We were lucky to catch up with Jaysa King recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jaysa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

The education system is one of the many factors that I hold dear to heart. As a former educator in the public school system, I have seen many cases where students are left to fend for themselves without any guidance or understanding of the skills they are encouraged to pursue. In this same breath, we are forced to convince parents that their children need the same skills. The education system is a hoax in my opinion. After generations of fight and determination, we are seeing higher rates of homeschool initiatives than in any other time. You may think it because parents are tired of doing all the work teachers refuse to do, but the reality of this generation is that parents are afraid and taking back control. In the past we have heard of unsafe school environments, but not to the point where we would prefer to risk struggling to find childcare or work from home jobs than to let our children step foot in the school building. On the other hand, parents and teachers are told that every year there is going to be a change in the curriculum generally based on some political stance or appeasement of statistics for the county.

After working as an educator I knew there was work to be done and I had the tools. I loved my students but the pressure of being someone I was not without a simple pat on the back, pushed into a different direction. I believe that students are vastly different. Classes should not be structured in a way that only caters to the expectations of creating a worker with the same outcome. We judge our children on a scale and say that if they do not reach this level of comprehension or display of knowledge, they are incapable of moving forward. However, we do not as these students to display their skills, we do not teach them how to navigate the world and problem solve the way they were designed to. This is a glitch in the system that I have identified and plan to eradicate the issue one student at a time through my organization, KMS Education.

KMS Education is my soon to be non-profit that will be hard launching in 2026. With this organization, I will be pushing my idea of education to the community. Through this I hope to bring teaching strategies for teachers and parents that promote the individuality of students to the surface. I will pushing lesson plans, engaging field trip guides, events to get parents in one room to discuss the hard conversations, but most importantly, provide students with hands on resources and workshops that will teach them how to be successful. Education is a revolving issue, so it is our job to understand where the issue lies and what we need to do to bring the individuality of children back to the forefront.

Jaysa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Jaysa King, I am the Owner of Audacity of Women, the Podcast Host for both Contrary to the Culture and Just Jaysa and the Founder of KMS Education. In my day to day, I am a Learning Coach for an online medical certification company. I got started in this business in 2019 with the establishment of my first business, Cleo with a Z. Cleo with a Z was formed based my love for the legends of Cleopatra. The understanding that this woman was able to use her beauty and intellect to topple kingdoms, thrilled me. However, just like Cleopatra, my kingdom fell. After relocation, lack of finances and misguided interest, I had to rebrand. This took me a couple tries but by 2024, I got it all figured out. Audacity of Women is the vision that came to life. Audacity of Women is based on encouraging women to be Raw, Reflective, Resilient, and Revolutionary women. We do this by hosting Master Classes, creating a space for mentorship, connecting with other organizations and engaging in quality commentary on the podcast network. This is just the surface of my ventures. I am three time published author with my books of poetry displaying stages of my life. Since 2016, I have been sharing my art with the world and it has lead me to slowly construct an ultimate woman’s journal. This venture has given me so much joy because I am able to help women through experiences I learned on the fly. As I said I wear many hates, my newest and most important project is my new magazine that will be launching in January 2025. Something About Yesterday Magazine aka SAY is going to preview three times each year to display the arts of women in the community. With handwritten stories by yours truly, women will be seen for all they are.

Under all the work and amazing opportunities, I am a mother, a wife and a student. I am the mother of an amazing little boy and a wife going on two years. It has been a whirlwind trying to find my place in this new role of life. I am currently working on my second Master’s degree for Clinical Mental Health Counseling, while also trying to rebuild my career after having my son. Learning what the true meeting of my value is has been heartbreaking but empowering as well. I am dedicated to being an outlet for the community and guiding children to being who they knew they were always meant to be.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding your business is the most tasking step of your journey. In our current economy, business owners that sell products or profit driven, understand that sometimes, you have to get it out the mud in order to stay afloat. In my position have rebranded my business a total of three times due to financial instability. In the beginning of business journey, I had the best support system. Similar to your first wedding, people are willing to support your ventures. I had the opportunity to have my initial equipment, materials, and publishing paid for through the support of my family. However, as I developed, I began to smell the roses. With the establishment of Audacity of Women, I took time to compile a savings account. In this savings I took a percentage of my pay checks, Christmas money and taxes to fund the startup for the new vision I had. This didn’t mean I was completely ready to launch everything. Till this day I have events that have to be pushed and products I have to keep in my mind because finances are forever fluctuating. However this is not a bad thing. As I mentioned our economy is not ready for Audacity of Women to come in and shake up their pockets. So for now, I continue to keep my name in the public’s ear, establish a quality reputation and service so that when I can start charging people for my skills I know I will turn a profit to support the amazing work I have planned.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I have been around for a long time, however one thing about my market is that people come and go all the time. I found that when I started my podcast back in 2019, that I did not want to mimic the style of the influencers in the market. I strived to be as authentic as possible. Whether that included the tear marks on my face, behind the scenes cuts or more recently, my son popping his head in a video, I shared it all. After years of ups and downs, I found that people were watching and anticipating my content, my work. My reputation now is built on the authenticity of me. I have established relationships with my guests from my podcast that has not only created strong business relationships, it has established friendships for support in this roller coaster of the industry. I have learned that is is extremely important to come as you are in this industry in order to have a lasting impact. Despite your ups and downs and ins and outs of the spotlight, those relationships with your clients or audience is so important because when we are consumers can relate to the business owner, we are more inclined to stick by them through thick and thin because we know exactly what to expect and that it comes from a genuine place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://audacitywomen.my.canva.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audacitywomen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552514010578
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JustJaysa