Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur Spotlight: Jeanne Dexter
Kingdom Driven Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs of faith who don’t want to do “business as usual” and seek to truly impact lives and advance the Kingdom of God through their businesses. It’s our aim at KingdomDrivenEntrepreneur.com to equip you to build a thriving business that serves both your family and builds the Kingdom. To that end, we feel it’s important to inspire and connect the Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur community which is why we do this member spotlight.
This week’s spotlight is on Jeanne Dexter, founder and co-creator of The Talking Jar Series. The Talking Jar Series enhances communication and helps to build self esteem by allowing individuals to honestly express their thoughts and feelings, while learning to listen to others, all in a fun and non-threatening environment.
If you would like to be considered for a future spotlight, be sure to connect and engage with our Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur community on Facebook.
Tell us the basics: Where you’re from, where you live currently, your family, etc.
My name is Jeanne A. Dexter . I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and lived in 6 different cities before settling in Pompano, Florida. I currently live in Jupiter, Florida . I have two grown children. Carly 24 years old and Brandon 27 years old. Carly is a server and team leader in a restaurant as well as has a baking and pastry degree. Brandon is a Chef at a yacht club and a working Musician.
My husband Doug, is a gift from God. He has helped our family heal from many of life’s challenges and we have had many over the last decade since God put us together and I totally believe he did. I have lost a brother, my dad, my mom from cancer, a nephew who took his own life at 13 because, of Bullying at school, many friends and some young friends of each of my kids and just this year had cancer Surgery myself. I thank God every day for my amazing family and all that I have. I also thank him for all that has been taken away.
Tell us about how you started The Talking Jar Series.
My partner Paul J. Schweinler is a family counselor and practices in Coral Springs Fl. He is also a Lutheran Minister. I met Paul when he was the School Counselor and eventually the Principal at Hope Lutheran Church and School in Pompano, Florida. In 1997 when my children were young I was going through a terrible divorce. I had both of my children and myself in counseling with Paul. It was at this time that I came up with the idea of The Talking Jars because I could no longer talk to my kids (or rather they would not talk to me) due to the amount of anger and frustration of the divorce. I took the idea to Paul, he loved it and The Talking Jars was born. For 4 years they sold strictly in a Catalogue called Courage to Change and did very well.
My kids were a large part of building The Talking jars. Brandon drew the original labels and Carly spent hours helping me put together hundreds of jars to ship to Courage To Change. We played with The Jars every night at the dinner table and still use them to this day. The amazing thing is that the same questions have totally different answers as you go through different stages in life.
Unfortunately, I did not have the funds to keep the company going so it was put on the back burner until just two years ago (2010). After receiving calls from different parts of the country from parents about the product, I decided to revamp the look and build a brand. We spent a year designing all of our brand and materials and added 8 more titles and began once again.
We have 12 current titles (listed in order of creation): Talking, Anger, Marriage, Family, Teen, Grief, Bullying back to School, Cancer, Dating, Christmas Traditions and Hanukkah Traditions. We also have launched The Dialogue journal. This journal has a very unique story about how it is used. It is more of a share journal to be used with a trusted individual. the Dialogue Journals are Marriage, Grief, Cancer, Bullying. We also have two Legacy Journals, Christmas and Hanukkah to capture the family stories and create new ones to pass from generation to generation. A true treasure of family stories.
What are you currently working on, launching, or just generally excited about in your business?
We are working on bringing our product into churches and Christian Book Stores and currently have our Family Jar on Kirk Cameron’s website in his store. We are working on building our relationship with Kirk and providing more Jars to help bring families together in harmony and love. Our mission is very much in line with what Kirk is doing with his “ A Love Worth Fighting For” series of presentations. We also believe as he does in the Constitution and Founding Fathers of America. Our Talking Jars and all products are 100% American made!
What does it mean to you personally to be a Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur, and how are you “walking that out” in your business endeavors?
To be a Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur is something that I have always wanted to be. This is something that we have struggled with. We have a Jar that we created years ago for a special church event call The Judgment house jar. it was named after the event called Judgment House which our church did in place of Halloween. This jar has questions and verses about Salvation. It did not bring the reaction we expected but to this day I believe it has the potential to change some lives or at least start the conversation. That is what we are all about!
What are 1 or 2 of your favorite scriptures that inspire you?
I really love Proverbs. I believe it covers everything about What God wants us to be and not to be. One of my favorite verses is; Proverbs 15:4 — The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
What are 3 books that have inspired you or helped you with your business?
I read books about issues with families mostly. So my collection is books about anger, teens, bullying, cancer, etc. My favorite book about relationships is the Bible. It’s all there and inspires me to tackle new topics. I struggle with the recommended books many times as I find them short lived for me. Different things work for different people.
How can your fellow Kingdom Driven Entrepreneurs help you?
I could really use some help getting the word out beyond our local communities about my product and it’s effectiveness. I could use some additional advice on the best way to let people know that The Talking Jars are not just about “having a problem”. These jars are also for training and teaching our children and their parents about how to talk about anger before it happens or bullying or even grief, for example. I consider this product preventative medicine. Why wait until you have a problem to try and talk about it? How much better off would we be as a community if we taught our children how to communicate effectively and how to find common ground with others rather than looking for differences.
What else would you like to tell us?
I would like to say that I am very excited about this group and look forward to seeing what God does in this community.
Connect more Jeanne Dexter and The Talking Jars:
Web: Talkingjars.com
Facebook: facebook.com/TalkingJars
Pinterest: pinterest.com/TalkingJars/
