Jaleesa Parkers

I attribute my success to just being me and showing up in rooms that I never feel like I can show up in, and I just walk in anyway. Prayer has been the most effective in my life, because I walk in rooms like I belong there, doing right by people and treating people like I want to be treated. That's what has made me so effective, because now I've made my name known, I've made what I do known, I've made who I am known to the world. Just being true to myself has put me in a position where nothing or no one can take me down. Even if I fall or have a bad day or health issues with my type 1 diabetes, I'm still not falling or failing because I put my imprint in everything that I do and in the person that I am. People want to see the differences, the realness, the authenticity in you. They want to see the growth. But not just any kind of way - as your best authentic self, as your highest that you feel like you can get. Show up like it's yours, and it becomes yours.

The best career advice I ever received was to be authentic in all that you do and never get caught outside of being authentic, outside of being yourself. That helped me a lot, especially when I started to do ministry and my whole life changed. I learned that I needed to show up like Jaleesa would show up for the king, to be dressed to impress because you just never know who you'll run into. Being authentic has helped me a whole lot - I made whoever I want to be my lifestyle. You can't go on different platforms trying to be something that other people want to see. You never know what you hold in your mouth and in your head and in your knowledge and understanding that someone else might need, just by you going through experiences that you went through. I got that from one of my old apostles, and I carry it with me everywhere I go, especially in my career field, because people need to see the real Jaleesa. If we all show up as 'I got it together all the time,' we're really not helping each other. If you show up being the best version you can be at that time when you can be it, then you have that transparency with people, you can relate, and we can help pull each other up. Iron sharpens iron. I learned to show up totally myself, my most beautiful, highest self.

Don't fold. Do not give in. Stand on everything you came for. Be the best you can be, no matter what other people gotta say, no matter what it looked like, because in the beginning, it never looks like what you saw or what you see or what you want to see out of it. Be mindful of small beginnings. Don't give up. Don't bend, don't break, don't fold. Keep going. No matter what - on your good day, keep going. On your bad day, keep going. On your happy day, keep going. And on your very not-so-happy, sad days, you keep growing. You keep pressing, being the person that you want to be. Keep going. You'll never know what the end look like if you give up. You gotta keep going.

Some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for me right now are dealing with different people that are on drugs and addicted to drugs. Pulling my mothers, especially my mothers, out of these dark places that the fraudulent love has gotten them into - that's the biggest opportunity because that's the biggest flex I got right now. I don't care where I'm at, I don't care if I see someone on the side of the road, I don't care if I gotta show up at an event and I feel like they're after me or they're not trying to hear what I'm saying. That's my biggest challenge as well as where I can do the most work. There's always work there.