Nevada entrepreneur uses legacy as catalyst for starting two small businesses

Shawna Wells never predicted she’d be the founder and CEO of two small businesses. While building a career in education as both a teacher and a principal, she became involved in business and executive coaching, which led to an important realization. 

“People really needed to have conversations about who they were, what they wanted to become and what was the impact they wanted to leave,” she said. 

Shawna’s aha moment led her to launch 7 Gen Legacy Group, where she coaches non-profit executives and CEOs who are doing social good and want to make a difference. She found that people in these professions often intertwine their personal identity with their professional identities. By conflating them, leaders can easily experience burnout and forget to live a full life. Shawna helps them “name and claim” their personal legacies, and then use them to align their lives toward realizing their goals. 

While she works to help others define their legacies, Shawna also wanted to continue building her own. This led her to found B is for Black Brilliance, a curriculum and products company with a membership community for caregivers raising Black children to be the next generation of leaders. Being a business owner and living her legacy means “real liberation and the ability to chart a new path,” she said. “It’s the opportunity and creativity and space to create your own ecosystem of people who are working to make a similar impact and then pass it on to the people coming after us.”

Shawna also authored B is for Black Brilliance, a children’s book that uplifts the achievements of often overlooked Black leaders. Even as a child, she was frustrated by the lack of Black representation in books. 

“I found myself reading the same few books over and over again,” Shawna said. “I was looking for characters that looked and sounded like me who had similar life experiences and I couldn’t find it.” She decided that if such a book didn’t exist, then she had to write it and create the change she wanted to see. 

Shawna urges prospective entrepreneurs seeking to drive social change to find clarity. First, they need to decide exactly what impact they’re going to make with their business. After clarifying their beliefs, then they need to figure out how the business will make money. Without a profit, Shawna noted, impact can’t be built over time because both the founder and others who do the work alongside them can’t sustain themselves.

Several key skills have contributed to success across her career path. However, being a teacher taught her how to be responsive, have empathy, manage a budget and time, and measure her efficacy. Additionally, part of her success as an entrepreneur comes from her companies sharing a common thread. 

“People put labels on skill sets which are associated with certain jobs, and that limits our thinking on what we can be and do,” Shawna said. 

While 7 Gen Legacy Group and B is for Black Brillance do different work, they both aim to leave the world and society better than it was before and challenge the status quo through conversation, practice, and intentional action.

“Those of us who have made magic on the margins of life can all do more than we think we can do,” Shawna said. “All the rules are made up, so go ahead and make your own. Whatever you’re thinking of is valid for your effort to figure out how to make it come true.”