 a lot like Christmas around here. I love all the lights and all the stuff that goes along with Christmas, the music and everything. But most of all, I'm glad you joined us here on Hope Today. I'm Tom Hollison with Amanda Brocker and we have a great guest that's going to share with us a little bit about how we can save money but also reach our potential. All I can say is do you love a good bargain? I know I do. Well then stay tuned for our conversation with Stephanie Nelson. She is our very own coupon mom that is here to tell us her God story but also how you can get some great bargains for all that shopping that we have to do. Yeah, are you a couponer? You do that? I try. I am a coupon failure. I have spent at one point in my life like two hours clipping all the coupons. I organized them in my coupon holder alphabetically and I forgot it every time I went to the store. Enough times that my coupons expired so I remember I was a fail. I know Jean was into it big time. It's digital now. I hear so it's a lot more savvy for all of us so you're not going to want to miss this conversation today. I know. Jean just ordered something. She was on her computer. She's ordering something and I saw it said click instant coupon and then so she clicked it right there and I'm like oh that was interesting. Way to go. We're going to be praying for them instant coupons on all of our online orders. Yes well listen we're also this is a meaningful Monday. This is something we're starting, something we find meaningful in either the news or in some articles that we have gleaned from the internet and we're going to be talking about the 12 ways of Christmas. How you can share Jesus in some wonderful ways during the Christmas season and I think it's a great time. It's a great opportunity. We don't always take that opportunity do we to share Jesus with people but Christmas is a great time to do that. It sure is. I'm so excited. We've been feeding a lot of people at the dream center for Mondays. You'll be there for our Christmas celebration. I will but it's been exciting. You know there's something about this time of year and we should do it all the time but those gatherings you know bringing people around the table, spending time with people so our encouragement our hope to you today is we want you to sit and spend time with us but we also want you to spend time with the VIPs that God's placed in your sphere of influence and know that he desires to use you for their lives. I think that is so important. Absolutely and you know with all the people that you're going to be meeting maybe you haven't seen some relatives for a while you'll see them at Christmas maybe you just want to pray for them. We always have prayer partners available standing by to pray for you the numbers there on the screen maybe you're having a down day maybe you just need some encouragement why don't you call the number and get ahold of a prayer partner they're there just for this reason they have set aside this time to pray for you so just take the time you can call 24-7 you can call right now you can call after the show or maybe later on in the day just get some prayer and take take those requests that are on your heart to the throne room of God. Amen I know I love catching up with the prayer partners and you know they know a lot of you by name and it's amazing you know people call in it's you're able to establish a relationship even through a phone call and just being present for each other it's so important well for most people chasing dreams and pursuing happiness are a big part of life after all who doesn't want to be happy or have a truly fulfilling life but sometimes we can get stuck and feel that our dreams are just too far out of reach well our guest today Stephanie Nelson is known as the coupon mom and she recently wrote a book called imagine more do what you love discover your potential she joins us now to share how you can achieve your dreams while making a positive impact in the world Stephanie welcome to hope today well thanks so much for having me it's great to be here amen well you've got to give us a little bit of your god story and how did you become coupon mom well Amanda as you were sharing your story about the challenge of spending all the time filing coupons and having them expire I just sat here thinking oh my gosh she needed the coupon mom system what happened was 23 years ago I went to hear a speaker at our church I was a mom with two little kids I think our sons were four and six at the time and I the speaker is Becky Tira bossy she writes great books on prayer I had just read her book I was new to town I didn't really know anyone yet but I heard she was speaking at this big church so I went I sat in the front row I hung on every word she said and what she talked about was what we're talking about today was finding God's purpose for our lives even if we were in situations that were challenging like having two little kids and she ended by saying if there is something you love to do then pray about it and see if God can show you a way to use it to help other people because that's an equation and if we can figure out that equation then we've landed on God's exciting plan for our life so I left there and I started praying every morning and I included this prayer and on day 11 I was in church and in the church bulletin was a request for food donations to our local food pantry I had never been to the food pantry I didn't even know our community needed one where people who have emergency financial needs could go for help but what I noticed was every item was a coupon item so the next day I took my coupons to the grocery store and I got $60 of groceries for $10 for the food pantry and I delivered those groceries I sat in the waiting room with the other mothers with their kids waiting for groceries and they were just like me Amanda they were just like me they were just in a different circumstance and our pastor always says what breaks your heart that's where to go to help and on that day it broke my heart I wasn't even aware that there were mothers like me with kids like mine who were in desperate need so that started it I bought groceries every day for charity I started teaching my friends how to do it ultimately our pastor said you should start a website where you share this information online so anyone in the country can use it I did that the local media picked it up eventually the national media and it spread like wildfire across the country and I have to say our family didn't have extra money for something like this my web my first website cost $35 and everything after that was just my time so you know God did an incredible thing there were many things in the story that were difficult and many doors that closed to me and I wrote this book because I wanted my two adult sons to know the backstory not just the highlight reel but all of the ways that God stepped in and made a way when I saw no way at all and that's what I want people to know that God can make a way and God has a plan and it can be doing something you love to do I love this and you have in in your book one of the chapters you say success isn't going up an elevator it's taking the stairs and I think that that paints the correct picture for each one of us but in that you know process of taking the stairs and not the elevator you talk about pivotal people and then that was one of those could you share with us a little bit about her story oh goodness so what I realized when I was writing this story and I encourage everyone to write their story look back over 20 years write your story for the people you love in your life you'll see what I saw that there are several people along the way who helped in fact some of them four of them had they not stepped into the story had God not sent them into my story it wouldn't have happened and one of those people was a woman named Nanette Knopf singer she was a publicist a person gave me her name and now let me tell you what nobody shares their great publicist but a man saw me on local tv he saw what we were talking about he wanted it to spread he gave me Nanette's name wonderful Christian woman daughter of a pastor and she decided she loved what we were trying to do trying to teach people how to save money on their own groceries and trying to teach people how to donate food to charity so we teamed up and Nanette had wonderful relationship with the media she got me on national tv all over the country we always said God put us together and incredible things happened when I first met Nanette I was a few years into the initiative I'd already been on national tv we had 200,000 members which was a lot and unfortunately Nanette passed away but over the years that I worked with her it grew to 8 million members and she was so humble she never took the credit for it it was always God and it was God so I wrote a chapter about her not because of how wonderful her business results were but what I learned from her in how to be a person of character and godliness and kindness and love um and unfortunately we lost her in 2015 to cancer but her legacy continues because she poured so much into this and ultimately millions of people were helped because of what she did because she stepped into the story I just want to ask you a quote out of your out of your book that I think is so so great Stephanie um God won't ask us to choose between the life situations we love and the dreams he gives us it can all be one path because I think sometimes people say hey I've got this job I've got to do it's not what what I really love but I've got to pay the bills so I've got to do this job so how can we have both of those paths converge well that's so important because um I used this example I I had chosen to quit my corporate job to be home with my sons that's what I wanted to do it was a financial sacrifice I brought joy it's what our family wanted so when this idea came up it could have easily overtaken and become a second career um specifically if I wanted to teach people around the country how to save money on groceries I could have been on the road traveling doing workshops all over which would have defeated the life that God had let me have instead we figured out okay let's do a website from my home we made little videos teaching people how to do this put them on the website I was home with my kids I got involved I say to people look at your sphere of influence what is your sphere of influence I heard you say this earlier on the show how can you reach out to the people in your life with what you love to do so you're not having competing lives and what I did my sons were in elementary school I got involved in the elementary school I was the PTA person in charge of the food drives and I taught children how to use coupons to buy food for charity you can work what you love to do into your sphere of influence and enjoy both so when I look back on it and my sons who have now read this book as adults are amazed that this business could take off take off the way it has pretty much from our spare bedroom and a personal computer that's so awesome I just love this story and so encouraging for all of us I feel like we all have that dream within us and we need to be patient take the steps and no it's not an elevator to get to the top but you talk in chapter 13 I love this about using God's yardstick to measure success what does that mean so that is so important I have spoken to so many women over the years who have started you know we might have been the first website that talked about how to save money on groceries and donate to charity the first one that was free to users but over the years many many women started these now they could look at me and say gosh she has millions of members I need to have millions of members but that's not how God's economy works I think we tend to look at numbers and reports and the number of units sold for God is looking at lives impacted so I encourage people to you know when I first started out I only had a handful of users but I had some pretty impactful emails from people and they reminded me that you might see one sale of your selling books or you might see one hit on a website or social media but that one hit represents a person's entire life you might have brought joy to their family because now they can pay their bills there were so many emotional emails and I have to share one because I'll never forget it and I received thousands of emails over the years but one woman sent me an email that said thank you for the service you provide we've always been clients of our food pantry and for the first time this Christmas our family was able to donate a bag of groceries to the church food drive we've never been able to do that is our happiest Christmas ever okay Amanda how do you measure that with a report that's God's yardstick boy that that is so good I love that and I I even think of my own life when when we were first married Jean and I the money was so tight and we went to a wise person who put us on a a better way and it was like so freeing all of a sudden we were free free just that little bit of wisdom helped us so much but let me ask you about the fear of failure or fear just fear itself so often that kind of like oh well they won't they won't want to hear what I have to say or they won't want to read my book or something like that what do you do with that and how do you deal with how do you recommend that people deal with rejection because a lot of times when we're walking up those stairs it's almost like there's people saying don't come up here that's right so people have asked me so what do you do about you know fear failure I say expect it expect that you're going to fail expect that there are people who aren't going to like your idea expect that people are going to say no and there's something about expecting it that makes it easier to handle because I promise you there are people who are going to love your idea and there are people who are going to say yes and there are people who are going to send you emails like the one I said to you but you're not going to reach them if you let the person who said no derail you so keep going I have a whole chapter when I first had this idea I marched all around with a PowerPoint presentation on this great idea how you can get free groceries for your family and donate groceries to charity and I met with executives of grocery store chains and coupon companies and executives of nonprofit organizations to get somebody to take the idea away from me because there's no way I could possibly grow this idea that's what I thought and they all said no and then I stumbled upon a small charity and the woman said yes and she is the one who helped me get this off the ground in my backyard and guess what God was like why are you trying to give so much power to the people saying no I am the person who said I'm the one who said yes to this and if God says yes to it we have to let go of the people who don't understand they just don't understand and once we got to the point of having eight million members like I am so glad I didn't listen to those people in the beginning so now I say to people expect it it makes you a little stronger if you can keep going and you will find the person or whoever the company the person who will give you a boost what an amazing story well I know my own sister in law loves you she watched your videos you taught her how to coupon you were who inspired me to cut all those coupons I just was not very good at it so but I want to ask because all of us watching I know we want to know are those videos still out there where do people find the digital content that you have to help people in their couponing well I am so glad you asked that because when you did your intro and you talked about your challenges I thought okay I got to get some coupon information into this segment I have a website called couponmom.com that's been there 23 years and we have videos we have a list of the best deals at national stores across the country but if I'm gonna if people want to save a lot of money here are my just super simple tips number one download the app for your grocery store chain it is filled with digital coupons you literally click a coupon you like it's called a coupon but you're really just clicking it and when you buy the item at the register it comes off automatically you don't have to cut out a coupon you don't have to hold up the line it is truly magic money so that's number one and check it every week before you go to the grocery store and click all those coupons secondly you talked about online shopping especially now for the holidays when you go to shop online and you're at a retailer don't do anything until you google the name of that retailer and the word coupon code and you will come up with a long list of possible coupon codes you copy and paste it I do this all the time you easily you can say 40 or 50% with that super simple step which is going to add up to hundreds of dollars over the years and then one more thing you got to find a cashback website because when you buy online not only can you use the coupon but if you're doing it from a cashback website you might get 10% back I'd love to say I just got $400 a towels from Land's End for $15 by doing all those things so that is your tip for the day you don't have to cut out a single coupon Amanda and they won't expire I love this this is what are you going to do with $400 worth of towels though that's what I want to know well they started out Tom they were six sets of towels I just decided to get rid of my old scratchy ones and get all new ones for 15 bucks I think I could do that that's awesome I would be wrapping them for Christmas gifts who doesn't need new towels for Christmas but you know we're gonna I do that that's right we're gonna put your information on our website so those of you who may didn't catch that you can go to ctbn.org to get the information for the coupon mom but real quick I just love that you're not only inspiring us to manage our money better and helping lead us well but you also are giving back through the imagine more program can you talk to us a little bit about that yes the imagine more project is a grant program I'm starting so my tagline is we give small grants to people with big dreams when I first started my thing and I had the two little kids no extra money I did an essay contest for people who were starting charitable initiatives and the prize was a thousand dollars and I won and I use that thousand dollars to buy my first computer so I really understand how it can be when you have a great idea but you don't have extra money so I'll be giving grants that are between one and two thousand dollars I'm using all of the money that I get from this book to give out grants so I'm really leveraging it I'm super excited to see ideas that people have and I'd love to support and encourage and get to know people personally maybe do zoom calls if we're in different cities but Stephanie Nelson.com is my website and there's a whole page where called imagine more people can apply for grants they can join a Facebook group they can reach me I would love to connect with dreamers who are trying new ideas wow Stephanie thank you so much for just sharing your God's story I know that if it wasn't for your deep trust in the Lord you would not be doing what you're doing right now and that miracle can happen in any of our lives thank you again for being with us and giving us hope today thank you so much it's great being with you amen wow what was the name of the book again oh yes because I think it's so important that people yeah imagine more do what you love discover your potential by Stephanie Nelson so good you know we we love that and this time and this time of year when things can be so hectic we need to make things meaningful but we're going to have a meaningful monday segment coming right up after this hope happens here at cornerstone television all this month we're offering a joy dvd Christmas with the chosen the messengers for your best gift to the ministry gather around the manger with loved ones and experience the first Christmas through the eyes of Mary and Joseph follow the young couple as they take the long road to Bethlehem and prepare for jesus birth plus enjoy an extraordinary lineup of musicians performing both new and classic christmas songs from the set of the chosen such as phil wickham brandon lake maverick city music cane and many others thank you for your generosity that makes the ministry of cornerstone television possible request your christmas with the chosen dvd when you give this month call 888-665-4483 or give online at ctvn.org slash donate from all of us here we wish you a very merry christmas well what could be more meaningful than christmas time right but according to recent surveys over 90 of your neighbors plan to celebrate christmas some way this year of course you know that 300 million americans every year choose to celebrate christmas despite this listen to this 75 of them not being able to accurately explain what christmas even means they'll gather together with their friends and family they'll enjoy large and fancy parties and meals they'll decorate the trees string the lights they're going to give generous gifts to one another and maybe join in for a carol or two they might even be among the 50 of americans who say they plan to attend a christmas eve or christmas day service but three out of every four americans this can just be a hollow holiday a christless christmas unless of course the one of the those other four chooses to introduce them to the one capital o who can make them whole and fill them with hope peace and joy at christ at christmas time jesus came to seek and to save the lost will you join him and use one of the most usable times of the year to be part of christ's mission the harvest is still plentiful but there are fewer and fewer christians willing to work the christmas fields and enjoy the christmas harvest christ said look i tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest that is from andrew night from desiring god dot orga we just want to share a little bit of his article with you and you can find it there but amanda they he also has a bunch of different ways we can do that some very simple ones like host people that's right a host people personally invite people to church that's such a simple one right you know uh ask people about you know their their christmas and their family give meaningfully respond thoughtfully i mean there's so much here how about this share the story what do you think of that that's right i think that we have to do a better job of that i feel you know when we get together i don't know about your family but my family we like to play games so hosting you know bring people to your home those that you love one of our favorites has become code names it's on sale at target dot com for 1239 but i'm telling you staying with the theme of the program right great conversation and maybe there's a coupon out there for it that would be even better but it's it's a great way to fellowship and then while we're talking i don't know if you all have ever heard of alive in five but it's something that our youth group even our adults we've been using but it's where you go through five steps of your conversation and it's basically without putting up the preacher sign and having your bible you are navigating this conversation of how we were lost and we we couldn't come to god apart from what jesus did you know and because of him i'm gonna choose to follow you know receive what he has accomplished and then live it out we all have that choice and the holy spirit comes in and helps lead guide and direct us and we can tell our story in a way that would make someone be like oh well you know they might want to know more i think it's so important that can happen around these table settings or when we're out even at the store i just so natural it can be so natural praying for people is one of the one of the ones that is mentioned here and that is so important too people many times don't feel the the christmas spirit maybe that you feel they don't know christ or they're having trouble in their own lives or in their family and if you find out god sometimes opens he cracks open a door on someone's life for you it's amazing if we're just available how this happens and when it does dive in there and pray for that person and you will be amazed at what you see happen amen and i ask questions people want to know that you care i remember this saying it says people don't care what you know unless they know that you care so it's important for us to open our hearts we want to know did they need help with something it's important i think sometimes we're in such a rush and we don't take the time but our encouragement our hope to you today is to take the time to minister and share with the people that god's placed around you allow him to use your life to impact others for the kingdom of god you our love have hope today on tomorrow's hope today learn how to see as jesus sees pastor allen right shares how a simple prayer can change your perspective on life and help you see your world the way jesus sees it that's tomorrow on hope today cornerstone television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible