From Teen Mom Stigma To School Founder with Dr. Delois Jackson

People will try to name your future before you even get a chance to live it. Wanda Pearson sits down with Dr. Delois Jackson, an award-winning author, international speaker, and Pre-K through 12 private school owner, to talk about what it really takes to outgrow stigma and build a purpose-driven life.

We get personal about teen motherhood, the whispers and judgment that follow you into rooms, and the quiet internal fight to keep believing you’re capable. Dr. Jackson shares how she chose education anyway, pushed through the pressure to “shrink,” and went on to earn multiple degrees and lead as a senior leader in a long government career. From there, she followed a calling into education entrepreneurship, learning how to turn a preschool into a fully approved private school built on compassion, structure, and student empowerment.

We also dig into faith and storytelling as tools for leadership development and healing. Dr. Jackson explains how writing began with a challenge to put faith on the page, how her books grew over time, and why affirmations and self-esteem aren’t “nice to have” when you’re trying to rebuild your life, they’re essential. Her closing message is a reminder for anyone who feels unseen: you’re not invisible, you are becoming, and your voice can help someone else survive their hardest season.

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Connect with Dr. Delois Jackson

CONTACT INFORMATION
Instagram Username: @DRDELOISJACKSON
Facebook Username: @Drdeloisjackson
Linkedin Username: Dr. DeLois Jackson
Custom Website Link: www.tan-denterprises.org

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Transcript

Welcome And The Collaboration Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. This is where ideas spark, connections grow, and collaborations fuse success. Tune in for inspiring stories, expert insights, and game-changing conversations. Let's build, connect, and thrive together. Remember, collaboration is the key to success.

Meet Dr. Dolores Jackson

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Welcome to another inspiring episode of Ready Say Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. Today's guest is truly extraordinary. I'm honored to welcome Dr. Dolores Jackson, the eight-time Amazon and seventh-time International Best Selling Award-winning author and recipient of the 2024 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. I got that too, Dr. Dolores. I love that. I love that awesome. Awesome. She is an international speaker, visionary, and passionate advocate for education, spirituality, and storytelling. As a pre-K to 12 private school owner, Dr. Jackson is shaping the next generation by creating innovative, compassionate learning environments that empower students to think, grow, and lead with purpose. I love that. Through her self-help, inspiration, and children's book, she is helping individuals on all ages unboxing their full potential, build empathy, and live with intention. This conversation is going to inspire you to think bigger about your purpose, your impact, and the legacy you're creating. So welcome, Dr. Dolores. And I think I probably I'm going to talk about your bio, but I think I said a lot in your bio already, right? You absolutely did.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

I have to pitch myself sometimes to make sure it's me. Team mom. Who does that?

SPEAKER_02 1:46

I am so proud of you. And I'm just honored to have you on this podcast because I love the title that we got for you, An Art of Inspiring Purpose through Education. Because how you created purpose through education, you're a team mom. And being able to go through all of this and do all this, especially an international speaker, girl, you go ahead. So say hello to the audience, Dr. Dolores.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Hello, hello, hello, audience. And thank you so much, Wanda, for having me.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Let me disclose a short bio again because I think I already said a lot of things already. So yeah, Dr. Dolores Jackson is an eight-time Amazon and seven-time international best-selling award-winning author. But she also, and you're you're a private school owner. That's great. Yeah. She also cultivates innovative, compassionate learning environments that empowers students. I love that. She inspires audiences through self-help, inspirational, and children's book, fostering empathy, creativity, and purpose while helping others unlock their full potential. This is so needed, Dr. Dolores. I tell you, what we were talking a little before about mentoring, because God always told me, I said I want to be a social worker, not knowing that's what he was gonna have me do. And now that I left corporate, I'm back into what my element is helping people and being a social worker as far as a middle school girl. So they definitely need it, girl. They definitely need it. So you do K through 12, huh? Amazing, amazing. That is something. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions on you, and then I'm gonna you can elaborate on it. So from diapers to diplomas, I love that. How one team turned built a legacy of the legacy legacy of leadership and the impact of impact.

Facing Stigma As A Teen Mom

SPEAKER_02 3:26

So what is the biggest challenge faced as a team mom, Dr. Dolores?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Well, it wasn't it's interesting because it wasn't being the team mom necessarily. The biggest thing for me was the judgment, the stigma, the stares, the whispers, the lowered expectations. When you walk into a room, they're looking at you like, I don't know, then they the how they dismiss you and the shame that's put on you. It's just so many different things, the isolation that comes with it. No love, no love at all. And then you have the battle of just internal, the internal struggle in yourself, wondering if you can still achieve the things that you had set out for yourself prior to getting pregnant. So the underestimation, they underestimated for you and telling you that, oh, you're just gonna have a bunch of babies and you're gonna be on welfare for the rest of your life. Nothing positive, absolutely nothing positive. And so with me, I didn't drop out of school, I continued to go. She was born in the summer in August, and I went right back to school. So I never dropped out, but I hated school. I'm not gonna lie, I hated school, I really did. So I decided that my situation would be different. I decided that I did not want society to define who I was. You're not gonna tell me that I'm gonna have a bunch of babies and be on welfare the rest of my life. You didn't, you never call me by my name. They will call me by my mom. They were say that, oh, that's Miss Anna's daughter. Yes, I am Miss Anna's daughter, but Miss Anna's daughter has a name. So I was never called by my name. It's just, oh, Miss Anna's daughter's gonna have a bunch of babies and be on welfare for the rest of her life. So I'm sitting there just wondering, am I gonna be able to step up to the plate? Am I gonna shrink? Am I gonna quit? Am I gonna fail because this is what they expected of me to just give up and quit because that's what they did in my community. I'm just gonna disappear because they would send you away when you get pregnant and all that. But the one good thing about my mom, she didn't put me out of the house, so that was a blessing. So I was able to continue to go to school. I was able to sit make up my mind as to what I wanted to do. And so the biggest challenge for me was the whispers, the stares, the how they underestimated me, dismissed me, not wanting you to be involved in anything because you were just not the look that they wanted to be with. Even the friends that you thought maybe you had, they couldn't relate to what you had done. Although there were many girls in the community getting pregnant, they were not, we were not in that circle. And so when I became pregnant, it was like, oh, they can't relate to this. So you lost the little people that you did talk to. And so God just opened up doors, you keep going to school, you do what you do, and God is gonna open, he's gonna open up the door. But it was just trying to get rid of the stairs, the whisper, the judgment that was just so overwhelming because even the financials, it wasn't as bad. Even the taking exams wasn't as bad as the things that you had to go through with the society, just making you feel so unimportant. And all at the same time, I'm saying, where are the adults in the room? Where's the love? And it was like none shown. There were no mentors, there were no none of that. And I got to praying, I was like, Lord, I hope nobody else has to go through this because this is just unreal.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

And you remind me so much of what my mother went through. Like we were talking about before. My mother was a teen, her last year high school, she got pregnant with me. First time she had sex and had me. So the same thing. But the thing about it was not other people, people were putting it up, but her mother was putting her down. Wow. And my father always wanted to marry her, but she didn't want to put my father down. But it's just but just the West Before really was something that was when I knew I did not want to end up saying wanted to go to school and I went to college. And my aunt said, To me, you're gonna have a baby when you get in college. Now you can imagine telling me that. So that's what made you made us determined to prove them wrong. This is not gonna happen. I am not gonna have babies. And I remember having, look, I had a lot of guys that were trying to ask, no, I want to get pregnant. So it puts a fear in you. Yes, that is something.

Building Education And Author Legacy

SPEAKER_02 7:45

So now, Dr. Jackson, what inspired your passion for education, writing, and leadership? I'm sorry, you I couldn't hear you. What inspired your passion for education, writing, and leadership?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

What inspired education, writing, and leadership? As far as education is concerned, when I chose to step up to the plate, when I chose to keep my baby in a world that expected me to fail, to quit, to shrink, and just disappear. And I continue to pursue education. I accomplished my high school diploma and I went right on into college, not receiving one degree, not two, not three, but I received four degrees. And at that moment, I got to thinking about it. I said, you can help other people by some of the things that you've already done. And I was trying to figure out how I could help, especially young moms. And I didn't do anything with that for a while. And it was like a year ago, about a year ago, the Holy Spirit spoke and said, you know, what I've done for you, I can do for others through you. I've done all of this for you. You can reach back and pull someone else along. So with that being said, I says, okay, I'm definitely gonna have to help with this education thing. So with my school, with my school, after I received the education and stuff like that, I went into the government. And then I have a 30-year career with the government, Department of Defense. And when I retired, I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit, what is it that I needed to do? What do you wanted me to do? And it says school, like elementary school or daycare or type thing. And I'm like, I've never worked with kids in my life. Lord, what do you want me to work with kids? Baby, daycare. That's not me, because that's not my background. I accepted the challenge, and this is exactly how I got into it, the education part. I accepted the challenge and it was a preschool. I ran the preschool for six years. And I'm like, okay, I can't do this babysitting thing. I said, okay, God, what is it that I can do to make this better? So I started working with the department of education and to find out what the requirements were to get a private school. So I started working with them. And so about a year and a half or two years, I had gathered all of the requirements that I needed. And everybody was telling me, oh, you don't want to do that. You know, you're not gonna get any students, and it's so hard, it's a rigorous process. And I'm like, here we go with the naysayers. But if it's something that God does for you, he's gonna open up the doors that you need, the right person is gonna be in the right place. So I did the paperwork, submitted it to DOE. They came out, they did their inspections, and next thing I knew, it was like you are approved for private school, pre-K through 12. And it's like you just needed a regulator. So we got to figure out who's gonna come out and to regulate your school. You already are preschool. So who regulated the DCF, the Department of Children and Families. You didn't need two, you just needed one. I already had that one. I'm like, okay, God, what are you doing? And every three or four months when they come out to check the preschool side where the preschool kids they just check through the records on the whole school and they report back to the state because God worked for the state anyway. God, God is good, God is good. And as far as the book is concerned, uh my first book was published 22, 23 years ago. The Holy Spirit spoke and said, write a book on faith. This is how my writing started. And I said, Write a book on faith, God. And I said, write a book on the faith. And I'm like, Lord, surely you can find somebody else to write a book on faith. I don't have 700 words in my vocabulary to write a book on faith. And then of course we went back and forth for a couple of minutes, and then I said, Okay, Lord, I accept the challenge. And I gave it the subtitle, My Walking Came to Glory. Because I said, God give me a book to write on faith, God is getting ready to take me through some stuff. I just didn't know what he was gonna take me through. And boy, did he take me through. I tell you, nothing like coming out of the fire with him being in there with you. Uh-huh. Unburned, no, not even smelling like smoke. But I wrote the book, Faith, My Walking Came to Glory. First book was out for 22 years, 23 years, and I was done. At least I was thought. So during COVID, we sit and idle and not a whole lot to do. So I got four books done during COVID. So I have five published books of my own and 10 co-authored books. So I've co-authored, yes, 10 books. So we're looking at 15 right now, and I have two more. Two more that's gonna be released probably in the next month or two. And I'm so excited about it. The two things were education and been an author, and the third one was leadership. Leadership. Now, leadership, that part was easy for me because one of my degrees, like I said, a business degree, and then working for the Department of Defense for over 30 years as a senior leader, it just cultivated all of that that was already within me. Even before I went into the government, I knew that I wanted to do something special. I just didn't know. I I had, excuse me, I had a name for my my business, Tandy Enterprises, T-A-N-D. Tandy, I have three daughters, and I use their first initials, and D is for Delois, Tandy Enterprises. And that was in 1985. Never did anything with it until the last few years. So I'm like, okay, God, I don't know why this name came about when it came about back in 1985. I never did anything with it. And then all of a sudden now, Tandy Enterprises is being used. And with the education and the experience working as a senior leader, probably for the last 20 years of my government civil servant work there together just moved me right into the areas that I needed to be in. And after I got my doctorate, that where I got my doctorate from, they asked me if I would be a president of one of the Bible colleges. And I did that for 10 years until COVID hit, president of a Bible college for 10 years. And so God just opened up so many doors. And we're talking about a team mom here. The things that God allowed me to go through and for other people to see what he can do through you and what he did through me, God gets the glory. When I tell you, God get the glory, and people look at me now, so you sure were you your team mom? Absolutely. Got evidence, got proof, got the stars to show you. If you want to see her, she actually works for me.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Awesome. You actually already asked a lot of my questions I was gonna ask already. So thank you. Thank you for that. So, what defining moment confirmed your purpose?

The Moment Purpose Became Real

SPEAKER_02 14:19

And I think you already mentioned that.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

The defining moment for my purpose was the day that I was in the hospital after I had given birth to her. Looked in those big brown eyes. And it's like she looked at me and says, I'm dependent on you to take care of me. I'm dependent on you for food, clothes, shelter. I'm dependent on you for love. I'm dependent on you. And then the whisper that I heard from God speaking is that you were chosen for greatness. Those two there together, it just made it, it was not even a rocket scientist. You didn't it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out I gotta do this at 16 years old. I'm like, okay, God, I don't have a clue as to how to do this. I said, but if you say I am chosen for greatness at 16 with this little person that I have no earthly idea about how to take care of, I have no mentors, I have no experience, I have no nothing. And that moment was that point where I had to step up and say, I chose. I chose to raise this baby, I chose to do the things that a lot of people said you are not going to be able to do, because raising a baby is not something easy for anybody to do. So I chose to keep her. I chose to be the best mom I could ever be to a baby, at the same time needing my own mom when the world already expected me to fail, because they had already spoken that to me, but I didn't receive it. And so I had to show the world that this was a defining moment for me, because if I allowed them to define me, they were gonna confine me. I was gonna have to listen to everything they told me to do instead of having a mind of my own, choices of my own. And so I had to show myself self-love, self-care, self-esteem, the same thing that I am trying to work with these teen moms on, because it's very hard to love someone if you don't love yourself.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yes, I love that because that's exactly what a mom forgiveness book is about. You gotta love it. Yes, and you it seemed like you're telling my mother's story.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Girl, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

No, because she she they were put down, she's put down and she knew she was determined to do what she was doing. Determined to progress because she looked at me and said, Okay, I'm I got it. This is my book. And actually, I actually ended up having asthma because I was growing up as a baby.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So I had asthma too.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah, yeah. So it was a lot. No, thank you for that. That I am so proud of you by what you've done and getting your doctorate and working for the government and having your own private school. That is something that actually should have probably got God is good. We just never know what our what his purpose is. And I tell you, you know, I'm gonna tell you my favorite Bible verse Jeremiah 29, 11. I love it. God has a plan for your plans to prosper, not to harm you, but give your future and give you hope. And that hope is what he gave you to know that you had to move forward to be able to take care of your daughter. Yes, absolutely. Do what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

So when I want to say one more thing, though, because God is so amazing that although I have all of the earned education last year, God did a thing. God allowed me to receive an honorary doctorate degree. Someone that heard about what I'm doing with young moms, teen moms, not even in my area. Somebody in Maryland heard about what I was doing with these teen moms. And it's wow, you're helping them with their education, you're helping them with job opportunities and things of that nature, giving them tools and resources to be able to navigate motherhood with grace and purpose. You're doing these things. And it's and because I'd be on some podcasts and somebody heard the story, and it's wow. So I received an honorary back in June.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

That is and I'm like, Jesus, yeah. And I just want people to know that what people try to do to harm you, God would turn all of it around for your good. Because nothing that God allowed is gonna be bad for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

And that's all part of that plan that you were just talking about in Jeremiah 29 and 11.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Yes, yes. You just never know. You never know. You never know. You just gotta receive it. Exactly. People don't believe it, but you gotta believe it to receive it.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

You gotta believe it to receive it. Exactly. And I get excited just thinking about it because I said this is the person that was talked about, kicked out, like just not gonna have anything. And then to see my life turned around, people still trying to hold you back. Even a job that I had, they were they called my boss one day and I was working for the State Department. They actually said, uh, I thought you had to have a high school diploma to get a job here. So it was somebody that knew me from school, apparently, because he never told me who it was. He received this call and says, someone called and said, You didn't have a high school diploma. You didn't graduate because you got pregnant in school. Now that's nothing but the devil. But God has a sense of humor, though. This is what I love about God. He has a sense of humor. You know what office I was working in when they called to report me saying I did not have uh a high school diploma? I was working in the welfare and food stamp office. Wow, wow. In the office, and I was already, I was into my first year of college. They didn't know I had finished school, but they had to come through the food stamp office to get food stamps, and they did not want to see me there.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Oh my God. And that's a shame because that's jealousy. That's the jealousy. That's jealous. And I've had a lot of that in my life, I tell you, between corporate working in corporate for 36 years and you years and being able to leave that there. No, that is amazing. But see, God, like you said, God knows what his purpose for you are. Yeah. How you actually are gonna get to where you are. We've got to wind out on time. I gotta have you on my so how has faith influenced your journey?

How Faith Directs Each Step

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Faith has influenced my journey in every step of the way because I'm constantly praying and asking God to continue to order my steps so that I won't make the mistakes to cause me to not be able to go forward. And I'm constantly saying how I trust in God and I want him to direct my path in every way. So before I do anything, I will go in prayer and I'll ask him, Lord, I trust you. I trust you with my life in all my ways, God, I trust you. And uh, and I just get through it through my faith. And that's when I go back to that first book that I wrote, Faith, My Walking Came to Glory. So it has been, and I didn't know that when God gave me that title on faith. And so throughout everything that I do, faith certainly play a major role in my life.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

I I'm every all these things you're saying, I'm thinking all these songs that I love. Give my faith to you, I trust in God. Yes, all of those are my favorite songs. Um I'm listening to. I said, Oh, and then I start singing it in my head, I trust in God. That's one of my favorite songs that I told me. I love it. I turned it on my book line. I said, I want you to play that song, Trusting God. That's all I'm elevation worship. But listen, let me what is your final message

Use Your Voice And Connect

SPEAKER_02 21:26

for listeners? And also I want to that book, Unleash the Power of Our Voice. How well how can people get that and how can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Unleash the Power, you can actually go to my website, tandyenterprises.org, and order the book. I just received the books this week, so I will be putting them on my website so they'll be able to uh order from there. So I do have some and I can actually uh autograph it for you and uh put it in the mail personally uh myself.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

And I am on Facebook as well at Dr.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Delores Jackson and all of the social medias. Perfect. I have it on your That's going to be in your show notes as well. So no, that's great. So what final message for listeners would you like to leave with them?

SPEAKER_01 22:07

The final message that I would like for them to know is that, and that's a very good question, too. You're not invisible, you are becoming. No matter what area of your life you're going through with, we see you. We just have to connect in the right community. Your story matters, even if it doesn't look like what society expects it to look like. Just know that you matter, your story matters. And please don't wait until you're ready or until you feel validated. Use your voice now. Use your voice now because somebody is waiting to hear your story. You might think you're going through something, but everybody else is going through something too. You might think you have the worst story in the world, but whatever it is that you have going on, it's going to help somebody else through that ordeal. You always have to believe in yourself. Think positive affirmation to me is very important. I affirm myself every single day. It doesn't matter what everybody else says. I tell myself that I'm beautifully, wonderfully made because that's what God said. I don't listen to man anymore. I did. And that's going to mess you up if you do. Show up for yourself and be intentional about everything that you do. You show them who you are. Don't allow them to show you who you are.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Absolutely. You know what? I'm listening. God, we got so much in coming. So actually, this is what I tell my girls of mentoring that I do. I am the affirmation. Before they walk out the door, they have to give me an affirmation. Yes, I love it. Just say it. I want you to believe it. Give me a high five and smile. I love it. So Miss Wanda, I said, and I'm sorry, where's your teeth? I want to smile. And I want you to believe that affirmation. So I am definitely a belief, and that's in my book, too, my affirmations. Because that's something you have to have that. You do believe in yourself. And somebody will put you down. Oh, you're not good enough. And that's what I was believing yourself. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Jackson, Dr. Delois Jackson. So thank you for an inspiring and empowering conversation because we really did have a great night. You have so much in common. I'm like, I love it. I love your mom. Oh, I'm telling you. It's just, oh my God. Yeah. My mom. Unfortunately, my mom died the day after moved to Georgia. She actually died at 67. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

So she was young and I got past that age, but just you man. Yeah. So she brought me here. You brought your daughter here, and that's what counts, right? That's what counts.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

So that's God is going to take care of the rest.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yes, yes. He will. He will. Yeah. Thank you for that inspiring and powerful conversation. Your work is truly shaping lives and impacting future generations. To our listeners, connect with Dr. Dolores Jackson, and it's for her books. She has a lot of books, huh? She got how many books you got out in that book?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

So 15. Five of my own that I actually authored myself and 10 that I co-authored. So if you just look it out on Amazon, they'll pop up all of them.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Awesome. Just put her name in, Dr. Dolores Jackson. There you go. Okay, good. So thank you so much for being on here. So make sure you connect with her and explore

Sponsor Thanks And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_02 25:28

her books. This episode is sponsored by WD Pearson Associates, educating, empowering, and consulting families and businesses. Until next time, stay empowered and remember, collaboration is a case of success. Thanks again, Dr. Dolores, for being on the show. Thank you for having me. God bless. God bless.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

That wraps up another episode of Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share, and stay tuned for more great discussions. Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.