When Slowing Down Is Part of the Preparation
- emsteinbrink
- Aug 10
- 11 min read
You can be putting in the same effort you always have and still find yourself in a season where things are slowing down. It can be hard to watch others around you doing well and thriving while you are grappling for answers and trying to understand why the things that worked before are no longer working in the same way.
I have been wrestling with this in my own business. I knew I needed more clarity and alignment in my messaging and in my services, but if I am honest, the slowdown felt a little more circumstantial and a little more like failure. Now, as the story of our move to Pella has unfolded, I am beginning to see it differently. Maybe it was a gift. Maybe God was making space for this move before I even knew this move was coming.
In this episode of The Visibility Shift, I’m sharing why the world may look at a season of slowing down and call it failure while God may see it more like preparation. I’m talking about wanting proof, receipts, and guarantees before saying yes, what this move is teaching me about trust and obedience, and why the slowing down, the waiting, and the letting go may not be wasted.
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1:05 - Why clarity and answers often come through quiet and stillness
3:42 - The question that made me realize I was resistant
5:14 - Our first trip to Pella and the slower pace of life that drew us in
8:05 - Leaving behind everything precious while still feeling incredible peace
12:06 - Why my business slowing down felt more like failure
14:35 - Getting focused on receipts, outcomes, and guarantees
15:25 - Why obedience can feel like loss before it reveals itself as gain
Mentioned In When Slowing Down Is Part of the Preparation
Full Transcript
Ellie Steinbrink: Welcome to The Visibility Shift, the podcast where style becomes your most powerful strategy for being seen, standing out and leading boldly. I'm Ellie Steinbrink, stylist and personal brand coach. And if you've ever thought, my style just isn't working anymore, take this as your sign. You're ready for your next level. And instead of launching into a panicked shopping spree, what you really need is a strategy. A style strategy that reflects where you're headed, not who you used to be, or who you think you need to be to fit in. Because when your style aligns with your brand and your vision, everything shifts. You lead with more presence, you attract the right opportunities and clients and you fully step into the woman you're becoming. Because showing up as yourself, that's the most strategic thing you can do.
Now, let's get visible. Welcome back to another episode of The Visibility Shift. Lately, this phrase keeps coming back to me. And that phrase is upside down, inside out. And I'll often find myself saying it in regards to style, where I believe, a lot of the most stylish people I've ever met, aren't really following the rules, or they're not following the ways of fashion trends. Or if you're looking for clarity and more answers, it often doesn't happen in the hustle, at least that's what I've experienced, but often in the quiet and stillness. And the more I'm walking on this path with God, the more I realize that His kingdom works opposite of the way the world works. And I see more examples of the world asking us to chase more, get more, have more. But God, in my experience, is often asking us to release, or to curate. And I think the world often craves having proof of receipts, or having assurance that things will go the way we want. While God isn't promising an outcome necessarily, I mean the ultimate outcome, but at least in the way that we would plan it. He's asking for trust and a much bigger promise awaits at the end.
The world is telling us the outcome really is everything, where God seems far more interested in what happens inside of us, in the process. And what I'm realizing is that our move to Pella is just another way in which God is teaching me this lesson. Let me rewind a little bit here and say that when my husband first came to me and said that, in order to continue in this interview process with Pella, it would require a commitment for us to move to Pella. And my response was, no, absolutely no, end of story. Like door closed, I walked away. I didn't put any other thought into it at the time. I just had a gut reaction and it was like, no. And I also didn't think about how this might have affected my husband or consider his feelings on the matter. And I didn't know it right in that moment, but deep down I was really scared. And I was not willing to admit that a move away from everything that I know would be too difficult for me to face. So later on the same day, my sister texted me and she said that my husband had reached out to my brother-in-law and shared that he was pretty excited about this opportunity. Then she asked me why I was so resistant to moving.
I didn't like hearing it and honestly she wasn't trying to sway me one way or the other. But she had a point and it was her question that made me realize, oh yeah, I'm resistant. But why? And the other thought I had was, gosh, how insensitive of me, because if the tables had been turned and I was the one who had a really enticing opportunity ahead of me and I had shared that with my husband and he closed the door on me, wasn't willing to consider it, or willing to listen, I would have been pretty hurt. My sister's question was just enough to open a door for me, enough to realize I needed to address my fears head on. So the next day, I went back to my husband and said, you know what, I realized what I did was pretty unfair. I'm scared. I'm scared about the idea of moving, of leaving my family and everything I've known for the past 20 plus years. But I am interested in how you feel about this position. And if it's something of interest to you, I am willing to go check it out. Maybe we should just go take a trip, go check it out, go see what it's like, see how we feel. And then from there we can decide if it's worth considering this any further. So the next day we packed up the kids and we took a road trip. And we were pretty surprised. I mean, I was raised in a small town and I know what small towns can be like. And this one felt different. It was really quaint. It was clear the downtown was thriving. There was something about the environment. There's a lot of beautiful nature there, things to do outdoors. There was something about this pace of life that was drawing us in. And that trip was enough to give us confidence to say, OK, let's continue on in this interview process. Let's take another step and see what happens. Well, I can tell you that from there, everything moved incredibly fast. Within a week, we had an offer. And another couple of weeks later, we had been house shopping and our house was now secured. So within a month's time, I had moved from no, end of story, I'm not moving to okay, I'm open to yes, let's do this.
When I think about this move, I keep thinking, none of this makes sense. And when people talk to me about it and how I'm feeling, I just keep saying, none of this makes any sense. I mean, I grew up in a small Iowa farm town. I said I'd never live in a small town again. Funny how this life happens in that way, right? And now all of… a lot of my immediate family is here in Omaha and including my sister. She's my best friend. You know, she just moved back from Phoenix a year ago. My mom and dad are here. My mom has Alzheimer's and she's changing every day. Everything I know is here. My kids are in big transition years. They're going into sixth and ninth grade and they have great friends. They have great activities. Their involvement is wonderful here. Why would I leave now? And on paper? I feel like if you were doing like a pros and cons list, it would seem like Pella couldn't provide the receipts. Like it just couldn't compete with Omaha. Okay, there's no family there. There's like 10 restaurants, compared to the hundreds we have available to us here. There's fewer houses to pick from on the market. In terms of shopping, like there's very little and Lord help me on that front.
Yet something about it intrigued us and the job my husband is taking will give him more time at home, more time with the family and that was pulling us in as well. I feel like I kept just hearing God whispering to me, just imagine what could happen. And despite everything precious and I say that word with a lot of weight, because it feels so precious, everything that I'm leaving behind, everything I treasure really, even in spite of all that, I still have incredible peace. It's not easy and I'm still finding myself like randomly crying as I think, you know, think about moving and saying goodbyes. And it's not lost on me what I'm leaving behind. In fact, it feels like one of the bigger sacrifices I've ever made in my life. But yet, underneath all this is this incredible peace that I just can't explain. The kind that doesn't make sense, the kind that truly passes all understanding, even from others' eyes. When I look back at this last month, but even further back than that, I can see God opening one door after another and definitely closing others.
You know, the house that was actually meant for us, only became available after another offer we had in a different house, unexpectedly fell through. Friends and new connections have started appearing before we have even arrived. I have a friend in here, in Omaha, that she's like, oh my gosh, I have a friend in Pella that she wants to introduce me to. And then another friend's son goes to college there and suddenly she has connections for me. It feels like every fear I have, God is answering them before I even arrive. And somewhere in all of this, I'm realizing this move is so much bigger than just a relocation. This is really about obedience and it's about trust. Because as I said, from the outside looking in, this move just doesn't make sense. Leaving my family doesn't make sense. Leaving a city with more opportunities doesn't make sense. Stepping into something unknown doesn't make sense. Moving into a two-bedroom house that's going to need immediate renovations doesn't make any sense. And many might ask, why would you do that? Why would you leave all of this behind? Because again, I think the world is like, you go bigger, you go up, you elevate. But it really comes down to this for me. This isn't an act of moving as the world wants us to move. It's moving out of obedience. What I've learned about God is that He doesn't operate on the world's currency, does He? And sometimes I think we wish He would, but his ways are upside down. They're inside out. So do I have receipts that this move is going to work out? Do I know that this risk is going to be worth it like we get there? And do I know for sure our family's going to love it, that my kids will be happy, that my husband's going to have more peace in his job? No, I don't have answers to any of these questions.
But I feel a strong calling to trust. And I think the hardest part about trust is that we really, deep down, if we're honest, we want to know exactly why God is asking us to do something before we say yes, don't we? And I've even found myself making bets with God. Like if I move, then you have to promise me it will be what we want it to be, promise me there's fruits there. And while I a hundred percent believe there will be fruits and healing there for us, I don't know that with certainty and maybe it will be in a different way than I even imagined. And yet, through all the questions and the unknowns and the lack of certain outcomes, I'm obedient. That's why it's called faith. And honestly, I've been wrestling with this in my business, too, because at the start of this year, I couldn't understand why things were slowing down, when I had been putting in the same effort. I knew I needed more clarity and alignment in my messaging and in my services. But if I'm honest, the slowdown felt a little bit more like just circumstantial and it felt a little more like a failure. And that has been hard to swallow as I see others around me doing so well and thriving, as I'm grappling for answers. But now, fast forward to today, as this story of our move has unfolded, I'm beginning to see it a little differently.
You know, that slowing down that I saw as a failure, maybe that wasn't it at all. Maybe it was a gift. Maybe it was all part of this plan that I could not have even orchestrated myself. Maybe God was making space for this move, before I even knew this move was coming. So again, trust. The world would have looked at my business slowing down and called it a failure, or called it bad news, perhaps. I think God would maybe see it more like preparation. It reminds me of a story I reread this week of… in the Bible, of Mary pouring out expensive oil on Jesus' feet. Do you remember that story? And the disciples around her and those that were in the room were like, what a waste. Why would you spend all this money on pouring on someone's feet? But Jesus never called it a waste. In reality, it was a really beautiful sacrifice of something incredibly precious to her that she was willing to sacrifice for something that truly mattered.
And Mary's story just hit me so deeply, when I reread it, because Mary didn't ever stop and ask, is this going to be worth it? Will, I get repaid somehow for all this money I've spent on this oil. What if I need this money for something else? Mary had great assurance that this was not a waste. She had great confidence. Her focus was in the right place. Those in the room, the focus was not in the right place. You know, I'm guilty of my focus not being in the right place too. It's so tempting to be focused on the receipts and the outcomes and the guarantees, but sometimes in that process of being focused on those things, we miss what God is trying to do in us, along the way. While I might be focusing on whether something produced, or earned me money, or was a successful venture, God is more focused on who I became, or who I'm becoming in that process. The more I learn to trust that it isn't the outcome, but the process that matters and the posture of my heart along the way, the more I can take risks like this, especially when they feel led by God.
I still don't completely understand why now? Why leave Omaha? What’s in Pella, what is there for us? I don't know what any of this will mean for my business, or which direction it's going to take next, but I do know this. Obedience often feels like a loss before it reveals itself as a gain. On this walk in my faith, I'm becoming convinced that nothing given to God in complete obedience is ever wasted, not whatever we feel like we're sacrificing, or giving up, not in the waiting, not in the slowing down, not in the letting go, none of it. Because to God, what looks like loss here, becomes gain there. It just may not be the gain you expected.
If any of this resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. Message me on the platform you're listening. Message me on Instagram. My handle is at style.decoded or over on LinkedIn, just under my name. I truly love hearing from you and what this triggered in your heart, what it made you reconsider perhaps, or if it gave you encouragement. I love all the stories, so please reach out. And with that, I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for joining me on The Visibility Shift. If something in today's episode made you pause, rethink, or gave you permission to stop playing small, it would mean so much to me, if you'd leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/visibilityshift. Let's make it visible.
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