Graced to Lead

S2/E7 : You Have the Vision, Now Execute It! with Marquissa Williams

• Belinda Gaston • Season 2 • Episode 7

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What happens when God gives you a vision but the path forward isn't crystal clear? Marquissa Williams, founder of Elevate Leadership Enterprises, shares powerful insights on discovering and executing your divine calling even when uncertainty looms large.

Drawing from over two decades of corporate leadership experience and her role as an executive pastor, Marquissa reveals how she recognized God's pattern of placing her in pioneering positions throughout her life. "God created you to lead, to show others the way," she recalls hearing, a message that transformed her understanding of her unique purpose as a change agent in both ministry and marketplace settings.

The conversation takes a practical turn as Marquissa outlines her four-part framework for bringing vision to life: vision, strategy, execution, and impact. She emphasizes the critical practice of pausing to listen and journaling what you hear from God—something that feels awkward at first but yields tremendous clarity over time. "Consistency bred what I needed," she reflects on her own journey to clarity.

For leaders facing resistance from those around them, Marquissa offers counter-intuitive yet transformative advice: "Build while you wait." This means quietly making progress through research, skill development, and preparation even when full support isn't there. She shares vulnerably about creating "PowerPoint presentations" for her husband when presenting bigger visions for her calling, illustrating how persistence and clear communication eventually win allies.

Most compelling is Marquisa's challenge to perfectionism and fear: "I double dare y'all to do it afraid," she declares, explaining how taking action despite uncertainty reveals that "it wasn't that hard" after all. She identifies regret, doubt, and unforgiveness as vision-killers that must be overcome through bold declaration of your purpose.

Mentioned during this Episode:

  • Register for the Leadership Summit:  https://bit.ly/ELE2025
  • Book your Vision Talk: https://bit.ly/visiontalks
  • Marquissa's website: https://www.marquissawilliams.com/


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Belinda Gaston:

Welcome to the Graced to Lead podcast. I'm your host, belinda Gaston, and listen. Today's episode is all about vision, how to discover it, how to trust it and how to move forward even when clarity feels a bit out of reach for you. And I couldn't think of a better guest for this conversation than my friend and fellow leader, Marquissa Williams, soon to be Dr Marquissa Williams. Marquissa Williams soon to be Dr Marquissa Williams Listen.

Belinda Gaston:

Marquissa is the founder of Elevate Leadership Enterprises, a leadership and organizational development firm that equips leaders to fully execute their purpose with clarity, strategy and impact. She brings over 20 years y'all 20 years of corporate leadership experience. She serves as an executive pastor in Philadelphia and is currently pursuing a PhD in industrial organizational psychology. She's also a certified Christian counselor, life coach and the best-selling author of Vision Strategy Execute, an impact journal for leaders, and the book DNA in the Church Community Discover how discipleship, nurturing and accountability influence church growth In other words, y'all. She knows what she's talking about and I am so excited to have her on.

Belinda Gaston:

So if you've ever found yourself asking God, what are you calling me to do? Or sitting on a vision that you feel that God has given you, but it's too big, or you're too uncertain, this is definitely the episode for you, so are you ready? Let's get into it. Welcome to the Graced to Lead podcast. I am Belinda Gaston, your host, and listen. I'm excited about this conversation that we're having today. Today, we have none other than Marquissa Williams On Marquissa. Welcome to the Graced to Lead podcast.

Marquissa Williams:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited, Belinda, I am super excited just to be here. It's truly an honor. You know people say it, you know as a formality, but really it's an honor to be a part of Graced, to Lead. I know your heart for this and your heart for women in leadership and I'm just going to say no pressure, no pressure at all, but it's truly an honor to be here and thank you so much for having me.

Belinda Gaston:

Oh, I'm excited and y'all listen. I know I already told you her bio in the intro, but Marquissa is special to me because she's actually a friend and so I am really honored to have you, Marquissa, and we're going to jump right in, and I think it is important that we start at the beginning. So I'm going to ask you, Marquissa, if you could tell us a little bit about your journey and how you came to understand your God-given vision.

Marquissa Williams:

Well, my journey into leadership, as I know it now, is that I've always been in these unique leadership positions and unique spaces where I was one of the first people to be a part of something new, even as a teenager, even as a child. Growing up, you don't realize this is what you're doing, You're organically just being you and all the things. However, I realized that there was just something definitely different about me and I would ask God the question like why me? No one has done this before, no one has seen these things before. I'm just feeling like I'm just kind of out here and so realizing this God-given gift. It was just consistency, the pattern of God, the pattern of opportunities, you know, getting into situations that I never even asked for, getting positions that I never even raised my hand for or applying for, and I'm, like you know, again asking God the question and he did answer. He says I created you to lead, to show others the way, to show others that things can be done, show others that things can be done, Because in the neighborhood that I lived in, there wasn't a lot of people who were, and it depends on how you define successful, but successful or paving the way, or doing unique things.

Marquissa Williams:

It was always the status quo Everyone's kind of doing the same thing, modeling after each other, and I would just veer off to the right or veer off to the left and he said I'm just calling you to do something new. And so it was because of the consistency that I saw God was putting me in in these places and these unique situations where God is just moving me and not giving me a chance to think about it. So discovering the God-given vision is really having that conversation with him and allowing him to guide me, but also asking him the question and really watching the pattern of God and how he was just shifting me places, even when I'm not even thinking about it or wanting a particular thing.

Belinda Gaston:

Yeah, I'm so glad you shared it. I'm glad we started this way, because I think, as a leader, we spend a lot of time questioning God where would you have me to be, what would you have me to be doing? And you're starting off this conversation about vision as realizing that God has placed you in certain spaces and things were just happening and you were just kind of flowing with it, and so I'd like to ask you more about this vision that God gave you. So God has given you a vision. If you were to describe what God's vision is for you, what God has said, Marquissa, you will be a leader and you will do what. Can you tell me more?

Marquissa Williams:

about the what, absolutely being a change agent, not just in ministry, but also in the marketplace and even within communities. I believe God wants me to get to the root of things, to break patterns, to make change wherever I plant my feet, to encourage people to be able to know that they can in fact pursue a goal, find their own vision, pursue their own purpose. I definitely believe I am absolutely a change agent in the world. God has given me that vision and if I could just share a little bit more, as you might've read in my bio that I'm a PhD student, right, and so I thought I was done with the master's degree, was going to live my life, and Holy Spirit kept whispering organizational psychology, organizational psychology. And I'm like what is that? He said, look it up. Psychology, organizational psychology. And I'm like what is that? He said, look it up.

Marquissa Williams:

So I began to search and I was like this really exists organizational psychology. So I started to see programs, I started to see all this information and literally it was what God was showing me all along that I need to get underneath organizations, I need to get underneath issues, to break barriers, to make change so that people will have purpose-driven lives and organizations will be sustainable. So I'm like, not only does God give me the vision, but I'm able to take on others' vision and help them to carry it out. So that's where that change agent comes into play. I can shift atmospheres, I can bring order to wherever I go. So I believe that is the vision that God has given me and I'm clear on it that I make change, positive change.

Belinda Gaston:

Yeah, and so I think it's amazing that you have such clarity, and I know that's part of what you do you help other organizations with clarity of vision, with execution of vision, and we're going to talk about vision execution in a minute, but I want to stay here because I believe that there are some people listening who will say, boy, I wish God spoke to me as clearly as he spoke to Marquissa, spoke to me as clearly as they spoke to Marquissa.

Belinda Gaston:

I mean, even down for you, of going back to school, getting your PhD, what you should be studying, it would seem as if there needs to be a way to get to where you are, where you have this clarity. And so for people who are in the space where they're even asking well, what is the vision you have for me? I mean, I know that I'm called to lead. Many of the women who are listening are saying this I know I'm called to lead, I'm in leadership spaces or I have influence, or I have the ability to make decisions for groups of people or organizations, but what is the vision, lord? What tips would you give for people to discover the vision that God has given them?

Marquissa Williams:

And I'll say it doesn't come automatically. It has to come with establishing a relationship with God. We must set aside time to hear, not just to pray to God and ask him the questions, but also to take some pauses to listen. One of the things I found to be successful is writing Writing what I hear, journaling what I'm thinking, journaling what I believe God is saying, and then begin to hash it out, because sometimes we might even hear and then we go do the dishes, cook for our family and it's gone. So now we need to start writing. We really need to write it down, but it has to first start with having a relationship with God and taking some time with God to hear. And again, it has to be consistent, some consistency with it, because sometimes we think it's our voice and sometimes it is, but once we sit in a spot we know for sure, without a doubt, it's God who's saying these things to us.

Marquissa Williams:

The scriptures tell us first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto us Our desires, our hopes, our dreams, all the stuff. It will be added unto us, but we have to seek him first to get that. I know that for some that could be super spiritual, but hey, it's facts. I'm living proof that it works and actually writing it down it comes from even a burden, if I can take a page, even out of Habakkuk.

Marquissa Williams:

When he's seeing all the things that's going on, he's like God, why are you allowing this stuff to happen? You see all this and you know he has this conversation with God. He said, all right, I'm going to go up to the tower. I and you know he has this conversation with God and he said, all right, I'm gonna go up to the tower, I'm gonna wait and see what you had to say. And what did God say? Write the vision and make it plain but I'll say this practically when to process vision too and get clarity, sometimes we just need a good, close sister, friend, seek and wise counsel as well to be able to help us with clarity.

Belinda Gaston:

I love that, and so I'm glad that you shared this, because I know that this is on people's minds. So you talked about pausing. You talked about the relationship with God. It's interesting you are probably the second or third guest this season that has talked about the power of the pause. That seems to be a theme of pausing, hearing from God, having a relationship with God and journaling, and for our listeners, let me just tell you, this works.

Belinda Gaston:

I was not much of a journaler, and my friend Marquissa here gave me the same advice she just gave to you, which is have you thought about journaling? Have you thought about writing down what you hear and making it consistent? And so, for me, I started out literally with 10 minutes a day of I'm just going to sit after my prayer time and write down what I hear, and that 10 minutes has now gotten longer. I would add five minutes, add five minutes, and now it is a daily practice, and there is something about journaling what we hear and allowing God to speak through journaling. I have to say it's awkward at first, marquise, if you're not used to doing this, because you're like what am I supposed to write about?

Marquissa Williams:

It takes a level of vulnerability and to allow ourselves to be in that awkward space. All right, lord, I have my paper, I have my pen. Now tell me. And that's what. It doesn't come right away all the time. I believe that God wants us to show up, even if he doesn't say anything at first. It's about waiting, waiting. Even Habakkuk, he had to go, wait. We just have to wait until he comes.

Marquissa Williams:

It's a book that I read. I don't know the author's name. Off the top of my head, it's called the cloud of unknowing. The author was an actual monk and he talked about how we should get into places not expecting anything, and sit in these spaces of uncomfortability and getting quiet when we come to God. And so I'm a person I need to know. I need to know what's next, what color, what turn. God, what do you want me to do? I heard you All. Right now, do the twist turns. Tell me, right, left, I'll go, I'll go.

Marquissa Williams:

But what happens when he says nothing at first? We still have to show up in the nothingness and living in this space of the cloud of knowing. What is God going to even say? And I think some of us sometimes we get caught up in what if God tells me something and I can't do it? It's going to terrify me, or you know how am I going to tell my family? Or will I be able to understand it? This unknowing space of writing and waiting and the pause is uncomfortable because we're used to yapping. We're used to yapping, we're used to talking, we're used to asking. But sitting in that quiet space will allow you to do that, and sometimes we got to leave the house.

Belinda Gaston:

Wow, environment can matter, right you?

Marquissa Williams:

have to be strategic in how you do it. When do they take a nap? When do they go to sleep? Are they on a play date? We have to work around those things If we want the vision of God to come to fruition, if we want our purpose to be fulfilled, come to fruition, if we want our purpose to be fulfilled, there's intentionality that has to take place on our behalf. God is not going to always just drop it in our lap. He may show us right and he might give us a glimpse. But then what? He knows we have children. He knows we have ministry. He knows we have school. He knows we have a husband. He knows we have all these things. But yet he still gives us a vision. How do we do it? You have to listen and what we hear, what he's showing us, is real. Be obedient enough to do it, even with our knees knocking, shaking in our boots.

Belinda Gaston:

we gotta do it and I have to say that the first few times I did it I felt like I didn't hear a thing. But consistency bred what I needed and I also appreciate the fact that we're sharing with leaders here that we often, when we talk about God's vision, a lot of times people think ministry, people think spirituality. But I also hear you saying there's practical advice. If God can give plans for people in the Bible, he can give plans to you, and the fact that he gave you direction on school and on your business means that there is practicality in the vision if we seek it out.

Marquissa Williams:

Yes, yes, it's definitely practicality. It doesn't have to be super deep, right. It doesn't have to be this big old lightning bolt that's going to come down and show us this. You know, we're looking for signs. The bird is going to fly from the left to the right. That's confirmation, right. So, just being practical, starting small, and I do believe something ignites and accelerates the vision where we have conversations, one with our families.

Marquissa Williams:

As women, we have a great responsibility and sometimes we think, oh, I'll wait until the kids get older to do X, y and Z or whatever. But I believe that there's a level of buy-in that our families, our close friends will take on when we begin to share our heart. I believe, when we share our heart about our dreams, our goals, that they will understand, they will empathize, they will be in awe of what they find out, because sometimes they just look at us as mom, they just look at us in these one way. But when you say I think I want to write a book, you're talking to your kids. Or I think I want to do X, y and Z, I want to have a podcast, I want to start this business. Having those conversations with your loved ones is a great starting point to igniting that fire, because now it's out of your mind, it's out of your heart and it's out of your mouth. I believe that those who truly love you will help you and that they will support you. But sometimes we think, no, we can't do that. I can't do this right now. The timing is not good. But it also goes back to if God gave us the vision it has to happen. But I think conversation with those who we love will help. It will get us to a starting point right, and I will say this there was times when I shared different things and it was like my husband wasn't quite sold on it at first and you know, but I felt better because I did share it.

Marquissa Williams:

But then I started to live certain things out, small, you know, and small bites, and he started to see how it brought me joy, how it made me smile, how it just gave me purpose, you know, just talking to people. So before I was, you know, the leadership, as they call me, the leadership guru, the leaders of leaders I was a counselor and I still am a counselor, I'm a certified biblical counselor. But it took a lot of my time and so I had to relapse because I was passionate about it. I was going, going, going, but it was causing dissension and I could be very honest in the house.

Marquissa Williams:

I was like God told me to do this. He's going to make it right, but God didn't tell me to overdo it either and go against the things. That's forsaken my responsibilities at home. So I had to navigate through that and have some hard conversations within my household. I had to navigate through those ebbs and flows of moving into the vision, navigating the responsibility but also allowing my family to see that this thing is causing me great. It just lit my whole life up to help families and marriages and people who were just trying to hash out things, and so that was the buy-in of my family, not only just speaking it, but just taking small steps into what God was showing me, to helping me to do and show me what I need to be doing in that season, and so counseling was the springboard into leadership for me.

Belinda Gaston:

Wow. So let's talk about this. We talked about how you hear the vision, how you get the vision, some practical tips on ways you can make sure that you have the vision. But once you have the vision, let's talk about how you execute the vision. And so one of the things I heard you say right up front, before we even got to this question you need that buy-in, and I know that there are some women listening who are saying listen, I've tried this and there is no safe space for me to share. The people around me don't buy in. They don't believe, they're negative, they don't want me to change whatever. So I want to start with first.

Belinda Gaston:

I want to talk about executing the vision in two ways. First, let's talk about what to do if you have a vision and you're ready to execute, but the people around you don't support you. I'd love to hear your thoughts If you could give one or two practical tips that they could do. If you have a vision, you know it's from God, but the people around you don't necessarily support it, and because it's from God, we know that it must be done right. So what advice would you give those people? First, and then we'll go into my next question.

Marquissa Williams:

Yeah, there's always going to be others that are not going to buy and it may not be your family, it could be, like you said, those people that are just around us, our close circle, the people that we're used to being around. The bottom line is this you're going to have to do it anyway. It's never going to be comfortable, you have to do it. But I will say you want to seek God's timing, because sometimes when God gives us the vision, we get excited and we just want to jump in that swimming pool and start swimming and it's not the right time. And guess what? When we're out of timing, we're going to drown real fast of timing we're going to drown real fast. But I do think it's something about God's timing on when we begin to execute. So one of the things, one of the mantras in Elevate Leadership right, we stand by four words vision, strategy, execution and impact, and I believe that those are the steps God gives us the vision. We should have written it down and start processing it, praying about it, eating it right, letting it be part of who we are right. And then the next step is strategizing. How do I do? What I'm seeing, what I'm sensing, what God is saying what do I need? So strategy is this. What do I need to carry this out? We can't just jump from. In most cases, from having the vision to fully executing it. There has to be some steps in between to get to the execution piece. So the strategizing is it could look like you know, again asking yourself what do I need to support this vision? Is it money? Is it networking? Is it a skill? Is it support? You can ask yourself those questions because that's part of your strategy. It costs money to start a business. It requires skill. So God is going to give us our gifting. All of those. It might be things we may need to sharpen. We might need to take a class. We might have to go full-blown college For of you like uh-uh, I'm not going back to school, not me. Uh-uh, no, ma'am, it might be that, but it just might be a course. It might be a workshop. It might be with a women's mentoring group, something that's going to support you. That's part of your strategy to gain additional wisdom, to sharpen your skills, of your strategy to gain additional wisdom, to sharpen your skills and to know the next things that you need to do before you can execute. There has to be a plan in place before you can put feet to it right, and so you got to seek wisdom.

Marquissa Williams:

Of course, I can say, seek God all day. That's first and foremost, but also asking ourselves what do I need to do? Look around to some people that you might even admire and trust, because there's people out there that we admire. We don't know, so we can't necessarily trust them. Yet we admire, but we can tap in and see. However, we should be already surrounding ourselves with a trusting source. So that's how we would get from vision to execution, starting with one thing that we can execute well and that could potentially be hey, I have a gift of speaking right, or a gift of encouragement. Go live for five minutes and encourage somebody, or to talk about their passions on your heart. Seek out groups who are doing what you're doing, to begin having conversations, because we can't strategize in a bubble.

Marquissa Williams:

I believe God created us to be connected to others who have what we need to carry this out. So the answer is what if people don't support it, you got to do it anyway. You just have to work. Think about timing, of course, but also starting in small ways, and just ask for peace about it. There's always going to be resistance. When there's change, there's always going to be resistance. When we branch out to do things, as human beings, we don't want to disappoint others. There's an area in most of our lives we want to people please, but when it comes to the things of God, when it comes to our purpose, we consider those things.

Marquissa Williams:

Why people are not supporting flat-footed, 10 toes down, knowing that this is what God told me to do and it's a risk that we have to take. And I'm just going to say this because I guess I have a bird too. I hear as I'm talking. You know, there are those like what if it's my husband? What if it's my husband? What if it's him? Everybody else is supporting me and he's like no, I don't know why this keep coming up. Belinda, however, god is not going. He's not an author of confusion, and sometimes we need to quietly build, silently, make moves. This is not sneaking behind your spouse's back. This is not what I'm saying. I was married for over 30 years. That's not what I'm saying, and I had to do some of these things. So I really believe the answer is in writing. Begin to write these things down Silently, make moves, do your research, build while you wait.

Marquissa Williams:

Build while you wait for the door to open. God will make a way for that door to open, for you to fully execute. But if you're not doing the work until you're fully released, it's just not going to be done. It's a scripture in Proverbs that talks about planning, build your house and then go out. We have to plan while we wait. Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 27. And it simply says prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourselves in the field and afterward build your house. Afterwards, build your house so it takes a level of preparation. Make it fit to get the buy-in. We absolutely have to build. Move silently as God leads, because the vision still has to be built, it still has to be established. It will be executed. God gives us the vision for it to be done. He does not give us something for it not to happen. Our plans are already established. God's hands is already in it. So, even if our spouse does not buy it yet, we build.

Marquissa Williams:

And I remember a time I'm telling you I had to almost make PowerPoint presentations for Linda. I had to make a pitch to my husband to tell him how meaningful it was to me in certain things. I mean some things. It wasn't always hard, but these big, the bigger vision. You know being called to pastoring, being called to be a leader of leaders, being in a corporate. You know a corporate leader traveling all over the country. You know when you're, when you first come together. You know in a marriage, you know you're like I didn't expect all that. You grow, you develop as your own person and so does he. So it's this evolution of who you are. Happens that no one intended for it to happen. Some kind of way you have to navigate that Right. So navigating the vision that God gave us I believe that's kind of the title that we're talking about.

Marquissa Williams:

How do we do this God given vision? How do we live it out when people don't understand it, when we halfway don't even understand it? We can take playbooks out of Noah. We can take playbooks right from the scriptures. Who does these things? One thing we do know that if God gave it to them, those individuals in scripture that we see in scripture and it changed, shifted how we even live today. How much more can we shift our culture, our churches, our organizations, our households just by listening to what God is asking us to do and following it out, even when people don't understand. Hannah, who prayed, prayed, crying out for this baby, and they her own husband said what you were drinking? No, no, no. I'm praying to the heavens because I know what God is going to do with this child.

Belinda Gaston:

I. I feel like this is a moment where we pause. I do this a lot, but just to digest, because you said a lot here. We talked about how you get the vision, some practical steps to making sure that you get the vision that God wants you to have. The second thing we talked about is once you get the vision it wants you to have. The second thing we talked about is, once you get the vision, it's important to have a strategy right, and you can't do anything without that strategy, and so you gave some practical tips for that. So I think we and the other steps that you talked about were execution and impact.

Belinda Gaston:

So I think you've already started giving us some execution steps, and one of them is to build while you wait, and that is counterintuitive. Like, what do you mean build while you wait? I mean I've got this vision and I have to. I want to just go and do, I just want to do the things, and now I have this strategy let's go, let's go, and you're like, wait, you have to start small. Go, let's go, and you're like, wait, you have to start small. So, as we talk about executing the strategy, I want you to give, if you have any. A few more tips on how we move from strategy to execution.

Marquissa Williams:

So, for execution, besides just doing bring people in with you, right? So I'm clear that everybody may not have a team, but you need to have a support system right Of like-minded people that can help you to execute what your strategy is. So you know, for me it was looking around and seeing what gifts do I have at my disposal who can help me to execute, you know? And it also goes into tapping into resources, such as those who mentor others into starting their business or executing a plan, because sometimes we may not know how to necessarily do that. We still need to seek wisdom. As it relates to the execution piece, it's really putting what you have written down and starting to move forward. And again, it always for me, I believe, it always starts in small spaces, right? So you know? I'll just take an example of, let's say, we want to.

Marquissa Williams:

You want to have a conference, you know, a leadership conference, women's conference, whatever, some gathering of sorts, right? So you know your vision is already there. I want to have this conference. Then your strategy is what do I need? I need a venue, I need speakers, potentially who's going to do all those things? Right? And then to execute that, now you have to begin to put feet to that by making the phone calls, reaching out to others for help that can do these things for you, starting to research and then begin to just truly walk it out. Execution is not hard if you're strategizing properly, because you're already asking yourself the people place things, who, what, when, how. You have those already in place, so now it's just moving it forward, setting a time, setting a date and begin to take action.

Belinda Gaston:

Execution is simply beginning to take action to go from vision at least to the first part of execution. We don't have time to talk about the rest of execution or impact, but I would like, before we tell people how to connect with you because this conversation has been very rich is I would like to give some encouragement because as we're talking, I'm feeling this and you kind of hinted to this a little bit. But there is a woman who is listening, who may be feeling stuck, maybe waiting on clarity. Maybe they even have the vision but feel like they don't even have the resources. They're going through the strategy process and realizing I don't even have the resources, I can't move forward, and sometimes, when leaders get in this space and we have the vision, it's easy to stop right there. You get stuck in strategy. So I'd love for you to share some encouragement to that woman, that leader listening. What would you tell?

Marquissa Williams:

her, the woman who's just waiting, waiting on clarity. I believe, if God gave you the vision, clarity there is already set. I think the foundation is already, you know, set when we think about clarity and I feel like getting clarity is still going back to what I said before asking God what that is Right, but also moving out of your comfort zone, taking a chance, taking simply taking a chance, and ask how bad do I want this, how bad do I want this, how bad do I want this? It has to be fire in your belly for this right To do it, talking to someone you know that you trust. I believe sister circles are amazing. Trusted sister circles can be a wonderful thing to get resources, to get knowledge. But I would just say trust God, trust who you are, trust who you are, trust the gifts that God has given you. It doesn't have to be perfect and I think that's a barrier that gets in our way, right, because we don't see all the steps or it has to be just so that we can't make a move. Do it anyway. Get rid of perfectionism, push doubt aside. You know it's cliche, probably just do it afraid, but I dare you, I'm daring y'all, I double dare y'all to do it afraid, because once you're on the other side of that thing, you're gonna be like, oh my goodness, it wasn't that hard or I didn't realize I was gonna like like this this much. I'm going to do this again and again, and again and again until it becomes really a part of who you are and you get confident in who you are, what you are doing and what God you're going to be like. God, you was right, you was absolutely right, but you have to take the step, you have to take the leap so you can see what the other side is going to be.

Marquissa Williams:

We cannot live a life of regret. There are so many of us who are, even now, living in a life of regret, but we don't have to stay there. If I would have just graduated high school, it would have been this If I didn't have this baby, I would have been this by now. Or if I wasn't. You know, I'm too old, I'm too this. Get rid of all of that.

Marquissa Williams:

That is a lie from the pit. It is a barrier. Regret will suck the life out of you. It will kill a vision. Fear, doubt, regret, unforgiveness, not forgiving ourselves are barriers. It will kill the vision. It will keep the vision just hovering, keeping you stagnant, not moving. It will paralyze you. So for my sisters out there who are like I, don't have enough clarity, it's not going to be perfect. God just wants you to take the first or two steps period. He will guide you through the rest. God will never set you up to fail. He will bring the resources, but you got to move. You absolutely have to move and not just move. You have to speak it. Say I am the leader, I am the teacher, I am the baker, I am the business owner. You have to speak it. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. So you have to believe this thing, this vision, before anybody else. Otherwise you allow others to snatch it.

Marquissa Williams:

Snatch it right out of your heart and it'll never come to fruition. So I'm challenging y'all I said I double. Dare y'all to not wait for the full picture to happen.

Belinda Gaston:

This is a great note for us to end this conversation. You have the charge. Marquissa has double dared you to go not only from vision to get the vision, to write the vision down, but to begin to take steps to execute. Marquissa, this was an amazing conversation. I think I'm going to have to have you back for a part two of this conversation, but in the meantime, I know that there are people who are saying listen, I need to get in, I need to connect with Marquissa. You've lit a fire in some people that they needed to hear, and so I'd love for you to tell us how we can connect with you. If there's something you're working on that you'd like to share, we'd like to hear that now.

Marquissa Williams:

You can connect with me on all social media platforms with the exception of X. You can find me at elevate underscore leadership E-N-T. So that's elevate underscore leadership underscore E-N-T. So it's Instagram. You can do Facebook as well. I'm actually on TikTok also. I love TikTok, by the way. I've created some great space. I've met some great women in that space. However, those are the spaces you can reach me. You can find me on social media, but you can also go to my website at marquissawilliamscom and there you will find services that I offer as well and get a chance to know a little bit more about me services that I offer as well and get a chance to know a little bit more about me.

Marquissa Williams:

I have a few things that are stirring. It's so amazing that we're talking about vision. I have an offering called Vision Talks, where it allows individuals to have a session with me to hash out their vision. I said earlier on the podcast that I have the gift of hearing, capturing the vision of others and helping them to map it out into execution and strategizing and giving them a plan. So the vision talks are a safe space where you can come and say you know what. This is what I think I heard and this is what I believe I should do and we talk it out, and then from there you get a plan, a brief plan or starting points after our conversation. That will lead you into further strategy and as well as execution. So that's Vision Talks. How do you sign up for Vision Talks? You can go to bitly slash Vision Talks and that is where you can sign up for a Vision Talks session to hash these things out.

Marquissa Williams:

And then I have a leadership summit this year that I'm super excited about, and it is for leaders who are building, who need to re-strategize, and our theme, the word for this year, is revamp to redo some things, to take a look at some things that we've done before and do it over or heighten, or increase or enhance. And so that's going to be held on July 18th of this year and July 19th. July 18th will be a night of worship, and then we're going to on the 19th, which is a Saturday. It's going to be a day of strategy. We're going to have four phenomenal speakers. Who's going to present various topics, from how to multiply leadership I'm going to be speaking about identifying the gifts to build an effective team.

Marquissa Williams:

We're going to have someone that's going to talk about seven touches, what these seven touches will do to enhance your ministry and enhance your business. So this is both for marketplace and ministry leaders. And then we're going to talk about a topic around why systems matter in your ministry, not just technological systems, meaning strategies and processes and things like that. Those conversations are going to take place at the Elevate Leadership Summit right here in Philadelphia, pennsylvania, at my home church, capacity Church, philly. At my home church, capacity Church, philly. You can sign up for the conference at ly or bitly slash ELE 2025. That's bitly slash ELE, and ELE is, in all caps-E 2025. We would love to have you in the Philadelphia area and we're just excited about what God is going to do at the Leadership Summit this year.

Belinda Gaston:

Excellent. So, leaders, if you're interested in connecting with Marquissa all of the information from her social media handles to scheduling yourself a vision talk, If you need some one-on-one time to even coming to the leadership summit again, the leadership summit is for business owners, for those in corporate spaces and also those who lead organizations in the nonprofit space, as well as ministry. I'll put all of that information in the show notes. Marquise, thank you so much for being on the Graced to Lead podcast. This has been a phenomenal conversation, Thank you.

Marquissa Williams:

Seriously. Thank you for thinking of me to even be able to share on the Graced to Lead podcast. I'm just excited. Thank you so much for having me.

Belinda Gaston:

Thank you and for our listeners, we appreciate you, as always, for tuning into the Graced to Lead podcast. Remember you can share the podcast, subscribe so you get notifications. You can find us on all of your podcast platforms, as well as on our YouTube channel. I don't take your listening time for granted, so thank you and until we meet again. Remember you are indeed Graced to Lead. Bye-bye.

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Belinda Gaston

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