Ceo Mulit-Millionaire Opens Up About What Creates True Success

Hi, I'm Donna Campbell, the executive vice president over at the Los Angeles Tribune. And my guest today, I am so excited for, is Jacqueline Elliott, and she is one of our executive producers for the movie, "The Rise of the Lioness: The Power of Feminine Leadership." Welcome, Jacqueline.

Thank you for having me.

So earlier today we were filming for "The Rise of the Lioness," and you wanted to be in this movie. I remember some of our conversations, and I'm like overseas, and it's midnight for me.

Thailand, right?

Yeah, I was in Thailand. So share with me what really excited you about the movie The Rise of the Lioness.

Well, really, I think that, you know, as a woman in my role, leadership, you know, it's— we need more women, you know, and there's a lot of power that we have inside. And I think a lot of people try to to hide that. And a lot of it that I say for that is because I see like women being empathetic, you know, having incredible intuition, like leading for other people, building people up, wanting everybody to win, all of these qualities that a lot of people shut down because they're just basically like behind the scenes. I think a lot of people view women, and sometimes we view ourselves as being in the shadows of other people.. And I think that, you know, if somebody like me that grew up maybe not having the best childhood, not having a lot of money growing up, and, you know, just probably the least likely to make it in this position that I have today, if you would've asked anybody that known me, that knew my upbringing, they would've been like, there's no way that she would ever like do something like this. And I think that if I can show that example of that, that drive, and then if I can do it, I mean, there's so many others that can. And it came from the story of what I, how I view myself. And, you know, a lot of lies that we tell ourselves as women and we hide behind the scenes and we build other people up instead of us being that lighthouse for everybody else. And a lot of the stuff that we try to hide, you know, like that care that we have for others and building people up and all of that, like, are really truly our superpowers. They, people see women as being weak. Like they seem like they can't handle rejection. They, they don't do good in sales. They're too emotional, you know, they're too loud or they're too quiet or they're too ambitious or whatever it is. Like all of these different labels that people create on them that actually end up being the superpowers or they, they must, they simply think they're not enough. Like, I'm not, you know, educated enough or I don't have the experience or this person, you know, knows more than I do and I I think that if a woman can handle rejection, if a woman can really fight hard for what she believes in, she can accomplish anything in the world. And the thing is that the heart of the woman is just so powerful in this world. People don't work for money anymore. They work to find meaning in what they wanna do in life. And if they can feel powerful and if they have somebody holding their hand and it's just not like, hey, go do this. It's like, hey, let me show you the way. Women have that incredible power to do so because we are nurturers in our, You know, that's how we're built. So if we're nurturers, I mean, they make the best leaders. So why not more?

Why not more? And that's absolutely true. And the stories, the lies, the leashes, as you call it, the I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, who am I, do I matter, am I valued, am I appreciated? I mean, those are all storylines women run in the subconscious part of their brain, and it just goes on and on and on in a loop. What do you think is the number one lie women tell themselves?

Well, I think that, I think that women feel guilty all the time. You know, if you have kids, for example, and you decide to go pursue your dreams and you wanna have this incredible, you know, career, you feel guilty and you have that mommy guilt of not being present for your children. Or if you go in, let's just say you don't make that special dinner every night because your grandmother told you that you have to be this way growing up, or you make, you make for a bad wife if you don't do so, right? Like, I think it's very self-inflicted. What we want, you know, are, you know, we wanna make people proud. And I think a lot of people, like, they're living their lives for other people, for people to make sure that, you know, they fit that mold of what the perfect wife looks like or the perfect woman in general. And it's just, it's just a life that's not, you're just not living because you're not, you're not happy. Now, I love, like, there was a time in my life where I was taking care of my children when I wasn't really doing what I do today, right? Because I went through different stages in my life and I found fulfillment in that. I love taking care of my kids. I love making them a hot meal. I love, you know, playing with them. I love doing all this stuff, but I realized that, you know, the biggest lie that people have is like that they can't, they have to be one-dimensional, that they can't have one thing, you know, they, they have to, you know, sacrifice what, you know, sacrifice, you know, or for what you want or what you want becomes a sacrifice. That's what people think, right? And that's in business and that's for women and men. Like men go to work and they think like, hey, you know what? I can't be a good husband or a good dad. Same thing happens to women. If they go to work, they, they're guilty that they feel like their kids are lacking. But what happens with that mom that's home all of the time and all all she's doing is complaining because she feels like she has a fire inside of her to be somebody. And she's trying to tell her kids, hey, you can achieve your goals and dreams and you can do anything you want in life. And she herself is not happy with her life because she knows she has more in her. I'm not saying to sacrifice your family. I believe in having it all. I believe I can be a badass mom and wife and have a badass business and everything in life if I just am very intentional with what I'm doing and fight hard for what I believe in. Is it gonna be hard?

Yes.

Are you gonna go through some difficult stuff? Yes. But the thing is, that's how you get, I mean, that's a recipe to success. If I'm gonna have that fire inside of me and I have no way of letting it burn and letting people see that I have more potential in me because I'm basing it off of what people think that the perfect mom or wife needs to be like, then I'm not living for me. I'm living for everybody else.

Mm-hmm.

And that's the thing that I'm here like today to like to talk about. Like, I want people to know like, hey, you know what? You don't have to sacrifice anything in life. You can have it all if you really, really fight for what you believe in. And plus, you know, if I wanna be that example to my children, if I want to be that hero for my daughters, I have two daughters and a son. And if I wanna, I wanna tell my daughters that they can accomplish anything in life, what are they gonna do? They're gonna go find somebody on the internet. They're gonna go, they're gonna go look at somebody else and that person's gonna be their hero. Why not me? I've birthed them. I want to show them what greatness looks like. And I want to be that example because if I tell them they can achieve everything there is, then I want them to know like, hey, my mom, she's a badass. She gave it all she got, everything she has, right? Like she works hard. She takes great care of us. She shows us massive love. She's spontaneous. She shows up at the end of the day and she's not drained. She still sits down as busy as she is and she has the time to read me a book or tell me a story or pray with me. Like that stuff is what brings happiness to me, knowing that, hey, I'm not sacrificing one thing for the other. You know, I believe in power couples. I believe in, in marriage. I believe that one person needs to build the other person up when they're down. I use— I'm the motivation for my husband. Like I need to build him up because as a woman, I have the power to chop his legs off and make him feel like he can't accomplish anything. Or I can put wings on him and build him up to do great things. And that's what life is about, to just live to your max potential. And that's, that's what, that's what I strive to do every day. And if I can do it with all of the labels that I had growing up, I mean, it's just, it's just so crazy. People can, people have so much inside of them and it's just untapped potential. You know, women, we're so used to serving others and giving so much, and that's such a beautiful gift. But also like, who's filling your cup in order for you to give to others? And that's the thing, like, you're not going to inspire anybody if you're just giving to everybody else. You're going to go look at everybody else instead of looking at you being that example of loving yourself so you can pour into others.

So one of the things that you mentioned was that fire inside that comes up, that burns. We talked a little bit, you mentioned intuition a little bit earlier, and you've gone through so many different transitions as a woman in the different roles, from working in the corporate world to being married to being a mom into what you're doing now. Something tells me that fire rose up inside of you more than once. So share with us one of the stories about following that intuition and that fire rising up.

Yeah, I think, uh, with time, you know, we have something inside of us. You know, as women, we, we, we have that creativity. We have that drive. We, we want to go for things. We don't think too much. We, we attack, right? And I'm talking about making smart decisions, but I'm talking about like not second-guessing our abilities. Like I had that in me.

Mm-hmm.

And then I got married and then I had kids and then I got a little scared. I started putting labels on, I'm not going to do this because the kids or because of my husband or because of this. You know, we started that time of execution, that speed just started slowing down a little bit. And I created my own leashes and fears that were self-inflicted. So my transitions have been from being, you know, the ballsy one that's like ready, the go-getter, the one that's the dreamer, the one that, you know, is the visionary, the one that, you know, moves the needle to being the person that second guesses herself, to being the person that's like, maybe I'm not enough. And that's when the labels come in. I'm not enough, or, Should I really do this? Or what if I fail? Or what if, you know, what if people laugh at me? Or what if, you know, what if I, and you know, we start over again because that's happened in our lives. We started over and over and over and over and over. And it is a scary feeling, but then there's that fear of regret. There's that fear of regret and that fire that's inside of your belly, like that fire that I felt after going through, you know, being betrayed and, you know, failing and just starting over and all of that stuff, that fire kept dimming a little bit more and more and more. And then finally one day I got pissed off and I was like, I don't even recognize the girl that I see in the mirror. I'm not proud of myself. I don't even like that woman anymore. Like, I don't, I don't, where is that girl that was spontaneous? Where is the dreamer? Where is the one that motivated? Where's the one? I was, I was sitting at home with my kids and I was angry. I was just looking at everything that was wrong, complaining about the messes instead of being like, oh my gosh, this is a blessing. They're healthy. Like, I was just building my own prison around myself. And I was like, I didn't recognize that girl. And I said, you know what? I'm done being that girl. I need to have fun. I used to be the most spontaneous person ever. I used to be a lot of fun. I used to go around and chase my kids with Nerf guns and do stuff. And I would play Ring Around the Rosie at 11 o'clock at night instead of being like yelling at them the whole time. And I was like, you know what? I just, I need to be, I need to have fun. And I need to quit thinking so much and I just need to go for it. And if I fail, that's great. You learn from your mistakes. I believe in failure being like the greatest teacher in life. I believe in making mistakes. I dig from mistakes, even in our business today. I believe in making mistakes. Now we learn from our mistakes. Making new mistakes is what I look for, not making old mistakes. So as long as you can learn from them and move forward in that, then that, that's amazing. But that fire that stays inside. You know, once you feed into that fire and you add a little log in there and you're like, oh my gosh, this is great. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then you start feeling that power and that power comes from that intuition and that drive and that, that all of those labels, you start burning them up in that fire and you quit second-guessing yourself and you use your heart, which is the biggest thing for a woman to use. Your heart doesn't tell you to second-guess yourself. Your heart doesn't tell you that you're not worthy. Your heart doesn't tell you to slow play everything. Your heart doesn't tell you to to be a reflection of somebody else. It tells you to use it so you can grow and use those powers so you can build people up. And that's what I use as that fire. And when I feel it dimming, when I see myself, you know, second-guessing myself, I'm like, shoot those airplanes down and just like, don't even like get in that, that frame of mind. Because there's a lot of people that are in business and they have a lot of negative thoughts in their minds. They have a lot of things, you know, a lot of demons that they're combating every single day. But a lot of those demons are self-inflicted. Because of failure, because of loss, because of fear. And that's just stuff that you need to burn in that fire and just, you know, just grow with it and learn. And it's okay, you know.

Yes. And I always get this image as you're speaking, you know, the phoenix rising out of the ashes.

Yeah.

Except here we are with the Rise of the Lioness.

Yeah.

And you knew, you came on as an executive producer, that this had a message with you, for you, and you become it. And the lioness is such a symbol, right, for so many people, so many different women out there. But you have truly embraced it, embodied it, which not many people do. And yet you allow it to come out. So what was the process like for you when you learned about the movie, "The Rise of the Lioness," and saying, "Yes, no, sign me up. I'm doing this"?

Well, I think when we started our business in the very beginning, like, I wasn't really interested in, like, building like a brand or building like all of this. But I started having people coming to our events and seeing the transformations and having these conversations with these business owners and people that were just really lost and just teaching them how to, how to do better in their businesses, but also in their families and also with, you know, as parents and everything that we're doing, because we were just building people from like the ground up and really finding these people that were like really lost inside because everybody has the same problems, right? And when I saw that, I was like, man, like, people really need to hear my message. They really need to understand. And I'm really helping these people and I'm getting all of these people that I'm changing their lives. How dumb am I to just keep it to myself and just go to speak to the people that are in front of me? So then I was like, okay, well, that's when we started kind of like doing the social media brand. And then people started reaching out and being like, hey, you know what? You've motivated me. I did this and I felt this way and now I'm doing this and now I've built this and now I have my kids looking up to me. Now I'm their hero in all of these different things. And I'm like, like, it's all about impact. And when I see this, I see this as an opportunity. Like, people need to know this. People need to know that they're valuable. People need to know that there's tools and stuff that God put inside of them that they need to just use and open up their eyes and quit, you know, break free of those leashes that they have. And so to me, when you know, I learned about this, I was like, man, like, I've been playing small. Like, I've been playing small. And here I'm telling people, quit playing small, but I've been doing it myself. I've been holding on to the knowledge and the information and stuff that helped me, these experiences that made me grow and actually build a life for my family and break those generational curses that I had throughout my whole life.

Yes.

Like, if I could share it with more people, and give this information to the people that are the least qualified, the people that are the most broken out there, the single moms, the people that have lost people in their lives, you know, people that are important to them, that they feel like they have no hope and they feel like they failed. Maybe they've made a few mistakes and they're living in those mistakes and they're like, they're judged by their last mistake. That I could be like, man, you know what? This isn't the end. This is just the beginning. This is what's going to make you great. Then This is why I was like, man, this is my opportunity to tell these women, these people like, hey, you've got more in you. That fire, it's time to make you shine. You need to be that lighthouse that, you know, brings out and not be the shadow of anybody else but yourself because your story is so powerful. Your last mistake shouldn't define you. You know, it's what you've learned from that and you've overcome. Mm-hmm. What helps other people. Nobody wants to follow the perfect person. Nobody wants to follow somebody that hasn't made any mistakes. Nobody wants to follow somebody that says that they've got their life together. People like to follow people that they can resonate with, that they can—

That are real people.

Exactly.

Exactly. Real people, authentic people. And I think the fastest, quickest way in being an open book, the authenticity is something that you said and have shared as a theme is following what's really in the heart or leading from the heart. What is one story you can share with us where you really led from the heart when the brain told us something different?

Oh, wow. There are so many examples of that. So my dad was a failed entrepreneur, like he failed a lot in life, and that really helped mold me because I saw a lot of failure in my life, which made me very ballsy as an adult. But one of the things, like, now he's a successful businessman. He has a, he has a really good business and he's done really well for himself. But that was after I was outta the house pretty much. So I, I saw a lot of failure growing up. Um, but he told me, hey, listen, you, you share too much with your people. You're too close to them. Like, you, you can't be so open and vulnerable with your people cuz they're gonna use it against you. He would tell me this all of the time. He would be like, you know, And you know what? I'm going to be completely honest with you. Like, logically and truthfully, he was right. I have been hurt many times. People have taken advantage of my heart. People have used that against me and all of that. But guess what I do have? I have an incredible team of people. We have been betrayed. We have been, we've gone through so much with people that we've put our trust in. And they have done that to us. But what happens when people get hurt? Most of the time their hearts get hardened.

Mm-hmm.

And they don't wanna do that anymore. I look at the people that are still with us and I'm like, hey, thank you for believing in us and in me, and I'm gonna pour more into you for doing that. And I appreciate your loyalty. Thank you so much. And we go harder and we love more. And I'm gonna tell you, my dad has an incredible business, but he does not have anywhere near the loyalty that we have in our company because we've used our heart in that and we haven't allowed ourselves to get hard. So that's just one example of like, you know, yeah, logically you learn from your mistakes and you change your approach, but no, we followed our heart and said, hey, what's the right thing to do? The right thing to do is lean harder into what you're doing and love more. And it's worked in our advantage.

So yes, yes, lean harder, working in the advantage. And following all of that with the story with your father, with the failure, you know, most people hear that they're afraid of success because they have failed so many different times.

Right.

But you've turned that around.

Yeah.

How did you switch that in the mind that Well, if this didn't work, maybe I should try again. Because I think of like Thomas Edison and Einstein and all of their inventions. They turned their failures into successes.

Or they were labeled the wrong way.

Right. So share with us a little bit about that process for you.

Oh man. For one, I'm very stubborn, which I've taken in my advantage. I'm a stubborn I also would say was, has been very resilient. You know, um, I think that a lot of people are on a verge of a breakthrough and they just quit a little too soon, especially in times today. Like we live in a world where everybody's so used to speed. Like you type in Google, hey, give me the answer to this. 2 seconds later you have the answer. ChatGPT, blue, blue, and you get an answer. Like the wins happen so fast that people give up so much nowadays. You talk to a 25-year-old that's already gone through 10 jobs. I mean, they don't have that resilience to stick it through a lot of times. And they run away from pain and failure, right? And honestly, like, that's the stuff that really makes you great. You know, if you look at anybody, like, if you look at basketball players or anything, how many hoops did they miss before they actually made them? Like, you have to be able to take your losses and really learn from them. And that's what's going to cause a big win. Anything that's worth fighting for. I always talk about this all the time. You solve big problems, you get bigger impact or make more money, right? So I'm constantly like a problem solver, or the bigger things that I have to handle, the more fulfillment I get and the more impact I make. So with me, I look at that like, hey, I'm stubborn. I said I'm stubborn and I am. If I say I'm gonna do something, I'm like gonna go all the way and make sure I exhaust every single little option before I have to make a pivot. And if I'm gonna run, and you know, a lot of times people break when they're on the verge of a breakthrough. Like it always happens all the time. It could be that extra phone call. It could be that extra client that you talk to. It could be whatever it is, not leaving work on a loss, but making sure it's a win and going home with a different attitude. Not going, you know, to sleep when you're, when you're mad and solving through one more problem. I mean, it always helps that, but a lot of people are just trained to quit. Quit too soon. And that's the difference. That resilience needs to be there. And that's why that failure has turned into success because I'm so stubborn. I won't stop until I may figure it out. And it also like, there's so many tools that are available right now that we just pivot so fast. Too much information sometimes is a, it's just, it's not good because we get too smart for our own good. You know, sometimes, you know, we're in the sales world, you know, sometimes people like try to figure out the perfect pitch and all of this stuff. They get so inundated with so much information. That it paralyzes them from taking action. The speed of execution is another thing. You go for it, you learn from your mistakes and you pivot. When we built our business, now we have all the beautiful systems and processes and metrics that we follow and all this stuff. But when we started our business, we were flying the plane and building it at the same time. And the thing is that we would fail and we would hit a wall and oh, bounce right back. But you know, we just kept going and going and going and going. And that's just it. And we had such a fire and such a drive and such heart inside. There was nobody that was out there that it could convince us otherwise. Like we were going to get it no matter what. And I think that that's what's needed right now. Like people need to really believe in what they want to accomplish and not have a plan B. Everybody has a plan B. That's why nobody makes it. Your back's not against— if you're, if you have a plan B, you have not suffered enough. You don't have your back against the wall. You haven't put all the chips on the table. You're just trying to find a way out. And that's not a way to make it.

It's very, very true. Very true there. And so many words of wisdom. Hopefully we're not ending too soon here. However, our time is coming near. So Jackie, Jacqueline, thank you so much for being here with us. I'm going to let you have the last words.

The last words. Ah, okay. Well, I have so many words, but thank you so much for coming in and talking to me. It was really a pleasure, you know, having you here, you know, spending time here in the home and, you know, everything.

Beautiful.

I really, really hope that, you know, a lot of women like really like watch this, a lot of people in general because we all have the same leashes. And I really feel that we have a duty, you know, you have a duty with what you're doing. I mean, you're a badass in business. You travel all over the world. You talk to so many people. I mean, if we join forces and we really show women what's possible, you know, and yeah, Sometimes we get tired. We work so hard and we get exhausted. But guess what? Like, there is nothing more important than really doing what you came to do in this earth. You get so many— you have so many tools that just need to be exhausted to really get to where we need to go. So we need a lot more women that believe in themselves. We have a lot, a lot more— like, all these leashes that were put on us, uh, on us need to be just broken and just go out there and really show your worth and quit trying to make everybody, you know, Like, quit trying to fit in. Like, quit trying to make everybody else proud. You have to look at yourself in the mirror. You have to see who that person is looking back at you and be like, hey, you know what? This person has potential. Nothing's gonna light, you know, gonna turn that fire down. Like, I'm gonna build myself up. I'm gonna go out there. I'm gonna speak truth. I'm gonna be real. I'm not gonna try to fit in like anybody else. And I'm gonna show what's truly possible in life. And it's not me, it's not you, it's not, you know, only the people that are on TV or making movies or anything like that. That it's every single woman out there. If you can use your inner voice and really go out there and really change people and really care about people because, you know, we have the power, you know, and we have all the tools that we have that are necessary to be able to build people up. True leader isn't like, hey, look at me, like I am the one that, you know, has a spotlight here. True leadership is holding somebody by the hand and be like, hey, let's climb this mountain together and we can do this, you know, and let's not look back, let's look forward. We got a lot of work to do. So if we can change the world, if we can change our daughter's life, I know you have two daughters. I have two daughters. If we can show them what's possible and they can look at me as that example and be that hero for them, and your daughters need to look at you as their example instead of looking at somebody else. Don't let anybody rob you of the opportunity of being a hero to the person you give birth to. I mean, that's what I believe, right? I mean, that's it.

I love it.

And You know, we can, we can do that, you know, one person at a time, but it starts with you. It starts with loving yourself and, uh, and really believing in yourself and really speaking truth, you know, to everybody. You don't have to be that shadow. You can be that light.

I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you so much. And you heard it here, be the hero for someone and stand up as that powerful woman leader that you are. That's right.