308-"Settled Before They Saw You" (Pt. 1 Of E.V.O.I.C.E. Method™)

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Your identity was never yours to earn. It was always yours to inhabit.

In this first episode of the E.V.O.I.C.E. Series, voice strategist and podcast coach Theresa Croft opens where God opens everything — not with strategy, not with platform, but with identity. Drawing from 17 years in radio, her own healing journey through breast cancer, and the moment she learned to speak to the one instead of the crowd, Theresa unpacks three grounding truths every established Christian woman leader needs to hear.

Your identity was settled before your achievements ever were. When identity is unclear, your message will always feel slightly off. And your identity was never yours to perform. It was yours to inhabit.

If you have been building on the outside while quietly unsure on the inside, this episode is your invitation.

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Can I ask you something before we even get started? When was the last time someone asked you who you are? And you answered without listing what you do. Think about that for a second, because the version of you, the world has not yet seen is not waiting on a better strategy. She's been waiting for you to come back to who you were before the world gave you a name for it. That is where we are going today. So welcome to The Stuck No More Voices podcast listening on Apple or on YouTube. I'm Theresa Croft and this is the first episode of the eVoice series. Be sure to describe so you can get all steps sites. I just love it when you subscribe. It like magnifies the voice. Okay, we're gonna go element by element through the method that I built, holy Spirit built with me, and we're starting exactly where God starts everything, not with your platform. Not with your content. We are starting with your identity now, I wanna be honest, right up the top because I had an identity problem 17 years in radio taught me something. Maybe most voice coaches never talk about the microphone does not care how impressive you are. It only cares what is real authentic from the heart. When I came back to the mic after 18 years away, something had shifted in me. It was no longer my identity. But if you look back at the first 15 years getting married, having two kids, I wanted the notoriety. I wanted the best shift. The morning show. The afternoon show. I just wanted the great comments from listeners. All that like kind of created who I was. It was like my identity. After 15 years in retiring, I realized that I was lost, like, ooh, all I knew myself as as a radio announcer. So like I said, I came back after 18 years away and I came back carrying more of the overflow, more of the healing from the drama, the trauma, 26 years in control, breast cancer most recently. But I came back. Um, with that more time of, in his presence with God and more healing and that deep inner work. So I learned something very powerful., I learned how to speak to the one. Not the crowd, not the audience, that one person. And in my mind, I imagined them driving down the road late at night, folding laundry in the quiet of their own wrestling in their mind. That one and that revelation does not just stay in radio. It followed me and it can follow you too. It followed me onto stages, into my writing and into my very episodes. Now that I do. At the Stuck NO More Voices podcast. It was a process, okay? God had to do in me was not teach me a new skill. He had to reach back behind every credential I had stacked up and reminded me of what he had already placed there before I needed any of it. The process was not fast, but it changed everything. And I'm telling you this because I know some of you are in that exact place right now. Be on the outside while quietly unsure on the inside. And I want you to know that is not failure. That is an invitation. So here's the first truth I want to you to receive today. And I mean, receive it, not just hear it. Your identity was settled long before your achievements ever were. Jeremiah one five does not open up with before you booked your business or before you got that degree. It says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you born. I set you apart. You know, that is not a motivation verse to put on a coffee mug. That is a foundational architect. Of who you are. God was not waiting to see how things turned out. He was not holding his breath through your hardest years. He already knew. He already named you and the voice you're trying to find, it was placed inside you before anything else had a chance to vote on it. I say that because so many of the women I work with are accomplished beyond measure. I mean, they have done the work, they have certifications, the years the client results, the rooms they have stood in and held their own and still, still there's this low hum underneath all of that whispers. But have I done enough to deserve to be heard? And I wanna be honest with you about what that question really is. That is not a strategy problem, friend. That is an identity wound. Like I said at the top, I had to be healed. I had to speak for my scars and not my wounds. I had to make sure that identity wound wasn't bleeding.'cause no one learns anything from the bleeding. It has to come from the scars. So the second truth we got here builds right on top of that one. When your identity is unclear, your message will always feel slightly o off, like a picture frame that is almost straight, but keeps catching your eye. You keep adjusting the content. You keep tweaking the offer. You keep starting over with a new brand color or a new hook, but none of it holds because the foundation underneath it is shaky. And the foundation, my friend, is this. You have to know who you are and whose you are before you can know what you are called to say. Your message is not separate from you, it comes from you. It flows from the specific shape of your healing, your history, your calling. When identity is clear, content becomes natural. The platform is just the room. You are what fills it. And when you enter the room, you shift atmospheres'cause you start to understand your identity. The third truth is one that tends to quiet the room. When I say it in a coaching session, your identity was yours to perform. It was yours to inhabit. There is a difference between performing who you are and actually living from it. Performance is exhausting. Uh, it's contingent. It shifts depending on who is watching and what the numbers look like, and whether the last thing you posted landed the way you hoped. When you're inhabiting your identity rooted in who God says you are, not who the algorithm validated this week, something settles in you. You stop chasing the version of yourself that you think will finally be enough, you start speaking from the one that already is. So what do I want you to walk away from today? Holding. Not a to-do list, something truer than that. I want you to release the idea that your credibility is what makes your voice valid. Your voice was valid. The moment God breathe purpose into it. You have been built since then is beautiful and it matters. It is the overflow of your relationship with God, not the origin. I want you to sit with this question. Sit with it. Maybe in your quiet time with God, maybe with your journal, Jesus and Coffee is my version of that, not as homework, but as an invitation. If no one could see your achievements and no one could read your bio. How would you describe who you are? What would you say? Because the answer to that question is the beginning of your executive identity and your executive identity is the beginning of everything else in this method, the E.V.O.I.C.E. Method™method. So when you know who you are at that level, the platform becomes a natural extension. The content flows from a whale that does not run dry. The right rooms start opening. Not because you performed your way in, but because you finally walked in as yourself. If you're ready to do the work, the real work at that level, I would love for you to take the next step with me. You can start with the CEO Voice Assessment. Is a complimentary tool I created specifically for established leaders like you, and it'll show exactly where your voice is strong and where there may be a gap between who you are and how you're being heard. Right now. You can find it in this show notes that assessment is also, followed, or. Leads off with a 15 minute strategy session, just you and me, 15 minutes and if this conversation is stirring something in you, I want you to know the Stuck. No More Voices Executive Cohort is where we go deeper together in community with structure. So thank you for being here. This series is going to open something in you. I genuinely believe that. Until next time, remember this, you were already known before the world ever got to meet you. That is not a small thing. That is everything. I'm Theresa and I'll talk to you in the next episode of the Sta No More Voices podcast.