Hi my name is Kyndra Lina, welcome to my blog! I am the founder and CEO of Her Life Her Way LLC and I am finally a full time entrepreneur. I am a former educator of eight years, eight whole years - let’s talk about it! Let’s start here, back in 2012 I went to college and pursued a degree in Elementary Education for four years and I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from an HBCU called Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. From there I immediately signed a contract to begin teaching in my home state Georgia and moved back there.
After my first year of teaching, I discovered that I hated it! I really and truly hated it. I legitimately spent my first summer break in bed with the blinds closed because I did not know what to do with my time and I didn’t know who I was outside of teaching. I didn’t know what I had to offer outside of a career that I discovered I was miserable in. This was also my first time realizing how truly introverted I actually am. In fact, my introverted nature has played a huge role in why I’v landed where I have landed today. So I ultimately felt like that summer was the biggest waste of my time and gifts. In reflecting on that first year of teaching I realize that something just wasn’t adding up and the math wasn’t matching. I feel like I had spent so much time and money on my degree thinking that this was something that I was going to love and absolutely enjoy and it just wasn’t. Now at the time I gave myself some grace because it was only my first year of teaching but it’s just like dating. After a year of dating, you would know if this is someone who you could possibly marry or not.
As a result, I started my business in 2018 which was then called The Kyn Lifestyle LLC and overtime, I spent the past six years building my brand and determining the direction I wanted to go. I didn't know what to focus on but I was more than sure that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So in the meantime I continued to teach.
So let’s fast forward to 2022! At this point in my teaching career, I taught third and fourth grade for two years at a private Seventh-Day Adventist School, I taught kindergarten for two years at a public school, and I taught first grade for three years at a private Christian school. My favorite school of the three was the private Christian school. I really enjoyed my time at his school but where they dropped the ball was during my maternity leave when it was time to have my daughter. I initially planned on going on my maternity leave after having my daughter and then returning back to school to teach but it didn’t work out that way because I didn’t agree with the terms of my maternity provided by this school. I also completely fell in love with my daughter after having her. I loved the time that I was able to spend with her and I just couldn’t imagine myself going back into the classroom. So I quit on 11/15/2022.
I quit teaching, so I thought… after a year of staying at home with my daughter my husband and I sat down and we had a conversation about what things would look like moving forward since our daughter was now one years old. I felt like the only thing that was missing from being a stay at home mom was being able to contribute financially to my family, household and lifestyle. So now here we are in January of 2024 when I decided to start looking for jobs. My only stipulation was that whatever job I did, I needed to have my daughter with me.
I ended up finding a daycare that also had a Georgia Pre-K program. So I was able to teach on one side of the building while my daughter attended on the other side of the building and this was perfect for us. When I interviewed for this position I let the owner know that although I was certified, I was really over teaching and didn’t want to return back to the classroom. I asked about being in a position up front with management but there was nothing available at the time so I went back into the classroom for six months. In March our Assistant Director of the center quit and our Director was fired so there was now an availability for me to move into management. They hired a new Assistant Director and trained me for the remainder of the school year to become the Director. So I worked overtime by coming in before my shift and leaving well after my shift to train. Our agreement was for me to begin in this position the day after the school year ended. Unfortunately it was at this point that I began to see lots of red flags in how this business was ran. Very long story short, I ended up walking out on the job after two weeks. I didn’t agree with how the owner discriminated against interviewees, disrespected employees, avoided the topic of money, always offered the lowest salary to her employees, didn’t put agreements in writing, never followed the rules that she created, and faked her way through state and corporate checks. I ultimately decided that enough was enough and that I had better ways to spend my time.
As women, we have to understand our value in the workplace. If you find yourself in a position of not being valued and respected you have to determine if this opportunity is a good fit for you. Every opportunity is not a good opportunity. Since making that bold decision I have been able to redshift my focus and prioritize the path that I want to follow which is building my business and obtaining my degrees.
In the comment section below, share how you can relate to this story or how this story has inspired you!
