She Lost Everything - Then God Did This | Dr. Sharon Arrindell | Kingdom LeadHERship

 What does it look like to say yes to God — not once, not twice, but over and over again, in every season of life? In this powerful episode of the Kingdom LeadHERship Podcast, host Stacy Jo Coffee-Thorne sits down with Dr. Sharon Arrindell — transformational speaker, board-certified Christian marriage and family therapist, Maxwell Leadership certified coach, best-selling author, professor, and fashion designer — for a conversation about resilience, restoration, and what it truly means to lead from wholeness. 

Dr. Sharon shares her journey from Jamaica to building a fashion house in her basement, through a devastating hurricane that destroyed everything she'd built, a broken marriage, and a season of profound loss — and how God met her in her lowest moments and redirected her entire life. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• How Dr. Sharon's grandmother sparked her love of fashion and design 
• The hurricane that collapsed her fashion house, her marriage, and her plans 
• What God whispered to her in the fetal position on the floor 
• Why you cannot lead effectively from a place of brokenness 
• The story behind her book Kingdom Couture: Where Etiquette and Class Matter 
• How Inspired Creation was accepted to New York Fashion Week — Saturday, September 12th at 8:30 PM 
• What she would say to the woman who wonders if her gifts are still valid 

Connect with Dr. Sharon Arrindell: 

Facebook: Sharon Arrindell https://www.facebook.com/Arrindell0502

Instagram & LinkedIn: 

https://www.instagram.com/drsharonarrindell/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sharon-arrindell-ed-d-dbs-dbc-msc-420192168/

Website: drsharonarrindell.com | inspired-creation.com 

Email:  admin@drsharonarrindell.com

Sponsor her New York Fashion Week appearance: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/UJBNQQU4XR4C4

Connect with Kingdom LeadHERship & ACBW: 

New episodes of The Kingdom LeadHERship Podcast drop every Monday 

Join the Association of Christian Business Women:  www.acbw.org

Association of Christian Business Women
This episode is brought to you by the Association of Christian Business Women

Association of Christian Business Women
This episode is brought to you by the Association of Christian Business Women

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Transcript

Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Kingdom Leadership, the podcast for women pursuing kingdom purpose with faith and intention. This is a space for clarity, encouragement, and conviction. It's a place to pause, refocus, and realign your leadership with what God is asking of you. Whether you're leading in business, ministry, your home, or your community, this podcast is here to remind you that your calling is intentional. Your obedience matters, and your leadership is meant to be aligned with God, not carried in your own strength. I'm your host, Stacy Joe, and together we are leaning into leadership that is whole, obedient, and rooted in purpose. Let's get started.

Meet Dr. Sharon Arrindell

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Welcome back to the Kingdom Leadership Podcast. I'm Stacy Joe Coffeethorn, your host, and I am so glad that you are here with us today. I have truly been looking forward to this episode, and I think by the time it's over, you will completely understand why. You know, we talk a lot on this podcast about calling. We talk a lot about healing and what it looks like to lead as a kingdom woman, not the way the world taught us, but the way God has designed us. And today I get to sit down with a woman who has done just that. She has not just been taught those things, but she has lived those things. And I want you to imagine just for a moment what it would look like as a woman who says yes to God. Not once, not twice, but over and over again in every area of her life, in the counseling room, in the classroom, on stage and in the pages of a book, and even on the runway. So that is the woman that we are about to meet. So go ahead, get comfortable, grab your coffee. I've got mine, and let's go ahead and get started. So, as I said, my guest today is a woman who carries more callings in one life than most of us dare to dream about. She's a board-certified Christian marriage and family therapist with nearly 20 years of experience. She's a Maxwell leadership certified coach and speaker. She's a best-selling author. She's a professor. And it keeps going on and on because she is also a global voice for Kingdom Women Leadership. And this is so cool. She is a fashion designer who's been invited to the New York Fashion Week. Not everybody gets that opportunity, but more than any title or credential, she is a woman with a redemption song, a testimony of healing, of faith, of hope that she has spent her life pouring into others. And I want to take a moment to read her full introduction because it deserves to be heard. Dr. Sharon Arendel, fondly known as Dr. Sharon, is a transformational speaker, fashion designer, and curator, best-selling author and coach whose life and work embody resilience, restoration, and purpose. A Maxwell leadership certified speaker and coach, she inspires audiences worldwide to pick up the pieces of their lives and become whole. A message she calls her redemption song, a living testimony of healing, faith, and hope. She was born in Jamaica, West Indies. Dr. Sharon's journey has been shaped by a powerful mantra. Enter to learn, go forth to serve. That calling has carried her across education, counseling, ministry, leadership, and back to her very first passion, which is fashion. She's the founder and CEO of Inspired Wholeness Enterprise, where she designs transformational programs for kingdom-minded women and leaders, including Wait, a 10-week transformational program for women, SOAR, a six-week leadership program for female leaders in church, business, and life, and the Marriage Push, a coaching program for couples born from her nearly 20 years as a licensed board-certified Christian marriage and family therapist. A globally recognized voice, Dr. Sharon is listed with Christian women's speakers, global women's speakers, and C-suite for Christ Speakers Bureau. She currently serves as an adjunct professor teaching psychology and counseling at Indian River State College and Montreat College. Her story and work have been featured in New York Weekly, Preferred Health and Success magazines, on television, podcasts, and a Times Square Billboard, and across media platforms worldwide. She's the author of several powerful works, including Kingdom Couture, where Etiquette and Class Matter, and the Amazon bestseller, Armored and Victorious, Memoirs of a Crossover Season. She's a visionary behind the best-selling anthology from Cocoon to Soar, which is a compilation of unstoppable female leaders. And in a beautiful full circle moment, Dr. Sharon has returned to fashion with the launch of her Co-Tour inspired line, inspired creation, which is designed for sophisticated, purpose-driven women who dare to show up, stand confidently, and embody grace, strength, and purpose. Please welcome to the Kingdom Leadership Podcast, Dr. Sharon Arendel. Dr. Sharon, welcome. I am so excited to have you here. You have done so much in your life, and you are such an inspiration to so many. And I am just excited to hear today what you have for us. And as we uh sit down and just have some coffee and some water, uh, just you know, kind of just create a conversation for the women who are going to hear this podcast. So are you ready to get started?

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I'm so glad you're here. Do you have anything you want to say before we jump in?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

I'm I'm glad I'm here too. I'm always glad to participate in these things, you know, hoping that I reach somebody out there who thinks that God has forgotten about them just to let them know he did not.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Amen. I love that. Well, well, let's

From Jamaica to Fashion House to Storm

SPEAKER_01 6:31

talk about you came to the United States from Jamaica and you build a fashion house from the basement of your home, but then you walk through a season where everything collapsed, and then God led you through a full reinvention before bringing that fashion calling back through inspired creation. So, can you take us through that journey a little bit and how it shaped you into the woman that you are today?

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Well, a little bit is hard, but we're gonna do it. I'm gonna now I grew up with amazing parents, first of all. I never want to be anywhere publicly without remembering their upbringing. I was not an easy child, you know. I came 12 years after my sister, my biological sister, was born. And so they weren't really ready for me. But my dad kept saying, regardless of how horrible I was, he would say she was born to be a leader in his Jamaican dialect. My mom was probably standing there going, I don't know, I don't know, doesn't look good. But you know, they kept going. And throughout that time, my grandmother also lived with us for all of our lives. She just lived with us, and my mom's mom, and um, she was a seamstress, and I would sit with her. I just was so um amazed at what she was doing. I didn't really understand it. There was a pedal sewing machine, and she would just go at it, and she was sewing for dignitaries mostly in Jamaica, and she would sometimes ask me to pedal, and I took such great pleasure in doing that. So I would be pedaling, she would tell me when to stop, when to start, and I would just watch that fabric walling to the ground, look so beautiful to me. Um, she never gained any recognition as a designer or anything. We called her Nana, and that I believe was the best name she loved. But I was the only one in the entire family that was interested in what she was doing. And she lived to be a hundred, so she lived to see me actually do it. And she would always say, Oh, I don't remember teaching you all of that, but you know, I learned it. I I I give her her kudos um today for that. And so that started the process of my life, and fast forward, you know, getting married to who you think is the best in the world, and um even getting to know God in a different way, growing up, knowing about him, and then getting to know him for yourself. And um, I I jumped into this marriage, I shouldn't say jump because it was so well orchestrated according to us. And I believe God was involved as well because two children and a bunch of grandchildren came out of it, but I was married to a minister, and I thought, wow, of all the people that I thought I would be married to, it wouldn't be somebody that was a leader, more so a deacon than a minister in the church. And so there I was, and something happened, a lot happened, and I can't go into the entire story, but our marriage got hit several times over. But the ending of it was when Hurricane Floyd came to New York, Rockland County, where we lived with a vengeance. And um, we were in the house, my children and I were there, he was not. And um, you know, I saw the water going up the glass door, and I kept saying, where is it gonna go when it gets to the top? I had never seen a hurricane before, even though I was born in Jamaica, I came to America at 10 years old. I had never seen a hurricane full power. And by the time it got there, it was a storm, according to them. But next door to where we live was a dam, and the dam broke. I didn't know that, so we were there. And when it got to the top, I'd already put my children on the stairs, and I heard a crashing sound, and that was the glass door coming in to the house. And I can remember just standing there, just looking at it. Think I was in shock until my daughter screamed and told me to run. And I just ran, I was aimlessly running. Um, grabbed them off the stairs, ran out the door. And we were running and swimming. I don't even know what you call what we were doing against the water. The water was coming this way, and we're crying because I don't want to end up in that dam or whatever it's coming. And so, you know, I think about that for a long time. We didn't even go to the beach anymore because it was a constant reminder of that rushing water. But when we came back to the house, um, a couple of people from the church and and my children's father, and we sat on the basement stairs, and it was seven feet of water, and everything was there. I had just opened this fashion house, and all my designs were floating on top of the water, everything was just a mess, and I remember him whispering it because he had a very soft voice. I'm done with God. And it didn't register, didn't register at the time because I too was trying to fumble and figure out what was happening and where he meant it, you know, he was done. And so the store opened. It started in the basement. I did a lot in that basement, wedding gowns, all kinds of things. But the store opened. We had a storefront with all these designs that I salvaged in the window. People were coming, purchasing, doing whatever, but we didn't really have a place to live anymore. So we ended up living in the downstairs of someone's home. And he just disappeared after that. And I realized I had to raise these children, and my pastor said, you have to shut it down and go back to school, and I wept.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

I bet.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Because I was in a college dropout. I said, No, I will. I said to him, school was never in my wheelhouse because I went to FIT Fashion Institute for a little while. I learned all that I needed to be this designer. School, I don't really need all that. He said, Well, you gotta raise these children. Let me pray with you. He prayed with me and he left. And and the rest is history. Yeah, I shut it down. And I did go back to school, obviously, with a vengeance. Um, first to raise my children and then to raise myself. And um, you know, that's that's as small as I can make it. I lost everything. Yeah, I lost the home, I lost the husband. What I gained God in the process. And I'm not saying that lightly because I'm sure you're coming with a question.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, man, you're leading right into it because I was just gonna ask you, you know, in in that storm season when everything, when everything you built had collapsed, including your marriage, your business,

What God Did in the Wilderness

SPEAKER_01 15:09

uh, what did God do in you that prepared you for everything that came after?

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Um at the time, it felt like he forgot about me. I don't know who I'm talking to, but he felt like it felt like he forgot about me because everything was just spinning and spiraling out of control, grateful for the church family that I had at the time. Because they really surrounded me like rocks. Right. But that's the importance of community. That's right. And you need that, and and but when I was by myself, most of the time, I was in a fetal position on the ground. I can even remember my daughter at eight years old saying, Mommy, you gotta get up. You know, we need you. And I think those words just kept ringing in my ear because I knew I had to get up and face this. But I didn't want to. I didn't want to face it. I even would go to church, and it was a very big church, still is. Um, and I would sit in the balcony way in the back before we would be sitting in the front. And my children would always say, Where are we going? I'm like, we're going to our seat, our new seat. And um, and one Sunday, one of the pastors, he followed me to my car because I would run out for the benediction, like a lot of you are probably doing. So nobody in a big church, nobody could see you. But he saw me and he grabbed my arm and he said, Why are you running? And I said, I'm not running, just let me go. I just need to go home. He said, We're still here for you. We're still here for you. But I needed to do this with God. My heart was broken. My mental state was in a shambles. Um, back then, you didn't really talk about it. Everybody said they were blessed and highly favored, and so did I. But I had to get it together with God and in those fetal positions. I think that's when I could hear him whispering beyond the loudness of um frustration, doubt, despair. I could hear him whispering. And uh what he was whispering was he, I have a plan. I mean, we quote that scripture often, and I probably did that too back then. But he was whispering it to me, I still have a plan. Um and it's it's not to hurt you. And I would answer, you know, out I think I was answering out loud, but it does hurt, and that didn't just happen one time, it was over and over, and I could feel God telling me, get out. If you could just get up, you will see what I have for you. And I remember getting up, and getting up, I found a piece of paper on the floor, and I started writing what was happening to me. That's how I got up. And um, I don't know, maybe that's how I became an author, because that's the story I remember. And I kept writing, I couldn't even read what I was writing most of the time, but I just kept writing on these little pieces of paper. And um, and then I got up. I had lost 26 pounds when I got up. And back then I wasn't I was soaking wet, I was nobody, I was just small. So, and I looked in the mirror and I wondered who that was, but it was a different person, and I made the decision to go back to school. To go back to school, you know, and I went, and the lady said to me, Well, we have a program called the Edge Program, and I busted out laughing, and she said, Why are you laughing? I said, Because I'm living on the edge, so that is the one for me, and that's how I started going back to school, and all the things that happened after that, it's a blur for me. So did I answer you?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yes, you did. I mean, he he prepared you, he spoke to you, and and and so much has come after that, and now you're walking in wholeness, and and what does wholeness mean to you? I would love for you to speak to the women because why is it so non-negotiable

Leading from Wholeness

SPEAKER_01 21:29

for women to lead from a place of wholeness?

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Because you can't do it broken, and you can try, and I see I am on social media all the time now, and I see broken people on the screen, and I you can recognize it because you've been there trying to camouflage, right? Trying to camouflage, and some of them have become millionaires doing it, all the things, they're still broken. When you get them in a room alone, and they start telling you about their places, they're still broken, and so you're doing it, people might even be healed, but you're broken. And the other day I was because I'm in this designing thing again. I was reading about the designer Kate Spade and all that. She did was beautiful. Even somebody reminded me about one of her interviews where she said she doesn't just design for women, she builds confidence in them. She was building confidence in them, and hers was depleted, you know, so broken doing it from a place of brokenness and showing up publicly looking whole. So yeah, and and we become so good at it. And but today I'm talking to Kingdom Women who are doing it as well. You know, we we've become so good at it that taking off that mask is difficult, it's difficult. Um people ask us how we are. I remember. I used to say, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Until one Sunday I said to myself, I'm gonna actually, somebody asked me again how I'm doing, I'm going to tell them. And the person came, some lady, and she asked, and I said, Not so good. And she kept walking. And I followed her into the bathroom and I said, Did you hear me? I said, I'm not so good. She said, Sister Sherrod, I didn't even hear you. Because I'm so used to everybody saying they're good.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Including you, that I didn't hear you say you weren't.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

But if we could just unmask and what would it look like if we told people how we were actually doing? And I have become an open book by writing them and also by just living like that to the point where when people ask me a question, I'm just, I say, Lord, just help me to be honest in a graceful way, because my story is so rough that it may rub people the wrong way. So I've learned how to code it with the grace of God and help quite a few women throughout the journey.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Yeah. So with that, you know, in in your experience as a counselor and a coach, what what do you see underneath the, for lack of a better word, I'll call it stuckness when a woman can't move forward in her God-given vision?

SPEAKER_03 24:56

I don't know. What do I see?

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah. Um what do you see as an underlying, maybe an underlying condition or an underlying situation?

SPEAKER_03 25:07

It's the fact that when we're going through something, we think it's about us. It's supposed to, you know, the first time that my testimony was put out there was by an old bishop, late bishop Ezra Neomaia Williams. What a name. But he lived up to the meaning of his name. And he uh he asked me, because I told him I was in a perfect storm, and he asked me what that meant, and he said, Can you preach on that? I said, Preach on that. Okay, whatever. And I went to the service where he preached on that, and at the end of it, the altar call was made, and all these people were up there, and that's the first time I realized, oh, this wasn't for me. This was for all those people up there. This was about changing lives. I don't remember if I ever told him that he changed my life that day, you know, changed the trajectory of my future, what I was going to do. Me becoming a counselor was definitely not in my plans, but that was the only way because I was I went back to school to teach. And I switched gears and became, and my major became counseling with a minor in psychology, and the rest is history. I no longer practice that, but I teach it. And I realize with my students, I say to them, you have to bring yourself into the counseling room. Don't forget yourself. I have all these textbooks here that I teach out of, and I tell them, you can't bring the textbook with you. You can bring it. You can't read it while you're trying to help somebody. But just remember who you are and why you are, and why you're doing what you're doing, and that it's not about you. It's not about you, it's not about a paycheck, it's about the person sitting in front of you who is about to vomit right on you because they care.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah. You just I look back at my life and I think the things I've gone through, yes, it was painful. It hurt to go through those things. But now, from my experience, I can speak into other women who are going through the same things. Absolutely. He will turn everything around that the enemy meant for evil and use it for good, for our good and his glory. Yeah. I want to shift just a little bit because I do want to talk about your your newest book, Kingdom Couture, where etiquette and class matters.

Kingdom Couture: The Book

SPEAKER_01 28:39

So, what is Kingdom Couture really about? And why did God put it on your heart to write it?

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Well, um, I went back into this fashion world after over two decades of knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah, we're gonna talk about that too, girl. That's powerful.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

That's what um sparked this book, right? Because as I was because when you can't just say you're going back into the fashion industry, you gotta actually do it. You have to work. And I hadn't sketched anything in over two decades. I mean, I'd done stuff for myself, which requires almost nothing, but to do it publicly and put it out there required a lot. And my grandmother and two other women that I bumped into along the way used to always say the garment isn't finished until the inside is done. And that thing sparked this book, right? Kingdom Couture. Your inside has to be done. And on the cover, it looks like all I'm talking about is fashion, but I'm really talking about that woman. There's a workbook in here, there's a 30-day challenge in this book for the woman who wants to get up and work on her inside out. I know how to make myself look like this. Even when I'm going through, I look like this.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

You always look fabulous. Can I just say you always look fabulous every time I see you? The first time you walked into an ACBW event, I'm like, oh, that girl has got some fashion going on, and not even knowing who you were, what you what you were doing, but it was just so apparent. You were so put together and you just looked always look so exquisite.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Yeah, but initially it's because when you look like that, people don't ask you any questions because they just think, ah, just like you, she's got it all together, you know. And meanwhile, your business is falling apart, all the things are happening, but you know how to dress up the outside, but the stitches on the inside are I even talk about it in one of the chapters about being unraveled, you know, the stitches unravel doesn't look very good. So I help I built into this principles for etiquette in class, and you don't have to show all of your body parts to be to walk into a room and turn heads. You just have to walk in whole from the inside out, and you start glowing. You start glowing. Recently, I prayed for an older woman in my church who had lost her husband a few years ago, and I used to just pray with her and tell her, You gotta get up. I know it's time for you to get rid of some of the things in your house. And you know, she would keep nodding and nodding. And about two weeks ago, she said, I did it. I did a thing, I did it, and I feel so much better. And on Sunday, I was sitting at a table with her, and somebody who knew nothing about our prayer or conversation said, Wow, you're glowing. And I said to her, Tell them why it's your chance, it's your chance. To tell them why you're glowing is because you've gotten rid of some baggage, some inner stitches that did not make you feel as whole as you should be. So the book is serious for me. Um, I tell a little bit, it's dedicated to my grandmother, but the book itself is not a long read. And a lot of it are those principles and those class things that I talk about and I utilize scriptures. I take people back to scriptures, like, you know, you're fearfully and wonderfully made that, and also that when God put you together, he didn't miss a stitch. Um, you know, he said knit. He knit you together. I get excited. He didn't knit you together. He didn't use crochet. Crochet, I crochet, and you can stitch in the crochet, and it, you know, if you miss a stitch in knitting, it leaves a big hole. God doesn't leave holes, he knit us together just like that. So good together, and so we did all of that so we could rise with grace. Right. I've gotten speaker topics out of this, rising with grace and um grace under pressure. All of those things come out of this book. And I recently started doing um short conversations on social media. It's just a little bit from this book to let you know, even oh, people may call me old. I don't feel old.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Girl, you don't look old either, so I don't know where they come up with that.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Well, my son and my daughter, you know, they don't they don't they don't care about my feelings. They're like, oh gosh, 66, and you're still going at it. It's like you're crazy. Um, and I do because I feel energetic. I feel like I could change the world. That's how I feel today, and in this season, like I could change the world. I'm not competing with anyone. I don't want a fashion house. I already did that. I just want to change lives. And if I gotta use a fashion design opportunity to tell a woman, as I'm sewing for her and designing for her, this is you right here. This is you right here. And you get to put this garment on. And my prayer is that the inside of you looks as great as this garment that I just made for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

I love that. I love that. Which, you know, I I alluded to it, but inspired creations has been invited to New York Fashion Week, which just

New York Fashion Week & Kingdom Assignment

SPEAKER_01 35:18

doesn't happen for anybody. I mean, creators and and designers live to get invited to New York Fashion Week. So, what does that invitation mean to you personally and how do you see it as part of your kingdom assignment? And you already just kind of talked about that. But I would love for you to elaborate.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

I did I've never done New York Fashion Week, even back then when I was in New York doing this, I never even thought about it. I thought I wasn't good enough to do it. So I never applied, I never did anything with it. But this woman in my church, she is fairly new to our church. And when she heard that I was doing the fashion show that I recently did, she kept sending me this application for New York Fashion Week. And I said to her, you know, maybe next year, maybe I'll apply after this is something. But right now, this is nothing to me. Um, I'm just trying to get back in the game. She said, Dr. Sharon, sending it again. I think she sent it three or four times. And I said, Holy cow. Let me just apply so I could tell her that I did. I could tell her when she asked me on Sunday, I could say, yes, I did it. I did it, I applied. Well, I applied before I could even tell her that I applied. After the fashion show, I saw an email saying, congratulations, your application was accepted. And I think I was still kind of groggy. I said to my husband, I think, I think somebody is telling me something about Fashion Week, but I'll read it tomorrow. And then I read it tomorrow, and it said, your interview is tomorrow. Oh, and they they did give you an opportunity to say if you could or couldn't. And I said, you know what? Okay, it's a challenge. Let me challenge myself and do it. I had no pictures ready because my photographer takes a long time. And I told him, I said, I need the pictures. I didn't tell him for what. I said, just give me some of them that you've worked on, so I could I need to show it somewhere. So they needed a lookbook. So what's a lookbook? Okay, a lookbook is that you get to look at right. And so I got on the interview with the guy, and he couldn't hear him because the technology wasn't working, and I was supposed to share my screen with my pictures. And so when I couldn't hear him, I didn't need to share my screen. He said, Let's just get on the phone call. I said, Oh, great, that's better. And we got on the phone call, and the first thing he said was, Tell me your backstory. I was like, Story? Okay, you got time for that. But I basically was honest, you know, just like I told you my backstory, I told him the same story, and then I sent him the pictures, and he's looking at it while he's interviewing me. And he goes, So, where have you been for the past 20 years? And I said, I was having a spiritual makeover, and I think that I don't know if Fashion Week is into all this. Well, when I come, I'm bringing God with me, sir. I that's all I got, you know, and I didn't even put my name on these designs. It's called Inspired Creation because it was inspired by God. And that's how it started, and now it's a lot of work. And it's costly to get there. People have been helping, you guys have been helping as well me to get there. And um, but I know I'm going to get there. Absolutely. Giving me my little slot Saturday, September 12th at 8 30 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Inspired creation will take the Saturday on a Saturday for Fashion Week at 8:30. That seems, I don't know anything really about fashion week, but that seems like a prime time. Is a prime time girl, you will so be there. Like I'll be there. He God pursued you in this. This is what's such an incredible story. God pursued you in this, and he didn't bring you this far to be like, oh, sorry, you know, you don't have the funds. And we are gonna drop in the show notes how you can, and I'm gonna have you tell them at the end too, how they can sponsor you for this because this is gonna be just so incredible. And what you're gonna carry into that place, aside from your creations, aside from inspired creations, you're carrying the presence of the Holy Spirit with you into that place, and it is gonna be powerful.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

Yeah. So I would like to I don't know what to expect. I really don't, you know. I I spent 36 years of my life in New York. I'm and I still don't know what to expect because I just know I love that city, and if there was a place to come back, it would have to be New York City because that's where that's where it started. And um, my children, they're grown now, you know, and they my son gets to be backstage with me because he actually went into that business, not as a designer, but he knows how to do styling and stuff, so he'll be my backstage crew. And he said to me, I can't believe this is happening. And I said to him, Neither can I, because back then when I would be going to buy fabric, if they didn't have school, I had to drag them with me and he would cry in the back scene. Why do we have to do this all the time? I really need this, and then he ended up going to school for fashion merchandising.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Which is just still crazy for all of us. He doesn't do it as a profession right now, but who knows what the future?

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Who knows what God's gonna do now? You never know.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

What do you say directly to the woman who's listening right now, the the one who maybe is in her own storm or

A Word for the Woman in the Storm

SPEAKER_01 42:18

she's rebuilding after a loss or wondering whether the gifts God placed in her are still valid? What do you say to that woman?

SPEAKER_03 42:29

I say, um, just remember that even though you're going through all this, the characteristics of God never changes, you know. He is the same, the same God, all these thousands and thousands of years, and um his characteristics never change. And he says he will never leave us nor forsake us. We're the ones that leave, we're the ones that take detours, we're the ones that go into a funk when things get a little rocky. And he knew this would happen. And throughout, I hear people say faith over fear. I say faith in spite of fear. Okay, because sometimes you gotta do it afraid. I did most of what I've done afraid. Um, I'm still doing it afraid because you know, I'm at this tender age where everybody just looks younger and better, but I just step up to the plate and know who I know. And um, and I right now I'm competing against myself, trying to be my best self. No, I've never made a million dollars, but I feel like I was successful as far as the kingdom of God goes, right? Um, I'm not saying I wouldn't want to be looking at a million dollars. And you never know what God's got plans for you, sister. I mean it's very apparent. And so I I you know, but my my my mantra, enter to learn, go forth to serve. Yeah, I serve, I serve, I serve, I I mentor woman, I talk to woman. It doesn't matter if they pay me or not, I am still going to help somebody. If I could help somebody as I travel along, then my living would not be in vain. And that is the that is the takeaway here, helping somebody as you travel along. And I was listening to one of my favorite speakers, is Dr. Cindy Trim, and she has a message called the law of execution. I listened to it again the other day. You gotta execute as far as kingdom girls. Yeah, we gotta execute. The world can't look better than us. We gotta step up to the plate and say, I am the legislator of my own life. I I am a kingdom girl. I know who we are, know who we are. I always ask my husband. Why, you know, stupid questions we ask our husbands, right? I haven't been married to him that long, six years. And I say, Why do you love me? And he always says, Because you're brilliant. That's it. That's all you got. What when I thought about it, I said to myself, I'm a reflection of God's brilliance.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

You know, I'm a reflection of God's brilliance that He crafted and made without missing a stitch so that I could bring hope to the hopeless. That's who I am. That's who we should aspire to be. Sometimes people ask us who we are. We start talking about our children, our husband, our dad, our job. Just a reflection of who God is, is who we are. If God is God and He made us in His image, then we have a responsibility to execute and be His hands and His feet, His ears and Hyes, and even His mouthpiece for the kingdom.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

I love it. And I love I love your husband's answer to that. Because, you know, initially when you think brilliant, you think smart, and which you are, but brilliant is also you shine.

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

I mean that's really brilliant light. You you shine and you just and you just radiate God's love, Sharon. I just have to tell you, you just radiate his love. And I I'm so excited for what God has for you in this next season and what's going to come out of this New York Fashion Week and your book and your programs and just everything that God has birthed through you. So before we finish up, I would really like for you to share where can the women listening, and and even men, because who knows? You know, there might be a man listening here too, but where can

How to Connect with Dr. Sharon

SPEAKER_01 47:21

they connect with your work? How can they explore New York Fashion Week sponsorship opportunities with inspired creation? And of course, get your hands, their hands on your books. How can they do all of this? Because we need to know.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Well, I I did create a link. Okay. PayPal link, which I sent to you. Yeah, that's the link. And I just asked people to donate whatever. There is no number on it at all. Um, I've already paid one payment, four to go. And so that's really how to help me get there. As far as connecting with me, I'm on Facebook as Sharon Arendelle and on LinkedIn and Instagram as Dr. Sharon Arendelle. And you'll see all the crazy antics that I've been up to, especially for the past five years, because without talking about COVID almost took me out and it was scary. I said, wait, wait, wait, this is not happening. But even my family thought I wasn't coming back home because I was in the hospital for a long time. But and I was sick for three months. But I remember saying, God, if I could just walk to the mailbox, I'll be all right. And I remember the day I did walk to the mailbox and I look back at the house and went, okay, so how do I get back to the house? But it's been a journey. But what came out of that is that I'm a designated survivor, right? And if anybody has survived that disease, you're a designated survivor because it took out millions of people. And so I you can find me in those places, just especially the past five years. I've I've jumped to another, it's like a hurdle that I jumped over in that season to start again and again and again, realizing I'm not too old. I still have all of my all of my faculties. People my age sometimes do not have all of them. And so that's how you can reach out to me. I do have a website, two of them. One is dr sharonarendel.com, and the other one is inspired-creation.com, which we're still working on and trying to get it together so that it could be ready for at least for New York Fashion Week. Yeah. And so that is a little bit about how you can get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

We will and we will drop all those in the show notes so that you can click on them and you can go directly to her website, directly to her PayPal, so that you can be a sponsor for New York Fashion Week. And Dr. Sharon, I just want to thank you again truly. I mean, your transparency, for your obedience, and for the way that you have just said yes to God in every season of your life. Even the even the ones that were hard, you said yes. Even the ones that cost you something, you said yes. And this conversation is going, I know this is going to reach women who needed it more than they even knew that they needed. So you're an inspiration. And I'm so grateful that you were here with us today. I would like to pray out before we close. So, Lord, we thank you for Dr.

Closing Prayer & Outro

SPEAKER_01 50:59

Sharon. We thank you for her redemption song. We thank you for her yes and for the life that you have built from every broken piece. Lord, let this conversation travel further than we can see. Let it reach the women and her cocoon who does not yet know what that she was made to soar. Lord, remind her today that she is not behind, she's not forgotten, and she is not too broken because you are the God of restoration. Let her know that she is exactly where you can work, and you are faithful to finish what you have begun. Lord, I just thank you for this time, and I thank you for what you're going to do in and through Dr. Sharon. What you've already done, what you continue to do, and for the plans that you have for her future, God. We lift all this to you and we thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

Amen. Amen. Thank you for having me here.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Thank you for being here and thank you for joining us for episode eight of the Kingdom Leadership Podcast. And if this conversation stirred something in you today, don't let it just be a feeling. Let it be a next step. Share this episode with a kingdom woman in your life who really needs to hear it. And leave us a review. You can also follow Dr. Sharon everywhere she is online. All of her links are waiting for you in the show notes. And if you're ready to link arms with kingdom-minded women who are building, leading, healing, and rising together, you know where to find the Association of Christian Business Women. So until next time, lead whole, lead obedient, and lead with joy. I love you and God bless you. Thank you for spending time with me on Kingdom Leadership. If today's conversation encouraged you or brought clarity, take a moment to reflect on what God highlighted for you. Trust Him even when the path isn't clear, because He is faithful to direct every step. New episodes of Kingdom Leadership release every Monday, and I invite you to join me again as we continue pursuing kingdom purpose with faith and intention. Until next time, lead with wisdom, walk in obedience, and trust God with where He's leading you.