We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeronda Marks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jeronda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
To be successful in my opinion in any industry, especially the professional development, coaching and training industry, which is people oriented and people focused, I strongly believe it takes what I would call the C5 Formula to Success. It will be extremely challenging to become successful at anything if you are not focused or committed to growing in these five areas. The success formula is:
Confidence + Character + Commitment + Capacity + Consistency = Sustainable Undeniable Impact and Influence (SUII).
I believe that with all five (5) of these factors you will be successful. Without CONFIDENCE you will not step out of your cage of comfort and pursue opportunities because you fail to believe in yourself. Without CHARACTER you will not be able to remain and maintain your position as a leader because knowledge will give you power but character respect, people follow when respect you. Without COMMITMENT you will give up very easy because you are not committed to the process. Without CAPACITY you will not excel at higher plateaus because you were not conditioned mentally and emotionally for the new level of success. Without CONSISTENCY you will not be able to gain the trust of your followers because of your inability to keep showing up regardless of what happens and how you feel. Notice that all five areas are interrelated and if you fail to develop and grow in any one area that will hinder your forward progression.
Success is not the end goal it’s a journey and the key is having a GROWTH MINDSET. I love this quote by Arthur Ashe, “Success is a journey not a destination.” Therefore, I say you, never stop growing…that’s what SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
I am a wife of 5 years, mother of 4 wonderful daughters and a GIGI of 8 beautiful grandchildren. I love reading, playing tennis, skating, and riding my bike with my husband. I am a native of New Orleans, Louisiana (504 Girl), however presently residing in Forney, Texas. I am a woman of Faith, Ordained Elder and Licensed Minister, Entrepreneur, Author, Transformational Speaker, Business and Leadership Coach. I am the CEO of URU Associates LLC. and CEO/Founder of URUnique Business Academy, where I help ambitious and high achieving women level up and lead and boss up and build successful, sustainable, and scalable businesses. I help women go from idea to launch, gain clarity on their vision and mission in life and business, by helping to boost their confidence and courage to use their voice and lead out front and BE THE CEO OF THEIR OWN LIFE.
I have over 24 years of business, leadership, and professional development experience. I have trained and developed over 7000 leaders and coached over 450 business owners to generate an estimated 24 million dollars in revenue. What gives me joy is serving and supporting others. God has blessed me with the opportunity to use my story and my gifts to influence and impact the lives of so many people, especially women. I understand and can relate to the many challenges and difficulties that are holding women back from pursuing their visions and dreams. The only reason I am successful in what I do, is because I have sat where many of my clients sit. I have experienced rejection. I have experienced setbacks and disappointments. I have been paralyzed by fears and failures. I used to lack confidence in myself, my inner voice and outer voice was drowned out by my insecurities.
However, things shift for me when I began to believe what God said about me and what I can do and what I can have. And it was this spiritual indignation that has given me the courage and the confidence to pull other women out of their cage of comfort and support them on their journey toward FREEDOM and FULFILLMENT. My journey to “NOW” hasn’t been easy, however I would not change or trade one moment in my life. I believe that my faith in God has been the reason for my success in life and business. My faith in God has been my sustaining power through all the seasons of transition in my life and business. My commitment to becoming a lifelong learner has also contributed to my success. I would always seek out opportunities to invest in my personal and professional development, if that was attending seminars, purchasing books, and listening to CDs of inspiring leaders and trailblazers like Les Brown, Oprah Winfrey, Jim Rohn and John Maxwell to name a few. I am a connoisseur of self-improvement books and leadership. I’ve heard it said that leaders are readers, well that’s what I endeavored to be known as “a leader.” So, I did what leaders do, invest in themselves and in return invest in others.
I like so many others, pursued the traditional education (college, university…i.e.), however alongside of the traditional education I saw value in transformational education that is personal and professional development which was extremely valuable. It was valuable because this type of education was helping people to be a better person not to get a better job. That was empowering to me, teaching, training, and coaching people to be a better version of themselves. It’s because of that pursuit, that I was driven to the service industry. I wanted to help people grow and develop “soft skills.” It was at that moment I discovered two things about myself, I was gifted in both administration and leadership. Knowing these two areas of passion and gifting have navigated my life to where I am today. Therefore, I can be consistent and show up and serve people because I know what stirs my passion and brings me joy…being a servant leader.
I am also convinced that I am where I am today because I made a commitment to God first and myself second, that NO MATTER WHAT, I’LL NEVER GIVE UP. No matter what, means that even when painful, disappointing, and unjust things happened to me, I WILL NOT QUIT. When I look back over my life and I see all the obstacles and challenges that could have caused my defeat, I must pause and give thanks to God.
I refused to give up because I want to help women that lack the support, structure, strategies, systems, and social networking knowledge needed to succeed in life and business. I want women to believe in herself, pursue her dreams, reach her goals, and live a life of FREEDOM and FULFILLMENT, knowing that SHE ADDS VALUE TO EVERY TABLE, EVERY ROOM AND TO EVERY LIFE SHE ENCOUNTERS.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Many people ask, “How did you become so bold and confident.” Well let’s be honest, I haven’t always been confident and bold. I can only say, LIFE. It’s the things that I have endured that have shaped me into the woman I am today. It’s those painful seasons of rejection, isolation and separation that makes you who you are. Life will require you to become self-determined, persistent, and resilient to bounce back and recover from setbacks and attacks. I have so many defining moments; however, I will share the one that has truly shaped me as a woman in leadership and business.
IT WAS HEARTBREAK and I DIDN’T SEE IT COMING. I worked as a director for a nonprofit for four years and grew this company into the great organization that it is today. I sacrificed and invested so much of my time and effort. I gave my life to build this organization. I believed so much in the vision and mission of this organization that I left corporate and took at ten thousand dollars pay cut in salary to help lay the foundation for this company. I absolutely loved what I did. It wasn’t just work, or just a job for me, this was my calling. I really felt this was what I was born to do, it fulfilled me. I enjoyed training staff leaders, and volunteers and establishing operational policies and procedures. I was operating in my sweet spot.
But like they say, bad things do happen to good people. You see what came next, I didn’t see it coming. The darkest day of my life happened. I was unjustly fired. They said, “Unfortunately Jeronda the organization is going into a different direction and your services are no longer needed….” Now much more was said but I would be lying if I said I can recall the conversation. It was as if Charlie Brown stepped into the room “wawwwawww”.
I WAS DEVASTATED, I WAS ANGRY, I WAS DISAPPOINTED and most of all I WAS SCARED. I WAS IN SHOCK, HURT and in DISBELIEVE. It felt like my heart had been shattered in tiny pieces. I was overwhelmed with emotions and questions like, “What am I going to do? How am I going to survive financially? What’s my next move? What are people going to say? Why is this happening to me? How am I going to support my young daughter?”
However, I knew I had to shift to survival mode for my daughter’s sake! For me to move forward I had to renew my mind and begin thinking more positively about the situation and that’s when things began to look up for me. A few weeks later I received a call from another organization that had heard through the “grapevine”, you know the grapevine is when they get the “tea” the news that I had been released from my previous job. They wanted to hire me, not as an employee but as a consultant. They expressed how they were impressed by my work and wanted me to coach and train their leaders and revamp their organizational structure…etc. I was amazed that they were going to pay me for my expertise. That’s when I realized MY WORTH, MY VALUE, and WHAT I BRING TO THE TABLE MATTERED. That’s when my business was birth, URU and Associates Business and Leadership Consulting. I knew there was something UNIQUE about me and what I do. I went from scared to prepared walking in my purpose and life assignment. I took the gifts I possessed and bounced back in a big way.
What made me do it you ask? CONFIDENCE MADE ME DO IT. I had to have confidence and belief in my God, my skills, and my ability to make it. What I didn’t realize until I got on the other side was that so many people, that I knew and those that I may never met were watching me go and grow through this test. My resilience was on trial, and IT WON.
It was through my reflecting on all the life and business challenges that I have endure that my next book will be RELEASE THIS SUMMER OF 2022, “Confidence Made Me Do It: From Scared to Prepared 10 Secrets to Become Super Self-Confident in Life and Business.” This book is going to bless, heal and deliver so many people young and old, because we all are challenged in self-confidence. It’s through my life story that, I want people especially women, to know that regardless of what you experience in life, YOU WILL SURVIVE IT. If you are feeling undervalued, unfulfilled, discouraged by a failure or setback that has happened to you, I am a living witness that YOU CAN OVERCOME and ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING. What looks like a setback is a setup for your NEW BEGINNING and NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO STAND UP and TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR OWN DESTINY and BE THE CEO OF YOUR OWN LIFE. Work on your confidence and you will be successful in whatever you put your energy, mind, and money toward. CONFIDENCE WILL MAKE YOU DO IT! BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE IN YOU!
PREORDER YOUR COPY: CONFIDENCEMADEMEDOIT.COM
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
As I mentioned earlier, I am a self-published author. I self-published my first book in October of 2014. I DID IT MYSELF. I always desired to publish a book; however, it was so difficult to get a publishing company to buy into my manuscript. I received several rejection notices stating that there wasn’t a market for my book at the time etc. Also, the cost to publish a book was so expensive and it was extremely challenging for me to come up with that type of financial investment at the time. I really became discouraged with the process and put my manuscripts on the top shelf to never revisit it again, at least not for a while due to my discouragement.
However, it happened, I was surfing the internet at like 1:30 am one early Sunday Morning, which was extremely odd for me. I was looking for something, to be honest I don’t recall what I was searching for at the time and I stumbled upon a self-publishing seminar being held at a local university. It was starting at 9:30 am that day, within 8 hours to be exact. I immediately registered for the seminar and received my confirmation. I showed up for the seminar excited and proceeded to check in and the representative of the university said, “When did you register, because I don’t see your name on my list.” I responded, “On this morning at 1:30 am. And here is my registration confirmation.” She said, “Wow, that’s strange because the seminar is filled to capacity and it should not have allowed you to register.” She was extremely shocked, however she had to honor my registration confirmation. I am convinced that it was an act of God that allowed me to attend that seminar on that day.
As I was sitting in that seminar and hearing the presenter speak, it was like something was resurrected within me. The presenter encouraged and inspired me to ‘DO IT,” she provided me with a few steps, enough to get started. I later made the decision to invest in myself at another level and hired her as my Book and Business Coach. This was the best decision I could have ever made. She coached me every step of the way and I learned everything about self-publishing. It motivated me to establish my own publishing company and to coach and train others to do the same. My first book I released was entitled “ME MOMENTS with THE MASTER: 31 Day Inspirational and Professional Devotion. I later released two (2) eBooks entitled “Put Up or Shut Up: Coaching Moments to Build Confidence and Push You Towards Destiny” and “BIRTH THE BOOK IN YOU: Self-Publish Like a Pro Manual.” In addition, I co-authored a book entitled “Classy Come Back: How to be A Lady in a Ratchet Society.” I have coached over 300 people to self-publish through my “BIRTH THE BOOK IN YOU: Self-Publish Like A Pro” Coaching Program.
I want to share with you five (5) life lessons that I have embraced whenever I have overwhelmed with self-doubt:
1) Believe in Your Self, You Can Do IT!
2) Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself, get a coach/mentor who wants to see you WIN.
3) Your Gifts is Your Increase don’t be afraid to turn your passion into profits.
4) Don’t accept “NO’ for an answer, there is always a “YES” out there.
5) Don’t allow fear to paralyze you and make you miss opportunities to do something AMAZING.
It’s time to share your gifts with the world!
Contact Info:
- Website: uruassociates.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerondam/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youareuniqueJB/
- Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeronda-m-8328178b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-yAVFfDHExEBpFVweBSCg
- Other: jerondaspeaks.com
Image Credits
images: Kaptured Moments Photography