“…because the clearer you become about who you are, the better you can design the pathway ahead. It’s an empowering thing.” | An Interview With Errol

Meet Errol, Impact collaboration partner.

We interviewed Errol to hear more about why he chose this line of work and why he does what he does.

Let’s start with you telling us a bit about who you are and what you do.

My career unexpectedly started in education, where I worked my way up to Head of Culture and Guidance at an inner-city?charter school. From there I co-founded a community adult education program from scratch where I was able to give back to the Bronx in a meaningful way. My work received United States?congressional recognition and ultimately won me an N.A.A.C.P. award (Co-op City Branch) as well as led to a TEDx?talk. Over the past few years, I've founded and still manage a motivational career development company, co-founded an educational consultancy, and facilitate trainings for Impact Consulting. Ultimately, the common denominator of my blended career has been helping people get really clear about themselves, because the clearer you become about who you are, the better you can design the pathway ahead. It’s an empowering thing.

You are busy!

Yes! It takes a lot of email management and calendar coordination to keep all these plates spinning!

What made you decide to work with Impact?

Well for starters, I only involve myself in places that have meaning, and can?demonstrate it with action and results. That’s important for me. Impact has meaning and value behind creating equitable workspaces. But I think what I am also most attracted to when I think about Impact is learning acquisition and the delivery of workshops. That’s what really lights me up. As a facilitator, I am going to push past your barriers. I will look at who the client is as a person, their experiences, their challenges, obstacles and opportunities in their path, and then I design the training. That way, we’re never cookie cutter and I am delivering something that makes sense for how the client learns, more than what they are learning. For me, it’s all about the learning design and the energy I bring. When Lucy and I were first discussing my joining the team, we agreed that I won’t be someone who just reads off the slides, I will provide some level of input for optimizing how growing professionals learn.

What a great perspective. What is your ‘why’ – both professionally and personally – that drives you in this line of work?

I always tell folks: your passion is not your position, your purpose is not your position, you are not your job. But if you look at life as a fabric, the thread that goes through it all for me is really helping people. I believe I involve myself in things that help people, and I know it sounds cliché, but if it doesn’t make somebody’s life better, I don’t want to be a part of it. Dr. Maya Anagelou says, “Your legacy is every life you’ve touched, every person whose life was either moved or not. It’s every person you’ve harmed or helped.” I live for that. Life is finite, so your life has to be purposeful. Mine is to help folks be just the next best version of themselves. Whether that’s personally or professionally, I’ve dedicated my entire life to that up to this point.

As a Latina, I would love to see more people like me in leadership positions. How does that translate for you as a black man?

My family is from Barbados, and I was the only one born here. I didn’t realize that we had an “immigration story” until I was in my 20s, because we always just looked at it as “coming to the states.” But when I look at my parents as the humans that they are, my mom being a nurse’s aide for 30 something years and my dad working as a truck driver and janitor so that they could provide for our family, I realize I don’t have the luxury of just sitting back and doing nothing. I feel a purpose to make our name proud and make myself proud of it. I keep a little glass frame by my window of my mother’s nursing ID, and anytime I feel like giving up, anytime I feel tired, I look at it and I remember her struggle. It keeps me going to help more people, especially people that look like me. People will call me for advice on entrepreneurship and business leadership and sometimes I think, “Why me?” But if there is something I can do to help unlock a door or remove a barrier for you, I will. Especially when that barrier is yourself.

I absolutely love that, it really humanizes the experience. Let’s say you weren’t doing this work and you didn’t have your business, what would you be doing? Why?

I really could not imagine myself doing something different. But I’ve also thought about, possibly in my future, taking a corporate approach to nonprofits to help them succeed. A lot of nonprofits get the funding but they don’t have the infrastructure, so I would help with starting and running them right. Or, when I retire, open a small chain of beach bars where we serve the best Coladas you’ve ever had in your life, and it would be a place for people to just remember what it’s like to be human.

That sounds like a great idea!

But really, our purpose is not to work, it’s to find love in all aspects. That’s why we’re here. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, and my goal is to leave something behind that is bigger than me. To take my efforts and my essence and put it in a space to just see what grows.

For more information on where/how to book Errol for your next Impact Training, please contact us at [email protected]!