May 26, 2025 • 26 mins
In this #podcast episode I interview Tameka Anderson. I ask Tameka to share how branding and faith can be connected. Tameka also shares how personal branding can help you live out your calling. I also ask Tameka to share how branding can support influence and stewardship.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thanks for joining us on episode 1543 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Tameka Fun Coach Anderson.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:22):
Having the ability to recognize who you really are is key.
And one way to be inspired is to do that is
to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend
Scott Mater.
(00:43):
Most leaders that I've met are not leading from a place
of authenticity.
They're leading from a place of rebellion.
Now remember when I was younger,
I was like,
I'm not doing this,
I'm not.
I'm not doing that.
A lot of leaders are also living like that.
There's an inner child wound that something has happened.
(01:05):
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
(01:25):
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
In this podcast episode,
I interview Tameka Anderson.
Ask Tameka to share how branding and faith can be connected.
Tameka also shares how personal branding can help you live out
(01:48):
your calling.
And I asked Tameka to share how branding can support our
influence and our stewardship.
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Assemble the Puzzle of youf Calling by Mastering
youg Time,
your Talent and you'd Treasures.
You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com
(02:11):
it'll take you to a page where there's information and you
can sign up to get some mailings about it as well
as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
Tameka Anderson,
America's Fun that stands for Finding Unmet Needs Coach,
is a serial entrepreneur and best selling author of the no
(02:34):
Holds barred books the Confident Leader and Parroting the Confident Child.
And she has a new book out called you'd're It.
Holding her passion for a strong family,
people and children close,
Anderson set out to develop programs focused on creating transformational leadership
in effective households,
schools and communities.
Her people principles help managers,
(02:55):
leaders and entrepreneurs understand the importance of putting people first to
achieve win win lasting success.
Welcome to the show,
Tameka. Thanks so much for having me.
Absolutely. It's great to have you here.
So I shared A little bit in the intro about some
of the things that you've been doing and your book.
(03:16):
And again,
I love the name Fun Coach,
your acronym,
but at the same time,
I always know that intros and those sorts of things,
they tell us where we are now,
but they don't really tell us how we got here.
So would you back up a little bit and share a
little bit about your journey,
about your message,
and what brought you to the point of doing what you
do today?
Oh, that is such a loaded question.
(03:38):
Because my journey has not been smooth at all.
Most aren't.
Oh, my goodness.
And so I was born and raised in Chicago,
Illinois. And so I grew up in foster care.
And the one thing that I will say is I'm grateful
because it afforded me the opportunity to live with and relate
(04:02):
to all sorts of people.
And so because of that,
I became super curious about people and their behavior.
And one thing that I particularly begin to be even more
so curious about is identity and how we form identity and
(04:25):
what happens.
And so I went down the rabbit hole,
and I kept going until I struck something that was so
interesting to me,
and that's how I actually got the acronym.
Fun. Fun is an acronym.
It stands for finding unmet needs.
Because I was someone who.
I felt,
like, out of place all the time because of how I
(04:47):
grew up.
I was like,
I wonder if there are more people who feel like this.
And so I really begin to just start being curious and
asking people questions.
And I notice that 99% of us do not know who
we are.
And so that is how I.
That's how I got here.
(05:08):
I wanted to know who I was,
and I wanted to know how many other people also needed
to know who they were.
So you talk about it not being smooth.
Take us a little bit deeper.
What were some of the hurdles that you ran into or
the roadblocks that you ran into that you had to overcome
on that journey?
Absolutely. Like I mentioned,
I grew up in foster care.
So one of the things that was a huge disconnect for
(05:31):
me was who I was,
where I came from,
my original family.
All of those things were,
like, huge questions for me,
because although I did know my mother,
my father,
because we would be bounced back and forth until I was
nine, it was still unclear to me what led me to
this point,
why, how did I get here?
(05:53):
And so that was.
Oh, my goodness.
It was a long ride because it was hard for me
to make friends.
Even though I'm.
I consider myself a very friendly person.
It was hard to make friends.
And then once I begin,
like the relationship department,
once I became an adult,
I had kids,
got married,
(06:13):
got divorced,
single mom.
And so learning how to raise children,
when I never really had someone to teach me about being
who I am,
it was very difficult for me.
I became a nanny.
So I began working with,
like, professional families.
(06:34):
And this was because I love children,
right? And so I love children.
I had to figure out a way to actually make money
so that I can support my children at the same time
doing something that I love.
So I became a nanny,
working with all of these amazing families.
And that is how I went deeper into identity and what's
(06:56):
going on.
Because a lot of the children that I was helping to
by being a nanny,
they had behavioral challenges.
And so I was the one that everybody called ADHD,
add all the Ds,
they came to me.
And so my.
The families that I worked with,
(07:17):
they asked me to tamika,
how are you so good with behaviors?
And that's how,
like I said,
fun came about because I was laser focused on finding unmet
needs. Mostly because I had a past with unmet needs.
Most of the adults in my life did not know how
to look at that.
(07:37):
I was labeled the bad kid.
And I was just.
It was just.
I was curious.
So I would ask questions,
an adult would tell me what to do something.
And my first and still favorite question was,
why? And it wasn't because I was being disrespectful,
but this is how the adults took it.
That, oh,
she just rude.
She's disrespectful.
She doesn't listen.
(07:58):
And it was just.
I was curious and Because I know what that feels like
to be labeled the bad kid and all the things.
I had an affinity for children who had challenging behaviors.
And I was like this minor.
One of my clients called me a gold miner because I
would just dig and dig until we got to the root
of the problem.
(08:19):
And because of all of the things that I went through.
The divorce,
the failed relationships,
not being able to know who I really was,
I was able to tap into a part that most people
don't like to deal with and help them bring it out.
That's part of it.
Yeah. No,
(08:39):
that makes sense.
And I think that's important,
too, to recognize,
because one of the things that we talk about on the
show is when we think about the things that we're meant
to do and that we're gifted doing,
we often discover those rather than.
It's not like this bolt of blue comes down and says,
this is It.
This is what you're supposed to be doing.
(08:59):
It's. Instead,
it's that iterative process of going,
hey, wait a minute,
I'm good at this.
And in this case,
it was showing up in the work you were doing with
children and I'm sure in your own parenting that then leads
itself to other things.
So talk a little bit about how your faith journey has
intersected with that life journey that you were on.
Oh, man.
(09:19):
Okay. So this.
I don't know what other stories people have,
but mine does not come with the,
oh, I've had this relationship with God since I was a
kid. No,
let me tell you.
I always say that from the age of nine,
I put on what I called a bitterness belt with God.
(09:40):
And it was because of how I was growing up.
I just couldn't understand that God,
if you're so good and you're so loving and you're so
kind, why did I have to be born into this family
where now I'm going to have to borrow other people's families
because I don't have my own?
And then I was being abused in the homes,
(10:03):
and I was just like the woman that I lived with
for the longest period of time,
seven years.
And it's so interesting.
That is the number,
because the number of completion,
right? And so I lived with her for seven years,
and we would go to church all the time.
Then she come home,
she's cursing me out and abusing me and not feeding me
(10:24):
and all these things.
And I was just like,
I was over it.
I thought God was this dictator.
I didn't want nothing to do with him.
I promised myself,
when I become an adult,
I'm not going to no church.
I'm not doing none of that.
This is what I'm saying to myself,
right? Funny how God works.
And as I'm running from one of my many failed relationships,
(10:47):
I ran from Chicago to Georgia,
and I'm here,
I'm working in a pharmacy because this is what I used
to do.
I was working in a pharmacy,
and a little sweet little lady used to have a little
Bible in her lapel all the time.
And although I wanted to stay away from the Bible,
I liked her.
God knew what he was doing,
(11:08):
and so he was using her in our relationships for her
to get me back into a church.
She just kept saying,
you should go to church with me.
I was like,
oh, yeah,
one of these days,
I'll. Maybe I'll go.
But then I told her.
So she finally said,
tamika, when are you gonna go?
We're gonna put a date on the calendar.
I was like,
okay. So I give her a date.
(11:29):
I said,
but I'm giving you some conditions.
You better not have anybody there prophesying to me,
or I'm leaving.
Because I remember when I was younger,
I would go to one of the holiness churches and they
would put me on the altar because,
again, the adults thought that I was disrespectful and rude.
(11:51):
Because I'm asking why?
Oh, she has a demon in her.
So I'm thinking,
like, I don't want no parts of that.
So finally,
get ready to go to the church.
I was late because I couldn't find it.
Get there.
I saw her.
She made eye contact with me,
and she mouth the phrase,
I'm sorry.
And I'm like,
what's she sorry for?
Lo and behold,
they have a guest speaker.
(12:11):
And what does she do?
Prophesy. I was mortified.
She pulls me up and says,
I don't know who you are.
You have a very pretty face,
but I'm here to share something with you.
God wants you to know that he loves you,
and he's going to give you everything you want,
but first you have to give him you.
(12:32):
And something happened to me that didn't happen ever in my
life. I broke down and cried uncontrollably.
After that,
I made a deal with God.
I said,
okay, God,
if you are who they said you are,
I need you to show me some miracles.
And he did.
God literally went on a.
(12:53):
Like a.
Probably about six months of showing me miracle after miracle until
I finally said,
okay, you might be real.
This might be okay.
And so then I began to just devour the word of
God. And I began to learn more about the character of
God. And I learned that what people said he was when
(13:14):
I was a child was not the truth.
And that is how I got here today.
So how do you think going back to your work,
the finding unmet needs and the coaching that you do today,
how do you think that experience,
both growing up and then later,
has informed the work you do with entrepreneurs and leaders and
(13:35):
the focus that you have?
So one of the things that I realize is that most
leaders that I've met are not leading from a place of
authenticity. They're leading from a place of rebellion.
Now, remember when I was younger,
I was like,
I'm not doing this.
I'm not doing that.
(13:55):
And so a lot of leaders are also living like that.
There's an inner child wound that something has happened in the
childhood that they're Just like when I become an adult,
this is what's going to happen differently.
And so that's where I come in.
Because I can identify that I've been there,
I've walked,
that I know how those shoes feel.
(14:18):
And so because of that reason,
learning how Jesus lived his life,
that is how I model all of the leadership programs and
everything that I create is because Jesus taught us how to
learn who we are and actually walk in it.
Because he was not shy about.
(14:40):
Even though he was the most humble that ever walked,
he was not shy.
He told us,
I am the way.
I am the lion and the lamb,
right? So he was letting us know it is okay for
you to be who God says you are and not feel
shame to walk in that.
So this is how I help leaders,
(15:01):
and I help them show up how God called us to
do. So someone's hearing that right now and thinking to themselves,
yeah, I'm operating in that place of fear or inauthentic.
Being an inauthentic leader.
What advice would you have for them today if they're hearing
themselves in your words?
(15:24):
The best thing that I would say is to read the
Word and what God says.
Who we are.
Anytime someone is walking in the authenticity,
it is because they're believing the lies of our opposer over
(15:46):
the lot,
over the truth of who God said we are.
And I love that the Bible is filled with the promises
of God,
filled with him showing us who we are.
And I love music.
So there's this one song,
I think his name is Jason Gray,
Remind Me who I Am.
Like the lyrics of that song.
(16:09):
Anytime I'm having an imposter syndrome day,
I will blast the song.
I will read the lyrics,
I will look in the mirror and I will say that
to myself,
because that's the truth.
We can always run to God.
That's the beauty of walking this walk.
We can run to Him.
We don't have to be strong.
(16:30):
We don't have to be any of the things that we
think we need to be.
All we have to do is run to Him.
He's the rock.
Go to him,
fall on him and say,
God, I need help.
And he will.
That's why we have the Holy Spirit.
He sent the Holy Spirit here to comfort us so that
we can walk in who he called us to be and
(16:53):
not who we think the world needs us to be.
When you think about leadership and the influence that leaders have,
whether that's positional leadership or the other forms of leadership that
are going on,
what are some of the Mistakes that you've seen leaders make
that comes out of those unmet needs and that inauthentic leadership.
(17:18):
I like to think of it like this,
as a gap.
Right here is who we think we are and who God
called us to be.
And then here is who we think the world will accept.
So in the gap,
imposter syndrome.
So how that shows up,
it shows up in micromanaging.
(17:40):
It shows up in poor communication.
It shows up in really the fear of showing up.
Sometimes we shrink.
We may not be able to be on camera,
or we may pass up a lot of opportunities.
We may procrastinate.
These are the areas that gap is showing up.
(18:04):
All of those are signs of the gap,
and we have to be able to pay attention to that.
To say,
oh, wait,
what's happening here?
Am I walking in who God called me to?
Or am I trying to focus on something that is always
(18:24):
moving? This goalpost is always moving.
You never know what the world wants.
The trends are always changing.
And so that's how the enemy,
he gets us distracted because we're chasing that and we can
never achieve this.
So when we notice that we're showing up in ways that
are not what the Bible says about love and the fruit
(18:48):
of the spirit.
The fruit of the spirit is what?
Love, joy,
peace. So if we don't have the fruit and we're not
operating in the fruit,
we're operating in the flesh.
And anytime we operate in the flesh,
that is the gap that I'm talking about.
(19:08):
So talk a little bit about your book.
You're it that you've got out.
What is.
What's the message of the book?
Who's it for?
What are you.
What message are you putting out with the book?
Absolutely. So it's so fun how this book even came about.
I was the one walking in the imposter syndrome,
(19:29):
and I.
Oh, my goodness,
I can't believe I'm saying this,
but I'm going to tell you.
I went broke so many times,
it's not even funny.
And so I went to God one time,
and I was just like,
God, what.
What is happening here?
I said on one hand,
every time I look up,
I'm just like,
I'm in this cycle.
But I know that if I come to you,
(19:51):
then you help me to explode my business.
And I do all these things.
What. What am I not getting?
And so,
like, literally,
I just really got in the face of God and I
said, I need to know what is it that I'm missing?
And the two words came the holy Spirit showed me,
tamika, you're it.
(20:13):
I was like,
wait, what?
What? And he began to show me how he placed the.
A lot of people talk about,
oh, you either have the it factor or you don't.
That is not true.
We all have it.
We just have to be able to uncover it by experiences
of the world are it becomes covered.
(20:36):
So that's what this book is about,
helping people learn how to uncover their God given it factor
so that they can cultivate,
curate, and communicate it to the world for the purpose that
God called us to do.
Because we all have it.
We all hear God didn't give one of us everything.
(20:58):
He gave some of us some things.
So we all need each other.
And so learning how to uncover our uniqueness and what God
placed in us helps us to be more collaborative.
It helps us to really walk in the fruit of the
spirit. And that's the message of this book.
So before I ask you a few questions that I like
(21:19):
to ask all of my guests,
is there anything else about the work you do or your
book that you'd like to share with the listener?
Yeah. So one of the things that I really wish a
lot of us would understand is stop listening to the cliches.
The whole God doesn't give you more than you can bear.
(21:41):
I don't know why and how that came about,
but that's just not true.
It's not biblical either.
It's not biblical,
right. God did not say that.
Why didn't he say that though?
Because we're not supposed to be bearing it anyway.
And because we need God sometimes to help us bear the
things that you know it,
(22:03):
we need God.
So if God only gave us what we could bear on
our own,
then you don't need God.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And so I just wish that more of us would really
seek God for ourselves and stop trusting the word of someone
else. Because when you trust the word of someone else over
(22:26):
God, then essentially you're placing that person in that position and
God is the only one who's supposed to be there.
So that's what I'll say.
My brand is inspired stewardship.
And I run things through this lens of stewardship.
But that's one of those words that I've discovered over the
years, means different things to different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
(22:47):
what does that word mean to you?
So stewardship to me means managing.
Managing. Well,
because I remember the scripture in the Bible that says,
if you're faithful over few,
I'll give you ruler over many.
So that's what I think of when I think of stewardship.
(23:11):
This is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody.
Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine.
And with this machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
maybe 250 years.
And through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life,
see all of the connections,
(23:31):
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
That's such a good question.
I love it so much.
So the impact that I hope to make is that I
would have inspired everyone that come across my path to live
(23:51):
every day walking in the fullness of who God called them
to be.
That is what I hope my impact would be.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
Oh, so I actually am in the process of launching an
(24:12):
app for leaders and people who may deal with,
like, anxiety and things of that nature to learn how to
build community around that.
So it's just more about helping people become more of who
God called them to be and get in community with others.
(24:34):
So you can find out more about Tamika over on her
site@your IT book.com
Of course,
I'll have a link to that in the show notes as
well. Tamika,
is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
Learn who you are in God and be that person every
(24:55):
day. Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
(25:17):
If you enjoyed this episode,
please, please do us a favor.
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
iTunes Rate all one word iTunes Rate.
It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review
and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so
(25:39):
that you can get every episode as it comes out in
your feed.
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
Thanks for joining us on episode 1543 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Tameka Fun Coach Anderson.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:22):
Having the ability to recognize who you really are is key.
And one way to be inspired is to do that is
to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend
Scott Mater.
(00:43):
Most leaders that I've met are not leading from a place
of authenticity.
They're leading from a place of rebellion.
Now remember when I was younger,
I was like,
I'm not doing this,
I'm not.
I'm not doing that.
A lot of leaders are also living like that.
There's an inner child wound that something has happened.
(01:05):
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
(01:25):
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
In this podcast episode,
I interview Tameka Anderson.
Ask Tameka to share how branding and faith can be connected.
Tameka also shares how personal branding can help you live out
(01:48):
your calling.
And I asked Tameka to share how branding can support our
influence and our stewardship.
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Assemble the Puzzle of youf Calling by Mastering
youg Time,
your Talent and you'd Treasures.
You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com
(02:11):
it'll take you to a page where there's information and you
can sign up to get some mailings about it as well
as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
Tameka Anderson,
America's Fun that stands for Finding Unmet Needs Coach,
is a serial entrepreneur and best selling author of the no
(02:34):
Holds barred books the Confident Leader and Parroting the Confident Child.
And she has a new book out called you'd're It.
Holding her passion for a strong family,
people and children close,
Anderson set out to develop programs focused on creating transformational leadership
in effective households,
schools and communities.
Her people principles help managers,
(02:55):
leaders and entrepreneurs understand the importance of putting people first to
achieve win win lasting success.
Welcome to the show,
Tameka. Thanks so much for having me.
Absolutely. It's great to have you here.
So I shared A little bit in the intro about some
of the things that you've been doing and your book.
(03:16):
And again,
I love the name Fun Coach,
your acronym,
but at the same time,
I always know that intros and those sorts of things,
they tell us where we are now,
but they don't really tell us how we got here.
So would you back up a little bit and share a
little bit about your journey,
about your message,
and what brought you to the point of doing what you
do today?
Oh, that is such a loaded question.
(03:38):
Because my journey has not been smooth at all.
Most aren't.
Oh, my goodness.
And so I was born and raised in Chicago,
Illinois. And so I grew up in foster care.
And the one thing that I will say is I'm grateful
because it afforded me the opportunity to live with and relate
(04:02):
to all sorts of people.
And so because of that,
I became super curious about people and their behavior.
And one thing that I particularly begin to be even more
so curious about is identity and how we form identity and
(04:25):
what happens.
And so I went down the rabbit hole,
and I kept going until I struck something that was so
interesting to me,
and that's how I actually got the acronym.
Fun. Fun is an acronym.
It stands for finding unmet needs.
Because I was someone who.
I felt,
like, out of place all the time because of how I
(04:47):
grew up.
I was like,
I wonder if there are more people who feel like this.
And so I really begin to just start being curious and
asking people questions.
And I notice that 99% of us do not know who
we are.
And so that is how I.
That's how I got here.
(05:08):
I wanted to know who I was,
and I wanted to know how many other people also needed
to know who they were.
So you talk about it not being smooth.
Take us a little bit deeper.
What were some of the hurdles that you ran into or
the roadblocks that you ran into that you had to overcome
on that journey?
Absolutely. Like I mentioned,
I grew up in foster care.
So one of the things that was a huge disconnect for
(05:31):
me was who I was,
where I came from,
my original family.
All of those things were,
like, huge questions for me,
because although I did know my mother,
my father,
because we would be bounced back and forth until I was
nine, it was still unclear to me what led me to
this point,
why, how did I get here?
(05:53):
And so that was.
Oh, my goodness.
It was a long ride because it was hard for me
to make friends.
Even though I'm.
I consider myself a very friendly person.
It was hard to make friends.
And then once I begin,
like the relationship department,
once I became an adult,
I had kids,
got married,
(06:13):
got divorced,
single mom.
And so learning how to raise children,
when I never really had someone to teach me about being
who I am,
it was very difficult for me.
I became a nanny.
So I began working with,
like, professional families.
(06:34):
And this was because I love children,
right? And so I love children.
I had to figure out a way to actually make money
so that I can support my children at the same time
doing something that I love.
So I became a nanny,
working with all of these amazing families.
And that is how I went deeper into identity and what's
(06:56):
going on.
Because a lot of the children that I was helping to
by being a nanny,
they had behavioral challenges.
And so I was the one that everybody called ADHD,
add all the Ds,
they came to me.
And so my.
The families that I worked with,
(07:17):
they asked me to tamika,
how are you so good with behaviors?
And that's how,
like I said,
fun came about because I was laser focused on finding unmet
needs. Mostly because I had a past with unmet needs.
Most of the adults in my life did not know how
to look at that.
(07:37):
I was labeled the bad kid.
And I was just.
It was just.
I was curious.
So I would ask questions,
an adult would tell me what to do something.
And my first and still favorite question was,
why? And it wasn't because I was being disrespectful,
but this is how the adults took it.
That, oh,
she just rude.
She's disrespectful.
She doesn't listen.
(07:58):
And it was just.
I was curious and Because I know what that feels like
to be labeled the bad kid and all the things.
I had an affinity for children who had challenging behaviors.
And I was like this minor.
One of my clients called me a gold miner because I
would just dig and dig until we got to the root
of the problem.
(08:19):
And because of all of the things that I went through.
The divorce,
the failed relationships,
not being able to know who I really was,
I was able to tap into a part that most people
don't like to deal with and help them bring it out.
That's part of it.
Yeah. No,
(08:39):
that makes sense.
And I think that's important,
too, to recognize,
because one of the things that we talk about on the
show is when we think about the things that we're meant
to do and that we're gifted doing,
we often discover those rather than.
It's not like this bolt of blue comes down and says,
this is It.
This is what you're supposed to be doing.
(08:59):
It's. Instead,
it's that iterative process of going,
hey, wait a minute,
I'm good at this.
And in this case,
it was showing up in the work you were doing with
children and I'm sure in your own parenting that then leads
itself to other things.
So talk a little bit about how your faith journey has
intersected with that life journey that you were on.
Oh, man.
(09:19):
Okay. So this.
I don't know what other stories people have,
but mine does not come with the,
oh, I've had this relationship with God since I was a
kid. No,
let me tell you.
I always say that from the age of nine,
I put on what I called a bitterness belt with God.
(09:40):
And it was because of how I was growing up.
I just couldn't understand that God,
if you're so good and you're so loving and you're so
kind, why did I have to be born into this family
where now I'm going to have to borrow other people's families
because I don't have my own?
And then I was being abused in the homes,
(10:03):
and I was just like the woman that I lived with
for the longest period of time,
seven years.
And it's so interesting.
That is the number,
because the number of completion,
right? And so I lived with her for seven years,
and we would go to church all the time.
Then she come home,
she's cursing me out and abusing me and not feeding me
(10:24):
and all these things.
And I was just like,
I was over it.
I thought God was this dictator.
I didn't want nothing to do with him.
I promised myself,
when I become an adult,
I'm not going to no church.
I'm not doing none of that.
This is what I'm saying to myself,
right? Funny how God works.
And as I'm running from one of my many failed relationships,
(10:47):
I ran from Chicago to Georgia,
and I'm here,
I'm working in a pharmacy because this is what I used
to do.
I was working in a pharmacy,
and a little sweet little lady used to have a little
Bible in her lapel all the time.
And although I wanted to stay away from the Bible,
I liked her.
God knew what he was doing,
(11:08):
and so he was using her in our relationships for her
to get me back into a church.
She just kept saying,
you should go to church with me.
I was like,
oh, yeah,
one of these days,
I'll. Maybe I'll go.
But then I told her.
So she finally said,
tamika, when are you gonna go?
We're gonna put a date on the calendar.
I was like,
okay. So I give her a date.
(11:29):
I said,
but I'm giving you some conditions.
You better not have anybody there prophesying to me,
or I'm leaving.
Because I remember when I was younger,
I would go to one of the holiness churches and they
would put me on the altar because,
again, the adults thought that I was disrespectful and rude.
(11:51):
Because I'm asking why?
Oh, she has a demon in her.
So I'm thinking,
like, I don't want no parts of that.
So finally,
get ready to go to the church.
I was late because I couldn't find it.
Get there.
I saw her.
She made eye contact with me,
and she mouth the phrase,
I'm sorry.
And I'm like,
what's she sorry for?
Lo and behold,
they have a guest speaker.
(12:11):
And what does she do?
Prophesy. I was mortified.
She pulls me up and says,
I don't know who you are.
You have a very pretty face,
but I'm here to share something with you.
God wants you to know that he loves you,
and he's going to give you everything you want,
but first you have to give him you.
(12:32):
And something happened to me that didn't happen ever in my
life. I broke down and cried uncontrollably.
After that,
I made a deal with God.
I said,
okay, God,
if you are who they said you are,
I need you to show me some miracles.
And he did.
God literally went on a.
(12:53):
Like a.
Probably about six months of showing me miracle after miracle until
I finally said,
okay, you might be real.
This might be okay.
And so then I began to just devour the word of
God. And I began to learn more about the character of
God. And I learned that what people said he was when
(13:14):
I was a child was not the truth.
And that is how I got here today.
So how do you think going back to your work,
the finding unmet needs and the coaching that you do today,
how do you think that experience,
both growing up and then later,
has informed the work you do with entrepreneurs and leaders and
(13:35):
the focus that you have?
So one of the things that I realize is that most
leaders that I've met are not leading from a place of
authenticity. They're leading from a place of rebellion.
Now, remember when I was younger,
I was like,
I'm not doing this.
I'm not doing that.
(13:55):
And so a lot of leaders are also living like that.
There's an inner child wound that something has happened in the
childhood that they're Just like when I become an adult,
this is what's going to happen differently.
And so that's where I come in.
Because I can identify that I've been there,
I've walked,
that I know how those shoes feel.
(14:18):
And so because of that reason,
learning how Jesus lived his life,
that is how I model all of the leadership programs and
everything that I create is because Jesus taught us how to
learn who we are and actually walk in it.
Because he was not shy about.
(14:40):
Even though he was the most humble that ever walked,
he was not shy.
He told us,
I am the way.
I am the lion and the lamb,
right? So he was letting us know it is okay for
you to be who God says you are and not feel
shame to walk in that.
So this is how I help leaders,
(15:01):
and I help them show up how God called us to
do. So someone's hearing that right now and thinking to themselves,
yeah, I'm operating in that place of fear or inauthentic.
Being an inauthentic leader.
What advice would you have for them today if they're hearing
themselves in your words?
(15:24):
The best thing that I would say is to read the
Word and what God says.
Who we are.
Anytime someone is walking in the authenticity,
it is because they're believing the lies of our opposer over
(15:46):
the lot,
over the truth of who God said we are.
And I love that the Bible is filled with the promises
of God,
filled with him showing us who we are.
And I love music.
So there's this one song,
I think his name is Jason Gray,
Remind Me who I Am.
Like the lyrics of that song.
(16:09):
Anytime I'm having an imposter syndrome day,
I will blast the song.
I will read the lyrics,
I will look in the mirror and I will say that
to myself,
because that's the truth.
We can always run to God.
That's the beauty of walking this walk.
We can run to Him.
We don't have to be strong.
(16:30):
We don't have to be any of the things that we
think we need to be.
All we have to do is run to Him.
He's the rock.
Go to him,
fall on him and say,
God, I need help.
And he will.
That's why we have the Holy Spirit.
He sent the Holy Spirit here to comfort us so that
we can walk in who he called us to be and
(16:53):
not who we think the world needs us to be.
When you think about leadership and the influence that leaders have,
whether that's positional leadership or the other forms of leadership that
are going on,
what are some of the Mistakes that you've seen leaders make
that comes out of those unmet needs and that inauthentic leadership.
(17:18):
I like to think of it like this,
as a gap.
Right here is who we think we are and who God
called us to be.
And then here is who we think the world will accept.
So in the gap,
imposter syndrome.
So how that shows up,
it shows up in micromanaging.
(17:40):
It shows up in poor communication.
It shows up in really the fear of showing up.
Sometimes we shrink.
We may not be able to be on camera,
or we may pass up a lot of opportunities.
We may procrastinate.
These are the areas that gap is showing up.
(18:04):
All of those are signs of the gap,
and we have to be able to pay attention to that.
To say,
oh, wait,
what's happening here?
Am I walking in who God called me to?
Or am I trying to focus on something that is always
(18:24):
moving? This goalpost is always moving.
You never know what the world wants.
The trends are always changing.
And so that's how the enemy,
he gets us distracted because we're chasing that and we can
never achieve this.
So when we notice that we're showing up in ways that
are not what the Bible says about love and the fruit
(18:48):
of the spirit.
The fruit of the spirit is what?
Love, joy,
peace. So if we don't have the fruit and we're not
operating in the fruit,
we're operating in the flesh.
And anytime we operate in the flesh,
that is the gap that I'm talking about.
(19:08):
So talk a little bit about your book.
You're it that you've got out.
What is.
What's the message of the book?
Who's it for?
What are you.
What message are you putting out with the book?
Absolutely. So it's so fun how this book even came about.
I was the one walking in the imposter syndrome,
(19:29):
and I.
Oh, my goodness,
I can't believe I'm saying this,
but I'm going to tell you.
I went broke so many times,
it's not even funny.
And so I went to God one time,
and I was just like,
God, what.
What is happening here?
I said on one hand,
every time I look up,
I'm just like,
I'm in this cycle.
But I know that if I come to you,
(19:51):
then you help me to explode my business.
And I do all these things.
What. What am I not getting?
And so,
like, literally,
I just really got in the face of God and I
said, I need to know what is it that I'm missing?
And the two words came the holy Spirit showed me,
tamika, you're it.
(20:13):
I was like,
wait, what?
What? And he began to show me how he placed the.
A lot of people talk about,
oh, you either have the it factor or you don't.
That is not true.
We all have it.
We just have to be able to uncover it by experiences
of the world are it becomes covered.
(20:36):
So that's what this book is about,
helping people learn how to uncover their God given it factor
so that they can cultivate,
curate, and communicate it to the world for the purpose that
God called us to do.
Because we all have it.
We all hear God didn't give one of us everything.
(20:58):
He gave some of us some things.
So we all need each other.
And so learning how to uncover our uniqueness and what God
placed in us helps us to be more collaborative.
It helps us to really walk in the fruit of the
spirit. And that's the message of this book.
So before I ask you a few questions that I like
(21:19):
to ask all of my guests,
is there anything else about the work you do or your
book that you'd like to share with the listener?
Yeah. So one of the things that I really wish a
lot of us would understand is stop listening to the cliches.
The whole God doesn't give you more than you can bear.
(21:41):
I don't know why and how that came about,
but that's just not true.
It's not biblical either.
It's not biblical,
right. God did not say that.
Why didn't he say that though?
Because we're not supposed to be bearing it anyway.
And because we need God sometimes to help us bear the
things that you know it,
(22:03):
we need God.
So if God only gave us what we could bear on
our own,
then you don't need God.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And so I just wish that more of us would really
seek God for ourselves and stop trusting the word of someone
else. Because when you trust the word of someone else over
(22:26):
God, then essentially you're placing that person in that position and
God is the only one who's supposed to be there.
So that's what I'll say.
My brand is inspired stewardship.
And I run things through this lens of stewardship.
But that's one of those words that I've discovered over the
years, means different things to different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
(22:47):
what does that word mean to you?
So stewardship to me means managing.
Managing. Well,
because I remember the scripture in the Bible that says,
if you're faithful over few,
I'll give you ruler over many.
So that's what I think of when I think of stewardship.
(23:11):
This is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody.
Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine.
And with this machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
maybe 250 years.
And through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life,
see all of the connections,
(23:31):
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
That's such a good question.
I love it so much.
So the impact that I hope to make is that I
would have inspired everyone that come across my path to live
(23:51):
every day walking in the fullness of who God called them
to be.
That is what I hope my impact would be.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
Oh, so I actually am in the process of launching an
(24:12):
app for leaders and people who may deal with,
like, anxiety and things of that nature to learn how to
build community around that.
So it's just more about helping people become more of who
God called them to be and get in community with others.
(24:34):
So you can find out more about Tamika over on her
site@your IT book.com
Of course,
I'll have a link to that in the show notes as
well. Tamika,
is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
Learn who you are in God and be that person every
(24:55):
day. Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
(25:17):
If you enjoyed this episode,
please, please do us a favor.
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
iTunes Rate all one word iTunes Rate.
It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review
and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so
(25:39):
that you can get every episode as it comes out in
your feed.
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
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