My guest this week is one of my favorite clients, Erika Gutierrez. She’s been in education for 13 years, and she’s a second-year lead principal for an elementary school. One of the first things I help my clients with is aligning their work to their values, and I’ve invited Erika on today because her primary leadership strategy is connection, and she’s done an amazing job of cultivating authentic relationships with her entire school, campus, and community.

If I had to assign Erika a superpower, it’s most definitely connection and relationship building. She holds so much capacity for vulnerability and embodies so much love, and this is truly how she shows up in everything she does. If creating connections is something that feels scary to you or something you don’t think you’re good at, you’re going to gain so much value from listening to Erika, who has beautiful thoughts about connection that help her approach everyone with love and compassion.

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In my commitment to creating more connection this month, I’ve been speaking to so many people who are in turn creating value for you through this podcast, and my guest today is no different. Scheduling time for connection on my physical calendar every single week has been so gratifying because it’s so easy for us as school leaders to put it on the back burner, and I hope this conversation shines a light on how important prioritizing it really is for expanding your impact and influence.

By day, Jodi Schilling is an assistant principal for an online education program, and by night, she’s a certified life coach for moms wanting happy and healthy families. She has been an educator for 22 years, with six years of school leadership under her belt, and her work as a coach focuses on giving mothers permission to feel confident and relinquish the need for total control over their kids, which I’m sure you can relate to.

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