Happy Father’s Day, Love Miss Jessie’s

Father’s Day is a celebration of family patriarchs, honoring these men’s contributions to their families, as providers and protectors. Fathers are generally credited with countering a mother’s nurturing tenderness and compassion, with discipline and strength, instilling independence and motivational drive, within their children. A father’s job is to teach the practicalities of life, while also providing a safe, secure, comfortable place to fall, when the road to personal enlightenment starts to get rocky. While the characteristics commonly affiliated with the expected role of fatherhood can vary between individual family structures, one thing is certain; the bonds between fathers and their children are incredibly significant, as they ultimately help mold the kind of adults their children later become.

Growing up, future co-founders of Miss Jessie’s, Miko and Titi, were blessed with an exemplary father who embodied all these values and more, Jimmy Branch. Though Mr. Branch could be strict, he knew his daughters were destined for greatness, so he pushed them hard, giving them a healthy dose of tough love. Mr. Branch also went above and beyond to provide for his family, and though they weren’t the wealthiest family on the block, he made sure their household was rich in love. Notorious for his profound, sage advice, his words of wisdom helped to guide Miko and Titi to their professional success.

In honor of Father’s Day, we are sharing some of Miko’s fondest childhood memories of her amazing dad, Jimmy Branch, as described in her bestselling business guide/ personal memoir, Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch—Naturally.

Source: Miss Jessie’s

“Daddy was always striving to do better for himself, and for us. It was a matter of pride and self-respect.”

“
Daddy always played music in the mornings, at night and on weekends. Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Earth Wind and Fire and Marvin Gaye were some of his favorites. The full album would flow on our record player from front to back, and he made sure we could, as he said, ‘catch the beat,’ when he held impromptu dance contests in our backyard.”

“
As much as we struggled, our father, a determined, proud and hardworking man, was adamant that we get by on our own. It was always about making do with what we had.”

“
He always talked about how important his presence was and, looking back, he was right. By his actions, our father was demonstrating to everyone in our school and neighborhood that we had someone strong to look out for us.”

Source: Miss Jessie’s

“
He was strict with us because that was how he was raised by Miss Jessie.”

“
Daddy also made it a point to drill into both our heads that we were special, extraordinary, beautiful and great.”

“After dropping out of high school at the age of 16 to enlist in the U.S. Air Force, he eventually went back to college and earned his Masters of Education degree, so academic excellence was high on his list of requirements for his daughters.”

“He talked about the importance of being free in our minds and to always make decisions that put us in a position of choice.”

Source: Miss Jessie’s

“He wanted us to develop minds of our own, and, if he thought we were being followers in any way, he would make sure to make it difficult for us to be alright with that concept on next go around.”

“His drive to do better for himself, for all of us, was unrelenting.”

“Daddy never babied us, even when we were babies. When we fell, he watched to make sure we got back up again.”

Source: youtube.com, user: MissJessiesOriginal

Happy Father’s Day!

Sources: 1

Branch, Miko, and Titi Branch. Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch—Naturally. New York: Amistad, an Imprint of HarperCollins, 2015. Print.