The couple faced many challenges in building their business
It wasn’t always easy for Chip and Joanna Gaines as they built their decor empire.
The owners of thriving Magnolia – which sells decor, apparel, jewelry, books, magazines and more in addition to offering stories and advice via Joanna’s blog – revealed they faced hard times as they built the business from the ground up.
“Chip and his family have always had this thing that Gaines never quit, so he’d say, ‘Jo, we’re not going to quit, we’re going to make it through this,’” Joanna, 42, told Us Weekly.
Despite their drive to never give up, Joanna admitted that there were moments when she and Chip “would look at each other and just think, ‘How are we going to make it?’ Not seeing the end — not understanding you could actually get through it.”
She even admitted that they would ask themselves whether they should “bail and get out” at times because it “seemed so much easier” than working through their struggles.
Luckily, the dynamic duo was able to come together and work as a team to overcome their obstacles.
“We leaned on each other’s strengths in those moments of weakness where I would typically only see the glass half-empty and Chip would see the glass half-full,” Joanna recalled. “Just that kind of thinking really helped me go, ‘OK, I can do this.'”
The former HGTV star said that there’s “a lot of power in that” mindset.
“When you decide I’m not quitting, there isn’t a plan B, we’re going to make it through that, that shift changes the momentum of things,” she explained.
Chip, 45, said that “there doesn’t need to be a plan B.”
“It’s sort of like the old history lesson about the sailor or the explorer that literally decided to burn their boat so that they understood there’s no plan B, but I really learned that firsthand.”
Joanna did admit, however, that while their go-get-’em attitude helped them in the long run, they didn’t find success right away.
“It doesn’t change it overnight. For us, it was four or five more years of hardship,” she revealed. “Even though we were, like, ‘We’re in it,’ it didn’t mean that all of a sudden everything was going to be easy and we were going to make it.”
The designer also offered encouragement to her fellow entrepreneurs who are struggling to keep their spirits up.
“There is something about the momentum and the thinking of, ‘We’re going to make it through this, and who knows what it’s going to look like on the other side,'” Joanna said. “But the one thing I can say is, when I look back, I’m so thankful. We would have missed this moment. We would have missed a lot if we would have just pivoted and gone in another direction because it was easier.”