From Educator to Authority: Building Your Voice Beyond the Classroom

You were never meant to stay confined to one classroom.

Your voice, your expertise, and your impact have the power to reach far beyond the walls of your school, but too many educators stay invisible, undervalued, and unheard.

In this episode of The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, Dr. Lashawnte McCray-Sarvis challenges educators and leaders to step into their next level—not just as practitioners, but as authorities in their field.

You will learn:
✔️ The difference between being effective and being recognized
✔️ Why expertise alone is not enough to build influence
✔️ How to position yourself as a thought leader in education
✔️ Practical strategies to expand your voice, visibility, and impact

This episode is for educators who are ready to stop playing small and start showing up with clarity, confidence, and authority.

Because your work deserves to be seen.
And your voice deserves to be heard.

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What if your impact was never meant to stay inside your classroom? What if the knowledge, the experience, the leadership you carry was meant to reach far beyond those four walls? The truth is there are educators everywhere doing powerful work every single day, but no one knows their names. And today we're going to change that. Welcome to the Road to an Effective Classroom Environment where we talk about real leadership, real growth, and real transformation. I am your host, Dr. LaShante, known as that Classy Sassy Consultant.

I'm an educator, a leader, and founder of Lee James Consulting. And this episode is for the educator, the leader, and the woman who knows there's more inside of her than what she's currently showing. Today we're talking about how you move from being an educator to becoming an authority. And this message is for our ladies, but men, you are more than welcome to listen because I know you will find value in what's being said. So let's start with this. There is so much brilliance sitting inside classrooms, inside schools, inside organizations, but it's invisible.

Ladies, you are leading, you're teaching, and you're transforming lives. And just to give you some numbers to put this in perspective as to why I'm speaking specifically to women today. In 2024-2025, during that school year, 78% of K through 12 educators were female. There were close to 5 million part-time and full-time teachers. So when you look at that and you do the math, that's a lot. A lot of females in education.

But again, man, you will find value in what's being said today as well. And also, there is a woman out there that you love, whether it be your spouse, your significant other, your booting, you have children, you have aunties, you have cousins. This is something that you can share with those ladies in your life if you see that they are in this position of they see themselves as just educators, but they carry so much power within them as being authority figures in what they are working in. So let's jump back into that.

So make sure to share this with that lady in your life. So again, there is brilliance inside of these classrooms. And ladies, you are leading, you are doing so much inside the classroom that there is so much that you can also do outside. And you might say, Well, Dr. LaShantra, I have so much already on my plate that I do. I'm a mother, I am teaching, and teaching takes up more than 40 hours a week. Can I get an amen on that? We know that if you are a classroom teacher, you are spending more than 40 hours a week because you go home, you take your bag with your lesson plans, you're planning, you're doing all types of things.

Even when you don't think you're planning in your mind, you're trying to think, what am I gonna do next week? What am I going to do? How am I gonna make this lesson come alive for my students? So even when you're not planning, you really are. And so when we look at how we transform lives inside these classrooms, we want to think, who knows what I do? Who knows about what I carry inside and what I share with my students? No one outside of your building knows about you and what you're doing. And it's not because you're not capable of sharing this information, it's because you're not positioned.

So let me dive deeper into this. If people don't know what you carry, they can't connect to your impact. So what happens? Opportunities pass you by, rooms you should be in, you're not invited to, voices that are less experienced are louder than yours. And not because they're more qualified, but because they're more visible. Ladies, we already know that our counterparts they have been and are still making the moves when it comes to education and in the world in general, it's the natural order of things.

Men are looked at as being born leaders. But guess what? Ladies, we are not we're in that natural order too. We are leaders, leadership is in us as well, and even if we are not leading a Fortune 500 company, we are still leading in our classrooms, we're leading in our homes, we're leading when we speak about what we do and how we make an impact and adding our voices to the conversation, we are leading. So this is a wake-up message, ladies. I need us to wake up and make sure that we are pivoting ourselves to walk into the authority that we have already been given.

So the question becomes: how do you shift from being impactful in private to becoming visible and influential in public? So, this is what we do. We're gonna walk through the three shifts that you will that will change everything in your lives. So, shift number one, you don't need another degree, you don't need another certification, and and there is nothing wrong with getting another degree. If you want that education, you want to add to your knowledge base, there is nothing wrong with that. Ladies, you go out there and you get what you need to get, but you have the expertise right now to start whatever it is that you want to do and to be an authority figure because you have with the knowledge you have right now, you are the authority figure.

So, what is it that you actually need? You need to take ownership of that knowledge, stand firmly on what you know, be confident in what you say and what you share. Ownership of your experience, take ownership of your knowledge, ownership of your voice. Because here's the truth: you are already qualified, you just haven't positioned yourself yet. You have not positioned yourself yet. So own it, own all of it, own your experience, own your knowledge, own your voice. So the next shift that you need to make is making sure that you use your voice publicly.

Authority is built in public. So, what that means is that you're sharing your insights, you're posting your thoughts, you're speaking your truth, whether that's on LinkedIn, whether you create your own podcast, whether you are leading a workshop or a conversation, because your voice in public puts you into the position of being more visible. You don't want to be the best kept secret in town. You don't want people to say, Oh, I didn't know that she knew how to do this. You have to put yourself into a position where your voice is heard publicly.

And I'm speaking to myself right now as well, because before I began to transition into being an entrepreneur or edupreneur, what I'm doing right now, I was still keeping myself quiet. I built a business in 2022. I started the business in 2022, but I was still very quiet. I said, Oh, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait until I get this in place and that in place. And I was quiet. And so people didn't really know that I had a business. They didn't know exactly what I do, but baby, now I know many know what I do because I put myself out there to be more visible publicly, okay?

More than just presenting at a conference, because a conference is great, it's a great opportunity to get your face out there. But for me, I had to begin speaking in my own district. I needed to speak more so that people knew I am here. If you need me for XYZ, I've got that skill set. And so even if no one takes me up on the skill set, I'm making myself publicly known because I walk in my authority, I walk in my expertise, I have the knowledge, I own my knowledge, and I own my voice. And so, visibility, it creates opportunity.

So if you stay silent, you stay unseen. And one particular place in which I put myself out and I was visible uh this past uh March, there was a conference and it was a virtual conference and a very impactful conference. If you didn't have an opportunity, catch my masterclass, it is on LinkedIn. But the top 100 most powerful black women, this was a conference that I participated in, and it was phenomenal. It was five days of 100 women presenting masterclasses, and I'm still going through grabbing all of the knowledge that I can from the different women that were presenting.

So encouraging, so motivational. And from that conference, I have been able to meet people virtually and being able to have them a part of my podcast, and some just to make a connection to another connection, and so you have to get yourself out there to be visible because you never know who you're going to meet from day to day. And so the third way for us to position ourselves is to make sure that we're attending meetings, but we need to attend, but we need to also lead the conversations in that room.

Because you're doing the work, but you're not sharing the work that you're doing. Authorities don't wait to be chosen, they show up like they already belong. So you may be participating in different conferences, you may be attending your school meetings, you may be attending departmental meetings, grade level meetings, whatever meetings that you might be a part of, or different things that are public within the education setting. Make sure that your voice is heard in those conversations in the conversations that you're having.

When it's time to participate, don't be like the person, the fly on the wall that you're a stand, that you stand back or you take that as an opportunity when it's time for everyone to get into a group to discuss. Don't be that individual that goes to the restroom and you stay until the group activity is over with. Okay? I know I'm tugging on some things right now, but make sure that you are part of those conversations so that people hear you and they hear you as the expert that you are in your area.

So you gotta make that shift. Position yourself, don't just participate, but position. And so let's just be real about all of this. Stepping into visibility isn't always comfortable. God knows it's not comfortable. And I and I am a I am standing here, sitting here, telling you this is not always comfortable. Been there, done that, I've got the t-shirt. So, what are the things that are holding you back right now? What holds people back from being visible and from making sure that they are publicly known as expert?

What is holding us back? Well, one thing that holds us back is fear of being judged. Ooh, that's a big one. What will people think of me? What if I say the wrong thing? Let me tell you this: people will always have their opinions, but they cannot be the reason that you stay silent. Just because someone has an opinion doesn't mean that that discounts you as an expert. I'm gonna say that one more time. Just because someone else has an opinion doesn't discount you as an expert. We all have opinions, but you have to own again, own who you are, own your knowledge.

So, why what what else is holding us back from making ourselves uh visible? You might have that mentality of, I'm not ready yet. That's your mindset. I'm not ready. You're waiting for the perfect moment, you're waiting for the perfect message, you're waiting for the perfect confidence. But confidence doesn't come first, action comes and then the confidence. And ladies, we are we are natural, natural nurturers. We sometimes tell ourselves, I will wait to live out our dreams and our goals once the children are out of the house.

There is nothing wrong with that. Ladies, I applaud you. I was the individual, I was halfway like that. I knew I had to do what I had to do as a teen mom. I needed to get through college so I can start making, start making money and living out my dreams. So I was doing it both at the same time because I knew that was what was going to help not only my children, but to help me as well to be to be that individual who was walking in her goals and her dreams. So I was doing it side by side. So it can be done.

So I applaud you, ladies, if you're waiting until the children get out of the house. But just know this if you have that stirring inside of you that says, I need to start this business. Everyone always brags about my cakes, everyone always brags about how organized I am, and they think that I would be great running something. I could be on a board, I could be whatever it is that I want to be. If you've got that nagging, that urging in you, just know you don't have to wait unless you want to. If you feel like you're not, you don't have it.

That we have to go back to the beginning of this podcast. You you may think you don't have it, but you are the expert in that area and you have to own it because it is you. So we got to get out of that mindset of I'm not ready. Okay. Another reason why we are holding ourselves back is that we start to compare ourselves. We start looking at someone else and saying how far along someone else is. But baby, if you are looking at someone else's chapter 10 and you are still on chapter two, and instead of starting, you're shrinking.

You can't look at someone else's chapter 10 and you're at chapter 2. Chapter 2, you're a startup. Businesses are called startups for a reason. You have startup businesses for a reason. They got to begin somewhere. So you're in your chapter two, your startup season, but you get yourself discouraged. You discourage yourself because you see someone in their chapter 10 and they're blossoming. They've already hit 500,000 that they're making in one year. They are already teaching at the university level, or they have already moved from teaching in uh middle school to their dream job and working at the high school level.

You see people making moves and they're in their chapter 10 season, and you get discouraged instead of being motivated and inspired. When I see someone else who's made it, I'm like, ooh, I'm next, me too. That's where we need to be, ladies. We need to get to that point of we have to encourage each other, and we have to look at someone else's. We see someone else who is doing well. We need to applaud that, embrace that, because that's gonna be us too. We have to already say that's me too. Okay. So reframe your thinking.

Reframe your thinking. You don't gain confidence before you start, you gain it by starting. Just start somewhere, writing down notes of what it what your goals are, what is it that you want to do? If you want to remain in the classroom, there is nothing wrong with that. So, this is not a message about getting out of the classroom. This is a message about you being a classroom teacher or being an educator and being visible and being an expert and saying these things publicly so people know that you know what you're talking about, you know what you're doing, and you're like, well, why does it matter that that people know?

It matters, it should matter to you because it helps to position yourself as an authority figure, which is the topic of this podcast. It's about you being an authority, and when others see that you are an authority, you don't know where that could take you, that you don't know who could be brought to you who you could help. You don't know what could lead you into starting up a business that is tied into a goal that you've had for yourself. So, this is about people who want to get themselves positioned as an authority.

So let's make this even more real. Here's what you can start doing today share what you're doing in your classroom, share something that you've learned. If you're in school right now and you're taking college courses, or you're trying for you're getting a certification in an area, or if you're trying to move up and get move from bachelor's to master's or master's to doctorate or EDS, make sure that you are sharing something that you've learned, share something you've taught to your students, share something that you believe, sharing once a week with individuals, and then document.

You know, documentation is not just writing things out, and so this is not something that I want you to overthink, but share your experiences outside of that building, reflect out loud. So documenting may be you recording yourself, uploading it to LinkedIn or to your social media platform that you you like to be on, sharing your knowledge that's documentation, and it's making yourself more visible. Speak before you feel like you're ready. Growth happens in motion. So when you start it, you begin to grow, and then make sure that you are consistent.

Consistency is important, especially when it comes to sharing on social media. You people will see you as an expert, especially on a professional platform like LinkedIn. LinkedIn is is the professional Facebook, and so you come in contact with people who are experts in in the same area or similar areas as you, as well as um other areas. But when you are consistent, you are seen as an expert in your knowledge. So visibility it builds over time. Just make sure people are hearing your voice. And so this episode again was about making sure that you're taking a stand on building yourself as an authority figure on your knowledge and building your voice beyond the classroom.

So these are just a few tips that I'm I wanted to share with you. And if this episode is speaking to you, if you know you've been hiding your voice and you're ready to move from educator to authority, then I want to help you build that path. And you can build a coaching session with me through Lee Jane's Consulting because your voice deserves a bigger platform and your impact deserves to be seen. And if you just need some more direction, if you would like the blueprint, I created an educator to entrepreneur blueprint.

If you would like that, just send me an email to dr lashante at leejanesconsulting.org. That's dr lashante at leejanesconsulting.org or to lashonta6 at gmail, and I'll share that blueprint with you. And it's the educator to entrepreneur blueprint. You were never meant to stay small, you were never meant to stay silent, and you were never meant to keep your impact confined to one space. You are called to lead, you are called to influence, and you are called to be seen. Dr. Lashanta, and I will see you on the next episode.