Get Up, Dress Up, Show Up, Never Give Up...and Wear it Well

In Episode 4 of IgniteCast, we sit down with Katina Tucker, Executive Director of Wear It Well, for a powerful and deeply personal conversation about leadership, resilience, and purpose.

Katina shares how her own journey through loss, trauma, and unexpected setbacks became the foundation for one of Tupelo’s most impactful nonprofit organizations. From her early days volunteering as a child to founding Wear It Well and launching programs like “Ready. Set. Goals.” she offers real insight into what it means to lead from experience—and with heart.

She reminds us that you can’t pour from an empty cup, that balance is key, and that dreams don’t work unless you do.

🎧 Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey, this episode is a reminder that your story—and your spark—can change lives.

Big thanks to iHeartMedia—our Presenting Sponsor for the entire IgniteCast podcast and the powerhouse fueling this season’s episodes! 🔊🔥 

🎧 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

Transcript

S4 E4 Katina Tucker
 
0:17 
Welcome to Ignite Cast, 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.
 
0:29 
Thank you to our presenting sponsor, I Heart Media for powering this season of Ignite Cast.
 
0:34 
I'm Taylor.
 
0:35 
I'm Judd and welcome to Ignite CAST Taylor.
 
0:41 
We're here for another at night cast.
 
0:44 
It's always fun to do it.
 
0:46 
It's always fun to kind of do different things at CDF.
 
0:48 
And we, we're talking about at night a lot because we're in a night cast.
 
0:51 
But as you know, we do about 50 events a year for our CDF members.
 
0:56 
And it's summertime, so we don't do as many as we usually do, but we usually have a business after hours or a 
round table coming up.
 
1:02 
You know what I love about those events?
 
1:03 
Tell me what you love, Judd.
 
1:04 
You get to meet other CDF members, and it could be a small business owner, it could be a large 
industry, or it could even be a nonprofit.
 
1:12 
I love that.
 
1:13 
You know what I love?
 
1:14 
A nonprofit.
 
1:14 
We got a nonprofit with us today.
 
1:16 
We do.
 
1:17 
Yes.
 
1:17 
Wear it.
 
1:18 
Well, we got Cortana Davis.
 
1:21 
Whoop, whoop, whoop.
 
1:22 
Back up.
 
1:23 
We got a edit.
 
1:24 
It's Cortana Tucker.
 
1:25 
Yep.
 
1:26 
Cortana.
 
1:26 
You just got married.
 
1:27 
Yes.
 
1:28 
May ten, 3 1/2 weeks in.
 
1:32 
So far so good.
 
1:34 
I like Tucker rolls off the tongue.
 
1:36 
Oh, yeah, yes, it sounds great.
 
1:41 
I like, I mean, if if you've been in our area, everybody knows wear it well and everybody knows.
 
1:46 
Cortana, you do such a great job, Cortana.
 
1:49 
It's so great having you here to interview you and talking a little bit about leadership, but just just having you 
here because it's great to have you here.
 
1:56 
Thank you.
 
1:57 
Great to be here.
 
1:58 
Absolutely.
 
1:59 
Well, Cortana, we ask this to all of our people on the podcast.
 
2:02 
So we want to ask you, what's the best leadership tip you've ever been given?
 
2:09 
The absolute best is to not take on more than you can handle.
 
2:13 
As leaders, sometimes we feel like Superwoman, Wonder Woman, that or Superman that we can do it all.
 
2:21 
So one of the best tips I've ever been given is to you can't do everything.
 
2:25 
And although we want to, especially nonprofit, I rarely ever want to say no.
 
2:31 
But I've learned that that's a very important part of leadership.
 
2:35 
It's saying no, it's hard to do that, and it's extremely hard.
 
2:39 
Yeah, yeah, it's very hard.
 
2:41 
My tip kind of goes off of that.
 
2:43 
But in our first podcast, I said that mine was to give 110% and do do your best everything or already be doing 
stuff.
 
2:51 
It's hard to give 110% to everything and everyone.
 
2:55 
So you want to make sure you don't, you know, crowd your schedule or cram things in to where you couldn't 
give and you're halfway giving to everyone.
 
3:05 
Be better to give all to fewer.
 
3:07 
And that's another one for me is that you can't pour from an empty cup.
 
3:11 
That's what I hear all the time.
 
3:12 
It's like you're everywhere, you're doing everything.
 
3:14 
How do you do it?
 
3:14 
And I'm like most days, I don't know, I can't even explain it.
 
3:18 
But I also do feel the fatigue.
 
3:20 
I do feel, you know, when I'm supposed to be energetic and, you know, hyped up about an event and I'm just 
like, how you doing?
 
3:27 
Yay, we're at the fair.
 
3:30 
How do you balance that?
 
3:31 
How do you find your balance?
 
3:33 
How do you know when you you kind of need to cut back or so?
 
3:36 
So number one, my body tells me literally my voice will get really weak, I'll feel fatigued.
 
3:44 
And when I kind of feel it oncoming, I'm like, all right, not going to that.
 
3:48 
I'm not going to that, I'm not going to that.
 
3:50 
I've got to go to that.
 
3:51 
So you kind of get to where you prioritize things.
 
3:54 
And although a lot of things are important, everything is not as important as others.
 
4:00 
And so that's a lot of it is prioritizing and kind of wedding out.
 
4:05 
You know, as much as I want to go to business after hours, do I have to go?
 
4:11 
Is that a must?
 
4:12 
Is that necessary?
 
4:13 
Yes, it is necessary because it's part of CDF and I'm a part of it and I do want to mix and mingle with 
businesses.
 
4:20 
But do I go to business after hours?
 
4:22 
No one at 6:00 AM the next day.
 
4:24 
I've got to go meet a family, you know, who's been burned out or, you know, admit a kid into our 
program that comes from safe that is going to be kind of a passer through.
 
4:34 
So it's a different scenario than the norm.
 
4:37 
So then you go, no, I need to rest.
 
4:38 
I need to get my mind together.
 
4:40 
I'll kick, kick back business after hours next month.
 
4:44 
So good, Taylor.
 
4:47 
I'm so glad she said yes when we asked her to be on the podcast.
 
4:49 
Me too.
 
4:50 
I would have if you said no to that, I would have been nervous.
 
4:53 
I can't say no to Judge.
 
4:54 
OK, good.
 
4:55 
That's right.
 
4:55 
Can't say no to judge.
 
4:59 
So Cortana, where?
 
5:00 
Well, tell us that.
 
5:01 
I know a little bit about the history, but tell the history of that and really kind of how much it's changed since the 
beginning because it has, Oh my gosh.
 
5:10 
So what I like to say about where it well is, it's a startup nonprofit and it was derived from, I say my 
shortcomings and my upbringing, meaning my grandmother raised us to literally, I can remember 
being like 2-3 years old dragging behind her, taking food to people, going cleaning up folks homes, 
going sitting with elderly people, you know, who were sick and didn't have money to pay a sitter or a 
nurse or an aide.
 
5:37 
I mean, I was literally voluntold from 2-3 years old to help.
 
5:41 
And so that was instilled in me.
 
5:43 
So I, I combine my upbringing and then I go to my pits, My, my, my downfalls went through a horrible 
divorce and then I went through a series of, Oh my God, life altering things like I had dealt with family, 
with cancer, stuff like that.
 
6:01 
But I haven't had my own bout.
 
6:03 
But my story comes from a well, first of all, like I said, the divorce was the first dark pit that I had to dig out of 
and regroup.
 
6:12 
Then the next one, my grandmother who raised me, she passed and it somebody lives to be 93.
 
6:16 
You think she's going to outlive everybody.
 
6:19 
And it did a number on me.
 
6:21 
And then a year after that, my brain injury, literally minding my own business, beating the head with a brick off 
work almost two years, you know, trying to rehabilitate.
 
6:31 
Three years later I fell and broke my right ankle.
 
6:34 
So it was so many events and God just kept saying to me, pay it forward, pay it forward, help the 
people.
 
6:40 
And I was like, I can't.
 
6:41 
I'm incapacitated every time I blink.
 
6:44 
So where it well started with doing makeovers on people have gone through traumatic experiences, cancer, you 
know, TBI is like me, traumatic brain injury, you name it.
 
6:55 
We started helping those people with our Health is wealth six months into it and it just kicked off June 
20, 2017.
 
7:04 
January 2018 is when we added our kids program.
 
7:08 
Many people may not even know this, but no, August 15th of this year will be 10 years that my no, no, no, no, 
no, this is not a while 10 years that my niece took her life.
 
7:21 
And that's actually what prompted our love the skin year end program talking about bullying.
 
7:26 
And then it led to the bridge, which is our kids after school and summer program.
 
7:30 
So we're coming up on that 10 year anniversary.
 
7:33 
So but where?
 
7:34 
Well, it's coming up on eight years.
 
7:36 
So God gave me the vision, but I kept going through things and and I was like, if you want me to start this thing 
and do it, I mean, hello, I need to be able to walk.
 
7:46 
I need to be able to talk, you know, and God was saying to me, I'm preparing you for this journey so that people 
can relate.
 
7:53 
You can go out and tell people all day long to wear it.
 
7:55 
Well, quote, But if you don't have something to that to resonate with them, they're just like, yeah, this is for you 
to say you dressed up and you've got this, doing this.
 
8:04 
And I'm thinking, but do you want me to go back 5 minutes or 50 years with the history of the darkness?
 
8:10 
So it started out literally with doing makeovers and doing events at community centers and parks.
 
8:15 
And so in the eight years we went from that to having a building donated, where we added our 
business offices and then we added our ready set goals where we help people, you know, with 
workforce preparedness, financial literacy.
 
8:28 
We've added parenting classes, Oh my God, you name it.
 
8:32 
So June 13th will be our 8th year and it has literally blown my mind the growth that we've seen and it's still 
growing.
 
8:40 
So let me ask you this.
 
8:41 
So you talked about the valleys, the dark place in really taking those experiences and teaching others 
through that.
 
8:52 
Do you think where it well would be, where it's at if you didn't go through that?
 
8:55 
Absolutely not.
 
8:56 
And I didn't understand any of that.
 
8:58 
God gave me this vision, I'll say, 1011 years ago.
 
9:01 
That's best that I can remember.
 
9:02 
And it seemed like every time I got ready to do it, something else traumatic happened.
 
9:08 
So after this leg injury 7-8 years ago.
 
9:12 
Yeah, because it was 2017.
 
9:15 
I was like, I'm in a wheelchair.
 
9:17 
I can't even walk now, you know, what do you want me to do?
 
9:20 
And he kept saying I'm preparing you.
 
9:21 
And I was thinking I'm well prepared, over prepared or as they say, I'm overqualified for this job at this point, 
you know, dig a ditch because I can't, you know, I thought that there was nothing else.
 
9:35 
But God showed me that.
 
9:37 
And it's in the valleys where we grow.
 
9:39 
And to give a prime example of would it be what it is without me going through?
 
9:44 
Absolutely not, no.
 
9:47 
And I've lived it.
 
9:47 
I've got live stories to testify.
 
9:50 
A cancer survivor, I'll say 3-4 weeks ago, the social worker at the Cancer Center called and said, we've got a 
lady that's got stage 4.
 
9:58 
You know, I don't know.
 
9:58 
I don't remember, you know, liver cancer.
 
10:00 
We want her to have a makeover, a cancer box.
 
10:02 
You know, we just want this last stage to be good.
 
10:06 
But we need you to call her because she won't agree to have it.
 
10:10 
So I call her and of course, she's unreached.
 
10:12 
She's 65 or 70 years old.
 
10:13 
I can't remember what she told me, but she's unreached.
 
10:16 
She's like, no, give it to somebody young.
 
10:17 
I don't want to look pretty.
 
10:18 
I'm already prepared to die and that.
 
10:21 
And she was like, and I said, well, you do realize you have a choice, you know that just because you have a fatal 
diagnosis, You know, I just kind of went through the spill.
 
10:29 
And she's like, yeah, everybody says that, but nobody's been through anything.
 
10:33 
Everybody that's told me I can beat this and can get through this, it's just words.
 
10:36 
And she said, so how can you tell me that?
 
10:38 
I said, well, I've not had cancer.
 
10:40 
And then I just kind of went through like a 32nd spill of the last 50.
 
10:44 
And she was like, she started crying.
 
10:46 
She was like, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it.
 
10:49 
I don't want to die.
 
10:50 
I don't have to die.
 
10:51 
And, and to some people that may seem mine, you know, but for me, I'm of course, I'm sobbing.
 
10:56 
Thank God it's a phone call, but that's the gist of what it is.
 
11:00 
And she said no one that I've talked to since I was diagnosed has had anything to tell me that they've been 
through.
 
11:08 
And I said, well, we can tell people all day to wear it well, but until we've had to do it literally.
 
11:15 
And what that means is to be content in whatever state you're in.
 
11:18 
I had no job, two kids in college, was divorced, no income.
 
11:22 
My kids were at school and couldn't even come home.
 
11:25 
So I told her, I know how it feels to not have funds to do what you need to do.
 
11:29 
I know how it is to not have a job.
 
11:31 
You know, I know how it is to hurt.
 
11:33 
And nothing takes away the pain.
 
11:35 
Wow, was she Taylor?
 
11:37 
She just told us.
 
11:38 
I mean, a true leader is vulnerable.
 
11:40 
That's right.
 
11:41 
And you are a prime example of that.
 
11:43 
Cortina, if you've been a great leader already and you still have a lot of life left, sister, I don't know about a great 
leader.
 
11:50 
I've been training interns for summer camping and they're just like, Oh my God, it's so hard.
 
11:54 
You just, everything has to be perfect.
 
11:56 
And I'm like, yeah, because I'm preparing you for later.
 
11:59 
You know, I can't let you knock a snow cone over and you're going to be the camp counselor.
 
12:03 
You're 18.
 
12:04 
I'm going to have a 10 year old here next week with enough snow cone, you know, and they're just looking at 
me like, Dang, that's funny.
 
12:10 
Well, talking about, you know, preparing for the future and everything like that.
 
12:16 
I know that we've talked a lot about goals and in the past, Ignite and Ignite 2025, we had John Acuff who 
specializes in goal setting and we've got a clip that we want to listen to and then after we'll talk about it.
 
12:28 
Why do we have a hard time finishing the things we start?
 
12:32 
Why do we have a hard time with goals?
 
12:34 
Well, I can't speak for everybody, but I'll tell you why I have a hard time doing difficult things because they're 
they're difficult.
 
12:40 
It's right there in the name.
 
12:41 
As easy as it is to write a book, it's even easier to not write a book.
 
12:45 
As easy as it is to walk around the neighborhood, it's even easier to not walk around the neighborhood.
 
12:50 
As easy as it is to run your business, it's even easier to not run your business.
 
12:54 
Have you ever tried not?
 
12:55 
I could not all day.
 
12:57 
Not as delightful.
 
12:59 
Whenever somebody tells me the only one standing in your way is you, I think I know that guy is impossible.
 
13:06 
I could not all day myself, OK, All day, every day.
 
13:09 
I know you have got to have felt like that before, that you just wish you could not.
 
13:14 
I do a lot of times because it gets so heavy and it gets to be overwhelming dealing with kids, dealing with adults.
 
13:23 
Then you go home, you know, dealing with your family and it gets extremely overwhelming.
 
13:28 
And a lot of days I'm like, I quit.
 
13:30 
I tell this joke to my team.
 
13:33 
I say I quit every day when I leave rehire myself the next morning.
 
13:38 
Give yourself another chance.
 
13:39 
We'll talk about your ready set goals program that you mentioned earlier.
 
13:43 
Yes, so ready, set goals.
 
13:44 
It's kind of trying to get people prepared to be the best version, you know, that they can be of 
themselves, whether it's helping with resumes to kind of get a better job, beef it up, get a first time 
job or a lot of people want to change careers.
 
13:58 
A lot of people, you know, chose a career at 18 and they've done it for 20 years and they're thinking this ain't 
even what I want to do.
 
14:03 
I just did it because it paid X amount of dollars.
 
14:06 
So helping those people just kind of regroup, dig into who you really are and what you really want to 
do.
 
14:11 
And so the ready set goals.
 
14:13 
And it's an acronym acronym for the goals.
 
14:15 
And God forbid, I have no idea what it is.
 
14:19 
It's in my phone.
 
14:20 
That's that that brain injury.
 
14:21 
Make sure you know, traumatic brain injury.
 
14:23 
But I don't know, it's something.
 
14:25 
But anyway, I wish I knew acronym for it, but it it just basically talks to, you know, setting goals being the best 
version of you.
 
14:32 
And that just like John said, we all could not all every day is easier for us to not because when you set 
goals and when you have dreams and aspirations, your troubles are going to come, your trials, your 
money is going to be low.
 
14:46 
You know, you going to you name it, it's going to happen.
 
14:48 
But the big thing with ready set goals is pushing individuals, that's kids and adults to learn financial literacy.
 
14:55 
Just because your mom didn't know how to manage finances or in some cases, families actually do 
not make enough, but you need to be able to show your kid.
 
15:04 
We make $800 a month.
 
15:05 
The bills are 799.
 
15:06 
We got a whole dollar left.
 
15:08 
So now we can't buy Jordans so that you don't, you know, your kid doesn't feel like my God, I can't get 
anything.
 
15:13 
But also to let kids know you don't have to follow in that same generation.
 
15:18 
You can break these generational curses.
 
15:20 
That's a big thing with ready set goes.
 
15:21 
I have kids that go nobody in my my family's been to college and I'm like, you don't have to go to college to be 
successful.
 
15:27 
You don't have to go to college to be great and to to do what you want to do in life, but you got to got to have 
goals, You got to have dreams.
 
15:33 
And what I love to say is dreams don't work unless you do.
 
15:37 
And that's a lot of grown people and kids.
 
15:39 
They're just like, I want to be a teacher.
 
15:41 
And this is the first thing I go, well, what are you doing now to prepare for that?
 
15:44 
I mean, they can be 3 and I'll ask them that.
 
15:46 
And what do you mean?
 
15:48 
Are you reading?
 
15:48 
Are your grades good?
 
15:50 
Are you watching other teachers?
 
15:52 
You know, that's just a prime example of whatever you want to be.
 
15:56 
You know, you got to see it before you can be it, right?
 
15:59 
So, yeah.
 
16:00 
And you've got to work consistently.
 
16:02 
And sometimes the work never ends.
 
16:03 
And that's the part where I'm with John.
 
16:05 
I'm like, I just want to nod a bunch of days again.
 
16:09 
I got to do this again.
 
16:10 
But we get up, dress up, show up and never give up.
 
16:13 
That's my life mantra.
 
16:16 
Absolutely.
 
16:16 
And you get to wear it well.
 
16:17 
And people think that that's outer appearance, nothing to do with it, Paul said.
 
16:22 
I learned to be content in whatever state I was in.
 
16:24 
And that's what God was saying to me.
 
16:26 
I don't even have a name for wear it Well until like two or three months before it launched.
 
16:30 
I just kept going.
 
16:31 
I got to do this ministry, I got to do this nonprofit.
 
16:33 
I got to do this.
 
16:33 
And I was talking to my sister, I promise y'all six months maybe before we launched.
 
16:37 
And she was like, do you have a name?
 
16:39 
And literally, I said wear it well, I'm not the only one that's been through the ringer, through the fire, through the 
floods in the valley.
 
16:49 
But people need to know it has nothing to do with how you look.
 
16:52 
It's how you feel, how you press through and persevere even in the hard times.
 
16:57 
That's right.
 
16:58 
So when you're working through ready set goals with with the folks there where well, but Cortana herself, do 
you do that once a year?
 
17:06 
Do you make goals?
 
17:06 
Do you do it monthly kind of since how do you set your own individual goals?
 
17:10 
So I'm one of those people.
 
17:12 
I said long term and short term goals.
 
17:14 
So I can have my I'll do a vision board every year.
 
17:17 
You know, I'll have my goals set out for the whole year.
 
17:19 
But then like every quarter I'm like, OK, in January I said I was going to do Weight Watchers this March.
 
17:26 
I'm watching weight, but not the one that where I'm losing it, watching it grow.
 
17:31 
Yeah.
 
17:32 
And so even with things like that, but I set goals and and I honestly revisit and then like sometimes, you know, 
we'll set unrealistic goals.
 
17:40 
So I'm thinking every year I say I'm going to start working out January 1st, like everybody on the planet.
 
17:45 
And I'm not.
 
17:46 
And so when I'm on my grown woman ready, set goals, I'll go by summer.
 
17:52 
I'll lose 5 lbs and I know I can meet that one.
 
17:56 
But I set goals and I revisit them and then I tweak them, not changing what I want to do.
 
18:02 
But say, for instance, with my, my brain injury, if I wanted to start teaching adjunct at a Community College or 
something.
 
18:09 
And I, you know, I start with it and going through the motions and then I'm like, I just cannot remember this 
stuff.
 
18:14 
I can, you know, I'm like, maybe not that.
 
18:17 
Maybe let me do something where I don't have to be in front of people where I can read and have notes.
 
18:21 
Do you know?
 
18:22 
So that's what I mean with setting goals.
 
18:24 
People don't realize you need to set goals for everything you do.
 
18:28 
I'm not going to spend $10 at Starbucks every week.
 
18:31 
I mean every day next week, just going to do it once, you know, maybe twice.
 
18:37 
So goal setting and it's for everyone y'all?
 
18:39 
I mean the ready set goal is for kids.
 
18:41 
Like we the kids are like why would I want to set goals?
 
18:43 
And I'm like, well, if you don't want to be stagnant and stay where you are at 10 when you're 20, you may want 
to learn to set goals.
 
18:50 
That's great and work towards them.
 
18:52 
I think it's important, like you said, to have a long term goal.
 
18:55 
Absolutely, but you need this smaller goals so to work up for me anyways, because I can feel like I 
accomplished something, but you need a smaller goal that's going to help you reach that bigger goal.
 
19:04 
And I think a lot of people can get overwhelmed with the big goal, but maybe if we have those smaller ones and 
focus on those, we feel like we can actually achieve that and also celebrate those small because like I said, baby, 
don't, don't let me go to to the my PCP and she goes, well, Cortana, three months ago, you've lost points and I'm 
like, Oh my God, you got to be kidding me.
 
19:24 
I knew I was going to lose weight and she's looking at me like, OK, it's like a half a pound and I'm like 
absolutely.
 
19:35 
But things like that you and then celebrate.
 
19:38 
I'm like I'm going to the buffet and I lost a half pound baby, you know, and have the ice cream.
 
19:43 
Yes.
 
19:45 
Well, Cortina, it's been so great to really get to know you better and hear about wear it well and all the things 
that y'all are doing.
 
19:52 
It's amazing.
 
19:53 
Keep it up.
 
19:53 
You wear it well, girl.
 
19:55 
She does.
 
19:55 
She does.
 
19:56 
I try.
 
19:56 
It was fun having Miss Tucker here one minute.
 
20:00 
Tina Tucker.
 
20:00 
I love it.
 
20:01 
Tucker.
 
20:02 
Tina Tucker.
 
20:03 
I can't wait to meet Mr.
 
20:04 
Tucker.
 
20:06 
Thanks, Cortana.
 
20:16 
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast presented by I Heart Media.
 
20:21 
For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe.
 
20:26 
And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review and remember, go forward and do good 
things.