I brought a co pilot onto the show for this conversation about purpose, faith, and digital domination. Monique Addison-Stinson is the founder of Business Church Life, a Christian business coach dedicated to helping women over 40 turn their life experience, skills, and calling into purpose driven businesses. After years in corporate HR and serving as a licensed minister, she now helps women move from confusion and burnout into clarity and aligned entrepreneurship through what she calls the Corporate Exodus Method. She’s also the host of the Launch Your Coaching Ministry podcast and the author of Seven Steps to Achieving Life, Work Harmony.
The following is presented as it happened in our conversation.
The Aha Moment That Led Her Out of Corporate
Mustafaa: With your background in corporate, what was that aha moment that really led you to think, you know, this ain’t it for me. I need to transition to something different and choose another path.
Monique: So, I’ve actually always wanted to have my own business. And I always thought that my business, I didn’t know what it would be, but I always thought that my business would be a side hustle. Like I thought I would stay in corporate forever, retire, and just have this extra stream of income. And during the pandemic, I was working in human resources and my mother’s health was declining. And the particular job that I had, I had I was a regional human resources business partner. So I had to do some traveling. Well, of course that was cut off during the pandemic and we stopped traveling for a few months and then it was a mandate that we go back into the stores. Mind you, my stores were closing every day because people were getting COVID, right? And they had to shut down, but they wanted me to go into these stores. And I’m like, I can’t do that. My mom lives with me. She is high risk, and I just could not do that. And so I told my supervisor my situation and she was like, “You got to go back to the stores.” And that was my cue and my sign to be like, “Okay, I’m out. This ain’t going to work.”
And I didn’t leave the workforce or corporate immediately because I was a little scared to be honest. And so I found another job and I found a job that was completely remote. I didn’t have to do any traveling. It was still in human resources and I thought this was it. Okay, this I can do this. No. Couldn’t do that either. That did not pan out the way that I had thought. And I just felt like God was saying, “Ma’am, I told you.” I told you to quit. And so I finally I quit. I just I quit. I couldn’t do it anymore and I went all in on my coaching business. I had been coaching for several years and like I said I was doing on the side. But this after that incident that was my sign to just go all in.
Can Calling and Income Coexist?
Mustafaa: My question, which some may struggle with, is can you really combine your calling from God with your passion and income generation when some people may think money is the root of all evil, or I can’t serve God and pursue this money at the same time. So can we put all those together and still be balanced?
Monique: Absolutely. So first of all, let me just say that it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil and money itself is not. And then another thing I would like to add is that in the Bible days talent meant money. It was the word for money. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that nowadays talent means that thing that you’re good at. So I do believe that at least the God that I serve wants me to be happy, wants me to be at peace, and wants me to have my desires met as well. And that should be in line with what God wants for us also. And why not make money? I don’t understand why we think that making money has to be something totally separate than our vocation.
If we’re all reading the same Bible, then I don’t see in there where it says that we’re supposed to suffer financially. I don’t recall seeing that. And I don’t recall seeing that we’re supposed to be unhappy. And why do we think that this God that we serve wants us to be unhappy, broke? Now we can’t pay our tithe. We can’t give to ministry. We can’t help others. We can’t do all the things that we’re supposed to be doing as believers and Christians. We need money. And again, why would the God that you serve want you broke and sad and stressed out? He doesn’t. And that desire and that gift that’s given to you is going to make room for you. Meaning it can make you some money. And that’s not a bad thing.
Breaking the Cycle Instead of Repeating It
Mustafaa: I saw an image on LinkedIn where it talks about the professional cycle of Black women. It talks about recruitment, hope you got a new job, you’re excited. Then you go through the performance proving. Then you go to the isolation, the misalignment. Then you go to the toxicity extraction, like what am I doing here? And then fifth you go through the push out and the exit phase, and then it starts all over again because sometimes we don’t think, let me go start a business, let me go find my purpose. We think, let me go dust off the resume, let me go on Indeed, let me see who else is hiring, and it becomes a repeating cycle.
Monique: It’s so funny because when I saw that post, I had just had a YouTube video that was kind of sort of around the same topic. And it’s very disheartening when you actually look at it. Those of us who have worked in corporate for 20 plus years and who are Black women, we know we probably didn’t have the words. We didn’t know what it was called, but we all felt the same thing. And that was another reason why I wanted to leave, because you get tired. You get tired of performing. Especially when you get my age. I’m over, I’m 54. So I’m tired of a lot of stuff, but definitely tired of the performance that you have to do, that song and dance in corporate. And that is one of the reasons why I wanted to pivot my business from burnout prevention to helping women start their own businesses, particularly in this day and age online.
This is the best time in history to start your business. It gives you options. So even if you want to stay in corporate, you can stay if you want to, but you can have options. If they start tripping, you can leave and not worry about where your next dollar is coming from, or worry about paying your bills, because now you built this thing on the side and you can freely leave. We never had that before in years.
What Kingdom Work Looks Like in the Digital Era
Mustafaa: What does doing kingdom work in the digital era mean to you?
Monique: What that means to me is doing ministry differently and reaching more souls. And I don’t think that pastors and the church community at large understand this opportunity that is in front of them. There’s a young pastor, a Black pastor, who posted that his church was going to go back to in person worship only. They were getting rid of live streaming. And that just broke my heart, because not only are you preventing those who are sick and shut in, and this might be a little personal for me because my mom is sick and shut in. My mom is unable to walk. She cannot physically go to a church anymore. And so there are millions of parishioners who are in that same situation. And so now you’re cutting them off. And mind you, unfortunately, because my mom is in that situation, her church basically forgot about her. So they don’t even reach out, and so her only way of seeing them is via a virtual service.
I do believe if Jesus was walking around today, I do believe he would be on Facebook or TikTok or whatever, because that’s just how he got down. He spoke in the language that other people could understand and he used whatever means he could, and those would be the means I believe that he would use. So going back to your question, what does kingdom work in a digital age mean to me? It means being able to get your message out there to more people in a shorter span. You can reach more people in a shorter time frame, and if you do it right. It has to be done right.
A lot of this happened with COVID. I think COVID forced a lot of churches to finally get online. But a lot of churches just got online, so they kept doing what they were doing. They had created digital ministries and those that are on the digital ministry don’t know and didn’t know anything about social media. They don’t know how to title their videos. They don’t know about copyright issues with music that they sing during service. They don’t know the attention span of the viewers. So I think if pastors, ministry leaders would open their minds to doing ministry a little differently and including the worldwide web, and once they’ve accepted okay we need to do ministry differently, we need to include the masses, then help their digital ministry get some knowledge into social media, the dos and don’ts of social media, and to stay on top of that, because it changes, it can change daily, weekly, monthly, all the time. What’s good today won’t be good next week.
Why Christians Need to Stop Fearing AI
Mustafaa: How does the rise of AI play into doing kingdom work in the digital era? We’re hearing a lot of different things about AI, some blowback, some pros, some cons. What say ye about how that plays into digital kingdom work in the digital era?
Monique: It is truly an untapped tool in the kingdom field, or in ministry, period. For some reason, Christians are afraid of the unknown. If it’s different, they’re like, “Ah, that’s the devil, I’m done.” They did that with the internet. They did that with social media, and then the pandemic happened and you had to rely on those things in order to keep your church afloat, in order to keep the funds coming in. And AI is another thing. It’s another tool that a lot of Christians refuse to learn, because they don’t understand it. And if they do not get on board right now, like right now, because it literally changes almost every other day, if they don’t get on board right now, I really don’t know what’s going to happen to the church at large.
This is one of those tools that if you are a pastor of a small congregation, if you’re a pastor who does all the things, like you’re the janitor, you’re the cook, you’re the secretary, if you have all those jobs, it’s so many jobs that AI could take off your plate. If you just took the time to learn it. As a digital marketer, I tell people this and I don’t know if they know how serious I am, but I probably would have went out of business a few years ago if AI had not come along, because it allows me to manage multiple clients. It’s like my assistant. It helps me do so many things where I probably could have got them done, but I probably would look like a wreck at the end of the week.
I mentioned that I am caring for my mom, so I have like two full time jobs, caring for my mom and being a business coach. And I was on the verge of hiring a couple of VAs, virtual assistants, because I was just overwhelmed. But then I started learning AI. It saved me so much money and energy. I use AI all day, every day. I cannot see me not using it.
Mustafaa: I’ve read history that when the radio was introduced, the Muslims actually banned the radio. They say because the voice of Satan or the devil will come through the radio. And so for so many years, people in that region were deprived of a radio. And it was a leader in that world over there who began to bless scripture through the radio. And he was like, if this is bad, how can the word of God come through the radio? And it shifted their mind like, oh, okay, it can be used for something good.
Mon’nique: It’s a tool. It’s all how you use it. Are there things that can be done with AI that aren’t good? Of course. But there are things done in churches that aren’t good, but y’all still go. So it’s just a tool. And why not be on the good side of that tool? Why not show how you can use that tool for good? Don’t be scared just because it’s different.
Staying Authentic in a Noisy Digital World
Mustafaa: In a world filled with so much constant content, AI algorithms, and noise online, how can people stay authentic and purpose driven doing kingdom work?
Monique: It’s no different than walking out your front door. Whatever you do to stay centered, just to go out in public, is the same thing you would do to keep yourself centered from all the foolishness online. The best thing about the digital age or different platforms is that you can turn it off. You can stop scrolling. The algorithm is based on your interests and based on what you’ve stopped and watched and what you read and what you liked. It goes back to knowing the platform, immersing yourself in the knowledge or getting some knowledge about that platform. But it doesn’t have to be all the craziness. You control that. You tell the algorithm what you like and what you don’t like.
When Obedience Doesn’t Pay the Bills
Mustafaa: One of your speaking topics is: “when obedience doesn’t pay the bills.” I just want you to jump into that and break that down for us.
Monique: So that is a talk that I’ve done a few times, and where it came from is that a lot of us in the church believe that they are being obedient. They believe that going to church is top priority. Not even reading the Bible, but going to church in the building is top priority. And then you do all the things in the church. You got to be a part of this board and that choir and this thing and that thing, and then you got to pay your tithe. So you’re doing all the things that you think God has required you to do, but you still broke.
And it is because we haven’t actually discerned what it is God wants us to do with our lives. We have not tapped into that yet. Because a lot of times what God wants us to do, first of all, God will give you the vision, but he won’t tell you the steps to take in order to get to that vision. So we’re like, yeah, okay, I feel called to be a coach, but you don’t move on that because he didn’t give you the steps. He just said, you need to go be a coach and you need to trust me. So we stay broke and stuck because we’re too afraid. We’re still waiting on that next step for God to show us, and it rarely comes. And so that’s why we stay broke, because we just scared to move.
Mustafaa: Les Brown, who I love a lot, listen to. He has a saying where he talks about vision and then people start questioning how do you do it, and he always says that the how is none of your business. As you move into it, the ways or the steps will actually reveal themselves.
Monique: Exactly. God just wants to see you move, because the movement declares that you trust him. But if you keep staying stuck and praying and praying, you’re not going to get the next step. You got to move. The first step is to move.
Her Message to Any Woman on the Edge
Mustafaa: If there’s a woman out there that’s listening to this interview and she may be on the edge about taking this leap, and she may have felt something in her bones for some years, and this may be kind of some further confirmation, what would you say to her to have that final leap of faith and that final step of confidence?
Monique: Do it. I would say do it. Trust that the God that you serve and the God that you trust and pray to every night is going to make sure that you’re okay. So do it. You won’t know until you do it. I promise it’s going to be fine. It will be challenging. It will be hard. There are days I wanted to quit. There are days I’m like, why do I keep doing this to myself. There were months when I started, I didn’t get anybody reading my post or watching my videos or any of the things. I didn’t get anybody signing up to be a client.
But you got to keep doing it. People question your legitimacy, and if you don’t stick with it, then they won’t know that you’re actually the real deal. And then in terms of social media, you have to keep posting to train the algorithm to know who to show your content to. And so if you post for a week and nobody likes it or comments and you just stop and say, man, this ain’t working, you haven’t given the algorithm enough training on the type of content to show or who to show your content to. So what I would say to her is to just do it and trust the God that you have been calling and serving all these years. Trust that he’ll show up as you make that step, but you got to make the step first.
Monique, in closing: I do want to just encourage everyone, every Christian or whatever religion you’re a part of. This is one of those times where digital and AI is for everybody. This is the time to get in. I promise you this is not a get rich quick scheme. This is just a tool to improve your life. Whether you want to start a business or you just want to start a side hustle or whatever, this is the time to learn all you can about this new tool so that it can take a lot of burden off your life.
Where to Find Monique
You can connect with Monique Addison-Stinson at BusinessChurchLife.com, where she can help you finally answer your call and start a coaching ministry, including helping you identify exactly what type of coach or leader you’re meant to be.
This post is based on a conversation from my show, Digital Marketing With Mustafaa. Catch new interviews most Wednesdays at 5:30. You can find my podcast, YouTube channel, blog, and everything else at digitalmarketingwithmustafaa.com.
Digital Marketing With Mustafaa 
Leave a comment