Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Angela Prince. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Angela, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
When I left the public school system 4 years ago, I began working with schools that were designated as low performing by the state and discovered that many of the principals that I worked with were overwhelmed with so many things they had to focus on as the leader of a school. I found myself coaching the principal and staff on how to prioritize areas of need that would make the biggest impact to help transform the school. I began to see trends in each of these schools and thus formed my own consulting company to ensure leaders that they are not alone in what they are experiencing as they conduct the important work of school transformation.
At EDLIFE, our goal is to help schools, school districts, administrators, and teachers make Educational Decisions to Lead, Inspire, Fuel and Empower transformation and ensure that all students are receiving the quality education they deserve and need to navigate the processes and systems of this world.
The purpose of EDLife is simply to change lives through education. The lives that EDLife is committed to change are students, teachers, and administrators. EDLife facilitates this change through maximizing best practices, creating positive, engaged environments that shift mindsets and provide voice and tools to create the changes necessary to breathe new LIFE into education.
You may hear some people say “It’s none of your business!” We say, “It IS OUR business!” It’s our business to pry into the corners where the secrets, lack of skills, limited knowledge, and imperfections that breed discontent and fail our students. It IS OUR business when we see ways to help and stand by and do nothing. Again, it’s our future as a society that we fail. And, “It IS OUR business to do and give OUR best when we have the best minds and heart working together as an inspirational team for L.I.F.E.! Finally, “IT IS OUR BUSINESS” to Lead, Inspire, Fuel, and Empower the systems whose deepest impact influence poverty, politics, and people in life changing ways. Our Business is a vision for LIFE!
“ED” is the first syllable in the word Ed-u-ca-tion. We seek to anchor the “first fruits” of a fresh perspective in EDucation. The landscape of EDucation today is steeped in deeper levels of systemic inequity and promotes a poverty projection for many. Clearly the overall results support a need for empowerment, re-fueling, inspiration, and leadership placed in the hands of those who have the desire for this systemic change to take place.
L.I.F.E. is an acronym for the foundational principles that LEAD – INSPIRE – FUEL – EMPOWER. The EDLife Team must believe and live the very principles that our company facilitates. We are EDLife and we ARE the change we want to see in the world.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Angela to some and Angie to family, but most people call me their friend. When I left my job, I became a part of a group called the Amazing Woman Network because I needed to find my own amazing after spending over 30 years in education helping others find their amazing. This group saved my life. Educating others is my life’s purpose and while I am no longer in the school setting, I am still fulfilling my mission by helping others make Educational Decisions to Lead, Inspire, Fuel and Empower their lives, throughout the country, through her own company, EDLIFE.
I love to read, listen to music, and watch movies and often quotes lines of movies as part of conversations with others as part of my dry humor. I love to bake, and I watch almost every baking program on the food channel, or you tube video as well as keeping up with the 50-year-old soap opera, General Hospital.
I have a twin sister, who is my total opposite and is the youngest of 7 siblings. I am originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and have lived in four different states since leaving Alabama after college in 1991 – Coral Springs, Margate, St. Petersburg and Palm Harbor, Florida; Houston, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island, and Detroit and Southfield, Michigan. Additionally, I have been blessed to travel the world helping schools improve by transforming their practice to ensure a quality education for black and brown students.
Three of my most important accomplishments are 1.) being a part of the transformation of three urban schools in my educational career, 2.) launching my company EDlife, and 3.) becoming an author of my own book, “Education Transformation: Four Pillars to Help Bring Urban Schools Back to Life”
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In 2016, after what was supposed to be a routine laser hysterectomy, I received a 5-pint blood transfusion, was in recovery for 13 hours, without waking up, and ended up in ICU for 9 days with blood clots in my lungs and an enlarged heart…I remember waking up and asking “Am I alive or I was trying to figure out if I was in the between lives… I had no family around me, so I had to check. I was afraid to go back to sleep…
I know it was nothing but a miracle and God’s grace that I am here. But Why? Why I am here when others have died from the very same thing? What is the plan for my life that God has for me.? He kept me here for a reason.
There should not be a day that passes that I am not grateful and praising God for sparing my life. From this experience, I learned that I had to learn to put me and my health first. I waited too long to take care of a health situation, because “I was too busy” with work. The doctors told me I was literally the walking dead – my hemoglobin was like a 2-3 and it should have been 12—I could barely breathe, but I chalked it up to being overweight. After returning to work, I was presented with a stressful situation and I chose me and I walked away from my job and I was immediately blessed with another job, this was God test and his blessing. Fast forward 3 years later, I was faced with a test again to choose me, and I had the courage to walk away from the job and follow God’s plan, even when you are not sure where you next job or money is coming from – trusting GOD—
As I looked back in journals that I had written random thoughts, the very thing that I had stated I wanted to do, was what God had led me to do today. I didn’t even remember that I had written it until I picked up the journal to begin writing again. I know I am where I am where Gods wants me to be, and yes, MY LIFE WAS HARD, I did’t live the way I use to, I pinched pennies, I got extension on bills, I lived one check to the other, but I COULD see clearly-–I COULD see and feel the plans God had for me. But He was also teaching me to have patience in a mighty way, and He was also teaching me lessons in preparation for what is about to come. This is how EDLIFE was birthed, through my pain, passion, and purpose. BUT, I realized that EDlife is not just for others, it’s for me to.—It’s all about making educational decisions that will help lead, inspire, fuel empower others, but like they say on the airplanes, you have to put your own oxygen mask on first, so I have to do this for me first, before I can do it with others, but it is …WHY I AM HERE, why my life was spared. I don’t have all the answers and I am figuring it out day by day.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
My family has always been my biggest supporter. As I left my job, without any other opportunities, I began consulting. While consulting, the epiphany hit, that this is what I can do. Share my story and skills that I use to turn around 3 school successfully with other and provide guide to help them do the same with their school. Great idea, but I was only making enough money consulting to make my monthly bills. But I did not let that stop me. I continue to plan and create a name for my business, EDLIFE, an ode to TUPAC and THUGLIFE. (What happens to our babies when we don’t make the right educational decisions) I went ahead and met with the marketing person to create a web page for the business. I went ahead and talked to my niece about being my business manager (she has worked with me in one of my schools before). Then COVID hit! Now what was I to do, my work was at a halt and that was my income. Thankfully the company I was consulting with created a plan to do remote work and I was able to qualify for unemployment. This was a blessing that I did not know was even coming. I was able to meet with more schools and with unemployment, I was able to catch up on bills that had fallen behind while I was building my consulting company. The time came to pay the marketing person for the web page, $500 and I did not have it to pay. I called on family. We have a text group and I texted everyone in the group and asked them to help me launch my webpage and they came through for me. That was the first step.
The second step came when I needed to establish myself as a business financially and open a bank account. I did not know where the money was going to come from, but out of adversity came a blessing. My niece that I had tapped to help me with my business, died unexpectedly from complications with COVID. This was a blow to the family and to me as well. She was going to be my rock in getting this business off the ground. My niece was a smart and savvy and unbeknownst to her mom and dad, she made sure they were financially ok if she died before them. They knew my struggles, they knew the plan my niece and I had, and, in her honor, they provided me money to fund my business. My business is thriving today because of my niece. and her parents. She is my guardian angel, she still helped me bring my dream to life and this was a blessing.
My business would not be where it is today if MY FAMILY did not give me all of their support and encouragement and almost 5 years later, I am thankful that I have been able to pour into my family as they poured into me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.edlifeconsulting.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edlife_consulting/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edlifeconsulting
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edlife-consulting-services/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdlifeC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@edlife2019
Image Credits
Lunarvue Media