The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Empowering Young Minds: Shauna Goldman’s Mission in Early Learning Services
Discover the transformative impact of education with Shauna Goldman, the visionary founder and director of Nelson Early Learning Services. Shauna takes us on an inspiring journey from her roots in Jamaica to her current role, highlighting the critical support her organization provides to early childhood programs. Learn how Nelson Early Learning Services ensures consistency and quality in education by maintaining proper educator-to-child ratios, even during staff absences. Shauna’s personal story, driven by her father's storytelling and her passion for education, showcases her dedication to making a positive difference in young lives.
Meet the dedicated team that powers Nelson Early Learning Services, from the branding manager to the administrative staff, all playing pivotal roles in the business's success. Hear heartwarming stories of inspirational educators, including a memorable reconnection with Ms. Harrison, a high school counselor whose guidance left a lasting mark on Shauna’s life. This episode underscores the invaluable influence educators have and the importance of strong support systems in fostering both personal and professional growth.
Balancing entrepreneurship and personal well-being is no easy feat, but Shauna shares her strategies for maintaining work-life balance while managing a remote team. From regular check-ins with her staff to personal self-care routines, Shauna offers insights on preventing burnout and fostering a supportive work environment. As Nelson Early Learning Services embarks on a new hiring initiative, we invite you to join their mission and make a difference in the classroom. Visit their social media and website for more information on how to become part of this impactful team.
My name is Shawna Davy Goldman. I am the founder and director of Nelson Early Learning Services. We provide a variety of services. The main service that we do provide currently is for staff and services for early childhood learning programs. That stems from whether you are a family childcare program, whether you're a center-based program or you're a school-based program, and we support educators in the classroom working with children birth all the way up to five years old.
Speaker 2:Okay, pretty cool. So I just want to clarify, make sure that I understood that. So it's just staffing, meaning like helping the institution, the educational institution, and making sure that they have, like, those right candidates and everything in there, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So just think of it as if an educator is going out on PTO so she needs a day off, or he needs a day off. Then the program will reach out to us and say hey, I have a staff member that's going out for the day or for the week. Do you have anyone that can come in and support? Because we want to make sure that that ratio in the classroom still remains. So we'll send an educator as part of Nelson to go into the classroom and support that other staff that's already placed in there to help out with everything from routines to, you know, learning experiences that we know that are done daily with children.
Speaker 2:Okay, thanks for clarifying that You're very welcome.
Speaker 1:Which?
Speaker 2:leads me to you having a little sign that maybe you want to share with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I have three beautiful children. I have a son that is going to be six years old in six days and he's very excited. Every day it's when is my birthday, when's my birthday? Counting down, so that's been very exciting. I also have a four-year-old, so that's been very exciting. I also have a four-year-old and I have a 26-year-old that is going to be 27 November. So I do have a range. So we started all over again. So it is a beautiful span to know that my daughter can be there to support us with the two little ones. Absolutely Now.
Speaker 1:Would you mind sharing your background with us and how you got into your industry and what's led you here today? Oh, wow, where do I start? So I feel like since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a teacher. I always wanted to surround myself with education. I think a lot of the things that came up for me as a young girl is that my dad only had a fifth grade education. We were born and raised in Jamaica and I said we, my sisters and I but my dad loved to tell stories even to this day that he will have a dream, and then that dream ended up being like a 20 minute story. So we're always engulfed with the storytelling that he used to do. But my family, even though we lived in a third world country and we really didn't come from a lot, the stories and education was very big to them. So I do remember just grasping just like every little thing, every stories, ever wanted to know more about life, knowing about the world, and as an educator or as a person that wanted to be in the field of education, I found myself like going back and forth between what do I want to be when I grow up? Right?
Speaker 1:So I did end up going to school, I got my bachelor's degree in psychology and from there I went back and forth with do I want to be a school counselor, which is something that I toyed with or do I really want to be a teacher? I landed my first job as a therapist, working with children with autism, and I think using that psychology background and that love for education and blending the two together somewhat kind of led me to where I am today, but it's more so trying to figure out how I wanted to use the little girl that wanted to be that educator and that psychology degree and how I can mesh the two to create a business. So I started a company in 2004. It was a tutoring company, once again still using that educational background 2004, it was a tutoring company, once again still using that educational background, and from there I was really supporting, like friends and families who really needed that, you know, that extra push in the classroom.
Speaker 1:From there I branched out. So my grandmother, who was you know, god rest her soul she died in 2017, or, I'm sorry, in 2007. She gave me my first $100 to put articles in the Washington Post. I don't know if you remember the Penny Saver magazine. So the Penny Saver magazine was a really like a small brochure magazine that used to be sent out in the mail to everyone. We don't do that anymore because we can find everything online right.
Speaker 1:So I put out an article for like a tutor, and if you guys need tutoring services in math or reading anything, please do reach out. And I remember getting my first client and then from there it was like word of mouth everything just spread. So it was just like you know that ripple effect. It's just like one thing after another after another. I'm still doing a little bit of tutoring here and there now, but what really led me to the staffing is being in classrooms, surrounding myself with educators, with families, with children, and seeing that need.
Speaker 1:So it's not just educators who are saying we're always short staff or we really need the extra support in the classroom. Can you work with us? I need to go to the bathroom, can you step in? And of course I can't be a part of that ratio, but if you need to go to the bathroom, you need to go to the bathroom. There's actually a study that was recently done that says educators are more likely to get a UTI because they start the morning using the restroom and a lot of times they are leaving the day without even using the restroom, right, so we wanna make sure that they get that time, whether it's just running to the bathroom or getting a breather, as simple as that.
Speaker 1:Exactly right, which is so needed. So I saw that need, I saw the stress that it took on the educators and then when you're in the classroom all day, every day, without a breather, without any kind of relief, you end up taking that stress out on other children. So I think that light bulb finally came on for me, like what can I do? Instead of me going back in the classroom, instead of me doing the work, what else can I do to make a change? And I think that's where I'm just like why didn't I just create that pool? Why didn't I just hire educators who have that passion, like me, who has been in the classroom, but they're like in between or still do want to support in one capacity or another, but not full time? So that's where I came up with the idea of starting a staffing agency.
Speaker 2:That is awesome, and I guess it ranges from all kinds of like education and subjects, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes, so, as I said, it's mainly with the younger ones, but if you're thinking about, like the foundational pieces that we're setting and we're laying to best support educators and the children that we're serving from day to day, Okay, and sharing that piece of information about the UTI, like I'm sure maybe that's come up in my mind, but like for other people who maybe weren't even aware that teachers even went through this.
Speaker 2:that leads me to the next question of marketing. Like you have all this, like just knowledge that you could be sharing. Are you avid on social media? Are you marketing yourself out there about your services and all these tips?
Speaker 1:I would like to say I am, but I'm trying to do my best. I am not the best with social media, to be completely honest. I really don't even know the first thing to do. I can respond to something, but in terms of like posting. So I do have internal staff. My daughter is the branding manager, so she's the one that has actually the 27-year-old right yeah, the 27-year-old.
Speaker 1:She's the one that put forth everything that you see currently on our Facebook and our Instagram page. I also hired an admin assistant because I felt like, with my two little ones, with personal life, with running a business, life just comes at you full speed and my thing is that I really want to make this successful. So my husband always said if you want to make money, you have to spend money right. So I had to step out there, hire an admin assistant. I also have a staffing associate that's part of our team. She's the individual that actually goes out and collect all the paperwork and when I'm saying paperwork in terms of documents to make sure that that person is CPR and first aid certified to go into the classroom and work with children. We want to make sure that they have all their necessary credentials. So, whether it's their CDA a CDA isn't a, it's like one step down from getting like an associate degree but it's in a degree that they can or a certificate that they can get to work with children in all early childhood settings and then we also make sure that they have their mandated reporter. So if you see something happen to a child in terms of like any kind of abuse, you have to say something, reported because it's the wellbeing of the children. So she takes care of all that and once all those paperwork are done and signed off on, then we can, you know, place that individual in the program.
Speaker 1:We also have a recruiter, so she does, like, all the recruiting, all the interviews, everything that we need to make sure that that person is coming on board with us. So, in terms of the question that you asked, in terms of like social media and marketing, we do have those individuals in place to make sure that our name is getting out there and, as well as this podcast, that's part of marketing as well, right? So we also host a monthly and informational session. So we do that via Zoom. So we invite the public to ask us any questions about Nelson Early Learning Services or about pay, which is usually a big question for a lot of people how am I gonna get paid for this? And then you know, it's also an opportunity for us to share all the ins and outs of the position, just so someone can make an informed decision if they want to join the team.
Speaker 2:Okay cool. I wanted to ask, since your whole industry revolves around the education system, did you have any fond or nice memories of an educator that inspired you or you were just like, wow, she was just so great to everybody? I want to be like that when I grow up.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting that you said that because I just connected with that educator. She was actually my high school counselor. Yes, and um. So, Ms Harrison, that's her. Shout out Hi.
Speaker 2:Ms Harrison.
Speaker 1:So Ms Harrison really was instrumental in where I am today, and those were exactly the words I used when I met up with her in February for the first time in over 20 something years. So I was a teen mom. I got pregnant my senior year of high school, as my daughter being 27. And I remember sitting in her office and she says to me you know that this shouldn't be it for you. You can do so much more. So she walked me through the process of all the options I have in terms of going to school, pausing and going back to school, just like everything possible. So she laid it all out for me.
Speaker 1:I do remember her saying that whatever you decide to do, it's your choice, right? So this is your choice, but you don't have to fall into that stigma of what everybody sees as teen moms, right, or assumes. So I do remember taking that advice and running with it. As I mentioned, I got my bachelor's degree. So I went to George Mason University. I started out as a part-time student and she's actually the one that gave me that idea. Like, you don't have to do full-time, of course, being 18 years old, you don't know any of this stuff so you thought everybody's going off to college.
Speaker 1:you know you have to be on campus. You got to do everything that everyone else is doing. So, as I said, she laid it all out for me. So I did start my first semester as a part time student. You know, with a newborn trying to figure out can I actually do this? And I realized I can do it, so I end up being a full time student. So Miss Harrison was that person in my life that says, hey, you can do it, whether you have a child or not, make sure that you're doing it to the best of your ability. She's been on my mind over the years. Over the years I feel like every time something really amazing happens to me, she comes up. So I decided I was going to reach out. The first person I actually reached out to was my sister, because she remembers everyone. She's like I don't believe we have her full name. So let's try to figure out her full name Because you know I remember her, she's a little investigator, mrs Harrison.
Speaker 1:So it's actually Pippi Harrison. And when we looked at Facebook I actually got in contact with someone, like in England, and she was like no, that's not the person you're looking for. So I dig a little bit deeper. And then I reached. I found her name in an article of something that she did and she's very local. She's part of Fairfax County Public Schools still. And I reached out.
Speaker 1:I looked up you know her address in the directory for the school and I reached out by saying hey, you know you were at Thomas Edison in 1998 around that time. I just want to know if this is the same Miss Harrison. And she responded within like 20 minutes. She was like hi, shauna. She was like hi, shauna, is everything okay? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, I just want to reconnect with you. So we went back and forth just trying to figure out a best time to meet. We end up canceling like the first go around I think we had like a snowstorm, yeah, and then the next time around it was like another snowstorm. But we decided that we were like, regardless of what's going to happen, tornado into the world we are going to, we are meeting.
Speaker 1:We are meeting. We end up meeting at a nice little bakery. We sat for almost two hours and just talked about life and it was really nice because I still saw her as my high school counselor and when we talked about our ages we're only maybe like six years apart.
Speaker 1:So I was thinking she was going to be like more 10 years she was about like 26, 27 years old like the same age of my daughter right now and I was only 18. So only a few years apart. So just where we are in life in terms of our children, our growth, our professional lives we're able to connect in that ways and I still reach out to her regularly just to ask how she's doing, and so on and so forth. So we are in the works of getting back together.
Speaker 2:Wow, I have chills because that story is just amazing. It's so incredible and the fact that Miss Harrison is just so impactful in your life and like thinking about all these individuals maybe that other people have like their Miss Harrison for them Absolutely, and like you could pass the torch and be that as well, maybe for somebody else or another educator I think that that's just so amazing and I just I'm so happy that you were able to find her and like share your life with her and I'm sure she was curious, like I hope she made it.
Speaker 1:I know Right.
Speaker 2:Right, and now she has that confirmation and I'm sure she's aware now about the impact that she had on you and she's just proud of you because you know you have to do the work too, right.
Speaker 1:And absolutely, and I think you know, just hearing her say I'm so glad to hear that you're in this place in your life and I don't think she had any doubt that I could get there but just to actually see it and hear it for herself, you know, was a very meaningful for her as well. Yeah, so hopefully there's a lot more, Mrs Harrison.
Speaker 2:Yes, we would love that, if you're out there and you're like Miss Harrison, please. Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And hence the name of my, my company. So Nelson Early Learning Services. So you brought a book.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did bring a book, which I want to share so Miss Nelson is Missing is a very big inspiration of how I came up with the name of the company. So Miss Nelson is Missing is um. It's a story about an educator who's working with a group of children in her classroom, but she just cannot seem how to get through to them. So she decided, like a lot of educators who are being creative, okay, what else can I do? So she ended up flipping the script. She ended up going back home, she ended up like putting on costumes and came back as this completely other person. Of course, the person that walked into the classroom is a lot meaner, just nasty and ugly. You know those substitutes that we really don't like.
Speaker 2:Just like where's my teacher.
Speaker 1:I want that person back and I think in those few days that that substitute was replacing Mrs Nelson, the children realized how wonderful Ms Nelson really is, and that's my Mrs Harrison, right.
Speaker 1:So I looked at so many different names of how I wanted to highlight the work that we're doing and the quality of individuals that we want into the classroom. So when we're thinking about like anyone can teach, right. But we want individuals who are going to educate, who are going to make a difference in children's lives, and that's our Miss Nelson, that's our Miss Harrison, right. So the name is a very big inspiration not only to the work that I'm doing but to my own personal life.
Speaker 2:That is beautiful. I love how inspired you are and how you just take those pieces and involve them and put them into your life's work and everything that's so beautiful, absolutely. Thank you, thank you so much yeah, and where do you hope to see yourself as a person and your business in the next five years? Any rooms for expansion going to maybe other states?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, Tell me, five years. So where, where are we? 24. So we're talking, we're leaning on oh my goodness, 29, 30. Wow, I can't even fathom that.
Speaker 1:But yes, a big goal of mine is to branch out regionally. I do want to. The majority of the work that we do is in Washington DC. We do have two clients that are in Maryland and one client in Virginia. So before we go regional, I definitely want to make sure that we're in the Virginia and the Maryland area to support those educators as well and then from there, which is still within that five-year window, definitely branching out and going regionally, because we know that the work that we're doing here can support others.
Speaker 1:So you know, in Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, in New York, you know those are big urban cities and communities that may not have the.
Speaker 1:They do have the resources but they may not have it. Maybe they don't know where to go Exactly, don't know where to go or haven't really tapped into that yet. And I think a lot of times when I do have these outside conversation, folks are just like we know this is possible, but just having someone to help us with that template, you know, like a floor plan of what this could possibly look like it would actually be nice to say, hey, let's try to find the money because the money is there. So I definitely want to make sure that I do that and, to be honest in terms of like professionally, I would like to continue building my team to a point where I can step back and do more of like the overseeing of the work, building that out, and not feel so engrossed or engulfed in like the day to day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like the day-to-day and enjoy my boys growing up, um, and you know, maybe going back to school as well and getting my mba or something like that.
Speaker 2:No, no, yeah, the world is your oyster, right? Yeah, that is awesome. I hope that you're able to achieve all of that.
Speaker 1:I know you. Thank you so much for it.
Speaker 2:Um, I was going to ask you, um, what was my question? All right, I'll just skip it. I tried, I had this question, but then I just. But anyway, um, oh, I remember your current staff right now. Are you guys like in a building, or is it like remote, or how do you? We are?
Speaker 1:all remote. So, um, we currently have 18 substitutes that are in our pool currently that are in the field. As I mentioned, we have like five internal staff. They're the ones that are doing like the day-to-day work. So everyone is deployed daily in terms of what school they a learning practice that we're all experiencing some difficulties with, or maybe we're like rocking it out and we just want to talk more about it just so we can help someone else. It is a nice way because we don't see each other on a regular basis and we don't have that like stationary location where we're coming back and sharing out at the end of the day to come together and say, hey, I'm struggling in this area, can you support me? Around that the staff and associate that I mentioned, mj, she's amazing, so she does like touch points with all of our staff just to make sure that they are doing well.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you do feel isolated as an educator, being in the field by yourself, so just to have someone to say, hey, how are you doing? Is there anything that you need? How can we best support you? You know just that weekly phone call or bi-weekly phone call means a lot and can go very, very far. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now, what do you like to do to unwind? And how are you setting those boundaries right now, since you don't have that team that's overseeing? You know every single thing. How do you find?
Speaker 1:peace in your life. That's a difficult one, Even though I want I want to say I, you know, I have a glass of wine, but I'm a social drinker, so I can't put that out there. I've been trying to take time at the end of the day just to reflect. So I found myself at the very onset of the business when I started in 2017, up until maybe early this year, where it's just like like go, go, go, like around the clock.
Speaker 1:I stop for maybe three or four hours when my children comes home from school, dinner, bath, bed. You know those are the times that I'll pause, but then I'm right back downstairs sending out emails or preparing for the next day, and that can be exhausting, right. So lately, what I've been doing is stopping myself, setting the clock where I'm saying, at three o'clock, I am pausing, I'm shutting everything down. Now, if there's an emergency that has up, I mean it is my business, so I have to jump in right. So I'm trying to make sure that I have that stopping point, regardless of what's happening. I also been benching Monk. I don't know if you ever-.
Speaker 2:I've heard of the show but I've not watched it. It's so amazing, you love it.
Speaker 1:Yes, my daughter and I used to watch it when she was in middle school. So I'm actually on the H season right now. I'm not gonna tell you when I started. So that's okay, that's okay. No shame here I've. So it's really nice to just to sit back and just like zone everything out. And as I said, reflect and try to figure out what I need to do for myself.
Speaker 1:My sister introduced me to this spa where it's actually in Alexandria. I mean, it is about 20 minutes away from Woodbridge, but it's still nice to pencil that in monthly in my schedule. Like I am going to go in and I'm not a massage person, so I do the sauna, so I sit in that sauna for 30 minutes at like 135 degrees, like sweat, all my stress away, de-stress it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:No, but you know, just trying to find those different things, having conversation with girlfriends, catching up, anything that I can do to relieve, you know, all life stressors. I actually went to the movies last Friday to see Twister, so if you guys haven't seen that, please do check it out. So, like any of those little things, you know, anything that comes up where I'm like, okay, I can get away from work and just for you know, 30 minutes or an hour and a half or whatever timeframe it is, just focus in on that thing and then, you know, come back to all the craziness of life?
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. I think that it's so important for entrepreneurs, if they're listening to, to just take a pause on everything because you don't want to get burnout, because I feel like if you are, then maybe it'll transfer over to everything. So you want to make sure you're being healthy about it and just resetting, taking a pause and just being in the moment and with yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what I tell my staff too, just like family and you first. So you know, and don't use that as an excuse. Don't call in every day by saying I need that day. I mean, we all do need that day, and when I hear someone say you know, I just can't give anymore, yes, take time for you. You know this life is going to continue, so take time for you, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that. You're very welcome. Is there anything that you would like to bring up on the?
Speaker 1:I talked about my dad, I talked about my sister, I talked about my children, but I really didn't talk about my husband, who actually gave me, I guess, like the space to jump in and having faith in me as well. So I do remember after having my second son right at the onset of the pandemic, so he was born in January of 2020.
Speaker 1:So you know we were still in that place where we're just like we're hearing the buzz but we'll be fine, Right. And then, come March, I was still on maternity leave and just like everything shut down. I think for me, going through that it was. It was comforting because I still had a newborn, I was still trying to build the business, but during that time, I kept having that conversation with my husband I don't want to go back to work, I really want to focus on this. And he said do it. And sometimes, when people say do it, you're just like are you really sure? He was like no, I mean it, I got you, I got you. And just to know that there's a net underneath you for someone to say I got you and yeah, go ahead and jump and I'm going to catch you, that was really, really impactful.
Speaker 1:So my husband was there from the very beginning. He was like I don't even know why you're questioning this. You got this. So shout out hubby, Shout out Jeremy. So we've been married for oh my goodness, we got married in 2012. So 12 years. We celebrated 12 years back in May and congratulations, Thank you. And he's definitely been a support system in terms of the work that I'm doing so, I think my family, as I said, a village. You know you have to reach out and then you have to lean on people that you know that love and care about you and always will be there to support you and also be able to say, yeah, you're going down the wrong path. You, and also be able to say, yeah, you're going down the wrong path. You know this is not it for you. You know those honest people in your life, so that's definitely what I want to surround myself with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you sound very blessed, like Miss Harris.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like just that's so good, I'm happy. Thank you so much, I've had people like that in my life about this and I didn't even know. So thank you. A third eye? Yeah, or whatever you want to call it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but just, I think for me, just hearing myself talk about this is to make sure that I'm acknowledging those people a little bit more in my life, and I think they know it, but sometimes just to stop and say thank you, thank you so much for getting me to this point, because without you, right, none of this would be possible.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then you and your hard work too, and putting in wanting it. You have to want it too, right. Working around the clock? Yeah, props, to me, exactly All right. So would you like to leave any parting words for our listeners? Anything?
Speaker 1:that's in your heart, if you do have a passion for education, if you do have a passion for working with young children, this is your time. This is the time for for women. This is a time for black and brown educators to go out and, you know, do a lot that they can do for our educational field. We educators don't get the representation that they should. They don't get paid I'm not even going to say not enough but they don't get paid anything at all for the work that they do daily. So I do believe that if you do have that drive, don't hold back. Don't do something else. I want you definitely to be in the classroom, supported, and we are currently hiring.
Speaker 2:So if you're interested, in joining us be in the classroom supported, and we are currently hiring. So yeah, if that's fine.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in joining us. We want to make sure that you are the substitute to join on our team. So if you're looking to join our team, please do check out our Facebook, our Instagram page. You can also find us on online as well, in terms of our website. So that is nelsonearlylearningcom, and, yeah, we'll love for you to join our team.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing your amazing, amazing stories.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. This is great Thank you so much for having me Absolutely.