Married to the Hustle
Married to the Hustle
Faith as Our Compass: Navigating Business & Life Together
How do you navigate the twists and turns of entrepreneurship with your faith as your compass? Join us on "Married to the Hustle" as we share an intimate conversation about the pivotal role faith plays in our business journey. Discover how our morning routines, rooted in prayer and devotionals, set a positive tone for our day, aligning our messaging with our faith and profoundly impacting our business and coaching practices.
We also open up about the challenging yet rewarding path of relinquishing control and trusting in God's timing. From a Catholic upbringing to a more personal relationship with God setting, our personal testimonies highlight the transformative power of prayer, discernment, and the support of small groups. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of continuous learning and understanding faith in both our personal lives and business endeavors, underscoring the invaluable role of communal support in navigating life's challenges.
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Alex & Jessica Fortis
Welcome to Married to the Hustle, the podcast where love, faith and business come together.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:I'm Jessica, and with me is my partner in life and business, alex. Together, we're diving into the wild world of entrepreneurial couples.
Alex Fortis:Each week, we'll bring you real stories, hilarious moments and valuable insights from couples who are building businesses and rocking their relationships. Talk about living the dream.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Or surviving the nightmare.
Alex Fortis:So buckle up and get ready for a fun ride with Married to the Hustle. Hey guys, welcome back to this week's episode. I'm here joined by my beautiful wife, jessica, and today we're going to be talking about how faith has helped us in business and never forgetting, right where this all comes from the power of the almighty God himself, and being obedient to him, and it's definitely something that touches us very deeply never forgetting about the man above, being obedient to him and just listening to what he's trying to tell you. So this week's episode we're going to dedicate to that, and we're super excited to start sharing some things how we feel and how things have worked in our business.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:I love it and, you know, one of the most powerful channels and things that we've done is this podcast itself, because I don't know if you remember when this landed on our hearts, probably about a year ago, and we knew that this is what we needed to do to be able to share our story and to be able to connect with other business owners, because, y'all, the struggle is real. And so, in having a conversation with our pastor, I said to him you know, pastor, I have, I have this, this desire in my heart to reach couples in business, and he was basically like what are you waiting for?
Alex Fortis:Right.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:And and I was, like I don't know, just waiting for the perfect timing, right. And he said but wait a minute. You guys just talked about your business and how it's never a perfect time and you just do things, and you do them scared, and what makes this any different? And that really left an imprint in my heart, knowing that delayed obedience is disobedience to God and the purpose that we're, that we're called for, right? So, yeah, we wanted to just kind of share a little bit about that story with you guys.
Alex Fortis:Absolutely, I mean. I'm a firm believer that nothing happens without having him in your life.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Absolutely.
Alex Fortis:And asking him where you need to walk to is just the right thing to do. You know, having having those conversations with him us as human beings wanting to do what we want to do in our lives, but not wanting to do what God wants you to do in your life we cannot move forward in life without having direction from the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Absolutely.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:And you know, I won't forget, I was in a small group this last semester and something powerful that the group leader said was that when you turn on your GPS, do you do it in the beginning of the trip or at the end of the trip Right In the beginning, right.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:And so the same thing goes with our time and building a relationship with God it's are we doing it in the beginning or are we turning on that spiritual GPS at the end of the destination Because we get lost? And then we're like, oh wait, god redirect me, right, and your GPS is going redirect, redirect. And I thought that was so powerful because I'll be the first one to say that sometimes my consistency lacks with the quietness, and one of the things that we did about two years ago we stopped watching the news in the morning and reading our devotional and in prayer, and just being in the quiet has been something that really has helped me balance out my day and start my day right. When I don't start my day that way, I feel like my day is off the entire day. Would you agree?
Alex Fortis:I agree. And going back to your point, pastor Lynn, shout out to Pastor Lynn hey, pastor Lynn, a few weeks ago we were fortunate to sit in one of the sermons that she did. I tell you what. She couldn't be more real, right, and you were just talking about what you take in is what you put out, and Pastor Lynn had mentioned that garbage in is garbage out Absolutely. Why not take in the positivity, right, so you can release the positivity, right, be a shining light to someone else, right? We never know what someone else is going through that you meet, so you know someone could be having a bad day, a bad month, a bad year. How do you encourage someone? Right, and it's with the word of God.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Yeah for sure, and one of the things for me is really being true to who I am, and I find that when I was omitting faith in my messaging, I had to be this or that, and so I'll never forget. I had a coaching client who was building two separate communities and I remember telling her why are you building two different Facebook communities? She said, well, because I don't want to offend the people that are not people of faith. And I said, well, if you offend them, then they're not your right audience. And she started to merge her communities. She had two separate communities and how was I any different?
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:You know, I didn't have two communities, but I certainly was omitting a lot of who I am and my spirituality and my faith and, at the end of the day, that's not something you know for public consumption, right? Just because I'm a woman of faith doesn't mean that my life is perfect. In fact, I come to God every day with my imperfections, just as I am. So I thought that that was such an aha moment to be able to define who I am and what my messaging is and, as such, that's been something that, even when hiring to support me in my coaching business, I think is very important for them to know who I am and what I speak on and what I believe in, so that the messaging that's being put out there it's the messaging that's mine, right? That's true to me, and I'm walking with integrity and I'm also walking with authenticity, and you know, my faith has definitely been one of the things that has influenced the dynamics of our relationship, even, and it's been what keeps us grounded and balanced, because, y'all, building a business is hard, but building a business with your spouse is harder, and being in a relationship or being married is hard, but being in a relationship and building a business is harder, right?
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:So it doesn't matter what angle you look at it. The challenges come times two or 10X we can say 10X but the importance is to have a common ground on being reminded of who you are and what you've been called to together, and so I'm taking this very seriously that this, married to the Hustle, is our ministry and it's our new ministry, and we want to be able to continue to pour to you guys and to amplify your voices too. If you have a story to tell, we want to talk to you and we want to be able to share that with the world.
Alex Fortis:And speaking on that, how does the faith play a role? Our faith play a role in setting and achieving business goals as a couple, us as human beings. I mean there's just so much going on in this world right now. Right, there's Satan trying to put things into our minds where we believe other things than we shouldn't be believing. Right, keeping the faith. I'm one of those and, jessica, I tell you I love to serve people. I know when God is speaking to me and he's telling me if something's going to happen here or not going to happen. And I've had conversations where you're talking to somebody and you get goosebumps because you feel like you're actually serving them. Right, they're looking for guidance and because my faith is still, I'm growing in it. The little that I know and what I learned from our pastors, I learned from the people you surround yourself with. I'm able to share that with other people that might be going through different stages in their life and in business always say if it's meant to be, god is going to make it happen.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Oh yeah.
Alex Fortis:So I'm a strong believer in that, jessica, I tell you, you know, I'm one that is more lay back. And Jessica, well, what's going on with this, what's going on with that? And I understand her point because you know, she's the kind of brains behind the business.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:The integrator. I'm the integrator.
Alex Fortis:She's the integrator Correct and I'm usually like, well, if it's going to happen, God is going to make it happen.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Yeah, and y'all. That is so hard for me. That's so hard for me because I've lived a life where I planned out my years and and I still do but I lived a life where things were planned out, where I knew exactly what I was going to do this year for vacation next year and what I was going to wear and who I was going with and what was you know. And so just being able to plan my life around that, for me it was just amazing. Everybody knew that if anything that needed to get done, give it to Jessica, because she'll make it work.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:One of the things that I have that I am learning I have not learned it, I am learning is the fact that I need to relinquish control because, at the end of the day, there is something out there that's so much greater than me. I know who I am right, I know who I am in Christ, I know who he has called me to be, and there have been times that, instead of me trying to control the outcome, I've actually prayed for an outcome, and it's happened very recently where, you know, I was presented with some opportunities that I actually was conflicted about and I presented it to God every day and my God make it so crystal clear that if it's not for me that I don't walk into that door and I see this in my daily life it's like I almost feel him whispering to me Jessica, calm down, slow down, it's my timing, it's not yours. Alex tells me that all the time. Remember, it's God's timing, not yours, and I'm like I know, I know, but I was in the middle of a conversation and in the middle of that conversation the door closed. It didn't even close. I closed it, and in the middle of that conversation I was like oh well, this is exactly the sign that I needed and this is exactly not what I want for my life at this time.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:But I appreciate being presented with these opportunities because that's one of the things.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Like, as we continue to grow professionally, there's going to be things that come out of the woodworks and just like we know that not all money is good money, not every circle is a good circle for you, not every mastermind is the right mastermind and not every speaking opportunity is the right speaking opportunity for you, and we have to learn to discern that, and that discernment truly comes from the Holy Spirit, our companion. So that has been something that's been very hard for me to not, you know, control that next thing, but more along the lines of, if it's meant to be Lord, make it happen, and if it's not, make it so crystal clear that the door is closing, because then I'll know that it's you Jesus. So that has been something that I've had to really work through in my life. And, no, it's not perfect Alex will tell you wasn't perfect this morning or yesterday or the day before but but the awareness of knowing that this is something that I need to work on, that suffices for me right and we're not perfect.
Alex Fortis:But God is such a forgiving God that he allows us to come to to him without problems, without issues, right, asking for forgiveness and he forgives. Just having the faith right, believing in him, believing that he wants good for us, right, even us as business owners. He wants good for us and there's opportunities that come our way. Pure example yesterday, just to throw that out there we got an invite to do a pretty nice account and it's a seven day a week account and you look at the payout and it's like, oh, wow, yeah, this payout, we can definitely jump on this. But God told me there's no way you guys can handle this right, because they wanted to start on Sunday. So, walking away from that, listening to what he's telling you, because he's telling you that he's got bigger and better things coming your way. Just be impatient with that.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Yeah.
Alex Fortis:He's never going to give us more than we can handle. That be honest with you guys. A little background about me. I was born and raised in a Catholic religion. I did baptism first, communion, confirmation, and in the Catholic religion, you know, they teach the Bible a little different and I wasn't accustomed. You know I never read the Bible until Jessica and I visited a non-denominational church and it was eye opening and I was like, oh my gosh, so this is what I should have been learning this whole time. And now I'm motivated, I want to learn more, I want to read the Bible and I want to be a better version of Alex Right. And it's not easy because as we're out there in this crazy world, you know you start seeing things that you know you feel are a little indifferent to your believings. So it is a little tough.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:I mean for me, I grew up Baptocostal is what I tell everyone, my dad Baptist and my mom Pentecostal household. The God that I knew back then certainly is not the God that I know now, but it's the same God, which is crazy, right, it's the same God. And clearly that goes back to my relationship. And back then I guess I was, you know, instilled into religion. And this is probably not a hot topic. But just recently I had a conversation with one of my parents and we were talking about like what's my testimony, right? And immediately, immediately, the conversation went, it went south. It just they. Basically it was like, well, that you didn't get lost in the world and that you were saved and that you know. And I was like, no, that's your testimony for me, not mine, right, and understanding the difference between religion and truly having a relationship with God is just such a different thing.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:And for me I mean, even though I have a little bit more experience in the word and church, and I grew up, you know, in both religions basically For me it's like I'm still learning something new. There's times that I read parts in the Bible and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I never read that before and you know, there's a Spanish song that says it's una novela right. And sometimes I read the Bible and I'm like, oh my God, the Bible is una novela right Because of the stories that we get to hear and learn. But a lot of that learning came from small groups.
Alex Fortis:I totally agree. Like when I get involved with the men's small groups, I just absolutely love being there, being in fellowship with guys that are going through things that I can probably help. They can probably help me out with things I'm going through. Just being in a room, fellowshipping, like that, it just means the world to me. I made it a point to make sure I block my time out for that small group right, and being a part of that I'm showing up. I think I missed one meeting. I'm not going to lie, but I think we were. We were somewhere away.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Yeah Right, we were away and I couldn't pick between a cruise to the same time Right.
Alex Fortis:Ideally, you know, we should have invited the guys in a men's group to the cruise, so we could still have a meeting.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Listen, yeah, I'm down for that. And hey guys, let me tell you, just so you guys can keep it on the radar, we're planning a retreat for Married to the Hustle, and so that's going to come in 2025. That's one of our goals and I don't know, it might be on a cruise, you never know but it is something that we want to do to be able to bring couples together and talk a little bit about faith and talk a little bit about business and how to communicate better with each other. So being in fellowship with other like-minded individuals is such a beautiful thing, and not only men being in men's groups and women being in women's groups, but also finding a couple that can be a mentor for you. They can be a role model for you. In one of my small groups, somebody said one time also who's your Moses and who's your Joshua, who is the person that you're looking up to, but who's also that person that you're taking under your wing. And I think that's so important to be able to learn from other couples that have been married for years and and have experienced their own hardships and what has made them stronger and what has helped them overcome. So that's all part of building a strong relationship, being grounded in your faith, but also building a business One of the things that I would say in experiencing marriage challenges when it comes to building our business and maintaining strong faith and a strong relationship Because, again, you know, we don't really clock out because we're salaried, but we leave the office and we go home and we're still spending time together.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:It's like, how do you not go to that? Oh, it's you again, you were there. I just left you five minutes ago, right? You know, one of the things that has helped me with that is also setting some boundaries around our time at the office. So, you know, our time with God is our time with God, and our time home to just chill and watch Netflix is our time to chill and watch Netflix, right, and just like our time in business is our time in business. And so setting boundaries has really helped us navigate those challenges in building a strong business while also maintaining a strong faith.
Alex Fortis:Yeah, and we're touching on faith and we're talking about faith and business, right, and this morning I was reading Mark 4. Do you mind Can I share this with you? I've never done this before. If you see, in Mark 4, verse 3 goes down. I'm just going to start at verse 3, but it says Listen, a farmer went out to plant some seed.
Alex Fortis:As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on footpath and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallowpath and the birds came and ate it. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow, but the plant soon wiltered under the hot sun and since it didn't have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants, so they produced no grain. Still, other seeds fell on fertile soil and they sprouted, grew and produced a crop that was 30, 60 and even 100 times as much as they had planted. Then he said anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. And then it goes down to verse 13. This here what I'm about to read. It really opened my eyes right, because if you want to plant seeds going back to. We want to live our own lives. If you do it the way God Jesus wants you to do it, you'll see the abundance that he always gives us Right. So on 13, verse 13, he says then Jesus came to them. He says if you don't understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? That was what we were just reading about. That was what we were just reading about.
Alex Fortis:The farmer plants seed by taking God's word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. He's referring to the birds there, right, the birds came and ate up the seed. Then the seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted by believing God's word. And then the last one I think is the last one here the seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the law of wealth and a desire for other things. So no fruit is produced. That's going back to like in this world where we're going through right now right, we're firm believers, but there's so much trying to pull us the other direction. And the last one here, and the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God's word and produced a harvest of 30, 60 or even 100 times as much as had been planted.
Alex Fortis:I read that this morning and it was like eye opening. Yeah, yeah. So it's things like that, like staying in the word and just being obedient. Right, with everything in life you know, not being. You know one thing, one place and then going home and being someone else. Right, let's be obedient, let's learn to serve each other a little bit more and have that fellowship. That's very, it's so important, so important.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Yeah, I agree, this was such a powerful statement, and just to be able to read that verse and you know outline it based on, you know what our interpretations are, I think I think that's just such a powerful thing to be able to share, because the reality is that you know, we are all called to do something and sometimes, you know, our faith can be fragile when we're going through adversity and when we're experiencing challenges. We hope that this was a good word for you guys and that you were able to, you know, get a glimpse a little bit more about who we are and what we do and truly what the mission of this podcast is, and so we really look forward to continuing to share with you guys, in future episodes, a little bit more about our story, our beliefs and how we've incorporated faith, business and love. And until next time, keep hustling.
Alex Fortis:That wraps up another episode of Married to the Hustle. We hope you enjoyed today's show and found some inspiration and practical tips to apply to your own business journey.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:We love hearing from you, our amazing listeners. If you have any stories, questions or tips to share, connect with us on social media or send us an email. Your input makes this podcast even better.
Alex Fortis:And don't forget to subscribe to Married to the Hustle on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. It really helps us grow and reach more entrepreneurial couples like you.
Jessica Rosario-Fortis:Join us next week for more exciting stories, insightful interviews and valuable advice. Until then, keep hustling, keep thriving and keep loving what you do.
Alex Fortis:Thanks for tuning in and happy hustling.