Discover why using our gifts is important in business and life.
Dionne Leigh Kumpe and Joy Davis discuss why using our gifts is important in business and life.
Dionne Leigh Kumpe helps businesses discover the benefits of better brand marketing. Through her consultancy Dionne Leigh she offers hourly consulting calls, fractional marketing, and specialized services like you would find at an advertising agency. Her e-commerce store Carter & Gray is for people who want to explore their creativity and do more of what they love.
Joy Davis always dreamed of a world where she could serve others through marketplace ministries, drink unlimited amounts of coffee, and travel the world with her loving and supportive family. So she ditched her job as a Community Relations Manager for a reputable theatre company to pursue her multi-faceted dream of entrepreneurship. Find out more about Joy at theministryofbusiness.org and check out her natural skincare company at shopdaythree.com.
Transcript:
Dionne Kumpe 0:07
Welcome to the Agency to Act podcast where we commit to take action on what we want in business and in life. I’m your host Dionne Leigh Kumpe. I’m a brand and marketing consultant helping business leaders discover the benefits of better brand marketing. You can find me at dionneleigh.com. I’m excited to be in the studio today with Joy Davis. Joy worked with BET, the CIA, NBC, and a theatre company before pursuing her entrepreneurial dreams. Her latest project is the Ministry of Business, where she teaches business owners how to make money while making an impact using their unique gifts. I invited Joy to the podcast to talk about how using gifts can help guide the action we take in business and in life. Joy, welcome to the podcast.
Joy Davis 0:50
Hello, how are you? Thanks for having me.
Dionne Kumpe 0:53
I am so glad you’re here because we know each other outside of the podcast so this makes it extra fun.
Joy Davis 0:58
It is going to be fun. Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Dionne Kumpe 1:02
Well, let’s get into it. Gifts. When you talk about gifts, how do you define that? Does it look like skills or talents, or is it something different?
Joy Davis 1:12
It is different. But I look at gifts as that special sauce, like your special sauce. Your innate traits that you’re kind of born with. And, not to get too deep into it, but I think that everyone who was created, I believe God has given them these special gifts that they were naturally born. It’s the stuff that you could do without getting any training or any courses, or any special, you know, certificate to do. Natural talents and skills are a little different. I think they’re just that. They’re kind of they’re natural, but they’re things that you would kind of train for a little bit more. They’re not the things you’re born with. And so I believe that if I look at gifts as the things that connect to your passion and purpose.
Dionne Kumpe 1:55
I like it. So how do we recognize our gifts? And how do we use that knowledge to move us in the direction of the life and the business that we want?
Joy Davis 2:03
Well, first, I think, and one of the things I run into a lot is that people say, well, I don’t really have a gift. And it’s not that they don’t have it. Everyone has it. We all have a gift or some of us have more. The first thing that we recognize is to be aware that we have one. Just because you don’t know what it is doesn’t mean you don’t have it. And so that’s the first thing, just to be aware. And then just make this deep internal assessment of what’s the stuff that people always tell you you’re great at that you know you didn’t go to school for. It’s kind of the things that pop out — your pain points, your passions, your purpose. The thing that really drives you is how you can kind of recognize what they are.
Dionne Kumpe 2:38
It’s probably that thing that somebody says about you, you go, “Oh, no, no, no, not that.”
Joy Davis 2:42
Exactly. Exactly. That stuff. That stuff. Yeah.
Dionne Kumpe 2:47
So what made you leave the world of business and start your own business? What was that journey like?
Joy Davis 2:54
Well, you know, I always had that entrepreneurial spirit. I got it from my dad who was like the first businessman I ever saw. And I saw how awesome he was at business. He was very charming. And it gave him a life of freedom and security. And so I went after that. Now, I won’t tell you I did it the right way, but I went after the entrepreneurial dream. So that’s always been there. You know, wanting to leave a regular job. Even though I had some really cool jobs, I really wanted to see what it was like to just build a life for myself and work for myself.
Dionne Kumpe 3:27
As a brand marketer. I love your, you know, the packaging for your small batch, natural skincare products. They are just so pretty and gorgeous. And the story, you know, that I’ve heard is that you took a $40 investment and turned it into a six-figure business.
Joy Davis 4:02
Yes, we did.
Dionne Kumpe 4:04
I mean, oh, my goodness.
Joy Davis 3:46
Thanks so much for that compliment. You know, it was $32 to be exact. I know down to the penny. I want to say it was $32.56. And you know what we did? I left one day when my husband was saying, you know, I think you should turn this hobby into a business. We got some ingredients. I created a little line. (I call it a little line.) It was a small collection of all natural skincare products. I got some women over from the church, came over to my house and took orders. And we have been working this business ever since and have scaled it to six plus figures and it’s still growing. But the thing was, I was tapping into my, what I call gift zone, where my purpose and my passion, you know, align with my natural gifts. And so that’s how it happened. I’m excited about it, too.
Dionne Kumpe 4:12
Oh my gosh, well, and then you started coaching women. So how did that happen? People just came to you because they knew that you had run a successful business?
Joy Davis 4:43
You know, it wasn’t planned at all. I literally would do anything for a great cup of coffee. So some of my girlfriends were, you know, they were in business, or they were starting businesses or I was encouraging them to take the leap just to add a stream of income to their own life, and they would take me out for coffee, or lunch or whatever. And I would just pour, you know. I will share tips. I would share, you know, resources. I would share tools. I would share some of the experiences I had. And I would end up taking so much time to create their logos and their brands and coach them until one day a friend tapped me on the shoulder and she said, “Joy, you know, people get paid to do this, right?” You know, and I was like really? It took about seven years or so. I’m a little slow learner when it comes to this. But one of my natural gifts is teaching and so I will say that this year, we just decided to professionalize it and legitimize the Ministry of Business. So that’s kind of how that’s how it got started. But yeah, give me a cup of coffee and I’ll just share the world with you, you know.
Dionne Kumpe 5:48
I love it. We’ve had coffee so that works. So when did you realize in coaching people that using their gifts was really critical to their success.
Joy Davis 5:58
You know, it’s something, you know, to share with you that I could literally tell the difference monetarily and especially in the spirit of my friends who was using their gifts to build a business and who was literally just trying to create an extra stream of income. Now, nothing is wrong with making money. But they were scaling so fast when they use their gifts as opposed to I have to meet a quota or I’m trying to sell this stuff or service. And so I recognize that when I talked about them using what was already in them that they grew so fast, and much faster than my friends who were just starting a side hustle.
Dionne Kumpe 6:40
Can you give an example of some of the gifts that people had and how that worked out?
Joy Davis 6:45
Sure, yeah. I have a girlfriend that has, let’s say, the gift of helps. She’s always the one that people go to, not just for advice, but just anything — for coaching for encouragement. And she wanted to start a business selling and I won’t name the name of the brand but it was kind of like an MLM company. And she was just selling these products. And I knew that even though she sold the products okay, her really her true gift was helps. And her passion really was teen moms because she was a teenage mom and some of the resources that they could use and the things that they would need to just excel as, you know, at being a teenage mom. So anyway, we talked to her and now she has started a, you know she’s sold okay, but she started an organization that kind of gives resources of tips and tools to teenage moms. And she’s gotten funding, she’s getting sponsorships, she has quit her job because now it’s sustaining her. So that is the difference in just trying to make some money or making a difference as well. I love it. I love that story.
Dionne Kumpe 7:53
I love that story too. That is so good. So when it comes to gifts like I’ve learned more about my gifts once I hit my forties and I don’t know if I’m just a late learner or is that something you’ve seen where people maybe come at it later in life and see what that is? Or do people see it earlier too?
Joy Davis 8:12
Well, it just depends. I really think that, you know, culturally, that we’re kind of programmed. We’re taught at an early age to go to college and go to school and pick a trade. And you always go for the trades that are going to make you the most money because, you know, again, nothing’s wrong with money. But you find, I find, burnout, you know, at a higher rate in people who just picked something that would pay them well. I find people that are discontent. They are unhappy. Their lives are miserable because they have this passion on one side, and then the thing they went to school to learn on the other side, you know, we just feel forced, let me hurry up and get a gift. Not a gift, but a job in that area outside my gift. And so I find that as we get older and more mature, I would say, we go you know what? Life is short. Let me go for my passion. Let me go for my purpose and monetize that. So it happened to me as well. So you’re not alone. It’s not that you’re a late learner. It’s just that society kind of pushes us to find the doctor and lawyer professional job, and we kind of downplay those things that really make our community better.
Dionne Kumpe 9:18
I think it’s been really interesting to see how university programs have started adding curriculum for entrepreneurial studies, that sort of thing and more of the passion projects. So I think there’s a better path now for people, maybe where before, we had no idea we could even get paid for the things that we love
Joy Davis 9:34
Exactly. Like me. I’m getting cups of coffee for, you know, $10,000 worth of coaching. Yeah, but I’m feeling you. I’m agreeing with you in that now we are waking up to the fact that we want our community to be happier and serve each other well, as well as yourself.
Dionne Kumpe 9:51
Mm hmm. That’s good.
Joy Davis 9:52
Yeah.
Dionne Kumpe 9:53
So if our listeners could do just one action, if they would commit to taking just one action when it comes to you using their gifts for a better life, for a better business result, what would you really encourage them to do?
Joy Davis 10:06
Well, it depends on the person. So the one action I would tell to the person who doesn’t feel like they have a real gift, I would say start listening, start being really, really intentional about listening to what’s around you, to your friends, to your family. What is everyone telling you that you’re so great at? What is everyone coming to you to gain from you, to pull from you? What is the stuff that really drives you? That is probably the area that your giftings reside. And I always say, again, the gift zone is that place where your gifts and your passion and purpose kind of align. Now to the person that knows what their gifts are but hasn’t really taken action, I would say that that action step would be to be sure to focus on anything that you begin to build or create, any venture, any project. Make sure it aligns with your gifts and skills because what you want to do again is not only serve the community well, or your customer or your target audience, you want to serve yourself well. You want to lay down at night and say yeah, I made money, but I probably would do this for free.
Dionne Kumpe 11:12
That is exactly right. There are so many things I would do for free. And then I’m reminded, I’m like, oh, that’s right, I can’t do that for free and that for free. Let’s pick one thing to do for free.
Joy Davis 11:21
Because there’s a light bill. Yeah, there’s a light bill due and some mortgage and, you know, we need food. And I need to buy coffee so you know.
Dionne Kumpe 11:29
That’s right. Well, Joy, I’m so glad that you’ve been with us today talking about using our gifts. I think this is such an encouragement to so many people. And I’m just really glad you made time to be here.
Joy Davis 11:37
Thank you so much for having me. I just want people to know that their gifts are valuable. And they are worth a whole lot more than just pulling a regular check. They can do it.
Dionne Kumpe 11:48
That’s right. Well, thank you guys for joining us for the Agency to Act podcast and we’ll see you next time.