Little Leaders, Big Wisdom: Wear It Well Kids Return

What can adults learn from kids?

Quite a lot, actually.

In this special bonus episode of IgniteCast, Judd Wilson and Taylor Tutor welcome campers from Wear It Well Kids Day Camp back to the studio for the second year in a row to share their thoughts on leadership, teamwork, kindness, and purpose.

The campers tackle big questions with remarkable wisdom: What makes a great leader? What advice would they give adults? How do you become a better teammate? And if they were principal for a day, what would they change?

Their answers are thoughtful, honest, and often surprising covering everything from listening before making assumptions and leading with empathy to finding your purpose, respecting others, and never judging someone without knowing their story.

This conversation is a reminder that leadership isn't about age. It's about character, compassion, and the choices we make every day. Whether you're leading in the workplace, at home, or in your community, these young leaders offer lessons that every generation can learn from.

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

[00:00:00] Taylor Tutor: The Community Development Foundation, your chamber of commerce and economic development engine for Tupelo and Lee County. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia, for powering this season of IgniteCast. I'm Taylor. 

[00:00:35] Judd Wilson: I'm Judd. 

[00:00:36] Taylor Tutor: And welcome to IgniteCast.

[00:00:41] Judd Wilson: Taylor, I love a bonus session. Do you like bonus sessions? 

[00:00:45] Taylor Tutor: I 

[00:00:45] Taylor Tutor: love a bonus anything. 

[00:00:46] Judd Wilson: Well, guess what? It's season eight, but this is a bonus episode, and we got a incredible studio audience here, don't we? Woo!

[00:00:58] Judd Wilson: Tell us about the bonus. [00:01:00] 

[00:01:00] Taylor Tutor: This bonus episode is brought to you by Wear It Well Kids Camp, and I'm so excited to have all of these kiddos here with us today. I would say we've got about 20 kids in the room of all ages, and I'm so excited to hear what wisdom they have to share with us. 

[00:01:17] Judd Wilson: Yes, it's always good to learn from kids.

[00:01:19] Judd Wilson: Kids think they gotta learn from adults, but we learn so much from them. 

[00:01:22] Taylor Tutor: That's right, Judd. And typically, we start every episode with the question of what's the best leadership tip you've ever been given? But today, I wanna switch it up a bit. 

[00:01:33] Judd Wilson: Look at Taylor switching it up. 

[00:01:35] Taylor Tutor: I wanna ask the kiddos, if you could give adults any piece of advice, what would you tell them?

[00:01:44] Kid 3: Um, if I had to give an adult a tip, it would be, this is from my experimen- experience, but don't make random assumptions. If you don't see everything that happens, then just don't think that, [00:02:00] um, somebody did something wrong. Um- 

[00:02:02] Judd Wilson: Wow. I like that. 

[00:02:04] Taylor Tutor: Let's hear from the others. 

[00:02:07] Kid 4: Advice that I would have for an adult is it's not too late to find your purpose in life.

[00:02:11] Kid 4: If you find, like, if you think that what you're doing is not for you, just always, you know, go back and find your purpose. 

[00:02:19] Judd Wilson: Look at that. 

[00:02:20] Taylor Tutor: Wow. May- maybe I need to do a little soul-searching today. 

[00:02:24] Judd Wilson: Okay, I tell you, this is the question I wanna ask. So this is a leadership podcast. We teach leadership at the Ignite conference to leaders all over our region.

[00:02:33] Judd Wilson: What do you think a good leader is? 

[00:02:37] Kid 4: I think a good leader is someone that listens to what other people has to say. 

[00:02:43] Kid 3: Like she said, some- a leader isn't always the one that has to be in charge. A leader can listen to what, um, to what they're, um, the people they're leading has to say as well. But another thing that I've learned is that even though the, um, the people you're with may [00:03:00] think you're wrong, just if you think it's right and you're the leader, then just go with it sometimes.

[00:03:05] Judd Wilson: What's a good leader look like? 

[00:03:07] Kid 1: Um, somebody that don't follow, that doesn't follow everybody. D- does their own thing. 

[00:03:15] Taylor Tutor: Authenticity is what we call that. 

[00:03:19] Judd Wilson: That's good stuff. 

[00:03:19] Taylor Tutor: Yes, that is great stuff, and another thing, Judd really, really lives his life by this, being a servant leader. Isn't that right, Judd? 

[00:03:28] Judd Wilson: It does.

[00:03:28] Judd Wilson: Thank you for noticing, Taylor. 

[00:03:29] Taylor Tutor: That's 'cause you paid me. But yes, I think all of those make a great leader, and I think leader, one thing that a leader can do is always be learning. You can learn from those around you, and a lot of times we're on a team with people, and so when we're on a team, that team should be made up of people that are different than us, right?

[00:03:49] Taylor Tutor: We don't want everyone just like us on a team, do we? No. No, 'cause then only, there's only one good thing we can do. We need to be diverse in all of our skills, and I think here at CDF [00:04:00] we do a good job of that. 

[00:04:01] Judd Wilson: I think so, too. We're not all the same. 

[00:04:03] Taylor Tutor: We're not all the same. 

[00:04:03] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:04:04] Taylor Tutor: We, me and you m- may both be extroverts, but we're different.

[00:04:07] Judd Wilson: Could you imagine just a bunch of Judd and Taylors walking around? 

[00:04:09] Taylor Tutor: Oh, it'd be very loud. 

[00:04:11] Judd Wilson: Yes, it would. 

[00:04:13] Taylor Tutor: But speaking of teams, sometimes you have to work in a team, so everyone has a role, everyone has a position, and the whole team has to work together so that the goal can be accomplished. So what would you, what would you say makes someone a good teammate?

[00:04:30] Kid 3: Um, when somebody can be, can be uplifting and kind is a good, is a good thing to have on a team because you're not always gonna win. And if you have a bunch of sore losers on a team, then, I mean, that's gonna make a very, very loud lose. 

[00:04:47] Judd Wilson: I love that. Yeah. What makes a good teammate for you? 

[00:04:51] Kid 1: Somebody that doesn't treat people different, 

[00:04:54] Kid 4: don't, doesn't leave people out.

[00:04:56] Kid 4: Someone that's, like, a good teammate, I feel like is [00:05:00] somebody that understands you. Like, if they notice that you're not doing the best that you could do, they just come to you and ask you, "Are you okay?" And just have a lot of empathy for you. 

[00:05:11] Taylor Tutor: Empathy, that's a good one. 

[00:05:12] Judd Wilson: I like it. I like it. Here's another great question.

[00:05:15] Judd Wilson: As leaders, we, we sometimes have to make hard choices. Not every choice you make as a leader is an easy choice to make. I mean, sometimes you might be in a situation where you have to, you know, discipline somebody or, or say, "Hey, you're not doing this right." So let's, let's kind of play pretend here. Ooh.

[00:05:32] Judd Wilson: Let's say you were the principal of your school for one day, what decision would you make for that school? It might not be an easy decision to make, but what choice would, or decision or choice would you make as the school principal? 

[00:05:46] Kid 3: I have wanted this for a long time, so I've actually came up with a schedule this year in case that happened.

[00:05:52] Kid 3: Um- He's 

[00:05:52] Judd Wilson: ready. 

[00:05:53] Kid 3: He's 

[00:05:53] Judd Wilson: prepared. He 

[00:05:54] Kid 3: is. He's prepared. He said, "I'm gonna be 

[00:05:55] Taylor Tutor: principal next year." 

[00:05:56] Kid 3: I mean... So, I, if I, I would do [00:06:00] one hour of re- one hour of not recess, um, classwork. Then, um, e- all the time after that is r- um, recess, then lunch. Then, um, then after, after lunch is activity. When you get done with activity, you go back to recess.

[00:06:18] Taylor Tutor: Lots of playing. 

[00:06:19] Judd Wilson: Yeah. But he, he was principal for the day. He could make that happen. What, what choice would you, or change would you make, or choice you'd make? 

[00:06:26] Kid 4: A change I would make, I would try to make is kids only learn about what they wanna be in life. Instead of having to learn about other things, I just feel like they should just learn about their purpose and what they actually wanna do.

[00:06:36] Kid 4: Like, it would be like a, a test, a quiz, or like some type of exam about who they wanna be. 

[00:06:43] Kid 1: One thing that I would do if I was principal for the day is make all the teachers get up and teach instead of just giving us worksheets and then us do it on our own. 

[00:06:52] Taylor Tutor: We don't like busywork. You know, sometimes I still have busywork in my life.

[00:06:58] Taylor Tutor: All right. What I wanna do now is I wanna [00:07:00] pause, and I wanna switch it up. I wanna switch it, change it, rearrange it. So find a new seat and let some new people speak.

[00:07:14] Judd Wilson: Somebody get up to that microphone. You want a seat? Come up here to my microphone. 

[00:07:20] Taylor Tutor: No, you're gonna be... There we go

[00:07:39] Taylor Tutor: All right, kiddos. I'm so eager 

[00:07:42] Judd Wilson: And, and y'all can share, and y'all both can speak on this round too if you want to. 

[00:07:45] Taylor Tutor: I'm very eager to hear what you gals have to say. How you can be a better leader. So I believe no matter where you are in life, you can always be better, all the time One way we do that [00:08:00] is through mentors and people, what we say, pouring into you and helping you be better.

[00:08:06] Taylor Tutor: So we think it's important to have men- mentors and people who encourage you and make you better. So I wanna hear about who is a leader in your life and why you think they're a leader. 

[00:08:17] Kid 2: Um, I would say personally, a leader in my life is God, 'cause you can always turn to him when, like, when you're in doubts or something, you can always turn to him and always have trust in him.

[00:08:30] Kid 5: Amen. Amen. 

[00:08:31] Judd Wilson: Amen. Good job. 

[00:08:34] Kid 5: Yes. 

[00:08:35] Judd Wilson: What are some other leaders you turn to? 

[00:08:38] Kid 5: Sometimes teachers give you advice on how to, like, be better students and be better leaders to your friends, like leading by example to younger kids. 

[00:08:46] Taylor Tutor: Leading by example is good. 

[00:08:48] Judd Wilson: I like that. 

[00:08:50] Kid 6: One leader in my life that sets a better example for me is my sister, because she's, she already grew up and she know what to do, and, [00:09:00] like, when I, whenever I have a situation, she know what, what to do in that situation.

[00:09:04] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Learning, almost learning from their successes and mistakes. That's what I did with my brothers. What about you? 

[00:09:12] Kid 7: My mom. 

[00:09:14] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. 

[00:09:14] Judd Wilson: Good. Yeah. What's she do to make her a good leader? 

[00:09:18] Kid 7: She helps me when I'm doing wrong. 

[00:09:20] Taylor Tutor: Correction. 

[00:09:20] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:09:22] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. That's good. Mm-hmm. Those are all great things, and I think everyone needs a mentor, but you know, you can be a mentor, too.

[00:09:30] Taylor Tutor: And I told you guys this earlier before the podcast, but there's always eyes watching you, whether they're older or younger. So it's important to keep that in mind to always do the right thing as well. So in our job, we have a leader. His name's David Rumbarger. He's our president, CEO of, um, the Community De- Development Foundation, and he ends all of our meetings with, "Go forth and do great things."

[00:09:53] Taylor Tutor: What do you- Good 

[00:09:53] Judd Wilson: things. 

[00:09:54] Taylor Tutor: You're so right, Judd. 

[00:09:56] Judd Wilson: See how I corrected her? It was neat. [00:10:00] 

[00:10:00] Taylor Tutor: Go forth and do good things. Yeah. But what do you guys think that means, to go forth and do good things? 

[00:10:08] Kid 5: Think that means to keep going with your life and make good decisions in what you do. 

[00:10:14] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. 

[00:10:15] Kid 2: I think it means to keep going, keep going with things you love and know best and keep always have a good mindset when you do it.

[00:10:26] Kid 6: I think it means to just to keep going and never stop. 

[00:10:31] Taylor Tutor: That's right. Sometimes we have... We call that persevering. Yes. But yes, we want to go forth, we want to do good things, and each day try to be just a little bit better than the last and keep pushing things forward so that we can continue making more and better jobs for our community, like we mentioned earlier.

[00:10:49] Judd Wilson: Y'all been working last week and this week too with your Wear It Well camp. What are some things that you've learned this week that maybe has made you a better leader? 

[00:10:59] Kid 2: I've [00:11:00] learned about having self-care, like having good manners just in general, like every day. 

[00:11:07] Kid 5: To always respect other people because you don't know their life and you don't know what it's like in their house and what they have to do every day.

[00:11:15] Kid 6: I learned to never judge anyone because you never know what they're going through. 

[00:11:20] Taylor Tutor: Kiddos, we learned a lot from you today, and I thank y'all for coming by CDF. 

[00:11:25] Judd Wilson: It's been fun. I love all these people at the podcast. It makes it so awesome. Thank y'all so much for being here.

[00:11:44] Taylor Tutor: Welcome to another episode of IgniteCast presented by iHeartMedia. 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 [00:12:00] things.