Ep 5: Trust the Plot Twist: A Creative’s Guide to Letting God Lead

Have you ever felt like your life took an unexpected turn—but somehow landed you right where you were meant to be? In this episode of Crafted for Glory, we sit down with beauty editor, content creator, and speaker Kindra Moné, whose journey through career, creativity, motherhood, and faith is full of unexpected plot twists that ultimately reveal purpose.

Whether you're navigating identity, stepping out in faith, or trying to make sense of your calling, this episode is packed with encouragement for anyone building a faith-based life while juggling career, calling, and community.

Welcome back to Crafted for Glory, the podcast where faith, inspiration, entrepreneurship, and creativity collide! In this episode, we dive into the power of community for faith-based entrepreneurs and Christian leaders. Whether you're starting a business, growing in leadership, or simply feeling isolated, this episode will encourage you to step out, build meaningful relationships, and embrace God’s design for community.

🎧 In today’s episode, we explore:

✔️ What to do when your story doesn’t unfold the way you thought it would
 ✔️ How to find mentorship—even when no one’s reaching back
 ✔️ Juggling entrepreneurship, motherhood, and personal growth
 ✔️ The truth about “faking it till you make it”
 ✔️ Why God can use even your delays and detours for destiny

✨ Episode Highlights ✨

⏳ [00:01:00] – Kindra opens with her “Plot Twist” life philosophy and the journey from PK to powerhouse
⏳ [00:07:00] – Kindra shares why she chose “Monáe” and the importance of claiming your own identity
⏳ [00:12:00] – Jasmine and Kindra unpack what it means to be a writer—and how childhood dreams make a return
⏳ [00:19:00] – The truth about unpaid opportunities and how volunteering opened real doors
⏳ [00:28:00] – Navigating rejection, mentorship myths, and what real support should look like
⏳ [00:37:00] – A word for multi-hyphenates: How to embrace every part of who you are
⏳ [00:48:00] – Balancing motherhood, creativity, and God’s calling (even when things break)
⏳ [01:04:00] – Jasmine closes with prayer and love for the next generation of purpose-driven women

📖 Scripture Focus:
 Proverbs 3:5–6 – "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

👩‍💼 Meet Our Guest: Kindra Moné 

Writer. Beauty Editor. Speaker. Mom.
With bylines in Cosmopolitan, Byrdie, Hair.com, and more, Kindra is known for bringing heart, honesty, and healing into every room she enters. She’s also a proud mama and wife, living proof that grace and grit can co-exist.

🔗 Connect with Kindra:
 Instagram | TikTok | YouTube → @themoneedit

👥 Join the Conversation!

Have you ever experienced a “plot twist” that brought you closer to your purpose? Drop a comment, DM us on social, or tag a friend who needs to hear this message!

🙏 Let’s Pray Together!

This episode closes in prayer for the multi-hyphenates—the women wearing many hats while still waiting on God to reveal the next move. We’re believing for clarity, courage, and a community that covers you.

📩 Subscribe & Share!

Was this episode a blessing to you?
 ✔️ Subscribe
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 ✔️ Share it with a friend who needs encouragement in their calling!

📱 Connect with Jasmine Green:

🌐 Website
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 Connect with Jasmine Green: 

 [Website] (www.jasminecgreen.com)

 [Instagram] (@craftedforglorypodcast)

 [YouTube] (https://youtube.com/@theoriginaljcg?si=HKs89aZZW_371NnE) 

 [Email for Inquiries] (info@craftedforglory.com)

#FaithBasedEntrepreneur #KingdomMindset #ChristianLeadership #ChristianEntrepreneurship #KingdomNetworking #FaithOverFear #CraftedForGlory #ChristianBusiness #Entreprenurship #FaithandBusiness

Transcript

What's up Crafted for Glory? We are back again and I just, I'm so pumped. I'm so grateful I get to be here with you guys. And if you're tuning in, you are at the right place in the right time.

We have a special guest today and it is my good girlfriend, Kindra Monet. Come on. Hey girlfriend.

Hey babe. You look good. How you feeling? Thank you.

You look good. Thank you. How are you feeling? I'm feeling good.

I am feeling all of the life things right now, but I am content, you know, I'm peaceful and I'm excited. I'm excited for what's ahead. Yes.

I'm so excited to have you here. Like honestly, I've been wanting to have you. As soon as God gave me this idea, you were like one of the first people that came to my mind because you have such an incredible story.

So if you guys are jumping in for the first time, Crafted for Glory is the perfect space where you are not going to have to come here perfect at all. This is a place where perfection is not existing. Instead, it is about progress.

So you don't have to be the perfect Christian and you don't have to be a follower of Christ just yet, but this is the perfect place where leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity collide. And so we're going to get in a great convo with my girlfriend today and I just can't wait to see what we talk about. So I kind of want to kick us off with your lovely bio and I got to tell the people who you are.

You ready? Are the people ready? Let's get into it. So Kindra Monáe is a writer. Come on.

She's a beauty editor and content creator. She is also an amazing wife, a mom, and a speaker who focuses on empowering women through all of their life transitions. With over 10 years of experience creating content for some of the world's largest fashion and beauty brands, you might have seen some of her work on platforms like Cosmopolitan, Byrdie, Ispie, and Hair.com or brands like Estee Lauder.

Fresh and function of beauty. Come on. Can we give it up for Kindra? Come on.

Drop in the comments. Tell her how beautiful she looks and how excited. Girl, I can't wait to dive into this.

We have so much to talk about. I know we play a little catch up, but I'm excited to kick us off today. So why don't you, let's kick us off with something fun.

Okay. Tell me if your life was a movie, what would your title be? Plot twist. Plot twist? What? Plot twist.

If my life was a movie, child, you think you know how it's going? And then- Plot twist. Plot twist. I love that.

It's something new at every corner, but by now I know that I trust God enough to know that beyond every plot twist, even though it's not what I thought was coming next, what he has coming next is better than what I could have imagined. So I'm learning actively, still learning, to stress less when I get another plot twist and to understand that God is leading me somewhere good. Yes.

I love that because I feel like, honestly, if I saw a movie with the title name Plot Twist, I'm watching it because we all know that our lives have some plot twists around the corner, like literally an action movie. And I feel like this is a great way to kind of kick us off. So tell us a little bit more about Kindra Monet.

First of all, tell us where that name comes from, and then also tell us a little bit about just who you are. What are some great things that you would love to share with us? Yeah. Well, my name is Kindra Monet Bailey Daniels, all four of them.

I appreciate all four of those names. But when I first started writing, I actually really wanted to go by my middle name instead of my last name, because my dad, Bishop Herbert Bailey, he's a pretty well-known pastor, bishop in South Carolina. And I didn't want anybody to associate me with him, honestly.

And he probably low-key didn't want anyone to associate me with him either. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

He's always been proud of me. But I was definitely... I grew up a pastor's kid, and I was really on a search for my own identity. Because I think when you are a pastor's kid, that people will assume things about you.

You either assume that I am burning buildings and smoking crack, or you think that I'm just Miss Goody Two-Shoes who never makes a mistake. And I'm like, your mom might be a dentist, but you might get a cavity. Your dad's a teacher.

Have you ever gotten a B? Can I be on my own journey? Exactly. My pen name was always Kindra Monet. I said, I'll stick with it.

Yeah. So who is Kindra Monet? You know, now, if you asked me this five years ago, I would have led with just like what I do. But I feel like I've learned that who I am is so much bigger than my job title or whatever it is that I'm pursuing career-wise at the moment.

So I am a daughter, I'm a sister, I am a wife, I am a mother. I love being a mother. I have one son, and by the time this comes out, it'll probably already be out that I have more on the way.

And you know, God is just expanding the motherhood area of my life. And so I'm new to really prioritizing that and seeing what that looks like. And so I'm open to how that is going to transition my life as well.

But yeah, I love pouring into other women. We go through so many life changes and transitions, and I feel like so many of my plot twists have been so that I can help other women do their plot twists in life. So I'm truly a girl's girl.

Yes, I love it. And honestly, I feel like you live that true and true. Like every time I see you, you're always encouraging another woman.

You're always leading with excellence and always just showing women how to be their authentic self. And I feel like that's the part, like, I can't wait to dive into that. Because one thing I really love about you is how you're a girl's girl and how you just show up for women in so many ways.

And it just leads me to kind of my first question is like, what really, from your journey from when you were a young adult to now, what do you think really set you on the path to really become a writer? Was that inspired by other women? Was that inspired by like, God just laid it on your heart? Walk us through that journey. Yeah, I kind of like rolled my eyes when you said that because I get annoyed when I think about how I was always a writer, but it really wasn't called out of me. It was actually something that I thought made me good at other things.

And so I thought that's why my journey kind of took me through so many plots and pivots because I always felt like writing was a skill that I had, but it wasn't something that was necessarily nurtured in me. Like I wrote a book that I'm probably going to publish now. And when I was 12 years old, called Down with the Stork about a 12 year old girl who was upset that she was getting younger siblings.

And I wasn't even like, I'm the youngest in my family. It wasn't even my point of view, but like I wrote the story, I illustrated it. Wow.

You wrote a whole book? I wrote a whole book. And my teacher was like, you didn't do this by yourself. Oh, wow.

Like, where'd you get this from? Like, who helped you? How crazy. Like your mom? I'm like, I wrote this by myself. Wow.

And so she used to give me a hard time. And then I always took English because I would get an A. And so I felt like it was an easy A. And then when I was in college, I was like, what is English that actually happened called? And they're like, that's journalism. I was like, oh, cool.

I want to do that. You know, but so I kind of fumbled around it and I majored in psychology and it wasn't until I was graduating, getting my psychological thesis presentation on the probability. I think my study was on athletes being more religious and superstitious than the average student population.

Really? So I had all this, I had all this scientific research and I'm giving my presentation and I was like, um, I got the, um, award. I'm normally a pretty good speaker, but I was like, um, the, um, probability of, um, and my whole time I'm like, why are you doing that? Yeah. Yeah.

Like I do love helping people that side, but the science of it, I was like, this is not for me. So I was like, what do you enjoy? I like fashion magazines. And thankfully I had seen faith demonstrated all my life through my parents.

They definitely have lived their whole life with big faith dreams. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to get a job at a fashion magazine. So I applied for an internship at Cosmo, actually got it.

And then I was out and then I moved to New York and then it began. But I feel like I kind of fumbled along my way because even then I don't think I knew I was a writer or I really like own that title for myself because I think I was waiting on someone else to affirm it for me. Wow.

Wow. That's so good that you shared that aspect of like, you were still in the process of learning about that very thing, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs and creatives, they take some time to take the step to go out and they wait and they're like, oh, like this person came up with this idea and I should have did it. Or they don't take that step of faith.

And honestly, in that part of your journey, I really want to hear a little bit about what really was that step in faith for you, because I know where you're from, but tell us a little bit about like, you were living down South, you were living somewhere else. Tell us a little bit about that journey and taking that step to go from down South to, you know, fashion, you know, tell me all the things. Baby, when I tell you I faked it till I made it, okay.

But I did study. So I was like, okay, I'm interested in this. So now let me start studying.

Let me make sure I'm getting all the magazines. Right. Let me start studying designers.

Yeah. And so when I applied, and actually when I applied at the time, it wasn't as obvious on how to do something digitally. I'm not that old, but a lot has changed.

Okay. Yeah, of course. And this was also the end of the heyday of magazines.

I mean, it's so sad how so many of them aren't even in print anymore. But at the time it was really like the heyday, the last hurrah of print magazines. So I looked at the back, I found the address and I found the editors and I mailed my resume and cover letter to every single editor at the magazine.

And I shared the work that I've done with student newspaper and things like that. And when they called me- Were you shocked? When they called me, I was shocked, but let me tell you, okay, I was determined. I don't recommend this.

God forgive me. Okay. I'm going to repent.

And the statute of limitations is over. I'm already out of there now. But when they called me for my interview, I was like, oh, is this a good time? I remember I was on campus in college.

I was on the yard. And I was like, yeah, this is a good time. I sat down.

She said, all right, who's your favorite fashion photographer? I said, huh? Hung up, ran to the library, got on Google. I finished the rest of that interview on Google, looking up fashion photographers, because I didn't know anything. I was just so green.

I knew I liked style, but I knew nothing about the fashion industry. And so I finished the rest of that interview on Google. But I was determined.

I said by the time I get there, I'm going to know what I'm actually talking about. So I spent the rest of that, I think it was December, I spent the rest of my Christmas break just following blogs and immersing myself in the industry, so that by the time I got there, I could feel like I actually knew something. And honestly, I don't even think that's faking it till you make it, because I think honestly what you just shared is doing the work before you even got the opportunity, because it reminds me of this season in my life where I was actually like, so I had been signed as a model when I was 16.

And shortly after I wound up leaving, skipping all that story, that's for another episode. But I wound up leaving and I remember going to an agency to do a whole nother opportunity with another agency. And I get there and I paid, back then $150 in college was a lot of money.

Okay, yes. Yes. Okay, there was a lot of money.

It took me seven Starbucks days to get that money. Okay. So I had this money and I'm like, I'm going to spend this money somewhere, somehow on my model career.

So I literally, I meet this woman and I saw her on Instagram and I was like, I want to apply to her agency. So I did. And her test shoot that you do with her was like 150 bucks.

And I was like, okay, if I test with her, I get these shots, I'm all in. I don't care how I'm going to get in, but I'm going to get in and we going to get signed. You know, a lot of things happens when things like that happen because you're determined, but there's another story to the side of it.

And so I go and I do the photo shoot. When I do that photo shoot, she literally takes all these pictures of me and she says, yeah, you should probably not pursue modeling because you can't pose. No, she didn't.

Yes, she did. She said, she said that right to my face. I know my girl and you can pose.

Okay. Now I can. But she couldn't at the time.

Okay. At the time though, I was so green and I was like, well, I was already signed to an agency, so I know what I'm doing. And I got in there, girl, I froze like I was a frog.

Like you would have thought I'd rip it. Like it was really, it was so bad. And so I'm sitting there and she shows me the pictures and I was like, I know she didn't just say I can't pose.

So she was like, sorry, but we're not going to sign you literally. But your story reminds me of this moment because after she said that, this is when Barnes and Nobles and libraries were a little bit more prevalent. I ran.

After I got off that bus, I ran to Barnes and Noble. I took every magazine off the shelf. I bought all of the magazines.

I start flipping through. I've ripped out pages after pages after pages and I start practicing posing every single day. I know that's right.

And your story reminds me of that because I think that a lot of times when it comes to entrepreneurship and creativity in this generation, I don't think we see or even understand the little bit of the grit work that goes into the limelight or the stardom or the whatever. Because I've listened to a podcast that said that their, their 17 years looks like two years to you. And in reality, that 17 years is actually not two years.

It's in the making. So by the time you say I can pose now, girl, it's been 20 years in the making, okay? And I think that that's something that I want you to talk a little bit more about with it comes to your story of like, what do you think is one thing or maybe a couple of things that you feel like you wish you would have known before you got into the fashion industry? Oh man. Well, I feel like that's so loaded.

So before I even say that, I want to comment on like the two years is the 17 years because that's so real. And I've had, you know, younger women reach out to me on LinkedIn or DM me on Instagram and say, Hey, I seen you wrote for this platform. I've seen you do this for this platform.

Like, how can I do it? And I'm like, well, first of all, start your own blog, like start or write for people for free because before people can pay you to do something, they need to see that you're already doing it. And there's so many resources today that there's really just not an excuse to be doing the thing that you wish somebody was paying you to do already. And I remember literally a girl was like, Oh, but I don't want to start my own blog.

Well then go to somebody else and ask them for advice because this is what you need to do. You need to, if you want to be a writer and you want to be writing at magazines and you want to be writing for brands, then you need to go ahead and build your own platform. It doesn't even matter how many people are viewing it as long as the right people are viewing it.

Because so many of those opportunities you shared in my bio actually came from the work that I was doing myself and it wasn't widely followed, but it was followed by the right people who saw what I was doing. And also I did a lot of volunteer stuff too. Come on, talk about it.

At the time, for a few years, Yandy had Everything Girls Love. Yes, I remember. So I was their fashion editor for like two years and it was free, but I got to do red carpet reporting and I got so much experience.

So people really don't want to do that. But I will say one thing I do wish I knew about the fashion industry before I got into it was, I think I ended up being very disappointed by expecting women to either mentor me or bring me up or help me. There was a woman in my sorority and now she actually says she does a lot to help people.

But we're actually in the same sorority and I was interning with her and she says, I said, oh, you're an AKA, I'm an AKA too. She goes, oh, you're in my sorority. Okay.

And then like walks away. Wow. And I was like, dang, I thought if there was a young, if I was, if I was in a position of power and there was a young girl who told me that, I would be like, oh, that's amazing.

Maybe would have asked her a question about it. Maybe would have like invited her to lunch. Granted, mentors don't chase you.

You have to chase the mentor. I understand that. But she, she belittled, she used that as an opportunity to belittle me.

Like, oh, you're in my sorority. Yeah. As an opportunity to belittle me.

And it was just another, an example of how I experienced that so many times with women, with older women, with black women. Yeah. And it left me feeling very disappointed.

Yeah. So that's one thing I would have known. But on the flip side of that, I did learn that I took a student mentality into the workforce and it's not the same.

Like when you're in school, you can do your job and turn in your papers, turn in your, take the test and you're going to get an A. Like if you do what you need to do, you're studying. Okay. But the real world doesn't work like that.

Like you can be smart, you can be intelligent, but don't just come in and put your head down and do a good job. That's not enough. Like connect with people, ask people questions.

Like there was a time where there's another woman who has done so much. I'm not going to say her name, but she's rings bells in the fashion industry. And I had an interning with her as well.

I was working with her and she asked me, what did I want to be? And I was like, Oh, I would love to do that. Have a career similar to yours. She goes, okay.

And she was starting the conversation with me, but I was being a student and I was like, thanks for asking. And like ran away. But it's like, no, this is the opportunity.

Yes. Ask her, can you get 15 minutes with her? But I think I took that student mentality, I'm going to do a good job and that good job is going to get me noticed. Like, nah, you have to have a bit of a hustle too and be strategic about relationships, which might feel, it felt so unnatural to me because I'm such an organic and authentic person.

But sometimes you do have to be intentional about putting yourself in rooms with people and about pumping up your chest. You got to hype yourself up. All right, girl, you got this.

Maybe you need to think about what your opening line is going to be, but like go up to that person and talk and then have, if you have to ask for something, know what you need to ask for. And if you're going to offer something, know what you can offer because don't go up to somebody in power with nothing to say. You got to know what value you bring to people.

And I mean, honestly, Kindra, this, what you just shared, I feel like we got to go a little bit more into that because I think that there, especially in, I would say in the corporate world, yes. But also in the creative world, I've found very similar stories and scenarios that you shared, especially around the lines of mentorship, right? When it comes to mentorship and then also really taking that transition from what you, okay, you stepped out on this limit. I mean, you stepped out on this faith walk and you're like, okay, I want to go do this thing.

But then you're too shy or too reserved to actually put yourself out there to get what you're actually needing and that help. And I've talked about that on another podcast, so make sure y'all watch that. But what I really want to dive into is that mentorship piece, because one thing that I do wish I had better insight on is knowing that I don't have to get mentorship from a specific person and it can be from me watching a movie.

It could be from me watching a YouTube video. It can be from me reading a book. I cannot express this enough.

For anybody that's listening to this, mentorship is something you have to seek. You might get blessed and find someone that's really in the season of their life where they're like, yeah, I want to mentor you. But nine times out of 10, it is 99 times out of a hundred, listen, when you are in search for a mentor, like I just literally, I want to hone in on this part because I think that there's one thing that I've learned.

Well, there's a couple of things. The first thing that I've learned in seeking those mentorship relationships is number one, you can't expect something from someone when you have no value to add to them. And I think that just like you, when I started in the fashion industry, I did expect people to kind of like just help me out and give me the lay of the land.

But I also realized when I look back on that, I didn't know exactly the lay of the land I was trying to go, right? So how can I ask for advice or something, but I don't have the business plan? How can I ask for advice for something? I didn't even start the LOC. These are Google-able things, okay? Something I tell my mentees and just like my team and my staff sometimes is like, you have to look up and get an answer before you go and seek it from the person that you're looking for. So that means if you are a follower of Christ, you might need to read the Bible first.

You might need to pray about it first and then come to that person. Or maybe you are an entrepreneur. You might need to go and pick up that book.

You want to learn about accounting, go pick up the book. I think that in this day and age, we have a lot of people that expect things from people when all you really have to do is be humble and lean into that. You know what I mean? And so I feel like you covered that really well.

And then the second thing that I want to share that I also learned is that mentorship is also, it's organic. It's not necessarily something you're like, okay, I follow this person on Instagram and they're going to mentor me forever. When I meet them, they're going to be my mentor.

No. It's organic. And I've learned that by networking because I found that I wouldn't meet somebody that I've admired or I've read all their books or I've read all their articles or whatever.

I meet them in person and they're not the same person that I've read about or they're not the same person that I've watched online or they're not the same person. And it's not always in a negative way. It's just that we don't mesh well together and I don't have the same beliefs as you or the same- There's an intangible.

Exactly. And so I think that just being open about mentorship relationships, because something God said to me, even when I was prepping to prepare to build this podcast, I didn't want to. I was like, God, this, no, I don't want to do this.

This is not what my goal was. Like, I just want to speak somewhere. Like send me on a stage.

That's what I want to do. And he said, no, no, no, no. You're going to sit down with your friends.

And he was like, you have everything you need. And as I was preparing for the launch of Crafted for Glory, what I had to realize is that he actually orchestrated mentors throughout my entire life. I just never tapped into them.

So it goes back to your point of you have to say what you need. This episode is proudly sponsored by Tech Light Associates. This is your go-to AV solution.

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Bye. And so it leads me to my next question as well is more of a fun and lighter question is who would you say is probably someone that you really go to for your constant advice? Like, you know, I know it's probably going to be your mom, but who else? I know it's going to be your mom, but who else would you say that you go to and why? Cause yeah, I'm like, I call my mom like three times a day, but I love, I mean, so many of the people I glean from, like you said, are not my in-person relationships. They are literally like the podcast I listen to, the books I read, the sermons I watch.

We love SJR. We love Sarah J. Roberts. I love Dr. Anita Phillips.

So good. Pastor Toray Roberts. Yes.

He's so good. Great with leadership. Great with leadership.

Great with creative. So there's a lot of that that I have. When it comes to advice, I think there's different people for different things in my life.

You know, I have a friend who, she was like my big sister when I was little and then we kind of drifted apart in my later teen years, early twenties, but now she's been married longer than I have. She has more children than I have and I can call her when it comes to family or she's also a working woman and balancing family and work life. I have another friend who, I call her Dallas.

She's always had money. She's a hustler. She's going to get it.

I love that. When it comes to like, how do I have this conversation with this boss? How does it have this professional email? I'll call Dallas and be like, girl, I need your help with this. So I have different people in my life that have become that, but I do love what you said about it being organic and allowing those relationships to take time.

And like now even my pastors have become those people. But it's so funny because I had a conversation a couple of years ago when I first started going to that church, first started going to our church and someone asked me like, how are you navigating your relationship with your pastors and building that connection? And I was like, honestly, they speak on Sunday mornings and that's really all I need from them right now. You know, my mission was not to become besties with my pastor.

You don't need to become like all up in your pastor's face for them to be able to have pour into you and for it to be a positive relationship. And that relationship grew organically over, over the course of years. And there's so many people who come up to me and will like ask me like, hey, how can I like do this in the church? And I'm like, oh, it's so funny because I've never been ambitious about that.

So I'm like, that's really interesting. But I think by staying planted, by growing in the same place, those relationships can form organically. So yeah, there's different people in my life who I go through for different things, but they've all been slow grows.

And sometimes you might be called to a new territory. You don't know anybody in your life who is doing what you do, who is putting things together and you got to go to God. And you know what's so funny? The other day I was like trying to fill myself up.

God checked me hard because I was like, I need to find a podcast. I need to find something I need to listen to. I need something that's going to pour into me.

And I was like, you know what I need to listen to? One of my own old sermons. So I went and listened to myself from a word I spoke called Victory Mindset and it was so good and it was for me. And I said, dang, why do I always speak to myself so well? And God said, no, that's because you were studying my word and that's what I spoke to you.

And so you need to get back in your word. Because you're looking for a word from somebody else, from some sermon. And the reason why that message hits is because that's what I gave you specifically.

And so you need to study your word so God can lead you and speak to you for you in a way that no one else can. That's so good. You ain't going to get from a preacher, from a podcast, from anybody, the downloads that you will get from your own quiet time, reading your Bible and then sitting to hear what God has to say.

And your creator, I mean, Kindra, this is so good. There's so many pieces that I want to unpack with that. And one of the things that stood out the most for me is where you basically kind of talked about like, you must have that relationship, the idea of you must have that relationship with your pastors.

I've learned in just working in ministry and just learning as time has gone on, a lot of people idolize their pastor as if you can't get that mentorship from another leader in your church or someone that's actually really close to you right then and there. Or I've heard people, since we're here. Yeah.

I've heard people say like they got so offended because, you know, maybe a woman that they saw on platform, they were trying to befriend her and maybe she was busy or whatever. I'm like, the fact that you saw this woman on platform means that everyone else did too. And so this woman is probably actually very good.

Why are you ignoring the sister in the seat next to you? Like why are you only looking to who's on platform to form relationships with when there are women who are sitting right next to you or men sitting right next to you who could equally pour into your life? So good. That's so good. And I've learned in my, just in my, in the time that I've rededicated my life to Christ is a lot of times we don't realize that we're putting someone on the throne of our heart when we are constantly focused on them and not the word.

And I found that just in the space of ministry and not even just in ministry, but in all places you can be at work and put your boss on the throne of your heart. It don't even gotta be ministry. You could be like afraid to talk to your boss in corporate.

And when I have to tell you through my learning and just making a lot of mistakes, I've realized that you can always check yourself and see if you put somebody else on the throne of your heart, whether it's a boyfriend, whether it's a girlfriend, whether it's a spouse, whether it's your boss, whether it's your best friend, you can check yourself in that space by asking yourself the question, if they don't respond, do you know who to go to? Like, because I think that a lot of times people find ways to go to everybody, but God, and it's unintentional. I mean, we're human. We make a lot of mistakes.

I mean, I could give y'all countless if y'all want a book, I'm sure I got one, but listen, I'm telling you, that is such a big deal about just the space of like making sure that you're not looking always up for your, your people to be down to like bring you something to your level. But I've learned in my lifetime that you got to reach out, you got to reach to the side of you got to reach to the left, to the right, to find those people who actually can help you, who actually can say, you know what, girlfriend, I got you. I'll help you with this.

I mean, thank God I wouldn't even have been able to make this happen by myself. And I think that a lot of times when we get in those spaces, we can find ourselves leaded leading down a very dark path of isolation and then hurt, hurt comes from seeking something that never should have been on the throne of your heart. And that's what I want to leave that, but I want that on that.

And that's that on that. But I also want to kind of chat, cause you also said something that was really good as well, and I really want to break this up, but you started talking about like the family aspect and I mean, I know how amazing your family is, but if you could jump into a little bit about how you balance, like obviously your corporate life and your creativity and your life as an editor entrepreneur with being a mom, a wife, a friend, a sister, all of these great titles, right? Like how do you take care of Kindra and how do you balance those things while you're in your pursuit for God? Oh yeah, girl. So I mean, this is always a work in progress.

I think that I put way less pressure on myself than I did when I was like, I'm still a new mom, but when I was like really fresh in it, especially like at first you have this baby, you're on maternity leave. It's all about them and you're just trying to figure it out and you're just happy if you can cook a meal. I remember I cooked my first dinner after Langston and you and Linda actually came over.

I remember that day. And y'all were able to hold him so I was able to actually finish cooking and I was so proud of myself because I was like, how do people cook with babies? Now I'm sure I could do it, but your first time, you're just trying to figure it out. Everything is so new and then you go back to work and you're expected to show up like you don't have a kid and you're expected to run your household like you don't go to work.

And it's like, how does this happen? And I think in corporate spaces it would do such a better service if like women in corporate America would show more of their families because actually a lot of women I work with, they had full-time care at home and I didn't have that privilege and nor do I think I wanted full-time care. I think that would be nice, but I like being hands-on with my family. And I feel like you are more condemned for having a baby on your lap for a meeting than a dog.

If it's a dog, everyone's like, oh cute, look at the dog. If it's a baby, it's like, so you're not, you're not care about the strata, you know what I mean? So I feel like I had a lot of, a lot of, um, put a lot of pressure and I wanted to show up for work. Like I didn't, you know, have a child, but I think as time went on, I started to realize like all of me comes everywhere.

Yeah, that's great. So I'm not going to act like, like, yeah, my son's home. Daycare was over at four.

It's this meeting's at 4.30. He's home. Like you, oh, this meeting's at 7.30, 8am. Daycare didn't open yet.

He's here. You know, so I started to give myself that. And then also at home, I started to, one, you got to get strategic.

I learned like, for example, when I was commuting into the office, I'm not on that schedule anymore. But Mondays I work from home, Monday I would cook like two, three meals, meal prep, because I know that my office days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm not coming home after dinner. And sometimes you can outsource, right? You know, partner, I, my husband would make dinner as well.

Honestly, I like my dinners better, so I just chose to go back to meal prepping. But learning when to ask for help, learning how to accept help, learning that I cannot do everything, and I am going to have to drop certain balls, knowing what balls can break, what balls are going to break when you drop them, what balls are going to bounce. That's good.

Okay. If I drop the ball on my home, that's going to break. But there are other times where it's like, hey, I'm pouring into me right now.

This weekend's going to be a daddy weekend. Can you do that? Can you handle that for me? And just learning that it's always constantly ebbs and flows, it's constantly checking in, and it's also asking for help and trying to put systems in place that I love when yesterday me took care of today me. And I'm like, ooh, I'm so glad I did this yesterday.

That's so good. Girl, you have me, you have me thinking about that because I think that a lot of times we often find ourselves dropping balls that constantly break because we're not self-aware of what we need to do to carry those balls correctly. Because you even mentioned how you took care of you yesterday so you could take care of you today.

And baby, when I tell you, I'm still working on that. I feel like God graces us for a lot of things, but I also feel like a lot of times what I've learned in just my past is that I used to find myself in these moments where I felt like I had to be perfect in every space. It doesn't matter.

I can't show up as a Jasmine that's less than me. It doesn't matter what it looks like. You gotta be on one because you're the only one that's going to be on that one.

You know what I mean? I've been in spaces, especially when we're talking about marriage, especially when I got married. Ooh, that's funny. When I got married, I literally found myself thinking I needed to cook every single day, wash clothes every day, make sure the house was together every day, forgetting about Jasmine.

I'm like, my husband gotta eat, all of these things. And I remember my husband was like, my husband's name is James. James is going to say, he says, he said, babe, you know, you don't have to do all this.

And I said, oh, I don't? I don't gotta cook every single day. We can go, we can order some food in. He said, no, you don't.

And I was like, that amount of pressure that sometimes we put on ourselves when we're in spaces, whether that's in corporate life or whether that's the workplace, the marketplace, or as an entrepreneur, it really takes us away from the space of being self-aware so that we can actually prepare ourselves for what God is calling us to in the future. Oh, go ahead. And let me say this.

A lot of these things I've learned, I learned them by making a mistake. I learned them by dropping the wrong ball. I learned it by something breaking.

I think being honest with myself about what season of life I'm in and what I can accept and when I can accept it is so helpful. So for example, I think I told you about this a little bit, was that I had a corporate job and I was also still doing my freelance writing, contributing to different magazines on the side. And I was ready to leave my corporate job.

So I said, God, you give me two writing contracts, I'm going to quit this job. So I got those writing contracts, but I was like, and I was like, oh God, you gave them to me real quick. I remembered it, but I'm too scared to quit.

So I tried to balance it all and it was impossible. I lost both of those writing contracts, which is something that has never happened to me. But it's because I was trying to do too much.

And I said, girl, you can't be a mom and work three jobs and be the type of mother that I want to be, the type of hands-on that I want to be. So I didn't know what I'm called to and just because somebody else, it works for them and may not be what works for me and my family and my home. That's so good.

I mean, Kindra, I'm going to have to have you back, baby, because we got more to talk about. I'm like, the girls need the gym. We be chatting.

We be talking. We be chatting. I want to do some rapid fire questions.

You ready? Okay, let's go. Let's go. Let's do it.

Okay. What is your morning routine look like in five words or less? Five words or less. Earlier than my sons.

I absolutely love that, it's hilarious. The reason why you see moms outside looking crazy is because they woke up when that baby woke up. Oh yeah.

If you want to take care of yourself, it doesn't have to be all, but 20, 30 minutes, I have to wake up before my son or it's a wrap for me. That's so funny. I love that.

I'm going to take that note when I have a bunch of Ketos. All right. Next question is, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I'm really bad at this.

I don't know where I want to live right now. First one that comes to your mind, any country, any city, any state. You know what? I don't actually want to live there, but my family's there, so I would say South Carolina.

South Carolina. Okay. Love that.

Okay. Next question. What's your favorite way to unwind after a long day? I love a bath.

Yeah. I love a bath and some worship music. You getting bubbles in there? No.

No. Just chill. I would like a good bubble bath, but I just don't have one right now.

To be honest, no. But yeah, sure. Give me some bubble bath.

I love that. I'm like, all right, bath bombs. Got you.

Okay. Next question is, what's the last book or podcast that you loved? The last book or podcast that ... Well, I'm on my birth wave right now, so I've actually been listening to Pain-Free Birth, and it's all about changing our perspective about birth and actually educating ourselves about how our bodies work, and I'm really enjoying That's such a good podcast. This just reminds me how much moms literally come up with the best things for future moms, because I'm not pregnant right now, but I will be in the future.

I'm telling you, these gems, there needs to be a book that just gives you all of the gems of what you need to expect as a mom, especially in the realms of stuff that's not out there. Okay. Next question is, if you could pick one superpower, what is it going to be and why? It would probably be being able to fly, because I fly in all my dreams, casually.

I'm loving this. If this was a dream, you would sign off, like, thanks for watching Created for Glory, I'd be like, bye, and I would just fly away. I casually fly in all of my dreams.

I love that. Literally, that was mine. Literally, my superpower, I would love to fly.

I just would love to see people all over the world. I don't got time for the George Washington Bridge. I need to fly.

No, I'm quiet, because the traffic is OC. Okay. So, last couple of thoughts is, what advice would you give anyone listening to this that is looking to be a part of this type of journey? Maybe they're a future mom, maybe they are a future wife, or they currently are a wife in any of those realms or entrepreneurship.

What would you say? My biggest advice would be to trust yourself, trust your creativity, don't second guess yourself too much. It's okay to start something and fail, and pivot, and start again. You get to reinvent yourself as many times as you want.

Nobody's counting. That's so good. No one's checking about how many times you've reinvented yourself, and just go for it, because the older I get, the more I'm learning that I would rather do it than to live with the angst of keeping it inside of me.

That's so, so good. Well, I am just honored. First of all, you are amazing, Kindra.

You are. I could talk to you for hours. We could be here for eight hours- This flew by.

... and people would literally love on you. I swear. You're just amazing.

You're a great mom. You're a great wife. I literally look at you as someone that's like, it's an aspiration to be able to have the grace for what you do in all areas, from the moment that you have ... Stop, don't look at me like that.

You should look at me crying. I should get this. Literally, from the grace of just being a daughter of pastors, and being able to stay on that journey, and have your ways to navigate back on your own personal journey is so aspirational.

I just want to say, I love you so much. Stop, look at me like, I'm sorry. I love you too.

I'm going to start crying. I love you so much, and I'm just honored to have you in my life. Your amazing wife, an incredible mom, and an amazing future mama of multitudes.

I'm so excited for you, and God's going to bless you in so many ways. Crafted for Glory, as we come to a close, I really want Kindra to take a moment to share where you can find her on all platforms. Kindra, go ahead and tell us about that.

Yes, you can follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. They're all The Monae Edit. That's the M-O-N-A-E edit.

I love that. Can I pray for you real quick before we go? Yes, please. Please.

All right. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much. You're just so amazing.

God, you made the heavens and the earth. You made the stars in the sky. God, what more would you do for your daughter, Kindra? My God, I thank you, Lord God, for her life.

I thank you for her smile, just her joy that she brings, her authenticity. And one thing about Kindra, you made her perfect in the image of God. I thank you, Lord, that you're going to continue to bless her and love on her.

I pray that every step that she takes, it's a forward step. God, that even in seasons where she feels like she has no control, God, you will be the one in control. I pray that you bless her family, her friends, and her loved ones, Lord God, with a mighty love from you.

Be with her in Jesus' mighty name. We thank you for this opportunity to commune together. Amen, amen, amen.

I love you so much. Love you. You're so welcome.

All right, family, we are at the end of this. And I don't want to leave y'all. I promise I don't, but I'm going to have to see y'all next time.

But in the meantime, make sure you subscribe, you like, and you comment on the podcast. Tell us what you loved about it. Tell us what you didn't like about it.

I'll figure it out. At the end of the day, you are crafted for God's glory. And this is the place that faith, leadership, and creativity collide.

Can't wait to see you next time. Love you. Bye.