God Waits for Your Boldness: How One CEO Found Her Voice After Rock Bottom

Tara LaFon Gooch stood in her bedroom in March 2022, staring out the window with nothing left to lose. She'd walked away from her corporate sales director role—the company car, the laptop, the cell phone, the cushy paycheck. She'd turned down a job with a 20% pay increase. At 38, newly diagnosed with depression and anxiety, she felt like she had nothing to show for any of it.

"Does my life have a purpose?" she asked out loud. "And if anybody out there cares, what is the point?"

The answer came immediately, clear as daylight: Your life has meaning, but you need to give more.

"I was like, what does that mean?" Tara recalls. "I have nothing to give anybody. Look at me. I'm a depressed mess."

But that moment—raw, desperate, open-ended—became the hinge point of her life. Today, Tara is the CEO of Best Branding Solutions, a certified coach in personal change management, and a woman on fire for the Lord. She speaks on stages, writes Christian books, hosts a podcast, and works with clients from every faith background imaginable. And she's learned something most Christian business leaders are too afraid to test: when you're bold about your faith, your business doesn't shrink. It grows.

The Pendulum Swinger

Tara calls herself a "pendulum swinger'. Raised in a restrictive religion that never felt like home, and at 21 she began a journey of the next 17 years wandering. Agnostic. Atheist. New Age. None of it filled the void.

"I didn't pray. I didn't feel close to God," she says. "It was all just empty."

When she and her husband launched Best Branding Solutions in June 2020—right in the heart of the pandemic—it was a practical move, not a spiritual one. He was a brand designer with over 20 years of experience. She had the sales and marketing chops. They figured they'd make it work.

But two years later, when Tara left corporate life with nothing to catch her, the business felt just as empty as everything else. That's when she hit rock bottom. And that's when she heard the voice.

Your life has meaning, but you need to give more.

She started small. She saw someone on LinkedIn with an "open to work" banner and reached out. She offered free branding help. Then another person. Then another. "I started just helping them," she says, "and then watching people's lives change. 'Oh my gosh, this got me a job. Oh my gosh, this got me promoted.'"

Her skills had been there the whole time. But so had God—waiting, patient, ready for her to catch up.

When Faith Becomes Your Business Partner

Tara didn't ease into faith. She swung the pendulum all the way over. "God is my business partner," she says without hesitation. "Every decision is to help good people—people that are doing good in this world."

She niched down into working with thought leaders: speakers, authors, coaches, entrepreneurs. People who wanted to land TEDx talks, launch podcasts, write books, make TV appearances. She became a coach who didn't just help clients build platforms—she helped them step into the best version of themselves.

And she stopped hiding her faith.

"I'm very open about my faith," Tara says. "And even though we don't seem to attract a lot of Christian clients, it's funny—we attract good people. And they become almost curious."

That curiosity, she's learned, is the Holy Spirit at work. "Not one witnessing is one size fits all for everybody," she explains. "I think it's encouraging for people to know that they can be a business owner and talk about their faith and actually watch their business increase—and not have to be worried about judgment from others."

She has clients who are Hindu, Muslim, Jewish. They don't just tolerate her faith—they seek her out because of it. They want to talk about spirituality. They see her values and feel safe. They know the truth when they see it, even if they don't call it by the same name.

Everybody's ministry may look a little different. What does yours look like?

The Trick of Instant Gratification

One of the sharpest insights Tara offers is about the danger of misaligned opportunities. "One of the tricks our adversary uses in business," she says, "is to give you that low-hanging fruit that gives you instant gratification, but doesn't give you fulfillment. Only God can give you purpose and fulfillment."

She describes the scenario: a big contract lands in your lap—$20,000, $30,000. It looks like the answer to your prayers. But something feels off. The client doesn't align with your values. The work doesn't light you up. You say yes anyway because you need the money.

"When you're tapped in by having a continuous personal relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit that resides in you tells you when things are from God and when things are not," Tara says. "You know this by doing a values check and an intuition check. And if something is a hard no, then say no."

Nine times out of ten, she says, something even bigger comes along—something that does align with your values, that does let you sleep at night, that exceeds what you thought was possible.

Her rule is simple: she controls only two things in business—her intention and her integrity. The outcome? That's God's job. "If we try to do God's job, that's not going to work out very good for us," she says with a laugh. "I'm a recovering control freak. I like to have my fist around everything. But that has not worked so well for me in the past, and I guarantee it will continue to not work so well for me in the future."

What You Can Do Monday Morning

Tara's advice for Christian business leaders is bracingly practical. First: be bold. "Don't be afraid to take on non-Christian clients," she says. "This could be a way for you to minister to people."

She recently posted on LinkedIn about King Solomon, referencing Ecclesiastes: at the end of his life, Solomon declared it all vanity without God. Everything we build will turn to dust. But what can we build through souls?

That post—no sales pitch, no offer, just truth—earned nearly 400 likes.

"People see the values in you," Tara says. "They feel compelled to do business with you because they want to work with somebody with aligned values. And even if they are of a different religion, they see your Christian values and they know he's the truth."

Her challenge to other leaders: use your platform to talk about Christ. Be public. Let people be curious. "The only way somebody's going to know if you're open to talk about it is if you boldly declare it publicly," she says. "What if we're one person away? Somebody out there is praying for you just to do this. And God's waiting on your boldness to answer their prayer. If you're not bold, you're being disobedient—and the blessing won't flow through you."

God's waiting on your boldness to answer their prayer.

The Best Outcome You Didn't Plan

Tara's final word is about outcomes. "Don't worry about the outcomes," she says, "because what outcome you think is going to happen, it's even better what he has in store."

She couldn't have imagined that the woman who almost took her life in March 2022 would, just over two years later, be writing Christian books, speaking at faith-based events, and running a thriving business rooted in daily relationship with Jesus.

"Christ is the best thing that's ever happened in my marriage. Christ is the best thing that's ever happened in my business. It's everything," she says.

And that's the message she wants every Christian leader to hear: the platform you've been given doesn't belong to you. It belongs to God. Use it boldly. Speak the truth. Let your values shine. Build your business as an act of service and love.

Because somewhere, someone is praying for exactly what you have to offer. And God is waiting for you to stop playing it safe and start showing them who He is.

Follow Tara's podcasts at GRASP Confidence | Personal Growth for Leaders and High Performers - Podcast - Apple Podcasts to learn more about the powerful impact she is having.