Balancing a Full-time Job, Motherhood, and Building a Biz
(You’ll find the full interview video at the top of this post.)
Meet Candace. She’s one of the newest members of my Circle of Licensed Coaches, now part of the broader Anti-Boring Learning Lab ecosystem. She’s still a full-time accountant, a mom-turned-coach, and her story about how she found her way to college consulting and academic coaching is nothing short of inspiring.
Her journey includes being a first-generation college student, becoming a teenage mom, navigating parental disapproval, the influence of the TV show A Different World, the allure of a Howard homecoming, and so much more.
I loved this interview. We had such a good time talking, and Candace is such an amazing storyteller that we talked for a long time. I know many of you may not have time to take in the whole thing (though I highly recommend it), so I’ve included timestamps below to help you find the parts of the conversation that may be most relevant to you.
If you only have a second right now, here’s my favorite quote from our conversation. I asked Candace to give one tip to people who are building an academic coaching business or an executive function coaching practice alongside a full-time job, and this is what she shared:
“What’s probably going to happen is that you’re going to feel busy. It’s very easy to feel busy and think, ‘I don’t have time to do this.’
But what I want you to do is to show up for the community calls. I think that was the biggest thing for me. I may not have been able to go through each lesson and comment as I should, but when I showed up to those community calls, it would be the drive I needed.
I would get inspired because I would hear about what everyone is doing. And guess what. I wasn’t the only one struggling. That was so key. Just hearing what they were doing with students, hearing what they were experiencing—the highs, the lows, the joys, the wins. It was like staying around the fire.
Even when your 9 to 5 starts to overwhelm you, your life starts lifin’, get around the fire.
I can’t even speak on the calls because I’m at my desk. So I just listen in and comment in the chat. But what I’m doing is that I try and make sure I’m around the fire. The more I stay around that fire, it motivates me to go back and make that plan.
Recently, I was listening to your student Olivia (the full unedited session of you coaching a client). I understand I can get overwhelmed by the information, so I choose one thing I want to work on this week. Last week, it was the Executive Function videos. As long as I stay around the fire, I know what’s going on, and I can go back to work on what I can.
Just stay around the fire.”
I really get what Candace means about “staying around the fire.” Community matters—especially when you’re building something new, whether that’s a private practice for educators, an academic coaching business, or a coaching role focused on supporting neurodiverse learners.
That sense of warmth, perspective, and shared experience is something we intentionally cultivate inside the Anti-Boring Learning Lab. It’s where educators, tutors, and coaches can stay connected to ideas, people, and conversations that help them keep moving forward—even when time and energy feel limited.
But back to Candace.
Here’s what we talked about during the interview featured in the video above:
0:00 — Candace’s long-and-windy journey into academic coaching and college consulting
14:23 — How she balances having a full-time job as an accountant, being a mom, and starting a business
20:20 — How Candace is planning to transition from 1:1 coaching to group coaching
26:45 — Advice for people who want to keep their full-time job while building a coaching practice
30:07 — Candace’s personal experiences with island and Caribbean culture, and how to coach parents who come from cultures of intensity, academic pressure, and strictness to “get out of the way” and let their students shine
Candace’s story is a powerful reminder that there is no single “right” path into academic coaching or executive function coaching. Many of the coaches trained through the Anti-Boring Learning Lab come from non-linear journeys—often balancing caregiving, full-time work, and their own educational histories along the way.
If you’re curious about the educators who have completed training and are now working with students and families, you can explore the Trained Coaches page.
And if reading Candace’s story sparks questions about tools, frameworks, or ways to explore this work more deeply at your own pace, you’re always welcome to browse the free learning resources available in the Visitor’s Center of the Anti-Boring Learning Lab.
Sometimes, staying around the fire simply means staying connected to stories like this—stories that remind us we’re not alone, that progress can be incremental, and that meaningful work can grow alongside a full life.
A version of the following article was originally published here on May 23rd, 2022.