Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jada Christine. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jada Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

It started with a dream, like most. No one has trouble with ideating; it’s literally a part of our human nature. We never run out of ideas. The problem is most of us stop there, expecting it to just happen for us automatically. We hide behind phrases like, “If it’s for me, it’ll come to me,” without ever putting action behind it.

For me, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but in this case, I had a dream one night that eventually stirred me to start my digital marketing agency, The Juice Market. In the dream, I saw six orange Home Depot buckets on a cheap, vehicle-like object with wheels, driving to the Washington, DC metro area — across the country from where I am from. There was more nuance to it, but to summarize, each bucket represented a skill or talent I had that needed to be cultivated and worked on in order to actually become something. It looked cheap because it was a process that would, unfortunately, require me to endure some rough conditions.

I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, and sometimes, as Christians, we find ourselves waiting for God to do something for us while He is often waiting for us. There’s a scripture in the Bible called “The Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14-30). Essentially, a master gave each of his servants a unique portion of talents “according to their abilities” before going on a journey, with no further instruction. When he returned, he asked them what they did with them. The servants who multiplied what they had were trusted with even more. The servant who hid his talent was stripped of everything he had.

This is the difference between the people who make their dreams a reality and the people who remain dreamers: faith and work.

For me personally, I had to first believe that the ideas I was given by God were good. After that, I started putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. I started building brick by brick, and I did not despise the small beginnings. Too often, we want all the answers at once. We want to see the final product before we begin the work, and that’s what hinders us. After continuing to pray about how to move forward, I turned the portfolio of past unpaid “work” I was using to apply to jobs into a website for my agency. I took my first client — for free — and stewarded it like I was being paid to do it. I took it as seriously as if I already had the fancy title of “CEO” and the body of work to prove it. Shortly after, I had another series of dreams where I finally made the move, but I did it with no money — just booking temporary stays and working hard at a salon, using my other talent in the beauty industry as a stylist. So that’s what I did. I got in contact with a salon, “secured” a job that ended up barely paying, and booked a flight along with a series of “temporary” stays that started to feel permanent at some point. However, that would’ve never happened if I hadn’t simply started with the website after the first dream I had.

Day by day, I just kept building. I expanded my site, started posting videos, and cold-pitching businesses. And I did it with intention. Oftentimes, we put all of our best work into school, into 9-5 jobs, into things we do for others, and by the time we get to our own stuff, we don’t put in half the effort. Sometimes it’s from a fear of looking arrogant; other times it’s just plain laziness. Either way, it’s foolish. You should honor the talents you have received by putting in intentional effort. Make it look nice, invest every dollar that you can. Try.

My mother eventually sent me my first paying client, who was a Christian R&B singer. I captured the work I did for her and shared it on TikTok. That video did so well that it continues to bring me leads for new clients to this day.
And that still wasn’t my “big break.” I’m not sure I believe those exist. Most successful people have a story that you didn’t see, then they are suddenly revealed, making it appear to be an overnight success, when truly it was years of hard work. I continued to use faith and work together to keep believing when I wasn’t seeing anything change financially, and I directed that belief toward hard work — working client by client, project by project, making mistake after mistake, to keep walking toward the vision I don’t even fully understand yet. And that is what I still do right now.

This journey is actually what inspired me to create my upcoming course — designed to help people take their ideas and start putting them into motion, one small step at a time. It’s about turning those dreams into something tangible — maybe even into your next job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Jada Christine. I’m a 22-year-old minister, author, and entrepreneur from Southern California. I didn’t intentionally walk into entrepreneurship–it found me. My journey began in middle school when I launched an Instagram page to document my natural hair journey. That page eventually became the hub for my first business, “Braids by Jada”. I would braid my friends’ hair for like 50 bucks each, and post all of the styles. Looking back, the work was terrible. However, I kept refining my skills as a stylist. Braiding has remained my primary source of income throughout my life and continues to be one of my favorite ways to serve others.

The true pivot came during college. After going through a season of heartbreak and grief I dedicated my life to Christ. About a year later, in December of 2021, I answered a call from God to start ministering online through teachings, humor, and simply sharing my life with vlogs. My braiding business grew, and so did my following. I quickly realized I needed to be more intentional with how I presented myself online and started to teach myself graphic design, digital marketing, branding, and video production. None of it was forced or intentionally planned. I was simply trying to obey the voice of God and found myself watching a few YouTube tutorials along the way, teaching me how to do it in style.

I was in college at the time, yet I spent more time studying ministry, marketing, and taking clients as a braider, than I was in class. I remember being in the library, during what was supposed to be a study session with my friends, drawing up a building plan for the future location of a community center for my ministry. I couldn’t help myself. The ideas just kept coming, and I’m a firm believer in writing them down to hold onto them. I eventually dropped out of college because I was wasting time and money when I already knew what I was called to.

I continued to cultivate my gifts by launching my ministry, The JRNE, and writing my first book, “Me vs. Me”. As I got older, I realized I would need to generate more income. I had learned a lot over the years about branding and digital marketing. After some prayer, I answered another call from God to start my digital marketing agency, The Juice Market. I should note that I didn’t initially want to start it. It wasn’t my idea. I was looking for jobs. After laboring for years on my own branding and socials I didn’t really like all the work that went behind it. Building a brand can be tedious, and many people don’t see the value of investing time and money into social media. But I gave God my “yes,” and I’m so glad I did. Today, I absolutely love The Juice Market. The name is personal — “Juice” was my childhood nickname, and “market” represents marketing, which now feels like a natural extension of my ministry.

In the meantime, I’ve opened my first salon suite for Braids by Jada, I’m relaunching The JRNE soon, and TikTok, where all of this started, is still my go to place for talking about God and sharing my life as an Influencer.

I wear many hats now, so I simply call myself an entrepreneur, but it means so much more than a title to me. Marketing is a ministry to revive the God-given gifts of the people. Braiding is an intimate setting to share the love of Christ. And The JRNE is where I get my “hands dirty”, to talk to people about real life problems– and how we get through them with God.

Don’t listen to those who say, “You’re doing too much.” I refuse to be careless with even one talent God has given me. As we see in the parable of the talents in Matthew, hiding your gifts is costly — no matter how small you think they are. You are not being humble by delaying the moment to put the spotlight on what you can do — you are being irresponsible. It was never about you anyway; it’s always been about the people you are called to serve. Even if you already have sustainable income, consider how much you — and those you are meant to impact — could be missing out on because you refuse to sacrifice what was initially placed in your hands. The answer to your problems may be lying within your leap of faith.

People often say you should have multiple streams of income — and that wisdom is rooted in Scripture. Ecclesiastes 11 has timeless advice for entrepreneurs. Verse 2 says, “Divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.” Don’t limit yourself to one thing. Verse 4 adds, “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” Stop waiting for the perfect time — the time is now.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I mentioned earlier that I worked in a salon that barely paid when I first moved to the Washington, DC area, and that I now have my own salon suite. Well, that pivot wasn’t easy. I actually enjoyed working in a salon setting for the first time — I’d mostly worked solo before, so being around other stylists felt refreshing. But after about five months, I realized it wasn’t the ideal environment for me.

There were moments when I felt things were being handled unprofessionally, and I would often step up to uphold the integrity of, not only, my work, but the reputation of the salon. But over time, it began to feel like I was being taken advantage of. On top of that, business was really slow, so I knew I didn’t have much to lose by leaving.

I prayed about it, as I always do, and felt peace about stepping away. I’ve learned that the longer we remain in a place that isn’t suited for our growth, the more uncomfortable it becomes — and eventually, “it will spit you out” if you don’t walk away.
The truth is, I had no idea what I was going to do next. I had no money, but God showed up. The very next day, a client I didn’t even realize I had booked messaged me saying she was at the salon for her appointment, but no one — not even the other employees — was there. Immediately, I thought back to a summer in college when I would travel to my clients, so I offered to come to her.

From that day forward, I became a traveling braider, serving clients all over the DMV area. I built my clientele, grew my network, and explored the cities one appointment at a time. Some people might see that as risky, but I had already taken so many leaps of faith and seen God cover me through them that I wasn’t afraid. I was uncomfortable, yes — but not afraid.
I carried my equipment in and out of homes, woke up early, went to bed late, and prayed daily for my own salon suite. At one point, I even considered taking another salon job, but I knew it would require me to sacrifice the time I was using to build my agency. From sunup to sundown, I was working on both businesses. I couldn’t figure out a way to fit a job into my schedule without taking away from what God had me building. So, I chose patience — I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time, including my own.

Around that same time, I uploaded a TikTok for a restaurant (who would later become a client) that went viral. They messaged me saying the video traffic had increased their sales and allowed them to hire more employees. I offered them my digital marketing services, and on the same day that I quit the salon, I went to that restaurant to spend my last dollars on lunch. They gave me a free meal as a thank you for my viral video, and asked me more about my services, but I never heard back.

Finally, after five months of traveling to braid clients, I signed the lease to my first salon suite. I came home relieved, and that same day, I received a message from the restaurant saying that their sales had suddenly dropped, and they were ready to invest in marketing. We started working together immediately.

All the months of toiling, traveling, and praying were worth it at that moment. I had my own suite and a new client — a tangible sign that patience, faith, and consistency truly pay off.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The Holy Bible. They say that entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey because of the amount of faith, perseverance, and resilience it requires — and I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.

The Bible has taught me everything I know about stewardship, organization, faith, hard work, wisdom, being confident, serving others, and keeping peace in the midst of a challenging journey, such as entrepreneurship, that could easily break someone. It is only God’s grace that has sustained me.

For anyone interested in intersecting faith with entrepreneurship, I recommend starting with the book of Proverbs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thejuicemarket.agency/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjadachristine/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamjadachristine
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamjadachristine

  Personal Website: https://jadachristine.com/

Image Credits

The Juice Market