Graced to Lead

S2/E4 - Purposeful Entrepreneurship: Start Where You Are. Build What Matters.

• Belinda Gaston • Season 2 • Episode 4

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What does it really take to walk away from corporate success and build a business aligned with your deepest purpose? The answer lies beyond spreadsheets and business plans, as our guest Denise Taylor reveals in this soul-stirring conversation about faith-fueled entrepreneurship.
 
 Denise's journey from corporate leadership to purpose-driven business ownership provides a roadmap for women standing at similar crossroads. She candidly discusses the fears, doubts, and practical considerations that accompany such a significant professional pivot. Rather than offering sanitized success stories, she shares the messy, beautiful reality of building something meaningful from the ground up – and how faith became her cornerstone when uncertainty loomed large.
 
 This episode delves into the powerful intersection of strategic business thinking and spiritual discernment. Denise illuminates how prayer and purpose can coexist with profit and planning, creating a holistic approach to entrepreneurship that honors both practical wisdom and divine guidance. For leaders contemplating their own business ventures, her insights offer both inspiration and practical direction for moving forward with confidence. Whether you're actively planning your exit strategy or simply feeling the first stirrings of entrepreneurial calling, this conversation provides the encouragement and clarity needed to take your next faithful step. Ready to discover how your professional expertise and spiritual journey might converge in entrepreneurship? Listen now and find the grace to lead in entirely new territory.

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Belinda Gaston:

Have you ever wondered what it's like to leave a successful career to pursue entrepreneurship? I mean having your own business, but not just any business one that's aligned with your purpose and your passion. We're talking about what it really takes to pivot from corporate leadership into entrepreneurship, and my guest today, Denise Taylor, has walked that very path, and she's sharing powerful insight in how to move forward, not just with strategy, but also with faith. So if you've ever felt that way or you've ever wondered, I encourage you to keep listening. Let's get into it.

Belinda Gaston:

Welcome to the Graced to Lead podcast. I am Belinda Gaston, your host, and I am so excited today because the guest that we have on today is none other than Denise Taylor. So, before I welcome Denise to the show, I want to tell you who she is, because it's important that you know who we are talking to. She is what we call a corporate powerhouse turned purpose-driven entrepreneur. So, for those of you who are listening, if that is your space, if you are in the space of corporate leadership and you're thinking about entrepreneurship, you need to keep listening. After leading multi-million dollar teams and securing boardroom level roles and earning over $450,000 in compensation packages in corporate America, Denise made the bold decision to walk away.

Belinda Gaston:

Listen if you're listening to me. Can you just say, walk away? She made the decision to walk away not because she had to, but because she was ready to build something new on her own. Now, as the founder of Corporate to Entrepreneur, brand and coaching experience, denise helps high achieving women pivot into entrepreneurship with clarity, confidence and a strategy that honors both their brilliance and their values. Her mission is simple to help powerful women launch purpose-driven businesses without sacrificing identity, income or impact. So please, let's welcome Denise Taylor to the show. Welcome, denise.

Denise Taylor:

Thank you, belinda. Thank you so much. It's very humbling when you sit and listen to someone read your bio and, before we get too far, I want to say thank you for inviting me to your show. I want to tell you how encouraged I've been by your episodes and listening to all the powerful conversations that you have had, and I'm excited for where this conversation is going to go, so let's just jump into it.

Belinda Gaston:

Let's do it OK. So let's start with the beginning there. We talked about in your bio, Denise, that you were in the corporate space and then you moved into entrepreneurship, and so I want to start there. You are working as a powerhouse, right? You've got all the things you work so hard for. I mean, when you get to the level of leadership that you were in, Denise, you were been working, doing all of the things and everything was just right, and at some point you realized wait a second, it's time for a change. So was there a defining moment for you that caused you to make this shift from corporate leadership into entrepreneurship?

Denise Taylor:

There were several, actually. When I look back over my journey, I can now see how it evolved. And in 2019 was the fall, and I had just had surgery and I was home recovering, and it was a very interesting season because both of our daughters were away at college and my husband was working long hours, so I found myself at home alone and I always described that as being almost like in this silence camp. I'm not a huge television watcher, so many times I would just sit with God, and it was in that timeframe that my life had throttled down enough that I could really hear clearly over the timeframe that I was home recovering, and it was in that season that God said something to me that still woos me today, and the mandate for me was to transcend success and be significant. And significance really is about how do I help other people accomplish the things that God is calling them to do right, and so in that moment, I just started on my way, and I'm a firm believer that God gives us more on the way than he does at the start, but if you never start, you never get to see what it becomes Right. And so I started on my way in 2019, and so many different things developed as I was honing this coaching gift, this coaching business. I began serving women in love relationships and talked about marriage, and then it transitioned into confidence and courage and how we could embrace our power.

Denise Taylor:

And then I really leaned into the experience that I had professionally when I first made the pivot out of corporate America, and the more and more I got into it, most women who were looking to reimagine their career wanted something more fulfilling, and they wanted something that they could kind of put their own mark on right, that they could develop on their own. I would find myself being often told I want to do what you do. When I'm asking, what do you want? I want to have my own business, I want to help women, I want to make impact in a certain way, and so that's when the pivot really started into helping women launch businesses, helping women launch purpose driven businesses, and so it's been an incredible journey, but the mandate still remains. It's something that I passionately pursue each and every day, which is how can I transcend success and be significant and really help women to do what they've been called to do?

Belinda Gaston:

That's amazing and the boldness of it. There are a couple of things that you said that I want to talk about, and one of those is when you talked about success and how success changed for you. It sounds like it may have been a moment with God that inspired that, but would you say that you get to a point in your career as a leader where you start, especially if you're successful already, where you start to think about? As a leader where you start, especially if you're successful already, where you start to think about?

Denise Taylor:

is there more to this and if?

Belinda Gaston:

so how do you handle those spaces when you've reached that place?

Denise Taylor:

Absolutely so. There's a couple of things that I think happens especially as you blossom in your career and you have success. There is this desire that ignites within you regarding fulfillment, and one of the things I said recently in a post that I did is what happens to us when we outgrow our role, but we still have to show up like we're fulfilled. We still have to show up like this is the thing we still have to show up In those instances. It's not that anything is broken. You're still able to produce, you're still able to accomplish, you still know how to make all of the things happen that led to your success and your continued success, but the gap really is satisfaction and fulfillment.

Denise Taylor:

Dr Darius Daniels has this book and he talks about that. When we lean into purpose, there are three things that happen. The three things that happen are you will be more healthy, you will be more happy and you will be more helpful. Well, the converse of that is true, too. When purpose becomes disconnected for you, your behaviors lead into you becoming unhealthy, lead into you becoming unhappy and lead into you becoming unhelpful. And so what happens to us is we evolve, we grow, and it doesn't. It's almost like the thrill is gone. It doesn't do it for us anymore. It's not that we don't know how to. We effectively know how to lead.

Denise Taylor:

And so when that disconnect starts to happen and you have a mature, you're not on the up and coming, you're not on the grind, you have a mature career. So you understand how to be impactful and you also understand how to generate income. You long for something else. You want to bring that together and really create an experience for yourself that really fills your tank, that really feels good and satisfying to who you are, and that's kind of what I like to work with people to do. So you may recall, even in some of our conversations, I'm always going back to what do you feel like you're called to do? What do you feel like God is leading you to? Because I believe when he creates us, he designs us in a way that it's going to feel really fulfilling and satisfying to us when we lean into the purpose that we were created to accomplish. And that's what I love to guide women to do as they take that journey from corporate to entrepreneur.

Belinda Gaston:

Denise, I'm almost speechless, because you don't meet very many people who hear from God and then move once they hear right, and especially in an environment like today, where there's been so many people who've been furloughed and laid off, you can easily say to yourself well, at least I have a job, or at least I'm making a difference in this space, or at least I have this salary, whatever the benefit is for you. And it takes a lot of courage to go from the one space to the other space, and so I would love for you to talk about that process, the fear that's attached to moving, and how you overcome that fear. What was it that made you move and what advice would you give to others who might be in that same situation? What would you say to that woman?

Denise Taylor:

You know that's a really powerful question because there is no cookie cutter answer to that. I can tell you the things that made a difference in my journey and I can give you some insight from that. All throughout my life, I know that God has been faithful to me, right, I don't have a shadow of the doubt. Of every accomplishment, every success, it came as a result of him blessing me. I would tell my children often, you know if and I meant it if I didn't get blessed with anything else, god has done good by me, right, I know where I came from, I know who I was, I know how he changed my life, I know all of the things that he has allowed me to accomplish and experience, and so I'm not mixed up on that. Right, I believe in some cases we fall in love with what God has repurposed as a source for us instead of the source itself, right? And so there's a song by Jonathan Butler that says falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever done, and the reason why that's significant in this moment is because I had to choose what he was calling me to do, because it was greater than me and he had need for my skill. He had need for my talent and my ability. I would be doing him an injustice to say that I'm going to hold on to things that you repurposed to serve my life instead of choosing you. Now. That was my bold choice, right? He repurposed my job, he repurposed people, he repurposed a lot of things to help my journey along, and when he called and said he had need of something that I needed to do for him, I can't say I love that thing more. I got to choose him. So for me, it really was a choice based on my relationship with God.

Denise Taylor:

Now, wrestling with fear is a very, very powerful struggle, because fear really makes you analyze the gap between what you have and what you could potentially get right. And so there's that whole book Giving Up the Good to Go for the Great right and that struggle there that says am I going to stick with what I'm comfortable with because that has become my norm, or am I going to be willing to stretch and really activate my faith so that I can lean into who God says I can become? There are five expectations that I think our faith should deliver for us. Our faith should be able to give us hope. Our faith should be able to give us peace. Our faith should be reliable when we need it. It should be able to sustain us, to go the distance, and it should be able to steady us. Those five expectations are what you have to lean into and pull from your faith. So when you are experiencing fear right and it makes you doubt, that's where the hope kicks in, from your faith, that's where the steadiness kicks in, right, and I think in many cases we try to figure it out on our own, because figuring out things out on our own has been a natural process for us.

Denise Taylor:

I, like many other women who look like me, I'm a first generation leader, right, and that means that I have had experiences that supersede in many, many ways what my parents had, what my grandparents had, and that meant also that I had to figure a lot of stuff out and I got really good at that making things happen, figuring things out that when I operate in that I lose my ability to know that God has a better, more supreme, more powerful way, and I want to acquiesce back to my own strength, my own assessment, my own you know analysis of the situation and still, instead of really yielding to what he is able to do. Now, all of this sounds real spiritual. Right, I got it. All of it sounds real spiritual, but the practical thing is this when something feels hard to us, we have a choice, and I like this acronym for hard. You can either hide away and resist decision, or you can have audacity and rise determined.

Denise Taylor:

Okay so when it feels hard to you. You, you have a choice and the rising determined for me is not about who I am, it's about who God is right. That's what the rising determined is my foundation, and so I just refuse to hide away. God's been way too good to me, right, and because I have taken a journey with him and because I have walked with him, I'm not doubting what I heard and I'm not doubting who I heard it from. I know it was him, and having that clarity makes it a little bit easy, because sometimes the fear is we're not sure if it was him right. We're doubting all along like is this God? But for me I had that clarity and so it was.

Denise Taylor:

I won't say it was a piece of cake, because I still have to wrestle with the reality of the choice. When I left, there was a huge amount of identity work that I had to do because I came from a trauma background and, like many other people, I define myself by my title, my income and my corner office and my you know all the things. And when I left, I spent the next month like, okay, well, who am I now? So there's a lot that comes with the journey, so I don't want to say it was a cakewalk, but the choice of overcoming the fear. It came as a result of my relationship with God.

Belinda Gaston:

And I'm intentionally pausing here for our listeners, because I think that's a pretty important statement it is. It all seems to come down really to a decision, and for you, your decision was based on faith. For those who are listening, I challenge you what are your decisions based on? For you, Are you basing your decisions on fear? Are your decisions based on what Denise talked about trauma response? I think that's really important, and so you, denise, made this pivot and now you're helping other women in this situation, and by now I imagine that there are women that are listening who are like. That is me. Denise is talking directly to me. I may not have clarity around it, but I feel something. I want to do something different. I want to follow purpose. They may or may not have had a God experience like you have. What practical advice would you give to women in this space?

Denise Taylor:

So when I was in corporate America, we would bring in consultants to help us to accomplish a few things. One we would bring them in if they needed to cover a knowledge gap, right, we would say, oh, we got to bring some consultants in who knows this new technology? Because we don't have resident knowledge of it. Or we would bring them in because we wanted to accomplish it faster. So we may have had resources on our team, but because we needed extra manpower, we would sometimes bring consultants in. Right, I had to give the best advice. The best advice, I would say, is get help right. And one of the reasons why we struggle with getting help kind of goes back to what I said before is we have this bias for doing things on our own, because much of our success has come from that. But I don't just say get any kind of help right. I want to kind of frame up the kind of help that I think would be very meaningful for someone who wants to make a pivot from a corporate presence, especially a leading corporate presence, into a space where they're leading an initiative on their own. I would say you definitely need someone who is not just going to tell you what but to make sure you understand how right, even in all of your success, when you move into an entrepreneurial space, you the team right, and so, where you may have led huge initiatives, you're the one that's doing the work at that point. So you need to understand things that you used to count on other people to understand for you, and it can be a little bit overwhelming when you're trying to navigate it, because you're used to leading and not so much used to working. So the work that you need to do is to make sure that you understand what needs to actually be done to bring your business to life right. The second thing is you got to make sure that when you get someone, that they truly can hold space for your humanity, because you're evolving and I talked a lot about the identity shift that's there that you have to work through from becoming this powerhouse executive to now you're this entrepreneur and it's you on the team initially and you're trying to figure out all of the things and how to guide, and so, as you're evolving and stretching, you need a safe place that's going to help you navigate that Okay. So you need someone that's going to kind of guide you with the what and how, and you need someone that can hold space for who you are becoming and give you safety to guide you into that new experience of becoming an entrepreneur. And then the third thing I would say is you need a strategy that rivals the one you had in the boardroom. Right, you know a great strategy when you hear one, you know how to listen to what your teams were coming back and saying could be accomplished, and you know how to poke holes in it. And so you don't just jump into it. You need to be strategic about how you go about establishing yourself in this new role.

Denise Taylor:

I think the bottom line to it all is don't do it alone. Get some help so that you can rely on the insight, the experience and all of the wisdom that can help accelerate your success. The benefit that you gain by bringing in consultants in corporate is it collapses, time right, you get it done faster, you have knowledgeable people who know the new technology or know how to execute a project in that way, and you get the benefit of being able to accomplish it sooner because you got help. That is what I recommend, hands down.

Denise Taylor:

When I see people struggling, most of the time I see them dip into some free challenge or dip into some masterclass or dip into some event, get some knowledge and go back and try to figure it out on their own. The value is to forge partnership with someone who can help accelerate that for you right, and you can begin to leverage them as a part of what I call your personal board of directors, someone that you can rely on that will help to see you accomplish what it is that you're setting out to do. And so you know, at the heart of it, my biggest recommendation is to not go it alone, to get you some support, and I've tried to qualify what that support needs to look like so that you can identify good support when you see it.

Belinda Gaston:

Yeah, and you did a great job of qualifying that. We don't hear that often. We do hear get help. You don't have to do it alone, but I love how you qualified it, with someone who has the knowledge and the skills who can give you that piece. But also this creating space for humanity piece is really important, and making space for humanity can make the difference between being encouraged and being discouraged. It can make the difference between moving forward or moving backwards, and so I love that you said that.

Belinda Gaston:

And then the strategy whether you are an experienced leader, which is kind of this conversation right now but also for those who are leading, maybe mid-level leaders, who also feel this tug, it doesn't really matter the level. Whether you're feeling this tug or not, you need to have a strategy of how to move, and so I really appreciate that. So thank you for sharing that, denise. I want to talk about something that we don't talk about a lot. We don't often talk about the reality of entrepreneurship. I want to know from you, denise, what's one thing you wish you knew before you made this shift into entrepreneurship full time. What's the one thing you wish you knew before you did that?

Denise Taylor:

That's an excellent question. I think the one thing that I wish I would have known is that it's not going to happen overnight, that you're going to have to build it, and I think because we can sensationalize and look very glamorous online and talk about you know things from a perspective like it just happened for me. The reality is it doesn't just happen for you that it's going to take work. You know, even as a part of the framework, that I work with my clients on understanding positioning, and messaging takes effort. It takes tries, and messaging takes effort, it takes tries. You really have to be able to know what problem you solve. You got to know who is willing to pay you to solve that problem for them. You have to be willing to show up and be visible.

Denise Taylor:

There's so many people who are wanting to do a business, but then they're like I don't do social media, I don't show up, and I always tell people listen, if Belinda tell me about a new restaurant, I'm going to Google it right, I'm going to look it up. I need to find some pictures of what it looks like and what a menu that they have or something. And the same is going to be true for you when you show up with your business and I see a lot of people who wrestle with how do you manage having privacy while at the same time honoring the authenticity that people expect around your brand, with your business? There's just so many aspects that you have to take into consideration so it doesn't happen lickety split right and you have to give it time. You have to really sign up for the journey. You know, I had someone tell me once when I said I don't subscribe to just jump. I don't subscribe to that Like I accumulated way too much from a success, from a lifestyle, from accomplishments, just to jump into anything that puts everything at risk, and most of us don't have faith enough to just jump right. So you have to have a strategic plan to pivot and you have to be able to work that plan. You have to be able to understand how to look at the cues to say what's working and what's not.

Denise Taylor:

Professionally, my background was in e-commerce and so I'm really good with data and I'm really good with a sense of what's resonating and what's not resonating, and so working with my clients to understand positioning is a good lane for me. But people expect I posted it once and it's going to take off, or I did an episode and it should take off, and there's just this big expectation that it's going to happen so fast. I will tell you there are three things that revenue calls for. It calls for clarity, it calls for confidence and it calls for consistency. Clarity, it calls for confidence and it calls for consistency.

Denise Taylor:

And if the money isn't happening, you got to really evaluate those three on a regular basis and see where is the gap. And it's that review over and over and over again that allows you to become really laser fast, laser focused and laser assured in what you are doing. But in the early stages most of the time. I will tell you, I am steadily trying to convince people to show up, just to show up for their business, in a way that corporate didn't require you to, and so there's a lot to work through with that. It's possible, but that's part of the package and you got to give it time.

Belinda Gaston:

Yeah, that's really good, and I love your three C's confidence, clarity and consistency. I appreciate your honesty and transparency about entrepreneurship and I'd love to leave our listeners with some encouragement. What would you say to the woman listening right now who knows she's meant for more than her corporate job but is scared to walk away from what is familiar?

Denise Taylor:

Well, you know, one of the biggest things that I think has to be disrupted in our thought process is this perception that we're starting over, when really you're starting from a place of strength. There are things that you already know. There are things that you have already accomplished that proves you are able to do it. You have to be willing to show up for the process and be willing to stay committed to the journey, but it's not about a sacrifice. I got to give all this up. You're building on the foundation that you've already established and you just have to be willing to allow yourself to continue to flourish, to blossom in a way that you may not have had to before, and that's why it's so important to get the support and the help.

Belinda Gaston:

That's excellent. I think that's a great place for us to end. Today, denise, I know for anyone listening prompted some thought and some reflection and even been an answer to some who may have felt this prod to move and even the shift of what people may feel like they're giving up. You know, giving up the security or the familiar that the perspective of well, it's not necessarily starting over again. I'd love that. So thank you so much for your time and your wisdom here. I know that people are wondering how they can reach you, so I'd love for you to tell our listeners at the Graced Delete podcast how they can reach you. If there's anything that you're working on or how people can connect with you on special projects, please take a moment to share that with us now.

Denise Taylor:

Well, once again, belinda, I want to say thank you for sharing this space with me, for opening up your platform to me. I don't take that lightly and I know the responsibility that comes with that. So thank you so much. There are two ways that people can get plugged in. One of the ways is with what I've put together. It's an entrepreneurial readiness quiz. It's an absolutely free quiz that you could do where it's going to ask you questions just to help you gauge your sense of readiness, and so, if you do feel that tug and you're unsure about whether or not going into entrepreneurship is something that would be a great fit for you.

Denise Taylor:

The second experience that I would love to invite your listening community to take advantage of is I, too, host an event each and every month where I share more about the framework that I help my clients execute, that pivot from corporate to entrepreneur. It's a three-part framework and I break it down over the course of three days. During that three-day challenge, I am sharing with you how to tap into your purpose, how to understand more about positioning and really how to tie the two together to generate profits for your business. The challenge is free each and every month. If they go to wwwjointhechallengelive. You can find out more information there. So those are the two ways that I have available. You can take the quiz or you can join the challenge, but I invite anyone. Both of those are absolutely free.

Belinda Gaston:

Thank you so much and, for our listeners, I'll put in the show notes all of the information that Denise just shared. I have participated in the three-day challenge. It's amazing. Sometimes you join a challenge and it's basic information. It may be pre-recorded and there's nothing wrong with that at all. If you're getting information that you need, I say go for it, because we are in a world where the resources are plenty. You have to use them and apply them. That makes sense for you. But I was really surprised, denise, with your challenge, that you were there live. It was actually you and you called us out if we were too quiet to really help us, and it was very interactive and so I'm grateful that you do that and do that without charge, because that really is. It should be an investment, I think, in that three-day process and you offer it. So, listeners, if you are interested in those, use the links in the show notes and make sure you take advantage of those. And, denise, as my grandmother would say, it's been a plum pleasing pleasure, as always. I'm grateful to know you and so proud of all that you're accomplishing.

Belinda Gaston:

Thank you for your time on the Graced to Lead podcast and for our listeners and our viewers. Thank you so much for joining us on the Graced to Lead podcast season two. We're excited for season two. I'd love to get your feedback on what you've heard today. If you are listening via the audio platforms, you can always send me a message directly to just tell me what you're thinking. And if you're viewing this on our new YouTube channel, please sure to put in the comments a question or a comment there and let us know what you're thinking. Make sure you're liking and subscribing to our podcast across platforms and until we hear each other or see each other again next week, remember that you are indeed Graced To Lead. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

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Belinda Gaston

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