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For most of her life, Jessie James Decker knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up.
She didn't get what she wanted — she got more.
As a teenager with dreams of country music stardom, she pictured sold-out arenas, chart-topping singles and life on a tour bus. She never imagined herself leading a fashion brand, writing bestselling cookbooks or building a business empire. Yet when she looks back, she doesn't see the career she missed. She sees the life she gained.
On Aug. 20, Decker will share that journey as the keynote speaker at Nashville Lifestyles' Women in Business event at the Hilton Nashville Green Hills. The evening, held from 5 to 7:30 p.m., celebrates the magazine's 2026 Women in Business honorees and brings together more than 300 of the city's business and community leaders.
"I've been able to do everything I wanted, but more in a way that I never even could have dreamt of," Decker says.
She draws a loose comparison between her life and the plot of Under the Tuscan Sun. In the film, the main character imagines the life she wants — a wedding at her house, a baby at her house, long meals shared with people she loves. By the end of the story, every wish comes true, just not in the way she expected.
"It's interesting the way life has developed for me and grown in so many different ways," Decker says. "Sometimes I have to stop myself and be like, 'Wow, life is so interesting.'"
At 38, Decker has become one of Nashville's most recognizable lifestyle entrepreneurs, but she still introduces herself with a word that surprises some people.
"When people ask what I do, the word that comes out of my mouth is I'm an entertainer," she says.
The description fits because she has never wanted to stay in one lane. Music may have opened the door, but she's never viewed creativity as something that belongs to a single industry.
That outlook became even more apparent after she signed her first major-label record deal as a teenager and released her debut album at 21. While her music career didn't immediately unfold the way she once imagined, it led to another opportunity when she and her husband, former NFL wide receiver Eric Decker, invited cameras into their lives for Eric & Jessie: Game On.
The reality series introduced audiences to Decker's humor, openness and unfiltered personality. What she didn't realize was how much viewers were paying attention.
She remembers arriving for one of her earliest department store appearances with her mother, Karen Parker. Before they even stepped inside, they saw crowds gathered outside.
"They all start screaming, and I look at my mom, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're here for me,'" Decker recalls. "They were all dressed like me. It made me realize, I guess I have a style."
That revelation eventually led to another dream she hadn't fully recognized. Long before she launched KITTENISH, she spent math class sketching outfits in the margins of her notebooks instead of solving equations.
"I should have been paying attention," she says with a laugh.
Fashion would become one chapter of her story. Music would remain another. But the role that ultimately reshaped everything was motherhood.
Today, Decker and Eric are raising four children: Vivianne, 12; Eric "Bubby," 10; Forrest, 8; and Denver, 2. Their schedules are busy, but Decker says every career decision now begins with the same question: What kind of mother does she want to be?
"I wish I was touring," she admits. "I wish I was selling out arenas. God gave me this voice."
She’s not bitter. Instead, she sees a different trade-off.
"Being a mom and being a great mom is more important to me than anything in this whole world," she says. "If I was doing the things you needed to do to be that big touring artist, I wouldn't be able to be the mother that I am today."
Decker appreciates the freedom her career affords her now. She can attend school events, be home for important family moments and spend afternoons with her kids. She knows none of it would be possible if she was a touring singer.
Success, she says, isn't measured only by accomplishments. It's measured by presence. Some people assume building her businesses means she's less serious about her music. But that’s just not true.
"Aren't we trying to teach women in this industry that you can be a powerhouse woman?" she asks. "That you can be the boss? You can be an entrepreneur? You can start businesses? You can do anything you want?"
Looking back, she wishes she could reassure the young girl dreaming about country music that success can be achieved in many different ways.
"Manifesting works," Decker says. "If you can dream it up and you can obsess over something enough and work equally enough, it will happen. Anybody can make their dreams come true if you manifest hard enough and work hard enough at it."