When I talk about having Cheerleaders in your life, I’m not talking about somebody standing on the sidelines with actual pom-poms yelling your name.

I’m talking about the people who give you what I call “word pom-poms.”

They use their words to encourage you.

They remind you that you can do it.

They celebrate your progress.

They speak life into you when you’re questioning yourself.

And sometimes, they believe in you before you have learned how to believe in yourself.

These are the Cheerleaders of life.

In my book, Cheerleaders, Coaches, Comrades & Champions: Building the Team that Builds You, I make the case that none of us gets where we are going alone. We need different people playing different roles at different stages of our lives.

And one of the earliest—and perhaps most underestimated—roles is the Cheerleader.

Sometimes They See It Before You Do

Think back over your life.

Before the degree.
Before the business.
Before the ministry.
Before the promotion.
Before anybody knew your name.

Who saw something in you?

For many of us, our first Cheerleaders were our parents or other family members.

They were the ones sitting through the school program, showing up for the game, listening to us practice the speech for the hundredth time, or telling anybody who would listen how smart, talented, creative, funny or gifted their child was.

Maybe your Cheerleader was a grandparent, aunt, uncle or older sibling who made you feel like you could conquer the world.

But family isn’t the only place we find Cheerleaders.

Sometimes it was a teacher.

A teacher who pulled you aside and said, “You’re a really good writer.”

A coach who told you, “You have leadership potential.”

A Sunday school teacher who noticed how naturally you communicated.

A neighbor who kept asking about your dreams.

A community leader who exposed you to possibilities you didn’t even know existed.

They weren’t necessarily giving you a strategy. They weren’t opening a door. They weren’t coaching you through a ten-step plan.

They were doing something much simpler.

They were giving you word pom-poms.

“You can do this.”     “Keep going.”      “I’m proud of you.”

“There’s something special in you.”        “Don’t give up.”

“You’re going to be somebody.”

Those words may seem small when they are spoken, but they can become enormous in the life of the person who receives them.

Cheerleaders Run Alongside Your Life

One of the things I love about Cheerleaders is that they don’t always need to understand everything you’re doing in order to encourage you while you’re doing it.

Your mother may not understand your business model.

Your best friend may not understand your industry.

Your former teacher may not understand your calling.

But they understand you.

And so they run alongside your life saying,

“Keep going!”

They may not be able to tell you how to get to the next level, but they refuse to let you quit on the way there.

That’s an important distinction.

Sometimes we become frustrated with people because we are asking our Cheerleaders to be our Coaches.

That’s not their role.

A Cheerleader says, “You can do it!”

A Coach may say, “You can do it, but you’re going to have to change how you’re doing it.”

Both are valuable.

But they are not the same.

You need people who will correct you, challenge you and develop you.

But you also need some people who simply remind you, “I’m in your corner.”

There Are Different Levels of Cheerleaders

Not every Cheerleader in your life will have the same proximity, longevity or influence.

Some Cheerleaders are foundational.

These are the parents, family members, teachers and early community voices who helped shape how you first saw yourself. Their words became part of the foundation of your confidence.

Some are seasonal.

They show up during a particular chapter of your life. Maybe it was someone at your first job, during college, when you started a business, went through a transition or stepped into leadership. They may not travel with you forever, but their encouragement was exactly what you needed for that season.

Some are situational.

They may only cross your path briefly, but they say something you never forget.

Isn’t it interesting how somebody can speak one sentence over your life and you remember it 20 years later?

And then there are consistent Cheerleaders.

These are the people who have somehow kept running alongside you through multiple versions of yourself.

They cheered when you started.

They cheered when you stumbled.

They cheered when you started again.

They cheered when nobody was paying attention.

And they’re still cheering now.

Don’t underestimate those people.

Real Cheerleaders Don’t Only Cheer When You’re Winning

This is where we have to go a little deeper.

It’s easy to cheer when somebody is winning.

It’s easy to post congratulations when the announcement has been made, the book has been published, the degree has been earned, the promotion has been given or the business has taken off.

But some of the most important cheering happens before there is anything public to celebrate.

Real Cheerleaders encourage the seed, not just the fruit.

They can celebrate progress that isn’t impressive to anybody else.

They understand that sometimes getting out of bed was the victory.

Sometimes submitting the application was the victory.

Sometimes trying again was the victory.

Sometimes saying “no” was the victory.

Sometimes simply refusing to quit was the victory.

That’s why encouragement matters.

You never really know how close somebody may be to giving up when your words reach them.

You May Have Outgrown Some Cheerleaders

Here’s another reality: not everybody who cheered for one version of you will know how to cheer for the next one.

Growth changes relationships.

Sometimes people are comfortable cheering for you at Level 2 but become uncomfortable when you reach Level 7.

Sometimes people love your potential but struggle with your progress.

And sometimes a Cheerleader simply belonged to a particular season.

That doesn’t make what they contributed insignificant.

Honor people for the role they played without demanding that everybody play that role forever.

One of the lessons of building your life team is learning to recognize who people are—and who they are not.

But Here’s the Bigger Question: Who Are YOU Cheering For?

We spend a lot of time asking whether people support us.

Maybe we should also ask:

Whose life am I running alongside?

Who receives your word pom-poms?

Whose idea are you encouraging?

Whose child are you speaking life into?

What young person sees possibilities for themselves because you took the time to notice them?

Who keeps going partly because you keep reminding them that they can?

You don’t have to have money to be somebody’s Cheerleader.

You don’t need a title.

You don’t need influence.

You don’t need a platform.

Sometimes all you need is the willingness to say:

“I see you.”

“I believe in you.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Keep going.”

“You can do this.”

Never underestimate the power of those words.

Because somewhere in your own story, there’s probably somebody whose encouragement helped you become the person you are today.

They saw something.

They said something.

They kept cheering.

And their voice became one of the voices you carried with you to your next level.

So here’s my challenge:

Find your Cheerleaders.
Appreciate your Cheerleaders.
And become a Cheerleader for somebody else.

Pick up your word pom-poms and start cheering.

You never know whose next level may be waiting on a little encouragement.

— Dr. Andrea “Dr. Dre” Humphrey

Author of Cheerleaders, Coaches, Comrades & Champions: Building the Team that Builds You

One idea I’d push even further across all four blogs: don’t make them merely descriptions of the four roles. Make each blog help readers diagnose their own team. This one begins doing that with “Who saw something in you?” and “Who are you cheering for?” If Coach, Comrade and Champion do the same thing, the four blogs become an extension of the C4 framework rather than four pieces of book promotion. And “Real Cheerleaders encourage the seed, not just the fruit” feels especially strong to me. That’s a phrase you could pull from the blog for an IG graphic or Reel and drive people back to the full article.