Hey Ladies, welcome to week 6! This week's lesson is all about validation and one simple tool that can make your conversations much easier is Loom (or any recording app you already use). One mistake we often make is trying to listen, think of the next question, and take detailed notes all at once. As women, we are natural multi-taskers and end up missing the small comments that often hold the biggest insights. Recording your conversations (with permission) lets you stay present and actually listen. You can use Loom, Zoom, Google Meet or your phone's voice recorder. As you review, listen for: - Words or phrases people repeat - Problems they've already tried to solve - What feels hard or frustrating - What outcome they're hoping for Sometimes the most valuable insight isn't what people say. It's how they say it. Before anything else, make sure you've watched the Week 6 lesson. It walks through validation in much more depth and will help you go into these conversations with clarity. When you're ready, drop one insight, pattern, or takeaway over at the Week 6 checkpoint post. 💛 Don't forget, Co-working is also tonight at 9 PM, come as you are, wherever you are in the process and let's build as a community. Will you be joining us tonight?🎉

When I was validating the Six-Week Nonprofit course, I thought I was simply gathering information. What I didn't expect was how much those conversations would strengthen my confidence in what God had already called me to build (see a screenshot of one of my calls below). I learned that my course was, without a doubt, not for everyone, but specifically for faith-led nonprofit founders. I learned how people described their struggles. I learned what confused them, what they had already tried, and where they were getting stuck. But what surprised me most was that I walked away encouraged, too. Those conversations didn't create confusion. They created confirmation. They helped me see more clearly what God had already been showing me. They helped me see that I was on the right track. And even though I didn't have a finished course to sell at the time, many of the people I spoke with still walked away feeling heard, understood, and clearer about what they were trying to accomplish. Not because I was coaching or selling during the conversation, but because sometimes being deeply listened to is valuable all by itself. The goal of those conversations was to understand them better. The trust that came from those conversations was simply a byproduct of that. I wasn't selling. I was listening. And that's really what validation is. One of the biggest misconceptions about validation is that it's asking people what you should build. It's not. By this point, you've already spent weeks praying, reflecting, learning, and making decisions. Validation isn't about asking people to decide for you. It's about understanding the people you're building for. Because no matter how clear the vision is, if you don't understand the people you're serving, you'll end up building in isolation. And that's what we're trying to avoid this week. Validation is not a lack of faith. It's wisdom. It's counting the cost. It's seeking understanding. It's listening. In many ways, validation is one of the most loving things you can do for the people you're called to serve because it requires you to listen before you build.

I recently came across a study that estimated the average person makes around 35,000 decisions every day. At first, I thought there was no way that could be true. But researchers say that number includes everything from automatic, unconscious decisions throughout the day to the hundreds of conscious choices we make about our time, attention, priorities, food, work, and responsibilities. It's no wonder so many of us feel mentally exhausted. Decision fatigue is real. And one of the things it often leads to is procrastination. Not because we're lazy. But because we're tired. As I reflected on that this week, it reminded me why Week 5 matters so much. The goal wasn't just to make a decision for the sake of making one. The goal was to make a few important decisions now so you don't have to keep making them later. Because once you've decided: ✔️ what you're building ✔️ who it's for ✔️ when you're going to work on it ✔️ what completion looks like ...a lot of other decisions become easier. It's easier to protect your time when it's already on the calendar. It's easier to say no to distractions when you've already committed to a direction. It's easier to avoid overbuilding when you've already decided who you're building for. It's easier to keep moving when you've already defined what progress looks like. Many times, we think making the decision is the hard part. But often the decision is the thing that creates peace. Because now you know what you're moving toward. You don't have to keep reconsidering it every day. You can simply take the next step. So if you've completed Week 5, take a moment today and celebrate that. You made a decision. And that decision may remove hundreds of others in the weeks ahead. Now stop revisiting it every day and start building. Let's keep going. 💛