7/10/24 - 2050: The Entrepreneurial Rabbi

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: She dresses loud. She's always smiling. She's a world changer. She is Tamra Andress. Tamra is the five time number one bestselling author, international speaker, seasoned podcaster with three podcasts and a recognized thought leader in spiritual entrepreneurship.

Most of Tamra's time has spent serving as the founder and lead visionary for Fit in Faith Media, Fit Press publishing house, but Tamra also spends time being the president of the founder collective Nonprofit, which serves as a collaboration, discipleship, and equipping zone for other faith driven entrepreneurs. Basically, all of her initiatives are centralized to catalyze faith filled leaders in the messengers with movements so they can broadcast truth and advance the kingdom. Tamra hails from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. For those of you that don't know what that is, you'll have to look it up on the map. See if you can find Hampton Roads. I don't think you will.

Known to the speaking world as the entrepreneurial rabbi, and we're going to ask her lots of questions about this, she does cartwheels and handstands to rid herself of stress and evoke play in those around her. Tamra Andress, welcome to iWork4Him.

Tamra Andress: If we were in the same room, I would cartwheel for you.

 (laughter)

Martha: And that's referring to the fact that we got to be together in Florida for the U. S. Christian Chamber expo in April, and so Tamra, it is just a pleasure to have you on the iWork4Him podcast and be able to let our audience get to meet you like we have gotten to meet you. But let's start with your Jesus story. Tell us about it.

Tamra Andress: Yes. So I was first introduced to Jesus when I was in high school through the Ministry of Young Life. Which I am a huge advocate for still today. They have got the wildlife element as well. That's for middle schoolers. And that same organization or as what some people like to perceive as what is church hurt was my first experience with being hurt by people but feeling like I was being diminished by God. And so as a senior in high school after leading small groups and being on the worship team and being in front on the microphone, not shocking with all of the podcasts that I have, I really found myself in a place of dark abandonment and it was because I was walking in the light and walking in the dark simultaneously.

And as most of us at that time, we don't really know exactly who we are. And so we're existing in multiple areas and arenas to try and find out who that is. Fast forward to my late twenties, I was married. I had two kiddos. I had two businesses. Obviously I had a husband. Well, I say, obviously. Some people might not, but I did.

And I was really grateful for the life that we were leading, which a lot of people actually referred to us as Barbie and Ken. We were the youngest in the neighborhood. We had the white picket fence and the new cars, and we were both entrepreneurs. And we had a boy first and a girl second. And Wow, the pressure that I felt of people pleasing, of perfectionism, of slave driving towards this American dream that seemed to find itself in this fictitious reality.

And I ended up having a supernatural encounter with the Lord in my living room during that season because I had what I like to call my tombstone moment where the Lord literally flashed in front of my face in my kitchen a tombstone that said entrepreneur on it. And I thought to myself what a void response, what a void death sentence, what an obituary I would have if I was to die today.

And though they probably, in kindness, would have put good wife and good mom, I knew within my integrity, within my spirit, that was not the case, the way that I was living. And so when that encounter happened with Jesus, it was an actual presence experience where he lifted my face from my feet to his face.

He lifted my chin and he said, I see you. I know you. And the part that radically shaped my life and still to this day does is I still love you. And I felt in that moment for the first time in the middle of my mess, in the middle of this wild, chaotic life, this busy, I'm air quoting for those listening, lifestyle that I had created, based on what was projected on to me and what seemingly felt like the right thing to do, was all wrong. And so I changed my life from that point forward and a lot has happened in the last, gosh, nine years.

Jim: So let's talk about a little bit of that, that work life that you've had since then. How did God get you where you are today?

Tamra Andress: I went to business school and I actually started the business project that I formulated alongside six other students at James Madison University in Virginia. And the investors at a business plan competition that we were a part of, we got second place and they came up to us and said, somebody needs to do this.

In that group of seven of us that I was the seventh Three of them were guys. And so they just looked at each other because the business plan was around diapers and maternity. So they wanted to go nowhere near that at the ripe age of 20 years old. And the other three women that were in the group were wall street bound. They were accountants, finance driven, marketing driven.

And I knew at that point that this was already the initial idea of my mom. She was the one who gave us the project idea from the beginning. And so I jumped right into entrepreneurship right out of school. I never wrote a resume, never went to a job fair, never worked for anybody other than contracting work that I did later.

And I started nine different businesses through my twenties while also starting to implement this particular business. It is still alive today, which is really amazing. It was sold to my mom and then sold to another person here in the Hampton Roads area a couple of years ago. It's really cool to see your college project like thrive, thriving in someone else's hands. But entrepreneurship is just literally in my blood. My mom was an entrepreneur. My Nana was an entrepreneur.

But this particular business that I'm currently operating in, and since that radical encounter with the Lord, everything that I had built in my 20s was completely for the wrong reasons. And now I get to work from a foundation of the biblical knowledge that Christ is my identity. That nothing that I do, even that rap sheet that you sent off at the beginning of this show, sometimes I just want to crawl under the table and just point up to the Lord because it seriously has nothing to do with me and everything to do with glorifying him and sharing my message, which is ultimately my testimony for other people to be able to share theirs.

Martha: Wow. That is a lot. And it's so amazing to hear that I know you really believe that it is all God and that he has given you those experiences for where you are today. And it is your testimony. And that's the thing that we love to highlight on iWork4Him is the fact that we can't refute someone's testimony. What God has done in your life is real and it is part of what makes you, it is what makes you who you are today and what you can do for him.

Jim: That and the bubbles and the balloons and the colors and the earrings and all those kinds of things. All of that in one. Yes. That's great.

 (laughter)

Tamra Andress: And it's interesting because I got, you always can see, in hindsight where God was showing up in your life and where he actually physically was in those times, even when I was prodigal and not paying attention to him, not giving him gratitude for the blessings of my life, my children, all of those things.

I wasn't walking in my faith the way that I am now. And yet there was these little seeds, even of color. My, my wedding, in fact, was a rainbow wedding. Probably not shocking to you, but for those who have never seen, this was pre Pinterest. So don't judge me. Okay. I just really love color. And it was literally in a rain thunderstorm, lightning strike the building that we were actually having our reception in less than 200 yards away, while 300 umbrellas were on the beach.

So we were blessed that no one got hurt, but God has always been wildly present in our story, and a rainbow obviously was what came after that. And so it's a part of my brand per se, but it really is deep seated before branding was ever something I had a definition for.

Jim: I love that. I love that.

Martha: So what is it that today that God has you actually doing when you're referring to the business and what you're doing? What does that look like?

Tamra Andress: Yeah, so I help turn messages into movements by developing the heart first of the messenger and employing and deploying that through a publishing house. So it's not just the message of a book because we publish things every single day. You guys press publish when you submit your podcast into the world, just the same as you would if you're getting your book into global distribution.

And so they go through in a fully immersive experience with us. We are not the traditional publishing house that just takes your book and then says sayonara and also takes your royalties. We are more about giving that ownership and that lead way to you and really focusing on how do we turn this in to an effective strategy oriented business? Because I really believe that we honor our messages most, our stories, our testimonies, most when they create the deepest level of impact. And we're not just writing the story to press publish. We're actually writing the story to help others have transformation. So that's our for profit entity.

It's called Fit and Faith Media, as you alluded to, it's the publishing house. But my nonprofit is really spent in the area that we've been talking about this entire time. And honestly, was a shock to us that it was the most intriguing part of this wildly colorful booth that we had at the Christian Chamber of Commerce Expo.

Everyone wanted to know about this little poster that we had to the right, which is the Faith and Business Collision Space of the Founder Collective. It's a 501 C 3. It's a church. It's a mobilized church. We actually meet every single Wednesday, me and the co pastor, Anthony Hart, pour into a community, not from a pulpit type experience, but around the table. And so we invite other entrepreneurs into that space. And we're in the current state of developing an academy that will launch in January of 2026.

Jim: Wow. 2026. Wow. Now you are planning.

Tamra Andress: Yes. Yes. We are. We have to. There's a board of 20. We've got tens of thousands of dollars that's flowing in on a monthly basis for this to build and I believe it's the next wave of education. It's the business school that I wish I went to even though I had that great experience.

Jim: I'm assuming that the business school is all kingdom intertwined?

Tamra Andress: Yeah. So they'll be ordained and operating as a marketplace minister. So they actually get ordained and go through minister school and licensing in the experience, and then they'll also launch their businesses if it's not already launched or formulate a more formal strategy connected to it.

And they'll have an opportunity to pitch in front of a shepherd tank, which I'm super excited about. Instead of a shark tank, the shepherd tank will actually have, a hundred percent of the people will have a shepherd at the end. No one's left in that blue ocean experience and they'll have somebody who's walking it out with them depending on seed funding and their abilities.

Jim: I still hear that sheep will eat their own anyway though. So it's okay. It's all right.

 (laughter)

Jim: Sorry, I'm just trying to be funny. Lighten it up. Come on, Tamra. Okay. But in all of this, you are an ordained minister and you're known as an entrepreneurial rabbi. So that's a lot to unpack, but how did you realize that you were actually a pastor to entrepreneurial leaders?

Tamra Andress: Yeah, I don't think it even went in that revelatory space. It was after that radical experience that I mentioned, I quit two businesses. I quit the college project that I mentioned, sold it to my mom at that point. And I also had a national and global e commerce brand for maternity bras for women. And we were in the United Kingdom, the Canadian market and United States. And that in and of itself was like one of the hardest things to release because of the financial leverage points and contracts connected to it. So when God got ahold of me, I realized that nothing else mattered. And I went on a really long sabbatical.

It was three years that God allowed me not to work and to really understand who He is and who I am in his image. My work was my home. My work was my children. It was actually leaning into this blessing that I had taken full advantage of. And so I went to a year long worship school. I am not a worship singer and I do not play an instrument, but I love to dance.

And so I was the only dancer in this worship school and everyone was always, what's your instrument? And I'm like, My body? This is strange. I don't really know what I'm supposed to say here. But during that time, I was just, I had so many sweet encounters with the Lord, and He really started to rewrite my identity, which led me into going into a two year ministries program through my church.

It was the first time I ever even heard the concept of the Holy Spirit. All the churches I had gone to before, I'd just never experienced. I never knew what speaking in tongues was. I never knew what prophesying was. I never knew what a lot of the things that you hear about in the Acts church, I was completely oblivious to.

And so it was three years into that experience where I had already got my ordination and I was sitting at coffee shops with a lot of different people having conversations about the things that God had laid on their heart, the missions he had laid, the messages he had laid. And I was just helping to develop.

How do you turn this into something? How do we create momentum around this idea? Having no context of coaching, I had never had a business coach to that point. And one girl who is still one of my amazing clients today, and she's about to drop out of her full time career in order to jump into the calling that God has had on her, her side gig, if you will, is now going to become her full time after five years. Dr. Michelle, she's amazing. And she said, you should do this. And I was like, do what? You should help people understand. The way that your mind works is so incredible. I never thought of half the things that you're telling me.

Same coffee shop, different person was the person who first brought this idea or this title to life. And I was just pulling out of him the gold that God had already placed inside of him and helping him see it through the image of what I see and putting it in a business plan. And he, at the end, he was like, you're officially my rabbi. You're my entrepreneurial rabbi. And I'm like, that's awesome. I need a shirt with that on it.

That sounds so fun. So while it's in my bio, I still haven't gotten the shirt. I don't wear the hat just like I wouldn't want somebody to call me pastor if I had yet to pastor them. So as you hear that, it's just ultimately knowing that I just love to create for people and I love to create from the lens of the Lord on how he sees them prophetically rather than who they see themselves sometimes in a smaller box than what the Lord has provided for them.

Martha: It's so important for all of us to be looking at who we are in Christ and who he has created us to be. And having somebody like you walking alongside them in the journey is such a powerful thing. A few years ago, Jim and I were exploring more about how God created us and we took the StrengthsFinders test, and we both are really high in responsibility.

And one of the ways that has showed itself is when we learn about something new that's good for us, and we want everyone else to know about it. And that's really the way it is with Patriot Mobile. This is a no brainer decision, friends. Switch your cell service to Patriot Mobile. Get the same great towers that you know and love and support things that you truly believe in, like faith, family, and freedom.

PatriotMobile. com forward slash iWork4Him is the website to learn more and get signed up. And actually, if you want to talk to someone, they have U. S. based representatives that can answer your questions. Just remember to tell them that iWork4Him sent you there.

Jim: Tamra, when you walk into a room, you are all sunshine. You're all joyous. You're bright. When you walked into the room at the U. S. Christian chamber, everybody knew here's the entourage that is Tamra Andress. How do you maintain all that joy all the time?

Tamra Andress: Oh man, I really love to stack play in my day. I really like to realize more so than anything. The Lord wants to co create with us and creating is fun. And when I remember like doodling when I was small, and hopefully you do too. Though I do have a son who sometimes loves to use the color black when he was small. And I was always like, ah, what does this mean?

 (laughter)

Tamra Andress: My best friend, we call her my black bestie because she literally wears all the dark colors. And I am the canvas or she's the canvas and I'm the color, but I always want to play with more fun. I always want more color. I want more vibrancy in my life. And so even as of recently, I was like, how can I create more play on my Wednesday?

Wednesdays is our mobilized church day. It's the day we come together. And it's like one of my favorite days of the week, but it is also a place where you pour out. All the ministers in the house say, amen. You're exhausted at the end of your Sunday, at the end of your Saturday, whenever it is that you do church.

And I thought, I don't, that doesn't have to be how this is. And so I actually started dancing more formally with a choreographer on Wednesday mornings. And so I do that. Then I have a couple of meetings and then I have church and then I've got my kiddos. And so that brings me so much life, so much perspective.

I learn about business and the Lord in there so much as he says things like Tamra, breathe. I'm like, I am breathing. I'm totally breathing. I've been breathing. He's no. Breathe deeper. Oh, that's what that feels like. And so teaching yourself presence, having fun with the Lord, exploring him in that way is the way that I evoke joy and he evokes joy through me.

I also just wake up with this amount of energy since I was little. And so I blame it on the Lord. He planned me that way for a reason. And I drove my mom nuts. And so I had to be quiet before coffee, but now I'm caffeine free. And I still wake up with this energy and I don't need coffee. So it's a, it's an experience for sure.

And I know when people say that they want to put it in a bottle and drink it for breakfast, that they mean that in all of the best ways, but it does come with sometimes really low crashes. So I can have an experience really high highs, but I can also, cause if you're not seeing me smiling or you're not seeing me in a space, people are like, what's wrong with you? Versus if I was just quiet and in a state of somberness, or I just, experience something hard. I don't feel like there's a lot of places that I can go that I feel really safe in to experience that part of myself.

And so I do have to be really mindful of that. So my community sees me cry. My team watches me cry and cries with me. And I've learned that if I don't wear the mask of a smile, but I own the identity of joy it's a victory.

Martha: So I just have a real quick question regarding like at the beginning of the show when you talked about being so busy and feeling all the pressure of the world for you to perform versus what looks like a very busy woman today. Like, how do you, just briefly tell me, how do you manage and making sure that you're protecting your family and your marriage and prioritizing that time with the Lord?

Because you did say, the dance is helping you with that. But for the person looking in, it might look still similar. So how are you making those things still a priority?

Tamra Andress: Yeah, the difference is the culture tells us to work hard, play hard. It tells us to work towards the weekend. It tells us to grind, right? It tells us hustle hard. And even, there's a lot of even Jesus quotes or sayings, they're not Jesus quotes, let's change that. They're Christianese, if you will, about hustling. And it's not the rhythm of grace. It's not God's plan for us. And so how do we work from rest and not work to rest is a huge part of the way that I schedule my days.

Even as of just yesterday, Martha, one thing that we're implementing as a team is I'm no longer doing one hour time blocks on my schedule. They're all be condensed to 45 minutes. They'll start five minutes after the hour and they'll give me. 10 minutes at the end of the hour, full intention to take that deep breath, to spend time with the Lord, preparing for what I'm about to step into the conversations that I'm going to have to look with his eyes instead of my own, to move at his pace instead of my own.

And then for five minutes after that time to be able to reflect and do any of the tasks associated to that meeting, even if it's just, it's to write it in my Asana, right? And keep that task manager on point. And then the next five minutes again to prepare for what's ahead. So there are rhythms of grace connected to how you can show up in intentionality.

We say busy is another four letter cuss word in our home that we don't use. And so when people are, how are you? Busy? If it comes out of my mouth, Tamra, how dare you say that? Check in on me, Martha, if I say I'm busy because I don't want to live that lifestyle ever again. It got me in a lot of deep water and I'm grateful that the Lord walks on it because he pulled me out. But man, it's not somewhere I want to be again.

Jim: That's for sure. Such good words. Yeah. Tamra was just sharing about protecting her marriage, her family, and her time with our Heavenly Father. There are things, there are other things we need to do to protect so we can keep our home and our businesses running smoothly.

And it's our technology. Our phones, tablets, computers, laptops, and other devices are vulnerable to the world and need to have protection. SaferNet is our choice at home and at iWork4Him. SaferNet is the ultimate cyber security solution. Protect your business and your family with ease. Enjoy the power of a virtual private network, internet controls, virus protection, web filters, all in one app. Stay safe online, wherever you go. Try SaferNet VPN today at SaferNet. com, SaferNet. com.

Martha: So Tamra, I have a Christian working woman question. What advice would you give to the Christian working woman who's listening right now anywhere in the country that's just really wondering if their calling is really in the marketplace, that they're feeling that tension?

Tamra Andress: That's so great. I think look at your past. Historically, the Lord is going to reveal to you those things. And where's the eagerness of your future? And is that eagerness because the world is presenting to you? Or is it because God is leading you into it? Entrepreneurship, like I said, was a part of my blood and I had zero idea or zero intention when I did finally quit and remove that part of my identity to ever do it again.

And the Lord was the one who positioned me into those conversations at those coffee shops with those people, with the coaches, who pulled that out of me. And so I want to do it for others. So don't rush into it would be the first thing that I would say. And also know that marketplace ministry doesn't mean you're an entrepreneur.

You can 100 percent be an intrapreneur. You can be someone who's working as a manager, C suite executive and employee. I had so much ministry in the times that I was an employee just as much as I do when I'm in charge of it, but that carries a lot of weight. There's a lot to entrepreneurship. So just be mindful of what that looks like. We all get to serve every day and we do so in so many different capacities.

I think we as marketplace ministers have more of an opportunity to bless the nations than even some of the confines of Four Walls Church, because I don't have four walls. I get to go wherever I want, whenever I want, however I want, and it's really beautiful to see the people like yourselves who I get to meet in different cities and states, and it's such a blessing. That's how Jesus did it, so we should be doing it too.

Jim: Tamra, if people want to check out what you're doing online and follow you, where do they find out more about your podcast, more about what you're doing? What's your website?

Tamra Andress: Yeah, it's Tamra Andress. And I say Tamra, like a camera minus the E. Tamra, like a camera minus the E. Tamra Andress. com. And that's where I hang out on Instagram as well. One of my favorite things to do, Jim, with people that are following me on social is praying over people. So if you have a prayer request, or there's something in your life that you are just looking for discernment over, clarity is the number one thing I hear from entrepreneurs, I'm just looking for clarity.

Side note, clarity comes in action just like faith comes in action but send me a note and I would love to send you a voice memo of an actual prayer. Not like I'll pray for you later or I'll put you on my prayer list kind of thing. Like actually I'm going to stop and I'm going to pray for you. So I look forward to connecting. I

Jim: love that. Tamra Andress, thanks so much for being on iWork4Him today.

Tamra Andress: My pleasure. Thank you guys. You're awesome.

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