Building a Faith-inspired Business
“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Where I am now is a complete work of the Holy Spirit. I am an entrepreneurial dietitian pairing my message of “faith-inspired wellness” with functional nutrition to help women optimize their health and fertility. But there is no way that I could have stepped into such a call if not for God’s initiation and my receptivity.
I have come to understand that God wants to enliven every part of our lives and radically guide us at every turn. Our role is to be receptive and persevere in prayer to daily recommit ourselves to his way. There were three pivotal seasons of my life where God enriched my journey and led me to my faith-inspired business.
My Personal Journey of Healing
I want to begin with my personal healing journey, because it set the stage. I began to struggle with disordered eating in high school. After about eight years, I hit rock bottom in my health, with symptoms ranging from gut disorders, to brain fog, to excess weight gain, and more.
Since I was already studying to become a dietitian, I decided to use my knowledge to figure out how to overcome my health conditions. After those years of toiling, however, the knowledge only got me so far. It became clear that my disordered eating was a means of coping from wounds that had spiritual roots. My attempting to cope apart from God was a barrier to claiming the dignity of a life that he made for more.
Jesus’ offer of fullness of life was before my eyes. I finally chose to surrender myself to him and gained immense healing, both physically and spiritually, over the years to come. My return to God was the first step in fully living out his call upon my life. It was the first time I realized that my knowledge and talents had to be coupled with God for real success to blossom. After all, God is the giver of my talents in the first place.
The Call and Perseverance in Prayer
Shortly after beginning my career as a dietitian, I began to hear God call me to become an entrepreneur and incorporate faith into my business. I even had the inspiration to name my future business “Wonderfully Made Nutrition.” I wanted to bring healing to women through functional nutrition and lifestyle changes — but from a faith-inspired perspective that offered whole-person healing. I was excited and assumed these career changes were imminent.
For the next three years, however, I did not start my own business. I experienced restlessness, because I lacked the peace and confidence in being ready to make the entrepreneurial leap. I worked as a dietitian in various settings but regularly asked and begged God, “How can you call me but not enable me to begin? When will I be ready?”
In hindsight, I see how fruitful those three years were. My jobs afforded me to gain the expertise, refined vision, and confidence that I would need to eventually make the move to entrepreneurship. God called me but then permitted this trial so that I would receive my gifts fully. He led me into an ever-increasing clarity of the vision, but he knew it needed time.
God gives us an acorn, not the oak tree. He gives us the seed that holds the whole potential of life within it, but the seed needs time to germinate and grow. What he asks of us is to trust in his promises.
After three long years of perseverance in prayer, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that it was finally time to embark on my own business venture. (Interestingly, this call came at 3 a.m. at an all-night Pentecost vigil!)
Actively Living the Call — With God’s Leadership
And so it unfolded. I opened my own practice in functional nutrition two months later. I charged forward with passion to bring root-cause resolution and healing to clients with a wide variety of conditions. I wanted to heal everyone.
Despite some initial successes, I began to feel overwhelmed. What was I missing now? I had already prayed to God for so long, and I had already invested in this business. What else could I possibly do? It turns out that trying to solve everyone’s problems was overstepping some of the most basic business strategies you read about, like “narrow your niche” and “know your target audience.”
Despite knowing that these business tactics were important, I struggled to take action. I still held onto wanting to “do it all.” Narrowing my niche seemed like a setback that would cut me off from other opportunities. I was competent in many areas of nutrition, so I wanted to help everyone heal from every disease. And perfectionism still ruled me, as much as I didn’t want to admit it.
I began to doubt God’s call. Countless times, I pondered that perhaps he didn’t call me or that I just wasn’t cut out as a woman to lead a business.
This Is God’s Work
However, the most remarkable changes occurred after I was inspired with this revelation: This business is not my own, and I am not leading it. Rather, this business has been God’s from the beginning, and, if I am receptive to his invitation, he will lead it to greater heights than I can imagine.
Jesus’ offer of abundant life is not exclusive from business, but, rather brings fullness to our work. I began to bring my business development tactics to prayer, asking God to help me understand who my target audience is, what my niche is, and what kind of structure I should build.
The barriers of wanting to do it all, FOMO (“fear of missing out”), perfectionism, and my fears of inadequacy began to shatter. I had to accept that I couldn’t help everyone — a great lesson in humility. In the words of St. Catherine of Siena, I learned that “I am she who is not … You alone are he who is.”
Helping a smaller quantity of people, but doing it well, is more effective than trying to help everyone only partially. In a way, it would be selfish for me to continue with such a broad audience, because it would hinder my ability to carry out God’s call.
The Graces of Prayer for Business
The resultant graces from my prayers enabled me to simplify, to let go of many things, and to give a wholehearted “yes” to one specific niche: functional nutrition for women’s reproductive health, from the perspective of faith-inspired wellness.
No matter where you are in your career or whether you are the boss or an employee, God wants to participate more deeply in your work. He wants to enrich your mission and radically guide you at every turn. God doesn’t just want to be part of the big career moves or job changes. He wants to be part of the day-to-day decisions, the tactics, and the specifics. Our role is to be receptive to his guidance and to persevere in prayer as we recommit ourselves daily to his way.
Victoria Coglianese is a functional dietitian nutritionist who helps women optimize reproductive health and fertility. She practices functional nutrition, combined with her message of “faith-inspired wellness.” After years of disordered eating, she found whole-person healing of body and spirit through inviting God fully into her health pursuits and now passionately guides women to do the same. She enjoys any and all outdoorsy adventures, creating original recipes, and serving her young adult ministry. Find her at Wonderfully Made Nutrition and on Instagram.