Reflecting on Hope Unlocked: A Journey of Obedience, Overcoming Doubt, and Trusting God’s Call with Kristin Kurtz

In this solo episode of Hope Unlocked, host Kristin Kurtz takes a reflective walk through her podcasting journey and shares the heart behind Hope Unlocked. Inspired by a God's nudge to be a voice "booming through the airwaves," Kristin launched the podcast to give a voice to others who have faced adversity and emerged on the other side, filled with hope. In this candid reflection, she talks about her obedience to God’s call, her hesitations, and the incredible lessons she’s learned along the way.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Podcasting by Faith: Kristin opens up about her initial doubts and comparisons to Moses, questioning her own ability to speak and share. Despite this, she followed God’s call, launching Hope Unlocked without following the typical podcasting blueprint.
2. Cutting Through the Noise: Kristin discusses the challenges of being shadow-banned and how that revelation led her to podcasting as a key to bypass censorship and amplify God’s message in a crowded world.
3. Season Reflections:
   • Voices of Hope from the Valley: Season 1 was about highlighting testimonies from people who had walked through the fire and emerged with a message of hope.
   • Launching Pioneers: Season 2 focuses on women in ministry and business who are "Noah builders" — those doing things differently in obedience to God, even when it doesn’t make sense to the world.
4. Obedience in Action: Kristin encourages listeners to step into their God-given roles, even if it feels impossible. She likens this to the stories of biblical figures like Moses and Esther, who stepped out in faith despite the challenges.
5. Exponential Impact: Kristin reflects on the ripple effect of obedience — how one act of faith can multiply and touch countless lives. She challenges listeners to embrace their roles, knowing that someone is waiting for them to step up.
6. The Importance of Mentorship: Kristin shares her personal experience with the support of coaches, mentors, and prayer warriors, emphasizing the need for guidance and community when walking out God’s call.

If you’re feeling the pull to step into something new, or you’ve been hesitating on with your BOLD YES, Kristin is here to help. 

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm your host, kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wildhearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations and thrive with confidence, courage and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwingscoachingnet and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm your host, kristen Kurtz. Today is going to be a little different. I was led to just come on with some reflections as I've been doing this for gosh. It's been over a year and a half, which is really wild to think about, because it was about three-ish years ago, where I was talking to somebody and I heard my spirit, your voice is going to boom through the airwaves and I kind of chuckled to myself because I've at times in my life thought of myself as kind of like Moses, where I have not seen myself as somebody who is eloquent of speech, somebody who would be able to get in front of an audience and have many people listening, especially when it comes to your typical stage presence presence. So, all that to say, it really became very apparent that I was to start this. The Lord gave me the name Hope Unlocked.

Speaker 1: 1:50

The first season was called Voices of Hope from the Valley and I really wanted to highlight people who have walked through really challenging times walk through the fire, walk through the valley and come through on the other side with keys for the listeners. And then we moved into season two, which I've been sitting with gosh. It's been, I think at least a year or more called Launching Pioneers and really highlighting mostly women in ministry or business who are doing things different. I like to call them, like the word that I've been given recently is, like the Noah builders, the ones who are doing things different, who are walking with the Lord, maybe doing things that don't quote unquote make sense to the world and, again, wanting to highlight their stories, how they've persevered. What are they doing to really get eyes on, you know, their ministry or business? Because, part of starting this podcast, I was asking the Lord how do I cut through the noise? Now to back up a little bit in 2020, 2021, I was being shadow banned a lot and I knew that there were certain words that were being flagged to really shadow ban the message that the Lord was giving me to put out there.

Speaker 1: 3:12

I had a huge revelation that this was a key to cut through the noise because, again, the Lord said to do it. So, because I am who I am, there was a little hesitation, a few. Are you sure, god, you have the right one? But he said go. So I want to encourage you because, for those of you who God is giving a vision or a dream to something to step into and you have no idea how to do it. There are resources out there to help you. There are mentors, coaches like myself to help you walk it out, and ultimately he is the source and he will show you.

Speaker 1: 3:55

So in my case, with a podcast, I actually was starting to kind of dig into, you know, maybe some YouTube tutorials, maybe some stuff online to kind of help me understand, like, how do you launch a podcast? And I just really felt my spirit that he was saying you don't need this, yours is going to be different. So in a matter of about five minutes, I sat in front of my computer, my old Mac laptop that's six Now when I say old in our day and age times, it's old. One of the speakers is even going out and I was just like okay, lord, so how do we do this and what do I have in my hands already? And he showed me within five minutes how to do it and within probably a matter of about a month.

Speaker 1: 4:44

There's people that say you need to have X, y, z amount of podcasts ready to go and up on your platform before you launch it. And I just thought to myself well, why is that? Why do I need to follow what everybody else says? Now you'll find with me that that tends to be kind of my first response as a first responder of why do I have to do what everybody else says. You know I'm very counterculture. I was born on 12-2. Romans 12-2 is like my birth verse. If you guys haven't found your birth verse, I encourage you to go do that. Look up your birth month and your birthday and find a verse that really resonates with you. And Romans 12.2 can be more perfect for me. Do not conform to the patterns of this world. So I'll get back on track here, and so, anyways, I launched the podcast on 3, three, two, three, and it's been a really wild journey, a wild adventure. It's been amazing and I actually had quite an epiphany and revelation this week. So I love, I love sharing.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Connecting. Coaching is like my main, my main thing, right, we all have our main thing, our anointing right. Coaching and connecting are like my main thing, right, we all have our main thing, our anointing right. Coaching and connecting are like my things. So I realized today or not today, but this last week that there's a lot of areas that I would love to be involved in. There's a lot of ministries that I would love to be involved in. I'm a huge freedom and justice girl. There's a lot of I'm multi-passionate Maybe you can agree with me on that and you have things that come your way and, oh, I'd love to be part of that. But you just know that you can't spread yourself too thin.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Well, I realized that part of what the Lord's given me here with this podcast is to I'm getting involved by bringing on people who are involved. They're involved in different ministries and different outreach freedom movement. You know like areas that I would love to be part of, but I get to have a hand in it by bringing these people on to share what they're doing so that you can hear more about it and maybe you can get involved. Because this is so beyond me, like you guys, this, this podcast, is so beyond me, like his hand is over this, because even a friend of mine said you are like the last person I would have ever thought would start a podcast and to me that says it all with how the Lord can really partner with us to do things that look impossible. You know, like Moses, he really walked out the impossible and setting people free so many, I mean Esther.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Look at so many in the Bible who stepped into these roles that didn't necessarily make sense to the world, right? So if you're being called to step into a role or you're in a role that maybe doesn't make sense and you would like somebody to walk alongside you, I have touted myself the but. God said coach, we have way too many. But if people in our life right the but, what if? Oh, but what if? What? What if this happens? What if? What's your plan B? No, what did God say? Okay, so let's get on board with that and reach out if you have any questions about how I could walk alongside you.

Speaker 1: 8:11

But if you are in a place where you know you haven't been interviewed on the podcast yet and you would love to share your story. I would love to have you on because, truly like, we have no idea who this is reaching, and I think the beauty that I see beyond this is the Lord showed me that this is for the one, and he also showed me that one times one in the world is simply one right. That's math. That's simple math. But one times one in the kingdom is exponential. So reaching one who then shares it with another one, who then shares it with another one, and maybe it's one person who hears one podcast episode who's changed and then goes in and brings change to the children or the parents, or we just don't know. I don't know. All I know is that we are called to do the thing that he calls us to do. Some of you need a little fire under your butt to get moving, would love to be that one in your corner.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Your book God Said Coach, I may not be the one for you, but I would highly recommend getting somebody in your corner. I can't imagine doing this without coaches and mentors and people praying over me. I don't know that I would have stepped into this fully. I know God, you know I am a pretty quick to go when he says go. But there are those times where you kind of question am I the right one? Are you sure God Did I hear you right? Am I right? Anybody hearing me on that?

Speaker 1: 9:44

So, just reflecting back on this last year and a half and his goodness and I hope that if you've had a chance to listen to the other episodes that it's been impactful that you've, you know, taken away some keys and it's really changed something for you for the better. So, thank you again, listeners, for tuning in. I know that this walk isn't easy, but he is with you. And just a reminder today to keep going. You are here for a powerful reason and everything that you're walking through is going to culminate into that next thing. We just don't know, we don't have the fullness yet, and I think if we did, we maybe wouldn't step into it, right, because we all have a massive role to play here in the kingdom and you're stepping out connects to somebody else, and what I really want to say is people are waiting for you, somebody is waiting for you to do that thing. So what is that thing that you're being called to step into today? I'll leave you with that.

Speaker 1: 10:53

So I pray that this blessed you. If you'd ever want to just reach out say hello. My email is in the show notes, but I'll say it out loud it's kristin k-r-i-s-t-i-n, kurtz k-u-r-t-z. At new wings coaching, spelled out n-e-w-w-i-n-g-s, coaching c-o-a-C-H-I-N-G dot net N-E-T. So thanks for tuning in today. I hope you have a blessed day Until next time. Bye, thank you.