What happens when high-performance success meets complete spiritual surrender? In this profound episode, we explore how a true Bridge Builder navigates the delicate intersection of professional achievement and personal brokenness. We are joined by Shilo Creed, a seven-time award-winning and best-selling author, whose riveting journey from a life-threatening heart condition to a radical spiritual awakening provides an essential masterclass for any leader facing a personal crisis.

Shilo opens up about the exact moment her health trial turned her faith upside down, forcing her to discover what it truly means to follow a higher calling. Instead of hiding her vulnerabilities, she uses her narrative as a strategic bridge—connecting personal pain, deep healing, and resilient hope to unite people in a heavily divided world. If you are an executive, creator, or community leader feeling like your professional dreams are currently overshadowed by your personal trials, this conversation will completely reframe your perspective on how God uses our deepest wounds to build our greatest platforms.

Key Takeaways

• Bridging Success and Surrender: A definition of the Bridge Builder persona is the ability to hold ambition and surrender in perfect balance, recognizing that true relational and organizational breakthrough often requires laying down our own control.
• Transformative Healing as a Leadership Tool: Personal trials are never wasted. Bridge Builders allow their private seasons of healing to deepen their spiritual foundation, using that restored clarity to sharpen their public calling and direction.
• Storytelling as the Ultimate Structural Bridge: In a fragmented culture, narrative is a reconciliatory superpower. Shilo’s journey demonstrates how sharing authentic stories of pain and resilience builds an immediate bridge of empathy across diverse audiences.
• Maintaining Authentic Alignment While Expanding Reach: When leading or writing for a broad, mainstream audience, a Bridge Builder refuses to compromise on core values. True impact relies on staying entirely faithful to your foundational truth while communicating with a unique, accessible voice.
• Stepping Bravely Into Creative Unknowns: Real confidence in leadership and creativity isn't built on certainty; it is built on faith. Leaders must be willing to step out into uncharted territory, embracing vulnerability as the catalyst that propels their mission forward.
• Leaving a Legacy of Relational Growth: The ultimate success of a Bridge Builder isn't measured in accolades or personal achievements. It is defined by the legacy left behind—specifically, how effectively we have built up and encouraged others to thrive in their own journeys.

Links referenced in this episode:

• shilocreed.com
• youtube.com/shilocreed

Mentioned in this episode:

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What happens when success meets surrender? When achievement gives way to healing and faith becomes more than belief?

Today's conversation reminds us that God's often building bridges through our deepest wounds and our greatest callings.

Welcome to Becoming Bridge Builders, a podcast created for believers who sense God's call to lead with wisdom, courage and compassion in a deeply divided world.

This is a space where we replace cultural noise with Christ centered clarity and and where we learn how God uses ordinary people, faithful obedience and redeemed stories to build bridges of hope. Today I'm honored to have Shiloh Creed.

Shiloh is a best selling, seven time award winning author who's written over 42 novels under multiple pen names with more than $1.5 million, 1.5 million books sold worldwide. Her creative excellence and storytelling credibility are undeniable. But the harder for message flows something even more personal.

After being healed from a serious heart condition, Shiloh experienced a profound spiritual transformation that reshaped how she understands faith, calling and obedience to God.

Today she brings together story, testimony and wisdom from her writing and as a host of the Author's Mind podcast, encouraging others to create, lead and live with purpose. Shiloh, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited for today's conversation.

I am too. I'm looking forward to talking about your story and from a fellow author. I haven't written nearly as many books as you have.

I probably got started much later in life and I'm always interested to how people can crank out so many good things that people can share the word of God with them. So I'm looking forward to having this conversation for sure.

Yeah.

I'm gonna ask you my favorite question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

The answer to that will not be what you expect. It has to be this. Jesus loves me. This I know. So simple. Many of us have sang that since we were toddlers.

But if we could just get a hold of the truth of that, if we really believed how much he loves us, man, we would be unstoppable. We would be moving the kingdom forward. We would be doing the works that Christ did, just like he said in John.

And so really that has changed my life is the simplicity of growing in that single belief. Jesus loves me has really changed my life.

That is powerful. And you think about the simple, the simplicity of that sentence, but the power behind it.

Because you know, Satan tells us that Jesus has no reason to love you, that everything you've done in your past should make him reject you. But in spite of all that, he pushes through and still loves us anyway. And so, yeah, it's a very powerful reminder.

It is life changing.

Yes. So you've achieved remarkable success as an author, but your story runs take a deeper turn through your health journey.

So how does your healing experience change the way you understand faith and trust in God?

Oh, completely. It has completely changed my life. When I was 32 years old, I had lost my mom to cancer years before that. And she was a believer.

She was a wonderful woman of God. And that loss just rocked my faith down to the core.

I had to really go back and it took me time, a lot of time to really go back to the Word and say, lord, I need to understand what I can trust you for. And the answer that I came to in His Word was everything, everything that I said here is what you can trust me for.

And I realized one thing about faith is that if I base my faith off of my past experiences or the experiences of other people, it will fail every time. But if I can base my faith on, on the word of God, on that solid rock, that is where life is.

And so about, like, two weeks after I had really made that commitment to the Lord of like, I am just going to trust you with my entire life, my health, my success, my. My marriage, my kids, my heart stopped beating.

And in that moment was when I had to choose was like, what I was what I said true and honest or was I going to run to find some other sort of help? And I am so thankful to tell you today that Jesus meant what he said in His Word and you can always trust Him.

I wish I could tell you it was a quick journey, that there was a once and done. No, that was an attack that came back many times. But I learned to stand on God's word. And what a beautiful journey. So how did that affect my writing?

I had been writing books up until that time, but that is when I pivoted and really said, if what I'm doing isn't driving the kingdom forward, if it's not bringing his will on earth, I just don't want any more parts of it. It changed me from walking in the flesh to walking in the spirit, like Romans 8, chapter 8 talks about.

So that was precious to me, that ability to say, wow, I only have so much time here and I want to use it for the kingdom of God.

Everybody I talk to who's been given a mission by God to do something usually finds out that they have a certain gift for that. But that gift also comes with challenges. And Satan seems to attack us at the very heart of that, that gift. So what have you found as struggles?

Even though God gave you this mission, what was. What's been hard for you to overcome as you carry out this mission?

I think that as like my personality type, I'm very driven. I love results. I want to do the thing and then see it work. And so when, when God called me to write, I had never planned on being a writer.

I was an avid reader and I wrote my first book more as a project for myself because I couldn't ever find that book that I really want, wanted to read. And so I wrote it, self published it, it did nothing because you're invisible on the 33 million books on Amazon. And I said, well, Lord, that was fun.

Now I'm going to go do something else. And he was like, no, I don't think so. So it was just that continual being, continually.

I can't say that continually being brought back to writing as my calling. And like, I remember the day that that really clicked in my head was like, I'm called to write. This is what God made me to do.

And it makes me think of that verse where God says that, you know, when we seek him, he'll give us the desires of our heart. Writing was never a desire in my mind. I never once thought of doing that. But that was a desire.

That was what he created me for and he knew my heart better than I did. So what a cool experience to have come into writing. And now it's my passion. I love it.

It's what a blessing it is to be taking this journey to the spot he pointed me toward.

So I love that. So how do you see storytelling as a bridge between people, pain, hope, between faith and everyday life.

I went to a business conference once with Danny Johnson, Incredible, wonderful woman. And this is what she said. She said, I get them here with money because I teach about money. But then they hear the gospel.

And that, I don't know, that stuck with me. And I think that that's what my books have been is like. Let me get you with a really incredible story. The very best I could tell.

But you're going to hear the gospel. So that has really been the bridge is people need a good hero. I think for a long time our society was just enamored with the dark side.

The thief was the hero. And we've come to realize, like, there's enough darkness in the world. Like we don't need that in our entertainment anymore.

And we really are hungry for A good hero and when the light overcomes the darkness. So that's really what my books are about, is that basic fight of light overcoming dark.

Because you're drawing in so many different people to your audience, they may not share your faith. How do you remain faithful to Christ while you're writing for such a broad audience?

That's an interesting question. I have to write first for God, and I did that for 10 years. You know, when I. When he called me to write, I spent 10 years writing books.

I had written, I think, 20 books, and I hadn't sold, like, hardly a single copy. And I just did it out of obedience. It was like, lord, if this is what you call me to do, I'm just going to do it for you.

And then after all that time, he was able to bring that success and that momentum, which I'm so thankful for. But I think still, at my core, it would be easy to try to write for people. And that's not what he called me to do. He called me to write for him.

So whenever I have that new blank page of a new novel that I'm starting, that's always my prayer to the Lord is, please lead me in this. What do you want to say? Who's going to read this? You know, I don't. What do they need to hear?

So that's been a really fun journey to get to kind of do it alongside of the Lord, just be his vessel. That's really all I am.

I know when I started my podcast, my goal was to be a podcast that really poured into faith. And then you realize as you start doing this, a lot of the people who want to be on your podcast, not necessarily share your same foundation.

And it's easy to wander because you want people to listen. So I'm curious. You have a podcast, too, called Author's Mindset, The Author's Mind.

What inspired you to launch that podcast, and who is it geared toward?

And so I just started looking around in my life. I said, where can I give? Where can I give more?

And I realized, even though I've written 42 novels so far and have done so much with books, like, I only know two other authors, it's such an isolation. Like, it's A little island that we live on by ourselves.

And so I thought that's a way I can give to other authors, is just to create a space where we can talk about what we do, about the mindset, about the. The craft, the way we do what we do, and then what has to come after it to make a successful author.

So that's why the author's mind was born, was because I wanted to be able to give back to the author community and to draw us a little closer together, because we do tend to just be so introverted and so separate from each other.

Is there a theme that keeps coming up in your podcast that. That you want to share with the authors?

Confidence. Undoubtedly, it's confidence.

I think new writers especially, are struggling so much with trusting that what they're putting on the page is worth reading. And there is that delicate balance, because maybe right now, what you have on the page needs a lot of work. Maybe it needs a lot of polishing.

Maybe it's a diamond in the rough. The question really is, what is your commitment level to it?

Because if you're committed to being a writer, then you're going to grow, you're going to get feedback, you're going to use it, you're not going to be hurt by it. And some feedback, you know, is a little out there, and you have to say, okay, I choose not to use that.

But a lot of us need to grow from that feedback. So, as in all things in life, we as humans are called to grow, increase, change.

And that really has been the main thing that I've watched over and over on the author's mind, is that we really have to have a confidence to put ourselves out there in the world, because that's what you're doing. Even when you're writing fiction, you're putting yourself to some degree on the page.

When I think about authors, my question is we struggle with a lot of internal barriers. How do you help others overcome the internal barrier of I can't or I'm not enough.

For me? That is so much answered in Scripture. And it's hard to help somebody who doesn't have that basis, because all my confidence comes from the Lord.

And even throughout life, I've always told authors that I'm speaking with, go have a big experience, do the things. Like, if you have an opportunity to go somewhere, do something, and it's safe and within reason, go do it.

Take every opportunity to experience things, because you never know when you're going to have to write that. I write under C.R. Fulton. I write middle grade books. And I wrote a car racing series.

And I thought, how am I going to write a car racing series if I've never been in a race car? So we drove up to Charlotte and I got in a race car and we did 170 miles an hour around the track.

And when I got in the car, to be honest, I was like, I can drive. I could probably do this. And when I got out of the car, I was like, there is no way I could ever do this.

I would get to 90 miles an hour and be like, that's fast enough. I'm good. But as a writer, it's so important to just know what did it feel like to be in that car? It was vibrating.

The G force was so strong, pulling me to the side. Those experiences are huge when you're writing and be a people watcher.

I think really we gain so much knowledge of character from talking with people and watching people.

Tell us about your new book. I saw it on, on your website. Tell us what that new book is about and who is it geared toward.

Oh, Plunged, Pursued and Persuaded is a trilogy. That is the reason that I write every other book that I've ever written was practice to be ready to write those books.

And it's the story of Jacob Carter. He's a Navy seal, very tough, very capable, strongest, smartest.

And he's forced into a military experiment that thrusts him into the spiritual side of our world and he sees his true self there. And he's at your feet and he's weak and he doesn't know how to fight. And that's really my story of coming to healing and of trusting the Lord.

Wrapped up all in Jacob's story. But it's a life changing trilogy. I've heard so many people say that, man, this changed my faith. This ignited me for the Lord.

I'm so hungry for the word now. And so, yeah, plunged and pursued are out. And I hope to get to start work on Persuaded book three in a couple of months. That is on my.

That is next on my to be written list.

How long did it take you? I'm just curious. I know for me, the writing process varies. There are days where it just like, it just flows. There are days where it's like a drudge.

Tell us what the writing process is for you.

I was Smoking, just putting them out. Last year I think I wrote five. This year I'm hoping for another five or six. So, you know, the pace is different. Where you're at in life is different.

The time that you have for writing is different. I'm a homeschool mom and my kids are teenagers now. And I kind of was thinking, oh, I'm gonna have more time to write. Turns out I actually have less.

And I'm okay with that. My kids are my eternal purpose. But you have to write what's in your hand, what's available to you.

And out of all the fiction books I've written, those have been easy, plunged and pursued. Both have a Bible study guide that goes with them. A nine week Bible study guide to dive deep into the Word. And those were so hard to write.

The fiction was so easy and those two were like, oh, this is totally different. So was really a different experience for me for sure.

So I'm curious. Everybody has a special writing time. Is it morning or night for you?

Morning, 100%. I spent years writing in the camper bathroom at 5:30am Sitting cross legged.

It was the only place I could turn a light on and write while my kids were still asleep while we were traveling in an rv. So you will find time to write if you are determined to do it.

Love it. One spiritual discipline you rely on.

Oh, reading the Word over and over. I try to always have a Bible open. And it's just literally every time I walk past it, just pause and read it.

I have a little book of scriptures in my bathroom every single time I use the restroom. Read something. Feeding ourselves on the Word is so important.

One book besides the Bible that's changed your life. Oh,.

You know, a book that has been really meaningful to me is Elijah by Andrew Wommack. And he really dives in there into how Elijah had to go where the provision was.

And if he had stayed where he was comfortable, the provision would not have been there. So meaningful to me. Has been really deeply changing.

Wow. What's one word that best describes your faith right now?

Determined. Determined.

I love that. Storytelling to you is fill in the blind.

Life. It's so much of my life. It takes up so much of my life, but it also brings life. And that's what Jesus did. He was a storyteller.

He wrapped up these huge spiritual principles into simple things we can understand through parables. So that's my goal.

So building bridge builders is really about connecting people and their life. How can storytelling help heal divisions and restore empathy in today's very fractured culture.

Oh, we're so divided by technology. We have lost that personal face to face connection. And it means that people are more hungry than ever to connect with each other.

And books, even though we're not face to face, when you're reading my book, I'm still getting to spend time with you on a very human level somehow. And so that's what I really hope my fiction does, is that it draws you in with this fun, incredible story that you simply can't put down.

But when you walk away from it, you're uplifted, you're healed somehow, you're a stronger person just for having read it. So that's really my goal, is to bring people up. If I can help raise you up, that has made my day.

That's great. What encouragement would you give to someone who feels God is calling them to speak, write, or lead, but they're afraid.

It's natural to feel that way. Of course you can't do it. If you could do it, it wouldn't be a calling from God.

It would be easy. Right? Right.

It has to be beyond you. And just like when we opened this podcast, he never fails. When he calls you, he provides. I didn't have the skills to write. I was not a writer.

But he gave them to me as I stepped out. And we so much want to have the entire map in front of us. Very often he only gives us the next step.

And if you don't take that step, you will never get to the end of the journey that he had for you. And it's so important that we simply walk in obedience, trusting that he's able to do what he has said he would do.

Yeah. I want the map, the destination, the outcome, arrival time, arrival time, weather, detours along the way. I want. I want it all.

I know that feeling.

So, Shiloh, what do you want your legacy to be?

Hmm. I want people to grow in faith. If I can help someone step out in faith and see God move, that eternally changes you.

When you see God's hand at work, you are never the same. And we don't see that happen when we live a life of safety.

When we say, well, I'll step out into the calling God wants me to do when my kids are grown so I can keep them completely safe. Or, you know, I'll do that when I'm financially stable, then I'll do that.

You don't see God move and you don't have those stories behind you that keep you going when you're tired. That's really the legacy I want to leave is faith.

I love that. So on this season we have a new thing, a surprise question. Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.

Oh no, I'm going to go with seven. That's a good number.

Seven. Would you rather have unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos for life?

Oh, tacos. No sushi. None. Not a drop.

I love that. Where can people connect with you on social media, listen to your wonderful podcast and find your books?

Oh, they can Find me on YouTube. I would love to connect with listeners on YouTube.

It's Shiloh Creed how to Christian and that channel is designed to be taken in from top to bottom so that you can really get a hold of the Bible, salvation, the simple stuff, and then moving into those more complex, deep, spiritual, biblical principles. So I would love to connect with you on YouTube.

I would love for you to go to my website, shilohcreed.com Sign up for my newsletter so that I can send stay connected with you through email. My podcast the Author's mind is everywhere podcasts can possibly be that I know of. Yeah.

And they can get my first chapter for free of plunged if they want to try that out. I can give you the link for that as well.

Yeah, I just want to say your joy comes through so powerfully in conversation with you. So I'm so thankful that God is using you to remind people and point people back to him and to faith that there's a.

There's something about being able to be in this space to be an encourager, to lift people up with God's word. That's just a powerful testimony to how God works through us. So thank you for your witness. Thank you for your journey.

Thank you for your writing and answering that call that God has placed on your heart to lead people back to Him.

Well, I'm so grateful to get to be here. And I'm just a vessel. And when you're God's vessel, you get filled up with him and that changes everything.

Yeah, it does. Well, Shiloh, thank you for your honesty, your faith, your willingness to let God use every chapter of your story for his glory to our listeners.

If today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or reminded you that God still heals and still calls, be sure to subscribe to Becoming Bridge Builders. Leave us a review. Share this episode with Someone who needs hope today, needs to be reminded of God's calling today, needs to be encouraged today.

Until next time, stand firm in truth. Walk boldly in faith. Keep becoming the bridge that God called you to be Shiloh. Thanks again so much for being a guest on the show.

Thanks for having me.