Season 5: Episode 121: The Call I Didn’t Expect - and the Faithfulness That Built It

📍 Hey guys. Welcome back to No Silver Spoons. I'm Sarah Beth Herman, and today's episode is going to be a little different, but in a way that still fits exactly what we talk about around here. I want to walk you through something that's happening in my life right now, but not from a look what happened, perspective.

This is exactly what builds momentum, like this kind of perspective, because I think a lot of people misunderstand how some things like this work out. We tend to think that there is this moment where everything in our life changes. Like something happens to you and suddenly you've arrived. But if you've actually built anything, you know that's not true.

The moment is never the thing; it's the evidence of something. And for me. That something has never been success for me. Everything has always been about my faithfulness.

My faithfulness to my team, my faithfulness. My faithfulness to my family, my faithfulness to my life. And I wanna be really clear about what I mean by that, because I don't mean it in a vague or just like some sort of inspirational way for me that faithfulness looked like keeping promises when it would've been easier to just adjust them. It looked like leading my team well, on days when I didn't feel like I had anything left to give, it looked like making decisions in my business that aligned with who I said I was.

Even when they cost me more money, when it took longer, or when it didn't really benefit me immediately or ever. It looked like choosing integrity when no one would've known the difference. It looked like consistency in seasons where there was. No feedback telling me that I was doing anything right.

And I think that's the part that people miss because we celebrate outcomes, but we don't talk enough about the standards that create them. Most of your life is not made up of big moments. It's made up of very normal days, and leadership is not built in the big moments. It's actually revealed in them.

Leadership is built in how you handle pressure when things are slow. It's how you lead when things aren't clear. It's how you follow through, not just go through. It's how you follow through when no one is watching, and that's where your standards get formed.

That's where your discipline is actually built. That's where you decide who you are without needing recognition to confirm it. And I've had a lot of seasons like that. Seasons where nothing about what I was doing looked like it was leading to anything or anywhere as you get to the top.

Recognition is very few and far between. There are not very many big moments or big opportunities, and there's no real clear sign that says Everything's working. Great. Keep going.

Sarah Beth. It is just showing up and making decisions, and leading what was in front of me at the time. So, if you're in that season right now, I wanna speak directly to you because I know exactly what that feels like and it feels like, is this even doing anything? Am I behind to everyone else in my same profession?

Is this even worth it? It's so expensive. It's so stressful. It's so overwhelming.

But the truth, is that season is not where you are falling behind that season is where you are being built. And I want you to lean into that because what you are doing in the seasons that are hard is building capacity. And capacity is what determines what you can carry later. And I wanna make this really practical for you because this isn't just philosophical, it's operational as most things are that I wanna talk about.

But it's easy to get confused and to think, oh my gosh, this just sounds like a really beautifully painted picture. You see in business, you don't build something sustainable in really big decisions. You build it in repeated ones. So how you respond to your team consistently, how you handle really hard conversations, how you show up when it would be easier to disengage.

That's what's building trust. And trust is what's creating your opportunities, not visibility, trust. And I think that's where people tend to get it wrong. They chase this visibility factor instead of building the kind of leadership that can sustain it.

And I've been thinking about all of this a lot lately because something has come up that I did not plan for, I didn't pursue. And honestly, I did not expect it. And I haven't shared this yet on the podcast, but I have been asked to be the commencement speaker for Grace Christian University's 2026 graduating class and even saying it out loud. I kind of have to pause for a second because I know what that represents, but more than that, I know what it took to get there.

It was a completely normal day. Nothing about it felt important. I was at home walking on my treadmill, working like I always do. I tell people that I walk while I work my laptop's up on a little tripod that I have set up.

I usually put on a crime scene documentary, and I walk and I work. Sometimes I record a podcast while I'm walking to Anyways, at some point I looked down on my phone, and I realized I had missed a call, and I almost ignored it because that happens all the time. Then I noticed that I had ignored it and there was a voicemail, so I opened the voicemail and, on the iPhone, you can actually see like a transcription of what the voicemail is. And I love that feature because then I don't have to like press, play and wait to hear it.

I'm so impatient. My gosh, it's terrible. But anyways, the first thing I read was, this is President Kemper of Grace Christian University. And honestly, my heart sank a little bit and I think I started to sweat.

I don't know, I wanna say I wasn't dramatic about it. , but I was totally dramatic about it. I just paused for a minute. My brain didn't immediately understand why I would even be getting a call for him.

Like it didn't make any sense. S there was no real context. It was just who he was and that he wanted me to call him back. And it was important, but no other explanation.

And what made it even more unexpected is that I've already actually finished my MBA program at the time I got this call and I finished my degree in December of 2025. And with the university I attend, they actually send you out your degree. And then there is a graduation ceremony the following year that you can attend. My husband and I live between two different states, and so the time that graduation is happening is actually a really rough time because that's typically when we're traveling.

So. Graduation really wasn't something I'd been thinking about, especially because I'm working and I've got things going on with work and things coming up with travel. But anyways, I called him back and we talked for about 30 to 45 minutes, and at first, it was really just a casual conversation, like we had been old friends, and he was asking if I was planning to attend graduation and if my husband would be there because my husband also completed his undergraduate. At the same time, I completed my MBA and internally.

My husband and I had really just decided that we probably weren't gonna go, but I didn't say that. I just said we hadn't fully decided yet. And then the conversation shifted and he told me that the faculty and the staff had overwhelmingly recommended me to be the commencement speaker, and I didn't respond right away because that's not something you react to quickly. But out of everyone in my graduating class, they chose me.

And in that moment, I didn't think about the stage. I thought about everything it took to get me there all the years that I kept showing up because I got my undergraduate at Grace Christian University as well. And there were many, many late nights Sunday nights when Monday was the next day, and I was writing papers until midnight writing papers on my lunch break, trying to get through just one more thesis. It all made sense.

The years where I chose faithfulness or what would've been easier, it would've been easier to just not have to do one more thing, but instead, I chose something different. I stood to the call, and that's what I want you to take from this. Episode, the goal is not the moment. The goal is not success.

The goal is to become someone who can be trusted because one day you're going to be living a completely normal day and you're going to get a call you didn't see coming. And the only reason you'll be ready for it is because of who you chose to be when nothing was happening. Next week I'm gonna share the full experience with you, the speech, the recording, all the things. But for now, I wanna remind you to stay faithful.

To lead well in the mundane, do the work that is in front of you because that's where everything is actually 📍 built. All right; I'll catch you guys in the next episode.