We recently connected with Sheldon Eakins and have shared our conversation below.
Sheldon , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I never planned to be an entrepreneur. In fact, I thought I was running away from it by becoming a teacher. I grew up in a household in which my dad had a private investigator business. I decided as a kid, that wasn’t the life I wanted to have. Fast forward, I became a teacher and eventually made my way into school leadership (principal). It wasn’t until I moved to Idaho that I decided to start creating content. The idea of creating content was for me and that I wanted to be able to share my experiences with other educators. See, I was a Black man (a Black educator) living in Idaho. I received a lot of undercover racism, microaggressions, that got me second guessing my decision to move to Idaho and should I remain in education. I started a podcast to learn more about being a better educator and equity. I wanted to share this with the world. It was simply a hobby at first. After about a year of podcasting, people started reaching out to me and asking me for help (teacher training, leadership, and keynotes). Hence the Leading Equity Center was born and I officially became an Edupreneur :)
Sheldon , 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?
Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D., is the Founder of the Leading Equity Center. Dr. Eakins is also the host of The Art of Advocacy Livestream and the Leading Equity Podcast. Furthermore, Dr. Eakins is the author of Leading Equity: Becoming an Advocate for All Students. With over 15 years in education, he has served as a teacher, school principal, adjunct professor, and Director of Special Education.
Sheldon Eakins is passionate about helping educators accomplish equitable practices in their schools. He has earned a B.S. degree in Social Science Education, an M.S. degree in Educational Leadership, and a Ph.D. in K-12 Education.
Why Choose the Leading Equity Center?
Imagine a classroom where students are inspired to learn because the curriculum and instruction are relevant to their languages, literacies, and cultural practices. A school environment where students can freely discuss social justice issues affecting them and their communities. With a proven track record of leading system-wide change, Dr. Eakins will help you place the focus back on student learning through a culturally diverse lens.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’m a DEI Antiracist/Antibias trainer that works with educators. During the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, I received a ton of requests to work with schools/districts about being more support of students of color, specifically, black students. I decided to pursue my business fulltime as a result and also some personal circumstances that lead me to this decision. However, there became an increasing amount of backlash to this work as it was mislabled/misunderstood with Critical Race Theory. My business lost contracts and opportunities because of the political scheme of things and opposition to diversity work in schools.
I had to pivot and focus more on keynoting and developing new speeches that would resonate with my audience. This has proven to be very successful and I have found a deeper passion with being on stage and speaking to my audience.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
I can’t stress how essential developing an email list is. I always have opt-in resources that are free visitors of my site to develop new clients. I also advertise my services on my podcast.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leadingequitycenter.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeadingEquityCenter
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheldoneakins/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sheldoneakins
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcgOZfWXo1Ts6HLfMPQmsIg