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

Hosted by Chanie Wilschanski

Entrepreneurship Education

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300

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Nov 2026

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About the show

If you are an Early Childhood director or childcare 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 kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies - equipping school leaders to improve staff retention, increase teacher motivation, grow parent partnerships, create a collaborative culture, and enjoy a beautiful quality of life. Every week, Chanie shares the truth about childcare and early childhood school leadership for those striving towards excellence. If you are an early childhood or childcare school leader looking for strategies to grow your school, that are working TODAY, The Schools of Excellence Podcast is for you. In addition to weekly solo episodes, she'll also be inviting childcare and early childhood industry leaders to discuss the most pressing issues facing school leaders today. Don't miss an episode; subscribe today for everything you need for your school leadership journey!

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60 recent

November 10, 202634 min

325. Building Leadership Rhythms in Your Survival Season

What does it take for an experienced school leader to finally say, "I can't keep doing this alone"? For Ashley, it took a hard season. A season that made her stop and ask whether she wanted to keep leading at all. Instead of walking away, she made a different choice. She decided to get support first, so she could build the systems her school had been missing. In this episode, I sit down with Ashley, a member inside Schools of Excellence, to talk about what changed when she stopped trying to figure it all out on her own. We talk about the calendar rhythm that gave her the first stress-free weekend she'd had in about a year and a half, the conversation that taught her team to put requests in writing, and why doing the right thing at the wrong time drains more energy than doing nothing at all. In this episode, you'll learn: Why experienced leaders sometimes need to trade out their rusty tools, and how to say that to veteran staff without bruising anyone's ego The calendar rhythm Ashley put in place right as enrollment season hit, and how it helped her handle a flood of family emails without the usual stress Why "go back to your calendar" is the first move when you feel dysregulated or overwhelmed How showing her staff her weekly calendar turned "send me an email" from a brush-off into a shared standard What happens when you do the right system at the wrong time (and why it costs you people, time, and mental space) How Ashley protected her focus during enrollment season by deciding when hiring would happen, instead of letting urgency decide for her Why she realized she can't mentor everyone, and what she's building instead The simple "pick a date" mindset shift that helped her stop carrying onboarding in her head for weeks What Ashley would say to a leader who is on the fence about getting support Connect With Us: Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/ Work with the Schools of Excellence: https://schoolsofexcellence.com/work-with-us

November 3, 202647 min

324. “I Just Want to Help” isn’t a Sales Strategy

What if one of the most important things you do as a leader is the thing you've spent your entire career trying not to do? Selling. So many of us came into this work as caretakers, helpers, and educators. We wanted to serve. We wanted to do meaningful work that makes a difference for children and families. And somewhere along the way, we built a wall between serving people and selling to them. Selling started to feel like pressure, manipulation, or trying to get something from someone. My guest today, Kelly Roach, challenges that entire premise. This is a conversation about what it actually means to influence another human being. We explore why selling, done with integrity, is one of the highest forms of service, why so many capable leaders hide behind the words "I just want to help," and how an unwillingness to get uncomfortable can quietly keep you from the impact and legacy you say you want. We also get into something every school owner needs to hear again and again: enrollment can't belong to one person sitting behind a desk. Every person in your school shapes whether families choose you, stay with you, and trust you with their children. Yes, that includes your assistant teachers, your front desk, and the person who keeps your grounds looking cared for. Toward the end, Kelly shares something deeply personal about the trade-offs she deliberately chooses as she builds her business, raises her daughter, and protects the life she actually wants to live. Meet Kelly Roach Kelly Roach is a former Fortune 500 executive, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and founder of the Virtual Business School. She has taught over 100,000 entrepreneurs how to grow successful businesses. She is the author of The Miracle Hour and is currently writing her next book, The Sacred Art of Selling. In this episode, you'll learn: Why selling is the bridge between your conviction and your ability to bring others along with you The difference between self-centered and soul-centered leadership, and how it changes the way you show up Why "I just want to serve" can become a comfortable place to hide Why an 80-hour work week is often a sign you're avoiding the few hours of work that would actually move your school forward Why enrollment belongs to every role in your school, from the front desk to the classroom How a young teacher influences re-enrollment without ever asking a parent to sign anything What it really costs your school to keep someone who isn't fulfilling the role, even when you genuinely like them How Kelly calculates the trade-offs she is (and isn't) willing to make for the life she wants Connect With Us Kelly Roach on Substack: https://substack.com/@kellyroachofficial The Miracle Hour by Kelly Roach: https://www.themiraclehourbook.com/the-miracle-hour-bulk-buys Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

October 27, 202623 min

323. The Trap of Wanting Out of the Day-to-Day But Still Wanting Everyone Connected to You

Do you actually want to get out of the day-to-day operations of your school? Before you answer with an instant yes, sit with that question a little longer than a couple of seconds. For years, I've watched school leaders try to solve the wrong problem. We say we want our directors to take ownership. We want them handling staffing, making decisions, managing teachers, having the difficult conversations. And then something interesting happens. They actually start doing it, and suddenly we feel disconnected from our own center. Why didn't anyone tell me? Wait a second, I still wanted to be part of that. In this episode, I'm naming the trap underneath it all: wanting the freedom that comes from not being needed while holding on to the connection that comes from being needed. Those two desires compete with each other. Until you reconcile them, your director will keep leading in your shadow, and you'll keep wondering why stepping back feels impossible. What you'll learn: Why wanting out of the day-to-day and wanting out of the parts you don't enjoy are two very different goals The two competing desires that keep owners stuck for years longer than they need to be Why this is rarely about being controlling, and what's really underneath it How remaining everyone's person quietly undermines your director's leadership Why trust is built through difficulty and repair rather than pleasant conversation The "halfway house" arrangement that postpones the trade-off for decades The questions to ask yourself about what you're afraid to lose What it looks like when your presence becomes a contribution rather than a requirement Connect With Us: Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

October 20, 202623 min

322. You Can't Think Your Way Out of Overwhelm

How many times have you tried to think your way out of a hard day? You make the plan, color-code the calendar, give yourself the pep talk... and your shoulders are still somewhere up by your ears. Ashriel Huber is a certified brain coach, author, and host of the Called & Curious Podcast. She helps women who love God but still have anxious thoughts, hard days, big callings, and very human brains learn practical ways to become more at home in their minds and more rooted in God's love. She mixes faith, brain science, honest stories, and simple practices to help women notice what's happening inside them and experience more peace, joy, and connection in the life they're already living. What you'll learn Why you can't think your way out of a fear state, and what your body needs instead The signals your body sends before your brain even knows you're stressed Why ambitious women keep adding more, and how to start subtracting Five things to do with everything you're carrying (only one of them is "carry it better") How to face hard seasons honestly without slapping a positive affirmation on top The identity trap behind "a good mother, leader, or wife should..." and how to renegotiate it Why "I tried it and it didn't work" misses the point, and what rhythms of returning change Connect With Us Ashriel’s Book, Love Moves: https://www.calledandcurious.com/general-3 Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

October 13, 202614 min

321. Who’s Really Driving Enrollment at Your School?

If I asked you right now who owns enrollment in your school, you could probably give me a name. But if enrollment dropped this month, would that person be the first to notice? Or would you? Most owners I coach can name their enrollment person in about two seconds. She gives the tours, calls back the inquiries, and sends the packets. Then I ask a different question: who is responsible for moving this building from where enrollment is today to where it needs to be? That's when the room goes quiet. In this episode, I'm pulling apart the difference between handing off enrollment tasks and handing off the enrollment outcome. If you're still the one checking the numbers, doing math in your head as you walk past a half-empty classroom, and coming up with every idea when the number won't move, you never really let go of enrollment. You just stopped touching it. We walk through a concrete example, the four parts of infrastructure that make ownership real, and what to do when your director looks at you and says, "I don't know." In this episode, you'll learn: The one question that reveals who really owns enrollment in your school (hint: it isn't on your org chart) Why "help us grow enrollment" creates invisible work for everyone The pipeline numbers your enrollment owner should know without asking you The four parts of ownership infrastructure: standard, ownership, rhythm, and response How you take ownership back the moment you start supplying the ideas What to do when your director says "I don't know," and how to build her thinking without doing it for her Seven questions to ask this week to see who's really carrying enrollment in your building Connect With Us: Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

October 6, 202620 min

320. Why Hiring More Staff Won't Give You the Relief You Think It Will

You hired the director. You hired the admin. Maybe you even hired the regional. So why are you still the one lying awake thinking about the classroom that isn't staffed? A lot of you are hiring right now. Teachers, admin, maybe a whole new layer of leadership. Before you make that next hire, I want to have a conversation with you about what you are actually handing off. It started in my kitchen. My 11-year-old daughter asked to bake with her 8-year-old brother, and I said yes, as long as the whole kitchen got cleaned up afterward. Fifteen minutes later there were bowls everywhere and ingredients all over the counter. When I asked her about it, she told me, completely sincerely, "But Mommy, I already cleaned seven things." I didn't ask for seven things. I asked for a clean counter. That moment has stuck with me, because it's how so many of our schools run. Everyone did something. Emails were sent, candidates were called, the spreadsheet got updated. And the counter is still dirty. The classroom still isn't staffed. The family who toured still didn't enroll. And somebody has to notice. If you own a school, you already know who that somebody is. In this episode, I share a conversation with a school owner I was onboarding recently who wanted her school to stop depending on her without disappearing from it. We talk about the difference between task distribution and true ownership, why your team can't read the standards living in your head, and what to do the moment your director walks in and says, "We're short two teachers." Are you hiring helpers when what you really need is owners? Let's find out. What You'll Learn Why hiring more people doesn't bring relief when you transfer labor but not ownership The difference between task distribution and real ownership (and why most of what we call delegation is the first one) Why "hiring" is a task and "an appropriately staffed building" is an outcome The invisible agreement you make when you hire a helper instead of an owner Why your team keeps missing a standard that only exists in your head What to say when a problem lands on your desk so ownership doesn't boomerang back to you The four-part ownership infrastructure: Standard, Ownership, Rhythm, Response The one question to ask before your next hire: What needs to become true in this school without me? Connect With Us: Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

September 29, 202638 min

319. From Survival Mode to Strategy After 35 Years in Childcare

You can have a leadership team, directors, job descriptions, titles, and processes. And somehow the school still works because you're the one underneath it all, noticing, anticipating, remembering, and asking the next question. From the outside, it looks like you've built something that runs. From the inside, you're the invisible operating system. In this episode, I sit down with Kris Saburn, an executive director who has spent 35 years in childcare. Kris has a center director, an administrative specialist, and a teacher mentor on her leadership team. On paper, she has plenty of help. And for years, she was still running in survival mode. What You'll Learn Why a full leadership team doesn't automatically mean a school that runs without you The open door policy myth that keeps directors working 60-hour weeks Why so many women in leadership give to everyone except themselves, and what it takes to receive care The difference between being lonely at the top and drowning in plain sight Why questions build more leadership capacity than answers ever will How constant updates can be a form of soothing your own anxiety Why trust is built through evidence your body experiences, not through pep talks The skills Kris built that help her face licensing citations and hard conversations without losing sleep What happens when you only seek support in a crisis Connect With Us Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join Schools of Excellence on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

September 22, 202625 min

318. Women Do the Job…But They Don’t Get Credit

I don't bring guests onto this show very often. Most weeks it's just you and me, working through leadership, one honest conversation at a time. But every so often I want to hand you a different voice, because getting to witness yourself in someone else's story is powerful in a way I can't always create alone. This week that voice is Kate Young. Kate and I have been friends for a while, along with her cousin Carrie, and we've done a lot together in the childcare space through our ongoing "Childcare Conversations." She's spent the last 30 years in early childhood education, she's a mom of four, and she's here to talk about her new book, Authority Without Apology. The book is about the women who are holding down entire industries — including ours — and getting zero recognition for it. Kate told me flat out: accomplished women don't need more credentials. We need to be seen for the job we're already doing. Once you see that gap, she said, you can't unsee it. We went deep. We talked about the financial cost of never stepping into your authority, and the quieter, invisible costs underneath it — confidence, identity, the years you lose being "somebody's spouse" instead of yourself. Kate told me about her own mother, who legally owned four businesses and still couldn't call herself a business owner well into her eighties. She told me about the moment, in her forties, when a stranger recognized her by her own name — and the "wrong turn" she took right after. This conversation got real fast. Grab your headphones for this one. What You'll Learn: Why Kate believes accomplished women don't need more credentials — they need to be seen for the job they're already doing The story of Kate's mother, who owned four grocery stores and still wouldn't call herself a business owner What happened when a stranger recognized Kate by her own name — and why she now calls it the turning point she got wrong The real financial cost of staying invisible in your own life and leadership (and why it compounds over decades) Why you don't have to be an expert in something to be the right person for the job How Kate found meaning in the years she "lost" by reframing them as a gift to the people who needed her most Connect With Us: Kate’s book, Authority Without Apology: https://katewoodwardyoung.me/books/authority-without-apology Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join This Can't Be Normal on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

September 15, 202616 min

317. Stop Blaming Your Team for This

You coach her. You remind her. You give her grace, adjust the deadline, understand her season, and hope this is finally the time it sticks. Then you're back on the ride again. I was on a coaching call recently with a group of owners, and I asked them to think about someone on their team who isn't delivering predictably, reliably, and consistently. Not the obvious underperformer, the one everyone already knows isn't working out. I mean the person you're actually invested in. The one you keep coaching. The one you keep training. The one you keep giving another shot. I call this the teacup ride. You coach, you explain, you remind, you accommodate. Round and round you go. They give you a little bit of progress, just enough crumbs to keep you hopeful, and then somehow you're right back where you started, wondering why they can't meet the standard predictably, reliably, and consistently. In this episode, I break down why “did I coach her enough” is the wrong question to be asking, why infrastructure exists to give you evidence instead of just making your school run smoothly, and the two questions that finally reveal whether you're dealing with a skill gap or a willingness gap. Because you cannot supply willingness in another human being, and pretending you can is costing you a lot more than you realize. What You'll Learn Why “did you coach her enough” is the wrong question when someone keeps missing the standard The difference between a skill gap and a willingness gap, and the two questions that tell you which one you're facing Why infrastructure exists to give you evidence of reality, not just to make your school run smoothly What it actually costs you when you keep supplying your own capacity to cover someone else's role How to build a predictable response to a missed standard instead of reacting based on your mood in the moment Why “one more chance” often protects the leader's hope more than it protects the outcome Connect With Us: Chanie's book, This Can't Be Normal: https://thiscantbenormal.com Join This Can't Be Normal on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/

September 8, 202616 min

316. Don’t try to solve it. Just sit with it.

How many things in your life look functional only because you've become exceptionally good at compensating for what isn't? That's the question I can't stop asking, and it's the reason I started This Can't Be Normal, a new thinking space on Substack. This episode is a little different. I'm not teaching a framework or walking you through five steps. Instead, I'm pulling back the curtain on why I started writing publicly about the questions I don't have answers to yet, questions about responsibility, caretaking, competence, and what we've all quietly agreed to normalize. It started with a moment in Lake Tahoe, on vacation, when I suddenly noticed how automatically I take on responsibility that nobody actually assigned to me. That noticing turned into an article, then another, and eventually into a whole new space for thinking out loud instead of teaching from the front of the room. If you've ever felt like the person everyone relies on, the one who catches everything before it falls, this episode is your invitation to pause and ask a different kind of question. In this episode, you'll learn: Why Chanie started This Can't Be Normal, and how it's different from the podcast, coaching, or her book The moment in Lake Tahoe that made her question how automatically she takes on responsibility Why being a highly competent, capable leader can make it easy to compensate for things that shouldn't require so much of you The difference between wanting an answer and wanting to be witnessed in a question Why the same "operating system" that shows up in your leadership also shows up in your marriage and parenting The question Chanie wants every leader to sit with: what have you become so good at tolerating that you've stopped asking whether it should be normal? Mentioned in this episode: This Can't Be Normal on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/ Article: "The Cost of Being the Caretaker" — https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-being-the-caretaker Connect With Us: Join This Can't Be Normal on Substack: https://chaniewilschanski.substack.com/