We recently connected with Tammie Jenkins and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tammie, thanks for joining us today. undefined

Thank you so much for asking this question the most innovative thing I’ve done in my career well is not directly associated with my company. It is an insight into how I think as a business owner in 2001 my Godbrother Ezekiel Phillips received a packet from his middle school on innovative ideas that Could solve world problems. He came to me. I was a student at UCLA at the time with two little ones and working part time, and you know getting it through as a woman of distinction chancellor award winner at UCLA amongst other things and I said I’d definitely be willing to help you with this so we sat down and we had our brainstorming our powwow our meeting in his mom‘s two bedroom apartment and I asked him what is the problem that he was experiencing in his life at the time that he wanted a solution too. He told me that his mom would not take him to auditions because she was afraid of driving on the freeway as that’s a problem because how can you get there unless you take the streets are very long or if you take the freeway and get there in a timely manner so we thought about it and I said what if there were cars that could never get in an accident because the Car knew how to avoid other cars he said oh my gosh that would be wonderful. I said OK well, let’s draw out a prototype. Let’s see how we get this to be done and so we drew out a prototype we put lasers all around the car, and even if they were cars that did not have the lasers on it the car it did have a lasers on it could identify the distance and the timing in the speed and the location of the other cars, so it would know what to do and then you have cars that repel each other and never have accidents, saving live, saving billions in insurance, monies and eliminating the fear that existed in his mom which were been at him to go to auditions and so that was the most innovative thing I’ve done in my career now while I was 25 at the time and he was a teenager early teens and they asked us to sign away the rights to the innovative idea Little did we know we were creating something that would 20 years later be on the Volvo the Lexus, the Volkswagen all cars Waymo, and it would be part of the innovation that we thought of which took them 20 years to bring it to market. I don’t know if someone else had thought about that before, but I definitely can say that that was the most innovative thing that I’ve contributed to, and when I see the car is doing that while I regret the fact that we didn’t patent it we didn’t own. It didn’t know that we were really solving a huge problem, but we knew we were And they awarded him with a one week stay at the college and a certificate wish that we could chip in and receive some of the proceeds from that innovative idea, but it gives me satisfaction every time I see a car that has those features on it to know that I thought about that in 2001 and here we are today and so I’ve taken that same type of mindset into how I run my life and run my business because that was me being me at 25 you know and so that’s how I think and with that I’ve been continuously innovative in my personal businesses in my family as the oldest child as the mom of two at the grand of one as me being one of one so yeah.

Tammie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Tammy. I am 49 years old. I usually don’t tell my age I let people guess but since we’re getting to know me, I think it’s important for me to put that out there cause I come across as maybe mid late 20s early 30s and that’s OK. I love it. The guys that talk to me are usually in that age bracket as well. I just attract them because I think that I’m their age and then when they find out that I’m not, they just tell me that they’re age anyways so I started business and had the business mindset in my early 20s. I remember drawing out on a piece of paper and I still have that paper to this day of all of the type of business that I wanted to have they were health and beauty they were Wellness they were financial Services. They were anything that made the human functions optimally in the world and so that’s where the ideas I’ve always been there and so I went to college became a mom graduated from the greatest college the number one public university UCLA back in 2001 and I was my graduation speaker at the time with my two daughters there I’ve always been by my side and have been kind of my wife and my motivation. I had it prior to them as an older child oldest child in the family but when they came to life and I gave life and God loan them to Me, my desire to be committed to excellence became even more I mean you’re talking about 4.0 and then you’re talking about 2.0 you know Life lives and you have to still pick yourself up and keep going so I got into the beauty industry, which is Extensions Of My Beauty and I also have make your dreams come true thriving which is another retail business of luxury, sportswear luxury clothing also motivational speaking, executive coaching leadership coaching, as well as future books podcast and more products you name it because that is who I am as a person I believe that having beautiful skin and taking care of your beauty and anything related to that because we’re not just gonna settle stop at skin care is gonna go further as important to who we are in our core and a lot of times we don’t know how to do that and with the market being saturated with so many choices it’s like which one do I choose you know a lot of times as trial and error a lot of times it’s a lot of money spent is going to doctors getting prescriptions and different things that really don’t remedy the problem so you fool essentials Extensions of My Beauty is a company that my family bought many many years ago and saw the value in it because so many customers that we have see the results they’re loyal we guarantee our results moneyback guarantee if you don’t see the results and it’s for all skin types and it’s not at a high price point Just because we value the repeat customers which outdo what we would get if we had it at a luxury band it’s almost like Kanye selling his clothes for $20 as opposed to 2000 because we open it up to a greater market of people and we have the results that we want you know because we care about our customers and we really want them to see us as an extension of their beauty, but they can rely on and it’s not just something they got put on the shelf throw in the trash and they tried it. It didn’t work. You know this is tried it it does work and it keeps working and so that’s how I got Extensions of My Beauty and then would make your dreams come true and thriving a lot of times the news puts a lot of fear into people and situations in life things that we don’t choose and trauma have people believing that they can’t make their dreams come true and thrive that they just must get by and survive and that eats me to my core because that is not the truth and that’s NOT not the truth within all of us is the innate desire to reach our highest self And we have to find ways to do that and so that’s where the birth of make your dreams come true thriving came from I was not was. I am miss Black Georgia 2008 first runner up and Miss congeniality and so my platform at that time was not only to dream but to make those dreams a reality so it’s always been deep in my core believing that I can believing that I will be believing that I I must and that’s rooted in my spirituality. I was raised Christian and I have study religion in school, and just understanding that innate power that exists within us, and you know being having dreams and having visions and having intuition and having foresight and speaking directly to God and hearing from him, and knowing that if I listen that the obedience is better than sacrifice and that when I don’t listen that I’ve had to sacrifice some things that I didn’t have to but because he’s such a wonderful God, those were all lessons that became lessons and test that became testimonies and so that is who I am and that’s how I operate business I’m in it for the profits that come along with it because it where it says our gifts make us rich and bring us wealth and success so that is just a byproduct of what I what it is that I want to give to Those who are called but maybe not chosen to lead the charge

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Think and Grow Rich
Atomic Habits
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Faith in The Valley
Road Less Travel
Nipsey Hussle
Brian Tracey
Iyanla Vanzant
Oprah Winfrey
Donald Trump
Curtis Jackson
Lisa Nichols
Les Brown
More books JayZ Power
Good to Great
Business Principles of spiritual Woman
How to Steer Clear of a Bozo and Avoid the Circus
More than I can name

Any advice for managing a team?

You have to be a servant, leader, and lead from the aspect that you want the best interest for yourself for the others who are under your leadership you want them to be so good that the leadership that you provide to them helps them to continue excel which turns helps the business and everybody knows that we’re operating for my best interest process and have systems in place where people can know what there’s expected of them and how to achieve it so they feel good about achieving it. You have to avoid micromanaging and avoid hiring people who are not on board with The vision from the beginning no matter if you know them how smart they are or how they look because that can be a very detriment when you got in the middle of water and you’re handling business and you have someone who has a lackadaisical nonchalant type of attitude and you’re really trying to make some power moves and make things happen so I think it’s very important to be a servant leader to get in and get your hands dirty and let everyone know that you’re invested in them so they can be invested in you and then as a win-win situation all the time I tell my daughters all the time, but I’m telling them to do something or giving an idea is not because I wanna be in charge. I wanna be in control or I wanna be hurt. I wanna have power. It’s because I have looked at it with the birds, I view from a higher level and see that the solution to the problem or not even a problem, the opportunity is what I’ve come up with and I’m open to suggestions and ideas if they all leave in the direction of creating optimal output so just be committed to your excellence yourself you know and be an example of what it is and respect everyone from the janitor to the door holder all the way up to the CEO and give everybody that same type of grace now there will be hard times being a servant, leader, manager or motivator of a team, giving them integrity and keeping them the morale up and you have to have those tough conversation conversations and not be afraid to have them so everybody knows that the commitment is to excellence and they know when those conversations are had it’s not just because it’s a Power grab it because there’s something that needed to be addressed and that they trust you you know you developed that mutual trust so servant leadership is definitely key to managing a team and keeping up morale that drives business forward and creates a astounding return on investment

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.extensionsofmybeauty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/extensionsofmybeauty?igsh=dWN2MXR0M3JtajR6&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/extensionsofmybeauty1?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/extensions-of-my-beauty-atlanta?osq=Extensions+of+My+Beauty

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