We were lucky to catch up with Leander Lacy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Leander, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The funny thing is that I actually came up with my business idea at the age of 23 during my undergraduate class. I just had no idea the words I spoke would become reality. I was taking a course in Wildlife, Ecology, and Conservation and I was truly enjoying the class. I remember in class one day I asked my professor “After we do all these great studies and understand better wildlife habitat, who goes into the ‘hood and talks to those people about Conservation? Because I don’t remember anyone coming to my ‘hood and talking to me about this sort of stuff.” The professor and the students had a face as if I said the most horrific thing ever. The response I got back was Leander we got into this field to never have to talk to people.

There were so many things wrong with that statement and it hit me that I know why I should be in Conservation. I’m going to be known as the guy who got into conservation because he cared about people. What my professor and the students talked about was pervasive throughout my entire conservation career. I saw how those words infected and limited the conservation movement. I saw it in a system that was broken and that undervalued the social context of conservation.

So I went on to become an environmental social scientist to better understand how social science could be applied to conservation challenges. I went on to work for one of the largest environmental nonprofits in the world and work on projects at the state level all the way to global conservation projects. From that experience I made the decision to start my own company. To take what I have learned and apply it to all conservation organizations in an effort to really make big changes. I knew that my services were needed in the conservation field even as an undergraduate I just didn’t know it would turn into a thriving business that works at the global scale to transform conservation as we know it.

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?

Lacy Consulting Services provides three primary services.

First, we offer qualitative social science to environmental organizations. We have three environmental social scientists on staff. An example of this is a project we’re doing in The Bahamas to determine the level of trust between fishers, law enforcement, and conservation groups. We conducted a literature review of all past work on this topic, then we develop an interview guide, then we actually go out and conduct the focus groups with fishers and law enforcement. After we conduct the focus groups we analyze all of that great information to reveal emerging themes. These themes allow us to provide recommendations to the environmental group in The Bahamas that’s looking to increase the number of marine protected areas while also getting buy-in from fishers and law enforcment.

Another area is justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in conservation. We have a variety of workshops that we provide to environmental organizations to help them think about JEDI in their conservation application. For instance, we have been working with an environmental organization to help them think through how to effectively listen, empower, and transform during their conservation projects. How to listen effectively to communities, how to empower communities to be involved in the decision-making process, and how to transform conservation away from transactional into relational with communities.

Lastly, we help environmental organizations with their conservation planning by incorporating both qualitative social science and JEDI. This is a critical step in transforming how conservation gets done globally.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There are a lot of things I had to unlearn but one thing that really was critical to unlearning was that I can’t do it all by myself. I played around with the idea of hiring an executive assistant for a few months until I finally made the decision to hire one. Before I hired her my life was stressful and chaotic because I thought I had to do it all by myself. The way I grew up there was no executive assistance to help you get things done. You just got it done. I felt shame to consider hiring an executive assistant. I felt that I was not worthy to have an executive assistant as someone who grew up in a low-income family. I had to unlearn this in order to keep my sanity and ultimately in order to allow my business to flourish. Now I can’t imagine not having my executive assistant by my side.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business took a lot of risks. But that risk fueled my determination to make this business successful. When I decided to start my company I was in a place of distress and depression. The only thing I knew I had to do was to leave my old job in order to find my happiness. When I made the decision to start a company the only option I had available to me for funding the initial cost was my 401(k). So I took the leap of faith and completely drained my 401(k) to start my company. I have zero regrets. This may not be everyone’s story and I can’t tell everyone to take that risk, but sometimes when you believe in yourself enough you’re willing to take that risk.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lacyconsultingservices.com
• Instagram: @GreenMindPodcast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leander-lacy/
• Other: www.thegreenmindpodcast.com