Michelle originally planned to create something local and in person.

Then 2020 changed those plans.

She had already invested thousands of dollars into a platform, so she pivoted the idea into an online membership.

That shift happened during a period when many people were feeling isolated, uncertain, and without direction.

Inside Michelle's community, she says something different was happening.

People were growing together.

They had purpose.

They did not feel alone.

Michelle had experience building culture and community, even though she was new to online education.

She began by using a tool she already understood: podcasting.

She reached out through her podcast and invited women to be interviewed for a new podcast or to speak on calls within the membership.

Through that outreach, she met women of faith who were already openly talking about Jesus in the marketplace.

They were doing the very thing Michelle had only recently begun learning to do herself.

The growth was slow, but she describes it as deeply rewarding because the women joining the community were hungry for exactly what was being created.

What began as a membership with three courses eventually expanded into a larger coaching program.

But Michelle is careful with the word "coaching."

She says the word is accepted in the business world, but what she believes she has actually created is a discipleship program.

Its goal is not simply to give people information.

The goal is to move people:

From receivers of information to activators of information.

Michelle connects this directly to Matthew 28 and the call to make disciples.

Her vision is multiplication.

She wants to:

• Raise up disciples

• Who raise up disciples

• Who then raise up more disciples

This multiplication principle is central to the way she approaches leadership and development.

Michelle shared the story of a friend she strongly encouraged to join one of her early academies.

The academy was 16 weeks long.

Each week included significant participation, accountability, and activation.

Her friend was going through a difficult transition. She knew the Lord, Michelle says, but she was not actively walking with Him. She was drinking heavily and engaging in behaviors that were destructive to her life.

Michelle convinced her simply to join the class.

At first, the woman barely participated.

She would appear on camera briefly and then turn it off.

Later, she began leaving the camera on, although she would still be moving around and doing other things.

Around halfway through the academy, something shifted.

She began sitting in front of the camera and engaging with the teaching.

One of the course activations required her to make amends with someone.

By the end of the academy, Michelle says the transformation was dramatic.

The woman had:

• Given up drinking

• Given up vaping

• Reconciled with her ex

• Turned her life back toward the Lord

• Returned to church

Michelle says she later married and had a child.

For Michelle, the story demonstrates what can happen when a person has the opportunity to be discipled, even when that person initially does not want to participate.

When Tom asked Michelle to explain the process behind her programs, she began with leadership.

She believes everybody was born to lead.

She has spent years studying leadership and believes there is a significant leadership gap across societies and organizations.

Everything in her academies is modeled around the leadership of Jesus.

Everything, she says, points people back to the Word of God.

The process includes several different practices.

Studying Scripture

Michelle makes a distinction between simply reading the Bible and studying it.

She teaches participants to examine:

• Context

• Individual words

• How those words are used elsewhere in Scripture

• The meaning behind a passage rather than simply completing a reading goal

She explains that someone could remain on one verse for months when truly studying it.

Weekly Activations

The academies also require action.

One example is what Michelle calls the $20 Challenge.

When studying generosity, lordship, finances, and money, participants are told to carry a $20 bill, or the equivalent in their local currency.

They keep it with them until they sense the Holy Spirit prompting them to give it to someone.

For Michelle, the goal is not simply giving away money.

The exercise is designed to help participants learn to hear the Holy Spirit in relation to their finances and then act on that prompting.

Accountability and Engagement

Participants also:

• Meet with an accountability partner once each week

• Attend the weekly class

• Engage with other participants

• Write in a workbook

• Complete activations

• Speak biblical affirmations aloud

The affirmations change each week throughout the 16-week program.

Michelle says these combined practices repeatedly bring participants back to the Word of God and intentionally direct their thoughts toward biblical patterns.

Michelle believes many people have spent years living according to identities they were given by other people, identities they wanted for themselves, or identities they simply assumed were true.

Her programs attempt to bring people back to what she calls their Kingdom identity.

According to Michelle, when that identity begins to shift, other areas of life frequently change with it.

She says she has watched participants:

• Receive raises

• Leave professions

• Start businesses

• Start ministries

• Change direction completely

• Increase their income

• Repair marriages

• Reconsider where God wanted them to focus

She also makes an important qualification: not every outcome happens for every person.

But she says she has repeatedly seen significant changes when people begin living their faith rather than limiting it to Sunday.

For some, that means moving from feeling unseen, unvalued, or without worth to understanding that their daily lives can have impact.

That impact might happen while raising children.

It might happen in the C-suite.

It might happen through business leadership.

Michelle believes Kingdom-focused business leaders can make a significant difference through both the way they lead and the resources their businesses make available.

When asked what practical advice she would offer believers in business, Michelle emphasized learning.

She encourages people to read books and continue gaining wisdom.

She warns against complacency in both spiritual life and personal development.

For Michelle, Christian business leaders carry a responsibility to pursue excellence.

She believes that if believers want others to take seriously the God they talk about, their lives should demonstrate excellence.

That does not mean simply attending church or participating in a Bible study.

Michelle urges business owners to actively and passionately pursue Christ.

She also recommends finding a community that will push and encourage you forward.

Do not simply show up because it is your routine.

Keep growing.

Keep learning.

Keep pursuing.

Michelle also challenges the idea that Christians should retreat into their own communities.

She remembers growing up during a time when she often heard messages about Christians being "not of this world" and about Jesus returning.

She believes that mindset contributed, in some cases, to complacency.

Christians congregated within their own circles.

Meanwhile, she says, they "left the building" in areas such as:

• Business

• Politics

• Schools

• Other parts of society

Michelle believes Christians are instead called to engage communities and demonstrate who Christ is in every area of life.

She is not advocating, in her words, "beating people over the head with the Bible."

Her emphasis is on becoming a living example of the principles and values Jesus gave.

That can happen through leadership.

It can happen through business.

It can happen through how people treat others.

It can happen through the courage to use one's voice.

Michelle describes herself as a disruptor because she does not always fit comfortably into either traditional Christian spaces or traditional business spaces.

But she remains committed to speaking openly about her faith.

Michelle's story began with quiet prayers behind a salon chair.

Today, she says it is difficult to have a conversation with her about business without eventually talking about what she knows to be true about Jesus.

The transformation did not happen overnight.

It involved leaving something successful.

Building something new.

Learning how to create an online platform.

Finding community.

Becoming bolder.

Developing leaders.

And eventually moving beyond conventional coaching into what she sees as true discipleship.

Her goal is not simply helping people perform better at work.

It is helping people understand their identity, study the Word, listen to the Holy Spirit, act on what they learn, grow in leadership, and then help others do the same.

The result is multiplication:

Disciples who raise up disciples who raise up disciples.

For Christian entrepreneurs and business leaders, the challenge in this conversation is simple but significant.

Faith does not have to remain behind closed doors.

Business can become a place where leadership, excellence, service, and discipleship are lived out every day.

Watch full episode on YT - https://youtu.be/1YUF-UwIZEw

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