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

Padriana , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Before JCCML was ever a business/brand, JCCML began originally as solely my blog in 2016; I was a sophomore at Clark Atlanta University. JCCML stands for Jesus Christ Changed My Life. When I first came up with this name, I was determined to think of a name that summed up my life’s experiences and my love for God. I had many self-esteem issues growing up as I grew up in Utah from fifth grade until I graduated high school. At the time, Utah was a 1% Black population and I felt outnumbered and out of place from my community. I struggled with loving myself and embracing my culture. Feeling alone led me to seeking Christ. My relationship with Christ really deepened due to feeling rejected and alone from my society. The Bible was the one stable source that made me feel as though I was worthy. The scriptures comforted me and allowed to me to feel that the pain I was going through would be for purpose someday. Fast forward, in 2014, I was a Senior in high school and felt led to go to a Historically Black College University (HBCU)—Clark Atlanta University. Clark Atlanta University is the place I learned how to embrace myself and all that I had been through. I started feeling confident enough to share my past experiences from Utah and felt the need to start a Christian blog. I wanted JCCML to be a place that was my safe haven to share my raw truth. I wanted to offer transparency about my journey of walking with Christ. I feel like once we take on titles such as a “Christian” this creates barriers and pressure to be perfect. I felt there wasn’t many young Christians talking about the hardships, hiccups, and naked truth that comes with deciding to live for Christ. JCCML is my piece on the internet that I can inspire other believers to take their mess to God and not be shamed from their messy circumstances or past. Finally, when I was a senior at college, my professor gave me a beautiful planner that sparked my love for planners and stationary. The planner she gave me was stunningly beautiful but lacked the faith aspect I wanted in a planner. I knew from that moment, I wanted to design Christian planners that were stunning on the outside,
but even more stunning with faith. I had always loved planners and journals but was never consistent with them because I felt there wasn’t a planner that catered to my faith, personal, and professional needs all in one. I told myself that one day, I would design the perfect planner. The
JCCML Planner. I went on to graduate with my degree in education from Clark Atlanta University, still with the dream that one day, I’d start my planner company. Even though I had absolute no idea about business, design, or the planner industry. I just decided that if God gave me the idea, He would show me the ropes to execute the idea. I landed my career as a Second Grade Teacher upon graduating from Clark. Within my third year teaching second grade, I finally had decided to start designing The JCCML Planner. I worked on designing the planner for three consecutive years while teaching second grade. I give God all the credit because truly, I
didn’t have the background to pursue this dream, but God taught me anyways. This was my logic that gave me the strength and assurance that my business would be successful no matter what. I often would see many teachers using their planners and other business women using some sort of agenda to keep them organized and this excited me to imagine these women one day using my planner in their meetings to take their notes or write down their tasks. I was most excited about the idea of one day seeing my product physically in the hands of women someday after only
seeing my product as prototype for so many years.

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.

I am an Educator and Entrepreneur. I am the founder and CEO of JCCML. I got into the planner/stationary industry from my mentor and professor, who gifted me a planner one day. This sparked my dream to have my own Christian Planner Company someday. I have always loved planners and office supplies since I was a little girl. Though agendas have been around for decades, most planners come dated and results in users missing dates and not being consistent with their planner. JCCML offers a unique solution with undated planners. This allows women to maximize their usage and not feel restricted when they start using their planner or waste pages if they miss a day. I wanted to create a planner that was beautiful to look at and hold but also made women feel spiritually empowered and close to God in their everyday lives. Using an agenda is a routine-based tool, and I wanted a planner that helped women feel organized by including God in their daily day. I am someone who personally feels I am inadequate without God’s strength and can often feel discouraged. However, the scriptures and affirmations are resources that keep my spirit lifted when life feels overwhelming. The JCCML Planner offers scriptures throughout the planner that speak to women’s various journeys. The scriptures and motivational quotes provide women with assurance and hope that they are not alone while they are tackling their everyday tasks, priorities, and goals. I am most proud of the pain from my own life that poured into this planner. I took my pain and allowed it to be used for purpose within the quotes I wrote that are found throughout The JCCML Planner. I didn’t want
this to be just another planner on the market, I wanted women to feel inspired and comforted by God’s love, grace, and mercy. I wanted women to feel empowered to achieve their goals and take on their everyday responsibilities.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that perfection does not equate to success. Perfection doesn’t exist in business and it’s the process that is the vital component to success. For a long time, I believed that I had to do everything right and know how to do it all in order for my business, dreams, and role in leadership to prosper. This caused a lot of anxiety and depression for me when I started experiencing the entire process of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is truly a process and it’s not an easy one. I thought from social media and other business owners that running an e-commerce store seemed easy and fast. I had to unlearn that my journey would be easy. When you’re running an e-commerce store, I think sometimes as new business owners, we think the customers and viewers will just appear on our site and make purchases. I thought many of my friends and family would purchase my product instantly and everything would be “rainbows and sunshine”. Though I had many family members and friends support me, I learned a lot of them also did not. I had to learn to not take this personal as an attack on my hard-work or God’s craftsmanship in my product. I had to learn to not equate my hardships as failures. I had to learn that failing was indeed apart of the process. And failing does not mean forever. I consider “failing” as figuring out what works and doesn’t work. I’ve learned that not everyone will be my target market but there are plenty of people who do love and want my product, and it’s about trusting God to lead me to them and utilizing my resources to find them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I remember having to pivot when I was changing my career as a second grade teacher and stepping full time into entrepreneurship. I was at the point of finally about to launch the JCCML Planners after designing them for three years. However, I found myself no longer in love with teaching second grade. I wanted to focus on my business more than what it requires devoting into teaching elementary school. So, I took a major leap of faith and told my principal that I wouldn’t be signing my contract for the following year to return as a second grade teacher. I was excited and absolutely terrified at the same time. For five years, I had a stable income from teaching and was about to launch my new business. I had no room to fail at my planners because it was about to be my sole source of income. I had my faith carrying me that I would be okay because I knew God had gave me the permission to leave teaching second grade. However, I also felt pressure to make JCCML perform high enough to support my necessities, expenses and become a successful business. I found my finances becoming low as I was approaching my final paycheck from teaching. My business was doing well but it was my first year in business and I had so much to learn. I came to a place where I knew I had to pivot. I didn’t want to return to teaching second grade because I knew my season for that had expired and I no longer felt fulfilled. On the other hand, I knew I couldn’t do my business full time and stay afloat just yet. I had to pivot and realized that I could still be an entrepreneur and work a job as well. I found myself landing a job as a preschool director that I did for about two weeks and realized it was not for me at all. Again, I had to pivot. I had to take a step back and ask myself what is it that I loved doing that I could do while still growing my business? I discovered a job opening for teaching High School Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Though I had never taught high school and was new in business, this was a path I felt destined to take on. I had to allow myself to let go of the shame I felt for taking on a full time job as an entrepreneur and returning to the classroom. I had to learn that pivoting doesn’t mean you’re failing. I can happily say, I love teaching high school and entrepreneurship. I’ve found that though I didn’t want to teach second grade anymore, I just needed a new form of teaching a concept I loved—entrepreneurship. I discovered my love for teaching never went away, I just needed to pivot to teaching in a different approach. I’ve learned so much about my own business from teaching my students and I also have been able to allow my business to grow without the pressure of relying on it as my sole source of income.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jccmlpaper.com
• Instagram: @JCCMLBLOG
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jccmlblog