We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cletis Allen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cletis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
My first client was a local school district near my home. At the time, I was transitioning out of my school and looking for new opportunities to do curriculum and instruction work for large groups like a district. I interviewed for a district-level position and had a brief conversation with the interview team about my career goals and aspirations. A few days later, I received an email explaining I did not get the role; however, the lead interviewer called me and told me that they wanted me to be a consultant to support a groups of educators that were updating the current Science Units of Study in the summer for Back to School review and implementation. Also, the lead interviewer told me the budget they had for the role. I was surprised and happy that I received an opportunity to do the work that I wanted to do with school leaders and educators. Since I was new to consulting, I thought the budget for my role was more than fair at the time. I immediately registered my business with my Secretary of State’s office and completed the vendor process for the district so I could be a consultant.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I am an education consultant specializing in curriculum development and professional learning facilitation by cultivating “Curricular Equity and Instructional Excellence in ALL learning spaces”. I believe that everyone is a learning facilitator and any place is a learning space, so I always think of creative and practical strategies to make curriculum and instruction meaningful for others. My business, CLETIS Education Consulting LLC, partners with a variety of organizations and individuals to create or curate curricula for learning from “ideation to implementation”, and provide curated professional learning for staff. We have digital curriculum and instructional tools and resources available in the Royal Resources Center. Additionally, we teach the curriculum development process through our Curriculum Development Series offered in our CEC Academe. Ultimately, CEC is the ultimate hub for all things curriculum and instruction, and our goal is to ensure that learning is engaging and relevant for everyone!
Prior to this work, I was a classroom teacher that developed district-level curriculum and professional learning throughout the years. My love and enjoyment for curriculum and instruction led me to transition over to consulting. It’s been seven years since our founding, and I could not be more proud of the clients served across the nation, including hundreds of adults that serve thousands of adults and children. We are excited to continue to support our clients and now began supporting homeschooling and microschooling communities.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
The one thing that has helped to build my business reputation is consistency and reliability. Over the past seven years, I have learned that customers and clients want to know that you are going to provide actual products and services that are offered through your business. In a few instances, I’ve worked with clients to recreate or revise a curricula or a professional learning opportunity given by another vendor because of the lack of work consistency and reliability in their time or talent. I listened to these clients share their disappointment with a previous vendor’s product or service and how they trusted them to complete the work agreed upon in their contract. Although this was a great opportunity for CEC, it was disheartening to hear their frustration with the products and services from a previous vendor. CEC, and myself, had to rebuild their trust through consistency in performance and reliability in completing projects on time. CEC is known for providing excellent curriculum and instruction services and we have partnered with other clients based on positive referrals and client reviews.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson I had to unlearn is the angst of proving my expertise prematurely. Before I stepped in the world of consulting, I developed curricula as a teacher. I thought I was an expert because I was efficient and good at developing curricula for our district. Although, I had good experiences, I was reminded I was not an expert yet. I had a mentor that explained that expertise is acquired through time and space, which means you need to put in a lot of time within a variety of spaces to become an expert in a field. My mentor encouraged me to expand my curriculum development and professional learning experiences to other educational spaces, including edtech and non-profit organizations. I did just that! I’ve been able to develop curricula for a variety of organizations over the years. In addition, I continue to read and research current curriculum and instruction texts to build knowledge and learn new strategies that align with current practices. Now, others know my philosophy and work ethic, and call me an “expert” in curriculum and instruction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cletiseducationconsulting.com
- Youtube: Queendrcle
