Powerful And Unpolished

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Powerful and Unpolished. I'm Tim Salmons. I'm your host. Welcome to another episode. I truly feel that we have a, we always have great guests. Uh, I mean, the people that I bring on here are just really solid souls, but today's another beautiful soul that we get to learn a little bit about and explore and just have some fun with, which is why I, I was excited to have her on here.

Our guest today is Jackie Cox. Hi Jackie. Hi everybody. So I, a little bit of background about Jackie. So I've heard Jackie say this a number of times when I asked her to be on the show. She kind of said it again and it's like, you know, it's sort of a, I don't know if it's your motto, but it's, I've heard here where it's like life is too short for all work and no play.

Let's bring more joy and fun into it, really. Yeah. It, it's, it speaks volumes about how you show up for yourself and how you show up in this world. And a little background on Jackie is, so, Jackie's really a natural connector. She's one of those people that just really knows how to be open. For people and meeting people and uh, where they are in different spots, different locations.

So, Jackie's one of those people and she loves bringing people together, like sparking creativity, inspiring new possibilities, which is why I think we really kick off. 'cause my whole world's about living in possibility. So. You know, we hit it there. And Jackie is the founder of the ACE community. Now, ACE stands for Adventure, creativity and Enjoyment at ACE Community or, or, 'cause I'm actually a part of that community as well.

Um, Jackie helps business, uh, busy professionals prioritize fun, adventure, and meaningful connections without guilt. I wanna say that again, helps to prioritize. For professionals, fun, adventure, and meaningful connections without guilt. She embraces life fully with her husband, Jeff, who you've been married for 21 years.

Yeah. Or already married 21 years. Yep. All right. Married for 21 years. And how many years did you date? Um, we were together three years before that and knew each other as friends three years prior to that. So we are, we're coming up on, we've known each other for. 26, 7 years for a while. Yeah. So you know how to, you know, you can like sign each other's autograph and stuff now?

No, no. It's all, it's all legal and aboveboard. We're not talking about forgery. Yes. If chickens could write, then I could imitate it For Jeff, he, he plays the doctor. Uh, yeah. It's like, here's my chicken scratch. Speaking of your life though, your home life. So you have two furry kids, Cruz and Maya, correct?

Yes. They're knuckleheads, but yes, they're, they're sweet. Okay. Yeah, I've seen 'em on videos before. I actually haven't seen 'em in person, but on videos, they're, they're amazing. And you live in a geodesic home in the foothills of Colorado. It's a really unique space. Like we, you know, this office space, you can see there's kind of some weird angles and so it's fun just so that, you know, being able to find places for everything and, and decorate and, um, you know, knowing that.

The only 90 degree room in this house is in the interior main bath, uh, main bathroom on the main floor here. That is, uh, that's pretty wild. My, uh, I went out and visited my aunt years and years ago. This was probably 20 years ago, 25 years ago. And she lived in a geodesic home as well. It was like, but it was more of a mushroom home.

Oh, okay. It was like, had like a, this circular base and then the geodesic part was like, put on top of it. It was just like, oh, interesting. It was pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people ask us, I mean, we have our, our house is fully structured. It's made with two by six wall or two by six structure and fully insulated full.

It's, it's a full house. It's just, just built differently. Alright. The reason why I go into those details is because this is why I wanted Jackie on here. You know what? She's already fun. She's already unique. So let's, let's learn a bit more. We, we, we know that in these, uh, my hope is that when we do these sessions, when we do these recordings, we're really learning about somebody, why they're invested in their, their passion.

Because you have a passion about your ACE community. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So. I wanna go behind that and I want to say, what was it that actually got you? 'cause you, you know, were you always a connector growing up? I would say yes, I was, I was not, I, I didn't desire to be the popular kid. I had, I had no desire for that.

That didn't matter to me, but I wanted to, I was always bringing people together though. And so, um, I have been extroverted since I was a kid, and so I think that that really helped me. I moved around a little bit as, as we were growing up, not because I was in the military, although my, my dad was in the military, so we could have been in that space.

I was not, you know, moving because of that. We were moving because of different re reasons. Um, you know, they went back to school or they went to, um, start a Buffalo Ranch, uh, things like that. But because of that, uh, because I moved around a little bit, I was interested in making friends quickly. Um, again, not for popularity, but for, for true connection and truly feeling like I belonged in those, each of those cities that we moved to.

And so, um. I got involved with sports and activities and different things and that, that really helped. And then it just, you know, from there it was like, well, why don't you come to my game and I'll come to your game, type of thing. And so it, you know, I think friendships just grew because there was a mutual, mutual bond there, obviously with sports or different activities or whatever.

But. I had no trouble making friends. My, I, my parents moved me my before the summer, before my senior year in high school. And yet that was the best year I could have had. Um, just because I was willing to, to be connected to people and, and be open to relationships. So, wow. So you actually. You moved and you know, instead of going into the doldrums and, and stuck in the reaction of it, you made the best of it.

Yeah, I mean, I was, I, I set a goal for myself that year. I knew I wasn't gonna play on the basketball team. 'cause you know, I moved across the state and I was going into the state championship basketball team. So I knew I wasn't interested in that, um, because they had one spot left and that was point guard.

I'm not good enough for point guard, too tall and uh, and so then I knew I wanted to make sure I was on the volleyball team, which was in the winter at that time, thankfully. Um, and so I did it as sports acceleration program to make sure that they weren't gonna beat me off the line. I was gonna do everything I could to do drills and volleyball drills.

I wanted to make sure I was on that team. And not only did I make the team and start on the team, I was one of the co-captains and that was voted in by my teammates. And so being able to get there and, and make moves quickly and know what I wanted out of my senior year, you know, I just, it was one of those things where it was like, this is.

This is my desire and I will go after it. And I did. And it was super fun then. And still some of those people are still some of my greatest friends. Um. And so it was, it was an amazing year and yeah, I could have gone the other way and been, you know, all angsty tanks, teenager ish of, you know, mad at my parents for moving me.

But it really was amazing and, um, I mean, you know, our team made it to state that year and we did really well and it was awesome. And so it was one of those things where it's like you just gotta make a decision to and dive in as much as you can. So what was it? Um, I'm gonna explore this. This is, this is because I love it.

That's awesome. I I I love that you're, I mean, what you did was, was a powerful, conscious uhhuh choice. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. And we hear, I mean, we live in a world that's like. Dripping with reaction. Everything's about social media, everything's about drama, everything's about right and wrong, and I'm right and you're wrong, right?

Kind of thing. It runs into stuff like that, and you have this sort of natural sense about yourself that you know, not to be cliche, but it is a cliche. Someone gives you a bucket of orange or lemons, you turn it into lemonade, right? Yes, sir. And so for you. What would you say to someone because there, there are people out here that what we're talking about is, is a bit foreign to them.

They're, they're either introverted or, or they didn't have that experience. I mean, what, what is it in you that allowed you to have that freedom to say, wait a minute, I'm going to do something with this for myself? Yeah. Honestly, I, I, I, I've always been pretty goal oriented and so that goal was driving me.

Harder than anything else of being able to say, I'm, I'm part, I wanna be part of this team. I wanna be part of this community and I wanna be part of this team. And I knew I had to take steps on my end to do that. And then if I did everything on my end at a hundred percent or higher. Then it was up to the coaches.

Right? And so then it was, there was a decision made. And it was so interesting because I still sell, tell this story to this day. And I think that that's what part of it was made it easier too, is I had one, again, she's a very, very best friend of mine, still to this day. She, from across the room, although she was a junior and I was a senior that year, um, from across the room yelled, Hey, new girl, what's your name?

And I was like, wow. I had no idea that that's the kind of reaction I would get because. I mean, I just kind of thought I'd go in there and kind of observe and seek it out a little bit. Not, not because I wasn't going to try to make that team. My goal was to make that team. I also didn't know what possibilities, the depth of those relationships could be.

And so when she reached out like that, and I was like, uh, you talking to me? And she, I mean. She was one of those people that just had a lot of friends and knew a lot of people, and she introduced me to that circle of people. And so I think that that helped to continue further, um, add depth to not only the relationships, but the reason why I was doing the efforts I was to make that team, you know, I, again, it was a goal oriented situation and it wasn't.

It wasn't from anything other than, I don't want my senior year to feel like this was a waste. I wanna, I wanna be involved. And I, that conscious choice was truly because I, I felt like that's the choice I wanted and it, it wasn't, to me there was no other choice except get involved. I didn't want, I mean, as a high extrovert.

I knew I was gonna crave needing to be around people anyway. And so whether that was because I was putting in extra effort to try to make that team, or because I was, you know, making friendships inside of classrooms and speaking up inside a classroom so that the, that way the teachers get to know you and stuff like that.

I mean, I just, I knew I had to make effort on it. I didn't want to be a shy, I'm not a shy person. And so, you know, for me to not, if I was truly living in, in who I am as a high extrovert and meeting that support from other people, and again, not because of popularity, but because that's who I, that's how I thrive, um, is I knew I'd have to put myself out there.

You just need to, so I'm gonna jump, I'm gonna jump in on Yeah. That though, which is, uh. We're talking about something like what I'm hearing you say is that you were really focused on achieving uhhuh, this, this, this goal that you were out to. Yeah. To achieve. Right. And we live in a world that highly functions on.

This is my goal at any cost. And it becomes this sort of thing. And the reason why I wanna jump on this is having the pleasure of getting to know you and how you show up Jackie. It's not just, uh, like some people can misunderstand what you're saying because it's about this goal. You have a humility and an honored respect for other individuals.

Sure. That isn't common for a lot of people. Like, like we kind of think, you know, people are like us and we treat it, you know, but a lot of people have their own shadow stuff going on. They have their self preservation, and I just wanna highlight. One reason. And, and, and, you know, tell me if I'm wrong. I mean, if I'm way wrong, kick, you know, kick me off, right?

But what I'll say is, um, one reason why you were successful is because you actually had that energy, that o open awareness, that consideration for others that, that humility, vulnerability can, you know, that kind of stuff was going on. And when we live in this world, it's like. Go strategize, go try, go, go achieve your goals.

A lot of times people are like, I'm gonna do that at any cost. And there isn't a lot of humility. There isn't a lot of consideration of others because I've got a goal damnit. Right? Yeah. That's what I love about your story and about what you're sharing is you set your goals, but you also didn't sacrifice your own integrity and, and come at it from a narcissistic kind of approach or a, you know, it's me, me, me kind of.

You know, poor me or whatever, right? Yeah. I mean that, I hope not. I, that's never my goal. I don't want it to look like that again. I mean, I did everything on my part to, to do what I needed to do to show what I, I was capable of. Having said that, it was still, at the end of the day, it was up to the coaches, and the coaches didn't know me, and so again, it wasn't, uh, I'm here to run over everybody just because this is my goal.

No, not at all. In fact, I was encouraging. My teammates all along the way of like, let's do this and let's do this together. So that way we're all better as a team. We can make it to state, we can kick asset state, you know, do these things together. We move this forward together. But I had to, I had to step in in a way that.

The coaches could at least see my, the effort I was putting in. And it did again, it wasn't to run over anybody else. Yeah, no. And I don't think I even took anyone else's spot. But when you come in as a senior in high school and there may not be a ton of extra spots because sometimes, you know, high school sports unfortunately can get very political.

And so you got all these parents jiving for coach's time, either. I didn't have that. I, I didn't have that. They didn't know me, they didn't know my parents. And so again, I just had to do everything I could in order to, to at least, at least come a across as like, huh, who's this person? She's tried hard, you know?

And, and that's where I wanted to come from. I mean, I never wanted to come across as narcissistic ever. And I don't, I mean. Honestly, I think when you get a chance to like vote for your peers and your colleagues and, and they're the ones that are also saying, Hey, she's an encourager. She's gonna help us.

She should be one of our co-captains. I mean, there's, there's something to that too, which I don't. I didn't lobby for that. I didn't nominate myself for that. Why would I ever do that? You know? I love that you went there, because that's actually where I was gonna take it. Okay. Um, this was the point that, so for powerful and unpolished in our business insights for choice, it's really about plain and possibility, but it's really about how do you embody leadership.

Yeah. And what you were talking about is. Real leadership. Sure. Okay. Um, and, and this is where I'll kind of highlight the difference. You came in there and you focused on what you had influence on, which is yourself, which is your choices, which is what you could perform, right? You knew that you had, you had no, no in on any of the coaches to sit there and say yes or no, one direction or the other, right?

It was up to them, but because of how you showed up. And the humility of which you brought everybody in as a team member. Sure. As you're moving forward, that right there is just a very powerful example of leadership. Sure. And we, you know, we call leadership and I highlight it because the whole thing about powerful and unpolished and insights for choice is we look at the whole spectrum.

We look at the good stuff, we also look at the stuff that's not so good, you know, and there's a lot of people out there called leaders. Who are bosses, they're managers, right? They, if someone was, let's say someone was put into your situation and they were like going, you know, I'm boss and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna be a boss.

Well, maybe they're not a narcissist, but it's really still eye focused. It's still I centered. You weren't I centered, you were, you were team centered. You were focused on, you know, pe 'cause especially when you're playing on a team sport, don't you want each other to be Absolutely. You know. Engaged and, and, and, and, you know, functioning on a whole nother level, right?

Yeah. I mean, we win together, we lose together, and that's the way it always should be. And if the, and if it's, I, I don't mean losing in a bad way. I mean losing, how do we, how do we learn from this now? You know, I mean, again, they call it winning, losing in sports, and, and that's fine. I appreciate having a winner in a sport and a loser in a sport.

I mean, that's just the way it is. I'm not, I'm not a participation award for everybody. Having said that, as we deal with real life and now, you know, now in business and in dealing with real human emotions, I think, you know, I don't call it losing anymore. I call it how did we grow from this? How did we, what did we learn?

If we made mistakes, great, that's no problem. We're going to make mistakes. Own up to those mistakes. And also what did you learn from it to be able to move yourself forward? I feel like that's how I've been since I was a kid, you know, from, from the standpoint of no, not what any person on this planet is perfect and nor should they pretend that they are.

And in fact, if they pretend they are, they're probably missing something. Uh, uh, you know, the humility and the, the gratitude in life and things like that. But they are also. That we need to move forward together. If we're not moving forward together, we're actually not evolving our relationships forward or our communicate communities forward.

We're just, we're kind of stuck in this place of like, well, that got messed up and so now that's where we're gonna sit. No, you mess it up. That's fine. I'm gonna make mistakes. I still make mistakes on a daily basis. And you know what? It's how I react to 'em or how I re not react necessarily, but respond to them.

And then also, what did I learn from it? Is it something that I could tweak something and continue to learn and grow from? Or is it something that I'm like, oh, that actually didn't work well at all. Let's, let's continue to move a different direction because it just didn't work or whatever. Right. Um, I, I just think the mistakes are actually what help us continue to, um, form us as humans.

Well, the mistakes are, are whether they're from us or an effort of, so we're trying to achieve it's feedback. Yeah. It's feedback that we get to. Assimilate the information. Far too often people who get feedback go into reaction and then they do a self-judgment, and the self-judgment starts to tear 'em down, which, you know, may, I don't, I don't believe it was like necessarily their intent.

I'm gonna self judge myself and tear myself down. But it is, it does happen. It does happen right. To certain people. Yeah. But it's, it's the aspect of realizing. Wow, like, like you were talking about the winners and and losers aspect. There's a program that I went through years ago, and they call them winners and learners, right?

Yeah. I mean, I think it is grown adults. I think that that's a better term than winners and losers, right? I mean, again. Yeah, we're dealing with, you know, super Bowl time and I'm not sure if we can say that word, but I'm saying it, whatever. There has to be a winner. There has to be a winner, which means someone lost in order for that winner to move forward.

So I get it. In the, in sports and things like that, there has to be winning and losing. I get it. That's all good. But I think when we're dealing with life, I think the term learners is just a better term because. You know, we're, again, we're in that space of we're all human, we're all dealing with every emotion that we all have in our, in our bodies.

And, and yes, we can each, each and every one of us could get into that space of, dang it, you know, I, and being hard on ourselves and things like that. We've all done that. We're human. That's natural, but okay. Be hard on yourself for a moment. Brief, brief moment, and then say, okay, I learned from that though actually.

Okay. Give yourself a new start. Give yourself a new start and a new chance to say to either make it right or to, you know, tweak it or whatever you have to do. But you're constantly learning and it, and I, I mean, I always love that. I don't know how you feel, but I'll just say the S, it's just an S word, but do S learn S, right?

Like you just gotta learn stuff along the way. You should learn shit is what you're saying. Yeah. You should learn shit. Thank you. So I didn't know if you were not loud on your podcast here, but Yeah. It's unpolished, so there you go. But it's, it is I, I think that if you're not in that space of doing, you're not able to be in that space of learning.

So you've gotta do it in order to learn from it. You have to do it first. Well, and, and it highlights the aspect of, of some folks, no matter where they are on their path in, in their lifetime, some of them may be, we may have some younger learners or listeners. Right now we may have some, you know, middle aged listeners.

We may have some elder, whatever. Um, but as they're listening, they may not have. Learn the grace for themselves to, to transform something into learning. It, it, it, it comes across. It might affect them more as a re reflection of their value when it's really not. It's more of an opportunity for them to grow.

It's an opportunity for feedback to say, if you want something more, this is just feedback and this isn't gonna get you where you want go. Agreed. Going. Something I, I've said for years, actually, for a few decades, which is don't be afraid of making a mess. Be afraid that you don't have the ability to clean it up.

That, hey, that's awesome. That's awesome. So it's, it's, it's having that, that, um, grace with yourself to not be perfect because it's not a, it's never about being perfect. What the hell's perfect? Who the hell's perfect? Oh, who said that? That word is such an obnoxious word. Like who said that? And said, this oughta be perfect.

No, no. I actually, I actually had my, my, uh, it was funny, the word perfect, you know, and kids are. Kids are kids, right? And they're learning things along the way. But my nieces asked me one time, she did a cartwheel and she was just learning how to do it, honestly. And so she's like, aunt Jackie was that perfect?

And I said, no, but here's the deal. Here's the deal. I had to finesse it a little bit 'cause she was only, you know, six or seven or whatever. But I had to finesse it a little bit. I didn't mean for her to not continue to do it. And what I explained with her is I said, I don't think we're ever working for perfect though, honey.

And so I said, was it really good? Because you're still learning. Absolutely. It was really good in the phase that you're in right now, because you're still learning this. Is it perfect though? No, but I don't think that's what you want. And she, you know, I don't know if it was a little too much for her at that age, but, um.

You know, I, I just, I wasn't trying to hurt her feelings. I wasn't trying to discourage her from doing said cartwheel or whatever it was. Um, I also, I, I think it's important for kids to know, for, for young adults to know, for, for people that are, you know, continuing to go through any part of their life.

Perfect is not a goal we need to achieve. It is not a goal that should be on anyone's bucket list or vision board or any of that. Perfect is nonsensical. It is nonsensical. And usually if it's somebody who, if it's somebody who's striving for perfect, usually that person is striving for, to use the term or the illusion of perfect as a defense, sir, it becomes a power play.

And whether they know it or not, but that's really what it is because it's like. You know, when you, when you understand your own internal growth, your own internal lessons, you don't have to measure it against some ambiguous ideal of perfect. Right, right, right. Exactly. I just, I don't know. I would hope that people start.

You know, I know that there are perfectionists in this world that they really like to strive for that I'm not one of them. Um, because I like the things a little bit messy sometimes. I like the things that, you know, you're trying to figure out. I like the things that it's like, oh, well that was interesting, but I'm not ever trying to be perfect.

And so I know that there's recovering perfectionists and things like that, that they self claim themselves, but I, I also encourage like. If they're working towards something like that, that they also work towards the word grace and trying to figure out, you know, perfect doesn't exist, but Grace does. And Grace allows for our mistakes and allows for that ebb and flow a little bit, a lot more then Perfect.

Ever will. Great. Grace is exponentially a stronger vibration. Vibrational experience. Yes. Then perfection will ever be, oh, without a question. Perfection is a subjective personal opinion. Right? Grace is something you can give to yourself as well as others. Yes, exactly. Now I get it. There are certain tests where you can get a perfect score, a hundred percent score based on what's being tested in that moment.

I get it. You know, math and science, there are some data that shows that it can be a perfect, you know, score type of thing. Fine. But in those moments, like are we always in the testing mode in life? No, we're not. But the interesting thing that, I love that you brought that up. The interesting thing is it takes me to, um, that's why I love these conversations 'cause you just fly where you go.

And I think back to like when you think of like the Olympics or, uh, gym gymnasts or figure skaters from decades ago. And just the evolution of how athletes perform today. I mean, the only reason why they're able to perform today is because of what the generation before them and the generation before them accomplished.

Right? Because it's not like, and what was perfect in 1972 may be very different than 19, than 2022, right? Yeah, without a question. Um, so yeah, it's when you get into that sort of thinking and, and thought process. All right, so we're playing with words and stuff like this and, and you are, you are a queen founder of the, uh, ace community, which I am a part of, and I do very much enjoy and have it as a part of my, my professional world as well as my personal world.

It's a combination of the two. Ace again stands for Adventure, creativity and Enjoyment. How'd you come up with this? What was it? What was it, what was it that spurred this on for you? Well, for me, I've led other groups in the past, um, different communities that I led, but it was always someone else's. And so I, even several years before Ace launched officially, I had always wanted my own group that I could really call my own.

I could shape it the way. Uh, it was meant to be shaped because there's member input and there's things like that that are happening and, and again, we're evolving together as a community. Um, this real ace really formed, 'cause prior to that, um, I used another acronym Create, and those three words were already in there and I didn't even realize it.

So create. Creativity was the number one. That was the C. Um, of course enjoy, um, uh, adventure was the a and then, uh, enjoyment was also in there, but there was one day, so I actually, um, I don't mind sharing this story. I had lost my mom in the early, so we're coming up on. Almost exactly three years this week that, that I lost my mom.

And in November of that year of 23, so it was 11 months later or 10 months later, um, I was out hiking and I had, I was talking to my mom just 'cause I do often when, you know, and I feel her around me and I feel her presence. Um, so I was talking to her and I just said, I pulled into the parking lot. And I said, mom, I could really, I'm planning for 2024 at that point, and I could really use an ace in the hole, um, for what to, where to take my business and what to do with growth and things like that.

And Ace just stood out to me like a light bulb, the word ace. And so I did this, you know, three and a half mile hike and the whole time I couldn't stop. My brain was just. Storming, brainstorming, completely. Just going, going, going. And honestly, um, knowing that I wanted, I've always wanted, wanted my own community.

She's definitely a part of it. And so why I say that is the word ACE or the, the acronym word, adventure, creativity. Enjoyment, we're already being used in my previous acronym, and then my mom's mine and my mom's middle names are both Joy. And her name was Nancy. And so Enjoy was really where she was at.

And uh, and so she always wanted to do, she was a real estate broker. She always wanted to do something with enjoy, better living, enjoy, right? Like being able to embody the end and the joy, um, literal and figuratively. And, uh, so I feel that. She's pulling in some presents because of that. She, she liked to have fun in her life as well.

And both since both of our middle names are joy, of course, of course we see that word a lot around the holidays and things like that. But I have really learned to embody it even more. So that's truly where Ace came from. Is it, it just, I felt her come through it and already using the words and then being able to honor her with the enjoyment part of it.

Um, it just kind of solidified altogether. Nice. Very nice. So when you opened up your membership and launched it, how'd you, how'd you find your initial people? Oh, well, I've got some true supporters that are, you know, OGs that, you know, they, they will, I, I'm super grateful for, and they have been with me since beginning, but they, they have been in other things of mine.

They, you know, as soon as I started talking about it, I had several members right outta the gate because I've got. People that I've built really solid, amazing friendships with. But beyond that, we've supported each other in the, uh, each other's business. So it's like we were kind of orbiting each other and, and, and supportive of each other too.

So it's, you know, I pulled right, right from there. As soon as I started talking about it, it was like, here, take my money. Here, take my money. And I was like, whoa. The very first person, I mean, and, and she knows who I'm talking about, but she, she was like, Jackie, take my money right now. And I was like. I was actually just doing it.

Like I was just gonna do a quick announcement. I wasn't quite ready to take payments yet, but she's like, I don't care what you have to do. Take a picture of my credit card or whatever you have to do, but take my money, take it now, I'm ready. I was like, okay. Right. And so, you know, and, and again, it's people like that that just give you that extra push and just say.

Whether or not I was fully ready, it didn't matter. She was. And so, um, and so that's where it's come from. I also networking. I mean, I'm, I'm part of eWomen, uh, network in Colorado Springs, and that has been super amazing for me as well. And again, it's one of those things, you show up and you're part of it, and then they wanna be a part of what you're doing as well, because now they're curious.

They're like, you talk, you just keep talking about fun and, and all these things that we're gonna do. So I'm in, yeah. Awesome. I'm glad, I'm glad you said that. 'cause yeah, it's like a lot of times, we'll, we think we're ready and you know, you know, and you have someone who cares and supports you enough that they actually push you.

Here it's, it's like your bungee cord and you're like standing there going, I'm ready to jump. And it's like, well. I'm gonna push you because you haven't jumped yet. And it was, but it was such a beautiful push too. It was, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, I was ready and it, it just, you know, some of those admin things, they will come, they will always come, you know, and I, and, and this happened to be December of 23, and I knew I was gonna, I mean, my announcement was I'm launching this in February, I'm launching this in February.

And so she's like. Why wait till February, launch it now.

Okay. So that's awesome. Yeah. That's really awesome. Good job. So thanks. So now, now coming up here in February, officially we are celebrating two years for ACE community. But I think that that's kind of funny just because it is kind of the. February seems to be my, my start of my year, if you will. Um, I, I originally launched my business in 2014 and it happened to be February.

And so for me, yeah, the calendar can change over and that's all fine and well, but for me, February truly feels like my fiscal year every year. And so that's why it was a natural fit for me to be. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna launch again, relaunch in February, and she's like, nah, just launch it now. So. Here we are.

It she is ready to be a part of the team. Yeah, exactly. And then I, part of the, and it's people, you know, it's people like that. And like you, Tim, and, and our, all of our members, I'm super grateful for because they see, they saw a vision, even if it wasn't fully formed in my head yet, they saw it with me and it was beautiful.

Yeah, that's, uh, I have to say, yeah, with the community tail wave for impact that I'm actually launching have launched, but I'm actually officially launching it in March, but I already have a few members, right? Yes. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Try it, right? Like have people step into it a little bit, and that's how you know if your, if your vision feels in alignment, that's how you will know is because they're already pushing you.

They're already like, okay, what's next? What's next? What's next? You know? It's great, especially when you have people who are in alignment with what you do. You know, and so I, I just commend you and applaud you for not only putting this into form. Also inviting in the people who this makes a difference for.

Because you know, I mean there's a lot of, and, and I'll just say this from my awareness around your community is, you know, a lot of people go to work. They go, they have hr, they have their work colleagues, stuff like this. Well, when you have a lot of small business owners or entrepreneurs or you know, um.

Maybe professionals who, who don't really work in an office, you don't really get that comradery. You don't really get that, that ongoing support and connection and, and what you do actually brings humanity to some of the work that they do. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it, it is interesting, you know, when you try to, when I try to explain people, and again, my messaging, messaging is getting tighter and tighter and tighter, but when I tell people that.

I help adults have fun for, for, and that's what I'm doing for a business. And they're like, how did you make a business outta that? I'm like, because people are, humans are funny. If they think that something sounds fun, they may not come with it on, come up with it on their own. But if it sounds fun and now there's a, a another group of people and someone else is planning it for them now they're like.

Here you go. I'll let you do all the planning and I will drive there. You know? Yeah. And so, and, and you know, I've had people say, so you do, you plan fun activities for adults and that's how you make a living. And I was like, yes, absolutely. And it's super fun because that I get to play too, you know?

Absolutely. Well, and we're gonna, we're gonna jump off on that 'cause that's one of the things I was gonna ask you about is. What is your, um, relationship with the word fun? Oh my gosh. I mean, I, I think that if we're not having fun, then what are we doing, you know, honestly, so, so I truly believe that. It's, it's about it.

It's, it's about being silly. It's about being playful. It's about being, you know, laugh a little more and embrace life a little more. And I think that that's where fun for me has just always been a part of my life. And, um, you know, even if, even when we're making up games, as we're growing up on the farm and it's like.

Cool. We're going to, we're gonna do these fun key fun things because it's creative and it's imaginative and it's, those things all play together and play. We all do those together and, and if we truly do them together now look, we, we formed this little community of people that also want to. Um, be in a better relationship with the word fun.

Right? There's a, I love that, that that is a big deal for you. It's actually a big deal when I work with my clients because, um, one of the big aspects of this life as we're going through this life is we have our lessons. We have our dark side, we have our, our light. You know, they, they all give us feedback.

They all give us the opportunity for growth. And we all have personal values and some, some of us are our personal values. If we know what they are, they speak louder for us than other values, right? And it's individual for each person. But when you can give someone into fun, the great thing that I love about the value of fun is this.

People stop thinking and start being ah yes. They escape into the experience. And you talked about making up games on the farm, I think of little kids that you. Either it's a birthday party or, or a a, a holiday. And you give them a gift and these little kids, they'll pull the toy out of the box and then they'll spend the next three hours playing with the box.

Yeah. You know, because this is so much fun. Look what we can do with it. You know, it's like going, you're looking and it's, it's not a have to, it's not a logical strategize. It's it, it is a liberation of your spirit. That's right. That's right. I mean, I don't know, somewhere along the line age became such a, um, um, a marker for people, right?

The first big milestone is you, of course, you become a teenager. Well, then you're going through all the stuff of teenage years. Then you get your driver's license, then you get a chance to vote. Now you can go to the bar, not there's all these age milestones, right? Well, somewhere along the line, someone said, okay, you're 25 now.

And now it's time to grow up and be an adult and be on your own and do take responsibility. I agree to a certain point on those things. I, I, I'm not saying that you, you, you can have fun. And be a responsible human. You know, like you don't have to say, well, just because now I'm 60, now I have to stop having fun.

Or because I'm 25 and there's more responsibilities on my table, now I have to stop having fun. Who made those rules? And why don't we throw those rules out the dang window? Because I don't think we ever should stop having fun. I think it's, it helps us continue to be able to handle life. I really do believe that because, um, and I'm not saying every situation is going to be fun and funny and silly.

No, of course not. There are serious moments in our lives as well. Having said that, fun helps us stay a little bit more childlike, a little bit more playful, and it helps us think a little more creatively, a lot more creatively actually. And so. I, I, I just, these measures of ages always baffle me a little bit of like, well, now I gotta stop having fun 'cause I have kids.

No. Well, and, and, and to give yourself, to know yourself or to understand yourself enough to give yourself permission to have fun. Right. I think there a lot of times, you know, you talked about these, these age, you know, achievements. And a lot of times as you're growing up and then you become a young adult and then you're adulty and all that kinda stuff, all of a sudden, I mean, kind of look around us, people's idea of fun is they need a crutch.

Yeah, I need, I need alcohol, I need drugs, I need, you know, whatever. And it's like going, I'm not saying don't go have fun. Don't go be an adult. You know, you're an adult as long as you're not hurting anybody, by all means. But. To be able to give yourself permission to have fun and not need a crutch. Right.

Is is is an even bigger gift. Yes, absolutely. If you, I mean, it's just been, you know, some of the activities that we've done, one of 'em always comes to the front of my mind of we've gone to Slick City before there were 14 adults and one 14-year-old teenager with us. And the kid, kid, truly he was, had to have been 18 at the top end, who was checking us in.

He said, he looks down at us. There's a long line of adults standing there, and he goes, you're all adults here today. And we said, well, we have one teenager, but yes, we are all adults. And he goes, okay. And on. I think he was just a little bit baffled at seeing the age ranges of adults coming in and wanting to play on these slides and, and we had more fun in that space than the anyone else did.

In fact, some of the eight and 10 year olds said to us, you guys are really loud. You must be having a lot of fun. You know what I mean? And so I think it's really funny when people. See our community and see what we're doing and the fact that we're just letting our hair down and letting all responsibilities go out.

The, we left it in the car or whatever that day and then we got inside and we got to, you know, feel if, as if we were 12 again. In our heart of hearts, I truly think some of us were in that space. And so it's really amazing to see that. And, and, and again, and to your point of, of the whole, like, we don't need a crutch in order to do that.

None of us had a drop of alcohol while we're going and playing on slides and acting like giggly school children. Yeah. Well, and you can also have the per, you know, the permission to be like. Another event. Maybe there was a little bit of drinks or stuff. Like, it's not a problem. It's not a problem, but it's like you, you can have fun for the sake of having fun.

It doesn't have to be related to, you know, I, I, I hear a lot of people, well, I don't like to do happy hours anymore because I'm, I'm, you know, taking a step away from alcohol or whatever. That's great. We could do something else. We don't have to have it be, you know, the only thing that adults are doing for fun is happier.

That is insane. That is not a true statement, you know? And so, yeah, there doesn't have to be crutches. You know, sometimes things are more adult. Oriented types of events that we do. Sometimes they're more like childlike play and then we, you know, and, and it's just beautiful to see and hear the volume of giggling and screeching like schoolchildren that is happening amongst this group of adults.

Yeah, there's a, so we're gonna, there, we could talk or we'll have to have you back, but yeah, we, we could talk for, for hours on different subjects. Which I love. I love this back and forth and exploring all the different experiences and possibilities. 'cause for the listeners it's, it's not about being right, it's not about being wrong.

It's really just about being in the experience and then growing from the experience. Okay. And with your ACE community, I'm gonna highlight this 'cause we're gonna wrap up on this note. Tell us about. 2026 camp experience. We're going. Yeah, you gotta say, you gotta say it the way you say it. 'cause I find We do, we do.

So everybody, we're gonna camp, we're gonna summer camp for adults and we did it this last fall and 2026 is gonna be even better. Um, we, it's just full. It's full of activities and all sorts of activities like archery and team building. Horseback riding and we had some IV hydration therapy happening, um, and C karaoke and dancing and you know, sitting by the bonfire or campfire.

And it was just awesome because we were all under one roof. And it was incredible. So it's open to women and men. Um, we have plenty of space, eight bedroom, eight bathroom cabin that we're gonna be in. We're not camping, so we won't be in tents. A lot of people ask me that, are we gonna be in a tent? I'm too old to be in a tent.

They say that, and I don't know that I believe it, but. They say it, and I feel kind of that way too. Like I don't wanna sleep on the ground anymore. So we're in a cabin, not a tent for camp. Um, and it happens at YMC of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, um, and in September. And so it's peak week for, for leaf peeping.

And, and again, the connections and the depth of relationship. I've had one person say it was the biggest, best nervous system reset she's ever experienced in her life. So that's pretty powerful too, just knowing that her brain got a total chance to, you know, completely shut down. She was fully present.

They all were. They were all fully present. It was amazing. So we're going to camp one more time. Camp. Camp. We're gonna camp. Well, and to give yourself that kind of freedom and, and just opportunity too. To allow your inner child to, to come out, play, have fun with other adults, letting their inner childs come out.

Yeah. You know, it, it's, it's a great experience. Jackie, I wanna thank you very much, very, very, very much for being on the show today. Yes, thank you. Um, we could talk for hours, Tim, so this was great. Yeah, we may, we may do this again here real soon. Uh, I do have a question. Um, tell people how they can find you on.

Either social media or on your website? Yeah, absolutely. Our website is ACE Community, so ace e community.com. Or you can find me on Facebook. Um, Instagram. Facebook is under Ace community, and um, Instagram is ace community. Fun. And then I'm on LinkedIn under my own name. Ja, uh, LinkedIn, uh, forward slash Jackie Cox.

J-A-C-K-I-C-O-X. So there's no e on my name? Yes, Cox. Excellent. Excellent my friend. Wish you all the best. I'm looking forward to our next ace. What is our next thing? Um, so we're gonna be doing our next one is Thursday. We're gonna be doing game and trivia night with Jordan White. Oh yeah. Um, and then following that we have a murder mystery in February t uh, February 25th with, with, uh, red Herring Productions.

Sean Rutzen is taking the lead on that. And so yeah, we got some fun things coming up as always. Um, but yeah, those are, those are some ex excellent ways to get in touch with us as well. Excellent. Excellent. All right, Jackie, thank you so much. Uh, for our listeners, we appreciate you for stopping in and listening to our guest today.

Jackie Cox is just a divine gift, as I said at the beginning. And, um, we wish you all the best as you go out into the world as you are exploring yourself. See where you can find fun for yourself, see where you can allow yourself for your leadership to show up for yourself. And then for those around you, because you make a difference in who you are in this world.

So until next time, we wish you all the best and, uh, break a leg. Cheers.