Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the iWork4Him PowerPod. I'm Michael Miracle producer for iWork4Him, the voice of the faith and work movement. We are on mission to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. Each quick listening PowerPod is designed with you in mind and jam packed with Kingdom resources to help you connect your faith and work.

How will this impact your work? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You've tuned into the Voice of the Faith and Work Movement, and we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. So glad to be broadcasting you from Siloam Springs, Arkansas at the National headquarters for DaySpring.

Martha: That's exactly right. And listeners, if you have not gone to dayspring.com, any time ever in your life, or not recently, I encourage you to check it out because they are constantly coming out with what they call resources that - whether it be cards, gifts, home decor, whatever it might be to help you really with what, however you wanna share the scripture, Jim.

It could be a greeting card. It could be a sympathy card. It could [00:01:00] be something for somebody that's something on the wall. Could be, there's home decor, there's pillows. Oh my goodness. There's so much stuff, and I won't go down that, but dayspring.com is a great resource for people and I just want them to get re familiar with it and really utilize it because they make great stuff with great messages.

Jim: So one of the things we're getting to do while we're here is meet a whole bunch of really neat people. And today we're gonna be talking with Dawn Stanford. She's the business development manager here at DaySpring. She works with a lot of the national accounts like Hobby Lobby and Mardell Books and Barnes and Noble and some of these other great places. What was the other one? Altered State. Books a Million. Yep.

But she's got a story to tell about change, about career change. And she says, I'd really like to be able to share this story with your audience. But just so you know, as we've gotten to know Dawn, she's also a control freak.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about control freakness , because that was something, and also she talked about this thing called Never say Never, never Say Never. Because she got into trouble with the Lord several times saying, I'm [00:02:00] never gonna do this. And we all know what happens when we tell the Lord never. That is exactly where you're going next.

Martha: So listeners, I think you'll really relate to Dawn's story as we get a chance to kind of unfold it for you on the air today, and we hope that you'll really take away something great.

Jim: Well, yeah, I mean, if you're thinking about career change or if you're thinking about just job change or maybe change within your own company. Maybe you're really trying to figure out how do I get over being a control freak? I mean, all of those things we're gonna be dealing with here.

I'm gonna have to listen to today's show. As one control freak to another. It's another one. So again, we're talking with Dawn Stanford. She's the business development manager at DaySpring in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and she's got a story to tell. Dawn, welcome to iWork4Him.

Martha: In the context of talking about career change, it can be scary for a lot of people. And you had worked for a direct sales company for 13 years and then made a change. Why did you do that? Why'd you make a change?

Dawn Stanford: Well, I would say it [00:03:00] kind of started with a stirring that was in my heart the summer of 2012, probably about nine, 10 months before I even started here at DaySpring.

I took a personal prayer retreat, which is a spiritual practice that I have been doing for the last several years, where I do that about once or twice a year. And during a prayer retreat, I basically go and with my Bible, a journal and an open haert and mind, and I have no agenda, and I literally go anywhere from four hours to 24 hours.

The most I've ever done was like two days, but I'm very extroverted, so I kind of need people. Anyway, so me and God, my Bible, and my journal, and just an open heart. And so I do that a couple times a year. And during that particular prayer retreat, summer of 2012, the Lord just really led me to listen to him.

And said, Dawn, what I want you to do is have your knees bowed, hands and heart open, and every single day I want you to come before me and I want you to literally kneel before me with your hands and heart open and [00:04:00] just listen. Truly, just listen. And that season I was still working my Mary Kay business and in fact I was in a really great season of my business.

I was getting close to earning one of the esteemed cars that we have and things were great. Cuz I'd come off of some seasons a few years back that were not good. There's ebbs and flows. And so I was in a really great season being mentored by someone and I'm just like, I can't see myself doing anything else.

And God just kept speaking to me with different things. And one of the songs that was really impactful to me was Toby Mac's song Steal My Show. And there's a line in the song. And in direct sales business, when you're the leader, you're the director, you're the top dog, girl, whatever, you're leading and you're up front. And the Lord had said to me, Dawn, I want you to lead from the back of the room. I want you to elevate others, give them more responsibility. And so there was a stirring and turning in my [00:05:00] heart of letting others take more of a precedence and just be humbling myself and letting them be led that way.

And so this song and this one certain line, it's at the very end of the song. It says, my life, my dreams, my family, my career. It's yours, Lord, it's you I wanna live for. And I remember thinking. God, I've given you my business. I've lived for you. Yes, it's you and I want you to steal my show and it's yours, but you would never have me let go of my business or do anything different, right?

Certainly not. Cuz I always really saw my business as a tool of ministry. In fact, before I had started my business I was a youth minister full-time on staff at a church for five and a half years. And so when I was led into business, it was kind of like, Ooh, wow, this is really different.

But I just knew it was a tool of ministry and just my heart started being really open and it was kinda like that never say never. And so then in February of 2013 I heard about this opening at [00:06:00]DaySpring for field development manager in Mary & Martha, which is DaySprings Direct Sales company.

Awesome, awesome company. And my husband, Rodney, he also works here at DaySpring and he's the corporate recruiter. And he had sent me a little email saying, Hey, do you know anybody in the direct sales community who might be interested in, you know, coming on board here at DaySpring? And I read the job description and I was like, oh, you know, I'll think about it.

You know, I had a few friends that I thought might be looking for a transition, but I'm happy doing what I'm doing. It's not, not on my radar but, Hmm. Sounds just like me. That's kind of funny. Just tossed it away. Didn't really even think about it. About two, three weeks later, I was away actually for my grandmother's funeral.

And you know how sometimes it is, you get away from all the other things and distractions of life and you can actually think clearly. And the whole time I was there, I just kept thinking about that job and I got thinking about that job and I was like, what are you doing, God? is this a temptation from all my goals and dreams in my [00:07:00] business?

Or is this your providence? And are you moving? And I was like, oh my goodness, I need to pray about this. Rodney said to me, Dawn, you need to call Kim Marquette. Why don't you have an off the radar conversation with her? And you're actually gonna get to speak with Kim Marquette too . So I called her up and I said, Hey, I might be interested in this position. What can you tell me about it?

And then she told me a little bit. It was about mentoring, coaching, and doing leadership training for the field. And so I said, well, you know what? I'm gonna take a personal prayer retreat. I'm gonna go on another prayer retreat. I wanna seek the Lord. And she said, what I want you to do is I challenge you to ask God, Lord, are you at work at DaySpring and are you asking me to join you there?

And so I said, okay. Good words. So I went and God led me to the scripture in Isaiah 43: 18 and 19. It says, remember not the former things nor consider [00:08:00] the things of old. Behold I'm doing a new thing now that springs forth, do you not perceive it? And so of course I'm like, oh, well yeah, it sounds like you're doing something new, but is this it?

And so but it gave me a real peace and just a permission to take the next step. it's okay to have a conversation. I could say no to them. I might not want it as, as I get more into it. And then had the interview and kind of the rest is history. But I will tell you a really cool thing on the day I went in for my interview, and you can go down the hall and check it out later on.

Down there in the Mary & Martha Wall, on the wall is the verse Isaiah 43: 19. Behold I'm doing a new thing. And I remember seeing that on the wall and just saying, oh my gosh, God, it's clear that you are moving and doing something new here. I was like, if they don't hire me, they're out of the will of God. You know, it was like I knew that I knew.[00:09:00]

Jim: Dawn, the control freak thing. How have you dealt with being a control freak and a follower of Jesus? Because that's a challenge.

Dawn Stanford: Mm-hmm, it really is. Well, when I look at scripture and what I've learned about how did Jesus model his life, I think about Philippians 2, where Jesus humbled himself taking on the form of a servant and that our Christian life is counter-cultural. It's not the way of business upward mobility. It's actually downward mobility. And the more and more I think about that, it's about living my life a surrendered life. And not of how, what can I get out of it, but what can I give to others?

And so as I was talking before about the never say never and how I tried the Earl Gray Green Tea, and I love it now is why do we say, oh, I would never do that? I would never go to Africa, or I would never work for another company. [00:10:00] Well, why not? If God is calling you to that, why not?

So once I was here at DaySpring, I was here for about three and a half years and God started to do another stirring in my heart. And there's a book that I love. I've used it through, actually since my youth ministry years and even when I had my own business, was John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

And one of the laws is the Law of the Lid. And the law of the lid talks about if you put a lid on yourself or someone else puts a lid on yourself, you can't grow anymore. And it's like we almost hit a plateau. It could be a self-imposed lid, or it could be literally somebody else's squashing you down maybe for a variety of reasons.

And I realized there was a little bit of self-imposed and there was some other circumstances going on that there was that lid and I just thought, am I open to something different? And there became an opening here at [00:11:00] DaySpring in retail sales. Well, I had not been in retail sales. This is big business.

This is working with the big companies and representing on the national account level. But I was like, you know what? I wanna try it. I want to go for it. And so, again, a lot of prayer. And just taking a risk. And that puts me back to another book that really has had an impact, and that's Brene Brown's book, Daring Greatly.

And in it, the whole book is based around Theodore Roosevelt's quote about Daring Greatly. And that book of having courage to be vulnerable in a world where everyone wants to appear strong, confident, and like they know what they're doing. And I knew moving over to another area, I wouldn't necessarily know that, but would I be willing to dare greatly?

And the things that we miss out on when we don't try for something, if we don't go for something. And it's not that we're necessarily out of God's will. That was another thing on one of those prayer retreats. I was driving along and I saw all these hills and God just spoke to my heart and he was like, [00:12:00] I'm on this hill, but guess what? I'm over there on that hill too.

And sometimes he gives us a choice. He gives us a choice. So some of you out there listening today, God may be giving you a choice. And never say never Go for it. Ask the Lord, what is it that he wants for you? And have an open heart. Knees bowed, hands and heart open.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our work place, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

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