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

Early childhood education promotes leaders faster than almost any other industry — and school leaders are paying the price. In this episode, Chanie Wilschanski names a quiet but growing leadership crisis inside schools: teachers are promoted into leadership roles based on warmth, availability, and emotional labor — not relational stamina, discernment, or leadership infrastructure. You’ll hear why...

Hiring can feel like a test you’re supposed to pass. You check references. You trust your gut. You believe in someone. And then something happens — they struggle, disappoint you, drift, or leave suddenly. And the messaging comes fast: “The wrong hire is expensive.” “You should have vetted better.” “This is what happens when you trust too quickly.” In this episode, Chanie Wilschanski names the toxi...

Many school leaders reach a stage where things are “running.” Schedules hold. Classrooms open. Systems work. And yet — they’re still looped into decisions they thought were delegated. In this episode of the Schools of Excellence Podcast, Chanie Wilschanski names the critical difference between a school that can run without its leader and a school that can think without its leader — and why most le...

Leadership doesn’t unravel because you did something wrong. It unravels because disruption is inevitable — and most school leaders were never taught what to return to when it arrives. In this episode of the Schools of Excellence Podcast, This Can’t Be Normal author Chanie Wilschanski names the hidden forces that quietly destabilize even the strongest schools — after the systems are built, the team...

Many school leaders ask for consistency. What they’re really asking is: What holds when I’m tired? In this episode of the Schools of Excellence podcast, Chanie explores why leadership often breaks down on ordinary days — not in moments of crisis — and why motivation, systems, and training alone can’t carry culture, standards, or accountability. This conversation introduces one of the most importan...

School leaders are often told that clarity creates relief . That once the systems are documented… once the SOPs are written… once the team is trained one more time … then the weight will finally lift. In this episode, Chanie Wilschanski names the quiet truth many school leaders are living inside of: training transfers knowledge—but it does not transfer ownership. You haven’t failed leadership. You...

There is a role many school leaders step into long before they ever receive a title. It’s the role of the strong one. The steady one. The one who handles it. In this episode, Chanie explores the hidden cost of being the strong leader —the invisible emotional weight carried by school owners and leaders who learned early that being useful meant being safe, valued, and connected. This conversation is...

There’s a moment in school leadership that rarely gets named. It’s not burnout. It’s not failure. It’s not collapse. It’s the quiet moment when everything looks “successful” on the outside — but something inside you feels tight, constricted, or unsustainable. In this episode of the Schools of Excellence Podcast , Chanie opens a new conversation inspired by her upcoming book, This Can’t Be Normal ....

As 2025 comes to a close, many school leaders find themselves pausing and asking a quiet but important question: How did we end up here? In this episode of the Schools of Excellence Podcast , Chanie Wilschanski unpacks one of the most overlooked leadership challenges in schools, drift . Not burnout. Not laziness. But the subtle loss of alignment that happens when leaders lose connection to the rhy...

As the world slows down in the quiet space between years, Chanie invites school leaders into a powerful reflection: What did this year build in you? Not what you accomplished… Not what you finished… Not what you checked off the list… But what was formed within you as a leader navigating exhaustion, momentum, setbacks, breakthroughs, culture challenges, enrollment pressures, financial strain, team...

Most school owners aren’t losing money because of one major expense. They're losing money in the quiet places —the small operational habits, the unspoken “just this once” purchases, and the daily micro-decisions no one sees. These are money leaks —and they drain profit, capacity, and emotional bandwidth far more than leaders realize. In this episode, Chanie shares a short but powerful clip from HQ...

Every school leader drifts, even the strongest ones. Drift is not burnout, not laziness, and not a leadership flaw. It is one of the quietest, most human forces in leadership. And it shows up long before leaders ever realize they’re off course. In this powerful episode, Chanie unpacks the two forms of leadership drift, Calm Drift and Chaos Drift ,  and reveals why both are inevitable, expecte...

Leadership in early childhood has long been treated like an “extra,” a bonus you get after the fires are out and the classrooms are staffed. But here’s the truth: Leadership development isn’t a perk. It’s the job. Because calm doesn’t grow you, discomfort does. In this episode, Chanie names a trap many school owners fall into: waiting for life to “settle down” before investing in their own growth....

You can’t call in tired when you’re the leader. Even on the days when your body aches, your brain is foggy, and every text feels like one more demand — leadership still needs you. Parents still email. Licensing still calls. Staff still need direction. And in that fatigue, it’s easy to believe the lie: I just need a break. I just need a new system. I just need to get through this week. But energy i...

If your brain feels like a filing cabinet that never closes, you’re not alone. For many school leaders, memory becomes the hidden system — the thing holding birthdays, licensing dates, parent notes, staff needs, and the million invisible details that make your school run. But here’s the truth: your brain was never meant to be the system. In this powerful, personal episode, Chanie shares how her on...

In early childhood education, it’s easy to feel like marketing changes faster than you can keep up. But the truth is, while tactics evolve, the fundamentals of trust, rhythm, and authenticity never go out of style . In this episode, Chanie sits down with longtime friend and industry leader Nick Williams , CEO of Childcare Business Growth , to discuss the timeless marketing strategies that stand th...

Leadership is heavy in ways no one talks about. We expect long hours, enrollment pressure, staff turnover, and parent demands — but the invisible weight of leadership isn’t in the spreadsheets. It’s in the emotions, expectations, and energy you absorb every day. In this powerful conversation, Chanie redefines burnout and exposes why the “fix-it-fast” advice doesn’t work. Because burnout doesn’t co...

When Irene Gomez stepped into her role as director at the J Center for Early Learning in El Paso, Texas, she carried what so many new leaders do: hyper-responsibility, people-pleasing, and the pressure to be the “hero” in every situation. In this episode, Irene shares her journey inside the Schools of Excellence coaching program and the transformation that followed—from chasing fires and working l...

If you’ve ever thought, “It’s just easier if I do it myself,” or found yourself ready to “burn it all down” after one too many hand-holding moments—this episode is for you. In this solo episode, Chanie Wilschanski exposes the false binary so many school leaders get trapped in: over-functioning or giving up entirely. Through real client stories, she unpacks how these extremes are both driven by the...

Scaling is glorified in our culture. In early childhood education, that often means opening more schools, adding more classrooms, and constantly chasing “what’s next.” But is that the only way to define success? In this episode of the Schools of Excellence Podcast, Chanie Wilschanski sits down with Latrice Galloway, known as The Child Care Chick , to talk about the overlooked power of scaling with...

Leadership doesn’t pause for grief, betrayal, or personal storms. In this deeply vulnerable conversation, Chanie sits down with Beth Cannon to talk about what it means to lead when life unravels. From walking through the terminal illness of a loved one, to staff exits and leadership mistakes, Beth shares her “discomfort zone” season and the messy middle of showing up for her people while falling a...

Admin & Tech isn’t flashy like enrollment or emotional like staff culture—but it’s one of the biggest hidden profit drains in schools. In this finale of the Money Leaks series, Chanie breaks down how underutilized software, paper-based SOPs, missing automations, and messy file systems quietly torch your time capacity and cash. You’ll get a simple, CEO-level playbook to audit your tech stack, a...

Your Amazon bill isn’t proof of overspending, it’s proof of a missing rhythm. In this fifth episode of the Six Money Leaks series, Chanie uncovers why supply management is one of the most overlooked operational leaks in schools. From the toner that’s reordered twice in a week to the “just in case” stockpiles that clutter closets, poor systems quietly drain thousands of dollars and create chaos for...

Pizza at staff meetings. Coffee for PD days. Uber Eats orders that feel small at the moment. These choices come from generosity, but without systems, they quickly become one of the biggest hidden drains on your budget. In this fourth episode of the Six Money Leaks series, Chanie Wilschanski explains why leaders don’t have food budget problems, they have food system problems. You’ll learn how to bu...

Payment problems aren’t about “bad parents.” They’re about broken systems. In this episode of the Schools of Excellence podcast, Chanie exposes the hidden money leak that’s quietly draining schools: payment systems. From failed cards and ignored invoices to outdated agreements and manual chasing, every gap in your tuition process pulls focus and drains energy. You’ll hear real client stories, from...