Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Priscilla Kucer.
Hi Dr. Kucer, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
“The solution to the problem may not be easy, but will be worth it.” This is a quote that I have told myself from the start of my journey. My journey to becoming a Strategic Business Coach started on the lovely island of Barbados. I grew up on this island with my family. I didn’t like going to school when I was younger because I found it to be so hard. There was always so much reading and I found reading to be tough.
Whenever I would look at the page, it would seem like the letters and words was moving and I couldn’t really figure out what I was reading about. In math, numbers just seem to move around on my page and I always had a hard time lining up numbers in a math problem. I remember having a hard time seeing the board and would get up out my seat to go closer or copy off the person next to me. I got into trouble quite a few times. My parents (Louisa and William) found out that I needed glasses and I got them, but that didn’t stop the numbers and words from moving. Plus, it didn’t help be to understand comprehension passages or word problems. Those things were hard before getting glasses and they were hard after getting them.
I’m so thankful and grateful for my parents. They helped me to see that academics were not the only thing that I would need in life to succeed. My parents enrolled me in dance, netball (a sport played mostly in Commonwealth countries), tennis, gymnastics, and piano. When I did those things, learning made sense. Learning was fun. Especially since I didn’t realize that I was being taught different words and actions because it was fun and so enjoyable. When doing those extra-curricular activities, I was finally getting better at problem-solving and better at comprehending and understanding. When doing each of those extra-curricular activities, there were times when I had to write and read and even do a little bit of math and I didn’t realize it while I was doing it. I remember telling my parents that I want to be able to help other children to realize how best they learn. So at age 13, that’s when I decided I wanted to become a psychologist.
I wasn’t quite sure what a psychologist did at that time, other than what I saw on television. The Internet was still relatively new, so it was more looking up in encyclopedias, dictionaries and trips to the library to learn about psychology. Neither did my parents. At the time, my father was an accountant and my mother was an investment banker. They helped me to try to figure out what a psychologist was by reaching out to people on the island who were working as psychologists. We quickly found out that there was a difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist. In our search to find out about what a psychologist does, one person told my father that they wouldn’t waste their time talking to a 13-year-old because there was no way I knew what I wanted to do. Another person told my mother and I that I need to realize that I would need to find another job to do in my 20s and into my 30s before I can even start thinking about being a psychologist. So not the most supportive of conversations from these professionals. But I didn’t let their lack of support stop me from going after my dream.
With the support of my parents, I completed my undergraduate degree in Barbados at the University of the West Indies (UWI), applied to several schools, got rejected by some, and got accepted into two. I chose to go to graduate school in Florida. I remember my first year in the clinical psychology program at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). It felt great to be in graduate school to become a psychologist! But after taking two semesters of classes, I made it to that first summer and it hit me that I didn’t feel like this was a good fit. I thought that person from home was right about me not having a clue what I wanted to do.
I remember submitting my request to withdraw from the program and meeting with the Dean. The Dean refused my request! I argued with her too and said that I saw other students submit requests to leave the program and they accepted their requests. But the Dean told me to not worry about those other students. That I needed to focus on me. She reviewed my progress that I was making in classes and even shared feedback that she received from faculty about my performance. She suggested that I consider a leave of absence. I refused her suggestion. Then she explained that I could take a leave of absence and, in that time, think about doing school psychology because of my passion for wanting to help children succeed. After some back and forth, I remember making the deal that I would take a few vocational tests and the leave of absence.
It’s interesting how other people can see a potential in you that you don’t see in yourself. I took those vocational tests that were suggested to me. You wouldn’t believe that the two things that were dominant were education and psychology. I didn’t want to be a guidance counselor. I don’t have anything against guidance/school counselors. I just knew that was not what I wanted to do. So I remember telling the Dean about what came up from the vocational tests and she told me to talk to the Director of the School Psychology program.
I remember the Director (Dr. Angela Waguespack) calling me in Barbados to talk to me about the School Psychology program. I mean, she made an international call to talk to me! We talked about what school psychology was about and it really seemed to connect with me and my goals that I wanted in a career. So I switched from the clinical psychology program to the school psychology one and was so happy with that decision. Besides being a student, I got involved in the profession at the state, national, and even international levels not only as a member but I got to serve on committees within the professional organizations. The experiences were so rewarding. I was able to take those experiences and add to the training that I was receiving in the Specialist in School Psychology program at NSU. I felt so equipped to be an intern so that I could add school-based experiences to my knowledge.
I had the opportunity to intern and work in what was the tenth largest school district at the time. I believe it’s now the ninth-largest school district in the U.S. I had so many amazing opportunities there to learn and grow. As a school psychologist, I learned about the organizational system that was truly connected to helping one child succeed. There was a lot of research involved into identifying the most appropriate research-based intervention to help the student. I participated in teams where we needed to review not just that one student’s data but also the data from their class, their grade, their school, and the school district. Then make comparisons to identify trends and goals.
We also needed to know what we would be measuring to determine if the intervention was successful. We needed to look at our resources that were available. I’m talking about not just physical resources but human resources. Did our team members have the capacity to do what we needed them to do? If not, we had to identify the training that they needed, who was going to do that training, is it going to be a day that substitute teachers would be needed, then the cost associated with substitute teachers, will the training be on-campus or off-campus, on a district site or a non-district site, do we need to inform security and technology departments, are we providing snacks, does anyone have food allergies, do we know the emergency procedures for that alternate work location and so many other issues. There were also times when the need for resources meant that we would need to hire new staff. So we needed to know what that person’s responsibilities were going to be and their title.
I remember that there was a year our contracts were going to change. That was the first year that many of my colleagues looked at their contracts closely. I remember having several discussions about our actual work hours versus the hours that people were working. Then we talked about benefits and the difference between benefits and compensation. That was actually fun for me to help others understand their contracts!
My love for the organizational systems and how they connected to individuals led to me pursuing my Doctor of Philosophy in General Psychology with an Emphasis in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Grand Canyon University. The coursework that was involved spoke to all of the organizational pieces that I had worked with and the ones I was aiming to work with. It was a great way for me to tie together my training and experiences as a school psychologist with the organizational development and leadership pieces.
After leaving Florida, I continued working on my doctorate while travelling and working as a school psychologist in the Cayman Islands before returning to the U.S. Then I worked in three states: Washington, California, and Texas. In my years as a school psychologist, I enjoyed helping to solve problems that were related to reading, writing, mathematics, behavior, social, and emotional skills. I helped teams to develop interventions, referral systems, progress monitoring systems, including culturally responsive practices, crisis prevention and intervention, and evaluating programs.
In California, I not only worked in traditional public schools, but I worked in a charter school. I was offered the opportunity to work as a Special Education Director. That was an amazing experience. I got to learn a lot about a department’s budget in relation to an overall school’s budget. I also got to learn about allocation of local, state, and federal funds. Then there were my experiences working with vendors for them to provide staff that we needed. This meant that I was looking at the cost of the staff that they were providing against the services that the staff were providing. I also needed to research similar positions in the area to be able to compare what we would pay a direct-hire and what we would pay an agency hire. That research came in handy when we were looking at the cost to the school for having direct hires instead of agency hires. I learned a lot about the role of compensation in the salary that we would be offering prospective hires.
Besides the budget, I also developed an accountability system and I got to do some human resource management. The accountability system was designed to help track the services that we were providing to identify where we were having deficits. There were other responsibilities that I had that related to curriculum, behavior, discipline, and managing a team. But it was the organizational pieces connected to HR that were very exciting for me. The human resources part included developing job descriptions for the nine positions that could be offered in our department. That required me conducting research and working with the HR director. Not only did we have to identify key knowledge, skills, and abilities, but how that would translate into appropriate compensation. I developed an interview protocol for the different positions and collaborated with leadership to get feedback. Needless to say, I worked very close with our Superintendent, Commandant, and Chief Financial Officer when it came to budget and human resources.
Training, coaching, and consultation were major elements of my experiences as a school psychologist and a special education administrator. I remember waking up one day and deciding that those were the things that I wanted to do and I wanted to do them with business owners. I knew that I could help them find solutions so that they could take actions to get the results that they wanted. So shortly after moving to Texas, I decided to legally form my business as a Texas-based business. I was so happy that my parents, sister (Abigail), and my boyfriend (Julian) supported me.
I made some changes to my focus during the first few months of having my business. First, I thought about working with small business owners. Then while doing some research, I realized that there are needs that micro business owners, the smallest of the small business owners, that I could help them solve. So it just made so much sense for me to create a business that would have that focus. But I knew I needed to narrow done the specific area. After reflecting on my experiences, I decided that I wanted to focus on scaling. This was because working in the school system, it didn’t matter what you were helping a student, teacher, administrator, or other school-based professional improve, it all tied back to student achievement. So scaling is like student achievement to me. Regardless of what we are doing in our businesses, we need to make sure that we have high revenue and low cost. Just like with student achievement in schools, there are so many pieces that business owners need to be aware of and include in their strategic plan to be able to scale their business. I want to help as many business owners as possible achieve this outcome using what I call their OPLE ™ which stands for organizational development, personal characteristics and abilities, leadership skills, and education. With these four major components, I am passionate about helping micro business owners to scale their business by learning strategies to improve their goals, processes, and operations. Ultimately, I believe that Solutions+ Actions = Results (SoAR)™.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, the road has not been a smooth one! We all have ups and downs in our lives. It is how we react to them that makes a huge difference in the direction of our success. Here’s something that I realized on my journey:
“You will encounter obstacles on your journey to your success. When you overcome them, you will be stronger!” – Dr. Priscilla Kucer
When I started my journey to become a psychologist, I remember my parents helping me with trying to connect with psychologists on the island. We met psychologists who were so negative about the journey to becoming a psychologist. They told me and my parents that it is very expensive and that it would take a long time. They told me that I should give up before I even started because someone like me with learning challenges would not be able to make it as a psychologist. Guess what, I did not give up!
Graduate school is not cheap, at least not a private university. Yes there are other graduate schools out there that were cheaper than NSU, but NSU was one of two universities who accepted me into their graduate program out of that I applied to. So, while completing graduate school at NSU, I applied for numerous scholarships, grants, and jobs. I got so many rejections that I lost track. However, I did not let them stop me. I was able to get a job, but I never got accepted for any scholarships or grants. But the rejections motivated me to continue to develop various skillsets that would make marketable for my future school psychology career. So this brings me to some of my accomplishments while attending NSU. I got inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society. I ran for and won President of Student Government of Association for Graduate Psychology. Not too bad, right? Then I found out that I became the first school psychology student to run for and win that Presidency!
When it was time for my school psychology internship, I applied to more than 10 school districts. I drove all over the state of Florida doing so many interviews. Then I faced rejections from nearly all of those school districts. I felt like I sucked at selling myself on my resume or maybe I was overselling. I couldn’t believe that with all that I had accomplished at NSU, plus my involvement in the state and national associations that I did not get an internship in the first round.
Then I got a call from one of those organizations late on matching day! You know that it is true what they say. All you need is one! That one place provided me with such a wealth of experiences, even though my internship was unpaid! I learned a lot. I was able to serve on a few leadership committees within my department even as an intern.
That organization was such a great fit that they offered me my first School Psychologist job. While I was there, I applied for a few leadership roles, but did not get them. But, there were some that I did get. I helped to develop organizational practices that were beneficial for my department. I got mentored by amazing and accomplished school psychologists, principals, and directors. One of them is Sarahi Vazquez, bilingual school psychologist, who continues to mentor me.
I remember when I was finishing up my doctorate at GCU and I started applying to positions that had descriptions that matched my training. I applied to at least 10 places, got rejected from all of them, and gave up. If felt like my internship applications all over again. Then I decided that I should try to apply to leadership positions within the school system and get that organizational experience so that I could leverage it when I applied to non-school district positions. But the thing was that all of the positions that I was interested in required administrative leadership degrees and none would accept my doctorate in general psychology with an emphasis in industrial and organizational psychology. So I felt like I made the wrong decision pursuing that degree. Then when was thinking that I should give up searching, I was offered the opportunity to serve as a Special Education Director. I was so thrilled! I accepted it and I learned even more about education funding, budgets, hiring, firing, training, contracts, curriculum, organizational development, leadership, compensation, job descriptions, advertising, and more.
Then that organization’s board decided to restructure and did not my current position was necessary. So I started my job search again. I couldn’t find any leadership level position so I decided to take on a school psychologist position. When I started that position I was still searching for a higher level position where I could use all of my experiences. I was starting to get really depressed because I wasn’t finding any. So I decided, instead of trying to find the ideal job, I needed to create my ideal job. That resulted in me really looking at the business that I was trying to build on the side and making it my full-time job. I did and I am enjoying it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m still experiencing challenges and finding ways to overcome them. Being an entrepreneur is filled with challenges and failures but it’s also filled with fun, enjoyment, building great relationships, and happiness.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My company is a Texas Small Business Administration Woman Owned certified coaching and consulting business. We focus on helping micro business owners scale their business by learning strategies to improve their goals, processes, and operations. We help them find their OPLE ™ so that they can survive their first five years and beyond. The reason I chose to use the OPLE (TM) system is becuase I believe that each of our businesses is diverse and has unique structures just like the opal.
We provide three main services: consulting, coaching, and training. We are working on some courses that we will be launching soon on various topics to help business owners to overcome challenges. A big reason for including the courses is because not everyone might be able to afford one-to-one coaching and consulting services currently but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have the opportunity to access the solutions that they need to be successful in starting or growing their business. We have a planning guide that you can download when you visit our website. In that planning guide you get access to you will get a 45 minute consultation.
There was a time when I struggled to explain what set me apart from other business owners. Then I realized that it was my experiences and my philosophy that made me different. Plus I have had other business owners share with me that my approach to business coaching, consulting, and training was different to what they have seen. I have been commended on my individualized approach that I offer that meets the business owner where they are at and then develop a program that specifically meets their needs. I do this through using the OPLE ™ system. In that system, I assess where the business owner is with their organizational development, leadership skills, personal abilities, and educational needs. Then based on those results, I develop a program to help them.
I am most proud of the various ways that I ensured were available for my company to interact with others and offer solutions. So besides the consulting, coaching, and direct training, and the courses that are coming, every day you can find information from my company on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. We also share information on Spotify and Pinterest. The reason is because people learn and interact with information differently. So it is really important for me that information is available in various formats. We work with micro business owners who are in industries such as eLearning, education, non-profits, health and wellness, beauty, mental health, and fitness. We list more industries on our website.
The consulting, coaching, and training service that I offer in my company can be accessed by business owners virtually or in-person. The courses will be virtual and business owners could access them at their own pace. I am happy that my company has a network of partners that we can communicate with to support business owners who have financial, social media, legal, graphic design, insurance, and other needs. Not to mention the fact that our network also includes individuals that can help with providing amazing corporate gifts.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
During the COVID-19 crisis, I was reminded about the importance of believing in yourself. The importance of really sitting down and reflecting on what goals I wanted to accomplish and how I was going to accomplish them. I remember looking at my vision and mission for my company, as well as the values. I reminded myself that building relationships is crucial for any business and that profits will follow. I also used the time in lockdown to explore other revenue generating options. I also reminded myself that I did not have to do everything myself and that there others who can support me.
Pricing:
- Consultation sessions are between 15 and 60 minutes and range from $90 to $300.
- We offer individual 1-to-1 coaching that starts at $2850. We offer hourly packages as well as customized packages.
- Our peer advisory boards have less than 10 business owners and starts at $150 for a 3 hour session 1 time per month
- Our organizational training start at $3000.
Contact Info:
- Email: admin@drpksolutions.com
- Website: https://drpksolutions.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.pksolutions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrPKSolutions/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9A49M1kTtbCKQl4Nl1pZSA
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/4eQiOfPaNgUsOw3Gr2rPD8?si=kcDYHTxtQmyKILVNtm6i0A&nd=1
Image Credits
The pictures of me in the purple dress were done by Tia Daubas. The picture in the green dress was done by Charles Quinn Photography. The picture with my and my parents, sister, and nephew was done by Narada Thorington with Daylight Photography.
