Schools of Excellence: The No. 1 ECE & Private School Leadership Podcast

What does it mean to have a team that is accountable, hardworking, and responsible?

Employees no longer feel compelled to serve companies that do not serve them. This makes understanding employee retention key to attracting and retaining those top performers. It’s time for school leaders to start to create an environment that fosters and builds a team of excellence.

Today's podcast episode is a very unique conversation. I talk about the two mindset shifts to help you increase retention in your center, starting with understanding the problem that you're trying to solve. Because when we understand what is the problem that we're trying to solve, it is a lot easier for us to be able to find the right solution. 

In a nutshell, I speak about:

• The global evolution of hiring in the early childhood education space.
• The core skills leaders need to create sustainability, profit and legacy.
• The two strategies to start understanding how to flip the narrative around the hiring crisis.

I hope that the content, strategy and perspective shared in the episode will be very valuable to you in your continued pursuit of excellence for your center.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Reflective Questions Resource: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/reflective-questions-for-teachers/

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make every day which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve every day.

What does it mean to have a good work ethic? 

In today’s episode, I share a special conversation from my Owners Only membership program with Scott Wayman.

Scott is the Founder and CEO of Kangarootime, and in this week’s episode, we talk about redefining work ethic and both of our personal definitions of it. We dive into cultural norms, how to shift the narrative and the conversation around work ethic, and ways to lean into conflict and really understand what building and sustaining schools of excellence entails. I hope you enjoy this enlightening interview.

We also discuss:

• Redefining work ethic and what it means to be a good employee.
• Components of not working yourself to death.
• Culture, work-life integration, and understanding the quality of life that our employees have. 
• Holding your staff accountable and how to be intentional about it.
• Creating a culture of transparency and normalizing what it means to have difficult conversations.

… and so much more!

Connect with Scott Wayman

Kangarootime website: https://kangarootime.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kangarootime/

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

Patty Mccord Book: https://pattymccord.com/book/

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make every day which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve every day.

As a school leader, you play a pivotal role in affecting the climate, attitude and reputation of your school. You are the cornerstone of how your school and community functions and grows. With successful school leadership, schools become effective incubators of learning, places where students are not only educated but challenged, nurtured and encouraged.

Today, I’m excited to share with you my interview with Daniel Bauer. Daniel is an unorthodox Ruckus Maker who has mentored thousands of school leaders through his Better Leaders Better Schools blog, books, podcasts, and powerful coaching experiences. 

Daniel is on a mission to help school leaders fight isolation and frustration via leadership communities in order to gain clarity and find solutions to their greatest challenges. He talks about his school leadership journey and we discuss his new book called Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader.

In a nutshell, we speak about:

• What got Daniel into the sector of education in school leadership.
• What it means to be a new author and putting something really beautiful and transformational for leaders out into the world.
• What limitless leadership impact means.
• Some of the problems with the traditional professional development that exists out there for leaders.
• What stops leaders from this ever evolving cycle of getting better.
• The importance of slowing down to invest in ourselves.
• How masterminds are so different from traditional professional development or conferences.
• Daniel’s personal definition of excellence.

And so much more!

Connect with Daniel Bauer:

Website: https://www.betterleadersbetterschools.com/

Book website with bonuses: https://www.betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermindbook/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alienearbud/

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

Today's episode is part of a special live streaming that we do once a month on our Facebook page. In today's conversation, we talk about a very thought-provoking question that Lori Buxton of AELL, had in mind. And her question was, "Do you feel more satisfied when your program or your business succeeds because of you, or without you?"

By the end of the episode, you will get a better understanding of stories that we create for ourselves, the context around the type of story that we want, the leader that we want to be and the hero that we are in our lives. Many of the answers that we talked about today are excellent predictors of the culture that you're building and the leadership health of your company.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

As a school leader, you have a lot on your plate. You have a ton of responsibilities and your to-do list likely never ends. However, pausing and thinking about the training and up-leveling of your current staff is going to have a tremendous ripple effect on alleviating a lot of mental space and emotional labor that comes with starting a new school year. 

In this episode, I talk in detail about the three components of up-leveling your staff. Training, mentoring, and coaching never end. These 3-mile markers in up-leveling staff quickly will help you get the center up and running, and keep it open for a long time to come. And depending on where you are in the pendulum, you are going to choose what makes sense to focus on with your staff right now.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Small shifts that will elevate your brain space to ensure that you could be well on your way to an amazing school year. 
• Parent communication and standards for your young staff (under the age of 26).
• What the developmentally appropriate practices in classrooms are.
• How to guide your staff through policy and safety concerns in classrooms.
• The 30, 60, 90 – day mile markers that your staff need to know and understand.

… and so much more!

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

Many school leaders feel time-pressured, tethered to their smartphones so they can stay on top of work and home responsibilities. It can be tough to step off the daily merry-go-round, put your phones, laptops, and to-do lists aside, and find decent chunks of quiet time to reflect on your life. In fact, we may not even be sure how.

Today’s episode is number 50 for the Schools of Excellence Podcast! With this milestone, it’s also an invitation to pause. An invitation to tune into your body and mind and what you need. Consider this a sign that it's high time you intentionally took a break from your daily hustle and just rested. Pause your mind from the productive work mode and get into play mode. If you have no idea of how to do this, tune in!

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

If you rely solely on referrals to fuel your school, you’re making one of the most common mistakes a school leader can make. This puts the fate of your school entirely into the hands of your school’s families. They determine when (or if) you get your next family.

Today, I’m excited to share with you my interview with Mike Michalowicz. Instead of living in the constant cycle of feast or famine, Mike Michalowicz shares a way to keep the “marketing machine” running 24/7 to help you attract the best possible families. This simple 3-step method is all about being different instead of just being “better”. 

Mike is a New York Times bestselling author with over 2 million readers and leads two multi-million-dollar ventures.  He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Mike is a popular main stage keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Get Different, Fix This Next, Clockwork, Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. 

Last week his newest book, Get Different, was released. 

Listen now to my interview with Mike to hear his strategies on how to stand out from the crowd, and start bringing in more families by being different.

In this special guest episode, we speak about:

• Specific ways of how child care leaders can get different and differentiate their marketing. 
• Why Mike decided to write Get Different, his most recent book.
• How Mike’s approach to marketing strategies is a gateway to eradicating entrepreneurial poverty.
• What makes you stand out from your competition.
• How to come up with creative marketing ideas that will have families referring more people to you.

.. and so much more!

Connect with Mike Michalowicz:

Get his new book, Get Different: https://gogetdifferent.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikemichalowicz/?hl=en

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

Sometimes we think we can plan our way out of chaos, or if we plan enough then we can avoid chaos entirely. But this isn’t always the case. Because you can never plan enough! That’s the perfectionist mindset. What you actually need is the mental toughness and resilience to rise back up again after chaos. 

In today’s episode, I take you through a few common things regarding chaos that I see in schools, and some powerful ways to combat it. If you’d like to know why having a community that understands that chaos and ambiguity are part of leadership, tune in!

In a nutshell, I speak about:

• The mindset around navigating through a season of chaos.
• The biggest indicator of getting staff into chaos
• Normalizing what is developmentally appropriate for your staff.
• Why you should stop trying to make things easier in every given moment.

… and so much more!

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Access the Teacher Training Vault: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/early-childhood-teacher-trainings/

Access the Confidence and Resiliency Training: https://discovered.thrivecart.com/confidence-resiliency-training/

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

I know you have hundreds of things you wish you could do with your life, but you just can’t find the time, right? You want to read a book, learn to cook, watch a drama series, exercise, practice yoga, walk your dog, build a school of excellence, and still be able to spend quality time with your family. But you just don’t have enough time for all these.

It is not that you don’t have enough time, instead, it is because you don’t really know how to manage yourself and your time. After all, every one of us was given the same amount of time each day.

In today’s episode, I share tips on how to get out of the time poverty mindset and into the time abundance mindset. Truth is, time is a mindset. And you can only break free from being in time poverty to time abundance by understanding what time poverty actually means. 

Tune in to today’s episode to learn more about:

• What time poverty actually is and what it’s not.
• Why you should stop saying, “I don’t have time” and replace that with, “This is not a priority for me right now”
• The side effect of wanting less.
• Tracking your time for a gut check of where your time is going.
• How doing more for other people contributes to a time abundance mindset.

… and so much more!

 Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Ever wish you had access to a toolkit that combines Parent-Teacher Conferences, a guide for Having Difficult Conversations, Teacher Appreciation Ideas and a To-Do List Management guide? Access the School Leadership Tool Kit: http://chanie.me/toolkit

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ: http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.

Welcome back to the new school year! After the roller coaster ride of the past school year, school leaders will be bracing themselves for all kinds of challenges this year. However, what still seems to be missing is the ability to reflect: to stand back and consider issues deeply – and to look honestly at themselves as leaders. It isn’t surprising that school leaders find this difficult, given the unparalleled changes businesses have faced in recent years. 

In today’s episode, I take a moment to remind you why you need to schedule 15-minute meetings with yourself in this new school year. A meeting with yourself can be very casual. The main point of the meeting is to set aside enough time to really reevaluate the goals you’ve set for yourself (and your team) and decide which to keep pursuing and which to move, reevaluate, or terminate altogether.

In a nutshell, I talk about:

• How to focus on the big picture during your personal meetings.
• Critical questions to consistently ask yourself for a better life.
• Why you shouldn’t talk about your dreams with people whose job is to protect you.
• How to rewire your brain to become the leader that you've always wanted to be.

… and so much more!

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Ever wish you knew EXACTLY what to say to a Teacher, Parent or Admin Team in a Hard Moment? Access the scripts workbook http://chanie.me/scripts

Sign up for the Director’s Inner Circle & Owner's HQ http://Chanie.me/jointhedic

More about the show:

If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and a beautiful quality of life. 

Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make everyday which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve everyday.