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

Chanie Wilschanski

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!

  1. 3d ago

    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 goalsThe two competing desires that keep owners stuck for years longer than they need to beWhy this is rarely about being controlling, and what's really underneath itHow remaining everyone's person quietly undermines your director's leadershipWhy trust is built through difficulty and repair rather than pleasant conversationThe "halfway house" arrangement that postpones the trade-off for decadesThe questions to ask yourself about what you're afraid to loseWhat 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/

  2. Oct 20

    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 learnWhy you can't think your way out of a fear state, and what your body needs insteadThe signals your body sends before your brain even knows you're stressedWhy ambitious women keep adding more, and how to start subtractingFive 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 topThe identity trap behind "a good mother, leader, or wife should..." and how to renegotiate itWhy "I tried it and it didn't work" misses the point, and what rhythms of returning change Connect With UsAshriel’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/

  3. Oct 13

    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 everyoneThe pipeline numbers your enrollment owner should know without asking youThe four parts of ownership infrastructure: standard, ownership, rhythm, and responseHow you take ownership back the moment you start supplying the ideasWhat to do when your director says "I don't know," and how to build her thinking without doing it for herSeven 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/

  4. Oct 6

    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 LearnWhy hiring more people doesn't bring relief when you transfer labor but not ownershipThe 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 outcomeThe invisible agreement you make when you hire a helper instead of an ownerWhy your team keeps missing a standard that only exists in your headWhat to say when a problem lands on your desk so ownership doesn't boomerang back to youThe four-part ownership infrastructure: Standard, Ownership, Rhythm, ResponseThe 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/

  5. Sep 29

    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 LearnWhy a full leadership team doesn't automatically mean a school that runs without youThe open door policy myth that keeps directors working 60-hour weeksWhy so many women in leadership give to everyone except themselves, and what it takes to receive careThe difference between being lonely at the top and drowning in plain sightWhy questions build more leadership capacity than answers ever willHow constant updates can be a form of soothing your own anxietyWhy trust is built through evidence your body experiences, not through pep talksThe skills Kris built that help her face licensing citations and hard conversations without losing sleepWhat 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/

  6. Sep 22

    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 doingThe story of Kate's mother, who owned four grocery stores and still wouldn't call herself a business ownerWhat happened when a stranger recognized Kate by her own name — and why she now calls it the turning point she got wrongThe 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 jobHow 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/

  7. Sep 15

    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 LearnWhy “did you coach her enough” is the wrong question when someone keeps missing the standardThe difference between a skill gap and a willingness gap, and the two questions that tell you which one you're facingWhy infrastructure exists to give you evidence of reality, not just to make your school run smoothlyWhat it actually costs you when you keep supplying your own capacity to cover someone else's roleHow to build a predictable response to a missed standard instead of reacting based on your mood in the momentWhy “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/

  8. Sep 8

    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 bookThe moment in Lake Tahoe that made her question how automatically she takes on responsibilityWhy being a highly competent, capable leader can make it easy to compensate for things that shouldn't require so much of youThe difference between wanting an answer and wanting to be witnessed in a questionWhy the same "operating system" that shows up in your leadership also shows up in your marriage and parentingThe 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/

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4.9
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About

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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