Guest post by Ross Loveland

Guest post by Ross Loveland, opinions expressed are those of the guest blogger

Am I a Bad Person if I Make Good Money in Education? Why It’s OK to Make Money in Educational Consulting

As an educator, your work is incredibly valuable. You do some of the most important work on the planet: teaching and molding the rising generation to successfully face life’s problems and to (hopefully) help make the world a better place.

And yet, too many educators, especially those in public education, are not rewarded for the work that they do. Educational consultants have the chance to change that for themselves, but it doesn’t happen automatically. It can also be extremely difficult to accept the mindset that making good money is acceptable and even desirable.

I met with several wonderful leaders in educational consulting to gather their thoughts on how to overcome the stigma that being “too” financially successfully should be avoided at all costs.

Vernon Wright, creator of shapethewrightvision.com. He also has a great, free audiobook, “10 Steps to Becoming a Gamechanger,” which you can find here.

Money isn’t the root of all evil. The love of money may be, but money itself is a tool. It can be used for evil, and it can also be used for good in incredible ways.

“Educators want to reach as many people as possible, but what they miss and don’t grasp at a deeper level is that in order to expand that reach, to reach as many people as possible, it takes money. What I would ask educators is this, ‘How much do you want to reach people on a wide scale.’”

We never put money before people; always people first. But money can allow us to fulfill our purpose on a larger scale and do more good in the world.

Daniel Koffler, founder of New Frontiers Executive Function Coaching, nfil.net.

In this field of educational consulting, your product is your knowledge and your experience, and you shouldn’t be giving that away. You spent a long time developing your skills and expertise (and likely your formal education wasn’t cheap, either!).

“My staff are professionals and very high quality people. I’m very comfortable arguing that they deserve to make a living. And I’m not ashamed of doing so either. As long as you believe in the value that you and your services bring, you should feel at ease charging what you’re worth.”

Mike Anderson, founder of Leading Great Learning, leadinggreatlearning.com. He also has a wonderful course for prospective education consultants, found here.

“We don’t need to be paupers in order to still be mission-driven. As long as we continue to do great work for kids, and great work for teachers, then I don’t think it needs to be antithetical to also be able to put more money into retirement or send your kid to college. You just need to be careful that the money doesn’t become the purpose.”

Dr. Kevin Leichtman, co-founder of TLC Education, tlceducate.com.

“If you forget that you’re making an impact or that you’re bringing any value, it’s really easy to devalue yourself. In this industry, we tend to think it’s all about service and not about money, meanwhile our families struggle.”

But you need to understand that you are bringing tremendous value to your clients. Remember that you’re not selling packets or worksheets or even your time; those are just the tools. The value you’re bringing is a struggling student getting a new perspective and having that “aha” moment, or a burned out teacher becoming inspired again and taking that energy back to his/her entire classroom. That has real value to it.

Ross Loveland, from Grow Green Profit Advisors, growgreenprofits.com

There’s a common myth that profits and purpose are mutually exclusive. It’s this idea that if you make a lot of money, you must be selfish and therefore taking from the world, not giving to it. And it’s absolutely true that there are some rich, selfish people.

“In my experience, most of the time, people with more money give more. So when we’re talking about this myth that making too much money is wrong, I have to disagree. In fact, I believe the opposite is true: greater profits lead to greater purpose.

Money, like so many things in life, is a resource. You can use that capacity to do good, to fulfill your purpose and lift those around you. Hence, the name of our blog, “From Profits to Purpose.” The financial success, the money isn’t the purpose, but it leads to and supports the purpose.

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Originally published at http://rdene915.com on November 12, 2021.