319-Your Story Is the Strategy

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You have the resume. You have the track record. You have prayed over every assignment God has placed in your hands. And the room still does not know your name.

In this episode of the Stuck No More Voices Podcast, Theresa Croft opens up why the story you have been leaving out is the one your ideal client is waiting to hear.

You will hear a life giving sound bite from Paul Getter, taped in a Speakpreneur room in Vancouver BC that reshaped how Theresa thinks about voice and story.

Then Theresa walks you through three shifts every Christian woman leader needs to make. Why credentials open the door but stories keep her in the room. Why the imperfect story is the one that lands. And why your story is the reason your solution works.

Theresa shares her own testimony of God's mercy across 26 years of an abusive relationship and two cancer surgeries. She talks about the hidden work she has done through counseling and Neurocycle with Elan van Deventer, powerful mental/businessmenotr,  certified in Neurocycle with Dr. Caroline Leaf. And she names why healthy leaders create healthy rooms for other women to become who God made them to be.

If you have been building a business on credentials alone, this episode is for you.

Ready to take your story apart and put it back together as a visibility strategy? The next Calling Activation is July 28 at 7pm. Free to attend. VIP seats available.

Click her to register.

Take the Calling and Capacity audit here.

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Transcript

The Story People Remember

Speaker 0:00

The story that will grow your business is not the one that makes you sound impressive. It's the one that explains why you care. That is the one people remember. That is the one they repeat to their friend. That is the one that turns a scroller into a client.

Welcome And Quick Subscribe Request

Speaker 0:18

Hey, friend, welcome back to the Stuck No More Voices podcast. I'm Theresa Croft, a visibility strategist who helps Christian women, business women move from their ideal calling to their story, to being found with a message for their ideal audience. Before we start, do two things for me, would you? Subscribe to this channel on YouTube and maybe share it on Apple Podcasts. That makes it s- the message grow. I appreciate that.

A Speakpreneur Moment In Vancouver

Speaker 0:46

So before we get into the meat of this conversation with you, I wanna take you back to Vancouver two years ago. I was picked by my company to go s- listen to Paul Getter at one of his Speakpreneur's. It was so cool. I got to go with one of my best friends there, and it was a very powerful Speakpreneur. It's very powerful words that came from Paul Getter, considered one of the most greatest marketers. Paul also has a heart for God, and he does not weed out God in his messages. So I wanna take you back to Paul Getter

Speaker 2 1:21

your story has a purpose. Your experience, your success, your failures, everything that you've went through is an opportunity for you to make an influence and also make an impact. I believe with all the craziness that is going on in this world, we need more positive voices in this world. Yes, sir. Let me say that again. We need more positive voices in this world. You've got a positive message. You've got a story that can make a difference. You've been through some stuff, and there's no telling what type of difference that can make in this world if you just learn to use your voice

Speaker 2:01

Did you feel that? That is the exact shift I want to walk you through today. The moment you stop hiding your story and start leading with it. Let's get into

Credentials Open Doors Stories Keep Trust

Speaker 2:12

it. Point number one: credentials open the door. Stories keep them in the room. Your credentials are your resume. Your story is the reason she stays. She saw your title. That was what made her click. But she's one scroll away from the next expert with the same title. What holds her in the moment she reads a sentence and thinks, "She has been where I'm standing." Credentials are like the sign on the front door of the shop. Credentials are like the sign on the front of the shop. The story is what makes her come on in and sit down. I kinda learned this the hard way. For a long time, I thought I had to lead with my cr- resume. You know, 29 years in m- media, 17 years on the radio, social media director from some great companies, and still, the room did not know my name. Then one day, I stopped leading with what I had done and started leading with what I had walked through, the season I thought I would not survive The voice that got buried under 26 years of an abusive relationship. The morning I woke up on the other side of two cancer surgeries. I heard the words cancer-free, but I had to wait and heal and sit still. But the moment I started telling those stories, the room shifted. Women reached out, not because they wanted my resume, because they saw s- themselves in my scars. Your credentials will get your attention. Your story is what will hold it.

Why Imperfect Stories Land

Speaker 3:49

Point number two: the imperfect story is the one that lands. Most women hide the messy chapters. They think it makes them look less credible. The opposite is true. Perfect stories put a distance between you and the reader. Imperfect stories closes the gap. The chapter where you did not have it figured out, the season you almost quit, the moment you thought the call was over, that's the chapter that makes her whisper, "Me too." You are not called to be admired from far away. You are called to be trusted up close. I learned that trust is not built because our lives look perfect. It's built when we are willing to let people see the faithfulness of God woven through our story. My trophy is, is not a trophy of tons of achievement, but it is a trophy of massive grace. Every scar, every setback, every place where I thought my story was over has become another place where God has shown himself faithful. When I share my story, I'm not asking people to admire me. I'm inviting them to see what God can do in an ordinary life surrendered to him. Maybe that is why your story matters more than you realize. Someone scrolling right now does not need another expert. They need evidence that hope is real. They need to hear that God still restores, still heals, still calls. She writes beautiful endings out of broken chapters. So when you stop hiding your story and start stewarding it with humility, your life becomes a bridge, not pointing people to you, pointing them to the God whose grace is still rewriting stories every single day.

Let Your History Preach To Fear

Speaker 5:36

Here's what I want you to see before you go one more step. God has never once broken a promise. In your own life, your own story is part of the evidence.. So look back over the years. The thing that you swore would end you did not. The need you could not see a way through got met.. The night you thought would never end gave way to morning every single time. That is not luck. That is the faithfulness of God written to the history of your own life, your own story, and you are a living witness. Even the hard things that reached you had to pass through God's hands first, and He already promised to work them for good. You're not unguarded. You are surrounded. So let your history preach to your fear today. When the doubt asks whether God will come through this time, answer it with a record. Answer it with a testimony. He always has. His faithfulness is as dependable as the sunrise about to happen outside your window every single day. So consistent you could set your life by. Great is His faithfulness, not just in general, to you specifically, across every season you have lived. The God of your past is the God of this day building your story. He does not change His nature between chapters. Trust Him again. He has earned it a thousand times over. Check this verse from Deuteronomy 7:9. "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God. He is a faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations." Ah. So when mercy became visible, let me share. When your heart is in tune to the Holy

Mercy Becomes A Mission In His Presence

Speaker 7:27

Spirit, you learn how important your story is, because that is the moment it stops being a scar and becomes a mission on purpose, God's purpose. I personally learned this story in my life, uh, when I was able to see God's mercy hit me right in the place I needed it, how He saved my mind through the trauma invading it for 26 years daily in an abusive relationship, how mercy came through two cancer surgeries, and yes, a declaration of cancer-free. Every story I learned to unpack, and every time I look at it, I simply see His mercy, His grace, the kind of seeing that does not come cheap. It comes from years resting and spending time in His presence. Your story will not open itself at your desk. Often, it will open itself in His presence. That is the room where meaning gets revealed. That is where mercy becomes visible.

Your Story Explains Why Your Solution Works

Speaker 8:31

Point three: Your story is the reason your solution works. When someone understands the moment that shaped you, they don't just hear your expertise, they hear the meaning behind it.. Every real solution came out of a real problem. Your solution has one, too. You're not just selling a service. You're handing her the way out of the room you already walked out of. Your story is like a lantern. The days are dark. She's not following the light because it's bright. She's following it because you have already walked the path she is standing on People often ask when my work really became my work. It's not the 29 years in media. It's not 17 years on the radio. It's not being a social media director for some groups, companies. My work became my work when I realized I just could not teach visibility. I had to let God make me healthy enough to walk in it myself. I had to have a healing road from the 26 years in a stopping mode, for me, that meant doing the hidden work, counseling, sitting under a neurocycle great, Elana van Deventer, who's not just a neurocycle faciitator, but she's also amazing business coach, mind coach. Honest conversations, going around the mountain a few times in the early years of talking, but Letting God uncover old beliefs that kept me small after years of abuse, loss, and survival. I did not want women to follow someone who just had good strategies. I wanted to see what it looks like when the grace of God transforms a heart from inside out, and then is able to lead, to receive, and to build My story is not about admiring resilience. It's about witnessing redemption. That is the work I'm committed to, because healthy leaders create healthy rooms for other women to become who God made them to be. And here's something I want you to hear plainly. My work is not the tools necessarily I use. It's not the podcast. It's not the AI. It's not the frameworks and the systems. Those are just tools. My work is creating the room where a woman finally says out loud, "I see what God has been doing in my story." Everything else serves the moment. That's why I refuse to ask women to go somewhere I am unwilling to go myself. That is what gives v- a voice credibility. Not teaching healing from a distance, inviting women to walk with me while God is shaping me, too. That kind of leadership creates trust, and trust is where transformation begins. To reveal that trust, that

Healing Work Before Visibility Work

Speaker 11:22

is your story. Here's what I want you to sit with this week. Don't go looking for a story that makes you sound the most impressive. Go looking for the one that explains why you care, that the story of your ideal client is looking for. You learn to speak to the person you once were. You learn and you realize that your testimony is for someone else. Do it again, God, with the same might and power. That's what testimony means. So if you wanna do this together, find your voice and work on some keys to your calling, to your story, to your visibility, join us for the next activation, Calling Activation. It's June 23rd at 7:00 PM. It's where we take your story apart and put it back together as a visibility strategy that actually moves. It is free to attend. VIP seats available. You might wanna get them before they go out. The link for that Calling Activation is in the show notes. Well, I'm Theresa Croft. I really appreciate you being with me. Check the show notes, and I'll talk to you in the next episode of the Stuck No More Voices Podcast.