Annie Mayfield Interview Excerpt | Start Small | John Giftah | Christian Podcast

0:01 Speaker 1: It's that act of humility, you know, like no one

0:04 Speaker 1: starts with a massive audience. Everyone starts from zero in

0:08 Speaker 1: some capacity, zero experience, zero knowledge about something, zero following

0:14 Speaker 1: zero audience, zero whatever, zero confidence. Everyone starts with zero.

0:18 Speaker 1: And I think, like the reason so many people don't

0:21 Speaker 1: don't start is because one, it's the order of operations

0:24 Speaker 1: is so off. They think that they have to gain

0:26 Speaker 1: their confidence from a thing, a from doing something for it.

0:29 Speaker 1: But first you gain it from just being in Christ

0:32 Speaker 1: and like going to him, He is your well that

0:35 Speaker 1: never runs dry, and once you have that fuel, you're

0:38 Speaker 1: able to go. I mean, I think about like I

0:41 Speaker 1: love the story of Ruth and Boas because because Ruth,

0:43 Speaker 1: like she didn't go to the field looking for Boas.

0:46 Speaker 1: She went to the field because she was trying to

0:49 Speaker 1: provide for someone she loved, which is her mother in law, right, Like,

0:53 Speaker 1: she didn't go with an agenda. And I think so

0:56 Speaker 1: many times like the things that we ultimately want, they're

0:59 Speaker 1: a byprice to burrow, obedience, to humbling ourselves and saying

1:03 Speaker 1: like I'm going to be obedient to the small thing,

1:06 Speaker 1: whether that's starting a podcast when no one's listening, starting

1:09 Speaker 1: on Instagram, when no one's listening, going to a corporate job,

1:12 Speaker 1: working the entire day, and then going home and writing

1:16 Speaker 1: a next chapter of my book when I don't even

1:18 Speaker 1: know if anyone's going to read it. It's being obedient

1:21 Speaker 1: to that small thing you think God could never use.

1:23 Speaker 1: And the byproduct is you see more of Him in that,

1:26 Speaker 1: Like what is the Kingdom of Heaven? Like it's like

1:28 Speaker 1: a mustard seed. It starts so small, but then it

1:31 Speaker 1: grows and it grows and it grows. And so I

1:33 Speaker 1: think it's like being obedient to the little and the

1:36 Speaker 1: byproduct of that is the things that ultimately we want

1:40 Speaker 1: that don't need, and God wants to give you what

1:43 Speaker 1: he knows you need, and he's the ultimate surgeon, so

1:45 Speaker 1: only he knows that.

1:47 Speaker 2: That's so true. I mean, you talk about how it's

1:50 Speaker 2: you know, when we start, it's it's always going to

1:52 Speaker 2: be small. Guys, don't never feel like, oh my gosh, Jean,

1:55 Speaker 2: you're here an easier. But the truth is there were

1:59 Speaker 2: moments where and nobody listened to my podcast, but eventually

2:03 Speaker 2: there were times, you know, it was ranking in number one,

2:05 Speaker 2: you know, in the whole country. My book. When I

2:08 Speaker 2: released the first book, I was on laws because the

2:12 Speaker 2: number of books that went for free was more than

2:14 Speaker 2: the books that were paid for. Or there were movements.

2:17 Speaker 2: I organized meetings and I would pay more than my

2:20 Speaker 2: month a month of one month of my salary into

2:24 Speaker 2: a meeting and literally nobody would show up. There were

2:27 Speaker 2: meetings where just me and my brother would just leave

2:30 Speaker 2: worship to empty chairs. But at the same time, I

2:32 Speaker 2: adm ministered to crowds of thousands of people. So everybody

2:36 Speaker 2: looks at the success, you know, like wow, thousands of people,

2:40 Speaker 2: or you know, like the number ones and all of

2:42 Speaker 2: these things. But behind that is the discouragement. Behind that

2:47 Speaker 2: is the place where you start, and nobody listened. People

2:51 Speaker 2: walking at you, and also sometimes people say, oh, I'm

2:54 Speaker 2: not that good at it. Yeah when I started, when

2:57 Speaker 2: I look back over their shoulders. I'm a big Scooby

2:59 Speaker 2: Dooo fan. Okay, So I'm nicknamed as the Scooby Doo pastor.

3:04 Speaker 2: You know, I use Scooby Doo. It is one of

3:06 Speaker 2: my tools. I even brought one of my Scooby Doo collections,

3:11 Speaker 2: so I used Scooby Doo. I started with just writing

3:15 Speaker 2: Scooby Doo stories with life lessons, like you know, how

3:19 Speaker 2: Scooby and the gang are trying to solve a mystery.

3:20 Speaker 2: They can't find the ghost, and then they pray, and

3:23 Speaker 2: then they Jesus helps them to catch the ghost and

3:26 Speaker 2: then they give glory to God. That's the model of

3:28 Speaker 2: the lesson pray to Jesus, you know, and stuff. But

3:31 Speaker 2: the storyline was terrible. The illustrations were horrible, and if

3:35 Speaker 2: you look at it, even I don't want to read it.

3:37 Speaker 2: You know, it's so bad. When I wrote them as

3:39 Speaker 2: a kid, or when you look at even my old

3:41 Speaker 2: podcast episodes I was repeating, I was like, oh, you know,

3:44 Speaker 2: like so boring, even I don't want to listen to it.

3:48 Speaker 2: But the fact that I worked on it is what

3:51 Speaker 2: got me to where I am today. You know, unless

3:54 Speaker 2: you work on your gifts and talents, you're never going

3:56 Speaker 2: to get better. It's only going to get better. So

3:59 Speaker 2: you know, it's like you're talking about agriculture, I talk

4:02 Speaker 2: about you know, when you're digging a borewell or a

4:05 Speaker 2: well for water, the first thing you get is the

4:08 Speaker 2: dirt and the mess and the noise, and you're gonna

4:10 Speaker 2: be like, oh, I don't want this, this is not

4:12 Speaker 2: what I signed up for. But only when you get

4:15 Speaker 2: through that, you get the water that's good. You hear

4:18 Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So you need to work on the mess.

4:21 Speaker 2: You need to be ready to say, you know what,

4:23 Speaker 2: this is not good, this is crazy, but I'm going

4:25 Speaker 2: to work on it. And that's how God is going

4:27 Speaker 2: to use it to bring some greatness out of the

4:30 Speaker 2: great mess.

4:30 Speaker 1: That is so good. It's being faithful to the one