mission
OUR
Grieve a vision, gain a new world.
We help emerging c-suite leaders pivot from status quo to ultimate vision for serving historically excluded communities better.
It's time to buck dated systems, rethink school, and reboot your life!
values
OUR
CLARITY
Clarity is power. A clear vision, strategy, and communication plan and process give us the power to grow, impact, and scale.
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IMPACT
Although success is measured many ways, when our community and clients are successful, so are we.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We take personal responsibility. When we make mistakes, we apologize first. Then we correct it using targeted actions that create an even better result.
RETHINKING
Even if something is trendy or has been done before, it doesn’t mean we should be replicated. We give ourselves the freedom to rethink the status quo and the best solution out loud.
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INTEGRITY
We’re honest about the work that’s needed to make big goals happen. We don’t promise the moon and sun, nor will we sacrifice purpose in order to be everything to everybody.
founder
OUR
Dr. Taryn Fletcher is a school and business strategist, bestselling author, and master life and leadership coach. Her mission is to help leaders pivot from status quo to their ultimate vision by rethinking their work and rebooting their lives.
​Taryn has reached millions of readers and viewers through national publications and media—like The 74, Smart Brief, and The Hechinger Report—where she's helped audiences solve complex problems within their organizations and life. Today, she strategizes for schools and businesses in the Meta verse!
As a former New Jersey superintendent, founding charter school principal, and regional workforce development executive director, Taryn has been designing and developing programs that value historically marginalized communities and their lived experiences for the last two decades. While earning her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation, Taryn's dissertation research and strategy influenced the complete revamp of an entire course offering within the university.
As a little girl, she was known throughout her neighborhood for starting clubs so that everyone could feel like they had a place to belong. Not much has changed! Besides helping create community and consciousness everywhere she goes, she can be found curled up in the corner of her couch with a good book right before the sun rises.
manifesto
OUR
Our vision is for today's leaders to be:
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Diverse. Creating conscious innovations and out-of-this-world advancements that breed a culture of kindness and worthiness for every human.
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Well paid. Empowered, efficient members of our communities that help develop a purpose-filled world that we’ve never experienced before.
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Confident in their own skin. Walking into any as themselves— not over prepping and over promising, simply to earn one's kindness, respect, or benefit of the doubt. Why? Because it's already granted to everyone.
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LET'S MOVE BEYOND
awareness...
...TO CHANGE IN OUR
practices.
"
"
- Dr. Taryn Fletcher
Our vision is for schools to cultivate the next generation of doers by:
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Modeling respect and value for their students’ cultural identities. Instruction is designed to credit and honor the contributions of Black and Brown communities.
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Redefining what it means to be a Person of Color (POC)— no longer symbolizing born into marginalization, poverty, and environmental strife. Instead, being known for our cultural opulence and ingenuity— our rich roots in efficiency and sustainability, and our innate problem solving abilities that have been copied over and over again— as our most true legacy coming into this world.
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Making big and bold moves that pass on the power to our historically excluded youth: lgbtqia+ youth, neurodivergent youth, gender diverse youth, to include every young person from every corner of this globe who wants freedom from hiding and conforming to meet the expectations of traditional and white-dominant culture.
THAT'S
truly
POC
origin story
OUR
As far back as I can remember, I craved social interaction. I loved sharing stories, engaging in conversation, and teaching new things. My eagerness to speak up would jolt my nervous system and rattle me until my words were out into the world. Not speaking up, was physically painful.
By second grade, I learned pretty quickly that my teachers rejected having an opinionated little person in the room. I was shushed often, and once my jaws were even squeezed to a shutter— pushing my loose tooth straight out of my mouth! I was ordered, almost daily, to be seen and NOT heard.
By middle school, I became a pro at hiding my truth. I learned how to be silent and reticent, which easily gained validation from my teachers, indicating to me that silence with a smile was exactly what teachers wanted from me. The tape that played on repeat in my head said “you’re never enough or almost always too much, so just be quiet”.
By the time I was a teen, I knew how to play it small and I would overthink everything. I’d get subtle, consistent, and compounded reminders that would serve as my proof points that being mute equated to being liked, palatable, and acceptable. This permeated my mind.
It should be no surprise that I become an adult without a voice.
By my mid 20’s, I became a divorced mother, with a young black son to raise practically on my own. It was then that I finally realized I had to speak up and live my truth, be myself, share my story out loud, contribute my gifts to the world, and set an example for my son.
In my late 20’s, I became a principal and made a choice to put teachers that valued student voice and choice inside my classrooms. They’d eventually become my teacher leaders. I’d go on to become an award-winning school leader, superintendent, best-selling author, and CEO. And while rising the ranks, I shared the same message. Young people, especially in communities of color, should know, for sure, that they are valued, loved, and important; their voices matter, and their existence in this world is essential to creating a better one.
Using my voice did not come without a cost. There was always someone, at every level, trying to silence me. When met with confrontation, I remained confident and pushed back with poise. I remembered that I had important things to say, and I was serving as an example to other aspiring leaders looking to impact their communities.
Today, I’m cultivating the next generation of leaders.
My company, Truly POC, helps leaders be the disruptor they want to be. We teach leaders how to advance racial and social equity by attracting, training, and retaining cultural rockstars-- teams that value voice, choice, inclusivity, and their students’ cultural capital. Our training teaches teams to realize their students’ power, opulence, and consciousness; particularly in communities of color because it starts at the very earliest stages of life when people of color and people from marginalized groups are told, consciously and subconsciously, that we do not have value in this world.
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Schools should be the space to dream, discover, and wonder. A place to experience challenge, love, protection, and value for who you innately are. Schools should provide learning environments that inspire, empower, and encourage young people. And even when students may be young and inexperienced, they should still be respected. We can’t dismiss their imagination, innovation, and curiosity. It’s literally the secret sauce needed to power our future.