You Too Can Be A Wealthy Education Consultant

I know this because I have been subjected to repeated Facebook advertising from Erica Jordan-Thomas and her virtual seminar Six-Figure Educator Live: Build Your Education Consulting Business Blueprint. So I just had to look.

She leads with her story:

In 2008, I sold everything I owned and moved to Charlotte, NC to become a teacher making $33k/year.

In 2012, I became an assistant principal making $62k/year. My salary had increased but I was still drowning in debt. While I was slaying at work, I was ignoring calls from bill collectors and living paycheck to paycheck.

By 2015, I was slaying as a principal and hit my ultimate financial low. I had less than $50 in my bank account and had more than a week until I got paid...so I got a loan. After picking up the loan check, I was on my way to the bank and ran out of MFin gas. So here I was on the side of the road, with a check I didn’t even have enough gas to deposit.

And let me tell you, it had nothing to do with “poor money habits”. I created a budget and followed it religiously. But even with the strictest of budgets, I was only able to save a couple of hundred bucks a month. The progress to paying off my debt was slllooooowwwww.

That’s the point where it hit me: all the budgeting, all the “working my way up” in the school system, all of the love and care I was pouring into my students was not going to get me to a place where I could feel comfort and safety in my financial situation. I started my education consulting business in 2017. Within 8 months, I paid off all my credit card debt and established 3 months of savings.

From there she moves to the pitch, which boils down to "You deserve more," which, like all good pitches, carries some weight because it's somewhat true. You won't make six figures teaching, she says, and you won't get financially fit by skipping Starbucks. This isn't the Peace Corps, she says-- teaching isn't charity work. You shouldn't be heating up Ramen noodles for lunch. "You didn't become an educator to live paycheck to paycheck." And "if anybody deserves wealth, it's you. And "if you have the power to transform the life of a student, you have the power to transform your own." This is a powerful pitch.

Dr. EJT wants you to know she has a decade of experience in education. Also, she's the founder and CEO of EJT Consulting, as well as Get Launched Consulting, a Doctoral Candidate in Education Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has helped 200 clients grow their education consulting business.

There are a few other items on her cv. She got a Masters of Education in Instructional School Leadership from Relay Graduate School of Education, a "graduate school" created by three not-really teachers. She was a Doctoral Resident and Harvard Education Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Her undergrad degree in 2008 was from Ohio State; she earned a BS in Textiles and Clothing (and, if you recall, 2008 was not a great year for that kind of work). So you know what comes next-- when she headed off to Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools in 2008, it was as a Teach for America newbie. After one year in the classroom, she spent a year as a TFA program director, then went into the New Leaders program for growing principals with a particular emphasis on diversity. As a principal, she got attention for implementing a version of the "have great teachers teach more kids." Use the data and we can find the Beyonce educators and give them a bigger venue. She tells the story of how she took one teacher and put him in charge of 950 "scholars" by having him design the lessons, coach the classroom teachers, and sit with "his teachers" to analyze data. She has a TEDxCharlotte talk where she talks about her career as a high school math teacher; she does not mention that it was just one year long.

Dr. EJT's alma mater is proud of her. She's gotten lots of positive attention before even turning thirty. But she is also a fine example of another person who branded herself as an education expert with no real experience in the field, pushing the reformy ideas favored by other people with no real experience in the field, even as she moves on swiftly to her next gig, and whose pitch is now "if it weren't for the tools, strategies, and resources I reveal inside Six-Figure Educator Live...I'd still be in debt...and living paycheck to paycheck as a principal." She seems positive, strong, and smart as hell--but in her larger career trajectory, the classroom is just a blip and the school building a slightly larger blip. Education could do with not so many shooting star passing-through "experts" these days.

The seminar is in two weeks, so if this seems like you're dream, by all means, sign up--it's only $49 non-refundable dollars. Or if you'd like to invite me to come talk to your group, I'm available for far less than six figures.