Podcast

Doing the Work: Stewardship, Craft, and Becoming

On the Lot, At the Desk, In the Home

Kent E. Nielsen

15 Dec 2025 — 3 min read

I recorded the video above on October 11, 2025.

It sat on the editing desk for a while. Not because it wasn’t true—but because I hadn’t fully owned the season I was in when I spoke it.

I do now.

I sell cars.
I work 45+ hours a week on the lot.
I provide for my family through honest labor.

And I am done treating that stewardship like something to hide.

This post is not an announcement of departure.
It is a declaration of ownership.

Because stewardship is not only for the artist or producer.
Stewardship is the ground under your feet right now.

Owning the present stewardship—where provision, purpose, and preparation meet.

Doing the Work (Before the Muse Speaks)

Steven Pressfield teaches a simple, uncomfortable truth:
If you want to be an artist, you must sit down and do the work—daily—whether inspiration shows up or not.

The writer he profiles didn’t wait for brilliance.
He sat down every morning at 9 a.m. and typed.

Not because he felt inspired.
But because power follows obedience to the work.

The muse comes after discipline, not before it.

The work begins before the muse arrives.

Getting Paid for the Work (Without Selling the Soul)

Jeff Goins dismantles the myth of the “starving artist” by telling the truth about Michelangelo.

Michelangelo was not poor.
He was not discovered overnight.
He was paid because he mastered his craft.

Long before David, he studied anatomy.
He dissected bodies.
He practiced deliberately for years—unseen, unpaid, uncelebrated.

Provision followed preparation.

That matters—especially for those of us raising families.

Providing is not a distraction from the calling.
It is part of it.

Mastery is built in obscurity long before it is rewarded publicly.

One Integrated Life

For over 30 years, I have given my life to the Lord—not because I knew where it would lead, but because I trusted He could do more with it than I could.

I’ve seen that proven again and again:

From academic weakness to university honors
From decades of mental struggle to peace
From physical neglect to stewardship of the body
From confusion to clarity of purpose

Now the work He planted in my heart as a child—before it even existed as a vocation—is here:

To create content that lifts others as I have been lifted.
To teach principles that emancipate rather than impress.
To begin at home, then radiate outward.

The first audience is always the home.

So this is what my days look like now:

I sell cars with integrity.
I study my craft deliberately.
I write, record, and publish consistently.
I father intentionally—in the margins and in the middle.

Not in compartments.
Not double-minded.
One integrated life.

One life. One calling. Many stewardships.

Doing the Work Without Fear

Job feared losing everything—and he lost it.

Not as punishment, but as proof.

Through loss, through misunderstanding, through isolation, he kept his eye single to God’s glory. And in doing so, he came to know—not just believe—that God is real.

The restoration came later.
The refinement came first.

That pattern still holds.

When we do the work where we are—faithfully, honestly, without pretense—the blessings are not partial.

The Father does not offer crumbs.

He offers all that He has.