The Power Of One: Prayer |S2EP9

Sometimes, the most powerful prayers are the simplest ones.

In this episode of The Power of One, Rebecca Borman shares a deeply personal story about the moment everything in her life shifted. After building a successful corporate career, she found herself feeling undervalued, stuck, and unsure of what was next.

What followed was not a perfectly worded prayer or a clear plan. It was a moment of honesty.

“I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.”

That one prayer led to a decision that changed everything.

This conversation explores what it really means to trust God in uncertain moments, how to recognize when you are being called into something new, and why prayer does not need to be polished to be powerful.  

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//About

Cathy Tooley is the Founder & CEO of Tools for Success and a seasoned educator with over 40 years in K–12 classrooms and school leadership. From high school teacher to principal, Cathy has dedicated her life to supporting educators. In 2014, she launched Tools for Success to provide real, in-person instructional coaching—not just “PD in a box.” She’s the author of The Education System Is Broken, a national speaker, and a fierce advocate for teachers. Through this podcast, she’s spotlighting the ripple effect of great teaching.
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Transcript

You Can Hear God Too

Cathy Tooley 0:00

If there's anything I have people say to me all the time is Kathy, I don't hear God like you do. And I always say, Then you're not listening. Then you're not listening. God doesn't have a one-way channel to Kathy Thule. He doesn't. We are his children. That's right. And he loves us. That's right. We often say we don't hear him because either we're not listening or we don't want to hear what he's got to say. And so I usually start with someone who says, I don't hear the Lord like you do. I always say, Have you ever heard a baby laugh? You've heard the Lord. Hi,

Meet Rebecca And The Theme

Cathy Tooley 0:38

everybody. Welcome back to another podcast with the our series this time is called The Power of One. And I'm joined with by a very dear friend of mine, Rebecca Borman. I'll let her introduce herself in just a second. But Rebecca and I have a long history, and I have no idea what her power of one is going to be, but she's going to share it. So tell us about yourself and tell us your story. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm excited to have this opportunity to chat with you in this kind of new way, right? Right. Yes. Yeah, because we talk all the time. So first and foremost, I have the pleasure of being the fractional VP of Marketing and Sales for Tools for Success. And I'm actually the founder of RB Consulting Agency. We're a full service marketing agency that really has the goals of helping our clients increase their visibility, connect with their ideal audiences, and grow their revenue. Love it. And that's what she's working with to do with us. Yes. That's right. Yes. Yes. So the power of one. So you have to know for those of you that know me and that are watching this, for me to just let things go. I literally, I the Lord pressed on me who to be on this podcast. And then just tell them the topic. And I literally asked you, didn't I? Just pray about it. Yep. Many of my friends said, Do I need to let you know? And I said, You don't. So the power of one, what? Prayer. Boom. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was telling

Corporate Success Then Career Stuck

Cathy Tooley 2:08

you before this, I actually had different topics that I thought I was going to talk about on the power of one. But literally, as I was parking the car in this wonderful podcast studio of our friend Victoria's, um I heard God say, not those, these. And so we talked about the power of one person's belief in me or in you, in each other. And then he said, it's the power of one prayer. And what he like really laid on my heart to talk about was because there's so many like one prayers I could talk about in my life, but it was a time in my life when things were wild. And like I had no idea what was going to be like the next step or where I was going. Um, as you know, uh, before I started my own company, just not quite three years ago, I had a really successful corporate career. I worked for global technology firms, traveled all over the world, sold complex technology solutions to major enterprises and government organizations. I was a senior leader, um, healthy income. Healthy income. Um, for the most part, had a wonderful career until I didn't. It's it. And and and the didn't part was that I felt like I was underappreciated, undervalued, wasn't getting the promotions that I thought I was supposed to, you know, that I should get given my work, my tenure, my successes, my awards, my accolades, the sales that I had done for, you know, for companies. And I kept on kind of getting the, well, not right now. Well, not right now. Well, I believed that it's just not the right time for a while. And then I started to realize not right now, it was actually never. Right. And so I started praying. Um, because I'm like, what am I gonna do? Like, I can't do this exact same thing for the next 20 years. I had already done it for 20 years, and I'm someone that wants to learn and grow and take new challenges on. And I think that's part of um, you know, what we're here for is to use all of our abilities to serve our God, to do good, to be his vessel. And I can't do that if I feel like I'm stagnant. And I felt like I didn't have all the tools to do my job in excellence because I was being held back. So had some conversations with my boss at, you know, the um company they had work with. They didn't go great. And I um decided, okay, well, I'm gonna keep this job, right? Like I can do this job in my sleep. Exactly. I can do this job in my sleep. It pays my bills. I'm a single woman, so I'm responsible for my mortgage and taking care of myself. I don't have a second income where I could say, let me take some time, you know, figure this out. But what, you know, what it hurt is like you should start your own company. That thought had never crossed my mind. I thought I was gonna be the CEO of some technology company. Like that was my career path. Moving on up the ladder, up the career ladder. Right. That was my career path. And so I started this company as a side hustle. And it started as really, I'm gonna do some sales training. I get asked to go talk to groups, people, entrepreneurs, women's groups about sales. How do you do this? How do you connect with people? Um, you know, a lot of people have this weird thing in their head about like sales is pushy. Sales is about building relationships, right? So to help folks with that mindset shift. And so I checked my contract at the company I was working with to make sure I could do this. Everything said, cool, you can do this as long as it's not in direct conflict with what we were doing. Right. Clearly, I was selling technology. This was talking about sales training, not in conflict. I even ran it by my boss and my HR leader. Totally cool, right? And um so I moved forward. I developed a website, I got a brand, I got a logo, did all the things, launched the company. And then all of a sudden, it was a problem with my corporation. And I'll spare all the like the story of how how we got there. It was a problem. Um, the CEO of the company had a lot of really nice, not nice things to say to me. And

The Scariest Meeting And One Prayer

Cathy Tooley 6:19

it's um December 22nd, 2022. And I'm on my way to meet with my CEO and the VP of HR. Never a good meeting. Never a good meeting. Never a good meeting. Yeah, I had one of those meetings too. Mine was November 14th of 2014. Wow. Oh, of course you do. They're not calling you in to check and see how your holiday season's planning is coming. They're not when HR is involved. Yes. So this is first thing in the morning. I'm getting in my car. I turn on uh, I don't know, elevation worship or something, you know, like like that was always kind of my like start the day, listen to some, you know, inspirational positive. Plug here for K-Love. I listen to Europe, we listen to K Love all the time. Yep. And my prayer was I'm terrified. I don't this is not gonna go well. I don't know what to do. And they're not calling me in for goodness. Yes. Like I literally am like, like I had already gotten a lawyer at like at this point. Um, and God was like, Yeah, they knew you were gonna do this before. Yeah, I had literally had their blessing. Yeah, like I keep everything, it was documented, you know. Um but then they changed their mind and they can do that. But that was my prayer. I am terrified. I can't remember the last time I was this scared. And God, like, I don't always hear God like you do all the time, but I like audibly heard him this time. Like, just be calm. I've got you. Just be calm, I've got you. And I like I could physically like the anxiety, the angst, the whatever, just like left. And so I drove into the office. It was exactly what we thought it was. I knew was coming was coming, that you know, the the ultimate had been given to me, either work here or do company uh uh, but you can't do both. And my response calmly was, I made my choice, I want to do both. And they said, There's the door. Um, there's a little more to it than that. But that one prayer of God, like, I'm scared, I don't know what to do. I didn't even know what to ask him for. I just knew to say something to him. I think that. So when you were talking way, way back and you said, um, I began praying and I didn't know what I wanted, and I started to hear, feel like I hear good God's voice. If there's anything I have people say to me all the time is, Kathy, I don't hear God like you do. And I always say, Then you're not listening. Then you're not listening. God doesn't have a one-way channel to Kathy Tooley. He doesn't. We are his children. That's right. And he loves us. That's right. We often say we don't hear him because either we're not listening or we don't want to hear what he's got to say. And so I usually start with someone who says,

Prayer As Honest Talk With A Father

Cathy Tooley 9:09

I don't hear the Lord like you do. I always say, Have you ever heard a baby laugh? You've heard the Lord. Well, that's I feel like I hear God through other people. Yes. And I'm people that's easier. And I really confidently am like, oh gosh, that's my message from Kathy or Victoria or God, right? Or, you know, whatever, any of my friends. I don't know that I necessarily hear it as audible like in my in my head all the time. And I and I definitely get signs all the time that I know are God, like something happened or someone crossed my path, or I see something. So, and I think he communicates with us like you know differently, because maybe that's the way I pay attention better, you know, to like to your point. Maybe you literally need a sign, as they say. Literally need a sign. I'll admit I'm a little hard-headed. You could ask my dad, he would definitely like co-sign on that. Yeah, but um, but yeah, that one prayer, you know, in that one moment when you need it the most, and then like he's right there. Always was. Always, always was. And I think it's like you don't even have to know what to say. You like the prayer can literally be like, I have no idea, but I need you. Yeah, because I think someone taught us when you think about the power of one prayer, that prayer has to be. I grew up in a very, very um, I grew up when raised Catholic. This is me too. No disrespect to Catholicism. I think Catholicism taught me who Jesus Christ is. Um, but I wasn't taught as a young child, and I don't know why, it's no disrespect to anyone, really what it meant to spend time in the Lord's Word and to pray. I wasn't taught that. And therefore, then as a young adult and a young mother, I just didn't, I didn't know how. But what I can remember, and I and what I do remember thinking is he's God. So you don't go to God with your problems. Like you thank God, you you um you worship God, you pray to God in awe and all of those things. But to say what you just said, I am scared. That's a prayer. That's a prayer. But we have been taught that that's not a prayer and that don't be that needy. And somewhere along the line, I got this message, and I don't know where I got it or how I picked it up, or maybe it was my own story, my own self, that is God has bigger fish to fry than the fact that you're getting fired from a company today. That's right. There are starving children in Ethiopia. How many times you hear that? I can remember not eating my dinner, and my mom would say, There are starving children in Ethiopia. And I used to think, well, then ship them this stuff because I don't want to eat it. I mean just send it to them because I'm not eating this stuff that you put in front of us. But that's what we're taught. Don't complain, don't think. And and I I think that's the power of your message today. The power of your message is not that prayer in that moment, but that is exactly what the Lord is asking us to do. I love, and I have done it a million times, said to my Lord, I hate this. I know you've got a plan, but I don't see it. And I don't understand how this pain and suffering that you're taking us through right now is supposed to make me better, and I'm angry. I'm angry. We've got some turmoil in our own family. And my husband and I were praying the other night, and I said to him, It's so difficult to pray when I feel like nothing that I'm praying for is being hurt. And I and my husband said, That's all the more reason we have to pray. Absolutely because he's the only one that can hear us. And somewhere along life, I was taught that prayer had to be scripted, wrote, memorized, and in in in due full um this this reverence. Yeah, like like I'm not worthy to speak to you. And what I now know, and I pray that people take this from this podcast, is that he's our father. Amen. He's our father. He is sometimes he treats me and has to treat me like a father, as in no. Yeah, that's right. He's our father who's a teacher. That's right. And sometimes has to not grant what I want and not do what I want and not be what I want, because I say to people all the time, he's not a genie whose belly you rub and you get your wishes granted. That's right. Um, I think in my own parenting, where I've had to tell my children no. Whew, that was painful. Um, our son, and I know he wouldn't mind his sharing this story, had a love of football. And um Josh, he's a grown adult now who says to me often, Boy mom, I was a handful. You know, it's so beautiful when they get old enough to say that, but but um his grades weren't where they needed to be, and we finally had to remove him from football. And this was a little league back in the day, but I remember Chuck and I being in the bedroom that night. They'd gone to bed, and I said to him, He's gonna be on a counselor's couch someday talking about how we destroyed what matters so much to him. And Chuck said, but just like a parent, we have to do what we know is best. That's right. And we prayed about it and both felt very comfortable with it. And so I always go back to that moment when I don't feel like the Lord is, quote, that genie whose belly that I'm rubbing and who's giving me what I grant, what I wish, what I want, because that's not how life is. That's not how life is. Life is rings that shouldn't have happened. Yeah, life is not perfection, life is messy and muddy and mucky, but our prayer is just honesty. That's right. And what you went to the Lord in that day was honesty. I am scared. You knew you were gonna lose your job. You didn't walk in there, and when they said that, um, you were shocked that oh my gosh, they took my job. You know, you you or you were gonna lose the company. That's right. One or the other had to give. You knew what because you'd already heard the grumblings. Yep. You knew that that was the conversation. I knew when I got let go on November 14th, that I was pushing that school and that director and a director they were not comfortable in going. I knew it. Um, I didn't know I was going to be fired, much like you, but I knew I wasn't naive to the fact that I was ruffling, that I was pushing things in a direction that needed to be pushed. And it's interesting to me, and I think this is the message, because I really believe that each of these podcasts are not about you or me. Absolutely not. They are about you and I telling a story that resonates with our listeners so they too can see the power of one prayer. That's right. Um, and so what I wonder today is what prayer is somebody who's listening to this holding back because they think it isn't said right or it isn't quoted with the appropriate scriptures. You know, I really have only found myself really in God's words, um, in living in his words for probably five years now. It started probably 10 years ago, because before I got let go at the at the school that I was at, you know this story. I had been brought to my knees at a situation that I'll talk about in a later podcast, where I made a decision that ticked off some people. Um so I think it is in our most broken. One of my very, very dear friends says to me all the time, do you know when most of us find Jesus? When we are on our backsides. That's right. We're appreciative. I I think of myself as someone who always in their prayers thanks God nightly for the blessings of health and a beautiful marriage and healthy, happy children who we may not always agree with. Oh, big on gratitude. And but I think the closeness of my relationship has come when I was knocked on my backside. I agree. The vulnerability, right? When there is nowhere else to reach but up, when there is nowhere else to pray but to him, when there's nowhere else to go but his is the vulnerability that I think that the Lord comes to. And I think about Yeah, I love this actually as the takeaway, and I think you're spot on because I I was raised so much like you. I felt like it had to look away a certain way, had to be in a certain mindset, I had to, you know, fold my hands and get down on my knees, say certain stories, right? Yes, and and and if that works for folks, cool. Great. No disrespect because I don't think the Lord can. But I think of for me, I needed something different. And so, same as you, but on a different journey to build a relationship with God in a way that works for me and my relationship with him. And um man, just show up like that's say whatever is on your heart, even if it's like, I don't know, but I I don't know, but I need you. But I think of because I think of my heavenly father as my father. That's right. And I think back in being a parent, and when my children fell and they skinned that knee and I brought them close to my bosom, and I kissed that boo-boo, that that's what my heavenly father is doing to me. I think so too. And that's when I felt most needed and loved and wanted. So thank you for thank you for that. And and I I think because I always want to leave those of you watching this with uh an a reality that this isn't about Rebecca and I. Um it's this podcast has never been about me. The guests that I have on are I have on with intention that they're crystal clear. Um, I think Rebecca would tell you, as anyone that's been on this on this podcast, where my come from is and where my intentions are. So I think my ask, if you will, of those of you listening to this podcast today is where in your life are you hearing the Lord and where are you really asking for his help? Um, not again, not like a genie whose belly that we rub, but as a father who loves us. Yeah. I love this, and I know you won't do it, so I'm going to, as your VP of fear sales and marketing. I know I know it can be hard with where do you start, right? Yeah. So Kathy actually just created a new book. It's a journal. Yeah, I did. It's called A Gentle Walk with God. Um, you can see the Lord, you know, the Lord told me to write that. Yes, he did. And so you can go to Toolsfor Successindie.com, Amazon, and um pre-order this book. It becomes official on uh October 1st. But that's a great tool to start with. How are you communicating with God to get some word and inspiration from him? And and so you don't you don't have to do it on your own, you don't have to figure it out yourself. If that, like if you're not quite there yet, to

Building A Daily Prayer Practice

Cathy Tooley 20:17

just throw up your hands and say, I don't know what to do. Yeah, that's why I wrote the book. I I spent check out the journal. Yeah, I spent a couple of years just being with the Lord in other people's journals. And um the Lord, yeah, and the Lord had me go away and pre-ordered. Mine. Oh, yeah, thank you. There's a sand. No, I'm kidding. Um, but the Lord really pressed me to go away to go away on a beach, and I took advantage of the first couple of days, um, thinking, well, I'm at a beach, you know, what most of us do at a beach, and I literally could not have a good time. But it's because the Lord kept saying, That's not why I brought you here. And so I literally locked myself away in a room for a few days, and the Lord really um, I am so proud of that book. Not because Kathy Thule's name on that cover, I wished I could give credit to the real author. Yeah, that's right. But I don't think the world would accept that yet. So, but I want those of you listening to be clear on who the author is. So if you're looking for an opportunity, and you've heard Rebecca um saying things like, you know, I I wished I had more of a relationship. I I say all the time, Rebecca's heard me say this, I was raised in a religion, not in a relationship. And I have a relationship with Jesus Christ now. And so I think that journal is an opportunity for take to take you where you are today and to begin to grow relationships. Because relationships happen. You and I are as close as we are because we talk on the phone and we we've broken bread together. Um, you've been in my home. I've been in your home. We've spent the night in hotels traveling and doing work that we do. Relationships aren't built because you dictate that they exist. That's right. They exist because You spend time. This relationship is important to me. That's right. And this journal, I think, is an opportunity for you to begin to build a relationship in prayer with your Heavenly Father. Our friends to help get more intentional and make that time in the merciless plug. That was that was wasn't even, we're not even apologizing that that was a merciless plug. So pre-orders are available for the book depending on when this podcast airs, because again, that's way beyond my technological advice. So there are either pre-orders or orders are out there, and two more books are getting ready to drop after them. And two more have been written, and I will continue to write until the Lord tells me to stop. And so I my prayer from this one power of prayer today is that you find this book, any book, whatever book looks like to you to begin to build that relationship with the Lord. So thank you for joining us. See you on the next episode. God bless.