Maggie Jurajda
Maggie Jurajda, is a published author with a diverse background, who transitioned from architectural technician to a recognized figure in the realms of marketing and online business mechanics. With a decade-long journey through network marketing, property development management, and affiliate marketing. In 2020, Maggie Jurajda achieved a milestone by earning her master’s degree in digital marketing. Today, she leverages her expertise as an online business mechanic, specializing in enhancing online visibility and streamlining processes for her clients.
As the author of the book “Connecting the Digital Dots – Simplified Marketing Guide” she guides wellness coaches to transform from invisible to impactful by creating their online presence with easy-to-follow steps to overcome technical limitations through tailored online workshops, courses, and coaching.
What were your initial years of growing up like?
Tell us about your life before starting your corporate journey/venture/initiative.
I grew up in Poland, and I would say I had a pretty normal childhood until I was old enough to understand that my father’s behaviour was wrong and that he was mentally and sometimes physically abusive to me, my mother, and my sister. My mother usually had no say and barely ever tried to stand up for herself nor for us, while feeding the victim mentality.
I was a tomboy girl with a creative flair for painting and crafts. I also played volleyball and did a bit of roller skating, which consumed most of my after-school hours.
I never felt like I was fitting in to any social circles and had neither a usual group of friends nor even a best friend, making me feel like an outsider. I was also the subject of pranks.
At the age of 17, I went on holiday abroad for the first time, to Spain, where I had an amazing time and fell in love with the country and its culture. Upon leaving, unaware of the law of attraction, I wished one day I could live there and have a Spanish husband. I did my best to stay out of my grumpy, constantly shouting father’s way by spending a lot of time in internet cafes. It was my escape, but also a way to find a sense of belonging and making friends, where I also met my first serious boyfriend.
Two years later, at 19, I was practising my driving skills on the way back home, from a late summer, lake party with my boyfriend and friends, and I remember, as it was yesterday, that suddenly I lost control over the car, which started to spin 360. We hit a concrete barrier of a bridge over a river. Miraculously, no one got seriously hurt and we avoided falling into the river, but the car was wrecked.
This event was a turning point in my life, and a year later, in 2003, after failing my first year of studies at the polytechnic, it prompted me to leave Poland and seek employment oversees on a small island of Jersey in the UK to enable me to repay for the car damages.
I intended to stay for two months but ended up living there for four years before relocating to Cardiff, Wales, for architectural studies.
What seemed like a bad fortune turned out to be the best thing that happened to me, which opened a world of opportunities and a chance for a new life.
I travelled to Australia and a bit around Europe, soaking up all the different experiences and cultures and discovering my passion for travelling. In 2006, I began dating a Polish guy who was about to start his studies in Wales.
I spent a year preparing and saving before moving to Wales to live together in 2007 and starting my new journey, studying Interior Architecture degree for two years. However, I faced a setback when the course director, for unknown reasons, indirectly forced me from completing my final year and suggested a transfer to a new course of Architectural Design and Technology.
During summers, I sought work experience, initially securing a two-week internship with a global engineering company that extended to two months and eventually evolved into a casual and full-time job.
My boyfriend and I lived in a shared student house for 3 years before moving to our own apartment, where our ways went apart. I moved to another place with some friends and continued my studies.
Due to a full-time work commitment, I completed my studies with a 1-year delay. It was 2013, and the last few months of the studies were probably the hardest. I was working nearly 40 hours per week and, in the evenings, trying to complete my final project and dissertation. At the same time, I also got a long awaited shoulder operation, which resulted from a volleyball injury, which has withdrawn me from any work for 6 weeks.
On my last week of annual leave, I went to visit a Spanish guy who I met a few years before, which sparked some ideas, and we were planning to live together, which unfortunately left me with broken heart. However, it was him, who introduced me to the idea of being a business owner and to the “Rich dad, poor dad” book. It was then when I started my first network marketing venture as well.
After many sleepless nights, I managed to complete my degree, and with a week off to rest just after, I spent it on my very first business start-up 5-day bootcamp, which initiated my entrepreneurial journey.
Every industry that is now a large-scale, top-notch business once started as a small idea in the minds of entrepreneurs. What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business /initiative? What motivated you within to say YES, go for it!”
Upon completing my architectural studies, I realised that pursuing it professionally wasn’t my true calling. The “Rich Dad Poor Dad” book and the idea of life as a digital nomad, which could allow me to work online while travelling, became significant motivators. Although initially unfamiliar with making money online or from blogging, I was drawn to explore traditional business setup.
Deviating from the original plan of working online for years, I sought to leverage my architectural background and passion for properties to create a business. Investing money from credit cards and salary surplus, I dedicated weekends and holidays to personal development, courses, and networking. Taking up part-time jobs, including roles in restaurants and even as a bouncer, supplemented my income for further self-investment.
After being “let go off” from a job and 4 days before starting a new one, I got an opportunity to partner up with a property developer to help him start and run a property investor’s fund. I decided to reject the new job and go all in to start my new business adventure. Knowing a traditional path wouldn’t lead me where I wanted to be, fuelled my persistence through challenges.
That experience, despite being the best business training, was tough, and the partnership fell through, and after 8 months, I was forced to suck it up, and I reluctantly returned to a 9-5 job in the architectural environment. Despite this setback, I landed my first big property refurbishment project, which management meant to be passed on to a familiar contactor.
The reality hit, within first few weeks, when the builder, who promised to have my back, started to delay they job and really screw it up. Lack of experience and string budget, being a foreigner young woman, leading a property project in a male-dominated industry, resulted in five months working for free, discovery of anxiety and first panic attack.
Luckily, I managed to get out of the situation without financial loss, but it affected my mental health.
I felt I needed to step back and assess what I wanted to do next, and I concluded that it was not staying in the property business.
Hence, after 3 months break, I decided to get back to original idea of learning how to make money online, and not relaying on anyone else work ethics.
This period coincided with meeting my now future husband, but my limited time for dating left me miserable, missing my freedom. Bored and unproductive in a mundane job, I took sick leave due to burnout, and I was fired again two months later for being “unproductive”.
This cycle repeated itself, motivating me to keep pursuing my dream despite the need to pay bills and all its setbacks.
In 2018, I decided I needed to change my career and become a kitchen designer/sales rep, resulting in cutting my income in half and forcing me to seek an additional part-time job on days off.
Facing a bullying manager, my mental health deteriorated further, prompting a move to another kitchen shop after six months. Unfortunately, this situation didn’t improve and even worsened, with criticism and delayed payments affecting my self-worth and motivation.
After four months, my boyfriend and I decided I needed to go on a sick leave before I completely fell into depression, and I applied to return to university for a master’s in digital marketing.
Leaving the job with the start of university, things didn’t go as planned. Course director changes, inexperienced replacement staff, miscommunications, and the onset of the pandemic disrupted my education. As a student representative, I filed a formal group complaint, leading to a two-year process that has ended way after completing my master’s in 2020, completely ignoring the university’s omissions.
That same year, I launched my marketing coaching and freelancing business, and following year, I attended a virtual UPW event with Tony Robbins in March 2021, and a month later, I secured a job in a marketing agency.
Despite accepting the job on a starter salary and going out of my way to overdeliver by doing extra hours and offering additional tasks that were not expected of me, my probationary period was extended upon my return from my birthday, citing unmet objectives that were never set, regardless of my asking for them.
I quit the job due to feeling unappreciated.
Leaving on a short notice due to probationary period conditions resulted in company need to hire me as a contractor to help with finishing many projects I was involved in. After never settling and juggling extra gigs, I continued working as a freelancer.
My boyfriend unexpectedly got a job offer in Spain, which led us to move to Valencia at the beginning of 2022.
Though my income remained unstable, I persevered, acquiring an English client living in Valencia, which helped me get through another 6 months when we parted ways.
I learned that sometimes some people are meant to stay in our lives for a short period of time to teach us a lesson, and some people are there to stay to be part of the journey.
I continued to grow my business and started to get my business to a more stable position, living in a place I dreamed of since I was 17, which has been on my vision board for the past five years, and being engaged to a wonderful Spanish man, living a digital nomad life, while working with a laptop on the beach.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve held onto the belief that everyone deserves fair treatment, appreciation, and the ability to work to live, not live to work.
Would you like to share with our young, budding female entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given the opportunity?
Absolutely! The childhood trauma, a misfit in school, feeling like a square peg in a round hole, being an object of pranks, being treated as a number, not feeling appreciated, resulted in my mental health problems, anxiety, and nearly depression, which forced me to look for solutions.
Being a believer in natural medicine and exposed to personal development helped me find alternative solutions in guided meditation and hypnosis.
Those alternative therapies have made me realise that coaches and practitioners who overcome their own struggles and, as a result, offer such solutions, should have better online visibility.
That led to another realisation that sharing a personal story of overcoming life challenges can encourage and help others to overcome theirs.
Therefore, online marketing and technical skills are essential for increasing online visibility and creating a bigger impact.
Sharing stories about overcoming personal struggles and speaking up about unfair treatments, while also creating awareness of alternative solutions, are key elements in helping others.
This knowledge can serve as someone’s survival guide.
And using social media for online visibility to speak up for what you believe in can create a ripple effect and the big change in the world, we all wish to see.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. There are cracks in glass ceilings everywhere, with many women breaking through to carve out a space right at the top of the pyramid. What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
I think a lot of women still believe in stereotypes created by men. Both men and women are needed for balanced workplaces due to differences in approach and soft skills. I think a lot of women still need a lot of encouragement to push through the cracks in those glass ceilings to be able to really change the world.
Perhaps, maybe with less male ego, the world could be a better place. Without obviously generalising, women need to speak up and not be afraid of going after what they want, without any barriers or limits.
What’s the most important thing you have learned in your personal life and professional journey? What is your personal motto in life?
No one can ever tell you that you can’t do something or be someone. Anything is possible when we set our minds to it.
As Richard Branson says: “If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say ‘yes’ – then learn how to do it later”.
With your grit and determination, you are making a considerable impact, breaking through, and serving as role models for many budding entrepreneurs. What would you want to say to our young women leaders/audience reading this?
If you want something bad enough, nothing and no one can stop you. Listen to your gut feelings and your intuition, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You can do or be anything you want to be. Don’t stop searching and pursuing your passion and purpose and keep doing what makes you happy.