This is My Oil
How the Lord is Healing & Renewing My Mindset Toward My Calling & Work + Paid Substack Subscriptions are Here! 🎉
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$25. That’s how much an applicant said they could afford for my coaching program. $25 wasn’t even enough to cover the costs of the website they were applying through. Reviewing, the application I thought, “I spent years, up until this point, writing free blog posts, designing and giving away free resources and coaching exercises, and growing my knowledge and expertise through coaching certifications and master programs. Surely, my work is worth more than $25.”
I remember when the Lord first called me into coaching. It was early on during my first stint in grad school. After graduating from Howard University with my bachelor’s in Psychology, I enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies master’s program. After realizing that the traditional route in clinical psychology wasn’t for me, I returned to one of my early childhood passions, fashion. Aiming to marry my love for psychology and fashion, I sought to become a consumer behaviorist.
My goal was to increase the diversity within the fashion and beauty industry. I wanted to improve the representation that I didn’t see when I was growing up reading fashion and beauty magazines. So with mission in mind, I enrolled in my program and was doing well. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that God was calling me to more, and I was determined to figure out what that was.
That determination led me into a period of prayer and fasting where I petitioned God to reveal my purpose. It was then that the Holy Spirit told me to Google the word life coach. Now, outside of Iyanla Vanzant, an intervention coach on the Oprah Network, I didn’t know what a life coach was, but judging from the show, I was hoping it wasn’t that intense.
While I was reading the description, I realized that in some way, I had been coaching, in some way or another, my whole life. Whether I was helping a classmate map out their schedule or walking someone through how they could accomplish their goals, I was helping them design an intentional and purposeful life. In that moment, the Lord revealed to me my purpose, as well as my calling as a coach. A few weeks later, He confirmed it when an old childhood friend randomly reached out, asking if I offered private coaching. At the time, I had not shared this revelation with anyone outside of my husband, who was then my boyfriend. That friend ended up becoming my first client. Shortly after, I unenrolled from my master’s program a semester shy of finishing and enrolled in a coaching certification to hone my craft as a coach. I was all in.
Not too long after receiving my coaching certification, I started working as a full-time coach. I found my first handful of clients by publishing a few blog posts that went viral on Pinterest. I became a content-creating machine. Blogging twice a week, creating free downloadable exercises and resources (anyone remember the Resource Closet?! 🙋🏾♀️), and steadily posting pictures and videos on social media. I would easily clock in 12-hour days, not just because I was hustling but because I loved it. My business bestie, back then, teased me that I was working as if I was running a Fortune 500 company.
I loved creating content that would inspire and encourage women in their calling. I loved working with clients, participating in their personal development journey and witnessing their personal and spiritual transformation. I loved it so much that I would often do it for free. If people applied for my programs and couldn’t afford them, I would gladly offer to take them on pro bono or (deeply) discount my services. More than the money, I wanted to help. So, I continued to give away free content. I continued to give away free services until I couldn’t give anymore.
No matter how much I wrote, marketed, and served others, I could never keep a consistent client flow. I took courses, hired coaches, and implemented well-oiled systems and routines, but nothing seemed to make a difference in my income and bank account. My follower account on social media was steadily increasing. CEOs and well-known authors in the Christian women’s ministry space were following me and complementing my work. One even reached out and invited me to work on her team (that’s another story for another day). While these Christian authors and influencers were praising my work, I was dealing with overdrafted bank accounts. I felt like such an imposter and I would often ask,
“Lord, if I’m doing such “good” work, why doesn’t anybody want to pay me for it?”
I was burned out, and the coaching space was becoming oversaturated to the point where it seemed as if everyone and their mama were calling themselves a “coach.” Over time, I started to resent my calling and title as I considered shifting my career. So, when I got into a minor car accident at the end of 2019, that was my cue to pivot. I was done with this season of lack and honestly felt the Lord broadening and expanding my calling into the workplace.
So, with much prayer and consideration, I entered into an Industrial-Organizational Psychology master’s program at Liberty University. As an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, I would not only still be able to continue working with individuals as a coach but also organizations, helping them create company cultures where their employees could excel in purpose too. Finally, I found a career where I could use my gifts, honor my purpose, and be paid well.
While in my program, I found a high-paying contract designing and developing leadership development programs and curriculum for frontline leaders. That contract quickly turned into full-time employment, but just as quickly as I transitioned over to full-time status, I found myself back as a contractor shortly after becoming pregnant with the twins, and just before their birth, I found myself contractless, starting back at square one. I shared more details of that situation and season in previous posts that you can read below.
I instantly became a stay-at-home mom to three under two. Due to the loss of my income, we had to pull my oldest out of his bougie daycare. Without childcare, I had zero capacity to do anything in that season but just be. I had to learn a whole new way of being, doing, living, and working, which I share more about here.
For a while, I fought it hard. I cried, grieved, and protested. Although I knew that my purpose wasn’t lost, it felt impossible. If I’m being honest, sometimes it still does. Most days, I am pursuing purpose in the margins – during naptime and at the beginning and end of each day. Rather than resenting this season, I’ve been coming to accept it, learning how to honor my purpose while I juggle the roles and responsibilities and humbly steward this holy but hard season.
My capacity is and will be reduced for the unforeseen future. And while I will continue to do the work that God is calling me to do, my children will always be my first priority. So now, I am exploring ways for me to honor both callings in this season. While I still coach and take on smaller projects through my business, The Purpose & Work Institute, I am also working on developing online courses and trainings that will support individuals, teams, and organizations regarding purpose and meaningful work (I am working on a purpose discovery course now, and I’m so excited)!
I am also launching paid subscriptions here on Substack as of today. 🎉 After years of creating free content, paid subscriptions will allow me to continue to create high-quality content in a way that is burnout and striving-free.
Exclusive perks for paid subscribers 🏅
For $5/month or $50/year, you will receive exclusive paid subscriber perks such as:
Exclusive Substack Posts
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Exclusive Coaching Exercises
Paid Life Designer Community Chats, Threads, Etc.
Bonus Essays
Your paid subscription not only helps support my family but also supports and sustains the work that I’m doing to create content and resources that inspire and encourage others to design a life of purpose, meaning, and intention. Your support also allows me to bless others and continue to provide free content for those who may not be in a position to upgrade to a paid subscription.
So, what does that mean for you who choose not to subscribe at this time?
Nothing! You will continue to receive free content and posts when they are shared.
“There is value here, Janelle. I believe this is your oil.” My best friend encouraged me as she was graciously editing the audio from the 30 Over 30 Podcast series. She was referencing the story in the Bible when a widow offered the prophet Elijah some bread using her last bit of flour and oil. The widow didn’t believe she had anything left to offer. What she thought would be her last meal turned out being a blessing, a miracle of endless provision.1 Like the widow, most days I don’t feel I have much to offer, but in my exhaustion and grief, I choose faithfulness, believing that what I have to give will always be enough. This is my oil. Worthy and valuable. And as long as the Lord blesses me, I will continue to pour it out for God’s goodness and glory.
This song by Naomi Raine always brings me to my knees in worship, reminding me that everything that I do, including this Substack, is an offering for the Lord.
ICYMI
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See 1 Kings 17:1-16