In one day I went from never seeing myself as an entrepreneur, to desiring with all of my heart, to be one. I went to church one day (not my home church) and received a prophetic word about my life. It what I was going through internally at the moment, and something only God knew. It was my first time there, so I sat all the way in the back with my two daughters.
Once the worship portion came to a stop, the Pastor went to the pulpit and began his sermon. I can’t tell you exactly what that sermon was about, but a few minutes in, he walked to the back and walked right over to where I was sitting. He looked at me, straight in the eye. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t understand what was happening, and I just wanted to crawl under the chair. YIKES! He uttered these words, “I know it’s your first time here and I don’t want to embarrass you.” I wanted to say, “TOO LATE for that!” but I didn’t. He told me God had some special things planned for my life. Even though I kept feeling that my time was running out and I had not accomplished what I wanted to accomplish (ummmmm, how did he know this?), God was going to turn things around for my life and that he would ignite an even bigger fire in me to accomplish more. He said God would adorn my life with accomplishments. I was blown away!
The truth is that my life involved being a mom of two wonderful girls, a wife to an amazing husband, a Clinical Research Manager at a Cancer Research facility, and a part-time college student. There was no time for myself. Honestly, I couldn’t see beyond this current lifestyle. I never thought I was qualified enough to do more. All I could think about was finishing school, finding a way to tell my employer that I needed higher pay for all the late nights and sacrifice I was putting my family through, and continuing on with my normal routine for the rest of my life. The words “ignite fire” that the Pastor mentioned, just lingered on in my brain. Everyday after that, I felt a bit more disposed to do more than just my obligations, but do more because I felt a fire inside of me to do so. “The power of Words.”
At the time, I was a seller on Poshmark, where you can easily buy and sell apparel, through a simple app. I loved it and found ways to compliment my income by selling clothes. God was training me for something so much bigger just by forming part of that platform. One morning as I was sitting at my desk at work, getting ready to ship a package, an idea came to mind. “How about creating something like this, but with an encouraging and inspirational twist?” I had no idea this one thought, planted by God, would actually drive me to bring something to fruition.
I began thinking about what I wanted to name this platform. “One word is the easiest,” I muttered to myself. Immediately after, I thought to name the platform “Galilee,” (the land where Jesus walked and spoke his word). I thought, “perfect.” From there I spoke with my husband about my crazy idea and started envisioning Galilee even bigger than Amazon and these thoughts were just roaming through my brain like lighting striking. I then proceeded to get the business registered. I got all of my papers in order, but because of website name availability issues, I had to add “Life” after Galilee. Isn’t that funny? I wanted to bring connection, which is life, into a platform.
How many times have you started something that you were sure would go one way, but God turned it around to take you in his direction? By the way, it is always much greater than what you think it will be. I am proud to say that I am now the founder of a multi-vendor platform. A virtual place created for retailers, makers, and out of closet sellers to enjoy working together while reaping the benefits of a relationship that is far beyond the amount of transactions you can make in a day. I have learned that money can take you places, but true connections are everlasting.
When you don’t see yourself as something more, either because you are just way too humble, insecure, timid or closed-minded to think outside of the box, God always finds a way to align your road to your destination. He’s done it for me. And though the road is tough, and things are still not exactly where I want and need them to be (even now, a year and a half later), I know that God is in the midst and that my process is not one that I am carrying alone, because he’s right beside me. Entrepreneurship, might not have been my dream, but it is where God has led me and I will continue to be obedient to his word and his promises for my life.
