From Playing It Safe to Playing Her Part: Alisa Rabin Bell’s Bold Yes to God’s Bigger Story

In this episode of Hope Unlocked, Kristin welcomes Alisa Rabin Bell, founder of Lionheart Ventures—to share her powerful story of faith, healing, and launching a one-of-a-kind business model: fractional social impact consulting. From overcoming chronic illness and leaving corporate tech to boldly serving faith-based leaders in corporate philanthropy, Alisa shares how her journey has been rooted in courage, calling, and Kingdom values. Tune in to hear how she’s helping companies align their giving with their faith—and why bold obedience matters now more than ever.

Alisa's Contact Info:

Email - alisa@lionheartventures.biz

Website - lionheartventures.biz

Moxie Mixer (networking event in MN) 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Elisa Rabin-Bell
• 4:45 Jewish Background to Christian Faith Journey
• 9:58 Embracing the Jewishness of Christianity
• 18:29 Corporate Career to Bold Faith Expression
• 22:02 Health Crisis and Healing Journey
• 32:19 Fractional Social Impact Model Explained
• 44:28 Faith-Based Corporate Philanthropy in Action
• 53:08 Final Encouragement and Prayer

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 2: 0:48

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy ivy of hope for your soul. Please help me. Welcome Elisa Rabin-Bell to the show. I am so excited to have her here today. I actually met her recently we're a new connection through a local networking event that we had gone to and I just loved hearing how the Lord has led her in recent days and I wanted her to come on and share her story and what she is up to. So, elisa, would you be open to telling us a little bit about yourself before we get into it?

Speaker 1: 1:23

Certainly Very nice to see you again, kristen. Yeah, I am originally from California. I was, I'm Jewish, I'm 100% Jewish, so that's kind of interesting for folks. I was raised just with a very secular background but grew up in Southern California, spent a couple of years in Ann Arbor, michigan, after getting married out of college, and then moved to Minnesota and within a year of moving to Minnesota I got divorced and that was an interesting, challenging time but it was through that divorce that I came to faith and yeah, and that was a long time ago. So I've been a faithful Jewish believer walking with Jesus since 1997. And I would say a couple of years later I met my now husband and he was playing baseball for the St Paul Saints, a local baseball team, and we got married right after 9-11. So that was a an interesting time.

Speaker 1: 2:42

We have one daughter who is now 20 20 and I've been married. We've been married. This fall will be 24 years, so yeah, a lot has gone on. Um, career wise, I, uh I did 20 some years in the nonprofit space, pretty much doing everything you could do in a nonprofit, from event planning and database management to annual and capital campaigns and grant writing, that sort of thing Including. Also, I ran a small foundation at one point and I was in association management and then took a big detour and went into tech sales, which sounds odd, but I went to work for a tech company that sold into the nonprofit space, so it was a great transition.

Speaker 1: 3:32

It was a lot of fun, did that for about seven, eight years tech sales and then left corporate America in March of 2023 when the company I was at at the time we mutually decided I didn't want to work there anymore. There's some health stuff that went along with that, and since then I've been working to build a fractional social impact practice. Business as a consultant basically means helping faith-based business leaders with their corporate philanthropy.

Speaker 2: 4:07

I love it.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Yeah, that's a nutshell.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Yes, I want to get back to what you're doing now, but I want to go back a little bit to you're raised Jewish. You were in essence, saved. You came to faith in. You said 97? Was that when I read yeah, 1997. What did that look like? I mean, what was that encounter like? Was it a?

Speaker 1: 4:44

church. Tell us more about that. I would love to hear more, and I'm sure the listeners would love to hear more about your, you know, transformation journey. Yeah, so it's really interesting. Being Jewish is a lot of things. It's a religion, it's a culture, it's in your DNA. When I've done DNA tests, it's literally my DNA shows up as like 99.9% Ashkenazi Jewish, and so it's it.

Speaker 1: 5:05

We weren't religious growing up. It was never a part of what we did. We kind of, you know, we'd walk into a synagogue if we had a wedding or a death or a bar or bat mitzvah, and that was about it. So, um, the Jewish holidays were celebrated pretty much to get together to eat and drink and be around family, but, but we were very secular.

Speaker 1: 5:30

And so, um, when I met my first husband, um, he was a Christian and he wanted me to go to church with him and I'd go once in a while. I didn't, um, I didn't, you know, enjoy it. I didn't spend a lot of time there. It was okay, I was willing to do it because, you know, he asked me to and I'm like, okay, sure, no problem.

Speaker 1: 5:54

But there were several times where I was confused or highly offended or misunderstanding God's word, and it's because I didn't know, because no one told me, no one taught me, and so that was challenging. And then, near the end of our marriage, there was a little church near our house when we had moved to Minnesota, and we started going to this little church and the pastor actually counseled us through the conversations, through the challenges, trying to mediate and help us save our marriage. And I remember him clearly asking my husband you know, if he could see that I was on a journey, I was asking a lot of questions and he asked my husband if he thought well, if she became a Christian, would that change anything? And for him it wouldn't.

Speaker 1: 7:01

He had changed his mind, he fell out of love whatever the thing was, and that was really hard to hear, that was hard to understand, and so I started going to the little church by myself. I'd sit in the back of the church. I didn't know anybody, I'd sit in the back of the church and just cry. I was just distraught and didn't understand and was confused to hear I'm 2000 miles from home and had no family, no friends, nobody here. I was working at a hospital foundation in St Paul and had a few new coworkers but that was about it.

Speaker 1: 7:43

So it was a lot, it was hard, but the pastor was very wise and just a really great human being and he introduced me to a young couple at the church. They had a and their son, I think, was an infant, he was in a car carrier car seat still and they were very active in youth there. They were very active in the church and they had gone to college out in California. So I think the pastor thought oh, there's a little connection, I'll introduce you, get you some friends. And it turns out that they and their families were at a deep searching point, looking for the Jewishness of their Christian faith. At the same time I am seeking out, you know, the Christianity of Jesus, the Christianity of Jewishness, if you will, and I started going to some different meetings and events and information and less you know, teachings and things with them.

Speaker 1: 8:56

And they spend a lot of time just nurturing and talking with me. And so I started. I kept going to this little church and I made some more friends. There was another couple there that they were going into some other form of ministry. The husband would always try to. He would just argue with me and yell at me and tell me all these things and you have to believe blah, blah, blah. And his wife was. It was such an opposite and she was so kind and sweet and she's like you can't just argue her into heaven, it's not going to work. And so there were several couples that I just really clicked with, and that first couple that I mentioned. They ended up going to be missionaries in Israel for 14 years. And the other couple went to work for Wycliffe and another couple went to work for Young Life. Like all my friends left to go be missionaries. But the.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Thing that I felt drawn to was to really be a missionary, if you will, to the Christians and to open their eyes to the Jewishness of their Christian faith, wow.

Speaker 2: 10:14

So what does that look like? I mean walking that out with people, even over the years since that point point.

Speaker 1: 10:31

I've done a lot of teachings on things like Passover, where it overlaps so much with Christianity, and reminding Christians that the Bible doesn't start with the book of Matthew. The Bible doesn't start with the book of John. It doesn't start with the Gospels. The Bible starts with Genesis. And just having conversations and being open to people asking me questions I don't have all the answers by any means, but I'm open to talking to folks about the Jewishness of Jesus and reminding them. Oh yeah, by the way, the entire book, except for Luke and Acts, were written by Jews. It's um. You know. It's important to to remember that. Um, it started, it started in um. It started with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and God spoke to them and brought in the faith.

Speaker 1: 11:32

So, yeah, I mean I answer lots of questions from folks when they find out that I'm Jewish and I'm happy to share and do some. I've done teaching, like I said do some.

Speaker 2: 11:47

I've done teaching, like I said. So when you've done teaching, do you have like, do you have a course, or do you have like materials that you've given to people to help them, like uh?

Speaker 1: 11:54

not an official course by any means, but, like I, I'll bring a group of friends the other christian friends and I and we'll walk through a passover, sed, okay, or you know, talking even about Hanukkah, which isn't in the Bible, but talking through Old Testament books and how it relates Esther and the story of Esther is one of my favorites, and Esther 4.14 414, how you know, and how her, her cousin, mordecai, basically said if, if, if not you, then who? And and maybe you were born for such a time as this. So, uh, yeah, so it's it. It comes out kind of in a lot of different ways. I don't have an official course by any means, but it's, but if people ask, I'm happy to share and talk about it.

Speaker 2: 12:53

You know it's interesting. Even when we got started, I immediately was thinking of Esther, and I don't know if you've seen the movie. One night with the King.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Yes, yes, one of my favorites.

Speaker 2: 13:05

Now, the reason I was thinking that was because right when we got started I looked out my window and there was a white butterfly which is, I don't know if you remember, in the beginning of that movie there was a white butterfly when it was dark outside. Do you remember that?

Speaker 1: 13:17

Yeah, yeah, I do Nice.

Speaker 2: 13:46

I'm glad to share that with you, but I remember, you know, back in 2020 and 2021, for me personally, like the Lord was calling me to use my voice in a new way, and even with you know Esther 414, we typically look at it and it's, you know, on shirts and bumper stickers, and you know, coffee mugs like for such a time as this but it's not fluffy.

Speaker 2: 13:54

It's not a fluffy verse, it's. You know the Lord was showing me like, back it up a little bit, like for if you remain silent, right, you know moments of your walk with Christ, or just in life in general, where you feel like you've been silenced or have had challenges using your voice.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Absolutely. I mentioned I was in nonprofit space for 20 plus years and and and in the tech space to my my entire career. Basically it was a very secular, very liberal environment.

Speaker 1: 15:01

I couldn't speak out about my faith and I also, I don't think I was confident enough to in a in a public space, in the church, amongst my friends. That was one thing, but in the business world it was very, very challenging, and so I kind of hid my light under a basket, if you will. I took a different tact when I left corporate in 2023, where, as I was kind of coming to what it was, I felt like God was calling me to do with this the fractional social impact serving business leaders with their corporate philanthropy. God told me to narrow it down even more and work with faith-based business leaders. Work with those. God told me to narrow it down even more and work with faith-based business leaders. Work with those leaders and businesses that have a Judeo-Christian backbone to them and who are wanting to be bolder about their faith. And it's given me an opportunity the last couple of years to be even bolder about my faith. I'm not shy about it anymore. I wear my cross. I have a, a star of David with a cross in the middle, and I wear it all the time. Um, I have, in fact, esther 414 and a um uh cross with a star and a heart around it, both tattooed on my wrist, and they're reminders to be bold and people ask me they see those tattoos and they ask questions, right, and I've put it out on social media. I've done faith-based posts and my website has that basically right on there as well. So it's been interesting.

Speaker 1: 17:03

I've gone to networking events and everybody's introducing themselves and gets to me who are you, what do you do? Well, I serve faith-based business leaders with their corporate philanthropy and most people are like, oh, that's so interesting. I've never heard of that before. Oh, wow, that's great. I'm a Christian too and it opens up doors for other people to have those conversations. But it's also caused people to turn away. I was at one event and a gal I introduced myself and she kind of looked at me sideways and she says, well, is that all religions? And I said, is it all faiths? And I said well, and I could tell she had a different background and I just said, look, I'm a Jewish believer. This is what I know and this is what I'm starting with and what I'm talking to folks about.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Whether I work with I don't know Hindus, buddhists, muslims, others down the road, I don't know. Um, because that's I don't know anything about that. That's not who I am and that's not what I feel God has called me to do. So I'm, you know it, it. It can push people away. But with that being said, you know, I think that's okay. I mean, you don't have to be everything to everybody and I don't want to be you know, I really want to be what God wants me to be. I really want to be strong and courageous and not afraid or discouraged like Joshua. Joshua one nine tells us, you know, and it's important to follow where God is leading you.

Speaker 2: 18:43

So yes, well, I love you know, I love that you've. It's like what I call like a flip the script right. So you were immersed in an environment where you you basically couldn't talk about your faith, um know, openly, freely. And now you're free and you're in a place where you can talk openly and freely as you're led, but you're doing it in a bold way, like unafraid and not ashamed and not willing to let somebody else and their viewpoint stop you from doing what you're doing. I just want to commend you for that. Not everybody is willing, or I don't know.

Speaker 2: 19:21

The best word is like again that courage, right, the courage to step out, first of all, out of a space like similar to me. We both did. This is part of why I wanted to have Ron too is because, you know, I'm encountering more people who are actually like stepping out of. For me, I called it Egypt, it was Egypt, and you know somebody else who's taken a really bold step of faith to leave behind, you know, maybe a more quote unquote secure position to come out, follow what the Lord's doing. Position to come out, follow what the Lord's doing. And then also, you know, in this day and age we're we're not always seen as like the most popular people.

Speaker 2: 20:07

You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Yes, I get that.

Speaker 2: 20:09

So besides you know that encounter what I love, what you said, like you, basically I'm not going to work with everybody. I like to say I'm not ready, Everybody's not for me. I'm not going to work with everybody, I like to say I'm not ready, everybody's not for me, and I think 100% that point. You know and just accept that like it's okay. It's okay that you are not, you know my clients, right, not saying you, but just in general.

Speaker 2: 20:29

When we come across people that are like yeah, yeah, whatever. So when you like, when you stepped out, can you, can you say again like fractional, you said fractional, say again.

Speaker 1: 20:42

I call it fractional social impact. So how this came about was, um, as I was uh seeking kind of what my my next was going to be, I I took basically all of 2023 off.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I wouldn't call it a sabbatical, I would call it kind of a healing journey, because and so we can let me back up a little and I started at a company, a very large international tech company, working remotely. I started there in the fall of 2021. And six months in it was like May of 2022, out of the blue, started having horrible vertigo attacks and we couldn't figure out what was triggering them. I would be dizzy, I'd be lying on the couch for two, three days at a time, very, very sick.

Speaker 1: 21:37

My husband like jumped into nurse mode and he had about 10 seconds to get me from my desk to the couch. And it was just awful, it was horrible. It went on for about six months.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Um and, like I said, there was no um, no warning signs, no, um, you know, know, triggers that we could prevent. Yeah, and finally I went to a doctor. It was january of 2023. Um friend, uh, recommended a doctor down in red wing, minnesota. He's a chiropractor, natural health care guy, christian, and and he had all these tests run blood tests and other kinds of things but he's also very intuitive, insightful, he worked with folks on all kinds of issues, but especially anti-inflammatory kinds of things, and so the tests come back and he basically says well, you are gluten sensitive. And here are all the things I recommend.

Speaker 1: 22:45

I'm like, wait a minute him, all these tests, because I'm just, I was just blown away. He said you need to go cold turkey, a hundred percent, cut out gluten, cut out dairy, because dairy mimics gluten. So you have to get rid of dairy too. And you need to stop taking any over the counter pain meds and drink half your body weight in water in ounces every day and eat like bucketfuls of vegetables and all these things. And I just, I was just shocked, I was so confused because I've never been an unhealthy eater, I've always eaten really well. And so to to learn all of this and to realize it wasn't necessarily me, but it's, it's the food system and it's food process in America is just not good. And, um, yeah, so by that point, um, I wasn't doing my job, I couldn't do my job at all.

Speaker 1: 23:49

And uh, sat down with, um, well, virtual sit down with your manager, and when they they put those meetings on your calendar and the HR person shows up, you know it's it's time to go. So so I joke yeah, right, but you know I joke that we mutually decided I didn't want to work there anymore because they did give me a choice. They said you could, you know, we could put you on a, on a PIP, a personal improvement plan, where you know, here's a couple months salary to walk now. And I'm like took me about two seconds to think that one over. And yeah, so I left there in March of 2023 and spent the my garden, with my dogs, with my family and really with myself, like learning how to eat different, learning how to cook. Know, he took away, he took bread and cheese and pizzas and delicious, yummy food, but I've found ways to make up for it. And I still have a glass of wine now and again. Don't tell my doctor, was that a?

Speaker 2: 25:11

no-no for him.

Speaker 1: 25:12

He wanted me to cut out alcohol and everything too. And I'm like dude, you cut out bread and cheese and some other and pizza.

Speaker 2: 25:24

I love pizza. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I still have wine. Yeah, Isn't it? Isn't it fascinating? Um, I shared with you before we got started on here. I was talking to a neighbor earlier and, um, you know, part of my I don't even, I won't go down that rabbit trail, but there are ways naturally to heal. Yeah, I love that. Sometimes it takes, you know, personally, I think it was 12, 15 years ago that I discovered that gluten was a thing and I was, you know, check off, you know, take it out for 30 days and within three days I felt amazing and I was like what in the world? Like I've been suffering all this time because doctors, like couldn't figure out what was going on, but it took just removing food. That you think is good.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Right, You's yeah you know, because I would buy, like, healthy grain, you know food, and um, dairy was a thing for me too, and, um, I think it's just so interesting and I'm hoping you know I'm not going to keep going down this rabbit trail too long, but, um, I think that the world is starting to wake up a little bit, as far as you know more holistic measures, you know more naturopathic measures, but the unfortunate part of that is that it does come with a cost, a financial cost, because you know, most people are on insurance and it's not covered. So, all that to say, I think you would agree with me. Like, if you're given a diagnosis, um, my heart and the key is like, try to get to the root, like, what is the reason that this is happening?

Speaker 1: 27:05

Right.

Speaker 2: 27:06

Don't slap me with a uh prescription right away, like what is the reason um just putting this out there? Would you agree as well?

Speaker 1: 27:14

Oh yeah, I, I, I was able to step away from all kinds of prescriptions that every medical doctor had given me during those six months that I was ill. I went to a ton of different doctors ear, nose and throat doctors. I went to dizzy doctors and specialists. I went to my own primary doc. Doctors and specialists I went to my own primary doc and they all gave me different. You know, here's a different prescription. I think I had four or five or six different prescriptions going at once.

Speaker 1: 27:48

Now I'm down to one and that was for something else that is totally unrelated, and it's, and I, food is life, food is health, and if you're not feeding your engine properly, you're, you're gonna feel crummy. And so you know, when people ask me oh, is it hard to give up? I could never give up bread, I could never give up cheese, whatever, and if you don't feel good when you're putting it in your body, it's not that hard to give it up. Exactly, and I, I have no desire to risk it, like people you know have have asked have you, have you even just tried a piece of bread? No, because I don't want to mess up the work, all the hard work I've done the last couple years, yeah, so yes, I know, like I've I call it getting glutened.

Speaker 2: 28:34

Oh yeah, inadvertently and almost immediate. It's like an immediate reaction and it takes like a week to kind of get recalibrated. And it's like I've had people similarly. They're like why don't you just have a piece of pizza? And I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like I do believe that I will be healed of this. Um, but there's an aspect of also like maybe it's going to be that I go over to another country where they're actually giving us, you know, good food and I will be able to have some pizza Right.

Speaker 1: 29:03

I've heard that. Yeah, I've heard that when people that are celiac or have, you know, big gluten issues, when they're in other countries, especially in Europe, that they don't have any issues, no issues. So, yeah, it's. It's funny though, you know, now, going to restaurants I used to. I used to. If you think about what was, what was it like when Harry met Sally the movie, when Harry met Sally, when they were in the restaurant and she, she was just super high maintenance, ordering, very specific, all the things she had to have, just right, yeah, and I used to just laugh about that. Well, now I'm that person, you're not alone, I'm with you and I okay. So so leave this off and and exchange this and do that, but do this and like, even cooking, don't cook like my. I can order a steak, but don't cook my steak with butter. You got to use olive oil, right. So I'm, I'm just all over that and I'm that person. My husband just laughs at me now. He's's like you are that person.

Speaker 2: 30:03

Well, I just prophesied. I say I'm very special and I've got some special things here.

Speaker 1: 30:13

I'm special, but you know it's funny. I think more and more people are doing that. More and more people are that way. You're seeing gluten-free options and people and menus that are marked gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, whatever the thing is, and it's just it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 30:28

Yeah, and it's. It's it to me goes. Hmm, there's a lot of people dealing with this. Maybe we should do something about it.

Speaker 1: 30:35

Yes, absolutely. That's where my brain goes, you know Well, and we're starting to see a little bit of that. I'm hoping that's changing with some of the things some of the health and human services.

Speaker 1: 30:46

You know the current administration, getting rid of some of the, getting rid of all of the poisons that are in our food. Hopefully they can. They can make a you know, make that a permanent thing that their companies are literally processing and providing. The same company is making the exact same product two different ways, one for America and one for Europe. Like, really Isn't that nuts? It's insane, Totally crazy. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 31:12

That's a whole rabbit hole I could go down.

Speaker 1: 31:16

I was just going to say we just went down a little rabbit trail. I love it.

Speaker 2: 31:20

Somebody needed to hear about that right.

Speaker 1: 31:22

Yeah, for sure. But I did want to finish how I came up with. You know, we want to circle back where I am now. So I started in 2024, kind of digging into what I wanted to do next, and I looked at my background and I started going to networking events. And now I go to like I've been to a gazillion networking events over the last couple of years, meeting so many amazing people.

Speaker 1: 31:47

But I kept hearing about this thing called fractional and I didn't know what it meant. But did some research and talked to some folks and learned more about it. I thought I love that idea of being a fractional employee in a, at a corporate level, and helping companies you know, fraction of the cost, fraction of the time, um, with all of the expertise. And I thought, well, what is it that I've done that I could, you know, do that's fractional? And and none of the uh people out there were were doing anything like this. They were ever. They were fractional CMOs, cfos, coos there's a gazillion of those out there. And I thought, well, I know philanthropy, I know nonprofits and foundations and that sort of thing, and so I thought I'll make up my own thing. Love it. I made up my own thing. I was like you've got to share this.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Yeah, so I call it fractional social impact. It's basically corporate philanthropy helping small and mid-sized companies, business leaders, those, like I said, Judeo-Christian backbone companies, be bolder in their faith, stepping out and aligning them with the values of nonprofits that they want to partner with, that they want to serve, that they want to volunteer with, um, that sort of thing. So uh, yeah that's.

Speaker 2: 33:11

that's kind of where I'm at, so so, if like, can you give us an example of um you know, I don't know if you have to be confidential um, but somebody that maybe you you've worked with or you're currently working with, and what that looks like for you to come alongside these companies? I have a feeling somebody's like well, I don't really understand like what does this look like tangibly?

Speaker 1: 33:35

Yes, so there's a couple of different ways. So on my website I set it up in kind of like a small, medium, large package to large package for lack of a better term. Like in the small sense, I can come into a company and be a facilitator for a brainstorming session. Maybe the company has decided that giving our employees one day a year to volunteer isn't really as much as we want to be doing. We want to do more, and so maybe they have some ideas, but they're not sure where to start. So I can facilitate a brainstorming session and help them come up with a bunch of different ideas that they can then turn around and implement in, you know, with internal folks, with however they want. So that's one idea. Another is maybe they want to do that and they want to actually get help to do an event or a project or something. So come in and work with them and pull together Maybe it's a fundraising event for a nonprofit that they want to partner with and so helping them plan it out and do all the marketing and communication and internal work to to implement a big event in a year from now and we work together on a project.

Speaker 1: 34:54

Okay, on a large scale, a fractional um is really like being embedded with their, with the corporate leadership, so helping them dig into their values, dig into their views and their perspective on who they are, and so doing a lot of. I come and do a lot of research, discovery, interviews, conversations with the leadership, with their employees, with their customers, and learn about the company. Then pull together you know, I don't know 20, you know a dozen, 15, 20 ideas of either projects or non-profits, organizations that they could potentially work with and partner with, and then we, we work together in a you know, brainstorming session, if you, brainstorm session, if you will, to to narrow that down into okay, this is what we really want to do here's, here's what works for us.

Speaker 1: 35:59

And then we I walk with them and help them implement and put that into practice. So then, bringing alongside someone internal to run it, long term tool, networking opportunity, fundraising plan for ways that they're going to give away money, the way they're going to volunteer in the community, the way that they're going to partner with a nonprofit and do they include it in their social media or on their website, work, or do they act behind the scenes and do it all anonymously and quietly. They're both biblical right. God wants us to help people and share and acknowledge who we're supporting and what we're doing. But he also said you know, give quietly and don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, basically. So so either way, I'm happy to help customers, clients with uh, with, you know, big, big visions or just initial ideas of brainstorming and that sort of thing. So unique.

Speaker 2: 37:15

Yes, I love it because I'm I mean, I'm guessing and you can correct me on this, but maybe most companies don't typically. Maybe, I don't know, it would be more HR that would have some knowledge in this area, but maybe I wouldn't imagine that most companies would know kind of how to walk this out.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Yeah, I think that's probably the biggest challenge is these leaders don't know what they don't know and they don't know that they need me. Um, and yeah, it often community engagement, um employee volunteerism, um corporate philanthropy it often falls under either hr or marketing. But a lot of those companies um their hr people are busy doing hr stuff and their marketing people are busy doing marketing stuff and they're not experts in philanthropy or community engagements and it's not their expertise and they're overtaxed.

Speaker 1: 38:16

They're already doing what they need to be doing, so uh you know, for a leader to step up and say, you know we need to bring in outside help to do something like this, like that's, that's who I'm looking for, that's who I want to work with. And and these leaders that say, yes, you know, partnering and giving away money and and involving our employees and how we give away our money right Is is important to to the company and, honestly, it impacts bottom line issues. It impacts recruitment and retention. It impacts customer loyalty right.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Because a lot of things we're seeing these days, especially with younger generations, are that they want to work for companies that share their values.

Speaker 1: 39:06

No matter where you are on the spectrum of politics and religion and whatever else, people want to work with companies that share their values and they want to work for companies that share their values and they want to buy from companies that share their values. And people are bolder about it. And then maybe it's just because we're more, it's more visible because of social media. I don't know, but it's becoming more and more common to see that and and I feel like I have an opportunity to help improve that for companies and help bolster their, their, their, their, their values. And and really, like we talked about at the beginning, there's you're not for everybody, right, and so people that you're going to have either employees that are going to self-select out, either in you know already at employee employed with you or um, or through the hiring process, or your customers are going to walk away, but you're going to draw other customers, right. So every company isn't everyone's cup of tea, right? There's examples of cancel culture that we've seen in the last three, four, five years that have been just crazy.

Speaker 1: 40:23

on both sides all sides right People support Chick-fil-A and they go to Chick-fil-A for a variety of reasons, and maybe one of which is that they're closed on Sundays and they support Christian values. Or Hobby Lobby same thing. Hobby Lobby is the same thing, but you know there's companies that support other issues and people can choose to support who they want to choose to support and work for who they want to work for um years ago, and part of what I loved working there for was being able to do, like, um, community service, and we would get kind of a, I would say like a stipend, quote unquote.

Speaker 2: 41:16

We could use a certain number of hours, um, they would pay you basically to go out and do community service, and that was part of what kept me at this job for a while, was that was one of the perks? Um, that, yeah, but um, I can imagine, you know, having I, I love companies that give back. I just, personally, I've always loved, if I find let's just say I'm just using this as an example like a jewelry company that sells xyz but then they give back to, you know, like a, like a nonprofit, or they're giving back to help a cause on the backend, like I'm more prone to go to those companies than I am a, you know, yeah, normal company. Does that make sense? Oh, no.

Speaker 1: 41:57

I think people will. I think people will spend more money or go drive further or order online, you know, and not have free shipping and whatever be, in order to support companies that fit their values or that are, that are and whatever.

Speaker 2: 42:14

That is right so well, I think back, I think one of the first companies that I I can think of, and I don't. I don't know if they're a faith-based company I don't, I don't believe that they are but it was like Tom shoes top shoes where you buy one and then they'd give one away. I just thought that was the coolest concept.

Speaker 1: 42:34

Well, and I think there's a sock company too. Bomba socks is another one. They do the same thing. Yeah, bombas, I think, I think they're good a lot of companies out there that are very vocal, very intentional, very bold about what it is that they're doing, and and who they support.

Speaker 1: 42:52

They put it on their website, right their their community engagement page, whatever that's called on on a company's site it talks about oh, we support Be my Starving Children. Or we support you know Matter, we support this, you know, trafficking organization or whatever, whatever fits their values.

Speaker 2: 43:16

And you can help. You can even help them kind of determine which pathway to go down to as well. Right, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:22

Because you know there's so many nonprofits and so many organizations out there. So, as a company, how do you know? Do you encourage your employees to participate and give back? Are you going to limit? Are you going to do matching gifts or do you limit where your matching gifts can go Right?

Speaker 2: 43:41

If you're a faith-based organization.

Speaker 1: 43:47

Do you want to do a matching gift to Planned Parenthood or to some other companies, right so? Other nonprofits, probably not. So you know, what guidelines do you have in place for your organization? What guidelines do you have in place for employee giving, employee matching? And? And if you refuse to give to certain organizations, are those employees going to stick around? Right, right, like you talked about? You like staying at a company because of some of the benefits and the things that they were offering you? People also will walk away from companies that don't share.

Speaker 2: 44:22

So yes, so can you do. Is it local and like, can you do this around the world? Can you step in like virtually?

Speaker 1: 44:33

Yeah, yeah, well, I say that I'm not limited by geography. I'm keeping it right now to the pretty much to the U S um the laws, international laws, for philanthropy is is varied and I'm not an expert in international philanthropic law.

Speaker 1: 44:51

So not yet, not yet God hasn't downloaded that to me yet Um, but but pretty much anywhere in the U? S. Yeah, I, I'm not limited by geography, um, I don't have little kids at home. Like I said, my daughter's 20 and she's on her own doing her own thing. Now. She's a superstar, and so I, yeah virtual or you know, they make things called airplanes. You can go somewhere and meet people in person, which I prefer, meeting people in person. However, I'm yeah, I'm totally open to, you know, small, midsize companies the really small companies are kind of doing it on their own, and the really really big enterprise level companies have teams of people that are doing it for them. So, okay, it's kind of that middle range that I'm looking at okay.

Speaker 2: 45:32

So would you say, um, I guess I'm I'm thinking out loud here um, if you're gonna like, if you're going to like, if you're going to speak to somebody and they're listening and their, their, their, their ears are perked up, um, like what? What would be something else that you'd want to share in relation to what you do that um might help them, um, reach out to you. Is there anything else that you wanted to share in relation to this?

Speaker 1: 46:00

Yeah, Well, I think, um, if you're, you know, if you're a business owner, if you're a business leader at a company and employees are asking for opportunities to go volunteer, and you want to support them in that, if you're looking for ways to give more money away and you want to not just write a check for a couple thousand dollars here and there, maybe you want to engage your employees in that and build an employee committee that pulls together ideas for ways to volunteer in the community or to give money away and to to support that, maybe starting a matching gift program or opening a fund at a community foundation in your local area, Um, or? Or there's a national Christian found. The national Christian foundation is a community foundation as well. Um, and, and thinking about you know, is God calling you to be bolder in your walk?

Speaker 2: 47:04

Um and and thinking about, you know?

Speaker 1: 47:05

is God calling you to be bolder in your walk? Um, are you, you know, walking out your, your, your talk that, oh yeah, I'm a Christian and I get to these organizations, or I support these organizations, but are you really doing as much as you could? Are you really, um, you know, are you are really inviting God to walk with you in, in your business, on a daily basis?

Speaker 1: 47:29

yeah, so yeah, lots of I mean lots of ideas, lots of things to think about. Um, you know, if, if you feel like you're, if you feel like you're doing something but you want to do more, if you feel like you're doing something but you want to do more, if you feel like your internal people that you have working on it now aren't, you know, are needed elsewhere and aren't able to do all the things, if you're wanting to expand or just even launch, maybe you don't have anything going on and you really feel called to do more or add processes, procedures, technology to the mix. You know so good.

Speaker 2: 48:10

Yeah, I'm imagining. I'm a very visual person. I'm almost seeing, like you know, kind of if it's like a building for a business, like the hands and feet going out and being like catalysts in the community broader level. Because, um, I think a lot of people just really have a heart to give back and, like you said, you know, I see you as just this resource or you. You know the ins and outs he's, this is part of your. You know inner working to help people in this area and I'm just so excited for what he's going to do through you, because this is a new thing, it's very different but it's so unique.

Speaker 2: 48:48

And I love the people that are doing those things. So he's his hands all over this. Let me do that.

Speaker 1: 48:54

I feel that too. Thank you, I appreciate the encouragement, the reminder. It is very different. It is very different and it's been. You know all transparency. It's been a bit of a challenge to find my people, if you will, and find people that are willing to take a chance and doing something different. There's lots of fractional folks out there. There's lots of consultants in the philanthropic, you know, non-profit foundation space, but I, honestly, when I I talk to folks, I don't think I've heard of anybody that's doing fractional philanthropy, consulting to the faith-based community specifically. So it's it's a pretty small niche that I love it. That's carved out and it is unique and beautiful. Yeah, I feel like it has.

Speaker 2: 49:49

Yeah, for sure you're, you're trailblazing. So I I'm sure that this, you, you're maybe the first of of many that'll come, come along. Yeah, yeah, well, and if somebody's listening in today to that, you know that's maybe in this realm and is curious about you, know what you're doing, um, in that respect. But then also, you know, if somebody is wanting to hear more about how you can help a business, what is the best way that they can reach out to you and hear more?

Speaker 1: 50:17

on my website has all my contact information on it. Lionheartadventuresbiz, if you want to list that somewhere, you can. Yes, put that best way to connect with me. Reach out to me. I'm on LinkedIn as well.

Speaker 2: 50:31

Okay, yeah, could you say the website again?

Speaker 1: 50:35

It's lionheartadventuresbiz B-I-Z. Okay.

Speaker 2: 50:40

And I'll be sure to link that in the show notes as well. And I was hearing like Lionheart adventures. Oh, that's an idea, it is an adventure, this whole like leaving Egypt and walking out what he's calling us to do, that looks different. It's definitely an adventure, wouldn't you say? Absolutely, I call it a wild adventure.

Speaker 1: 51:04

I like that. I'm going to have to write that one down, yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:07

People are like how are you doing? I'm like, I'm still on a wild adventure.

Speaker 1: 51:10

Yes.

Speaker 2: 51:11

And it's beautiful. The scenery is wonderful. Well, it has been a joy to have you on today. Whenever I'm doing these podcast episodes, I imagine the one who's listening in. So if you would be open to just thinking about that one who's listening in, are there any words of encouragement or wisdom that you feel led to speak over them? And then would you mind praying us out today as we wrap up?

Speaker 1: 51:38

I'd love that. Thank you, words of encouragement. I love that. Thank you, words of encouragement. You know, be bold in your faith, be willing to take the arrows, because you know that if you're standing in that space that God wants you, that he'll protect you and he'll lead you into where he wants you to be. Yes, we do have to leave that quote Egypt in order to go through the desert sometimes, and sometimes that's what it feels like, but know that on the other side is the promised land right, and I think there's hope and there's an opportunity, and be creative.

Speaker 1: 52:28

I think I would say also to find your people. It's important to connect with like-minded and kingdom-minded believers. It's not to say that we don't talk to other people, that isn't it at all. It's that you have to have that support in order to be in the world and not of the world, and I think that's a valuable lesson that I've learned. But I think most importantly is to just really to be bold.

Speaker 2: 52:57

So good.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Yeah. So, lord, I just thank you for this time. I thank you for um, for kristin and her ministry and her coaching practice and and her vision. For this, I think that that you have your hand on her, lord, and um, you're gonna, you're gonna help her grow and blossom and blossom and help more people unlock their challenges. Lord, I just pray over all the people that are listening to this podcast, this Seedcast, and give them the courage to step out. Joshua 1.9,. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged discouraged for the Lord, god is with you wherever you go.

Speaker 2: 53:46

And.

Speaker 1: 53:46

Lord, I just hold everybody up in faith and give them wisdom and understanding and knowledge and the skills to do what you have them to do, Lord. We just thank you for this time and this new friendship and new opportunities. Lord, In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 2: 54:07

Amen. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for being a great voice who's setting others free. I'm going to close with the Hope Unlocked anchoring verse, which is may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope, and that's Romans 15, 13. So thank you again, Elisa. It was such a joy to have you on and I will be back with another episode next week. Bye listeners, Thank you.