We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Chester Wilson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Chester below.
Dr. Chester, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?
Some of my professional experience includes serving as a Vice President of Quality Improvement and as a College Professor. These professional positions assisted me in developing and preparing me for entrepreneurship. However, these positions also held me from displaying all of my acquired talents. I felt I had more to give and wanted to be more diverse in displaying my talents. However, due to the nature of the positions, I was limited in what I could do within that position and external to the organization. While both of these positions were awesome and often desired by others, I was unable to be creative and expand beyond those positions because I was not totally in charge. In my role as an entrepreneur, I am able to be as creative as I would like. I am now able to expand as much as I want. I decide the direction of my agency and how much I would like to grow. However, it was these previous jobs that prepared me for the joys I am experiencing today. Without the lessons learned, such as humility, responsibility, understanding the field, and leading a learning organization, I would not have been prepared.
Dr. Chester, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Chester Wilson, Ed.D, is a business owner, motivational speaker, educator, trainer, mentor/volunteer, and community resource.
Dr. Wilson’s professional pursuits includes currently serving as the CEO of the CW Consulting Firm and Outreach Community Care Network.
For his purpose in life, through his non-profit, Outreach Community Care Network, he provides health services to the community. His organization provides mental health, substance use, psychiatric, medication assisted treatment, and prevention services, including HIV/AIDS, and STD treatment.
For his passion, through CW Consulting Firm, he provides professional development, certification programs, mediation services, and motivational speaking.
Dr. Wilson’s educational achievements include having earned a Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership and Human Services Administration, and a Master’s in Business Administration degree with a concentration in Criminal Justice.
Dr. Wilson possesses a plethora of professional certifications, which includes being certified in Addictions, Mental Health, HIV, CPR and First Aid Instructor Trainer, Quality Assurance Reviewer, Healthcare Risk Management, Diversity and Inclusion, Trauma Informed Care in Criminal Justice, Private Security, Private Investigation, Circuit Civil, County, and Family Mediation, and a Notary.
Dr. Wilson combined his purpose of healthcare and his 24 years of service with his passion of training and offers both services to individuals. As a result, participants are receiving quality services from and experienced and credentialed professional.
Dr. Wilson is most proud of being able to fulfill his life’s goal and mission by utilizing his acquired skills to assist individuals, families, and communities in need. It is also his desire as a life learner to acquire skills that will afford him the opportunity to assist others in developing professionally and growing personally.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson I had to unlearn was being told that I had pick one career path. I was told I had to pick one career to be good at. By becoming an entrepreneur, I have been able to have my purpose and my passion as well as other opportunities that present. I have been able to do more than the one thing I have been told. I have openly embraced having multiple careers without having to choose. I also unlearned being afraid to tell people I had more than one business for fear of how people perceived it. I also had to unlearn being paid by the hour and embracing being paid by the value of my worth. This was a major change of not trading time for money but being paid for my expertise and skill set.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I assisted people in developing their business, writing business plans, and even assisting doctoral candidates with their dissertations. While this produced good revenue and kept my business afloat financially until revenue was earned from the intended areas of services. Since revenue did not initially come in from my areas of services, I had to pivot and earn revenue from what was being requested from me.
Another area I had to pivot from was that I was limited to one training service. I had to think that only one service being offered may not always be in demand. As a result, I had to expand. The COVID-19 pandemic also taught me about sustainability. Some services could not be sustainable during the pandemic. I had to pivot to provide other sustainable services as well as switch to a virtual model, which is what was being requested during the is time. Both pivoting and expanding have proven to be embedded in my entrepreneurship journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.cwconsultingfirm.com/
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