“For me, the dream is that I get to wake up every morning and do what I love with the ones I love.” - Joanna Gaines

On October 30, 2015 the key turned and with the turn a dream was realized. Joanna & Chip Gaines had opened their Magnolia Market store in downtown Waco, Texas. The married couple from the HGTV show Fixer Upper, had been at it for years and finally crossed over to the otherside. The Magnolia Market would be the home and headquarters of the Magnolia Empire. The site of the 16,000 square foot shop along with a handful of other shops and stores, bakeries and coffee shops, all in downtown Waco and under a pair of rustic silos that could be seen on interstate-35 for miles. 

For many observing they went from ‘normal couple’ ‘local entrepreneurs’ to another stratosphere. Famous, successful, unrelatable. That’s how it always feels when we look at someone else’s realized dream. We compare our normal everyday lives to another’s finished product. 

When we look at the journey of Joanna Gaines it can be difficult to relate to. In May of 2013, HGTV launched the first episode of what would be a massive hit show in Fixer Upper. The show showcased the skills and artistry of this couple of Baylor University graduates who remained in Waco and put their skills to use in many home renovation projects. Joanna is the designer and visionary. Chip is the lead contractor and would take the beautiful sketches and designs and make them a reality. 

In April of 2014, the first full season aired and to say it “took off” would be an understatement. The show attracted millions of viewers and thrusted the Gaines’ into the public eye. In total, five seasons and 79 episodes were produced. Each episode gave access to watching the Gaines’ go to work. The designer and the contractor working hand in hand to develop dream homes for people and to help people love their home more than they had before.

Fixer Upper was the beginning of the dream being realized.

In 2016, one year after the opening of Magnolia Market, Joanna Gaines released the Magnolia Journal. A quarterly magazine containing inspiration for life and home. The lifestyle magazine added to the success and has become a wildly popular subscription service.

A year later, Magnolia announced a massive partnership with Target. Bringing over 300 pieces of bedding and lifestyle products to all Target stores in the United States as well as online. The Magnolia empire had arrived.

In 2020, Discovery Inc launched the Magnolia Network. This new network would replace HGTV’s DIY Network channel and would become the sole hub for Fixer Upper and more through a Discovery+ subscription and an official Magnolia Network app. 

So as it stands now, Joanna Gaines along with her husband Chip are at the top of an empire. On top of the Magnolia Market, the Magnolia Journal, Hearth & Hand for Target, the Magnolia Network they also oversee Magnolia Homes, a realty company in Waco, Texas where the whole journey began for the Gaines’. The Magnolia enterprise is estimated to be near $50 million in valuation.

How can a ‘regular’ person relate to this? No empire, no enterprise, no 16,000 square foot dream shop. When we look at the lives of successful people it can feel as if they are other worldly. Like martians from another galaxy it almost feels like we have more in common with local birds out our windows than with dreamers like Joanna Gaines. The truth is, if you’re a dreamer, if you’re currently pursuing a dream, then you have much in common with Joanna Gaines. The only thing different from your story and Joanna Gaines' story is the passing of time and of course the direction of the dream. 

Every emerging leader must cultivate the ability to tap into vicarious joy. There is a skill in relating to other people’s journeys, and grabbing some encouragement for the journey. The realization that people who live their dreams didn’t just land there and the struggle they experienced along the way looks identical to the present struggle you’re experiencing along your way. While we may not have the empire, we are on the same journey. When you commit to the dreamer’s journey you commit to a set of realities found in any and all dreamers. From Joanna Gaines to the aspiring writer, entrepreneur, coach, leader reading this, there is a set of realities that a dreamer must walk through. The destination does not make the dreamer exempt from the journey. No matter the motive, no matter the purity of the goal, the dreamer’s journey will always include four realities. Daydreaming, doubt, evolution, and struggle. 

Daydreaming Leads to Dreaming, Dreaming Leads to Living the Dream

Joanna Gaines went to Baylor University to study broadcast journalism. While learning in the classroom of academia she managed to get a two year internship with the local CBS station KWTX. As any young journalist knows, the real action of broadcasting is under the big city lights. Joanna knew she would need to go to New York City to make it in broadcast. She applied for an internship with The Today Show, Good Morning America and 48 Hours. 

She got the call from 48 Hours and off she went to live in New York City to work for the esteemed Dan Rather. As an intern her job was to read the papers and find the big stories, cold cases or crime stories and pitch them to the senior editors. While on the frontlines of the journalism field she began to realize this wasn’t for her. The kind of active learning that comes from, well, being active. No theory, no “I think I’ll really like this.” Joanna learned by taking action. She began to lose interest in journalism while at the mecca of the journalism industry. 

As Joanna walked out the remaining days of her internship in New York City she fell in love with the city. The boutique stores and interior design shops became what she thought about most. She returned to Waco as confused about her future as ever. The kind of confusion that comes with an internal transition.

In Waco, Joanna’s father owned a Firestone tire shop. A family business of sorts that he hoped one day Joanna would take over. Joanna had worked there for years but after returning home from New York she went back to work at the shop with hesitancy to pursue that path. She worked at the shop, knowing she didn’t want to do broadcast journalism any more, but also didn’t want to take over the shop one day from her father. 

(We may not be able to relate to a $50 million dollar enterprise, but surely we can relate to periods of life when the path seems a little uncertain.)

While working at the Firestone shop Joanna contemplated life. On a yellow steno pad she jotted down ideas about which direction she wanted life to go. Broadcast was out, Firestone shop ownership didn’t feel like her thing, but she liked the idea of owning her own business. She would write out her thoughts on the steno pad about what kind of business. A spa, a bakery, a home store. Drawing from the inspiration from her time in the New York City boutiques and shops. 

On the yellow steno pad she drew pictures of what her shops would look like, designed possible logos and daydreamed about what could be.

The reality is the start of every dream begins with a little daydreaming. A little sense of wonder. Free hand sketches on an old steno pad allows us to think big. No one sets out and dreams up enterprises and tv network deals and all sorts of things. If they do, they’re starting with a motivation that is transactional at best.

In the purest form, daydreaming is wondering. It’s thinking in possibilities. Pay attention to your daydreams. What comes to mind at stop lights and grocery store runs? What does your daydreaming move toward when you allow your mind to just go? Daydreams are the seed that can take root into a real dream. There’s nothing criminal about daydreaming. A little ambiguity and wondering is healthy. Without it, we get stuck in our day to day circumstances and get fed a lie that nothing can change. 

The question for any developing leader - What kind of sketches do you have on your steno pad? Sketches for your life, for your calling, for your family, for your community. It’s not good if the steno pad is blank. It might be time to daydream a little bit - risk free - commitment free. Just jot some ideas down.

The First Hurdle Is Always Internal

It was while Joanna was working in her fathers Firestone shop, daydreaming about the future that a big part of her future would walk in. One day at the shop, her future husband Chip stopped in and they struck up a conversation. The rest is history. After getting married they started their life together.

Chip was already a serial entrepreneur when he met Joanna having started and sold multiple small businesses in construction, lawn care and flipping houses. In the early days of their marriage, Joanna shared her steno pad sketches with someone for the very first time. No eyes had ever been laid on her daydreams of shops and business ownership. Until Chip.

Chip instantly breathed life into the daydreams and a dream was officially born. The transition from daydream to a dream is when things get real. Joanna, with the encouragement and help from Chip began working to make the dream a reality and open a storefront shop full of design boutiques and lifestyle products. 

What started with “someday” talk turned into a reality with one question from Chip.

“Why not now?”

The reality? Joanna was doubtful it could happen. The start of every dream is doubt. Daydreaming on a steno pad requires no risk, no possibility of failure, no embarrassment, none of it. While it can be great to give us a chance to realize what we’re wanting to do, the weight of seeing it through is nonexistent. 

In the timespan leading up to the first Magnolia shop, the future TV star and magazine writer and world-class home designer was full of doubt and insecurity. Constantly asking herself “Can I really do this?”

You know you’re on the edge of a real dream when you’re asking yourself “Can I really do this?”

As she dragged her feet in moving the project forward she came up with an idea to see if there would even be a demand for her shop. Doubt’s way of making deals with ourselves instead of actually trusting we’re on to something.

While still working at her father’s Firestone shop she purchased a few items and put them in the display window to test her future product line. Decorative items for Christmas and other boutique elements. One item was a Christmas sleigh with a wreath. The kind of product that designers rave about whenever Magnolia drops a new line. 

While going back and forth in her head about officially launching the storefront she waited anxiously for someone to buy the Christmas sleigh. One morning she came into the Firestone shop and it had sold. First item sold! A real business now! It was as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Self-placed doubt and insecurity had been conquered, all with the sale of a Christmas sleigh decoration.

The truth is, her father purchased the sleigh and hid it in the attic of the shop. Having seen her wrestling with doubt and all kinds of mental insecurity he wanted to encourage Joanna to move forward. The future titan of the design industry was not supremely confident at the beginning. Joanna Gaines overcame the same doubt you may be wrestling with right now.

For dreams to ever move forward, the first win is not an external proof of concept, it’s actually an internal struggle with doubt. 

(We may not be able to relate to a $50 million dollar enterprise, but surely we can relate to the internal struggle with self-doubt.)

The Evolution of the Dream

In 2003, Joanna Gaines opened her first storefront. 12 years before the opening of Magnolia Market. It was called the Little Shop on Bosque. In an old building that needed renovation the first remnants of the interior design empire began. All for a building that cost $45,000. Big dreams start small. No silos, no beautiful campus in Waco. Everything began in a run-down building in a run-down part of Waco.

As the storefront began to take off, the margins were always razor thin. Long before the cameras of HGTV showed up Joanna Gaines managed her storefront alone with occasional part-time help. 

Over time, homeowners in Waco would come in and purchase decorative items and begin to pick the brain of the great Joanna Gaines long before she was THE Joanna Gaines. She used her expertise to speak life into the design projects of many customers and eventually started serving higher-end clients privately with re-design projects and renovations. 

She would enter homes with a set budget and would use her clients budget to re-design the home and far exceed the expectations of her clients. The people loved her designs. Some of her clients' homes were featured in magazines and blogs all around the world. It became clear she had a true knack for this design thing.

The start of every dream is always centered around “Can I do this?” In truth the question gets at the heart of a survival mindset. A survival mindset is often trying to prove something. Prove something to other people - “the doubters” but in reality a survival mindset is trying to prove something to yourself - “the chief doubter of all.” 

In the early days of Magnolia, Joanna Gaines was trying to prove something. This can work. This can thrive. I’m good at this. We’re going to make it. The language of the early evolution of a dreamer. 

Dreamers start in survival mode. But over time, a dreamer must move from surviving to thriving. The survival mindset that is needed in the gritty days of getting started must subside and be replaced with the thriving mindset of a transformational leader.

This switch occurred for Joanna after years of successfully serving clients in Waco. She began to shift internally from seeking to design beautiful spaces that could appear in magazines and blogs worldwide to a different motivation. Her new motivation was to help people enjoy their space more. It became less about the picture perfect home design and more about helping people feel at home in their design. 

Every transformational dream sheds the superficial layer and taps into the transformational layer. It’s not about “making it”, it's about transforming people through the dream. 

Joanna began to tap into a higher standard for her work that actually poured fuel into the fire. This was long before HGTV was on site and became the signature to the Magnolia brand. There is something winsome about the serving and caring for people that the Magnolia team possesses. 

(We may not be able to relate to a $50 million dollar enterprise, but surely we can relate to the purifying of our motives.)

The Struggle Behind Every Dream

Now when we look at the finished product of other dreamers and struggle to reconcile the negative comparisons in our mind, one major tactic is to assume our journey is more uphill than those who made it to the top. Amazing finished product? “Well, surely their life didn’t possess the struggle my life possesses.” Surely the reason why we’re not where others are is because the other people never had to struggle.

This kind of thinking is the language of the “stuck.” Victim mentality, cynical and sarcastic mindsets that only produce more of the same languishing experience daily. The truth is, behind every dream is an extraordinary struggle in the dark.

For Joanna and Chip Gaines the struggle was enormous. The silos tower over Waco, but long before the key turned in the grand opening the journey was full of twists, turns, delays and situations that nearly stopped the dream in its tracks.

The Little Shop on Bosque was opened in 2003, and closed later so Joanna could focus on being a mom. The dream was put on hold. Reopened in 2014, and eventually outgrown before heading to the Silos. 

The financial recession in 2007 led to Magnolia Homes nearly going bankrupt if not for a generous acquaintance who loaned the Gaines’ $100,000 interest free so they could pay months of unpaid invoices they were behind on.

Every step of the way, the Gaines’ were in significant debt, tight on cash flow and to the brim in bandwidth. HGTV revealed the desirable portions of the story, but the truth is, many renovations were finished at 2:30 a.m. by Chip after having worked all day in the shop and working all day on other job sites.

The truth of the emergence of the dream is that every single step of the way was full of turmoil, and inconvenience. Boredom was never a problem for Joanna & Chip Gaines. The kind of productive busyness and action needed for a dream to be pushed forward.

There’s a struggle behind every dream. If you’re engaging with struggle in your journey, you’re engaging with the most transformative part of the experience. It’s the struggle that changes us. The struggle is what allows us to level-up. Remove the struggle from the dreamer’s journey and the dreamer just received a wish not a transformative dream come true. 

Everything always looks appealing on the outside. 

On the inside of the dreamer’s journey there’s a host of difficult but transformative experiences. 

So too is it on your journey as well.

Stay The Course. 

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