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Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization, and without it, you cannot expect to create sustainable and repeatable visibility for your website.

Today, SEO is a much wider discipline than in the early days of the industry and has been segmented into many verticals.

But, at the core, SEO is about finding opportunities online and capturing relevant traffic to your website through visibility in search engines. Keyword research is at the heart of that SEO strategy.

I pursued my legal career without any Biblical understanding of work (I believed in God and Jesus, but I really didn’t have much of a Biblical understanding of anything).  When I was growing up, I thought that there were just two ways to look at work—either you were a “work to live” person who viewed work as primarily a way to fund your life, or you were a “live to work” person for whom work became their identity, drawing all their satisfaction, joy and self-worth from their job.  

Every entrepreneur is custom-created for a purpose. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells his readers that God “creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing” (Eph 2:10 MSG). 

Paul doesn’t leave it at that. He then tells them to “get out there and walk – better yet, run! – on the road God called you to travel” (Eph 4:1 MSG). How, though, in a world so full of noise and distraction, and with our broken humanity so prone to following our will and succumbing to fear, do we go about staying on (or getting on – let’s be honest) the road we’re called to travel? How can we approach getting in position so God can use us for the work he has for us to do? 

God can use you. But sometimes, we need to examine ourselves before we see progress in the area of calling.

In his New York Times best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey teaches that the second habit is to “Begin with the end in mind.” To that end, Mr. Covey suggests we all write a personal mission statement – a clear destination for our lives.

So what does the Bible say about writing personal mission statements? What would God want an entrepreneur’s statement to include?

I went to a men’s retreat that had me go through a mental exercise. The teacher had me imagine that it’s three years in the future, and, sadly enough, I’ve passed away. He asked all of us to take a moment to visualize our own funeral. I imagined my loved ones, but I also imagined my business partners, employees, industry colleagues, and my clients giving eulogies and talking about me amongst each other. I asked myself what I’d like them to say. What sort of business owner did I want to be remembered as? What would I want them to share with my mom and dad? For what did I want to be remembered as in my entrepreneurial career?

So often, when we want to embark on a big enterprise or start a business, we think we need something. We have to go somewhere. We have to study some subject. We have to meet some expert. We have to be better than we are now in some fundamental way. 

We assume something is missing, and that’s why we don’t have purpose.

Our Awakening

I had always thought, like almost every entrepreneur, that selling my company would be a triumphant moment — the pinnacle of my achievements. But when it finally happened, instead of feeling fulfilled and overjoyed, I felt empty, lost, and bewildered with confusion over the meaning of my life and work.

I couldn’t share these feelings with my friends and peers. “Cry me a river,” I expected to hear back. In trying to understand why I felt the way I did, I started searching for similar stories about other post-exit founders. Not the polished and often fictionalized stories, but the real stories that delve into the emotional experience.

There was little to be found, but in my search, I remember being shocked by a quote from one entrepreneur. “Selling my business and taking home $100M was the worst decision I ever made,” he said. I was floored. How could this be? He wrote that over the 30 years he built his business, his identity, community, and friends were all tied to his business. When he sold it, he received more money than he could want or need, but he lost his identity and community, and his daily friendships were significantly severed.

In the last post, we looked at the reason for your prayer—praying “so that” God is glorified. But let’s get practical—how do you do that, and what does that really mean when praying for your business?

Many times, it seems that we reserve our most fervent prayers for our biggest problems that are not easily solved by our human efforts. Just like the example of Hezekiah going up to the temple and laying out the message from his enemies before the Lord, we too may find ourselves coming to God when we’re already backed into a corner with our business, our staff, production, customers or other.

It’s like prayer is our final go-to problem-solving tool when we are stuck with our backs against the wall.

But that’s not how it should be. Prayer is foundational to building and maintaining a healthy relationship with God. It is how we draw close, how we know God’s will, sense His presence and proceed in our business decisions with confidence.

Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization, and without it, you cannot expect to create sustainable and repeatable visibility for your website.

Today, SEO is a much wider discipline than in the early days of the industry and has been segmented into many verticals.

But, at the core, SEO is about finding opportunities online and capturing relevant traffic to your website through visibility in search engines. Keyword research is at the heart of that SEO strategy.

I want to talk to you today about running a business that pleases God.

In business, we’re taught to constantly be testing products, examining customer response, and measuring profitability so we can please others. We know what pleases our investors is more return on investment. We know what pleases our social media followers by measuring the likes, comments, and views. We know what pleases our customers by their willingness to buy more and pay more.

Do you know what’s more important than making the right decision? Going where God is leading you.

In the middle of an overwhelming autumn day, God invited me to spend time with him in nature. You know what I heard him tell me? “Leave your career and position on the leadership team at a nonprofit.”

What could I do but take a leap of faith and obedience? I resigned a week later. Then, God called me back to entrepreneurship. A couple of months later, someone told me about Faith Driven Entrepreneur and I joined an inaugural Foundation Group.

The group leader asked me to write about being a Parentpreneur. So, I gladly accepted the offer and submitted an article in April. But in God’s perfect timing, it wasn’t published until July.

On the same day, an executive producer from Florida came across my profile on the Faith Driven Entrepreneur website, and he contacted me. He and his business partner had been praying for someone to help them start up a nonprofit to serve Christian filmmakers. While I didn’t have experience in the entertainment industry, I did have a wealth of experience in nonprofit leadership.

God often puts us into a position to launch something new. And he had equipped me with the skill-set needed for a position I never knew existed. Not only that, but he also connected me with the perfect partners to advance his Kingdom.