The Value of Connection

So much of my work revolves around connections, and the more connections I make, the more people I am able to serve. As a school leader, the same is true for you. So, throughout the month of March, we’re taking a deep dive into connection, starting this week with how you connect with yourself.

As a coach, my mission is to help all of you as school leaders to fully believe in the value of internal connection, alignment, personal development, and to make clear how focusing on beliefs over actions is the missing link in our education programs today. And what I have today is a huge part of showing you that the work of becoming an empowered leader starts in the mind.

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How to Emotionally Support Your Teachers with Jewelle Bejjavarapu

For this episode, I conducted an impromptu interview with former teacher and Life Coach School graduate Jewelle Bejjavarapu. Jewelle is here to share her insights into how we as school leaders can emotionally support our teachers, helping them to love their jobs and have the biggest impact possible on the kids and our communities.

Jewelle is a life coach for young women struggling with fertility issues. Prior to starting this work, she was a teacher, but after years of putting other people first and letting her perfectionist tendencies get in the way of doing her job, and seeing other teachers doing the same, she knew it was time for a change. She’s looking back on her time in education and giving us her insights into what we can do differently in our schools.

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Cultivating Positivity for Students and Teachers with Joey Mascio

This month, I’ve been focusing on bringing you interviews with real educators who are using the life coaching skills I share here on the podcast in their professional lives for the betterment of their entire schools. And my guest this week is an amazing example of that, but he’s taking things a step further.

Joey Mascio is currently a middle school teacher and – at his own request – occupies a special place in the discipline office in his school. Through his time in that role of a ‘disciplinarian with a difference’, Joey was able to hone his skills as a coach for the teens who get sent his way. How he’s stepped into that role and what he has planned for the future is truly inspiring.

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Mental and Emotional Resilience Starts Here with Ben Pugh

We’re focusing on mental and emotional wellbeing here on the podcast over the month of February, and this week, I have the perfect guest to talk us through this topic. Ben Pugh is a certified life coach through The Life Coach School, and his specialty lies in parent and teen coaching. He’s passionate about helping parents reconnect with their teens, to help them build rock-solid relationships so they can turn their struggles into strengths.

Ben is a shining example of someone who has used coaching tools to first manage his own mental and emotional health, to then be of service at the highest level to his staff and students. From being labeled a teenage arsonist to becoming a principal, you’ll hear how his story is the foundation of his passion for empowering teenagers, and I can’t wait for you to listen in and be inspired by his drive to help his clients turn their lives around.

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Mental and Emotional Well-being in Schools

This year has already been incredibly challenging for our schools as a whole. Leaders don’t know what is around the corner, and our staff and students are isolated and struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We are in the midst of an endurance race. Our mental and emotional faculties are being pushed to the limits. Now more than ever, we need tools to help ourselves and to help others thrive in the environment we find ourselves in. So, that is why this whole month on the podcast, we’re going to focus on mental and emotional health. We’re talking about what mental and emotional well-being is and how we can maintain it in our schools.

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The Empowered Principal Program

Over the last few years of working with clients and school leaders, I’ve created a lot of personal development tools and mulled over how to bring them into the professional setting. As 2020 exemplified, we all need some kind of plan and systematic way of approaching our jobs as school leaders, and I’ve got just the solution and I can’t wait to share it with you today.

This week, I’m introducing you to the Empowered Principal process and what it entails. When we make the leap in our careers to school leadership, it never goes exactly as expected. The realities of it often miss the mark of what we envisioned, and navigating all the pressures that come along with the job can sometimes be too much.

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How to Achieve Any Goal in 2021

Towards the end of last year, I started the Empowered Principal Leadership Series: a free webinar training series to help spread the power of coaching throughout the school leadership community.

In the spirit of a new year and becoming new versions of ourselves, I’ve decided to share a replay of a webinar I held this week on the subject of how to approach goal setting in a way that’s fun, simple, and builds off of your strengths and successes, so you have a process for achieving any goal in 2021.

I’m also taking some time at the start of the episode to discuss how I’ve been helping my clients through discussing the recent events at the Capitol Building with their staff and students.

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Future Vision

After winter break, I hope all you school leaders are refreshed and ready to take on 2021. This time last year, we were talking about our “2020 visions,” and I don’t think anyone could have predicted the havoc that the past 12 months would bring to our schools. So, I want to make sure that we don’t get caught up this time around.

This month on the podcast, we’re talking about creating a future vision for 2021 of the kind of principal that you want to be, the energy you want to bring to the job, how you can be a visionary, and how you want to experience your own life this year. So at least, if we’re in for another year of chaos, you will be grounded in your own reality.

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The Blessing of 2020

This might be a controversial opinion, but I believe there is a huge blessing to be taken from 2020 and what it has shown us about our education system. I believe that the current goal of our education system does not actually serve a huge proportion of our students, and the pandemic has amplified this reality. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

I’m sharing a story this week that inspired a conversation and some real introspection about what the goal of our education system is, how we measure success, and who gets neglected as a result of these things. And if we’re all willing to take part in this conversation, I truly believe that 2021 can be the year we finally start creating an education system that works for everyone.

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Closing Out 2020

Welcome to the end of 2020, my empowered leaders. You have all made it through one of the toughest years in school leadership, and I know there was a time when you didn’t believe you could make it, but you did.

As we head into the New Year, today, we’re taking some time to acknowledge your resilience and growth over the past year to get to this point. Although 2020 has felt extremely uncomfortable and challenging, you navigated school leadership and learned new skills, and it’s a milestone we have to pause and take the time to appreciate.

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