The Spark is Officially Lit

Meet your hosts, Judd and Taylor!

The Community Development Foundation is excited to relaunch Season 4 of IgniteCast, presented by iHeartMedia. In this season, we’re sparking fresh conversations with dynamic leaders across Tupelo and Lee County—all centered on one big question: How can YOU lead in your community?

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader, right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

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To learn more about iHeart Media visit, iHeartMedia, Inc.

Transcript

Welcome to IgniteCast where ideas spark action. Brought to you by the Community Development Foundation. Your chamber of commerce and economic development. engine for Tupelo and Lee County. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeart Media, for powering this season of IgniteCast. I'm Taylor. I'm Judd. And welcome to IgniteCast. Taylor IgniteCast is back on!


What a great time to be talking about leadership. Woo woo. Yes, yes. We're going to be able to be cohost together for IgniteCast for bringing it back. We'll talk a little bit about the history of IgniteCast a little bit later in this episode, but I thought it'd be good for people to know who we are.


So, Taylor, tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm Taylor. I'm from Pontotoc, but I live right here in Tupelo. Now, I spent the last four years at Itawamba community college. Planning events for students - can't stop the chop. And now I have been here at CDF for the last six whole months, and it's been the best six months.


Taylor, you're already making an impact. You're already making an impact. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm Judd. Judd Wilson actually moved to Tupelo in 1997. Wow. Long time ago. Long time ago. But been at CDF for almost 13 years. My wife and I raised our kids here. Both were educated through the Tupelo Public school system here.


And so we just love this area. We love CDF, and I just enjoy being able to give back to the community and and being a part of the community. So, it's just good to be here. So IGNITE! Taylor, when, when did you go to IGNITE. What's your history with IGNITE? My first ignite leadership conference was this year in 2025 is the first one to go to.


And I got to work it. So I experienced it in an even more fun way. What was your favorite part? My favorite part was the community there. So seeing leaders striving to be better leaders and to take all of that information from the speakers back to their businesses and being able to give back to the community and just being in a room full of people who are leaders and want to be better leaders, it was inspiring and I think, enjoyed the most, meeting all the speakers.


So that was really neat. Yeah. Fun times. Actually, that was our eighth IGNITE. We actually started IGNITE in 2018. And so sort of the history of why we started it is because we saw that leadership was kind of important in our area. You know, we do the Jim Ingram Community Leadership Institute, we partner with CREATE Foundation on that and have done that since 2001.


And we'll actually kind of talk a little bit about CLI leadership in later later episodes within the season we'll have an opportunity to talk to Jim Ingram's family. So I think that'll be a good episode to kind of learn about that. But with that, we actually kind of work with about 25 leaders, a year. And so we said, hey, is there a way that we can work with leaders more than 25 people?


And so that's sort of when we started talking about IGNITE and not really even IGNITE, but doing a leadership conference, at the time. And so with that, we, we said, hey, we can't just put one on. We got to see what others are doing. So we looked at places like Atlanta, Nashville and actually found a, an organization up in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

You ever been to Kalamazoo? Can't say that I have. It's cold up there, but they do a leadership conference. And so we actually went up there for two years and actually brought, people from Tupelo up there and realized, hey, we need to do that here because there's not really anything close by. And so that gave an opportunity for us to to do that here.


So like I said, we researched it for about two years and, and started ignite. And we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the folks that have have gone through ignite. And and just like you said, I mean, just what you kind of got from ignite other folks are getting from ignite and have over the, the last eight years or so.


With that, we decided, hey, everybody's doing a podcast now, Taylor and Judd are doing a podcast here, and we said, hey, let's do IgniteCast. And so, those episodes are still available. And you can still go back and listen to those. But, with that, we realized, hey, what can we do to keep IGNITE going throughout the whole year?


Because it's, you know, we do IGNITE in January. So this is an opportunity for them to do that. And so that's how IgniteCast was born. Did that for about three seasons. And then put it aside for a little bit. So we're relaunching that now. So Taylor, what is something that we do in this IgniteCast podcast that we hope people will take from that?


So the the goal with bringing IgniteCast back is to keep the conversation of leadership going throughout the year. So it's not just a half day conference, but it's something that is continual. So hearing from leaders in our community who, you know, attended ignite and learn something there, and then they went back and implemented it in their business.


And seeing how that worked for them. So I think the goal of it is just to keep the conversation, go and make sure we're all still striving to be the best leader that we can be for our community. And it's neat because we'll get to have conversations with those people and whether they're business owners or running non-profits, you know, each leader's going to be different.


We're different. Taylor. We're different ages. And so we might look at things differently from a different leadership perspective because, I might have experienced more than you have just because I've been on this earth a little bit longer than you have. And so hopefully, you know, a lot actually, but hopefully we can do that with the leaders that we'll have in this room that we get to sit down with and, and kind of get their perspective.


And so one of the key questions we'll ask everybody here is what what is the best leadership tip you've ever been given. And so we'll get to hear that tip from those leaders and kind of what they what they do. And so Taylor I'm going to turn the tables here and actually ask you, as the co-host and you're not really my guest, but we'll be asking the guests this in the next couple of seasons and episodes that we'll be doing.


What's the best leadership tip, that you can think of? So ever since I was younger and playing sports, I was told to always be doing something and don't have someone ask you to do it, so already be doing it. And, have lived by that. And I try to do my best to live by that, but it's just showing initiative.


So doing something without being asked and, you know, leading by example. Good. That's a good one. What about you, Judd? Well, first off, I got I got to dive deeper. What sport? Guess? You look like a baseball or basketball player. Not too short for that. Okay. I played soccer. Soccer? Yeah. What position? Like, I don't really know if you can tell me anything that I wouldn't even know.


I know goalie was not a goalie. No. No shot. Can't jump. But, I played defense, so I was aggressive. Good. Oh, good. Congratulations. We'll get back to topic. What was what what kind of leadership tipped there? I live by and it's really servant leadership. I remember one time at a staff meeting or it might have been a staff retreat.


David gave us a, a medallion. It was on a chain. It really wasn't for us to wear. You could, But if you saw people walking around with a chain on with a big medallion, it was given to us by David. But actually, most of us actually took it off the chain and actually put it on our key ring, and it's it's a Latin term.


The only Latin term I know is carpe diem. Just because I saw Dead Poets Society, I don't know any other Latin, but but that but it's a Latin term, but basically the what the Latin term says is as long as I live or as long as I breathe, I will serve. And I think that is a true leader, in a good leadership trait, that as long as that we're here, you know, kind of like you were saying, as long as that we're here, we need to be serving.


You know, I think a good leader always goes to the table, laughs or goes to the food line last and, you know, puts others first. So I think, you know, a lot of times we think of leaders up front and at the beginning, but really a true leader is is doing that. So I always remember that little medallion that David gave us.


It's actually on my keyring. I don't have it now because it would make too many noises with these microphones, but but that's what that Latin I can't it's doesn't say carpe diem, but what it does say is as long as I breathe or as long as I live, I will serve. So I think that's something that any good leader for sure, you got to be willing to not be in the spotlight, right?


Right. Like that. So with these episodes, I know we're going to, meet with a lot of people, this season. But one thing we're going to always in this episode with is a saying that we all know Taylor. What what saying is that? So after every staff meeting our leader, David Rumbarger, tells us to "go forth and do good things."


So we will end every episode with that in hopes that you will do the same. Yes. And that's a good little, charge that we have on on Monday morning is, you know, we're looking at the busy schedule for, for the week, but he always does remind us what go forth and do good do good things. And I think a good leader can always, you know, good do good things.


And that's what we're going to charge, our listeners with as well. Yeah. Taylor, this is going to be a fun year. It's going to be great. Yes, yes, it's going to be great. People coming in. And I cannot look forward enough to doing this and and being alongside you. Yeah. We'll release an episode every other week and we'll have five in this first season.

Thanks for joining. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of IgniteCast, presented by iHeart Media. For more leadership, insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe! And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review. And remember, go forth and do good things.