We were lucky to catch up with Jen Shirley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jen, 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?

The main thing that I love to do is coach & teach people.

After spending 25 plus years in public education as a Principal, it was time to figure out what my “Second Act” was going to be.

One of the biggest drivers for this decision was to create a business that suits my lifestyle for where I am currently at in life. I wanted to no longer work for someone else. I wanted to have better control over my time & schedule. I wanted to spend more time with my husband, family & friends. I wanted to focus on doing the things that I wanted to do, rather than doing the things that I had to do.

So, I asked myself the question … What am I good at that I could help other people with? The answer had something to do with teaching, learning and supporting kids. This is how my idea came to be.

I am building a one person business that supports kids through teaching their parents and teaching their educators. I do this through my website, my newsletter, online courses, coaching and consulting.

Currently, my twitter profile reads: The Uncommon Principal Entrepreneur. Teaching parents (+educators) how to support independent, resilient & unshakeable kids. Tweets & threads about this process.

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 back background and context?

I’ve been a Principal for a long time.

Long before that, I was a student, varsity athlete (volleyball) & intermediate teacher.

Over the past two & a half decades, I’ve worked in our public schools where I’ve helped thousands of students, parents and educators.

Then, in 2021, it was time for me to change my own story. It was time to create a new one. I needed to change how I was spending my days because I was no longer excited by the scope and scale of the work I was doing.

​Now, I am building a one person business. I coach kids & parents privately. (Educators too!) And, it’s awesome! My clients are serious about finding a better alternative to their current situation and here’s the cool part – they are ready to change their own story too!

I help kids who have difficulty with learning skills, social skills, personal development and behavior. I achieve this through coaching parents & educators.

I create custom built and intensive training for kids whose parents are tired of watching them struggle, expect one-to-one attention, want expert coaching, want a superior experience and fast results. I also do this through online courses.

Many of our kids are being underserved and not seen because the school environment is shifting dramatically.

​The needs of our kids have become more abundant & more extreme. This observation has lead me to ask myself some tough questions about how “we” are currently doing things.

​My mission is to build an ecosystem focused on developing kids who stand out, stand up and make an impact on the world because of what they create or contribute – not what they consume.

Ultimately, I am a Personal Skills Development & Learning Skills Coach for Kids. I like to think: “Mediocre is not an option”.

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Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all wanted to quit something that we’re into because it’s hard. And, working for yourself is no different. Here’s a tweet that I recently wrote which speaks to this question.

“6 things I have learned since working for myself:

Building something from zero is dang hard.
It requires time & sweat equity.
The process is messy & non-linear.
The need to shift – a lot.
The skill of studying the giants.
It’s frustrating, uncomfortable & mentally tough.”

I understand that building something from scratch takes time, effort, patience and consistency. If I’m being truly honest, I’m at the very beginning of this whole self-employment gig. I understand that it’s going to be about playing the long game and showing up everyday. Results come from consistency of effort over time. Not overnight.

I also know that I am comfortable shifting gears if and when I need to. Starting a business requires the founder to be completely open-minded and to be looking for signals from whatever market they are in. Sometimes, we think the business will focus solely on product or service A. However, if clients are continually asking for product or service B, then we have to explore that further. This cannot be ignored. This means really understanding the client and the job they are looking to have done.

I’m also okay with things not going perfectly. There are some aspects that are going to go beautifully and others that will be a total flop. My job is to be reflective of the things that flop and understand why this has happened. I also need to look for the reasons why things worked well. To me, this is a function of retooling my skills. It requires constant self-reflection, high awareness and some tolerance for risk.

Lastly, resilience comes from knowing that you’ll always be able to figure something out. The ability to be autodidactic is critical because there will always be a million things to learn. I believe that there’s always another way to get something done. Sometimes, this requires time, space and the dedicated time to really think about it.

Any advice for managing a team?

I’ve had the opportunity to manage some large teams (+70 educators) during my career as a Principal. This can be both a really cool opportunity, but one that can be very exhausting if you don’t have some key things in place.

To me, the most inspiring leaders are those who can sift through the chaos and distill things down to what really matters. Even more importantly, they have the ability to teach this philosophy to the people they work with.
If you get the opportunity to work with someone like this, study them closely.

To me, there are 5 key attributes that are important for a high performing leader / manager to possess:

1. They have high emotional resilience & awareness. They are also experts in emotional regulation.
2. They are amazing at establishing connections with people.
3. They are an expert communicator.
4. They are a genius at creating and managing their workflow. (building systems).
5. They can manage the politics of their organization (savvy & astute).

I also feel it’s important to build credibility. Authority and credibility happens from being in the trenches with your people. If you are always tucked away or avoiding the tough things, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. It’s much better to show up & admit you don’t have all the answers. Your credibility will then soar.

About high morale: For me, this comes with transparency and feedback. Most people who are part of your team want to know where they stand. If they don’t receive feedback regularly, they won’t feel valued. This is key. Also, the high performers on your team want to know and see that the under performers are being held accountable. If this doesn’t happen, the likelihood of morale being low increases. This is not what we want.

I”d like to close with the importance of humility. Team members love to see their leader not take themselves too seriously all the time. The ability to take ownership when things didn’t go as planned is so important – in addition to being able to laugh at yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jenshirley.com
• Instagram: @jenshirleyconsults
• Facebook: Jen Shirley
• Linkedin: Jen Shirley
• Twitter: @jen_shirley

Image Credits
Of Wild Dawn Photography ( Ottawa, ON, Canada )