Social Impact Heroes: Why & How David and MeMe Jackson of The Jackson Joint Are Helping To Change Our World
Don’t worry about making it perfect, just get started. For us, in the beginning, everything needed to be polished. We worried about every little detail and this took up unnecessary time. Now, we still operate in excellence. But, we trust ourselves to know that we’re NEVER going to put garbage out there and will always lead with quality. This trust in ourselves allows us to not overthink and just get it done and move on to the next thing.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing David and MeMe Jackson — The Jackson Joint.
The Jackson Joint: The Jackson Joint LLC is on a two-fold mission to promote wholeness within marriages and families while making a positive impact in the community. The organization offers content, resources, and live events, all designed to strengthen marriages and fortify families mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially, among other aspects. Recognizing the family unit as the heartbeat of the community, The Jackson Joint places emphasis on community service, creating avenues for families to contribute and make a meaningful difference in society. The ultimate goal is to witness families thrive, living out their God-given purpose for generations to come. The Jackson Joint is dedicated to seeing families win and leave a lasting legacy.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
We started off with a podcast, The Jackson Joint: A Love and Marriage Podcast, with the simple goal of creating a space for married couples to find commonality and content that spoke to what they were experiencing in their everyday lives. We wanted to provide content that helped marriages win. This paved the way for us to begin hosting live events for married couples to have a fun, fabulous, grown and sexy night out. From there, the mission grew and we realized the importance of creating a space where the whole family- married couples and their children- could grow together and win as a unit. We wanted couples investing in their marriage, while simultaneously investing in their roles as parents and understanding the importance of legacy. This is where the community aspect of our brand really comes into play. The family is the heartbeat of the community and we thoroughly enjoy creating spaces where families, parents alongside their children, can serve others and make an impact.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The most interesting, yet rewarding, thing that has happened since leading our brand is the number of men who have opened themselves up to therapy. At our first live event for married couples, we hosted a panel discussion and one of the panelists was a male marriage and family therapist. His presence made such an impact that, after the event, several men reached out for his contact info, either for themselves or to refer him to another man in their lives who was interested. It was very rewarding to witness men be courageous and diligent enough to get the assistance they needed, and it shattered the stereotype that black men don’t go to therapy.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the funniest mistakes we made when starting was biting off way more than we could chew with our podcast recording schedule, LOL! We had this lofty goal of maintaining a super aggressive recording schedule amidst everything else we had going on in our lives, and to think back on how hopeful we were that we would actually be able to maintain that schedule and still manage life is actually quite laughable! The lesson we learned from that is to be realistic and work at a pace that we know we can maintain. Consistency is more important than fast.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
We are making a significant social impact because we have curated a brand that is dedicated to breathing life into marriages and families, while also serving our community. When families are whole, communities are whole. We are creating spaces for marriages to he9 al; families to pour into their legacy; and, for communities to be served. Marriage, family and community are the three pillars that our brand is founded upon and where we invest our time and resources to make lasting, hopefully transformative, impact.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Again, several men have opened themselves up to therapy as a result of our platform and that is something that we are very proud of.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Make therapy even more affordable/accessible. Particularly marriage and family therapy. Provide more family-based volunteer opportunities where family members of all ages can assist. Lastly, it would be amazing if people were more willing to share positive content that promotes healthy family values and community involvement as opposed to making negative, distasteful content go viral that only eats away at the morale of our community.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is rooted in humility and having the heart to serve. Leadership requires courage. Leadership means staying corrigible. The best example of this is entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, to be good at it, you must approach it with a heart to serve others. Staying true to your vision while also bettering your product/service as you have humbled yourself enough to see things from the consumer’s perspective. As for the courage part of leadership, entrepreneurship requires you to engage courage over and over again. It never stops. So, yes, when we think of the perfect example to sum up these attributes of leadership it would be entrepreneurship.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1 . Don’t worry about making it perfect, just get started. For us, in the beginning, everything needed to be polished. We worried about every little detail and this took up unnecessary time. Now, we still operate in excellence. But, we trust ourselves to know that we’re NEVER going to put garbage out there and will always lead with quality. This trust in ourselves allows us to not overthink and just get it done and move on to the next thing.
2 . The people you think will show up may not and you have to be okay with that. We have experienced this and at first it can be disheartening. But, one thing I can say is that as long as you lead with authenticity and quality, the audience that is meant for you will show up!
3 . Don’t assume what the people want! You can have an amazing idea in mind that you think the world of, and you put it out there and it doesn’t get the response you thought it would. That can be bewildering at first. But take that as a lesson that sometimes market research may be necessary to vet your idea. Doing this can save you time and money in the long run. Now, this won’t always be the case because there are those things that you know within yourself you are purposed to do and you don’t want public acceptance to sway you away from that. Aside from those moments, getting feedback from your audience on what they want can be a great help!
4 . Have fun! Remember why you got started. That will pull you through the difficult days and you won’t even feel like you’re working. We try to constantly remind ourselves of this.
5 . Know when to rest. We struggled, and sometimes still do, on knowing when to take a step back and rest because we truly love what we do. However, taking a break inspires creativity, new ideas, and it recharges you.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We would love to inspire a movement where everyone found a cause, organization, individual in need, charity, school etc. that they gave to regularly. Whether it be money, time, resources etc. We are all called to take care of others, and if we all committed, financially or otherwise, to the needs of an organization, school, mission etc. how amazing that would be.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” Life is full of unknowns. It can deal some unfortunate blows at times. But, as long as we remember it is Christ who is strengthening us, we can keep going. We’re not moving by our strength, we’re moving by His, and that’s why we can do what we do and win at life.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Michelle Obama! She seems to be a woman of infinite wisdom and very down to Earth. Plus, we’re from the same place, the South Side of Chicago, so we know she’s amazing!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Our website is www.thejacksonjoint.com. We are The Jackson Joint on Instagram, Facebook, and we are newly making our way to Tik Tok
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How David and MeMe Jackson of The Jackson Joint Are Helping To Change… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.