What happens when the business you love no longer feels right?
Jacqueline Hollows shares her lived experience of what unfolded while shifting from running a non-profit to creating a brand new business. For anyone navigating a crisis of meaning in their business, her story will resonate.
Here’s some of what we explore:
- How Jacqueline Hollows built a prison transformation program and why she ultimately let it go
- What it looks like to trust not-knowing while navigating a major entrepreneurial transition
- How inspired action turns personal transformation into real-world impact
- Why the feeling of being “off” in business isn’t a strategy problem
- How to get paid for what you love, even in a non-profit space
- A new way of thinking about purpose, calling, and “spiritual business”
Listen on the podcast:
From Non-Profit Work In Prisons to a New Spiritual Business
For many years, Jacqueline Hollows was known for her work bringing the transformational understanding known as The Three Principles into UK prisons. Through her nonprofit, she worked with incarcerated people, trained facilitators, and built programs that were expanding into multiple institutions.
Then everything changed.
When COVID hit, the momentum behind the prison work slowed dramatically. Funding streams shifted, access to prisons became difficult, and the program Jacqueline had poured her heart into for years began to lose the energy that had once fueled it.
Even though the work was meaningful, she started to notice something important: she no longer loved doing it.
Letting go was not easy. The project had become a large part of her identity and purpose. Yet the more she paid attention to her experience, the clearer it became that the work had reached its natural conclusion.
Closing that chapter of her business meant stepping into something far less comfortable: not knowing what would come next.
The Challenge of Letting Go Before the Next Thing Appears
“Sometimes you have to close off the chapter before you get the thought and the ideas of what’s next.” – Jacqueline Hollows
Jacqueline describes how difficult it was to release the prison project without having a clear replacement. Like many people navigating a business transition, she wanted certainty before making the leap.
But in her case, clarity only appeared after the old chapter closed.
She describes this as “clearing the decks.” Once the business was officially finished, the mental space opened for something new to emerge.
For a time, she genuinely didn’t know what she would do. At one point she even considered becoming a postal worker, imagining herself delivering letters with kindness and joy.
Then, unexpectedly, a new idea surfaced.
Inspired Action and the Birth of a New Business
While traveling and speaking, Jacqueline began noticing a pattern. Everywhere she went, people asked her the same questions:
How did you start working in prisons?
How did you build projects that helped underserved communities?
How do you take a personal transformation and turn it into meaningful work?
She realized that helping people bring their insights and experiences into the world might be her next chapter.
This insight became the foundation for her new venture: supporting coaches and changemakers who want to turn transformative understanding into a sustainable business.
The approach she teaches is grounded in a simple principle: ideas only become real when we act on them.
Inspired action may feel messy or imperfect, but it is how something unseen takes form in the world.
Spiritual Business Without the Weight of “Purpose”
“You’ve already fulfilled your purpose. You don’t have to do anything else.” – Jacqueline Hollows
People often describe their work as a mission, a calling, or even “God’s work.” While meaningful, this language can create heaviness and unrealistic expectations.
Jacqueline now sees things differently.
Rather than categorizing certain work as more noble than others, she points to something simpler: when people are living authentically and bringing their natural energy to what they do, that itself becomes meaningful work.
From this perspective, building a business doesn’t require carrying the weight of saving the world. It simply requires bringing what is already alive within you into form.
Trusting the Unknown in Business and Life
“Ideas only turn into form when you take action, and the action is imperfect and messy.” – Jacqueline Hollows
Perhaps the most important insight Jacqueline shares is about trust.
During her transition, she had to learn to operate without a clear roadmap. Instead of forcing outcomes or trying to control the future, she focused on the next step in front of her.
That meant listening to intuition, allowing space for ideas to arise, and being willing to take imperfect action.
For entrepreneurs and coaches navigating uncertainty, this approach can feel unfamiliar. Yet it often opens the door to opportunities that cannot be predicted through planning alone.
Jacqueline’s journey is a reminder that business transitions rarely happen in neat, linear ways.
Sometimes the most powerful move is simply allowing the old to end and trusting that the next step will reveal itself.
Meet Jacqueline (MamaJ) Hollows
Driven by a mission to activate change makers across the globe, Jacqueline Hollows (aka MamaJ) is dedicated to helping others reconnect with their intuition and take inspired, practical action.
As the founder of Impact Activator, a school for changemakers, she empowers individuals who are passionate about creating lasting, positive impact to realise their visions and support those who need it most. Her unique approach is based on twelve years with Beyond Recovery delivering Three Principles programs in prison, addiction communities and training practitioners. Jacqueline’s memoir Wing of an Angel shares stories from adversity to freedom.
The Impact Activator program eliminates the need for external validation or overwhelming strategies, focusing instead on simplicity, authenticity, and real-world results.
Connect with MamaJ
Download her free Crash Course https://jbhollows.kit.com/impacttoincome
Join her free Skool Community
Book collaboration/exploration chat
Subscribe for new podcast updates and daily emails: https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/wildspire
