Starting a new business is hard, in fact most people that start one fail. Today we are exploring the important concepts of relationship building as it relates to entrepreneurship.

We are talking to Jacqueline Maddison, founder of Beverly Hills Magazine about her own journey in founding a publishing company. She opens up about her struggles, failures, and success stories. She talks about the role Christian principles had in helping her overcome obstacles that she had been unable to overcome prior.

Join us as we explore how to apply the message of Jesus to entrepreneurship!

This podcast is produced by BeFun BeKind Podcasts. If you're interested in starting or growing a podcast like this one visit Befunbekind.com to start your journey.

Welcome everyone.

Today, we are talking about entrepreneurship and building a business.

And with us, we have Jacqueline Madison, founder, and CEO

of Beverly Hills magazine.

Jacqueline welcome it is great to have you on I know you were

calling in from California.

How are you doing?

How are things going?

Hi, I am wonderful.

Thank you.

Yes, it is sunny and cool in California.

Oh, my goodness.

Well, I am looking forward to just chatting about your journey.

I feel like you have just a really neat journey that you have been through and

Jacqueline, when we first connected one of the things that I learned about you is.

Your story of Christian entrepreneurship, you specifically

wanted to pull that out in your story and you started a media company.

And you have started it in a specific niche that is pretty hard to break into.

You're sort of in the midst of Hollywood and that is not an

easy, vertical to break into.

And I would love to just understand why it was so important when we first

connected for you to mention Christian entrepreneurship was so important

that that was sort of one of the first things that you tell people about.

So I'm just going to stop there.

And if you would just sort of introduce us to your journey and maybe

why that was so important for you.

So I am an entrepreneur, I founded and started

Beverly Hills magazine from scratch, but.

I always have to give God the glory because I am a born again,

Christian and I had tried to start magazines prior to this global brand

publication and both of them failed.

And so it wasn't until I actually.

Surrendered to God and started seeking him and his guidance and

instruction to make my dreams come true.

That things actually started working.

And, and I, and I was getting the divine guidance and assistance from

the Lord to make the right decisions.

And do the right things really.

And that's how I've been able to build a business with the right infrastructure,

the right processes and systems to be successful and actually make money

and, and allow me to give back and start my foundation, my charity.

So yeah, for me, it's very important and I want to be able

to encourage my other brothers and sisters in Christ who believe, who.

I don't yet have the close relationship that I have with the Lord, a lot of us.

And even before I always believed in God, I believed in Jesus, but

I wasn't like walking with him.

And it wasn't until I like lost everything and really humbled

myself and realized that I need.

Because God's word says humble yourself under the hand of the almighty.

And in due time, he will lift you up.

And that's exactly what he did for me.

And the other scriptures that he says, delight yourself in me.

And I'll give you the desires of your heart.

So obviously I wanted to do a magazine, but then he put it on my heart to

look up Beverly Hills magazine.

And I was, I had no money.

I was living at my parents' house, like starting a global brand publication.

Oh, it was an impossible dream, but I live by scripture, Matthew, 1926

with God, all things are possible.

And ever since I surrender to the Lord and he started guiding

me, I just haven't looked back.

I just seek him every day through prayer and I fast, you know, that's

a regular part of my lifestyle.

And he's faithful to continue to give me prophetic dreams and kind

of words of wisdom and knowledge to know how to keep moving forward

and making my dreams come true.

Cause you know, I say God's will for you is your dream life you guys.

Cause he put unique gifts and talents in each and every one of us, when we

go to him and surrender to his, well, he guides us and leads us to use

them, which has our dreams come true.

So that's why I really just want to encourage.

Absolutely.

And I tell you, we all need some encouragement, right?

It's a crazy world out there.

We all need as much encouragement as we can get.

I appreciate that.

And I think honestly, that.

Where we grow the most is when we are in a period of need.

When we have gone through a time in our life, that is just really tough.

And we realize that we don't have it all figured out that whatever our model

is, whatever we are following has just not worked out super well, that we need

another model to follow that we need to look to something else to get us outside

of the situation or the environment.

That we are currently in.

I think that rings true to so, so many people, and I think that's

is a really powerful example.

Well,

okay.

So God's word tells us that the small G God of this world is the devil, right?

And the whole world is under the sway of the devil and this world, the culture

tells you, follow your heart, follow your heart, but actually how many

times have you followed your heart into disappointment, into disaster, into

some form of destruction in your life?

But God's word tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things.

How can you know it?

God's word also tells us that it's not actually within

man to direct his own life.

So God flat out tells us that we actually don't have the ability or the innate

wisdom to correctly guide our lives or direct our own lives on the right.

To do the right thing.

Okay.

So if we, if we truly can humble ourselves enough, really to believe

God and go to him, a whole realm of supernatural possibility opens up to you

to what God can do in your life with a humble heart, with a surrendered soul.

And really I'm just an ordinary girl living an extraordinary life.

Because I submitted to God because I, I seek him and I obey him.

He literally tells me what to do.

You guys like, God is real.

And when you, when you go to him and you're sincerely seeking his

will for your life, He will help you he'll guide you and me too.

And what else is amazing about the Lord is he's super naturally always brought

the right people at the right time to progress me along and God's will for

us this wholeness and prosperity and prosperity isn't money in the bank.

That's the world's idea of prosperity.

Prosperity is a progressive trajectory of growth.

Every facet of our lives.

That's emotionally.

So wholeness, stability, mental clarity, wellness.

So emotionally, physically, so that's physical strength

and energy intellectually.

Financially on every level.

Really God wants us to go from strength to strength and glory to glory.

And he is faithful.

It's always been about relationship with God, even in the garden of Eden.

He walked with Adam and Eve.

That was always what he wants with us.

And he created us to be his companion, but it sin separates

us from him because he's holy.

That's why he wants us to be holy and holy isn't like, oh, I have to

go stand in the front of a church and preach to the congregation.

But it's.

Purifying ourselves and living according to his work and, and kind of separating

from the filed ways of the world.

You know, that's all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

That's the world.

God's about peace, righteousness and joy in the holy spirit being born

again and living as a supernatural life, walking in our divine nature with

God.

Yeah.

You said a second ago, you said.

Knowing the right path is really not with us.

And man, that rings so true to me.

If, we look at some of the situations in our life where we have really tried to

sort of use our own plan, if you will.

And how often does it maybe seem like it's going right for a while.

God says don't lean on your understanding and knowledge

means all your ways, and I will direct your path, but God's word is true.

He's not a man.

He doesn't lie.

It's our sin nature, you know, that has a propensity to lie and be deceitful

and all those things and, and God helps to purify us of that nature.

So, and that's just another benefit of walking with the Lord is his being and

being holy and pure is we, we really.

To become more like God, our father, and to know his ways of righteousness

and goodness and, and all those things and apply them in our business.

You see, because that's when the blessing of God comes upon us.

You know, when we are keeping his commandments and we're doing his will

and his will, again, is your dream life.

Guys, look, imagine that.

Your heart's all your heart's desires were fulfilled, not only in business

and your relationships and where you live, like I'm in Beverly Hills,

God set me up in Beverly Hills.

Like I didn't even have to pay to live here.

Like I'm telling you the supernatural setup.

God is a miracle worker and he, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

He is a God of miracles and he wants to work miracles in your

life, but we have to have the faith.

You see, the devil has been working overtime to keep us in a place of.

Right now.

Oh, I can't go out.

Oh, I can't do anything.

All the world's falling apart.

No, no, no, no, no.

We are children of God.

We live under the canopy of the kingdom of heaven.

You see where all things are possible because our God is

sovereign over this world.

You see?

So we have to walk by faith and God marries our faith and can manifest

our greatest heart's desires, even in the midst of uncertainty,

because he's the one thing that is.

He's the rock.

Yes, definitely.

And so I want to dive into how that has sort of manifested itself specifically

into your life and into your journey.

And there's something that you talk about, or that you've mentioned

before, and that is focus and action.

And I want to spend a good amount of time talking about that a little bit

later, but I want to just understand.

How that started in your process, right?

How that got you to where it is?

Because you mentioned a second ago.

That if you're using the model of Christ of Jesus to follow that

things will just sort of show up.

And I think sometimes we can look at that and just sit back

and wait for things to happen.

Like sometimes that can be interpreted that way, but that is not your story.

Your story is very much full of action and focus and planning.

And so if you would dive in to that side of it,

So hard work is a tremendous component

of making your dreams come true.

Even God's word says that dreams comes for the multitude of business.

So in other words, through a lot of work, okay.

And keep in mind, God is the CEO of the universe.

You know, when I go to him in prayer and I closed my bedroom door and I go

to my secret place or my, my, my prayer room, prayer closet, I'm meeting with.

The king of the universe, the CEO of the universe, he manages everything.

He said that stars the moon, the seasons in perfect working order.

Okay.

Nothing is out of place.

So when he guides you and gives you wisdom and understanding to apply to

your business, your personal life, your family life, whatever, it's going

to be extremely structured, organized systemized, and with repetitious past.

'cause that's how God works.

And for the first few years of my business, implementing the strategies,

God was giving me to build the business infrastructure, which is the systems and

processes that need to be put in place.

I felt almost robotic because it was so repetitive, but that's, what's necessary.

There's gotta be a consistency, inaction and behavior in, in your

systems and processes that you establish as the framework of your.

Like any architectural design, you want to build a home, you

better come up with a blueprint.

So that's why a very comprehensive business plan is required.

You know, God gave me the vision of what I could create, right?

The possibility of what the business could be.

But then I had to put pen to paper.

I had to do research.

I had to understand what it was I was setting out to build and create.

I had to understand.

So that was work in itself.

That was intellectual, mental work as well as physical work.

And then I actually had two.

Uh, write the articles, build the blog.

I had to implement all the search engine optimization or SEO, internet

marketing strategies within all the articles and all these things I had

to learn, but we're students of life and earth has got school for assault.

And, you know, even when we get to heaven where they're there, there's

endless wisdom and knowledge and creativity for us to play with forever.

So it's a wonderful journey of evolution of self and of getting to

know God and of using your gifts and talents because writing is one of mine.

But the thing is when, when the vision you get from God, when you go to him

in prayer, he'll give you, he'll like drop it in your spirit and it'll be

like a light bulb goes off in your mind.

And all of a sudden you'll have, you'll see, like in your mind, It like a video,

like a film playing in your mind's eye.

Cause that's how God speaks to us through a spiritual projections.

You can see the future.

And so he'll, he'll download it to you in that way.

And so you have the vision and God's word says without a vision,

people cast off restraint.

In other words, people get lost.

They don't know what to do.

So God, we must go to the Lord and ask for his will for your life.

See God says you have not because you ask.

You see?

So we must, we must go to God, our father and ask him, Lord,

give me wisdom, give me guidance.

Lead me on the path of my destiny, my purpose of your will for my life.

I want to use the gifts and talents you gave me.

So to quickly bottom line, the answer to the question is that a hard work is

absolutely necessary, but when you're doing what God has created you to do

and sent you to earth to do and create and build, it's a true joy and pleasure.

Well, you are very intentional about what you're doing as well.

I mean, everything that you just described to me just now was, built with intention.

You couldn't have accomplished what you have accomplished without intention.

And I love making the connection between living an intentional life and just

the path and the message that Jesus gave us in living an intentional life.

Because if you look at his life, everything, literally everything that we

knew about him is a life of intention.

If you look how the, how he developed the relationships with his disciples,

the message that he created, almost every aspect of, of his life, including his

death was all based on 100% intention.

And as I look at my experiences, sometimes I do really great and I'm very

intentional about things, but a lot of times, a lot of times I'm lacking that.

And those are usually the areas of my life.

That you don't see prospers when you're not doing something that's intentional.

And so I love what you just.

Yeah,

I, I agree with you and the Lord at times when I was

getting a little bit uncertain in my own self, he would always bring me

back to your intention, your intention, and you know, my core intention.

And I think our core intention should be to fulfill God's will for

our lives, because that is when we.

Can walk in our destiny and fulfill our purpose because God had an intention

when he sent each and every one of our spirits into the earth, he says, I knit

you together in your mother's womb.

And I knew you before I sent you.

You see?

So there is a predestined life plan for each and every one of us

there's freewill and there's God's will, but God gives us the choice.

You can go run off, play in the world and do whatever you want.

You have the same buffet, beliefs to choose from, but if you come to.

Little it says, and if you seek me in all your ways, I'll direct your

path and I'll lead you in righteous.

For my name's sake, because God's will, for your life is to prosper.

You bless you and protect you and fulfill his purpose for your life.

You see?

So it's for your blessing and the blessing of others.

And so when he started guiding me into my destiny, not only did he give me my dream.

Job, you know, which is even better now because I'm actually moving

into producing television shows.

I'm going to star in my own show about my life.

I've written a scripted television show based on my life is editor in chief.

So let me tell you something with the Lord.

It just gets better and better, but.

He also told me to start the God foundation, which has say global

Judeo-Christian outreach, charitable ministry, and I've been funding it myself.

I don't take 1 cent of any donation that comes in a hundred percent of the denied

donations go directly to the orphanages and the other ministries that we support

in Pakistan and India and Uganda.

Oh my gosh.

Sierra Leone.

You can find the link on my website, but that's what I mean.

So God will give you the desires of your heart, but he'll also align it

with a purpose that is for the good of, uh, or the greater good of all.

Cause that's, God's.

Not, you know, for

everybody.

Yeah, no, definitely.

I feel like I've heard, let me see if I can get this saying right.

That I've heard before your purpose in life is sort of a combination

or maybe the intersection between something that you really enjoy,

that you're really passionate.

And that you are also really good about it.

I feel like I don't know where I heard that originally at, but

that reminds me of what you just said just then I think that's.

You know, and I say like, what would you do if you

could just do whatever you wanted and like make all the money in the

world and do it always, that's one thing, like, look to that desire.

What would that be?

Or the other.

Look to your childhood.

What did you want to be when you grew up and what did you love doing?

And, and we're naturally good at it as a child.

Those will, if, if you don't know yet, but you're prepping, that'll give you some

clues to what God put in you and what you should be pursuing and doing with your.

And with your life and then God will meet you there, but go to him in prayer,

you know, seek him, see Kim seek a relationship and a friendship with Jesus.

That's all he wants.

He loves us.

You guys, he's our best friend.

So if you ha, if you're not hanging out with your best friend every

day, then you're missing out because he's the God of everything.

And he helps you make all your dreams come true.

So it's really just that simple.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well said.

I mean, that could not have been better put.

Jacqueline.

I think this would be a missed opportunity if we didn't touch on this, you know,

for the young ladies that are listening to this that are driven, they want

to pursue something similar to what you are doing, or they just want to

pursue business and they are following a similar model of, of Christianity.

What would you say?

What would you say to that young lady right now?

That's trying to figure out how to jump in and start a business, or maybe

even just Excel in their career, but.

I mean, you, are all about entrepreneurship so we can focus on that.

But what would you say to that?

Well, God's word tells us that the Lord is our maker

and he's our husband, which means he's our provider and our protector.

But this is for the bride of Christ.

So men and women fall in sort of the bride, meaning we're the counterpart

of God's heart is his love.

Okay.

But speaking to women, because this allows us to, to look to the Lord as our

comforters, our provider, our protector, as everything as our, our husband,

our spiritual husband, and, um, his.

Well for us is only good things.

And to fulfill the plan and purpose he has for our lives.

And the thing is the devil likes to distract women with trying to seek it

a fleshly relationship for so long.

The devil had me caught up in wrong relationship.

And fleshly relationships that kept me in a kind of a ongoing

circle of going nowhere.

And it wasn't until I actually committed and submitted to the Lord that he got

me out of those cycles and patterns that were keeping me away from my destiny.

And so I also am trusting the Lord for the right life partner and all, again,

everything, the wisdom, guidance, provision protection, and the partner.

So as a woman, a younger, whatever, I just want to encourage you that.

Everything you need and everything you could ever want or desire is found in

your relationship with the Lord, because he loves you more than anyone ever could.

And he's the one who has the power to give you the desires of your

heart, whatever that is for you.

So seek your relationship with the Lord above all things and

everything else will be added to you.

And that's so true.

That is a very well said again.

That is a great illustration.

And I think that's true for everyone.

You know, I think we directed that towards, women, but yeah.

I mean, that is something that we could, we could reverse and maybe just

change a couple things in there and

yeah, absolutely.

It's all about our relationship with God and the Lord.

And from there, our dream lives can come true.

You know, you mentioned relationship development

in what you just said and.

Well, I think it's a huge part of our life in general, right?

I mean, relationship develop and, and getting good and getting

better and growing in how we go about building relationships.

But I think it is particularly important in building a business, right?

Because you're building relationships with the people around you.

You, you either develop strong connections that you can do business with people.

Or you're not going to succeed as a business, I would imagine.

Right?

I mean,

I hear what you're saying.

I actually kind of would differentiate them because I think

our personal lives are our personal lives and we are more emotional.

There we go, a little deeper in our interactions and our communications,

whether it's with our spouse or our family members and things like that.

Business relationships, particularly with customers or clients tend to be a

little bit more transactional, a little bit more objective, but either way.

Yes.

What you're saying is true.

Like God does help us with our relationship developments and how to

properly navigate the, the dynamics of, of both facets, you know, to

be effective and be successful.

And that's why the holy spirit, the Lord is called the.

Counselor.

I mean, he literally helps us address our emotional issues, our depression,

our anger management, our, our, you know, all these sort of inner workings

of the ocean of emotion we have in ourselves that even we can't make sense

of, but this is what God does for me.

He gives me dreams and he gives me revelation on myself.

He literally tells me what's going on within me so I can reflect, I can make

changes and I can adjust and I can.

And God wants this counseling relationship with each and every one of us so that we

can, his willpower, us, his wholeness, to bring us to a place of maturation

in who he created and destined us to be so that then we can also become

the person to fill the shoes and walk in the destiny he gave to us.

We have to grow and become that person.

It's a personal evolution of self.

Yeah, I think that is true.

Definitely think that's true.

Let me maybe ask it this way and just to get your input on this.

So you made a distinction between the two, between personal and

between personal relationships.

Yeah.

Professional relationships and personal relationships.

Do you think that the actual process that you would go through in developing those

are different or do you think personal relationships just go through that same

process, but just continue to go deeper.

Do you think the initial process, the same skill sets, the same

talents, the same gifts that you would use to develop relationships?

Generally speaking are the same in, in both.

Would you say that?

Yeah, I think that, you know, once the

Lord teaches you how to be.

That's a certain way, how to communicate a certain way, how to understand

people in a certain way, how to look at circumstances in a certain light that

can be applied to any, any relationship.

Yes.

Professional or personal what's.

What's so amazing about the Lord is he actually will open my

understanding and reveal to me the intentions of somebody's heart,

whether in business or personal life.

I know whether or not they're deceiving me or whether or not they're truly

loyal, or I know what, in other words, I know what their intentions are.

Okay.

So God has this power to do this.

And so he's opened my mind and it's actually been shocking sometimes

because he's revealed the intentions of my family members to me.

And I was disappointed to say the least, but it's a wonderful.

Assets to have when the Lord does this for you, because now you're not blind.

Now, you know who to fire, who to hire, who not to answer their

messages or pick up their call.

You know what I mean?

This is how God protects us.

You back.

He gives us revelation into the intentions of those around us.

So we know whether they're an ending.

Or a friend because God's word tells us he protects us from,

that protects us from enemy.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

So what would you say would be the best relationship skill that you've

developed in through your business that has made you successful in what

you have done in your particular niche and your particular vertical?

Is there something that just jumps out and says this.

This one implementation of this characteristic has changed my life.

Well,

I read a book which was very interesting

and I think it's worth mentioning it's called the speed of trust.

Okay.

So that's one.

I definitely recommend, of course, first and foremost is the Holy Bible.

The second book is called the, oh gosh, what is it?

How can I forget right now?

It's the prosperity Bible.

And it's got, it's a collection of about 12 different spiritual

success, success books written by.

Very well-known and most of them are Christian authors actually.

So that's the, and then third of many on the list is speed of trust.

But that applies because open and honest and direct communication

has been that the main skill that makes my personal relationships or

professional relationships stronger.

Being very transparent.

I'm a wear my heart on my sleeve kind of gal.

And I think it's that openness and vulnerability that is attractive.

There's not a lot of that.

People are usually dog eat dog they're, you know, out for themselves.

And they always that there's hidden agendas, underlying motives,

and that's, that can be sensed.

We innately can get a feeling of distrust and.

Isn't going is not conducive to a healthy, loving win-win relationship, whether in

personal or professional environments.

So I apply that to all my, to my whole life is just to be open and

honest and direct and transparent.

And that definitely goes a long way.

Yeah, no, definitely.

I think vulnerability is a huge skillset and I don't know why.

It seems like sometimes we try to view.

Vulnerability as a weakness because it is definitely not.

And maybe not everyone does, but definitely some people view vulnerability

as a weak point in their life.

And so they avoid it, but it is so, so powerful when you're around people

that are vulnerable, you know, so

powerful.

And I think it's synonymous with humility.

And I say, humility is the key that unlocks all doors,

especially in God's kingdom.

And that's why.

To Jesus, you know, humility is one of the highest virtues, you know,

that's why God says humble yourself under my hand, and I'll lift you up

and God gives grace to the humble.

And part of that is being willing to be totally.

Honest and vulnerable with your feelings and thoughts, even if they may at times

be offensive or whatever, but at least you're getting to the point you're

getting to the heart of the matter.

And you've got to be comfortable with your emotions and expressing

them whatever they are, because that's what being vulnerable is.

Yeah, absolutely.

It really is such a great skillset to have if you don't have it,

I mean, you can develop it.

We should develop it, but such a powerful thing to have Jacqueline.

I know we have got another episode with you and we're going to dive even

a little bit deeper into some of your experiences and some of your story.

And so looking forward to that, but this has been amazing.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Jacqueline Maddison: Oh, it's been an honor.

God bless you.

And thank you.

And I look forward to speaking with you soon.