God Cares about Your Business

I know not everyone here is religious or even goes to the same church as me, so this title of this podcast might take you off guard a little bit. But today I am just feeling really inspired to say that I know God cares about your business. He cares about you, what you care about, he knows your business and cares about your business. So if you’re not feeling it, you can just skip through this one but I hope someone can benefit from today’s episode.

In my decade of being an entrepreneur, I’ve always prayed about my business and acted on promptings that follow. This pattern is a major way I’ve been able to grow my business and do things differently than mentors, because I am looking for how to follow my own path or how to be who I, Kylee Maughan, am meant to be. And God knows my path, he knows what I’m meant to become and it’s different from your path or any of my mentors. I just take what other people advise and make it my own.

But I guess I just really understood the power of letting God into your business a few years ago when I was getting ready to go to a conference. I was feeling very anxious about flying out of state, leaving kids and family, so I said a prayer and asked what to do. After I said my prayer, I got up and opened my phone and right there on my Instagram feed there was a quote about trusting God and I instantly felt peace. I knew that God wanted me to succeed and that was a sign for me to go forward. God cares for me and he’s listening all of the time. He’s there.

You wicked and slothful servant

Literally no one knows what they’re doing, just all a bunch of experimenting and acting on what they feel is best. Even your mentors don’t know what they’re doing. That’s why it’s so important for me to teach you how to be confident in your decisions and trust yourself. Learning the purpose that you have here in this crazy world helps you to trust your gut and involving God in your work helps you to learn your purpose. I think of it as God is really the CEO of my business and I am just the steward.

Think of the parable of the talents from the bible. If you don’t know, there were a few stewards who were given talents and some invested them and grew them but there was one steward who went out and hid his talents. Did nothing with them. The master chastised this steward then eventually took away his talents and gave them to the other stewards, calling him a wicked and slothful servant. We learn from this parable that a good steward is diligent and hardworking and willing to take risks. God wants us to build up and increase what he’s giving us and running a business has been a powerful way to build up what I’ve been given. I can be a steward over what he’s given me, invest and even share talents.

I feel like I’m called to run this business and be a steward over Kylee Ann Studios, my ALIGNED coaching girls and my family of course. It’s crazy what you identify when you start thinking about it. So think about it. What do you feel like you’re being entrusted with to grow and share, and are you sharing those treasures or burying those treasures?

God has guided every step

If we’re listening to promptings that God gives us, we’re not just blessing our lives but we’re preparing us to be in all the right places for other people. For me, this is the most exciting part about letting God into my business, because I get to see how he makes me a tool in his hands and a blessing in other people’s lives. I can’t wait to get to heaven and see how it all played out. It’s crazy!

Pro tip: write down little miracles that happen to you everyday, you’ll see how God has a hand in your life. That’s how I know we have a Heavenly Father that loves us because he puts us in the right places and makes miracle after miracle.

Some miracles I have seen in my business:

1. When I was pregnant with Rowen, I wanted to take a step back from weddings and ended up finding Hiliary and hiring Hiliary. For those of you new to Kylee Ann Studios, she was one of the first associates I hired after Rachel! Maybe God just gave me the prompting to hire Hiliary because he knew I needed someone in my life at that time, I don’t even think I was pregnant with Rowan yet but God knew what was coming and that I would need help!

A few months after hiring Hiliary, she told me that she was going through a divorce and when I had reached out to her about coming on as an associate, she was ready to quit school and find a full-time job to support her little girl. This job fell into her life at the perfect time to allow her to pursue her dreams and take care of her daughter. That was a powerful experience for me because I was able to help God take care of another one of his daughters.

2. And then last year we got the idea to hire a videographer for the team and my brother, a budding videographer, just happened to move to Utah with his small family. So I reached out and asked if he would want to come make videos for our brands and his wife texted me the next day to say how it was an answer to their prayers because they were worried about moving to a new state and how they were going to make everything work. So cool!

3. A more recent example is with our sweet Mandi. Her daughter fell off a trampoline, got a concussion, and after a CT scan, was directed to Primary Children’s to get more testing done. Now she’s facing a lot of time in the hospital, with doctors, a scary diagnosis and an immunocompromised daughter.

I bring this up because back in August I asked the girls for mini dates and Mandi hadn’t given me hers quite yet, so I told her not to worry about dates and to take her time because last year she was shooting almost three nights a week for fall minis. Little did we know that she would need all that time to take care of her family. I tell my girls all the time that if we don’t book shoots, don’t worry about it because there’s a reason for not booking shoots. So something as simple as Mandi having minis open and not having to deal with the stress of shooting when she needs to be with her family, shows me God cares for her business and has his hand in my business.

I just want to add that while we have the power to have God give us guidance, we still have some responsibility on our part. We need to study it out, research and work for our answers. Sometimes we can’t just say “what should I do” and then wait around for God to give us a sign. We need to take a step in a direction and act on how we feel after that. God loves effort.

God will make a lot more out of our lives than we can on our own, if we let him take the driver’s seat for a bit. He will increase our opportunities, raise up friends, multiply the blessings and opportunities. He can make our business more than we ever could on our own, and make it reach further than we ever dreamed of. He will give you opportunity after opportunity. I attribute my opportunities to running a business with God on my team and listening and acting on promptings I receive. If you’re following God and his plan for you, you are on the right track and will fulfill your purpose, even if your family or friends aren’t on board. You will feel peace that you are doing the right thing and what you are meant to be doing.

Kylee Maughan

Kylee Ann Maughan is a family and international brand photographer based in small-town Northern Utah. She has been a business owner for 13.5 years, and also runs a successful and award-winning associate team. Kylee hosts semi-annual retreats, speaks at conferences and teaches online courses about running a small business and marketing. Her niche in coaching is helping moms turn their passion into profit, while being the mom they dream of. 

kyleeannphotography.com/kylee