Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's voices that inspire. I'm Jake Kiker. I'm a lawyer by trade, but I do a lot of other things that I am excited about. Investing in people and businesses, and I certainly just enjoy interacting with people. When I came to law school here, I honestly had no intentions of staying in Tallahassee. It had not even occurred to me that I would stay in Tallahassee after law school. Probably the first two or three years as an associate at any firm, it's hard work. Long hours. I would say roughly three or four years after that is when I started getting more out into the community. I was in the second KCCI class, and that was a good experience. I enjoyed that. And then leadership Tallahassee in class 28. It took some time to get acclimated, and that really has accelerated, I would say, over the past four to five years. I think for me, it's opportunity. I get excited about the projects. I get excited about the people. And really, it's just potential. I get excited about, you know, well, man, if I can introduce this person to this person who's doing this thing, or I know there's this opportunity to do this thing over here, if we can just make X, Y, and Z happen. And to me, it's just ask why you're doing something and see if there's a way to make it better. Sitting down with somebody and seeing if there's something you can do for them before you ever ask of something that they might do for you. The key is finding those people that have an authentic desire to be engaged, because not everybody does. To let them have a voice. Actually, having those people sit at the table, so we're talking with them as opposed to making decisions about them. If you do a better job of engaging them at a lower level, the more skin they'll have in that game, you know, the things that I've been engaged with in the community, were opportunities that I was given to have a voice. And to let them engage in what is we're trying to do. My name is Jake Kiker. Thanks for having me. Voices that inspire is sponsored by Leadership Tallahassee, a program of the Tallahassee Chamber, celebrating 35 years of cultivating community leadership.