Ep.132: Learning From Failed Startups With Jacqueline Maddison

Sean:

Tell me about the idea. Where did that come from? How did your journey look like?

Jacqueline:

Sure. Well, you know, right out of high school, I started my professional career in real estate, so that had an element of sales and marketing. And, and one day I was doing, well, my sister wanted to do a photo shoot at one of the listings we had.

So we let her come in and with the crew and I started directing the shoots and getting involved and I loved it and I was like, Oh, maybe we get to a calendar or, Oh, let's do a magazine. And the idea to create a magazine was born. And this was in around 2008 when the market in the United States was crashing. Like we were just entering the recession. It couldn't have been a worse time to start really any business. 

But then again, that's not necessarily true, I think then. But perceivably, it was a bad time. So we started the first magazine and we decided we would just fund it and just use sales and from our promotions to try and build the company. But it failed because we failed to establish a very clear business plan from the get go. So on that, we learned what not to do. 

Then I decided to start a second magazine, a digital flip book online by myself, separate from the family, just to forge my own independence and find myself, as an entrepreneur in my own right. And that one also failed. But it, I was able to build the magazine and kind of learn the elements of creating an online magazine, but it never reached a level of financial success that I had hoped for, dreamed of. And then rewind during the recession and during the process of the first magazine and the failure of that one. 

You know, I also reached a point of like personal failure. Like I was like, Oh, not fulfilled. I was making wrong decisions. My personal relationships were also failing. Like I just, I just wasn't succeeding and I wasn't living the life that I knew that in my heart that I could. And I went to God, Sean. I cried out to the Lord and I asked for guidance and instruction. And I asked for forgiveness. It was like a cry of repentance. I needed God's help. 

I was just meeting disappointment and running into walls at every turn. And I couldn't break through on my own, no matter how much I tried. And I went to Him, I really went and sought God. And you know, my life started shifting from that point on. I started getting supernaturally guided by God. God started giving me dreams. And I, to this day, I do my dream analysis every morning and I really get God's instruction and guidance. 

And it was from that point where my life started taking a whole new direction in a whole new dimension and a new trajectory of possibility. God put it on my heart to look for Beverly Hills magazine, the trademark. And I went and looked it up. I mean, I had no money. I wasn't living in Beverly Hills. Starting Beverly Hills magazine was so impossible and so out of my realm of possibility at the time. That this was an impossible dream.

And the trademark was available. I couldn't believe it. And I realized at that point, Oh my gosh, this is from God, because this is a miracle. This is an opportunity that I get to build what God has given to me. And I know it was going to be a tremendous walk of faith because I had zero. Zero. I was starting from absolutely nothing to create this.

I knew it was going to be a tremendous walk of faith, which it was. And every day I continued to seek God through prayer and through reading His word and just draw near to Him to get kind of a supernatural inducement of wisdom and instruction. And He has guided my life every step of the way and supernaturally brought the right people, the right provision, and the right wisdom and guidance for me to create the magazine to where it's a thriving business and making money and only continuing to grow.

So, I'm really grateful.