We all love a good redemption story in schools—the students who struggle for years and finally turn things around. Those stories make us feel good. They also let us avoid a harder question: why did success take so long in the first place? During Coaching Week, that question kept coming up for me, and it forced me to look at how deeply we've normalized struggle and delayed success in the systems we call "good." In this episode, I challenge the idea that suffering is a necessary part of learning, examine what our favorite stories reveal about our expectations, and explore what changes when we stop centering heroics and start interrogating design, #LikeABuilder.

I see this pattern over and over again: capable principals implementing solid ideas, working hard, and still feeling like progress won't hold. When that happens, we usually assume the problem is us—our clarity, our follow-through, our leadership—or we blame the moment we're in. In this episode, I unpack a harder truth that explains why so much good work fades, even when the strategies are sound. If you've ever wondered why effort keeps increasing but results don't, this conversation will help you see your school (and your role) differently, #LikeABuilder.

I know I sound obsessed with vision, but in this episode, I'll explain why I can't stop talking about it. You see, everyone says you need a vision—but very few people can explain why it actually matters once the real work starts. In this episode, I unpack what a vision really does when things get messy: when district priorities shift, when parents push, when politics creep in, and when you're genuinely unsure what move to make next. Plus, I'm sharing the 4 reasons vision matters more than you think. Two will surprise you. One is about what YOU get out of this, not just your school. So if you think vision is a luxury that can wait until you've got everything else figured out, think again. Tune in to discover what happens when administrators finally get a true 100% vision #LikeABuilder.

If you've ever felt like you're working incredibly hard but not actually building toward anything meaningful, you're not crazy, and you're not alone. You might be operating with a borrowed vision without even realizing it. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through the four types of borrowed visions: vision by compliance, vision by comparison, vision by inheritance, and vision by avoidance. By the end of this episode, you'll know whether your vision is borrowed, and more importantly, you'll understand why that matters. None of these feel wrong in the moment but that's what makes them so dangerous. Because once you see the difference between borrowed and owned, you can't unsee it and you can finally start building what you truly believe in #LikeABuilder.

Last week I shared my big lesson going into 2025—be boring, stop chasing shiny objects, double down on what works—and this week I'm back with the honest truth: I failed. Or did I? The year I hoped would be calm and predictable turned into a scramble to survive as the world shifted under our feet. But something unexpected happened along the way. I'd just misunderstood what boring actually means. If you're feeling the stress of a world that won't stop changing, if things that used to work aren't working anymore, if you're pivoting and doubting yourself and wondering if you're doing it all wrong I want to encourage you that you can still be boring #LikeABuilder.

As we close out 2025, I'm pressing rewind and revisiting the episode where I named the single biggest lesson I wanted to carry into the new year. Consider this a time capsule from the end of 2024—a look at what I believed mattered most and the mindset I was determined to adopt. This week, you'll hear that original episode. Next week, I'll return with a frank reflection on how it played out, what surprised me, and the insights you can use as you prepare for your own year ahead.

During winter break, most principals fall into one of two camps: total disconnection or total overdrive. Either they collapse and avoid thinking about school until January, or they turn the break into a frantic catch-up sprint to "earn" a fresh start. But there is a third option and in this episode you'll discover why both panic-planning and panic-resting feel productive in the moment, but ultimately create more anxiety and more backlog down the road. Discover how Builders spend their break differently -- resting with intention, anchoring in purpose, and creating systems that prevent future overwhelm—so you return to January clear, focused, and ready to act instead of react #LikeABuilder.

Most principals hit this point in December with the same uneasy mix of exhaustion and pressure. What makes it even worse is that everywhere you're being told that 2026 is being built right now, that you should be planning your best year yet, and that winter break is a chance to catch up. This episode challenges that narrative and explains why you don't need a new plan or a fresh start. Tune in to find out how you can let go of guilt, resist the urge to start over, and end the year grounded, clear, and focused #LikeABuilder

Most leadership team meetings are stuck in a loop—polite updates, recycled problems, and a slow drain of energy that leaves everyone wondering why nothing ever truly moves. In this episode, I unpack why that pain exists, why the usual fixes never fix it, and what becomes possible when you redesign your meetings around purpose instead of compliance. In this episode, I unpack the deeper reason why those meetings feel so draining: they're built on an operating system that rewards activity instead of alignment. Then I offer a radically different lens: a leadership team meeting has one job—to surface and solve threats to your vision. When you shift the purpose, the entire meeting changes. If your team gatherings feel heavy, repetitive, or disconnected from the work that actually matters, this episode will show you what's possible when you run your meetings #LikeABuilder

Ask yourself a question: Are you playing defense or are you playing offense? Is most of your day spent reacting to things that come up, or are you spending the majority of your time proactively pursuing your vision? Most of the training we've received has taught us to focus on defense and so we create policies, systems, and routines that focus on solving existing challenges rather than preventing them in the first place. Playing defense leaves us exhausted, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Playing offense leaves us energized, encouraged, and most important making steady progress towards our goals no matter what the circumstances. So tune into today's episode and discover how to switch from playing defense to playing offense #LikeABuilder.