Real Life Financial Breakthrough

Drendra Keesee, family, Happy Life, marriage, Parenting, The Laundry Moms, The New Vintage Family

Real Life Financial Breakthrough

by Drenda Keesee

Growing up, Sara wasn’t interested in working in a traditional office environment. After her first experience in a business office, she asked her mom, “Why would anyone want to work for someone else? And why would anyone work in this type of environment? It’s depressing!”

She understood at an early age that she wanted something different for her life than the “nine-to-five employee” model. Sara worked at a job over the next few years where she could set her own schedule, until one of the accountants at her job approached her and asked if she was interested in starting her own bookkeeping business.

She raised an eyebrow, thought about it for a moment, then said…

“Okay.” She didn’t know the first thing about what having her own business would entail, but she loved the idea of making a living from the comfort of her home.

She started processing tax returns for people who claimed bankruptcy. She took on bookkeeping clients from accounting firms and over the next two years her business grew to the point where she had employees working under her.

Then her assistant decided she needed a full-time job that paid more and had benefits, leaving Sara to work long nights, not even sleeping for some, all to keep up with the workload. She was more and more absent from her two-year-old son and husband.

Then she had a revelation. Roger, her husband, always wanted to be a stay-at-home dad and also had a bookkeeping degree.

So Sara asked him to quit his job.

They made the transition from him working full time to both of them working at home. It didn’t get easier for Roger and Sara, though.

Clients came and went, and money wasn’t coming in as they had hoped. Over the next three years they refinanced their home twice and were spending more than their income. Sara says she felt like she was on a merry-go-round that was speeding up, and she was headed for the same place she had promised herself she’d never go—bankruptcy.

But that’s when something life-changing happened.

Roger turned on his television, and there was my husband, Gary, telling our story of financial struggle and how we over came our overwhelming amounts of debts in two and a half years. Roger and Sara were blown away.

They began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. They decided to purchase Gary’s “Financial Revolution” teaching, but they didn’t have the $35 to buy it! So they returned a lamp they had purchased to get the money, ordered the set, and Sara says, “It was one-hundred percent life-changing material.

We changed our mindset and relationship concerning money, which finally got us off that merry-go-round!” Three years later, after doing some research, Sara realized she was only charging one-third of the rate she was worth!

She realized that she was robbing her family. She tripled her rate for new clients that were coming to her business, and guess what? The clients had no problem paying the new fees. Sara says, “As women, we tend not to see our worth.

We don’t value our time and skills.” Today, Sara feels like she has the entire world in her hands.

Their bookkeeping business is so successful that they’ve had to hire more employees, their family is happy, and they are now living in their dream home.

Sara has won “20 Under 40” with Business London Magazine and Who’s Who, Women in Ecommerce in North America. Sara says to women in her situation: “With the help of God, the tools He has placed inside of me, with the people I’ve chosen to surround myself with, and with my faith—I did it!

And if you choose to allow God in, use the tools He has given you, surround yourself with the right people, and seriously have faith, then you can do it, too!”

~Drenda

ps…Are you looking for a good church? Be sure and listen on Saturday evening or catch the 3 services on Sunday for Faith Life Church!

(*Excerpt From The Book “The New Vintage Family” By Drenda Keesee)

Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.

A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.

Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.

Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary and Drenda.

Through their own life experiences, the Keesee’s have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.

That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.

She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then the irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.

Gary and Drenda pastor Faith Life Church at The Now Center in New Albany, Ohio, and also are the CEOs of Forward Financial Group.