Leadership is not just a title, it comes with a price, and the first cost is loneliness. But those who are willing to pay the price and lead with courage and conviction, will inspire others to follow and change the world. In today's episode, we'll be chatting with Derrick Jackson and Tavia Jackson. They are the joyful married couple who own Tastebuds Popcorn in Concord, North Carolina. Together, they discuss what it means to be a true leader. They share the valuable insights and gold nuggets they earned in their 10 years of experience in network marketing and leadership development. They explore the first cost of leadership as discussed in “The Price of Leadership”, which is loneliness. Derrick and Tavia discuss what loneliness looks like for leaders, and share their own perspectives and experiences about the sacrifices and challenges of the role. Further on, they emphasize the value of resilience, unexpected connections, and more. Tune in now and gain insight on what it takes and costs to be a true leader!
—-
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Derrick And Tavia Jackson - Leaders On Leadership
I am so excited because my guests are Derrick and Tavia Jackson. Let me tell you a little bit about these two. Derrick and Tavia Jackson are happily married. They love the Lord and own Tastebuds Popcorn Concord in Concord, North Carolina. That is the trifecta, happily married, loving the Lord, and popcorn, my favorite food. More about that to come. They have over a decade of experience in network marketing and leadership development. Tavia is a veteran, and she has served in the United States Marine Corps. Respect, sister. I love that. Derrick and Tavia, welcome. Thank you for taking the time to share with our audiences.
Thank you so much for having us. We're honored to be here.
It's our pleasure.
I always like to tell our audiences how we made this tremendous connection. That is through Nikita Koloff. Many of our audiences know that Nikita has been a longtime friend of mine and brother in Christ. He has been on the show himself. We do a monthly Zoom call in the last few years. He connected with you two and then reached out. We connected, and the rest is history. You never know who you're going to get connected with. Do those follow-up calls with people. I can't encourage you enough.
Before we get started, my father wrote a pamphlet called The Price of Leadership based on a speech that he gave years ago. He was all about leadership. In it, he talks about the price of leadership, meaning what you're going to have to pay as a price to be a true leader, not just a leader in name only. Derrick and Tavia, the first price that he said you have to pay is loneliness. We have all heard that, "Heavy is the head that wears the crown. It's lonely at the top," but could you share with our audiences what loneliness means to you and looks like as a leader?
With Tastebuds Popcorn Concord, we launched that business in the middle of the pandemic. It was loneliest at that point in time. We already knew entrepreneurship was a very lonely place but in that particular time, everyone was so isolated from one another. We have the tendency to lean into what everyone is not doing because that's usually where success is. It's outside of our comfort zone. We have gotten comfortable being uncomfortable. We decided to start a business with a lot of human interaction during a time when humans weren't interacting. There are a lot of ideas and great ways to make money from friends but let's take some action.
We agreed in December 2020 to launch our business during the middle of the pandemic. There are lots of feelings associated with the uncertainty and the trepidation of, "I don't have too many people to ask. Everyone I talk to about starting a business now is probably going to try to talk me out of it. Let's keep this one close to our chests and only confide in people that understand our potential and the calling of our life." It was a very lonely start. There was funding available from the Federal Government but we started the idea after all that. It seemed like where we want small businesses to survive, we missed a lot of those windows. That was even lonelier in that regard.
How did you come to popcorn?
I love popcorn. I used to send Derrick all over to get popcorn, or I would chip popcorn places. One day, I asked him to get popcorn for me. He was driving probably about 45 minutes to an hour away to get popcorn. He ran into a gentleman that said, "I want to talk to you about our possible opportunity." Derrick came home. He was so excited. I said, "I'm sure that it's more work than whatever somebody told you. Let's pray about this and make sure it's what we should be doing as a family."
At that time, we had three children. Creed was eight months at the time. Zoe was 7 and Creed was 8 months old. We prayed about it and fasted about it for a month. We asked our spiritual leaders and our pastors, "Can you pray with us and fast with us about this and let us know what you're hearing as well?" One day, Zoe came downstairs and said, "Creed was born on National Popcorn Day." "First, how do you even know that? Two, let me google it."
I did that. Sure enough, Creed was born on January 19th. I was in the hospital for three days in labor. I winded up having him on that third day at 1:00 in the morning. I said, "You mean to tell me I was in the hospital all those days pushing because we were waiting for National Popcorn Day as a confirmation?" It was so awesome. Everyone in our family loves popcorn. We have loved popcorn since we were kids. We have Christmas pictures holding the two-gallon tins. We have always loved popcorn.
Think about the implications of three days. There are a lot of biblical things that were for three days before they were birthed.
That puts chills in my arms.
You saying that puts chills in mine. Thank you for sharing that and your comment about, "Be careful who you tell your dream to. Only tell it to the people that see your potential." Even Disney's closest friends are like, "You're crazy. Don't do this." You have to be very discerning about this when you have the calling because people aren't going to see it. Tavia, we will talk at the end. Popcorn is my favorite. I could eat popcorn in the morning. I love it. When I saw you were popcorn, I'm like, "That's another thing." I love that. We will get back onto leadership because I'm excited about popcorn too. Were you already employed elsewhere or running your businesses?
We were both employed at major banks. I also own two other businesses. One of them is doing makeup. I do makeup for weddings, events, and TV and film as well. Derrick had other adventures as well. We had multiple things going on. We're also very involved in our church. I'm an elder at our church as well. Derrick is a minister at our church. We had many irons in the fire at the time as well.
Did you then look at that timing other than the Lord laying it on your heart because the banks were still not as active or makeup? You have an entrepreneurial streak. What made you decide to go in that direction?
Derrick and I have done business together since we graduated college. We went to Elon University, the Fightin’ Christians, which turned into the phoenix out of the ashes. Everybody loves a good success story and an overcoming story. Right after college, it was Quixtar at the time. It wasn't Amway.
I remember that. Executive Books was involved in that. You're taking me way back.
We built that together. We were dating at the time. At first, he was in the business, and then he brought me into the business. We got married and combined our businesses together. We learned how to do business together with our temperaments, strengths, weaknesses, love languages, and communication styles. We wanted to do something else together. We wanted to add more to our business acumen and what we're doing.
When the Lord dropped popcorn, I was thinking, "It's brick and mortar, God. Can you give me something that people only get online? Do I have to go somewhere?" You realize the risk is higher with the real building. His answer did not change, and I'm fine with that. We wanted to continue to do things together. I'm doing makeup. I do coaching now and things like that. Derrick supported me in everything I was doing but we still wanted to do something where we were 100% together.
In talking about loneliness, how beautiful that not only are you in the covenantal relationship of a marriage but you have taken that to be business partners. The cord of three strands is not easily broken. There's power in that. A lot of the guests that we have on here do have a spouse that works closely with them but there are still times of loneliness. We all go through them but how beautiful that you had a co-partner in life in all aspects. That is truly a gift.
Tavia was one of those people I could confide in. We understood that the world was at such a lonely point that we could be a part of the solution. We can be a catalyst for bringing people back together. If we're going to do that, we have to do something where there's nostalgia involved in family, freedom, fun, and certain themes that are prevalent in our culture. Popcorn was a way to be able to do that. I knew she was going to bring her light, her smile, and all that fun stuff to the equation. When we put our heads together, nothing is impossible.
I love that. The next topic my father talked about was weariness. He said that a lot of times, you're going to be working your fingers to the bone and you're going to be relying on people. Not everybody is doing what they need to be, and it's going to fall on you. You're married. You're involved in your church and your community. You have children. How do you combat weariness?
For myself, it's an understanding that you grow weary in well-doing. If you're not at some level of awareness, you're probably not doing what you're supposed to be doing. You're out of purpose, or at least that's how I interpret it. To be well-doing, there's doing involved. We stay active. We stay participating in this thing called life. We have been a part of the 80/20 equation or the Pareto Principle where 80% of the people do 20% of the work, and the other 20% are doing 80% of the work.
We have been there. Even in that 20%, there's a smaller percentage that is running with what we know. That was nothing unfamiliar to us. We have always been high-level achievers, whether it be in church, whether it be in Corporate America, or whether it be in business for ourselves, or even in relationships. Being able to go the extra mile because there's no traffic there has never been an issue for us. Tavia, do you want to speak to it?
There's a book called Now, Discover Your Strengths. Two of my top five are Responsibility and Relator. One of Derrick's is Maximizer. We take responsibility for what we're involved in. Sometimes you do get tired. I remember one time shortly after having Creed, working, and running multiple businesses. When I woke up, I was crying because I was already tired. I had to come up with my plan and create my system so that I was able to function in a place of peace and not be exhausted.
Weariness is a state of our mentality as well. Sometimes we are mentally tired and mentally exhausted. It's important to have self-care, systems, and family in place. It's important to not carry it all, communicate, and release some of those things. We journal. Our faith is so important to us, being able to trust God in situations and having an optimistic outlook because we know it's not over until it's good. He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.
Sometimes we are mentally exhausted. It's important to have self-care in place, as well as systems and family.
I don't want to look back over my life and the story and say, "You wanted to complain through the story knowing that you were going to win instead of enjoying the journey, believing in God, having faith, and letting praise, honor, and joy be your testimony." I remember that in every situation and everything that happens when I have to tell this story, am I going to be proud of it? How am I going to feel?
I love it. I interviewed Mike Ettore. He retired from the Marines as a Command Master Sergeant. He said, "In the Marines, we call it a bias for action," meaning we're going to get whatever we said. You are coded that way. Another one of my favorite quotes is from Lena Horne, "It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it." Life is tough. Think of what Jesus went through. You offload and get the right people. If God called you to it, he's going to equip you.
We don't want to spend 40 years wandering around in circles. That's what grouses will do to you. You will carry that weariness on the inside. We're all externally weary because we're mere flesh and blood, and we're going to break down until we get our renewed bodies but intrinsically, we still should be ready and always look to share that load. That's so beautifully put for both of you.
There's loneliness and weariness. The next terminology my father talked about was a word called abandonment. Abandonment typically has a negative connotation. There's fear of abandonment. I'm in pet rescue. His abandonment was that you need to focus on what you ought and need to do rather than what you like and want to do. I can remember seeing my father. I was a teenager in high school. He was so successful. He was telling me, "You may think I'm successful but I do more in a single day to contribute to my failure than my success."
His point was if you're not meticulous about expunging and staying focused on your best and highest for God, you can do a lot of rabbit trails. With all these things on your plates, because entrepreneurs by nature and people that are gifted tend to carry a lot of different things because they're always in different zones of gifting, how do you stay focused on what you need to stay focused on?
I had to realize that I was willing to do what most people weren't willing to do for a certain amount of time so that we could live a life like no other. I don't believe that this thing called life is a dress rehearsal. We get one major shot at it. There's lots of grace inside there. You can make mistakes along the way but ultimately, we want to use our life so that the use of our life outlives our life. We do everything with the X factor involved, which means we're developing a legacy. We want to have our name spoken well of. We want to be good glory carriers for the father. It's being able to abandon some of the things that my friends were doing or that weren't leading necessarily to success. They were just topical self-care.
Life is not a dress rehearsal. There's lots of grace inside there. You can make mistakes along the way, but ultimately we want to use our life.
The way I like to look at self-care is it's not bath bombs and back massages. It's more about creating a life that you no longer long to escape from. We try to have viable feedback loops for one another, "We're not doing what everyone else is doing. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun but it's not the wisest financial decision for our household. It's not the right thing for where we're going and what our calling is. We have to paddle our canoe. We have to run our race." It's cultivating a life around that.
We set measurable goals as well. I have a background in project management. I'm also a certified Scrum Master. In Agile and Scrum, we do two-week sprints. It's very easy for me to set a goal, say, "This is what we need to do. These are the productivity goals that need to happen," and monitor it daily to make sure that it happens. Sometimes we are not focused because the goal and the vision are not in front of us. Maybe we did not write it down. Maybe we wrote it down at the high level but we didn't flesh it out to all the pieces of the goal and everything that we need to do.
We may have a team goal and not make a specific goal for ourselves, realizing that there are so many variables that can impact that goal. We also have mentors and coaches in place that help with clarification and accountability. One day, Derrick taught me to give the gift of no. Sometimes abandonment is, "I'm not going to do that." Walk in your power in it. It's not that I can't. I used to say, "I can't." I can but I'm not. It's understanding the reality of that in a kind way and staying focused.
I had to grow from being a people pleaser but when I looked at it spiritually, my steps are ordered by the Lord. If I'm not being obedient to where God wants me to be and who he's calling me to interact with at a time, I'm missing valuable things that I could be doing for the kingdom and for other people to assist. It's not about the person who wanted me to do something that I had to say no to. Ultimately, am I pleasing my heavenly father and what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis? If he gave us a vision, am I also pleasing him by following through to bring that to pass?
We also decided to be positive about our word choices. There are times when you would say in more so a victim mentality, "I'm not going to be able to do that." Someone invites somebody somewhere, "I can't do that." I get to do everything that I am doing because I'm on purpose. It's not, "I can't." I get to do so and so. It's the mentality of making a positive word choice about the price that you're paying, "I'm going to do this." I get to do X, Y, and Z as opposed to the negative or sad words that we may say sometimes.
Lastly, I want to say that when it comes to staying focused, sometimes our brain does go to different places. We have social media. Some people may not use it as often as others but there are phone calls, TV, and many things that are screaming for our attention daily, even our thoughts. When it comes to our thoughts, I always say, "You can't interrupt a thought with a thought. You have to speak out loud and change the course." It's a simple example if I told Derrick to count to ten.
1, 2, 3, 4.
What's your name?
Derrick.
He had to stop counting to say his name. When you start to speak out loud, you have to stop thinking about what you used to be thinking to say something else out loud. It's the same thing with songs that get stuck in our heads. I don't like this crazy song. I heard it somewhere. It's stuck in my head. I'm walking through the grocery store. This random music they're playing is stuck in my head. This is not what I want to say. It's not what I pronounce. It's not what I want to think. What do I do? I pick a different song to sing and sing it out loud. It's making sure we do the simple things to keep our brain on track and going where we want it to go and then reprogramming our subconscious mind to do the same thing.
When you start to speak out loud, you have to stop thinking what you used to be thinking to say something else out loud.
You mentioned the words on purpose. A lot of people are like, "We need to be on purpose." We all have the same 24 hours every day. I even saw a mug on Amazon that says, "You have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce." I was busting out. Time is the great equalizer. It's what you do in those moments. I love how you said not just on purpose but in purpose every day in every way your billable hours like you're a lawyer.
At the end of the day, you go to God and say, "Here you go. I spent an hour dorking around. That wasn't in productive rest. It was wasted." I love that you said that. If we weren't recording, I would stop recording, shout, and run around the room. What you're saying is so exciting but we have to finish this recording. I already have 50 book titles for you. I cannot even get over the wisdom and your giftedness in sharing it. Thank you.
You mentioned the V word for vision, Tavia, when you were answering. Derrick, you did too. Let's talk about the vision. I'm not particularly visionary but my father said, "Vision is seeing what needs to be done and then doing the plan of attack." How do you craft your vision? You've talked about the calling for the Lord and getting the right help but even where you're at now with everything going on, how do you craft what's next? Leadership is all about the idealized vision of the future.
The first thing we focus on is clarity of vision because I'm an ideation type of person. Ideas come very fluently. They're almost like red bouncy balls to a puppy, "I could do that. I'm capable." I could be productive in everything but it's not necessarily in purpose. That helps to prioritize so that we're not serial entrepreneurs but everything is feeding a common purpose. We stay locked in the people who know because I may know how to do a particular task but that person can see it from a different vantage point, whereas the thing that's closest to me may be the most pertinent thing at that particular moment.
Be able to step back a little bit and say, "We know that without vision, people perish." As soon as you get a vision, you stop perishing. That's a very comforting thought. I'm capable of a lot of things and I'm blessed to do a lot of things but I can't do everything. The vision has to align with our priorities as well. There are certain non-negotiables inside there. Our marriage is number one. Our family is number two. There's God, family, business, and country. There are certain things that are paramount to our decision-making in the process.
True Leader: As soon as you get a vision, you stop perishing.
You hit on the underlying foundation of values for your vision. You hit on the family. Once you lay that foundation, Charles always said, "There are only three decisions in life, who you're going to live your life with, what are you going to live your life in, and who you're going to live it for." Once you lay those down, we have a tremendous amount of latitude in Christ to do different things.
Leadership is all about values. When you said everything comes back to the common purpose, can you unpack that? That's the core of life management services. There are a lot of different things I'm involved in but everything overarching goes back to helping people realize the image of Christ that they have. Therefore, they can do anything. How do you thread that back? A lot of our audiences out there are very talented. They have that puppyish entrepreneurial spirit too. Could you help us with some of that?
A lot of times, people make mission statements for companies and organizations. We made one for our family. We also made a family crest for what we represent. Who are we in the world? What is our shield? What do we carry with us? There are a couple of things. I won't give you the whole because it's a lot. We're called to do a lot but one of the things is to set the captives free and to be a free family backed up by free families. Everything that we have done has been bigger than us. When you build something bigger than you, is it scary? Absolutely, but there becomes a sense of obligation to make it happen because if not us, then who? If not now, then when? That's what I would say.
One of the scriptures that resonates is the scripture that says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and preach the acceptable year of our Lord."
Every situation that we encounter, every business, and everything we're doing is an opportunity to utilize the Spirit of Christ and the same power that rose Jesus from the dead that lives in us to give life, set people free, and heal the brokenhearted, every employee we interact with, and every business we come in contact with. We want our spirit to resonate with and come in contact with people. That brings healing and joy.
There are so many people that have come into our popcorn store. We have hugged, cried, and shared God. They have shared their stories. We have veterans that have come in and told us what they experienced in their duty stations and overseas. I was in Operation Iraqi Freedom too. Some have come in and shared about those experiences and shared about being in Beirut or the wars. To be able to hear people's stories, connect with them, and share the love of Christ, the Word of Christ, and the wisdom that God gives us in those encounters will continually make it never about us and always about Him.
Every time we have the opportunity to share, we want to push people closer to Christ. When we started this business, I said, "I'm sure popcorn is not the end-all and be-all but every vehicle and every venture God gives us is to give Him glory in this time and this season. There are people that are connected to popcorn that need Jesus." We thank God every day that he has utilized a venue and a product to give His name glory and to give us the opportunity to make Him famous.
Popcorn is still created by God. He created us who made the popcorn and then He created the land in one of the days of Genesis. Everything is his. You're bringing glory to it. That's like a song. I love that you use that and that you're sharing that. You said you are living it. You're showing up for everything you do on purpose and living it. It's a very present thing. There's the doing going on but you are manifesting or resonating. When you're anointed, you don't have to announce yourself. It comes from within. We know that's the Holy Spirit shining from within.
You're such a blessing. You're going to bless so many of our audiences out there and be so encouraged because the devil loves to get us, "Are you doing it or not? Why aren't you successful on that?" You're like, "You have to be in that moment and live every day." God takes care of the rest. He will bring you who needs to come into that story and tell you that story.
One thing I understand is that we give out of our abundance. If we're living in lack, then there's only so much we can give. The more prosperous we are when there's nothing missing and nothing broken, we can make real lasting changes and create other change-makers that can make more changes. I look at it like we are vessels. Tavia is the same way. We're vessels to be used. What we put in our vessel is ultimately what we're pouring out because we're blessed to be blessings.
True Leader: If we're living in lack, then there's only so much we can give. The more prosperous we are, when there's nothing missing and nothing broken, we can make real change.
We have experienced many hurdles along the way. Some years ago, the doctors diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis. It's incurable and degenerative. I preach at church. Almost every time it was time for me to preach at church, my arm would go numb and heavy. My vision went out. I couldn't see more than two inches in front of me. Things were happening back-to-back.
My cousin also experiences MS, and she's paralyzed. I laughed at the devil. We're caretakers for her. I said, "The one thing I see every day is what you wanted to bring into my life to bring fear. If this is a package that came to my door, I'm returning it to the sender." The vision that we have for our family gave me the strength to call down fire Heaven and the gift of healing that God put in our lives to not be debilitated or restricted by what a doctor said that I don't receive and manifest it through the Word and other people praying. Our pastors prayed. Young ladies professed hands on me but the healing power of God is true and evident.
There were different things that have happened to both of us. We didn't take those diagnoses and say, "Woe is me. I can't do this anymore. This is over." We fight back. I put scriptures all over my house. I believe the report of the Lord that I am healed. I am not going to take this in, process it in my body, and allow it to be true because we know the power of our minds and the power of our God. There comes a time in our life when we have to fight back. We refuse to give the enemy victory because we have a vision. I said, "Lord, you already told me what our family is supposed to do. Me being sick doesn't line up with your Word and vision. I refuse to lay down and accept this."
In that fight is where you produce the difference between what you know and what you believe. What I know is one thing but I'm going to act according to my beliefs. That's when you hunker down and figure out what you're made of. That's the pressure cooker. Life continually puts us through the pressure cooker but we time and time again figure out what we're made of and what our God is capable of. We're excited about the future.
True Leader: Life continually puts us through the pressure cooker, but we time and time again figure out what we're really made of and what our God's really capable of.
What makes you pop in a good way? It doesn't make you explode. It makes you pop. It makes you pop, and then you bring joy. How beautiful that you went through that because people watch, especially Christians. They watch us all the time. They watch us in our grief and when bad stuff happens. That is the number one time to show your testimony because you can show that you process this stuff and let people know, "The victory is already mine. If not a medical healing or a miraculous hearing, we still have eternal healing. We got that to look forward to."
How beautiful that you're able to share that. Thank you for sharing that with our audiences too. We all have setbacks but even though successful people probably have ten bad things that happen for every one good, you hear about the good. I appreciate that you have shared the victor side of your journey, not the bad stuff because we know that's there. I appreciate you sharing that too because health is one of those things that shake you to the core.
To think about Job and what he went through losing everything and his family but then to destroy his health and have him sit there, what else can there be? I appreciate you sharing that but also keeping the grand scheme of things. It is a grand scheme. It's the glorious scheme of things. We talked about loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. Is there anything else leadership-wise that we have not touched on that you would like to share with our audiences?
We are Tastebuds Popcorn Concord. We do well over 200 flavors of popcorn. I don't know if we got into all that but we do over 200 flavors of popcorn. Somebody is like, "That's not possible." We do well over 200 flavors of popcorn, everything from cookies and cream to cheddar jalapeno, and everything in between. It goes crazy. In our first year in business, we were blessed enough to forge a relationship with the Carolina Panthers down here in North Carolina, the Charlotte Football Club, as well as a lot of other large and well-known corporate structures and entities because we add more fun.
We have done several celebrity golf tournaments, which is where we met Nikita, countless other athletes, and things of that sort. It's cool because we get to be ourselves there or shine our light in those venues. Popcorn is a gift given in love. That's one thing I did not know. It was an epiphany for me. You can get a lot of different gifts and things of that sort but when someone gives you popcorn, they love you. They may not say it a whole bunch but as far as love languages go, number six is probably popcorn.
I was going to say my love language is popcorn. All is forgiven. Forget diamonds. If you bring me popcorn, I'll follow you wherever. We're going to be doing in Heaven what we did on Earth. You have 200 flavors here. You're going to have 200 zillions in Heaven. I can't wait to try them all.
In leadership, I believe that it's important to take away those limiting beliefs that stop us from moving forward. There are so many people. There are businesses and books inside of you. You've heard this voice that said, "You're too old. Did you forget about this and all these little things? Will people read it? Will somebody find out about you?" These tiny limiting beliefs have been planted in our brains.
True Leader: For leadership, it's important to take away those limiting beliefs that stop us from moving forward.
One of the things we know is that when you stop learning, you start decaying. We have to continue learning but we also have to continue reprogramming our brain. It's important for each and every audience, entrepreneur, network marketer, and veteran to think about your subconscious mind and programming and continue to purposely reprogram it daily.
Reprogram what you think about creating financial prosperity. Reprogram what you think about your health and your wellness. Reprogram what you think about your personal success and your self-esteem. Those things don't come haphazardly. We have to be intentional about programming our minds and our brains to live life abundantly and the way God said we should.
We hear all these other things on the news. We live in a fear society. We don't watch the news often. If something happens, my family knows. If I need to know, call me. We don't want to subscribe to that. Ultimately, it's remembering all of those things that we were listening to were subconsciously programming our minds. We wonder why something is a good idea. We wrote it down but we can't seem to move forward to be motivated to do it, "I know I should do it. I know why I should do it. I know why it's important but I can't seem to get going."
Whenever that happens, it usually comes down to our subconscious programming. Knowing that the program is there is not enough. We have to actively reprogram our brain with the right thinking to move forward, be successful, believe in ourselves, walk in what God called us to do, utilize our leadership abilities, and carry out every vehicle he's given us to lead in with those abilities.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 12:2, "Don't be conformed to the world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I read the New Testament with his epistles. Every day and every word, he was so focused and intentional, "I was there but now I'm here." If Paul had to do it every day when he was in the third Heaven, and he had some major inspiration, look at what we have to do. Be as intentional with that mind-renewing. It's not one-and-done. Derrick and Tavia, where is the best way for people to get ahold of you? What's the best way that our audiences can connect with you? I know they're going to want to.
If you want to start with some of those 200-plus flavors of popcorn, banana pudding, white chocolate, birthday cake, jalapeno ranch, Hot Cheetos, kettle corn, or some of those, you're going to go to TastebudsConcord.com. We're on social media. We're on every platform out there. It's going to be @TastebudsPopcornConcord. We're even on LinkedIn. We have a pretty thriving page that's fun to watch because we bring the fun everywhere we go. Those would be some of the most premier ways to get ahold of us.
You can also email us at Popcorn@TastebudsConcord.com. We would love to hear from you. We would love to hear your thoughts. We would love to hear how this may have impacted you and anything else you would like to share with us.
I love it. Make sure you stay in touch with them. Do you do specialty flavors too? If somebody had an idea, could they create one of their own?
Absolutely. We started Mix It Up Monday to have a tangible interaction with our popcorn patrons. We call them pop stars. In Mix It Up Monday, you're allowed to mix different flavors inside the same container. If your flavor is good enough, then it may become an official flavor. We will name it after whatever you want to name it.
We do baby showers, weddings, and corporate events. A lot of companies will say, "Can you do my company colors and things like that?" We also create them for various events and occasions.
I can't believe it. Thank you so much. Derrick and Tavia, thank you for sharing. You're such an inspiration and an encouragement. Thank you for utilizing all the talents that God has given you and for glorifying Him and raising your sweet little babies. Your success is somebody else's miracle. I love that you are continuing to bless others throughout your state and pushing through. Thank you for sharing with our audiences.
Thank you, Dr. Tracey.
I look forward to many more connections with you. I know we will have many more of them when I get down to North Carolina or you get up to Pennsylvania. To our tremendous audiences out there, I want to thank you so much for being a part of our Tremendous Tribe. If you like what you read, please hit the subscribe button and do us the honor of a review. A five-star review would be tremendous. Share this with others so they can hear great ways to encourage others. Keep on paying the price of leadership and have a tremendous rest of the day.
Important Links
Nikita Koloff - Previous episode
Mike Ettore - Previous episode
@TastebudsPopcornConcord - Instagram
LinkedIn - Tastebuds Popcorn Concord
Popcorn@TastebudsConcord.com
About Derrick and Tavia Jackson
Derrick and Tavia Jackson are happily married, love the Lord, and own Tastebuds Popcorn Concord in Concord, NC. They have over a decade of experience in network marketing and leadership development. Tavia is a Veteran and served in the United States Marine Corps.