Episode 11: Tiara M. Tucker

Rachel Kobus 0:09
Welcome to Redbird Buzz, the official podcast of Illinois State University. I'm Rachel Kobus from alumni engagement. Years before Tiara Tucker became an award winning Communications and Public Relations strategist, she was a Redbird who completed her undergraduate work in public relations and received a master's in communication. She was also a participant in various Dean of Students leadership programs while on campus, the experiences in education served her well as Tiara has completed nearly 20 years at a fortune 50 company with more than a decade in public affairs. Beyond her corporate role, Tiara started the charitable organization Speak That! movement, which is an impact driven initiative to equip and empower professional women while also focusing on mental health issues and social justice roadblocks. She's also the founder and CEO of Tierra PR Network, a communications boutique providing executive level communication support and public relations strategies for professionals, organizations and high profile projects. Her work as an entrepreneur and empowerment connector was recognized this year by the ISU Alumni Association when she received the inaugural Andrew Purnell Jr. Trailblazer Award.

Today we're excited to be joined by two time communication alum CEO and founder of Tiara PR Network and Speak That! Movement. Tiara M Tucker, so Tiara, what's the word Redbird. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Tiara Tucker 1:32
Hello, hello. Hello, everybody. I am so excited first of all to be on this podcast. So my name is Tiara Tucker. And I like to say that I'm the wearer of many tiaras because I do find myself wearing multiple hats. As you mentioned, I have my communications and PR boutique firm, where I work with established business professionals, organizations, speakers, and high profile projects that really want to make a difference in the community. I have my nonprofit organization Speak That! Movement, which actually has its roots in Bloomington Normal Illinois, which we could talk about a little later, please. corporate career. I'm from Illinois, now living in Dallas, Texas. And I'm just really on a mission to walk in my purpose and make a difference.

Rachel Kobus 2:22
We love hearing that. And, and that's why we had Tiara on here she is--I'm going to start off by saying one of the inaugural recipients of the Andrew Purnell Jr. Trailblazer award from Illinois State's Alumni Association. And that award recognizes innovators groundbreakers, and those that are courageously making positive change and Tiara, you are definitely someone making positive change in the world. And we're going to talk a lot about your entrepreneurship. So I'd love to kick it off and start more about, can you talk about how you become the empowerment connector that you are and how that relates to the passions you have? And how that may be helped launch Speak That!?

Tiara Tucker 3:04
Yes, definitely. So as I reflect on my life, I realized that ever since I was a little girl, I've always had a passion for speaking, a passion for connecting others and I jokingly yet seriously say that one of the first times that I won an A major award. I wrote a letter to Santa when I was a little girl. And I found that there was power in words. And so my letter allowed me to get on a choo choo train with Santa Claus. Fast forward a couple of years later in middle school, I wrote a short book for the Illinois State young authors competition. It was my first time writing. And my book was called No Way Out. I didn't realize at the time. It was an inspirational empowering book about young people who were living in a small community and some made it off to college. Others didn't. As I think about that, I'm like, How would I've even known to write about that? But the significance of it was when I won that competition, my prize was to go to Illinois State University. Oh my gosh, the award ceremony. So yeah, I am 10, 11 years old, and I'm on the campus of ISU because I won an award. And I remember saying when I grow up, I want to go to ISU, and as destiny would have it I did--so throughout my journey, I was a leader in middle school, the leader in high school, went to ISU and I just had an amazing experience connecting with people with diverse backgrounds and working on different leadership projects and and I really just learned so much and connected with so many people and I kept it going. So after graduation, I stayed in Bloomington Normal, Illinois, and I started my corporate career. And even in my corporate career, I made it very clear that I had a passion and a dream to work in our communication space, our public affairs space. So I just kept that interest in that passion going. And so I landed a job, I'm working in the area that I love. And then I still kept going on the side, right? So there's something about not letting your passions go away, but you keep them within you and you keep that fire burning. So on the side, I would find people with asked me to help them with communications efforts, whether it was writing, editing, I was hosting different events in the Bloomington Normal Community after graduation. And so, one day I really just put a name on it and I called Tiara PR network, right to make it more flowing. And then speak that! movement came about, again, living in Bloomington Normal after graduation. And I was spending New Year's in Chicago, and I was with a Grammy Award winning artist and my friend who also went to ISU, and I asked him I said, I would love for you to come to Bloomington and be a guest and I would love to have you come to ISU, you know, to be a guest. And he was like making it happen. So I said okay, so here's his Grammy Award winning spoken word artist, a writer. And so he challenged me on January 1 2011, to make it happen. And I did. So I created an event that I ended up calling Speak That!. And it was a community event. I brought in people from the community to talk about basically spoken word right? The power of words and empowering and entertaining and inspiring people. There was a blizzard, something about me in February and blizzards who know in 2011, there was a blizzard the day of my event. Yes. So I pivoted it to march. And March is when I had the event, and it was amazing. And so from that first Speak That! event in March of 2011, I never stopped and eventually Speak That! evolve to now Speak That! movement, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on women empowerment, mental health and social justice. So spoken word is still the foundation, but not spoken word in the form of entertainment, but in the form of empowerment and motivation and inspiring people to go after their dreams.

Rachel Kobus 7:20
Yeah, and it's grown you podcast, virtual events in person events, you're you're just an overall like you said you're an empowerment connector for especially for women and professional women. So I just think it's amazing. And to hear that story. That's that's great. But the other thing I have to mention, too, is Tiara is an innovator in the sense of she had to pivot and that was a big word pivot for her first event. But then 2020 happened, and you had to pivot big too because we shut down in many places. So I feel like Speak That! movement still had to keep going. You have these topics that are never going to stop they need to continue to be talked about. So can you discuss a little bit of how in 2020, did you continue to have Speak That! Movement empower people?

Tiara Tucker 8:04
Absolutely. So prior to COVID, I was hosting events in the Dallas community. And I would bring in special guest speakers and entrepreneurs and we would just have a great conversation and a networking event. So when COVID hit, I felt an obligation to continue to be a voice to people because so many of us--everybody was hurting. And I found that I was having isolated conversations with individuals. And we were talking about things such as social injustice, you know, what was going on around us. And we were talking about issues such as Black Lives Matter. And living through this unknown and life of COVID. We you know, which we're still talking about. And so, obviously, that was a time where mental health issues was on the rise with depression and anxiety and fear and so much. So I had this burning desire to go live on Facebook one day when I wasn't going live prior to that. I would have occasional events where I would go live. But this would have been a time where I just wanted to go live, welcome people to a platform to just talk. It was that simple. And so because I'm a little extra, I couldn't just go live. I said let me call it something I call Speak That! Talks and I made a flyer and I was preparing to go live. And then right before on that Thursday of May of 2020. I was like, I can't just talk about myself. So I invited a good friend who also is ISU alum, Jevaughn Martin I said, Will you join me to go live so that we can talk about what's going on? He said sure. So we literally went live on Speak That! Talks the very first episode, and the topics of the day were Ahmaud Arbery, quarantine life, COVID You know, social unrest, and then the audience started growing, people were tuning in they were chiming in in the comments because I wanted to create an interactive experience, unedited, unfiltered and uncensored. So after week one, I said, Okay, I want to do it again. So I brought in another guest who was an entrepreneur in Dallas. And then after that, I said, Okay, I'll go live again. So for over 50 consecutive weeks, there was a Speak That Talks going live every single Thursday.

Rachel Kobus 10:25
That's amazing. That's amazing. So what can you talk about, what was one of your favorite topics? Memories or guests?

Tiara Tucker 10:35
one of my favorite, and I love them all--I seek guests from all over the country. I even had publicists reaching out wanting their clients to be on the show. So I have to say too, real quick. Yep. Yep. One was a guest from she's originally from Africa. But she's now living in London. And so that was a very special one because it was an international guest. So at that moment, Speak That! Movement naturally gained an international audience something that started in Bloomington Normal, now have people in other countries tuning in. The second one, I would say would rein as a very special one was a family by the name of the Robertson's, and their loved one, Deviry Robertson was murdered by police. And so I just, I grew a bond with this family. Because the mother Miss Arlene Robertson, she reached out to me, because she saw my name on a flyer for a social justice event that I was speaking at. And then I was coordinating. And so she reached out almost with hope, and desperation that somebody would just hear her story about her family, and her son who was murdered by police. So when we talked on the phone, I just felt something that said, you need to help her. I didn't know what to do. I've worked with so many families that were impacted by social justice, when I worked on PR cases with other civil rights attorneys. But something felt special about this one. So long story short, I ended up working with the family and I created my first production called Speak Their Stories, which you can find online. Oh, it was a video that I co-produced, I have my little cousin come in and join me with production work. I have my Speak That! movement team. And we created this zero budget production. And I brought the family on, Speak That! Talks episode, where we aired the-- the shows that they speak their stories, and also talk to the family.

Rachel Kobus 12:44
So you grew even more, even in COVID, you grew this and then from your talks you grew even more, you are just continuing connector and continuing empowerment. I'm just gonna say it over and over again. And I think that leads to part of Speak That! Movement, if you could talk a little bit about you grew it. So you have a mission of these four pillars. So I think that's inspiring in the sense for those that want to create their own organizations, whether it's nonprofit or small business, could you talk about those four pillars and how someone can follow what you've done to maybe look at what you're doing and start their own?

Tiara Tucker 13:18
Yeah, so the four pillars of Speak That! Movement, our dream it, believe it, speak it and walk it. And so that was just something that just jumped out at me. And it really resonates at every episode of Speak That! Talks I always concluded with talking about those four pillars and allowing the audience to share their perspective. But in a nutshell, when I think about those four pillars, I love to encourage and inspire people to continue to dream big dream it, we have to believe we have to dream as I think back to being a little girl who went to Illinois State University to win an award. And I dream that one day I will go there. And now I have two degrees from there and was recently honored again there. So that's dreaming and is dreaming big is dreaming with no limits. And then you have to believe it, you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe in, in your gifts, your skills, your abilities, and you have to speak it. And that goes to speaking things into existence. I really believe in the power of manifestation. I believe in the power of self talk. I believe that we have to speak positivity over our own lives, as well as the lives of others. And then also walk it and that's one of my favorite ones. Because we can dream all day we can believe it. We can talk about it. But if we're not putting in the work if we're not taking those steps, that's the action. That's the execution. And I love to tell people it's about progress, not perfection. So you have to just take the baby steps and then as long as you keep walking forward, you will see your dreams come true. And most importantly, you have to make sure you're making a difference. You have to think of others. And that's how I think your legacy continues long after you're here.

Rachel Kobus 15:07
Well, I know you want to end of this interview, because that would have been a great ending, but we're gonna keep going because you're just ramping up. And you live you live that yourself, you live your four pillars. And I think the other thing that's important to talk about is Tiara has a 20 plus year professional full time job like this, her Speak That! movement, like she said, and her PR boutique are her side hustles. And then you're still doing a professional full time job in corporate public affairs. So can you talk about being a woman entrepreneur? How do you balance a professional career and and again, being in public affairs on top of it, and then also deciding to manage a business and a nonprofit? How does that work? Do you work with a team? Do you--Do you have a you know, do you have a little calendar? Do you have an iPad on you 24/7? I mean, just even things like that, like, how do you manage being Oh, especially a woman entrepreneur? I think it's very important to talk about.

Tiara Tucker 16:04
Yes, well, great question. So actually, I'm going on my 18th year with my corporate career. And yeah, so that's an excellent question. I get that question a lot. And honestly, it's really about passion. And I don't want to understate that. But I love communications, I love making a difference. And I have been blessed to have an opportunity where my corporate career allows me to work in the field of communications, it allows me to work with community organizations, it allows me to work with other entrepreneurs, and other business professionals. So as I think about my nonprofit organizations Speak That! Movement, speak that! movement's primary audience, is women professionals. These are women just like me, just like you, Rachel. And so I recognize that as women, we deal with certain things, you know, we deal with the struggles and the juggles of having a personal life and professional life, so Speak That! Movement addresses that. And then when I think about my profitable business Tiara PR Network, that's just allowing me to have clients and other people that I serve and support, who are also business professionals. So there's that common theme of business professionals, people desiring to make a difference, recognizing that mental health can impact all of us. And so that's how I'm able to, to manage it all because it's all in alignment. And then as far as Tiara PR Network, I'm blessed to have work with interns. I actually have an intern right now who is amazing, a young female who just graduated from high school, I started working with her when she was in high school. And now she's with me. And my mission is to pay it forward and pour into her so that she can be the next professional woman in business with my nonprofit organization Speak That! Movement. I have an executive board of powerful women, all women, one is an ISU alum. We all work in corporate America. And so that's how I continue to do it. I can't do it alone. Teamwork makes the dream work. And I'm grateful for volunteers, supporters, and all everybody that just believes in the efforts. And that's how it continues to grow. My cell phone is my biggest asset. My cell phone is what keeps the machines going. My Calendars, my reminders, I can work with this phone. So nowadays, as long as you have a cell phone and a strong internet connection, you can make a lot of things happen.

Rachel Kobus 18:46
And you've proven that I mean, just everything we've talked about so far. And like you said, having a team is very important. So I really admire you for saying sometimes you can't do it alone. And having that team makes you even just a better person too and you're doing good for others, you're doing good for your community. And like you have an intern already just out of high school like that professional is going to just grow from learning from someone like you. And it's it's very admirable, Tiara, so thank you for sharing that. I think my last question for you is, and we've touched little tidbits and topics of this is storytelling and how important that is. So can you touch a little bit about and this is a very general question, but I just think all that you do, you know, communication wise, whether it's in your boutique and your nonprofit in your professional career, it's about the story. And so what, what makes a good story and why is that important? How has learning to be a good storyteller helped you?

Tiara Tucker 19:44
Yes. Well, I feel like there's no better time than now to, to learn to be a great storyteller because at the end of the day, we're all our lives, all of our individual lives are a story. You know, as we deal with the things that we mentioned the pandemic and, and mental health and injustices and just being a human being--everybody's life is a story. And everybody has a different perspective on how they share a story and how they receive and hear a story. So to me, the the biggest component of storytelling is using your voice, your perspective, and owning that. And knowing that your audience may come from different backgrounds, but finding a way to connect to various audiences using words that multiple people in you know, backgrounds can understand, right? Sometimes you have to just scratch the jargon to tell the story. And I believe that good storytelling, it comes from the heart. And that's that's just my opinion, right? I'm going to buy into a story, I'm going to buy into something when I feel it's genuine. When I feel it comes from a place of compassion, a place of honesty, sometimes you have to walk people through an experience so that they can truly understand it. So when I think about storytelling, really, everybody has a voice. And it's using your voice to whether you're educating someone, you're empowering, you're motivating, you're inspiring, whatever it is, but it's using your voice and knowing that there's power in your words, every word in that story has meaning. And the most important part of the story is the audience. And what do you want them to know, Think do or feel.

Rachel Kobus 21:32
Well, and again, Tiara today, you've educated us, you've empowered us there's a reason you are receiving or have received the Trailblazer award. So is there anything else you want to add before we sign off with you today?

Tiara Tucker 21:46
Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you, Rachel, Thank you ISU alum office. Thank you, Dr. Terri, our president everybody else out there. I'm just so honored. I love ISU. I have Redbird proud. I am Redbird proud rather

Rachel Kobus 22:03
she is yes red. Like right now sporting the red even when we told her is just an audio still sporting ISU and looking like a proud Redbird. We'd love it.

Tiara Tucker 22:11
Like I tell people to read is that's my ISU colors. The red Delta Sigma Theta, my sorority? Yeah, the red. That's the branding for my Tiara PR, Speak that movement. Like I love red. But outside of that, I just want to thank the Illinois State University community. I want to just shout out the students out there. I know it's hard right now. We are living in different times. But I just want to encourage you all to keep moving forward. Keep going after your dreams continue to make the difference in the world and to everybody that's listening. Just thank you. And as you continue along your journey in life, just think about the legacy that you want to leave behind. To the family of Andrew Purnell Jr. I vow and I dedicated myself to continuing to make your family proud as the way your father has lived a life that is making others want to carry on his legacy. So thank you all.

Rachel Kobus 23:07
Thank you Tiara again so much.

That was Tiara M. Tucker 2004 2009 communication alum. Stories like Tiara's make us Redbird proud and we are so glad we got to share it with you today. Tune in next time for more stories from beyond the quad.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai