Should I Blend My Faith and Business?

How to reconcile your Catholic faith with your public persona and business offerings

In this vulnerable and revealing post, I’m sharing how I discerned and ultimately decided to highlight my Catholic faith as a coach and content creator.

My earliest work as a coach used to center on holistic health and wellness coaching.

Although I was a practicing Catholic, my coaching practice was secular. Meaning, I never mentioned “God” or “Jesus” or “Catholic” in any of my coaching conversations, offers, or sessions.

I didn’t discuss my Catholic faith as part of my online business on purpose.

As an insecure new coach just starting out in the industry, I was honestly afraid of being excluded, overlooked, shunned, and judged for my faith.

So I chose never to blend my spirituality in my work. I didn’t have the courage to mix my Catholic faith with my coaching business.

I feared that declaring my Catholic faith would push away potential clients and collaboration opportunities.

So for many years, I masked my Catholic faith in my coaching endeavors. I kept my prayerful life and my love for spiritual growth hidden and separated from my coaching life.

Shamefully, I cowered and hid my Catholic faith from my social media publicity and personal brand identity.

I was convinced - being Catholic was bad for business.

As the years passed, I eventually noticed that even though my secular coaching practice and business network grew, my spirit shrank.

I felt like I was selling out my soul, compromising my faith for personal, business, and worldly gains.

Because I knew deep within - that casting my Catholic faith aside in my business, purposely concealing my love for my spiritual practice, and insisting to keep my coaching practice generic in exchange for greater reach, profitability, and exposure was morally and spiritually wrong.

Even more dangerous, I was going against God's will. For years I felt God inviting me to use my coaching practice as a way to express my Catholic faith.

But I did just the opposite. When God called on me to proclaim my faith in my business, I ran the other way.

Denying my faith then, only meant denying God’s persistent calling for me - to evangelize through my gifts and my coaching platform so I could honor Him and bring people closer to Him.

It was clear that I couldn’t fulfill God’s purpose and mission for me if my spirituality stayed hidden, if I continued to contain my Catholic faith, and if I kept my spiritual life distinct and divided from my public works.

I felt guilty and fractured for my unfaithfulness, and I wanted to begin to change. I asked God to help me change my heart. So I fervently prayed for months for God to embolden me and correct me.

My prayers often sounded like this:

“Lord, help me surface my love for You.

Help me become more humble, more trusting, less proud, and less fearful.

Show me how to offer my life and work to serve You and Your will.

Rescue me from my insecurities and false beliefs that keep me far from You.

Lead me away from being a secretive, muted, and private Catholic.

I want to love and honor You more visibly, my God!”

I achingly longed for the grace and humility to surrender my life to God totally, just like Mother Mary in her fiat.

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

Praise God, in His goodness (and surely with the intercession of Saint Paul) after several years of secular coaching and suppressing my spirituality, God eventually helped me gain the moral courage to joyously declare the priority of my Catholic faith - not just within my personal circles, but as a clear part of my coaching practice and speaking engagements.

Now, I’m happy and proud to proclaim that I’m a Catholic woman, indeed!

Because of God’s mercy and Christ’s redeeming love, I now gladly share how I fasten my Catholic faith onto every significant aspect in my life - in my marriage, my motherhood, my friendships, my homemaking and homeschooling ministry, my calling as a mentor, my creativity as a writer, speaker, and singer, and my work as a Catholic coach and spiritual director.

I’ve ultimately decided, that as an online content creator, unless I’m able to include and highlight my faith, and if in any way I feel pressured (or even nudged!) to subdue my Catholic truth, I don’t do it.

I simply (and peacefully) don’t do it.

Because here’s what I know spiritually, for sure:

If it doesn’t make me a better Christian, it’s not worth it.

If I have to be an invisible and restrained Catholic, I’m not interested.

If I have to quell my love for my Catholic faith just to fit in your group, I don’t belong there.

I’m now willing to say no and decline coaching clients, business opportunities, or network invitations - though enticing and seemingly promising.

Because I won’t be happy, inspired, or willing to exert my full passion and effort if I can’t outwardly and plainly include my love for Christ.

Our faith is the most important and valuable virtue we have to protect and preserve at all cost.

Don’t sacrifice, don’t budge, don’t compromise. Nothing in this world is worth denying your faith and your love for Jesus.

If you too are struggling with whether or not you should publicize your faith and you’re wrestling with how to combine your Catholic practice with your vocation, I’m heartily praying for your discernment.

Hold fast to God’s promises, sister.

Remember that like in all things and at all times, God will provide.

Believe that He will lead you to the right people, to make the right connections, and build the right relationships - not because you hid your Catholic faith, but because you unveiled your Catholic faith.

Be bold, be honest, and be free to tell the world of your fiat.

You’re a Catholic woman who’s humble enough to surrender completely to God’s will. Yet, you beam with faith as you announce that Christ is surely at the center of your relationships, vocation, and spiritual path.

Watch how your life will become more abundant once you stop holding back and hiding your Catholic spirituality in the shadows.

Together, let’s place our faith at the forefront of our lives! To God be the glory.

♡ Want more personalized guidance on your discernment journey? Join me here to learn more about Catholic spiritual life coaching with me.

♡ With my Graceful Discernment coaching and spiritual direction program, my goal is to support you as you explore your next big life decision so you can more clearly and peacefully discern (as well as surrender to) God’s great calling for you.

📷: Taken on the day I declared myself as a Catholic coach and content creator on social media. Fiat!

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?

It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.

Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

MATTHEW 5:13-16