A groundbreaking lesson I learned as a leader is the concept of responsibility versus rights. Taking on responsibility will require you to give up some rights. John Maxwell calls this "The Law of Sacrifice: A Leader must give up to go up.” Leaders have to give up more than others in order to effectively fulfill their responsibilities to move the team forward. For example, a pastor gives up the right to order a beer at a restaurant because followers in the church could see that and think its ok. Yes, its ok to have a beer.  But the leader understands that others are watching and following, so he gives up the right to drink a beer in public. I used to think that as the owner of the company, I could go play golf whenever, walk into the office at the time I felt, and wear whatever I pleased to work. Boy was I wrong. If we're building a God-first business, we need to rethink the way we used to operate in the past. Adding God into the mix gives us entirely new responsibilities and strips us of some rights we used to enjoy before. If we aren't going to sacrifice our old ways, we can easily build up pride of ownership and go down the wrong path of entitlement. Godpreneurs are not entitled. We can’t afford it. We lead by example.  We are last and our people are first. The only time we're first is being the first ones up and running and ready to advance the cause. In the Bible, Nehemiah shows us first hand how God wants leaders to lead. As Governor, Nehemiah could have received a whole bunch of perks.  But he chose to not burden the people, paving the example God was looking for. Nehemiah 5:18-19 says "Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.  Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people." Are there any areas of the business where you can show awesome leadership by giving up your rights? In times of great change in a company, we’ve heard in the news of CEO’s taking pay cuts, eliminating perks, rolling up their sleeves and getting to work with the first ranks. As we build our God-first businesses, we need to be conscious that others are looking at our work ethic, humility, generosity, tenacity and resolve.  They are following the leader and making positive decisions that will impact the entire organization. All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out. #SharpenLeadership #WorkLifeBalance

I've been having issues with one of my employees. He's normally a rock start and leads most of the projects in my company. However, for a couple of months, his production reduced dramatically. I confronted him about his productivity and asked him to explain what's going on. He admitted that he's been demotivated because of recent changes as we're rebuilding the agency. The new structure has him reporting to someone whereas before, he was pretty much the top guy. While I understood his frustration, I communicated all of the reasons why these changes were for the greater good of the bigger vision, and at the end of the conversation, he apologized and made a commitment to show up differently. And to seal the deal, I gathered the leadership on a call with this employee and he shared his new commitment with the team so that we could all move past this minor speedbump in our quest to rebuild a stronger agency. As entrepreneurs, It’s important that we get private and public ‘buy in’ from those working with us on the vision that we have. If we want to change the world, we need a team behind us that sees the vision and wants to help. In the book of Nehemiah, we see how the integrity of those working to help rebuild Jerusalem was made public through an oath. While Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall, it came to his attention that Jewish nobles and officials were unfairly taxing lower-class Jewish people...their own people! This was an outrage to Nehemiah. Not only was it an outrage, but it also threatened the rebuilding project because Nehemiah relied on some of these lower-class people to help him rebuild - those are his employees. Nehemiah confronted the nobles and officials, called them out on their unfair behavior, and eventually, convinced them to change their ways. Nehemiah 5:12 says, “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised." There are two key lessons to learn here. First, as you rebuild (or build) your company, you need to confront any wrongdoings and get a commitment that things are going to be different moving forward. Second, you have to bring your partner or other people higher up in the company together so that the employee can publicly declare their new commitment. This final step of taking a public oath is the secret sauce. See, although Nehemiah could have taken the nobles and officials at their word, he took it a step further and had them take an oath in front of the priests…representatives of God. The major lesson here is that there's something magical about taking an oath in front of a group of people.  It tattoo’s a commitment to the cause. Are there any issues going on during your building or rebuilding of your company? Who can you confront privately about a change that needs to be made? Who have you confronted about something privately, that now needs to be declared publicly to others in the company? Maybe YOU are the one that needs to make a public oath for something you realize you were doing wrong? Watch how integrity in your company is taken to new levels as you make the ultimate leadership power move of publicly declaring your commitment to new ways of operating. All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

One of my favorite business books is The No BS Guide to Ruthless Management of People and Profits by Dan Kennedy.  It revealed to me how LITTLE I knew about management - and how management correlates with leadership. One of the things I learned is that I have to stomp out problems with people right away, and I have to be able do it privately and publicly. I don’t know about you, but I shy away from conflict.  I avoid it like the plague. In business, there will be conflict with people.  We have to learn how to deal with it in order to move forward. God helps us confront conflict with people.  In fact, God uses the conflict to move to new levels in our relationships, and thus our businesses. In Nehemiah, we get a great example of dealing with conflict. Nehemiah 5:6-8 says, "When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say." Nehemiah did two key things to deal with conflict. First, he reprimanded the nobles privately. Then, he dealt with them publicly. This gave Nehemiah the opportunity to speak one-on-one with each official to get their buy-in. Then, he addressed everyone in a large meeting to make sure his point was made clearly. Nehemiah wanted to make sure this wasn’t going to happen again. How you deal with conflict between people in your company will either move your company forward or take it backward.  Conflict will do one or the other.  Which will you choose? #HumanResources #ConflictManagement All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I love doing logos and websites for churches. Obviously I’m going to feel good about hooking up one of God’s churches with awesome identity. I even have a special rate for churches, lower than what I would charge another company for the same deliverables. Why? First of all, those are my peeps! I’m Christian, I go to church, I understand the struggles churches go through to survive off of the tithe, and I want to help. Second, every church practically needs the same exact stuff when it comes to graphics and web, so I benefit from ‘economies of scale’.  This means that I’m not reinventing the wheel with each client, but instead able to make a solid system and process more efficient, thus lowering my costs to produce the product. As Godpreneurs, God has a plan to use our businesses to help the church and our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. However, sometimes we focus on our own needs (profit) and we don't even consider what others - especially those in need - are going through. In the book of Nehemiah, we run into a situation where Jewish ‘business owners’ were treating their own Jewish brothers and sisters unfairly. Nehemiah 5:4-5 says "Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” The world's problems are not yours to solve, and your business must generate revenue in order to manage your finances correctly. You aren't expected to provide free services for the Christian community. However, you must leave room in your heart (and budget) for special occasions where certain brothers and sisters in true need can be "hooked up" with your services. It's not about providing a free service, it's about meeting someone at their place of need. It's about God using your business to work in someone else's life. We aren't expected to provide free services all day, however, we are expected to have a heart for our brothers and sisters and do whatever we can to help those that are less fortunate and in a special need through their circumstances. Personally, when people reach out to me on my social media to tell me they want to take my courses, but they can't afford to pay for it, I send an email to my team to grant that person access and I bless them with what they asked for. I do what feels right for my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially when they have the courage to share their financial situation and ask for the help. Look into ways you can serve your church with your business.  Use your power and influence to help your church community, too. If you want to brainstorm ways your product or service can serve the church, or brothers and sisters from the church, comment below and we'll come up with ideas to help you. All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

My company was heavily involved in nightlife graphic design. We were the leaders in designing the flyers that would be distributed to promote the club’s events. Along with the nightclubs came all of the other types of "clubs" that entertain people at night: strip clubs. Oh, and we also did work for gay and lesbian clubs. And, I can't believe I'm writing this, however, I have to also confess I did some work for dating websites where we needed to manipulate pornographic photography. My philosophy at the time was...."Whoever paid us would get flyers from us." However, as I grew in my relationship with God, I became convicted of all this work, even the "normal" nightclub work. I was convicted because I'm trying to draw closer to God, but I knew deep down that some of the work we were doing was for industries in direct opposition to God. I was playing for both the good guys and bad guys. Most concerning to me was the example I was setting for my employees - the crew closest to me and witnessing my transformation. We all have people watching us: our children, spouses, friends, family, vendors, employees, clients, and contractors. As Christians, we have magnifying glasses over our every move, especially from skeptics.  God wants us to be leaders that will stand up for what’s right so that we can be great representations of Him in the eyes of nonbelievers. In the book of Nehemiah, we witness Nehemiah’s leadership throughout the rebuilding of the wall at Jerusalem. At some point during his rebuilding campaign, he calls out the Jewish leaders for their wrongdoings in charging interest to their own people. Nehemiah 5:9-11 says, "So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” Nehemiah knew that, even if he did succeed in rebuilding Jerusalem's walls, the city could not be safe if there were abuses going on within his own people. The building of a God-first company allows you to go deeper than just profits. Godpreneurship is also an opportunity to reform men's (men and women) lives. Your decisions as a leader can convince consciences that God is real. If you walk your entrepreneurial journey in the fear of God, you will not be covetous of worldly gain or cruel toward your brothers and sisters. But nothing exposes religion more to reproach than the worldliness and hard-heartedness of the professors of it. I'll admit that, for a period of time in my Christian walk, I would play the spiritual guy, but then serve the nightlife world. People saw that and were probably calling me - and religion as a whole - a hypocrite. Good words are good things, but good performances are better. Other Christians showed me grace during my transformation and transition out of nightlife, but skeptics don’t know what grace is.  They see things black and white, as it really is. I eliminated doing any kind of work for strip clubs and eventually nightlife as a whole.  I told my employees why I was doing it because they thought I was crazy letting go of the consistent money. Is there anything in your business that makes you look bad, that makes people wonder, that makes you seem hypocritical in the eyes of your employees, vendors, or clients? We entrepreneurs are leaders.  People look up to us.  Let’s set the best example by eliminating any business practices that would be considered ungodly. #StrengthenIntegrity #DifferentiatingMyself All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

It’s important to me that my team know that God is the real CEO.  I’m more like a manager. This is a nice thought, and I’ve actually proven it to my team. I tell stories of how God has come through for us at this last minute.  I’ve even blogged about my experiences here on DailyGodpreneur.com. We need a CEO that will fight our battles for us. We need a place to go and ask for help, guidance, and vision for what to do next. In the book of Nehemiah, we meet a leader who has taken on the task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. As Nehemiah and his team are rebuilding, they've reached a climax in the conflict brewing up between the forces that want to REBUILD vs the forces that want to stop all construction. As the leader in charge, with nobody else to go and ask for support from, how do we fight battles that seem insurmountable, especially when the odds are stacked against us? In the Bible, we see that if we put God first, he’ll give us the confidence needed to continue the work in the face of our trials. In Nehemiah 4:19-20 "Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” When you find your back up against the wall, you must do these 3 things: First, you need to go to prayer Then, you need to unite your team. Finally, you need to reassure them that God fights for you. If you've been a Christian for long enough, you've already seen God come through for you in some way. Share those stories with your team. Since you’ve proven in the past that God comes through, it will give your team the confidence to continue moving forward. We entrepreneurs are often fighting these battles alone…or at least it feels like it.  We need to call on God, our CEO, to reassure ourselves that we can go to him whenever we need. If we can get our vendors, contractors, freelancers, and employees to know the vision and stand behind it, we will be in the best position to finish the job we’ve been inspired to start. #DifferentiatingMyself #FindingMyPurpose All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

My schedule is packed.  I wake up early in the morning, make my coffee, read my bible, pray, and it's off to the races. And when I’m done with the long day, it's right back to work, building the business from home. It’s important for my team to see me working day and night, it motivates them and shows them they have a leader that works just as hard, if not harder than they do! I love watching the show, The Profit. Marcus Lemonis, the host of the show, is always eager to get into the process and figure things out. I’ve seen him cleaning, painting, getting dirty in his new ventures. We get motivated and encouraged by leaders that are willing to get their hands dirty, get in the trenches to make things happen. In Nehemiah 4:21-23, we read about a leader that’s standing side-by-side with his team while the threat of an attack loomed. "So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water." As you read about Nehemiah and his leadership style, are there any comparisons to you? Do you need to change some things to step it up as a leader? We Godpreneurs need to fight side by side with our team, day and night, with weapons of prayer and praise. All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I used to work at Carnival Cruise Lines as a Personal Vacation Planner. That’s a fancy way of saying I was an in-house travel agent in a call center for Carnival. There were about 500 of us spread out over three floors in a corporate building. Every Friday at 9 am we have a team meeting. Everyone needed to be off the phone and upstairs on the 3rd floor to hear from the big boss. The fascinating part of this team was how it kicked off each Friday. Suddenly, the speakers would start playing “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. If you haven’t heard it, play it today on Spotify. It will cheer up even the Grinch! 😂 And when you listened to the song, that was your cue to stop everything you’re doing because the meeting would start by the songs ending. How do you think the mood was by the time the meeting started? Yes, you guessed it. Pretty much all of us were walking on sunshine! It didn’t matter how your day, week, or month was going, when that song came on, all of a sudden, all your worries went away, and joy and happiness would flood in. I didn’t fully understand why Bob (the head of the department) did this at the time. Now I do. He did it because it put us all in a state of praise and worship. You didn’t just walk to the meeting; you danced your way there. And he kicked off the meeting by praising people that did well in sales. Almost hypnotically, we’re all one big bunch of positive praising personal vacation planners! 🙌 Something is amazing what happens when we play praise and worship music. Like only a positive, uplifting song can do, the music changes our attitude. We all of a sudden are transported away from our problems. Married entrepreneurs, I believe there’s something good to be learned here. What if we purpose to PRAISE God for things we’ve been going through? What if we sing songs of victory as if it’s already happened?! This isn’t some theory of mine. The bible says About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. (Acts 16:25‭-‬26 NIV) Here are two devout followers of Jesus put in jail for performing great works for God. If anyone needs a breakthrough or more like a BREAKOUT, it’s these great men of God. But instead of wallowing in their despair, they begin praying and singing. They praise God. Their jail represents the trials and tribulations in business and marriage you face today. Your situation is not hopeless. I’ve developed a habit of turning on some good Christian lyric music in the morning. Like Walking on Sunshine did for me back in my Carnival days, some praise and worship music in the morning gets my heart and mind feeling good. Great music lifts my spirit and helps my mind BREAKTHROUGH to the positive place of expectancy. Once our hearts and minds are praising and worshiping God, He begins to work immediately on our situation. He suddenly broke Paul and Silas out of their jail cells, and He wants to break us from our trials too suddenly! If we want to see God make big changes in our business and marriage, let’s all begin to PRAISE Him! God will start to work on our behalf immediately. Start now by creating a Spotify list of Christian worship songs that LIFT you up while lifting God up and praising Him. Father, I’ve seen you move, you move the mountains! And I believe, I’ll see you do it again! #MarriedEntrepreneurs #BusinessBibleStudy #GodpreneurAcademy 21 Days of Breakthroughs in Business and Marriage This course provides needed strength and faith, in the truth of God’s holy Word, for breakthroughs in both your business and marriage. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

In July of 2014, I installed an ‘INTRANET’ at my company. An intranet is a private network within my company. Only employees and contractors are allowed in. In this intranet, I talked about the mission, vision, and goals of the company.  We displayed growth stats, had courses my team could take, and dialog amongst each other.  It was also a mini social network of our own. Why would I build an intranet for my company? The primary reason was that I wanted us all to be on the same page moving into the future. I realized that the visions God gave me, he didn't give to the team. I’m supposed to interpret them and relay the message at the right time, in the right way. The second reason I built the intranet was to arm and equip my team with the knowledge, training, and resources to move into the future. This future would include battles…battles of distraction, competition, letdowns, employee turnover, and all other sorts of bumps that entrepreneurs experience. We, as business owners, are in charge of our team. It’s not about YOU anymore.  This is about your team. We will find ourselves in times of attack by the enemy, and thus our employees will too. Our first line of defense is prayer, of course. And when we're done praying, it's time we equip our team to defend and succeed! In the book of Nehemiah, we read that he's on a mission to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. We see a leader that knows how to equip his team, knows the importance of what this does mentally to His team and doesn’t just rely on his initial prayers. In Nehemiah 4:16-18, God’s word says: "From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me". God wants you to succeed. He is for your business! He’s looking for leaders that will equip their teams. If you’ll focus on covering your team in prayer, training them for success, and equipping them for battle, your business will be impenetrable to the forces that don’t want it to exist. Imagine a world where every company was led by a Godpreneur - an entrepreneur under the full authority and direction of God. I pray we all can become the Godpreneurs God has created us to be. #GainConfidence #WorkLifeBalance #AgencyOwners All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

When I was restarting my business, here were the facts: I had no money in the business account I had no viable leads in the pipeline I had no clue where I was going to get my next check I had no idea how I was going to pay rent at the office Restarting my business didn’t come easy. I went through many times that tried my faith in myself and in God’s promises. Many times...I wanted to give up. We all get to a point where we look at the FACTS, and they are not looking good. In the natural, we think ‘how am I going to get out of this mess’? Here’s how: FAITH The facts say one thing, but faith takes our minds off of the facts and onto God’s promises. It turns a negative mindset into a positive outlook. In Psalms, we read “God is our mighty fortress, always ready to help in times of trouble. And so, we won’t be afraid!” (Psalms 46.1, 2a). Confidence in God’s promises for your entrepreneurial life overrides fear. Yes, our business circumstances are very real. But so are the promises of our God. In the book of Nehemiah, we see a man committed to rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. This is his calling in life, and he's confident in God's protection during the assignment. He chose to depend on God to give him victory. Nehemiah 4:15 says "When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work." So even in the midst of danger, Nehemiah and the builders chose not to focus on the circumstances but instead GET BACK TO WORK. And guess what? God intervened and the enemies backed off! What does this mean for you? It means...GET BACK TO WORK! Stop the pity party, stop the depression, stop the anxiety and worry, just stop it. You have one thing to do: REBUILD. What role does faith play in activating God’s favor in your business? God wants to see us have faith. He wants to know that he’s the king of our hearts, and for our own good…because he wants us to realize that we’re not alone in our entrepreneurial path. God is with you, he is for you and your success! Whatever difficulties you are currently facing in your business, turn them over to God, and leave him to determine the results. #SharpenLeadership #GainConfidence All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I have some weak spots in my business life. Let me name a couple. I’m easily taken into new entrepreneurial ventures and ideas.  This can be bad if you’re already focused on building another. Also, I’m great at starting things but often not great at finishing and closing them out to completion. Instead of ignoring or giving into my weak spots, I’ve recognized them and put some things in place to combat them. First, I have a productivity planner I look at every morning to keep me on track with my main priorities. I meet with my project manager each morning and he holds me accountable to staying on track, not letting me venture too far into the "serial entrepreneur" mode. Second, I hired a business manager for each of my businesses.  They are diligent and detail oriented and can get things done. The enemy will come and try to attack us in our weak spots. He knows them, sometimes better than we do. If we don’t recognize our weaknesses - or worst, recognize them but not do anything about them - we’ll find ourselves and our team fighting an enemy that is well equipped to take us down. Nehemiah was going through attacks when he was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. But like a military strategist, he moved to fortify the areas.  And as the leader, he gave a pep rally and tells everyone not to be afraid. Nehemiah 4:14  says "After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” God is your commander in chief.  God leads you and your team. Hold a mental picture of God when you see the attacks coming. If God is for you, who can be against you? "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." (Colossians 3:23) The enemy won’t stop attacking, but neither will God stop being for your success. Imagine if all entrepreneurs visualized God leading our businesses.  Wow, what an incentive to help us keep going and growing through the good times and bad.  That should be our only incentive to keep us going. #StrengthenIntegrity #BecomeDisciplined All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

Are you feeling discouraged that business isn’t going the way you wanted? Has your business turned into BUSYness, and you’re overwhelmed? You’ve assembled your team, you have a plan, but the enemy keeps attacking from different angles. He’s got your team discouraged, and the once excitement in Restarting the business has now turned to them being afraid. If this continues like this, the business will likely fail and everyone is looking for a new job. But that’s not the plan God has for you. God has plans for you to prosper and grow! In the Bible, the book of Nehemiah gives us entrepreneurs an amazing example of how to lead through a rebuilding project. At the beginning of the project, there is encouragement, excitement, team building, and overall great spirits for what God was doing. However, in Nehemiah 4, we see discouragement settle into what was once an exciting revitalization of the rebuilding of the wall. Nehemiah 4:10-11 says "Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”  Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Nehemiah's project is being threatened by exhaustion, discouragement, and an overwhelming feeling that this is "project impossible." And to make matters worst, fear has crept into their minds. Sound familiar? You’re not alone in your struggle. This is every entrepreneur's rollercoaster ride when rebuilding, and relaunching a business.  You’re always in one of 3 places: in the middle of a trial, coming out of one, or going into one. Right now you’re in the thick of it. Successfully Restarting a business - God's Way - means you'll be honoring God more in the marketplace, and that’s not something the enemy will allow easily. We need to hold on to God's promises. We need to not give in and not give up. We need to pray up and press on! Victory is ours because God said so! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I read somewhere that your day really starts at night. Now, I’m very productive in the morning. I wake up ready to go after my day. I get a lot accomplished! But what you don't know is that I set myself up for ultimate morning productivity the night before. Dishes are done, the gym bag is packed, coffee is set up, and I’ve checked my calendar and planned my next day. Another thing I do at night is I'm moving any of my major projects forward. I use the nighttime to catch up on tasks and blast some emails for my team to read in the morning. That's been my nighttime routine for years. However, if I'm not careful, burning the midnight oil can also be a time of major distraction. Some things that distract me are my side projects, a game of Mario Kart, watching the news, late-night snacking, or social media snooping. Normally, these activities would be considered as relaxing and unwinding from a hard day of work. But when you're rebuilding and relaunching your entire business, there needs to be a refocusing of our most prized commodity: our time. Nothing on this list is part of the plan of getting the task at hand done - restarting our business, God's way. For those of us taking on the task of rethinking, reengineering, and relaunching a business or project, the nighttime is when the enemy wants to attack. He knows that during the day you're pumped and focused. It's at night when he plots his attack. We’ve all been preconditioned to “relax” at night and take it easy. While I believe in turning the lights down lower to wind the day down in our brain, I don’t agree that it’s a time to go to sleep on our rebuilding project. A commitment to rebuilding a God-first business is sacred time - we were ordained to do this!  It’s our duty and responsibility in this season to stay focused. In the Bible, we see that Nehemiah had the insurmountable task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. And during that rebuilding project, he was under attack by haters. And not just words, but the threat escalated to a potential physical confrontation.  But Nehemiah didn’t get scared.  He knew God had his back, he knew he had a purpose in what he was doing, so he did what great leaders do:  move forward in the face of adversity. Nehemiah 4:6-9 says "So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.  But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat." Nehemiah and his team posted guard....day and night. I heard someone once say "white space in the calendar is the devil." He’s right!  And if your nighttime calendar isn’t filled with something to-do (even sex and time with your wife should be on the calendar), then you’re giving way for the enemy to come in and attack what you've been rebuilding. As we're rebuilding our businesses or relaunching a project, we need to realize that anything done in God's name is going to be attacked. We need to keep watch - day and night. Be expecting the attack, it's coming. And keep praying for God to give you the strength to thwart or endure that attack. Pray today that you’ll also guard your nighttime and that God would cover you and give you the wisdom to be the best leader possible - day and night. #WorkLifeBalance #TimeManagement All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I wasn't a guy that gave a lot of praise to my team. It didn't come naturally for me to recognize people’s efforts. I did it because I read in books that it’s good for team and relationship building...but it always felt forced. However, when I did praise my team, it felt great! And I also noticed that giving praise and appreciation to my team did magic in keeping the fire and passion lit of any ongoing project or initiative. What would happen if all we did was work our team to exhaustion and never say thank you or give credit for their role in the rebuilding? What if the opposite was true - What if all we did was praise our team for their amazing talents, recognizing we couldn’t do this alone? In the book of Nehemiah, we see a leader who has gathered a team to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. And if you pay attention to what's going on in chapter 3, you'll see the author devotes almost the entire chapter to listing the names of the people that are helping him build the wall. The New International Version titles chapter 3: Builders of the Wall. 1 - Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. 2 - The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zakkur son of Imri built next to them. 3 - The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah 4 - Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired the next section. And the list goes on for all 32 verses. Nehemiah was praising his team by giving credit to where credit was due. Talk about an amazing leader! God gives an example of a leader that praises - while rebuilding! What can you do to praise your team along the way? Sending handwritten notes? Private messages? WhatsApp them something fun! Tweet publicly. Post something on their Facebook wall. What can you do RIGHT NOW? Stop, pull out your phone, and text someone on your team. It's going to feel great! I’m glad that I’ve changed - and now it's becoming natural for me to give recognition. If we recognize those helping us build (or rebuild) our business, it will encourage them to continue the fight, encouraged and motivated by a charismatic entrepreneur! #HiringtheRightPeople #IncreaseEnergy #HumanResources All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

One day, I had a new plan for rebuilding my company. I prayed about it, and now it was time to take action. I gathered up the people closest to me and formed a new team that would help accomplish the vision. What’s my vision? In a sense, it was the same as Nehemiah’s when he had the vision to rebuild the wall - I wanted to see my company rebuilt! Why?  Because God made me passionate about making sure people are living in the identity and purpose they were born for. I had a dream, a vision, a plan, and an unwavering commitment to seeing it through because this plan was coming from God. We’ve been praying and planning and plotting, now it’s time to set this business in motion. Nehemiah had a plan and there was no question that he believed it would succeed. Nehemiah 2:17-18 says "Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work." I love his commitment to the cause.  Here we find a man on a mission! Does your business feel like you’re on a mission from God to make it happen, or you’re just on a mission (Miami lingo for things not going as planned)? You need to gather the troops, unfold the plan, and get to work!  If they see that you’ve been called to do this, and if God has placed them there for you, they will give you a vote of confidence. If we’re all press play on the plans God has for us in living the identity and purpose we were born for, we as entrepreneurs will see more joy and happiness from what we do and there is nothing that will stop us. Get going with the plan! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out. #WheretoStartFirst #FindMyCalling