Faith is unseen but felt, faith is strength when we feel we have none, faith is hope when all seems lost.
– Catherine Pulsifer
It had never happened before. But on this particular Sunday, Pastor Bill, of the small Dominion Church in South Carolina, stopped halfway through his sermon. He moved slowly to the edge of the stage and placed his hand over his heart.
You could hear a pin drop in the congregation. Looking up, towards the heavens, awash with resolve, Pastor Bill breathed in and out slowly on that late-September Sunday morning. Little did he know that what he was about to say would change the course and trajectory of Jaime Cross’s life forever.
“This has never happened to me before,” he said, speaking softly at first. “But the Lord just spoke to my heart and he said that there’s a stay-at-home mom in the audience that God wants to give a billion-dollar idea to. So get ready for it.”
Cross wanted to cry and jump up and scream and shout, all at the same time. It was a surreal moment. But also one so deeply-rooted in her prayers. And it was right there, right then, that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was ready for whatever God sent her way.
“God!” she exclaimed boldly. “Whatever you send me, I will be faithful with it and I will carry and implement it with all my heart! Just show me! I will do whatever you call me to do.“
An Answer To Her Prayers…
Two weeks later, on October 5th, 2010, Cross awoke suddenly from a vivid dream. The sights and sounds and smells were so distinct that she could recall every last detail. Even to this very day, when asked about it, her eyes glaze over and she recounts it as if she’s retelling an actual real-life experience rather than recalling a dream.
In the dream, set inside a giant room in the middle of a stone cottage, Cross saw herself pouring vats of oil, erupting with purple flowers. She could see the word MIG (which stands for Mighty in Good) coming out of botanicals. Immediately, she knew what it was when she woke up. It was a business blueprint. Hand-delivered to her from God. Implanted vividly into her mind.
As strange as it was on the outside looking in, her breath still shallow from the dream, she reached across to her husband Nathan and shared what had just occurred. “God spoke to me,” she said. Her husband, still tired, rubbed his eyes and looked at the resolve in her face and just knew right then and there that this was it.
The Birth Of MIG Soap
Before that faithful day at Dominion Church, Cross and her small family had experienced some of the most turbulent times of their lives. The early days were wrought with extreme difficulties. In fact, it was nothing short of a multi-year journey of sheer devastation, lack and poverty.
Yet, somewhere, deep down inside, Cross knew that there was more to life than that. She knew there had to be something else. Her heart hurt and her soul yearned for more. She just didn’t know what that meant. All she knew was that her potential was much, much more than what she was experiencing.
Cross tells me one particular story that was pivotal for her and her family. She had left her job in the banking world, years prior, to raise their young son. At the time, her husband, Nathan, a genuinely kind-hearted and hard-working individual, was doing odd jobs and whatever it took to help scrape enough to get by.
But it never actually seemed to be enough.
There was this one day when Nathan had stumbled through the door. Tired. Deflated. And defeated. He slung his head low and lurched across the floor, collapsing on the couch. In his hand, the $25 gift card to a local ice cream shop he had failed to sell for 50% of the face value just to have enough money to pay for groceries.
“What happened?” asked Cross. Fear and disappointment overtook her as she trembled nervously waiting for a response.
“No takers,” he said, the tears welling up in his eyes.
At the time, they had been existing on pasta. No sauce. Just the pasta itself. They simply didn’t have the money to afford anything else. Their fridge and cupboards were barren for months on end. But it wasn’t for lack of trying or working hard.
In fact, Cross is no stranger to hard work. From the age of 5-years old to 17-years old, she lived on a ranch with her family. Every single day, she woke up at 4am to feed the calves. And along with her brother, they did chores and worked hard throughout the day, gathering duck eggs, feeding the chickens, cleaning the home and maintaining the ranch.
Everything they ate, they raised on their own. And whatever they didn’t raise, they traded for. So her roots run deep into ranching and farming. When she speaks about them today, she refers to them as the hardest working people out there. And still, to this day, even with the incredible success of MIG, she sources raw, natural ingredients from local farms.
Growth Through Pain…
There are defining moments in our lives. Turning points, if you will. They come at times of great sorrow and great pain. Yet, what most people don’t understand is the resilience of the human spirit. I am constantly reminded of the beauty of this journey we call life through selfless human beings like Jaime Cross.
It’s not easy to turn tragedy into triumph. But that’s exactly what Cross did. I often wonder about things like that. What allows someone to turn failure into massive success? What helps give one person drive while another throws their hands up in silent resignation?
If you look carefully at some of the most famous and successful people on this planet, they endured the most heartache, the most struggle and the most pain. Rather than give in, we need to learn to use pain to grow. Allow it to chisel you rather than to break you. Let it mold and shape you into a better human being. Very much like it did for Cross.
A Testament To The Human Spirit
She’s certainly a testament to the human spirit. It just goes to show you what an individual can do who knows, deep down inside, that they have a calling. Not just to go out there to make income. But to create real impact. To leave a legacy. And to alter the outcome of humanity in one way, shape or form.
That is the true meaning of life. And to that end, I tip my hat to Cross, who personifies that and is well on her way to creating an empire by helping women just like herself to fulfill their purposes here on this earth.
5 Revelations On Life
Cross’s journey marks a lot of heartache and pain. But it’s also a journey deeply-rooted in the human spirit. It’s a testament to what we can achieve when we believe wholeheartedly in ourselves and in a mission greater than us. Based on my conversations with Cross, here are the 5 revelations on life that might help you in your own journey of growth.
1. Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers
Here’s one thing that’s abundantly clear as I look at Cross’s journey. Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers. While it’s easy to be self-centric when you’re in survival mode, in order to truly thrive, your cause must be greater than yourself. It’s clear what Cross wants to do. She wants to make a genuine impact. To enact real change in the lives of those around her.
That’s the genesis of the HER Effect, Cross’s true calling in life. She wants to empower other women to help them fulfill their purpose in life. In her own words, it’s “an ecosystem created to surround, equip and support women everywhere as they rise, stepping fully into their journey of Becoming HER.”
2. Poverty creates humility, but it also drives you to prosperity
Cross and her family had a severe bout with poverty. They lived in a complete state of lack for years, struggling endlessly to put food on the table. She tells me that it was so bad she didn’t even have $5 to go to Goodwill with. It is so endearing to see what she’s created in the wake of that pain.
What she tells me is that poverty creates humility. But it also drives you to prosperity. Looking at the bills and getting phone calls from bill collectors was a routine part of her life for years. But she still had big dreams. And while she lived in a state of lack for what seemed like an eternity, there was true abundance in her heart and in her mind.
3. True success lies in helping your customers solve their biggest problems
One thing that drove Cross and had a true impact on her heart, was all the messages of transformation she received from her customers. Her organic skin care line continues to change people’s lives. Not just her bars of soap. The lotions filled with pure golden honey. The soothing balms. Charcoals and creams. All of it.
Those messages from customers have really helped her zero in on solving major problems. Not just the external problems like acne or eczema. But also long-term major health problems. Seed to skin. Skin to soul. That’s MIG’s motto and it’s certainly changing people both from the inside and the out.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask God, Allah, Buddha or the Universe for what you want
Cross spent a significant amount of time crying out boldly to God. She knew there was more. Deep down inside her heart and her soul, she was sure of it. But she’s not the only one to ask God for something. The truth is that so many of us are in survival mode. We weren’t made to just survive. We were made to thrive. And we’ve been thriving for generations now.
Whether you believe in God, Allah, Buddha or just the spiritual oneness that binds us all, call out boldly and ask for what you desire. But be prepared to be faithful with that thing. Be prepared to be the standard bearer and carry the torch and grapple with struggles and setbacks and failures. That is the true path to success in any endeavor.
5. Seek out mentors who can help you on your mission of impact and income
In 2017, Cross attended an event called Funnel Hacking Life (FHL). She paid for it with the little money she had and got to the event and listened to Russell Brunson and the other speakers who transformed her mindset. She was filled with fire afterwards and went on a journey of building and creating funnels for her business.
In the first 6 weeks after that event, she hit $100,000 in sales. Within 6 months, she hit a million dollars. And now is on track to break the $10 million dollar mark this year. She ended up joining Brunson’s mastermind called Inner Circle for Life, which is where I crossed paths with her back in 2018. So don’t be afraid to surround yourself with the right people to help you take your business and your life to the next level.