Stop Forcing It: How to Let God Lead Your Life & Business with Stefanie Gass 

Written By Cassidyy Atkins

Have you ever accomplished the thing you thought would finally make you feel successful... only to realize it didn't give you the peace you thought it would?

I think that's something so many high achievers wrestle with. We know how to work. We know how to push. We know how to make things happen. And sometimes, if we're being really honest, surrendering our plans to God can feel much harder than simply working harder.

That's why I loved this conversation with Stefanie Gass.

Stefanie is a wife, mom, CEO, and host of God-Led Business. Today, she has built an incredibly successful business and podcast, but the story of how she got there looks very different from what you might expect.

Before this chapter of her life, Stefanie had already experienced tremendous success. She climbed into the top 1% of a network marketing company, led thousands of people, earned bonuses and trips, and walked across a stage in front of 20,000 people.

From the outside, everything looked incredible.

On the inside, she was struggling.

She was experiencing anxiety attacks, drinking heavily, putting her family second, and realizing that success itself had become an idol. Then the business she'd poured herself into began disappearing. Her income dropped dramatically, and there was even a month when she had to borrow money from her son's savings account to pay the mortgage.

That eventually brought Stefanie to what she calls her “bathroom floor moment.”

She cried out to God and began writing. What came onto that paper was a vision of a completely different woman: sober, healthy, present with her children, intentional in her marriage, and leading a company. She didn't know how to make all of it happen, so she circled one thing—getting healthy and sober—and started there.

I love that because we so often want God to show us the entire plan.

We want the destination, the timeline, the strategy, and preferably a guarantee that it's all going to work.

But that's not how Stefanie's story unfolded.

One step led to another.

Then in 2018, after praying about what she was supposed to do next, Stefanie went to sleep and had a dream with a simple instruction:

Start a podcast.

She wasn't even listening to podcasts at the time.

But she woke up, grabbed a microphone she had sitting in a drawer, came up with a name, and started recording.

She took action.

At almost the exact same time, she felt God asking her to walk away from social media—even though social media was producing the few clients she had.

From a business perspective, it made absolutely no sense.

She obeyed anyway.

What was supposed to be a one-month social media break became two years. And one year into building her podcast without social media, her company had returned to six figures exclusively through the podcast. For the first time, she says she felt peace while building.

Today, Stefanie has been podcasting for almost nine years, is approaching 1,000 episodes, leads a team, and has built a multi-seven-figure company. But what I loved most about our conversation wasn't the size of the business.

It was what she learned getting there:

God's plan for her business was better than her plan.

We talk about how difficult that can be when you're naturally a doer.

When something isn't happening fast enough, our instinct is often to fix it. Launch something else. Look at what competitors are doing. Try another strategy. Get on another platform. Work harder.

Stefanie describes the temptation to look around at everything happening in her peripheral vision instead of looking up and asking God, What's the solution for me in this moment?

And maybe that's the reminder somebody needs today.

Stop looking sideways.

The answer for your life doesn't necessarily live in what everyone else is doing.

You don't need somebody else's marching orders.

You need yours.

Stefanie also shares something powerful about clarity: stop trying to figure out the entire outcome before you're willing to begin. If you feel called to write a book, maybe you don't need to know how you'll land the publishing deal yet. Maybe today's assignment is simply writing the outline.

God doesn't have to show you the finish line before you take step one.

We also talk about fear, and I loved Stefanie's practical advice:

Raise your hand and go first.

Do the thing you're afraid of.

For Stefanie, one of those fears was speaking on a physical stage. She finally said yes to a keynote even though she was terrified. She prayed her way through the fear, stepped onto the stage, and realized she could do it.

This conversation is about business, but it's really about something much bigger.

It's about surrender.

It's about obedience.

It's about learning to recognize when striving has replaced trust.

And it's about believing that you don't need to understand the entire path to take the next faithful step.

As Stefanie says, when something is already working, you don't necessarily need another shiny object.

You pour fuel on the fire that's already burning.

Maybe today your assignment isn't to do more.

Maybe it's to get quiet.

Stop forcing.

Listen.

And take the next step God puts in front of you.

Because the simple really can solve the complex.

You have one life. Don't waste it trying to build somebody else's version of success.

You are on this earth for more.

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Episode Minute By Minute:

  • 00:00 – Welcome Stefanie Gass

  • 01:20 – Stefanie's Story: Corporate America to Entrepreneurship

  • 02:45 – Reaching the Top 1%—But Falling Apart Inside

  • 04:00 – When Success Becomes an Idol

  • 05:00 – Losing the Business She Built

  • 06:00 – Stefanie's Bathroom Floor Moment With God

  • 07:00 – Getting Healthy, Sober & Starting Again

  • 08:00 – The Dream That Said “Start a Podcast”

  • 09:00 – Walking Away From Social Media

  • 10:00 – Building a Six-Figure Business Through Podcasting

  • 11:00 – The Hardest Part of Trusting God's Plan

  • 12:00 – Stop Chasing What Everyone Else Is Doing

  • 13:00 – Stop Fixing Everything & Choose Faith

  • 14:00 – Stop Looking Sideways for Your Answer

  • 15:00 – When Achievement Becomes Your Identity

  • 17:00 – How to Find Clarity When You Feel Stuck

  • 18:00 – Surrender Before Strategy

  • 19:00 – Stop Trying to Figure Out the Finish Line

  • 20:00 – Fall in Love With the Process

  • 21:00 – How to Move Through Fear

  • 22:00 – Stefanie Faces Her Fear of Public Speaking

  • 23:00 – Fear, Faith & Taking Action

  • 24:00 – Why Stefanie Chose YouTube After Podcasting

  • 25:00 – Long-Form vs. Short-Form Content

  • 26:00 – The YouTube Video That Finally Took Off

  • 27:00 – Stay in Your Lane

  • 28:00 – How Stefanie Built a Profitable Podcast Business

  • 30:00 – Build What Your Audience Actually Needs

  • 31:00 – Free Profitable Podcast Bootcamp

  • 32:00 – Amy's Biggest Takeaway: Simple Solves Complex

Cassidyy Atkins
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