Faith & Masterminds

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there.

Hey, everyone, this is Julie, and today I want to talk about something that's a little bit more personal. Really, it's about spiritual containers, business coaching, and the danger of blurred lines when it comes to faith and business. I've had a couple of people reach out and ask. You know, Julie, obviously things have shifted in you in 2025. Can you talk about how you're navigating that change, especially with your faith coming back online? So I just want to set the stage briefly. I would say that starting early 2025, maybe March, I had a. What I could only call a radical, like coming back to my faith. I have been a Christian my entire life, and I was heavily involved in church until about the age of 30, 32. I walked away from my faith in the 10 years or the 12 years that I was really not operating or thinking about my faith in any form happened to also be the 12 years that I built this big business and following. And so everyone who has followed me for the last several years maybe has heard about my Christian upbringing, knows that I believe in God, but it was definitely not something that was emanating clearly from me. And now, all of a sud, I feel like I can't go a day without talking about my faith or blending some spiritual aha. That I'm having with whatever's going on in the world or in business. So this is causing questions from my followers and. And rightfully so. So I'd like to address them. And so I. I set the stage by saying, yes, I am a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, who I believe is the Messiah. And it is showing up in how I speak, in how I lead and how I think. But what I am not doing, and I want everyone to hear me really clearly, is I am not going to turn my business into a church. This podcast right here is about making some clear distinctions about how I see the difference between faith, informed businesses, spiritual authority, church, and coaching. Because when all of that gets blurry, people get hurt. So let's just start with what I feel really okay with personally, and I'm speaking personally. And you can take these values and adapt them as you. As you see fit. So I have no problem with business owners who are faith forward, meaning they're open and honest about their faith. And I also have no issue with Christian content creators or any sort of religious content creator, right? So, and even if they charge, right? So whether it's books, courses, those types of things, I have no problem with that. So whether you're faith forward just in your values as a business owner or whether you are faith forward and you say sell books and classes that are faith based, I'm totally fine with that. And here are the reasons why I see this as a clean sort of container. Number one, if you are selling books or courses or whatever on a particular value, faith value, let's say they're content driven, right? You're buying knowledge, you're not buying, you know, belonging in identity. You're, you're buying knowledge, skill, maybe how to interpret the Bible, how to lead, you know, parent your kids a certain way, make, you know, et cetera, et cetera. There's also opt in clarity, right. You know, it's faith based when you're purchasing it. There's very low spiritual entanglement, right? There's no power dynamics or un unequal balance of power and there's really a, a one way exchange, right? You're producing something and the person is buying it and consuming it. There's not like a sort of shepherding relationship. So how this shows up is, you know, maybe you're a business owner and you post on Facebook about, I don't know, your values about something or you like. For me, I'm publishing the Dandelion Report. This is a very clearly faith based newsletter. You can opt in, you can read or you cannot, right? It's not, we're not entering, entering into any sort of like covenant relationship or anything like that. So all that to be very clear, I have no trouble with people who run businesses who are faith forward. So you know, or faith forward businesses with consumables, where it starts to get dicey for me are in Christian branded masterminds. Masterminds are a unique container. I would call them a different sort of beast from almost any other container in the online world. And I'm speaking from experience because I run one. They are high trust, high cost, high transformation containers. And so because of that there's some unique considerations in those masterminds. And I'm not talking about memberships where it's, you know, let's say it's a parenting membership, you know, it's $50 a month. I'm talking about high ticket, high transformation, high trust. Environments that are exclusive. So that's why I'm using mastermind as a term. So here are the dangers that I see with Christian branded masterminds and I've seen them sort of popping up. So there's four, four dangers. Number one, there is implied spiritual authority on the leader and the coach starts to become seen almost as like a mentor, but then a shepherd, maybe we could even use that term. And so they're, they're in sort of a spiritually authoritative position, but they're not in a container like a church where there is like built in, like accountability, qualifications, things like that. Number two, the second danger is that belonging is tied to payment, right? So when you are in a mastermind, in order to belong you have to pay. And so you're getting access to. And so in the case of my mastermind, you're getting access to coaching from three coaches, me, Helen and Nuno. You're getting access to content events, you're getting access to hot seats, and you're also getting access to weekly audits. When it's a Christian branded mastermind, let's say it starts to get a little blurry. Are you paying for coaching? Are you paying for access to God through this community? Right. So belonging and payments start to get blurry. The third danger is faith fueled, like groupthink, most importantly when there is dissent. So, you know, in a church environment, for example, there's dissent or there's problems, there's like scriptural basis for, like how you address that. The problem with these pay to place sort of masterminds is that okay, yes, you could just stop paying and you could, you could leave, you know, and that's fine. But when you're blending this belonging, it can really cause that pain of loss. That kind of mirrors what happens when people leave cults, right? So that's the third danger I see. And then the fourth danger is it's like monetized. Like your identity is being formed and monetized, right? So the leader isn't just shaping your business, it's also helping shape like who you see yourself as before God. And so those are the dangers I see with this particular container. And so whereas a course is like, here's what I know, or a book is here's what I believe, or a newsletter is, here's what I'm thinking. Christian branded masterminds are like, here's how to belong for 20k. And so this to me is, is, is an error. I, I and this is why when people say, well, is is digital insiders, you know, for Christians only. I'm like, no, it's not a Christian branded mastermind. It is a business and marketing mastermind. Like that is literally what it's been from day one. That's what it's called, continues to be. I am clearly a Christian, so I am going to run everything about my life with Christian values of telling the truth and grace and all of those things. And that of course that's going to influence how I work and, and how I run my business. So if you don't value, you know, grace or truth or things like that, then, you know, digital insiders may not be for you. And I welcome people into digital insiders from all faiths and backgrounds. And you know, if someone comes to me and they are, you know, this is where I stand, I am respectful of that. Or if they come to me and they say, hey, well, I happen to be a Christian, you know, like, I want to talk to you about my faith, I'm open to that as well. But it's very clear that the category of my mastermind is business and marketing. So let's just. I kind of want to leave people with some spiritual business containers if you are thinking about either joining one or running one yourself because they do seem to be increasing in trendiness.

Right.

So the first container that I see is really just a Christian owned business, meaning you yourself. And I shouldn't necessarily just say Christian owned because you could be a different faith. But I'm Christian so that's why I keep using that as an example. So I'm a Christian owned business. I'm a Christian owned. I can't even say it. I'm a Christian and I own a business.

Right?

So faith is a part of my world view. It is not a marketing tactic.

Right?

It is who I am. But I run business for profit business. Very clear. So that's category number one. I think a lot of people would fall into that category. They run businesses, but they also are faith based in some capacity and it impacts the way they run their business. Container number two is faith based coaching, or we could call it paid discipleship. The point of this container is you're actually paying for someone to help you grow spiritually. So payment is for your time, is for structure, for teaching, not salvation, not belonging. And this can be very ethical, it can be very powerful. It requires a ton of emotional and theological maturity. But I think this can work. And, but this, I also think that this oftentimes works better in a very, very small container. As in like 1 to 1 or maybe 1 to 2, something like that, not a big group where you get, you start to get those group dynamics. So you've got number one, which is like Christian owned business or faith informed. Number two is like paid discipleship or faith based coaching. And then number three is the one that I'm like warning, which is spiritualized masterminds. They look like coaching, they feel kind of like church. They're priced like country clubs. You know, we got those three things working. There's no elders, there's no pastoral covering, there's no accountability. There's a very high spiritual risk here and why I tend to throw up all the red flags. And then the fourth container, which is the one that puts a real bad taste in other people's mouths, are people that are performative and they're running their businesses with faith angles as a sales tool.

Right.

So it's, it's really. Faith is the marketing tool, faith is the sales tool. There's a lot of, of heavy spiritual language. There's not a lot of spiritual fruit. This is, this is manipulation. This is absolutely manipulation, without a doubt. So as I go through those containers, I think number one and number two are totally fine and safe. I mean, I think number two, if you're going to do, you know, you're going to write books, speak, you're going to do paid discipleship, things like that there, you need a lot of maturity, but it can absolutely be done. If you are just a regular Joe running your business and happen to have, you know, faith values you want to share openly, that's fine too. But spiritualized masterminds start to get dicey and obviously performative containers are a hard no for me. So I, I really just wanted to kind of clear the air about that, kind of explain where I am. I am a Christian. I will not hide that. I am proud of that. I also am running a business, I'm running a marketing business. And anyone is welcome, regardless of faith. I will not spiritually pressure you, I will not spiritually parent you. I will not spiritually shape you. If I ever decide to do any sort of faith based teaching, whether it's a course or whether it's a book or whether it is paid discipleship, it will be very clearly labeled, it will be affordably priced and it will be with guardrails in place. But that, that is not on my agenda. My agenda right now is to continue to grow my businesses. Both funnel gorgeous and digital insiders. I absolutely love them, I am proud of them. I enjoy business and marketing and I do and I am a Christian and I am a follower of Jesus that is very, like, renewed and excited about her faith. I obviously am using some of my social profiles and my substack, my Dandelion report as a place to express those things, and that will continue. But I, I, I'm giving you this to say, hey, if you are a spiritual business owner, I want you to ask yourself as you're trying to discern things that you are buying or things that you want to build, like, what kind of containers are you really comfortable with? What kind of containers create the safety that you need? Do you, are you have it? Do you have clear expectations? Where are you comfortable with those guardrails? You know, are you able to disagree and still belong? And that's really, really important. So I, I encourage you to, if you are a spiritual business owner, yes, let your business reflect your faith, but do not let it become your ministry unless you're willing to carry that full spiritual weight and accountability of what that role actually looks like. So thanks so much for listening.

And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie, and this has been Million Dollar Grand.