Joanna Gaines says her next season at Magnolia is asking her to trade calculated certainty for reckless faith.
“It feels a bit reckless, but it feels right. And I think that’s more how faith is supposed to feel,” Gaines said during a September 7 episode of the “Joy 101” podcast.
The conversation with Hoda Kotb, host of the “Joy 101” podcast, covered raising five children, marriage, work and the emotional challenge of watching children leave home.
According to Magnolia’s official biography, Gaines is the co-owner and co-founder of Magnolia, as well as the editor in chief of Magnolia Journal. During the podcast, she said she spent the past decade focused on the creative side of the business while other leaders handled its operations.
Gaines said her husband, Chip Gaines, recently challenged her to remember that she also loved business operations and numbers. She then took on the role of president, a move she described as intimidating because she had studied communications rather than business.
“I felt like God said, ‘The thing you’ve been avoiding for the last 10 years is the very thing you’ve needed to see what’s next,’” Gaines said, describing what she believes happened when she stepped into Magnolia’s operational side.
That shift, she said, helped her see that creativity and business knowledge do not have to compete. Gaines said instinct and intuition still matter, but data and knowledge belong in the same decision-making process.
Her goal is not simply to expand Magnolia. Gaines said she and Chip once paused their work because constant momentum had begun to crowd out their health, happiness and family life.
“Are we healthy? Are we good? Is our family good? That’s the most important thing,” Gaines said of the question that helped shape that earlier decision.
The same family-first perspective surfaced when Kotb asked about motherhood. Gaines said two of her five children are now in college, and she is learning to release the family rhythms she once expected while remaining grateful for the new people her children are becoming.
“Mom guilt never goes away. It’s something you have to manage, you have to always work through,” Gaines said. EntertainmentNow highlighted the story she shared about apologizing to her oldest daughter, Ella, for the seasons when work kept her from being home.
Gaines said she feared Ella might remember her mother’s business-building years as an absence. Instead, Ella pushed back and told her, “All you’ve taught me is I can do anything and everything,” a response Gaines described as life-changing.
The testimony fits with a faith perspective Gaines has discussed before. In a 2025 interview with TODAY, she described several moments when she believed God gave her direction about Magnolia, including the decision to open its Waco destination and to step away from the business for a season when her children were young.
Gaines said the next step feels different because she cannot see the outcome clearly. But she is choosing to show up anyway, trusting that faith can hold both the creative vision and the practical work required to bring it to life.
Read Next: Chip and Joanna Gaines Celebrate ‘Sweet Season’ Of Parenthood
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
