Christy Jackson

First, my relationship with God. Understanding that if I allow Him to lead, if I'm calm to give me the ideas, I don't have to reinvent anything - it comes really organically. But also, discipline to actually do it and live out and fulfill the things that I say I'm gonna do. There's so many things on a daily basis I don't feel like doing, like before you called, I literally had the thought of, like, I hate answering emails. So many. But, you know, you gotta do it. And when you do it, on the other side of doing it, not only do you get to check off that task, but you are fulfilling part of today's goals. And so, that discipline of contributing to myself and to businesses and to my future every single day is, like, that compounding discipline has led me here. Definitely.

I can recall conversations my coaches had with me throughout my cheer journey. I'm a mentally super competitor, and that's just because my whole life has been competition. I can just remember my coaches telling me, like, go all in, like go for it. Do it. Keep going, keep grinding. Maybe in various ways and in different tones, because I've had so many different incredible coaches along my journey, but just that mindset. I have this little cheerleader in the back of my head that's like, yes, you can. Why can't you open the gym? Yes, you can. Do it, girl. You can write a book. Why couldn't you write a book? They're amazing. Write the book. And so, there's this thing in the back of my head that just keeps going. I think it's really not one person, it's like a combination of all of the women - my mom, my grandma, all my coaches - just telling me, go, do it, it's okay. You got this. You can handle this. It's not too much. And then when I do it, and it's great, I'm like, look at that!

Trust yourself. That thing that's pulling at you, it's not going to go away. You know, it's in there because that's what you're supposed to do. Fulfill it. Don't allow fear to stop you. Trust yourself. You can do it. Yes, you can, it might be hard, but you can do hard things. That's one of the things that you can ask any of my athletes, even the 5-year-olds, you say, I can do all things, and they'll say, even hard things. You can, and it's just believing in yourself, trust yourself. The way to muddle out all the noise is to sit quiet and listen to your own thoughts, and think things all the way through. But absolutely trust yourself. That gut feeling, that's what you're supposed to be doing. Every single time in life that I have gone against my gut, I ended up in a bad spot. It's never been wrong.

The biggest challenge is maybe where we are. The location of our gym really allows for young people who aren't exposed to things to see something new. They get to travel - like, Nationals will be at Disney World this year. I feel so grateful that I get to take all these little girls to Disney World. But also, you know, it's expensive, so that can be challenging. Everyone's demographics are different. I have a lot of private school kids that come in from just outside of the city, but the kids inside of the city, maybe they don't have the same accesses. We are serving Baltimore. It is what it is. We're trying to change some things here and offer different things here, but we're starting from the grit of the city, and we're moving from there. Our specific location is really protecting us in a great neighborhood, but we want to pull everybody. If you want to cheer, you can come here. So, just trying to grow with the city as it's changing, and trying to make sure that we're serving our community in a polite and respectful way, respectful of what it's going through, but also encouraging it to grow.

Number one, if you can't tell, if you're around me long enough, you're gonna get God on you. That's my phrase. I know what God and having a relationship with God has done in my life. It's a testament to who I am. So that's number one. In my household, in my spirit, in the gym, all of that stuff is just the influence of God. If it's not from Him, I don't want it. And that's just me. Another thing I learned in elementary school called the six P's to Excellence: proud, prompt, persistent, productive, polite, and prepared. I tell my students, if you invoke these 6 P's every day, you can do the right things, because people will be able to see that you're excellent, just people will buy into your brand. If you come in proud, knowing who you are, if you're prompt, respecting other people's time, if you're persistent, willing to do the same things enough to get results, if you're productive, willing to put the work in, if you're polite, kind to people and to yourself, if you're prepared, you show up ready to go - other people will see that you want excellence, that you're serious about your life. So I do it in my home, I structure it in my gym, and the consistency has led to results.