Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RTW Dunham College of Business at Houston Christian University. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is a show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. On this episode, we're joined by Kayla Kraft. Kayla has spent the last 12 years teaching people how to monetize their brand. And now she focuses on helping online entrepreneurs become investors. And she's an angel investor, real estate investor, and founder of The Crafted Entrepreneur Show. And her website tagline is Capital Raising Queen and a whole lot of Jesus. And she's the author of the new book, What Do You Really Want? Seven questions that can unlock the answers to a life full of abundance, meaning, and connection. Kayla, welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast.
SPEAKER_00I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. Well, when did you first realize God wanted to be involved in your work and business?
SPEAKER_00Oh uh, well, I was raised in faith. And so I never put God out, you know, of my life ever. I always thought of God as like an integral part of my everything. And so I always thank my mom for that because she was a single mom. She worked a ton, but she always made sure I made it to church on Wednesdays and Sundays. And so I just really built a faith, you know, that included God and everything. I didn't want to do anything without Him, you know? So I'm just so thankful that I had that type of upbringing, right? So as I was getting into entrepreneurship in my early 20s, this was um, I was 23 and this was before, you know, on Facebook, you used to have to have a college email to open one up. And this was like right when people, normal people could have a Facebook. I decided to start, you know, really sharing a status update. I would really share how I was feeling the good and the bad. And people really were drawn to that type of authenticity. And I didn't know at the time I was building a personal brand and actually influencing people, but that's exactly what I was doing. And so people really saw my faith journey. I would share verses that I was, you know, that's normal, right? People do that all the time now. But back then, 12, 13 years ago, people didn't do that. But I would share the things I was struggling with, you know, faith-wise and all that. And so that became a part of my brand from the get-go. People knew I was a believer. And, you know, I always wanted to try to point people to Jesus. Did I always get that right in the last 12 years? No. There was a period of time when I got really, after a lot of success, I got really wrapped up in thinking it was all me. And yay, I'm amazing. You know, I'm the center of my business. And God really humbled me because that's what will happen, you know, is he'll um he'll allow things, I think, because he loves us so much and he's fighting for us always to come back to him. And so some things had happened in my business and in my personal life that really like got me right back on track with him. Like, no, none of this happened because of you, it happened because of me. And, you know, it really helped me just have new eyes for what God is doing in the kingdom and for my, you know, family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so you started out as a nurse, and and there was never a question in your mind uh as to whether or not God would was involved in your work. I mean, you were an ER nurse. So yeah. I mean, I was completely at the mercy of of God's goodness at that point.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. I mean, I was always just like speaking over people in my prayer language when they were, you know, when I was doing CPR on people, that's I mean, uh, God was always a part of it, you know. And what I realized was, I mean, I would cry myself to sleep every night because I was just so stressed. God made me to be a finisher. And in that world, you can't finish the job usually. You're you're putting a band-aid on problems and you never really see the completion of somebody's healing. And so I knew that, okay, the way that God wired me is uh not to be here. It needs to be in, you know, really helping people from start to finish become healthy. And so I got into health coaching and really focused on people, you know, health as wealth type of vibe. So I was really focused on teaching people how to live healthy lifestyles. And that was really fulfilling to me. And my whole business grew because of social media, you know, and so people would go, Well, Kayla, how'd you become a successful health coach? I'd say, Oh, I don't know, let me look, you know, and so I reverse engineered the process of what I did and I started to teach it to other people on how they could be health coaches, and then it turned into, you know, a big business of teaching coaching to people, and that's what I've been doing for the last several years, and how I created the take seven method that's in my new book.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so you did you leave nursing at age of 23? Is that right?
SPEAKER_00No, I left nursing, I think it was around 25 or 26. Um, okay. Yeah, I had built up a really solid business to where people, because I post about how much money I was making online. Like I was mind blown, you know, at how much money I was making. So people in like the ESPN.
SPEAKER_01Which was like a million dollars, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And people in the ER would be like, there's no way that she's making that much money. Why is she still working as a nurse? You know, they were totally talking smack. But I was so scared to give up my nursing career and step into this new thing, even though I was making a ton of money. And what happened was I got pregnant with my third child. And I was like, Yeah, I'm not gonna do the same pregnancy on my feet, get you know, all the things with him. I'm gonna enjoy this pregnancy. So that's when I left nursing completely and really stepped into this new entrepreneurship. My husband also quit his job at the same time, and we both became, you know, stay-at-home parents. And that was whoo, a whole that feels like lifetimes ago, honestly. It feels like so long ago. But and we've learned so much since then. But it was really, we go, okay, you know what? If we did it once, we could do it again. You know, we we have the skills to run a business and we understand the power of a personal brand. So we're gonna be fine. And we really just trusted God and we knew that okay, we both missed out on a lot of the older twos childhood, and we didn't want that for the third one. And so we just trusted that God was gonna make a way and um he did. And it's not always been easy, but it's been, you know, I call it it's always been water walking for us in our family. We're always just taking steps of faith, you know, and and God provides.
SPEAKER_01I love that. Kaylee, can you share a story of a time when you saw God's hand at work in your company?
SPEAKER_00Oh, oh my gosh, I would say so many times. I uh host retreats, you know, as part of what we do. And I remember I would I would talk about God and I would make references to God and you know, one-on-one, I'd pray with people, but I never really had uh, you know, like whole moments, whole retreats around going deep with God. And there was one retreat, it was called Rewired for Business, and we were there to, you know, help people have success in business. And I just felt like God was doing something deeper with every single woman. And it just became like, let's pray, let's do deliverance, let's like, you know, just worship together. And two people got saved at that retreat. They weren't even, they were, they were like, what in the heck is happening? And then all of a sudden they were hearing people's testimonies around what God had done for them and how God had saved them, you know, taken them from their mess and made something out of it. And two girls got saved. And that's where it was like, whoa, God, you are so good. Because I was nervous because you don't, you know, I was like, I don't want to offend people and make people think they have to, you know, believe what I believe, but God made it like evident like, no, it's I am offensive, the gospel is offensive, and so you need to like draw a line in the sand of when you come to my retreats, when you come into my coaching programs, we're gonna talk about God and you expect prayer, expect all of that type of stuff.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah, beautiful. What's one of the business practices that helps your company reflect the character and ways of God?
SPEAKER_00Well, one thing I would say is I try to develop a culture of excellence, and you know, people I think have a really misinformed view of how Jesus was a leader. He actually said, Hey, um, you know, you in order to follow me, you've got to live a godly lifestyle, right? Like he hung out with people who, you know, were in sin and doing their stuff. But he was like, okay, now that you know who I am, you can't stay the same, right? And so he gave people an invitation to change, you know, to see what really God had for them. And as a leader in your business, you can't expect people to have a low performance, right? You want to expect people to have a high performance to help you meet your business goals. And so you have to hold people to a high standard, integrity. If you said you're gonna do something, you got to do it. And I want you to do it well, right? And we have to hold people accountable to what they said they were gonna do. And a lot of times as Christians, we go, oh, but they were having a hard day and they were having a hard month and they were having a hard year. And we really enable people's bad behavior for far too long. And what Jesus actually shows us in his life, I believe, is no enabling. There, there is zero enabling that Jesus had. He was like, I am on assignment. And I think us as business leaders, we need to be on assignment and say, Hey, I'm gonna hold you to this. If you're not, if you're not gonna perform, if you're not going to really show up and live out God's goodness and greatness that He's given you, you're not, you're not gonna be a part of this team anymore. And we have to hold people accountable to that because, you know, um, every time I've had to fire somebody in my business, it was they hate me in the moment, but it turns out better for them because it might have been their rock bottom moment, right? Where they go, okay, yeah, I can't get away with that anymore. I've got to change, I've got to grow up. For instance, last uh it was about 13 months ago, I had to fire somebody. I loved her. She was a Christian, we went to the same church, loved her personality. We could hang out as friends, but it was over and over again, she wasn't meeting standards, right? And I'd have conversations with her and try to set her up for success, very clear about expectations, and she couldn't, she couldn't hit him. And so I had the conversation with her. I said, She was my assistant. And I said, listen, I don't think you're made to be an assistant. Here are your gifts. You're creative, you're amazing at social media, you have vision, you know, that most people don't have for a brand. I think you should go out and be a creative, you know, like use those skills that God has given you. And so she absolutely hated it. She was really upset with me in that moment. But about three months later, she started her own creative direction business where she, you know, directs shoots and stuff like that for brands. And she's killing it. She's making way more than she ever would have made being my assistant. She's happier. And, you know, now me and her have a friendship and it's great. So, but she looks back at that moment. She's like, Thank you for doing that. It sucked. I wanted to hit you in that moment, but it ended up being the thing that caused me to grow up and and raise myself up. So I think we have to really study who Jesus was, and as a leader, and one of my I there's this book called Jesus CEO. And really, when you realize God, what Jesus was the greatest leader that ever lived, and we have a whole guidebook on how he did it, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, I love that. Uh, what how else have you seen this principle show up in in your business? And maybe a story of just how you have held people, held your clients to this standard of excellence. I remember hearing you say as I was uh doing some research prior to this interview, uh, you said, Are you would you hire you? That's such a great uh way to look at it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, you know, we can get really good at pointing fingers. We could say, Oh, I'm not here because uh this person didn't do their job and this person sucked, and you know, uh all the other things. I had an employee in my business, she worked for me for several years, and she was always good at telling me what everybody else on the team was doing wrong. Right. And I said, Okay, well, can we focus on you? Right, and your performance and what you think you're doing good at, and all of the things. And I said, let's pull out your job description, right? Let's pull out your task. We use this thing called Asana, you know, where it has everybody's tasks. And I said, I want you to rate yourself on a scale of one to 10. How are you doing? Right? Boom. Be very honest because I'm gonna rate you too. And we, you know, found something she was a 10 at, something she was a one at. I said, so is it safe to say that you're not perfect? Right? She's like, Well, yeah. I said, okay, so let's focus on you being excellent. Let's focus on that and let me, you know, as the boss, focus on helping other people reach their level of excellence. But right now, you've got to focus on being the best for this role and you know, really becoming irreplaceable. I want you, that's my goal. I always tell my staff that I want you to become irreplaceable, become so valuable in our organization, bring so much to the table, not just the checkoff of a task list, but really bring so much to the table that I that you're an integral part of my business and that I want you to forever be that way, right? Be the intrapreneur in this business. And in order to ask those questions of my staff, I've also got to be willing to ask those questions of me, right? Would I hire me as a CEO? Would I? And sometimes I'm like, oh no. Okay, what do we need to do to become hirable, to become the best? And usually it's in getting rid of the junk that I've let in my heart, getting rid of some frustrations that I've let fester for far too long and surrendering that to God and going, hey, I can't, I can't make up for past mistakes. I can't go back and change the past, can't rewrite history. But what I can do is I can create a better future for myself with the skills and talents, with all the expertise I have for making so many mistakes. What's the next best step I can take? And that's actually step seven in my book is what's the next best step I can take? You know, and a lot of us we just get focused on the past, right? All the things we did wrong. No, what's the next best step? And then the next best step after that. And that's really living a life of faith is just focus on that one thing. If God showed you absolutely everything it was going to take to achieve your dreams, a lot of us would say, bye, nope, not gonna do it. I know for a fact, if that 23 years old God would have shown me everything it was gonna take to get to where I am today, all the hardships, the pain, I would have been like, no, I'll stay as an ER nurse. I'll take the crying myself to sleep over all of that stuff because that seems way too freaking hard. Right. But um, God is so gracious in giving us a little bit at a time, a little encouragement, next step, a little encouragement, next step, right? And having grace over all of our mistakes. And so we want to be, we want to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and say, uh, most of the time, yes, I would have hired you today. And sometimes we're gonna go, oh my gosh, you're doing a horrible job, but you're trying. And I think that's all we can do at the end of the day, it's try.
SPEAKER_01So if somebody is listening and thinking, oh, this sounds like, you know, works-based righteousness or something like that, that Kayla sounds like she's just too hard on people. Like, is there a particular scripture passage uh that comes to mind when you're trying to teach somebody that what you're talking about is in fact biblical?
SPEAKER_00Ooh. Well, I mean, yeah, because I would never say I'm like workspace because I mess up so much. I think that there's God, that's a really good question. I'm getting stumped on this. Let me think about this. Um yeah, because God has grace on us and our job as I mean, if we're talking specifically as being an employer, you know, it's I 100% know that everybody's human and people are going to make mistakes, and I'm absolutely okay with mistakes. That's what I say. I'm always okay with mistakes, but there are a few things that I'm not okay with lying. Never gonna be okay with lying, and that that's biblical, right? Do not lie. Uh, and you know, just keep your word. That's a very biblical thing. Keep your word. If you if you said you're gonna do something, follow through on it. If something comes up and you can't get to it, all I need you to do is just, you know, come and say, hey, I'm not gonna be able to do it anymore. I got too busy. This happened, X, Y, and Z. And I think that that's uh very important. There's the you know, the parable of the talents, right? Where uh we need to be multipliers. God gave us so much, and you know, everybody has different allotments that they've been given, but what did you do with it? Right. So if we all have eight hours in a day and we're, you know, one person does something really well and she got something done, she multiplied, I'm gonna be happy with it. But if somebody is continuing to not do anything with their time, not get things done, not get excuses, what did God do to that person who just went and buried their their talents? Yeah, he's cast them out, right? And so I think we have to hold people to that. And um people, you know, I have been called like a bulldozer in the past because I I want to get things done, and I'm trying to do things more in a like the last five years of really in a grace-filled way and help walk people through their greatness, right? And have a lot more compassion. And I think I've done a lot better at it. But if you really want to be a leader, right? You want to change lives, you want to impact the world, not everybody's gonna like you, not everybody is gonna be okay with what you have to say. And I signed up a long time ago to be a leader, and so I'm okay that some people are gonna say negative things, some people aren't gonna get the message, and that's okay. It's for the people who are looking for what I have to say, they like the way that I put it, you know what I mean? And I mean, always, always go to the Bible and find your own backing for it, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're doing battle in the marketplace, and you have to be wise about who you're gonna take into battle with you. And you know, I was just thinking about Gideon and the way that he the Lord just whittled down his army to just a couple hundred guys, and and it was based on, you know, one of the ways that they were separated was you'll take the ones when they go down to the to the water, some are gonna have their head down and you know, kind of lap like dogs, and then the others are gonna bring the water and drink it out of their hand where they're still aware of what's going on, and there's a certain vigilance, and you want vigilant people that are have that situational awareness when you're going into battle. So, you know, I think what you're saying is there's just certain people that God's got another plan for their life, you know. They're just not the the people that you need to be taking into battle with you. Um, actually, my my wife just pointed out this scripture to me from Leviticus. Um my wife is so godly, she reads Leviticus. Um and we got into the commentary and everything this morning, but in it's Leviticus 5 4. I just pulled it up. Or if anyone thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil, in any matter, one might carelessly swear about it, even though they were unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt. I mean, there's a there's a big problem with that. Even if you say you're gonna do something good, like there's a you're talking about just that issue of integrity. Like, don't tell me you're gonna do something and then not do it. Uh, because I mean, all it's really doing is putting on those rags of self-righteousness. It's like trying to cover over um, you know, uh a certain laziness or lack of, you know, just or just I'm not even really supposed to do that, but I'm gonna still tell you I'm gonna do it because I want to put on that um the rags of self righteousness to look like I'm I'm doing what I need to be doing, but I'm not actually going to do it, you know, like the sun. Uh there were two sons. One of them said, Yeah, I'm gonna go out and do the job, dad. And then the other one said, I'm not going to go do it, but he ends up going out and doing it. Um, who was right, who was wrong. And Jesus says it was the guy who said he wasn't going to show up, but he actually did show up. Um, so that that's such a valuable principle.
SPEAKER_00Well, I love the way that you shared all these stories. I'm like gonna go research Leviticus 5:4. And I love that the story of Gideon too, because I think that this is what I come back to when it people have this whole connotation that Jesus is love, God is love. And so we just have to be overly nice to everybody. And, you know, clarity equals kindness, actually. So when you set the expectation, what you expect of people in your life, I actually think that's being kind, you know? And it's nice, isn't it? I was raised by a single mom, and you know, my dad was a drug addict. And so being nice to a drug addict got him in trouble, right? Giving him money. I remember at 16 years old, I got paid from my job and I'd meet my dad and give him money. I was like being nice to him, and God convicted me of it and said, No, you're enabling him, you gotta cut off, right? And that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do was call his parole officer and say, I know he's back on drugs, you know, and he went back to jail. That was actually love in that moment, was holding him to a standard and saying, No, like I'm not gonna put up with that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. Oh, for a 16-year-old girl to to take that stand, that's that's really incredible. Very hard. My goodness. So, this new book, what do you really want? Uh, tell us um, how are readers gonna benefit?
SPEAKER_00Well, I wrote this book really, you know, I I had this crazy childhood, and I didn't really have a mentor in my life that would, you know, really say, hey, there's so much available to you, and you can, you know, accomplish anything that you put your mind to. Um, I really didn't have that type of person in my life. And I was like, I want to be that person. I think God gave me this coaching method that I could give to absolutely anybody and help them build their life from a place of empowerment and not a place of wounds. And when I say that, the reason why I became a nurse was because of a traumatic childhood. All I wanted was to save people. So, of course, I pick the craziest type of nurse you could be, which is in the ER. Okay. You never know what you're gonna get or what you're walking into. And, you know, I want I got to help people, but it also was a stable job. I knew there would always be a job for me as a nurse. And so that's truly how I chose to be a nurse. It's not really a great way to choose your career, you know? And of course, it didn't end up working out because it was never really meant for me to be on that path, right? And so I want to help people go, okay, what does God have for you specifically, given your God-given talents, experience, and network, and really build from that place and not going, oh, I want to do this because I'm scared of the past. And that's how a lot of us choose to do life, unfortunately. So I'm hoping that this book will really help people go, okay, I can choose a different life. I can choose a different path right now, even if you're already on a good path and your life's already good. There's so much more available to you when you live on assignment. And that's what I really hope this book will do for people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So give us uh some of the nuggets. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, okay, because I've coached so many women, I came up with I reverse engineered the process of really, okay, how do I help people achieve their goals? And I came up with this take seven coaching method. And we've used it in our certification programs in the past. It really helps a lot of people. And number one, the first part is starting out with what's not working for you in your life. Because people will ask themselves this question, what do I really want? And they'll go, I don't know. I know what I don't want. Okay, let's start there. What's not working for you in your health, in your wealth, in your career, in your spiritual life, in your marriage, what's not working for you anymore. Then the next question is, when did I first start accepting that? And this is a really powerful question. And your quality of your life is going to be determined by the quality of the questions you ask yourself. And I love that I put when did you first start accepting that? Because a lot of people will go, I didn't accept this. This happened to me. You know, I'm here because of everybody else's choices. And the moment you take radical responsibility for your life, and you say, actually, I did choose this, because maybe you're in a sucky marriage, but it's like you chose it at one point. You like that guy at one point, right? You accept it. Well, then you can start to have some transformation in your life because you realize God gave us free will. So we always have a choice to think something better and to take a better action, right? To surrender it to God. That's an action as well. So when did you first start accepting that? And then the next question is what version of you is showing up right now? And this is something that I think in the Christian community, people get a little bit like, oh my gosh, about because it's inner child work. And if they've ever been to therapy, probably heard about it, but people think it's a little woo-woo. But the best way that it was explained to me by a Christian counselor was that hey, we have so many different versions of us, you know, and most of us are living our life, making decisions from a former version of ourselves. And in order to get new results, we have to have somebody else, our future self, make those choices, make those better decisions. And she put it like this in a bus. Okay. She said, There's all these different versions of us, and we're all on a bus. And sometimes your seven-year-old version is driving the bus. Sometimes your, you know, 12-year-old version is driving the bus. And here I am, you know, at 36 years old, going, okay, I want the 36-year-old version of myself to be driving the bus, making the decisions that day. And a lot of times we realize, like, wow, you know, I made that choice, I had that conversation, I was triggered by that person, not from the current version of me, but from a past version of me. And so that's really helpful because we realize that, okay, again, I can just go put that seven-year-old version of me in the back of the bus and put my champion self, like I talk about in the book, to drive the bus and to make powerful decisions for our lives.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow, that is powerful. Um, clearly, you have a incredible story and have been living this out, and you strike me as a very decisive person. Um, but you know, you it it sounds like haven't always made the decisions based on. I mean, you were very decisive in the in the rationale, but you've really grown to be able to question what were the assumptions that I was basing those those decisions on. And and you're gonna help us do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01What kind of transformation have you seen it? Because you've been really testing this out with your with your people, with your tribe, which is very large. I think you have like 90,000 um members in your program, uh, something like that.
SPEAKER_00Uh, that's probably how many listeners we have on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, um, in our programs overall, we've helped about 25,000 people. And that's just like in the paid programs, right? So I have a program where I live coach people every other week. And so I've really got to hear so many people's different stories, businesses, been awesome to be a part of. And there's so many transformations, but one of my favorite transformations is actually it's one that's currently like ongoing. I'm still working, I've been working with her for about three years. And when she came to me, she actually her faith was kind of it was lukewarm, you know, like you didn't really know what side she stood with if you were to look at her social media. She's a powerful lawyer. And, you know, I understand sometimes, you know, to not make it too spiritual online, you know, especially given whatever business you're in, right? But she just really didn't know. She would say things about the universe, like she would post things like that, like, oh, the universe said this. And I was like, whoa. So she hired me. And I was like, Yeah, so who created the universe? She was like, uh, God. I said, okay, so when you start giving credit where credit's due. And she started to question things because I would just plant little seeds, you know, about like, really, like, do you really believe that, you know, in all of these little new age weird things? And the more, and I sent her Bible studies and we were working on her business, and she has deepened her faith so much. She's a different person that gets me so excited. But she's also been able to create an incredible community for lawyers all over the country. And, you know, that's come along with monetary success as well. Um, but the more that she actually got strengthened in her relationship with the Lord, she became a stronger leader. She realized, okay, I can lead lawyers. And it's been incredible to just see her change that community and bring so much life into a very, very stressful type of job that a lot of these women are really struggling in their career. And she brings so much light and hope and different strategies for them to build their, you know, businesses and their careers in an empowering way. That's also faith-filled. So that's one of my favorite transformations that I've seen. And of course, she hired me because she wanted to make more money. That's what everybody hires me for. And then I'm like, oh, we're not even talking about money, we're gonna talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah, the old bait and switch. Jesus is is good at that, you know, like somebody gets they come to Jesus for one thing and they end up getting something so much better. Um, love that. So, where do you want people to go to connect and get the book and all that sort of stuff?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, since they're listening to this podcast, they probably love my podcast, The Crafted Entrepreneur. We put out two shows a week. And that's I that's my favorite platform to put out goodness. And you can also find me over on KaylaCraft.com forward slash book, where you can get the book. And also I give away a free course for people who pick up the book right now. And it's just me coaching you through the take seven methods, so it's a really big value add there.
SPEAKER_01All right. Craftedoffer.com, KaylaCraft.com. Kayla, thank you so much for taking time out for our listeners and helping us grow today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me. It was such a blessing.
SPEAKER_01We hope you've enjoyed this episode. And if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and Business Podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HCU's Center for Christianity and Business and sign up to receive free access to all issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.