry. I was a children's director at a church. I was working full-time. So for me, those red flags, I was like no, this I'm doing ministry, like God's not going to take me out of this. You know, I'm where I'm supposed to be. So all those red flags, I was ignoring them, but then and then it came. So that was like a year before I actually finally moved.

Speaker 1:

Um, but it came.

Speaker 1:

That's why I said it came so fast because it was almost a matter of like weeks, where God, at this point now, as you're saying, like as I think back, I had all the red flags, people and things were getting on my nerves.

Speaker 1:

I was unhappy, I was overwhelmed, I was stressed, I was having anxiety attacks left and right, but I just kept telling myself but I'm doing ministry, this is where I'm supposed to be, and then and then it was like God just finally like smack me in back of the head with a big you know aha moment where he's like no, you didn't get those red flags this whole year past. You know, now I got, now you got to move fast because now it's happening. So I didn't have that time to prepare because my discernment wasn't in alignment with what God was telling me. And a lot of that also goes back, like I know that God moved me out of that position because I was putting my identity in that role rather than him. So I had to move, I was doing it the wrong way. Let's just put it that way, you know that's good.

Speaker 1:

I was putting too much into the position rather than putting it into God. So sometimes these moves and when God is getting ready to position you for what's next, sometimes he will smack you in the back of the head with it, you know, and be like okay, sister, I didn't, you didn't get it, you weren't getting the red flags, you were blind, you were oblivious. But I was blind and oblivious to him because I wasn't connected to the source. I was connected to the church, the things. I was the Martha rather than the Mary I got caught up in just doing and the serving where I wasn't sitting at his feet.

Speaker 1:

So I think it's important for people to see and know that because you were in alignment with God at that time. So you heard, you saw, you were preparing, like you said, I don't know when, I don't know where, but I'm getting in position. I wasn't in alignment with God at that time and God had to come and move fast and I felt that it just like it shook me. But because I did act in obedience, things you know worked out on the other side. So with that, like you, you gave us some great steps on how to transition. Now I want to kind of get into the topic of visionary behavior with this, because I think you you were saying God was preparing you. You had a. You had like a vision of where or not so much where you were going, because you didn't know, but what you needed to do. What does visionary behavior look like and how can cultivating a visionary mindset kind of help us to stay productive during that season?

Speaker 2:

And this has come over, probably the last 15 years or so of my life, um, and I'm the grand old age of 56, um proud of being in the double nickel era and you don't look the age at all.

Speaker 1:

You are flawless and beautiful girlfriend thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

So probably over the last 15 years since I was probably about 40, finally was starting to get this thing, still having a ride, but starting to get in alignment with Jesus. And so one of the first things I learned during that season, during those seasons, I decided I couldn't do life the way I was doing it anymore because it wasn't working. I kept learning and studying under people who talked about vision and mission and goals and all those kind of behaviors. And then, lo and behold, look in the Bible. Oh, god said it first. We can easily point to without vision, the people perish. Write the vision, make it plain. Okay, so all what I teach now, all that I was learning before, were actually based on biblical principles. I was learning them in some secular environments, but then when I took it back to put it up against the word nine times out of ten, it lined up.

Speaker 2:

I think about when we set out on a trip, use our GPS, we plan a vacation, whatever we're doing, where we're going on some sort of trip. You don't just start out and not know where we're going, unless you're intentionally jumping in the car and just said I'm just going to ride. 9.9 times out of 10, we have a destination in mind. You don't just set out on a trip without deciding where you're going to go. You don't just show up at the airport and say, I guess I'll buy a ticket to wherever. You have to set a destination. You have to have a vision and it falls in line with purpose and all the words we use.

Speaker 2:

And so I felt like I was going throughout my life in a number of different areas with no vision, no destination in mind, just kind of navigating the seas but never really knowing where I was trying to get, and I said that's foolish and it's not biblical. We need a vision and it can't be just well, I just want to do this, this, that and that. No, you got to sit in the lap of your savior and figure out what's the vision he has in mind for your life. What are you supposed to be working on? Where is he trying to get you? Get rid of all the. You know the superficial things we want to put on. I want 2.2 kids and I want this kind of house and I wanta little bit in this sort of climate and this all the things that I was saying and say Lord, show me where you want me to go.

Speaker 2:

I know I'm not going to have all the steps to get there, but help me to discern what it looks like when I'm in your will. I need to sit at your feet and get that, and, as I'm getting those downloads, I need to be writing it down. Then I'm going to set goals, because I feel like goals give the dreams and the visions that that gives it legs, and so I started practicing very intentional vision and goal behaviors, so I would sit consistently at his feet, see the things that he was showing me for me personally, and then I would set up annual goals each year the vision boards, you know, the retreats with God, wherever. However, I was going to get that set up and map out my year. But here's what I learned after the pandemic during the pandemic, was you better put it in pencil? You better put it in pencil because and again lines up with the word we can have our plans. I had a lot of goals set up the beginning of 2020 that, once this shift came, in our world.

Speaker 2:

They had to shift. My vision didn't shift, but how I was getting there that year had to shift, very intentionally because God was doing something in the earth and so I was still able to accomplish a whole lot of things. But it just looked different that year. Self-care had to come up way high. The career looked a little different. You know we're all working from home primarily, except for all you know, frontline first responders. God bless you. It changed, but my vision didn't change. My goals might have changed that year. My vision didn't change. My goals might have changed that year. My vision didn't change.

Speaker 2:

I still knew God wanted to use me to educate, empower and encourage, primarily his women. I was ready to adjust, to be flexible, to move, because if you get too set in doing it one particular way, god can't use that. It's your legalism and your you know unwillingness to adjust to how he's moving in the earth. And so I got real pencil-ish, I got real flexible because I'm a little more of that type A personality and I'm like, okay, god had to loosen that up and say actually, no, I get to decide this year how this, this is. I, you know I'll co-sign on some of that stuff, but I know we're moving and we're still going to get where I said we're going to get.

Speaker 2:

It's going to look a little different. It's going to be decision goals, check-ins, a multitude of counselors to check me on my behavior and accountability. Those are all the kind of things I think go into that bucket of having visionary behavior, because otherwise you're just going to be to and fro. Anything's going to be able to move you. Yes, people, circumstances, job loss, job gain, financial loss financial gain it's just it's. And then have goals as kind of my guardrails and my, you know, pieces of light on the way. I can move a lot more easily and I cannot get perturbed by the vicissitudes of life. That was a long drawn out answer to talk about?

Speaker 1:

No, that was so good. Okay, you answered like five other questions that I had.

Speaker 2:

Oh one.

Speaker 1:

So that's why I'm like, let you go, I'm going down my list. I'm like she just answered that. She just answered that because it's so important. And, like you said, you called it out we're the type A people, right, I think, us coaches just tend to be. We're very goal-driven, kind of you know, hustlers of, hey, I'm seeking out to get what God called me done, like I'm a check, check, check person. And the same with you.

Speaker 1:

When 2020 came, it rocked my world and I'm like, well, there goes that, like you know, all this stuff, like, well, that's not going to happen, that's not going to happen. Oh, that is for sure not going to happen. And I had to learn flexibility from that. Also, I had to learn that, like you said, you better write it in pencil. Write it in pencil, because nothing that I write is set in stone. God is the one who orchestrates our plans, and it was.

Speaker 1:

It was hard for me, april. I don't know how hard you struggled with that. Yeah, it was really hard and at first I was, you know cause. I'm just an optimistic person. Also, you know, and I always try to find the light in the darkness. I want to say, like the first nine months of COVID kind of. I was just really starting trying to stay positive.

Speaker 1:

My community of followers that this was before the podcast, but I had like a Facebook community and you know, posting daily stuff and really encouraging them of like, okay, well, when life shifts, you focus on this and all of this and then, like nine months of it, I was over it. I was like, god, I'm done, I'm done, I can't continue to fake the funk anymore because I don't even know what you're doing anymore, god. Like where, where are we going? What am I doing? I felt lost because my guide, what I plugged into my GPS, I wasn't going there anymore, you know, and it was really hard and God had to put me in a season of just sitting and I had I'm, I'm, I feel like I'm just coming out of that season. Still Like, I'm still kind of a little bit in there, you know, but it's like okay, now God has opened the curtains and the window and he's like you're seeing the light now.

Speaker 1:

Leslie, I had to kind of bury you for a minute so that I can prepare you for the next season, because the next season, you, you gotta be ready, you gotta be ready, because this ain't just like a little, a little thing, like no, I'm, I'm launching you. Now it's, I'm launching you, but you got to dig deep. And April, there has been some nasty stuff that has come up from it that I didn't even know was settling in me. You some challenges and things that have just been really hard.

Speaker 2:

You know the last couple of years If you don't get out of my business.

Speaker 1:

What we're here, then, right, I'm with you, april, because and that's why your talk resonated so much for me because I'm like I'm preparing, I am and I feel like I'm doing all the things. I'm like, okay, god, you're telling me to do this, I'm doing that, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. A lot of it has really just been being in his word and and I've been I've been putting my nose in the word every day. I'm going deeper and deeper. I'm teaching, like a community group right now, about how to study the Bible. I'm teaching them what I'm learning and it's been great, and I know that God is, you know, preparing me for that next season, but it's hard.

Speaker 2:

So, hard.

Speaker 1:

It's so hard. So, for the listener out there, like me and April, you may seem, we may seem like we got it together, but we fall apart just like anybody else. You know. See, we may seem like we got it together, but we fall apart just like anybody else. You know, when that season comes, like it's hard. So so, as you, as we both are in this season right now, April, what advice would you give to someone who, like us, are in the season that they're not seeing the light? You know what I mean. Like what, seeing the light? You know what I mean. Like what? How can someone still keep their joy and start to see the light in this season, the first and best?

Speaker 2:

way for me. Gratitude has been so helpful for me in this season. I mean and I'll talk about the little things and all throughout my day, like before I got on here I just said thank you, god, for this opportunity today that I get to share, I get to represent you, that Leslie asked me that you connect with us, that I would even have this opportunity, and just the strategy of God just blows me away in how he connects me with people and opportunities and things. And so I sit on my balcony Thank you for this Texas October that I didn't want to come and I sit there and I have my coffee and I could just end up in tears just thanking God for the peace of my coffee, and I could just end up in tears just thanking God for the peace of my home, for the ability to just sit with him to have coffee and to drink it out on my patio in my beautiful home that he has provided me with. So, just because I know it may not look like there's any light right now for some of your folks, for some of us in general, but there always is something to be grateful for. Some seasons you got to dig a little deeper than others, but they're there, identify them, speak them, thank God for them. It shifts your mindset. It just does, because it takes you off of what you don't have and it puts you on what you do have, and so our mind is just conditioned to go to the negative, to go to the threat, to go to the things that are coming against it versus what's going right. So gratitude is so, so important. I'm finding I'm just really delving into that in a way that I haven't even done before that encouraging yourself, just encouraging yourself.

Speaker 2:

I love worship music. I always have worship music on in my house, or I'll just, you know, start my day with it's just, it's one of the things get in the car, get the worship music going, even when I don't feel it, even when I don't feel like it, I turn it on, I get into it and then it shifts something. It brings you right into the presence of God. I mean that is the beauty of worship worship leaders, teams, what they do, it's not about them, it's not about their performance, it's about ushering you right to the altar, right into the presence of God. So that's something I do, but in that, that sets the stage for me to encourage myself.

Speaker 2:

I remember this might've been just, it was this week, it might have just been yesterday or the day before my sweet daughter. I have one daughter, my beginning, my end, my alpha, my omega, imani. And she called me, she was troubled with something and talked her through that, walked her through that she's, you know, a young woman, a young adult, a child. I'm still her mama. I got off that phone, I put on my worship music and I started to encourage my daughter. After I had just encouraged her in the spirit and and I spoke back to the enemy of our souls, get your hands off of my baby. And I just went in. And then I started going in on my own stuff and I just had to encourage myself and speak life over her.

Speaker 2:

In that moment, even when I was mad, even when I was disgusted that, you know, stuff's coming against her, stuff's coming against me, I had to get in my bag and I had to speak life and it changed the atmosphere, it settled my spirit, just speaking life. It's another way in the season, when the challenges come and the fiery darts, when the challenges come and the fiery darts, knowing that God is truly working all things together for good, because he knows I love him, so I know I'm in the number of those he's working and who are called according to his purposes, and so I'm clear I'm called according to his purposes, I'm clear that I love him, that I know, whatever this is, it's going to end up for my good. So, speaking truth, speaking truth, I refuse in this season to let the enemy get the last word, but he hates us, so he does his job very well. How will we respond?

Speaker 2:

And so I'm really watching my responses in the season, because I know they're setting me up and what's my first go-to? Is it to fall completely apart or is it to speak truth and light? Now there are moments when you do fall completely apart but get up, get up quickly and get in truth of what we know about God, and that has just really been helped for me in a challenging transitory time. Because I think about I just want to backtrack real quick on the timing when you were talking about you know you're just coming out of that kind of that pandemic and then just some of the transitions and stuff, and when I think about all that went on during the transition 2020, 2023, it was during that time.

Speaker 2:

I got my promotion At the old time. That happened during the pandemic. I got a new LinkedIn course that they came and asked me to do because you know, I have LinkedIn courses that I'm an instructor for on the LinkedIn learning platform. So my second course came to me during the pandemic. Even in spite of having to erase some things and rewrite them in pencil, God still provided opportunities during that tough period and he was setting everything up for where I find myself today. Amen, yes, I don't know what else.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, and just I mean, like you said, like God orchestrates our plans and our plans, even though we have certain things in writing, god's like, yeah, that's not going to happen, but this is, and he opens different doors of opportunity for us that we would have never saw. You know, I had this year I had a ton of things written. I have my vision board posted right over my desk right here April, and I look at it often. I have my verse, my goals, and I have little check marks for like the big goals. Only one of them has been checked off, but a lot of things that I accomplished or a lot of opportunities that came my way this year, they are nowhere on there. You know her pal Coerts was not on there Going and spending three days with Bob Goff at a writer's workshop. That wasn't on there.

Speaker 1:

You know, yes, like there are huge things that I that took place this year that are not on my vision board, that I had absolutely no idea God was going to line up for me this year. Even some of the guests, like April, I have my dream list of guests for the podcast, right, and most of these people I mean it's not like Oprah, you know, because that's just far stretch, you know. But these are people. My dream list looks very different from what maybe somebody else would consider a dream list. These are people that I I feel that I have reached to, but also people that have influenced me. And as I go down the list of people I kid you, not April, everyone, even down to you.

Speaker 1:

When I had, I'm like I got to get Bronwyn and April on my podcast after after you were done being my coach, right, you and Bronwyn were on my list and check, check, my list of people have almost been fulfilled. None of those names are on my vision board. I mean, I did make a list, it was a goal, but it was kind of one of those things that, oh well, if I get to it, I get to it. Girl, I crossed off so many dream lists, including Pastor Bianca. Pastor Bianca was on my. Bianca Juarez yes, I had her on my podcast not too long ago.

Speaker 1:

And these people I'm just like Lord, that's wild Leslie the connections and the connections that God is making, and as I continue to make the connections, I write more names down and it's just a matter of me asking and saying hey, sending an email or you know whatever, I would love to have you on the podcast. And also being open for rejection People saying no or not responding Cause I did have that.

Speaker 1:

I only had one person not respond to me which out of the list of everything, but God, it wasn't like it wasn't something that I had saw, it just was as God lined things up, you know, and it's so important to just stay the course, to be flexible, but also allow yourself to seek opportunities as they come. You know, those opportunities weren't necessarily big. I didn't sit down and make that list like last year. Well, some of them were. Pastor B's been on my list for like two years. It's preparing. And I just want to go back to what you touched upon about what you can do to keep your joy of gratitude. I can't agree with you more on that.

Speaker 1:

April, like my heart for gratitude. Every morning I write in my gratitude journal and that is what has kept me afloat during this transition season, you know, and the encouragement. That's why my nose has been heavy in the word. That's why this morning, as I was getting ready too, I shared with you. I only had a few hours sleep and I was just like whew, I was getting ready to worship music. I had my worship music on and I'm singing and and I'm just like thank you Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you, because in these seasons you, you have to keep trusting God and you have to be obedient to his word.

Speaker 1:

And I've seen that with with you so much, you know, you shared so much of your story, even even just like sitting. How you you sat so quietly in so many of our sessions of our coaching because you were a shadow coach and you got to, you got to like sit with us, you know, and just sitting with people April is so powerful, it's so powerful, and when God puts you in that season, sometimes just to sit with people and you think, and us as go-getters, right Cause we just want it like no, I want to be the one coaching, I want to be the one speaking, I want to be the one leading. So to sit there and just watch, just be there. It's hard, but it's an act of obedience, yeah, and you gain so much from it, right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, I just let me touch on that real quick. That was a different posture for me, mm-hmm, this is is my normal posture. Yes, I'm speaking, I'm teaching, you know. And so when God called me to the Propel coaching work, I knew it was going to be a stretch. But first of all, bronwyn, who was your primary coach and who was the person I shadowed under, what an example, yes, what an example for me to be able to sit under. And so I had to get in that posture of just listening, supporting, speaking when I was called on to speak, and moving myself into that space, and that was divinely orchestrated. I know that that's the place God needed me in this season.

Speaker 2:

Again, here are some of the breadcrumbs Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. These are breadcrumbs for the transitional scene, for what's ahead. I look at everything. He has me doing everything, and so I'm like I need to sit in this. How uncomfortable it is. And even another uncomfortability point, but a necessary point, and we talked about this in um in in our coaching cohort.

Speaker 2:

You know I was the only black woman in that, in that space, and not an unfamiliar space, that I wasn't, but it's still like okay, yeah, okay what's happening, and one I felt fully welcomed, never felt unwelcomed or anything like that. And just moving past that, because, like I said in that space, if you remember, I said first and foremost I'm a daughter of the king. That's, that's my primary identity and the one that I'm always going to go to as my first. But, as you can see, he also made me a black woman and so that comes with some things because of society, but because of the fallen world, and we had a chance to talk about that some, and so I knew God specifically put me in that space to have some of those conversations that didn't sit well with everybody I know that and others.

Speaker 2:

It was refreshing and I wanted to disarm some of what the enemy uses against us in each other that is not biblical but that he uses, and I wanted to disarm some of that. I wanted to have no feelings of anything in there and so to just sit in, listen and then be able to share, at opportune times, some of that. I believe that was God's divine plan and it is going to always upset somebody. I don't take that personally, but it's also something that God wants to use to stretch them too. Yes, so that was the beauty of our cohort.

Speaker 2:

And even though I have my own cohort, it doesn't mean I have all the black women in there. That's not what it's supposed to be. I have one other black woman in my cohort, uh-huh, and three latina women in my cohort, and the rest are white women and when I tell you we have a beautiful tapestry of all the women.

Speaker 2:

And then you got some of the coaches who are not black I'm only black coach who have four or five black women in their cohort. And I, and and I got a chance to talk to the to the coaches during the summit and I was like hell, because this is who I am, I'm going to disarm race every single time. So, hey, how about all those black women in that cohort with you?

Speaker 2:

and they fell out laughing they were like we're gonna, was going to talk to you about that. I said, let me tell you something. God put them right where they were supposed to be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I trust completely, because that's a divinely orchestrated process that happens. As to where women get placed, I said they're supposed to be with you because they have something to give you and you've got something to give them, and I trust that God places all the women through this ministry because he has his hands on this yes Period. And when I tell you that was what they needed to hear and what I needed to give out and I fully believe that I absolutely do, and it's just been an amazing journey that I hope to be on for a long time, god willing. Yes, but again, something else that was orchestrated in the pandemic yes, yes, prior to, and then got real revved up during the pandemic and then here I am in 2024. So again back to the theme of getting prepared. I doing the things throughout your life that you can't always see the totality of. He knows it all. We're seeing that one snapshot of the film reel when he's got the whole movie.

Speaker 1:

I just love how, um, you know, we both got to be in that opportunity and, like you said, in that posture of just sitting, you know, and and for me to join that type of group off also, as me being a coach myself, you know that was one of um when we first started our cohorts, um Bronwyn, who was my coach, and um when, when the listeners are listening to this, they will have heard the episode with Bronwyn also. So, yeah, so y'all, if you, if you're like who is this Bronwyn, you got to go back and look for the episode with Bronwyn Lee. However, one of the things that she wrote in my little note that she put on our tables when we um to welcome us was, um, what a humbling um way, or it's so humbling to know that you are putting yourself in the posture like, as a coach yourself, to be coached, and how important it is that you know that you, as a coach, are still willing to be coached, and how important it is that you know that you, as a coach, are still willing to be coached. And I never thought I, I never at all, when I went to do the propel, like, looked at it as, as a posture of submission. So to say, you know, and when I read that it was, it was kind of eye opening to me that I'm like this is why God had me do this. This wasn't on my bucket list for this year, this wasn't on my vision board, propel it just kind of happened. You know, and I really feel that you know, as she prayed to write the words to me is that that was kind of my eye-opening thing of this is how I need to come into this. I need to come into it as a posture of surrender, of being coached, being coachable and not having to, you know, be in charge of everything and lead, like surrendering, yeah, and I know for us that that's hard, um, so I was so thankful I I keep I literally have Bronwyn's letter like right under my little computer right here. I keep it there as a reminder because there were other words that she shared in there that are just inspiring to me. But it reminds me to stay humble and to surrender, like it's okay to not always have to be in charge and not to lead.

Speaker 1:

And that led to some things, even for me in ministry at church, where I stepped down in leadership roles and from going to being like a team coordinator. I stepped to. All I want to do is pray and greet with people, that's it. I don't want to lead. I don't want to have any leadership title whatsoever. I've led in ministry for 23 years. I have always had a title for 23 years as some type of leader. I'm stepping down and this is just in the church that I go to. I step down, no leadership whatever. I'm a greeter and I'm a prayer person and it's been so humbling April, so humbling Again, something I didn't know that God was going to move me into. But there I'm at and I never, because I'm the type A always like I always got to be in charge.

Speaker 2:

I was going to have control right.

Speaker 1:

Got to be in charge, got to be in control. It's hard for me to like. I'm always white knuckling stuff and that posture of surrender is so amazing, so good, yes, well, okay, april, as we get to wrap up here, I got three fun questions to ask you before we close, and one of them we talked a lot about joyful productivity and things that you do to you know, like gratitude and encouraging yourself, but what are just some fun things that bring you joy, that you do? I'm a walker.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I'm walking my neighborhood. I try to do that on a daily basis, but definitely at least five times a week and what I've been doing recently I'll snap a picture of something new.

Speaker 2:

So it's usually some type of animal around here I've seen a snake, turtles, rabbits, you name it and so I'll snap a picture of something new, um, by walks, and I usually text it to to my besties and say, okay, here's what's on the walk today. And they just get a kick out of it because it's always something and I just love walking outside. It's a stress reliever for me. It's a time of communion. I'll listen to a podcast music or whatever and then look for something new that I didn't see on a previous walk, and there's always something new to see.

Speaker 1:

So so that's something that.

Speaker 1:

I love it, that girl we're, we're like, right here, I'm telling you, I do my daily walks like that too. My husband and I go hiking a lot. We love to hike. Just being out in nature, um, you, just you hear from God in a different way when you're out in nature, right? What is a book that you would recommend to the listeners? I'm sure you got a ton, I know you got a ton, but what is a book that you would recommend to the listeners? I'm sure you got a ton, I, I know you got a ton, but what is?

Speaker 1:

one book, maybe on kind of along the lines of our topic that we discussed today. What would be a book?

Speaker 2:

it's one of my biggest go-tos. Purpose-driven life oh, rick Warren, pastor Rick Warren. That's one of the things I read early on in my journey and that I still go to and refer a lot of people to. I've done it myself and then I've also done it with others at the same time as kind of a book club, and I think it's one of the most profound books. For someone searching for their purpose or feeling lost about not knowing what God is calling them to, or feeling that maybe some things in their lives are a deficit their personality, their experiences, the painful stuff they've been through that's one of the best books to really gain perspective that you are not an accident, you are not a mistake and God will use everything about you and your life to bring you close into alignment with the purpose he has for you. That's one of my top go-tos.

Speaker 1:

I love that. But we I did community groups with that book. When it first came out. Our church bought everybody at the church a copy of that book and we did community groups and I will say I I have to revisit that book. It's been cause that's a, that's like a classic. That was, yeah, that was like the early two thousands. I think that book came out right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's been out for a while but it is an oldie but a goodie. I'm glad you.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you brought that up, cause that that is one book that I have. Um, I actually found a copy of that book, so I have one on my shelf. And then we were at a thrift store and I found a copy on the shelf, signed by Rick Warren himself at a thrift store. Yes, so I picked it up, so I have two copies. I have a signed copy from him. Um, it wasn't made to me, but I found it in a thrift store, so I'm like I got it oh yeah and I, I keep.

Speaker 1:

I keep the other one because that's the one that I put all my notes in while I when I read it. Yes, but I'm glad you mentioned that, because I think I got to dust that one off. Um, that's the one that I put all my notes in when I read it, but I'm glad you mentioned that because I think I got to dust that one off. That's a great book to share with people. That would be a really good conversation piece for a podcast too. Well, april, thank you so much for just sharing your wisdom with us today. Your heart to really serve others is what it really is.

Speaker 1:

It's been so inspiring just to hear about how we can get in position for what's next and embrace visionary behavior, just to navigate the transitions that we go through in life, and to navigate them with joy, with purpose and with confidence.

Speaker 1:

So, to my beautiful listeners, I just hope that you are walking away with actionable steps, some resources and just a renewed clarity on how to prepare for the next season of your life, whether it's in a career, a relationship, just your personal growth or even your walk with God. Just remember that embracing it with joy, with gratitude, can just really transform the way that your heart aligns for the next season. So, if you found today's episode helpful, if it really touched you, can you do April and I a huge favor and just share it with someone that could really use this talk and share it with someone you love Really, truly? There are people out there that need to hear this because they're in this transition and they're feeling lost and not know what to do. So, as always, we are here to support your journey and, april, hold on. I totally forgot. Let my listeners know how they can connect with you.

Speaker 2:

Let my listeners know how they can connect with you. Yes, for sure. Linkedin is my primary mode for a lot of my connections, so look for me out there on LinkedIn April M Stallworth. And if you want to get with me on Instagram, it's April Michelle with two L's Stallworth. And then, of course, on Christine Kane's podcast channel. I've done a couple of podcasts with Christine Kane her Life and Leadership podcast so check me out on there too.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, and all that information will be in the show notes. So just head to the show notes, ladies, and you can connect with April there. And thank you so much, april, and until next time, continue to chase joy.