Joining us today is Melane Mullings, a successful entrepreneur, cancer survivor, former Registered Nurse, Business Management Consultant and now author of the book, “Lemonade! Squeeze Your Challenging Life Experiences Into a Successful Business.” During our interview, Melane talks about the value of having God as your business’ silent partner.
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On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:
- Melane shares 3 ways God can be your best silent partner
- How prayer fits into our business
- How God directed Melane through a tough time in her first business
- The importance of surrendering your business to God
- What it means to approach God with a humble and honest heart
- How gratitude fits into your life and business
- Why we still need to take action, even after we pray to God
Connect with Melane
Website: melanemullings.com
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TRANSCRIPT
Gloria Rand
Namaste and welcome to another edition of live love engage. I am your host Gloria Grace Rand and I am delighted to have a guest with us today. Her name is Melane Mullings and I’m going to tell you all about this amazing woman in just a second. But first I want to welcome you, Melane to live love engage.
Melane Mullings
Thank you for having me, Gloria.
Gloria Rand
Well, thank you for being here. And I know you’re gonna be sharing your brilliance with us in just a moment. So let me share a little bit about who this woman is and what she has accomplished in her life. She is a successful entrepreneur, a cancer survivor, former registered nurse, Business and Management Consultant, and now an author of the book, lemonade, squeeze your challenging life experiences into a successful business. I love that title by the way. She’s also a self described venture capitalist now not capitalist, which you might have heard of before. But catalyst because she catalyzes the reaction that turns seemingly simple, esoteric business ideas born out of passion and purpose into ventures that experience combustible success. I love that. So there’s a lot of other stuff that she has done. She’s really passionate about helping others on earth their purpose, and is very, um, also spiritually minded, which, when we were you know, looking exploring, and you’re having you on the show, when you suggested your topic, I’m like, I wrote a blog article about this. Let’s let’s compare notes. So I thought I would kind of start right, right there a little bit. And because what it was is you talked about you propose that we talk about the three ways that God can be your best silent partner. So explain what you mean by that. And how can I How can that be.
Melane Mullings
So I am Christian, and my spirituality and my relationship with God just intertwines with every aspect of my life, and especially business. And so I have learned that God can be your best Silent Partner, one, because he is the master orchestrator. Yeah, everything that is in motion and is is moving throughout this world is held together by the power of God, I have found in my own life, the deeper understanding of Romans 8:28 that says, all things work together for good to those that love God, and are called according to His purpose. And so for me, I just believe that at the end of the day, God has a way of just bringing all things and making it beautiful in his time of experiences in my business, where I’d be in meetings, and people are speaking, different things that are directly beneficial to my business, and not necessarily to them. So it was as though God was orchestrating and moving things, for my benefit. And so I had to just relax. And as you mentioned in your article, Gloria let go and let God recognize that he is orchestrating things for my good if I have surrendered my adventure, and I’m moving in the direction, my purpose. So that’s number one. Number two is recognizing that he is your guide. There’s another passage of scripture, it’s an Isaiah, it’s Isaiah 30, 20, somewhere in there, where it says in you will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way walk in it. And I’ve also done live, but the truth of that as well, in my experience, God has guided me into making certain decisions and moving away from others in my business. I can think of one particular example where I was very, very passionate about making a particular decision. I had researched it, I felt really good about the decision. And in my devotion, time that morning reading scripture, God impressed on me, you know, stand still hold your position and see the Lord’s victory. And so that’s in Second Chronicles. And so I even though I had thought of a particular position, I was getting ready to pivot to this new direction that I felt you know, better about Fine, let’s let’s make that decision. It does make sense. And when I came to the meeting, because I had heard that, in my devotional time with God earlier, I felt Okay, the original position I had, I need to stand still on that. And Gloria, I found you years later, I came to realize that if I had made that pivot decision, it would have been catastrophic for my business. And so God directly guided me into what was best. I think of the blizzard example, you know, when you’re driving in a storm, you can’t see what’s in front of you, you just see, you know, just really a couple of feet, but God can see around you, he can see way ahead of you. So allowing ourselves to be guided by the instruction, and the presence of God is incredibly pivotal. And that’s one way you can be your sound partner, the best silent partner. The third way, I would say is that he has abundant resources, there’s no limit on what God can provide you, you know, regular Silent Partner, right? They have limits to what they will lend you, whatever the case, but God has all of the resources of the universe, right in his hand, there’s a patent other passage of scripture that says that he’ll supply all of our needs, according to his riches and glory. That’s Philippians 4:19. And so he has everything right at his fingertips, and so he can move it toward us. And if we just tap into that resource that’s available to us, we can experience abundant rich blessings in our businesses.
Gloria Rand
Absolutely, yeah. And I have, I’ve got a sign that I actually painted, but it’s to remind myself that it says, with God, all things are possible. And you know, and because sometimes, you know, the journey of an entrepreneur is not always easy. It’s a little bumpy and and self doubt can come up from time to time. But as you said, you know, when you can put your faith in that ultimate Silent Partner of God and trust that, you know, God has your back and and is your showing you the way and providing the resources, as you mentioned, then we can relax and just focus on doing the things that need to be done in our business and helping.
Melane Mullings
Right? And why not relax, right? Why would we want to do it alone when connecting with God is free?
Gloria Rand
Yeah, absolutely
Melane Mullings
it just involves our willingness to just let go, as you mentioned, and just let him when you
Gloria Rand
absolutely. Now, I know, one of the things you also talk about, which is related to this is that you’ve liked to say that if you’re not praying for your business, that your prayer doesn’t have a prayer, or your business, I should say, doesn’t have a prayer. So how does number one, like how does prayer fit in with a business? And how does that work?
Melane Mullings
Well, one of the reasons why I say, you know, if you’re not praying for your business, your business doesn’t have a prayer is really rooted in. And that’s not to get negative. It’s to be realistic, I guess you could say, in the larger scheme of things of stats, I read a recent article on some interesting entrepreneurial stats for 2021. And it mentioned that 50% of businesses Gloria fold by their second year, and then only three and 10 of those that started make it to your 10. Another stat that I found jarring was that there’s 40% of businesses are actually profitable, small businesses.
Gloria Rand
Yeah,
Melane Mullings
that’s 40 percent.
Gloria Rand
That’s right. So that means 60% are not profitable. Right?
Gloria Rand
Right. So I dove a little bit deeper into that 60. And I found that 30% of that 60 that are not profitable, are just breaking even. And the rest of the 30 are actually losing money. Right. And so that is, you know, deeply concerning. And at the end of the day, we see that if you are starting and you are not they’re saying that the three most successful types of businesses are those that are in real estate insurance. And I think the other one was real estate and finance. So those are the three types of businesses that do the best. And they mentioned that 58% of those types of businesses are still active by your five. So number one, that I mean, if you’re not in that arena, those three, you have a strike against you, right. There’s so many challenges to entrepreneurship today. That praying for your business is key. This is surrendering your business and praying for it and so I have found effective way is to pray for business and your business. is one coming to the place where you can come with a humble and honest heart. There are times where there are issues happening within our businesses, but we’re not telling ourselves the truth about them. We may be the cause for the reasons why there’s issues in our business. When we come to God, and we pray, but yet we haven’t addressed those challenges. What do we want God to do? though, to be honest with ourselves, be humble, you know, make those changes, ask God’s help to manage what we have within our control, and just pray with honesty and humility. The second aspect that I find to effective prayer for our businesses, is to ask and believe, right? I’ve heard that when a prayer without faith is like a check without a signature. Right? If we are not willing to actually believe that God has the power to manifest this blessing for us, why we bring, right we it’s important for us to come with faith and just and believe that, Okay, I’m coming to you, God helped me to believe that this can come to pass and help me to trust you. And just let go to the power that is available in you if I believe. So number one, having that willingness to just be humble and honest. Number two, really praying with faith. And the third, which is the part that I find the most enjoyable, is just act as if it’s done. operate as though what we’re asking is done, be happy about it, you know, and also exercise patience. A lot of times too many of us give up quickly. And so when we are waiting, and waiting, well, that’s a whole nother entirely different conversation because we can be patient but be waiting, miserable, right? Or waiting anxiously right. But the key is to get happy and believe so much in the second step that okay, God, you are going to make this happen, you know, when my business so I’m going to go forward as though it’s already done. And I’m going to thank you for it. I’m going to act as though it has already been manifest. I have lived the truth of this, Gloria years years ago, in the earliest my business, I was hundreds of 1000s of dollars in debt with my first entrepreneurial venture. And I practiced this intention of visualizing with faith. And so I would visualize the day that would come when I would pay off all my investors. I visualize it so clearly, Gloria, that I you know, thought of what the day would be like the day that I would walk to the bank and pay them off. And I thought about what what it would smell like that day what I would wear that to everything. And I just claimed I just gave that to God and prayed in belief. And you know, Laura, the day that I actually did end up paying my last investor, it was as though it was so you know, inconsequential because I had been there in my mind so many times before, and it happened precisely as I envisioned it. So I believe that if we surrender in faith, and act as if, and, you know, visualize with that faith, God will show up in our business in exponentially amazing ways.
Gloria Rand
I love that and and especially I love that you mentioned thanking God as well, you know, expressing gratitude because I do believe that that is a huge component of that as well. I mean, all those things that you said, but also to really just be be grateful and trusting that it is happening, that it is everything that you are wanting, and the the humble hominum, that humbleness that you talked about at the beginning, also is that first part, I think that’s very key, too, because as you mentioned, you know, sometimes we, you know, we’re not being totally honest with ourselves about the business, you know, maybe we’re not really paying attention to our numbers. And, and, you know, I know, it’s like, I’m gonna sound like I’m contradicting here that like, you know, God can’t work miracles. Well, God does require us to do to do our part. And then the miracle can happen but we do have to step up a little bit and own some responsibility for this, right?
Melane Mullilngs
Yes, yes. And my mind I struggled with that years back as well that okay, God, you know, you can do this, so just take care of it. Yeah. At the end of the day, I realize that our journey in business and in life is to grow us up. Yes, he can, you know, come through just as you know, when you’re having when you have a child, you can just do For them, but eventually you want them to be able to do it for themselves and handle things and grow up into a higher level of functioning. So yes, he can definitely create miracles. But he wants us to use the knowledge that he has imparted to us, and actually put it into practice. And I like to say, you know, my book, I say, the teacher is always quiet during the test. And so there are testing times that happened within our lives and in our business. And sometimes God just pulls back and is quiet to allow us to pass that test and move to the next level of our functioning. So creating success in business is also about our own personal transformation. Are we becoming a leader worth becoming worth the journey? Or is it just about money and numbers and success, I believe it’s also about who we become in the process and how we personally develop. And that encompasses the idea of putting the work in and praying over the work that you have done, you know, bring your five loaves and two fish, right, bring what you have your best and exactly like to move and bless beyond what you can think we have, we have to do some heavy lifting.
Gloria Rand
Absolutely. And I had a thought and it just just escaped me, but hopefully it’ll come back again.
Melane Mullings
five loaves and two fish?
Gloria Rand
Yeah, no, it was right before that, but it’s okay. It’s It’s all right. you know, this, this idea of being able to fast in in human God and and to be able to do the work itself? And oh, I know, I was when you when you talked? Oh, I know what I was gonna say that teacher reference. I love that, that it’s, you know, that, that the teacher is silent during a test. And that is important, because we do we have to, we have to learn and grow. And I think I know, I know exactly where I was going, what I was going to the next part of that is the fact that I think that becoming a business owner, really is like, it’s almost the best gift you can give yourself because it does create all of these opportunities for not only professional growth, but personal growth, because it’s not for the faint of heart.
Melane Mullings
Yeah, absolutely. I think that God has the ability to create such abundance through us and not just to material, but allow us to be able to operate in a manner that can impact our sphere of influence, which can have exponential impact on the world. And so when we are operating in the capacity of our purpose, which I firmly believe that when you have a business and you are delivering a service from the perspective of your purpose, you can have such great impact. And that process changes you.
Gloria Rand
Exactly, yeah.
Melane Mullings
In my experience, I started my business with no business education, don’t training, minimal capital, I just started with a faith in Matthew 21:22, whatever you ask for in prayer, believing you will receive and my passion to create change, and then kidney health healthcare system. And with those two things, God grew what became a sustainably successful, purpose driven, impactful business. And my life’s work is just to share with other people that you can do it by the grace of God, he has the power to allow you to create impact and achieve success for His glory, and really living a life of thanks, when we do receive that, the blessings from God and the transformation of who we are living a life of thanks. and pulling someone up behind us to say you can do it too,
Gloria Rand
huh? Yeah, definitely. you know, other than what we’ve already talked about so far, and what would you say? Or what do you believe an entrepreneur really needs most to create sustainable success?
Melane Mullings
While it goes along with what we’ve already talked about, I think, is that spiritual anchoring, right, the stat today had mentioned previously. They are so stacked against you as an entrepreneur, right? So really, moving forward. So the one thing I would say is really coming to an understanding of your purpose. Why are you here? Right? What is the particular work that you were put here to do? And then allowing God to move you into a deeper understanding of how to live that life’s work. So I think those are the two things that really make an entrepreneur successful, is operating from a deep understanding of their life’s purpose. And then just surrendering that and spiritually anchoring your venture in your higher power. And I know that for a lot of individuals purpose, the concept of purpose is daunting, right? Oh, my goodness was my life. But you know, really, you know, stressful to even think out, right? Especially if you know that you’re in a job, or you’re, you have a business that is just training you and it’s not your purpose. But in my book, I talk about a simple two step process to unearth your purpose. But there’s nothing more freeing that I believe graph, then operating from the position of what you were put here to do. And there’s a Bible text Ephesians 2:10, it says, For we were created for good works, that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we were born, there was a good work that we were created to deliver to the world, and all of our life experiences, good or bad, has that to uniquely operate in that capacity of our purpose. So when we move in that direction, and we spiritually anchor that that venture, or that direction, in our higher power, I believe that success is inevitable. however you define it, we don’t all define it the same. But I believe that that is where true success that leads to peace and fulfilled true fulfillment and the abundant life, that’s where it lies.
Gloria Rand
excellent. What is what do you maybe wish that you had known at the beginning, when you started out in business,
Melane Mullings
Ooh!
Gloria Rand
pick one
Melane Mullings
I wish that I knew how long it would take for me to become successful. I wish I read a lot of you know, business books and talk to a lot of individuals about you know, the entrepreneurial journey, etc. But I did not have a full understanding of the, the weight of the sacrifices that I would need to make emotionally, financially, physically relationally. So I would definitely say that I would also say, I wish I had known the emotional toll journey would take I had never struggled with depression, before my entrepreneurial journey, anxiety, you know, my, I never, you know, endured that. And so really living in a pressure pot, right? You know, client pressures and financial pressures, etc. So I really didn’t have a full understanding of that weight. And what that would look like. And really, as I said, just just the length of time that it would take, I got into it wanting to prove a concept to the healthcare system, and oh, you know, within five years, I’ll do it, then I’ll sell the company and move on to something else. Well, it took 13 years. And about, you know, half of that for me to become profitable, and then the other half really building and etc. So I learned a lot during that journey, which is why now as a business management consultant, I can come I can be I can come beside entrepreneurs, and really guide them through that process. I didn’t know that there were business consultants that could help you grow your business, I’d heard of, you know, career coaches, and life coaches, but I didn’t even I didn’t know, I was ignorant of that fact. So that’s another thing. I wish I knew that there are individuals that can coach you through your entrepreneurial journey. So yeah, I would say there’s still lessons that you need to learn going through the journey. But at the end, and as I said, I was privy to the fact that yes, it’s going to be hard. I didn’t understand how hard it how long it would take for sure.
Gloria Rand
Yeah. And I think, you know, mentioning that, you know, you didn’t realize that there were people out there who can help you. And I think that’s also a way that God helps us is that you know, God provides people resources, you know, so it’s not necessarily you know, it’s nice sometimes when we get even like a whispering in the ear of what to do, but sometimes it’s God. You know, having I actually talked to someone the other day who had, she was talking about a time that a book fell out from a shelf in front of her, and when she picked up the book and like, totally changed her life, so whether she hadn’t been there and have that happen, you know, things would have been different. So sometimes they’re, you know, they do like to say, God works in mysterious ways. But sometimes I think God works in deliberate ways. And is right, you know, giving us signposts, but we have to be aware of them, we have to be open to them. And, and, and be watching for these different signs. Have you have you found that in your experience as well?
Melane Mullings
Oh, Gloria. Absolutely. As I mentioned, I was I started my business with no business training, no education, in business experience, and minimal capital. So I learned everything along the way, by God, sending people my way, showing me to take you know, etc. And even when I was in great debt, in the business, I didn’t know anything about investors. It wasn’t even in my, you know, lexicon, right, and so are more by vocabulary. So an individual that I had known a friend of my sister is when she was in high school, I saw at an event and the individuals asked me, you know, tell me about your business. And so I mentioned a few words. And then a couple days later, I received a phone call. And just asking me, what would you say to someone that would be interested in investing in your business, I thought, Oh, boy. I just sent this individual right to me. And so I can absolutely resonate with what you’re mentioning about God, setting things up and moving. Giving you resources that help can come in so many ways, it can come through a sermon, it can come through a walk in the park, watching nature, it can come from listening to a side conversation, right? And you Oh, wow, that’s something that I keep. So God can directly help us and indirectly help us and that’s why it’s so important to spiritually anchor your business to just open up to that guidance.
Gloria Rand
Absolutely. is there anything else that I haven’t asked you about that you think would be important to share with us, our audience today,
Melane Mullings
I would say, really encouraging your audience to recognize that you are not alone. At the end of the day, the struggles that you’re having, you know, within your business and trying to make sense of it, etc. Those of us that have achieved success, we’ve been there. Right? A lot of the emotions that it you know, we face doubt, self doubt, right? imposter syndrome, fear, anxiety, even sometimes depression, you feel like you’re in a slump, I’m not going to make it even in the face of faith. It is a journey that is not easy for any of us, right? No matter you know, you can have all the capital in the world and, you know, have more degrees and the thermometer, right. But none of that matters at the end of the day when, you know, different challenges come and etc. and So recognizing that the emotions that you’re feeling, fear, anxiety, etc, you’re not alone. But God is there. And he is able to strengthen you and give you the courage to take that next step. And, you know, make that next phone call and show up for that next meeting. He can go before you and just bless you with the strength and so allowing yourself to just open up to the power of God, and his ability to create success so that you can now refresh the world with your venture, and then turn back and help others and show them that through spiritual and hearing your business, there is abundance and true success.
Gloria Rand
I love that. You are an inspiration and a wonderful. Yeah, inspiration, I think to business owners out there, because it’s, you speak the truth and you and you have been there and done that. And you know, you know, you’ve lived to tell the tale and that’s important and, and, and, and I think that’s also something to keep in mind as well is that, you know, all of the things that we grow through very fair lessons, you know, we were more picking up different lessons in this process of growing a business says, and, and to just really not, as you say, you know, not get down on yourself about it, but just treat it as like, okay, you know, maybe something didn’t work out, but I’ll try something else, and just to keep going have the faith that that God is going to sustain you and just keep at it, especially if you really do believe that you are providing a value to your clients, then you owe it to them, frankly, to make it work, and to continue to be there.
Melane Mullings
Right. And in my book, “Lemonade,” I talk about squeeze your challenging life experiences into a successful business. That is the whole premise that I take within the business or within the book is to help people understand that your challenges, your insecurities, different events that may have happened in your fat, your past that have caused trauma, all of it has within it depending upon how you choose to look at it. It has within it the seeds to allow you to grow something beautiful, and make something of that, that has the capacity to refresh the world. And so I teach in the book, how to use those challenging life experiences past or present, and turn them into success in business. Because it’s for a purpose. Hmm. If we allow ourselves to open up to understand what that purpose is, God can use us to have such an amazing impact.
Gloria Rand
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it’s, it’s, I know, just in doing this podcast over the last couple years, I think that I have spoken with a lot of especially like coaches and things like that, who have kind of gone through things in either, you know, as a child were early on and maybe in their early adulthood, where they had something, you know, traumatic, that might have happened to them and I think that is really then what helps us then to be compassionate and to be more to be there really to be that support for our clients because we’ve we’ve had to overcome that for ourselves.
Melane Mullings
Right? Oh yeah. And I think that’s key what you said the compassion piece, we know what it’s like and I think not enough of us are transparent with the challenges that we’ve had on our journey to success because at the end of the day, it is a challenging experience right and and, you know, to survive it. I sold my first entrepreneurial venture after 13 years and I built that through the Great Recession. So that was an arduous arduous journey. And so to have the opportunity to now to turn back and help other entrepreneurs and business owners through an authentic and you know, experience that is of integrity, I’ve done it, right is such a gift. So allowing ourselves to just open up and also be transparent as those who have made it to the other side and giving back is you know, key for sure.
Gloria Rand
Well I hear my dogs barking in the background they’re probably letting me know that it’s dinner time and it’s like, “wrap it up” and and actually we are coming to the end of this episode. So I would like to ask you to share with our listeners and our viewers, if someone resonated with you and wants to learn more about what you do, maybe how are you and also maybe how to get your book as well. Can you share with us how people can contact you?
Melane Mullings
Well, they can contact me on my website it’s Melanemullings.com and that’s melane Melanie without the I. M-E-L-A-N-E and last name Mullings, m u l l i n g s.com MelaneMullings.com. And through the website, they can connect with me through my business, they can email all the information is there on the site.
Gloria Rand
Excellent. All right. And I will have that in the show notes for everyone as well. So in case you’re somewhere where you’re not able to take some notes, just relax, go to live, love, engage, podcast calm, and you’ll be able to get all that information. So thank you again, Mylene for taking some time out of your day and being with us and sharing your wisdom. I know it was appreciated by our audience today.
Melane Mullings
Thank you so much for having me, Gloria and thank you for being a blessing and sharing your your insights and wisdom with your podcast.
Gloria Rand
Thank you. And thank everyone out there as well for watching and for listening. And if you ever want to actually have a conversation with me, feel free to contact me You can go to engagewithgloria.com and request a time and let’s you know have a chat. If you ever would like to do that I’ll be able to help you or you know or direct you to someone else who can if I can’t, so I’m happily able to do that as well because I know I don’t have all the answers and but I know a lot of smart people who can help. So until next time, as always I encourage you to go out today and and tomorrow as well and the next day and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.
