The Aspiring School Leader Podcast

Dr. Donovan Smalls II

The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is the go-to show for educators ready to step into school leadership with clarity, confidence, and impact. Hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II, an assistant principal, best-selling author, and interview coach, this podcast helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Dr. Smalls supports educators with interview preparation, equipping them to step into new roles fully prepared and confident. Each episode delivers real-world insights, actionable strategies, and honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities that come with school leadership. Whether listeners are preparing for their first interview or already walking the halls as leaders-in-waiting, this podcast provides the tools and guidance they need to show up ready. For educators ready to elevate their impact beyond the classroom, this is the place to start. Ready to dive in? - Get my book Beyond The Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h  - Check out my Elevate Your Impact Interview Preparation Coaching Program: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching  - Visit my website: https://www.donovansmalls2.com  - Email us at donovansmalls2@gmail.com 

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 50: Didn't Get the Job? 3 Reasons to Ask for Interview Feedback

    Didn't get the job after your school leadership interview? Before moving on to your next opportunity, take a moment to ask for feedback. The right feedback can help you become a stronger candidate and improve your chances of landing your first leadership role. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3 important reasons why you should ask for feedback after an Assistant Principal interview or any school leadership interview. Learn how feedback can reveal your blind spots, strengthen your interview preparation, and help you turn rejection into personal and professional growth. If you have interviewed for a school leadership position but were not selected, this episode will help you understand what you can learn from that experience and how to prepare more effectively for your next opportunity. In This Episode: 00:00 Why You Should Ask for Feedback 02:35 Feedback Helps You See What You Can't See 05:36 Feedback Strengthens Your Next Interview 09:57 Turn Interview Rejection Into Growth Key Takeaways: • Understand how interview feedback reveals areas you may need to improve. • Identify weaknesses in your leadership interview answers. • Learn how to prepare for difficult and unexpected interview questions. • Use feedback to improve your communication and leadership skills. • Turn interview rejection into an opportunity for growth. • Prepare with greater confidence for your next interview. **What did you learn from your last interview experience?** Share your thoughts in the comments. Your experience may help another aspiring school leader. 👍🏾 Like this video if you found it helpful. 🔔 Subscribe for more practical advice on school leadership interviews and career growth. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📘 **PREORDER MY NEW BOOK** Land Your First School Leadership Role: A Practical Guide to Winning Interviews & Securing Your First Offer Preorder: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/product-page/interviewbook 📩 **JOIN THE INTERVIEW INSIDER NEWSLETTER** Get practical strategies and leadership story ideas to help you answer tough questions in your school leadership interview. Subscribe: https://www.donovansmalls2.com 🎯 **INTERVIEW READY GROUP COACHING** A four week live coaching program to help aspiring school leaders get interview ready, build strong leadership stories, and confidently land their first leadership role. Learn more: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/interviewready ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II** Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Helping aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first leadership role ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **💡 TOPICS COVERED IN THIS VIDEO:** Why You Should Ask for Feedback After an Interview How Interview Feedback Reveals Your Blind Spots How to Strengthen Your Next School Leadership Interview Turning Interview Rejection Into Growth Preparing for Your Next Assistant Principal Interview #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewFeedback #InterviewPreparation #TeacherToLeader #EducationalLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #InterviewTips

  2. Oct 28

    Episode 49: 5 Interview Stories That Prove You Are Ready to Lead a School

    Struggling to show your impact in a school leader interview? In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares the 5 leadership stories every aspiring school leader should have ready before the next interview. You can have the certifications, the experience and a resume packed with leadership accomplishments, but if you cannot communicate your impact, a hiring committee may never see your potential. People do not just hire your experience, they hire your story. Whether you are preparing for an assistant principal, principal or other school leadership interview, these are the 5 stories to prepare and the questions each one answers. 1. Your leadership journey story Questions it answers: Tell us about yourself. Why do you want to become a school leader? 2. A teacher growth or coaching story Questions it answers: Describe a time you coached a teacher. How do you support teacher development? 3. A student impact story Questions it answers: How have you improved student outcomes? Describe a time you advocated for students. 4. A challenge or conflict resolution story Questions it answers: Describe a difficult conversation you had with a colleague. How do you handle resistance to change? 5. A change or improvement story Questions it answers: Describe a change initiative you led. How do you approach school improvement? ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:24 Story 1: Your Leadership Journey 4:39 Story 2: Teacher Growth or Coaching 6:29 Story 3: Student Impact 7:45 Story 4: Challenge or Conflict Resolution 10:59 Story 5: Change or Improvement ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📘 PREORDER MY NEW BOOK Land Your First School Leadership Role: A Practical Guide to Winning Interviews & Securing Your First Offer Preorder: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/product-page/interviewbook 📩 JOIN THE INTERVIEW INSIDER NEWSLETTER Get practical strategies to help you prepare for your school leadership interview. Subscribe: https://www.donovansmalls2.com 🎯 INTERVIEW READY GROUP COACHING A four week live coaching program to help aspiring school leaders get interview ready and confidently land their first leadership role. Learn more: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/interviewready ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Helping aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first leadership role ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect 📺 YouTube → https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts → https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify → https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 👉🏾 Subscribe for more leadership interview strategies, career tips, and communication skills. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💡 TOPICS COVERED IN THIS VIDEO: Why Great Candidates Tell Stories in Interviews 5 Leadership Stories Every Aspiring School Leader Needs Answering School Leadership Interview Questions With Stories Landing Your First School Leadership Role

  3. Oct 21

    Episode 48: Why Memorizing Answers Will Not Get You the Leadership Role

    Is memorizing answers enough to land your first school leadership role? Interview preparation for aspiring school leaders is about communicating your leadership with confidence, not reciting scripts. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares four things that consistently show up when it comes to candidates who get passed over and those who actually land the role. Learn how to organize your experience into a clear leadership story, back up every claim with a real example, and think like a school leader instead of a teacher. Discover why interview teams are not looking for people who simply know how to answer questions. They are looking for leaders they can believe in. Instead of memorizing answers, learn how clarity, storytelling, strategic thinking, and honest feedback from an interview coach can help you approach your next interview with a stronger leadership mindset. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction 02:31 Clarity Creates Confidence 05:12 Stories Are More Powerful Than Statements 08:23 Preparation Changes the Way You Think 11:19 Feedback Speeds Up Growth If you’re an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you rethink your interview preparation and build confidence in your leadership journey. 👍🏾 Like this video if it helped you rethink your interview preparation. 💬 Comment below: Which of the four points do you need to work on the most? 🔔 Subscribe for more practical guidance on school leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, and leadership development. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. 📘 Grab Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🎯 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: Preparing for your first school leadership role? Get personalized guidance to strengthen your interview skills and leadership confidence. Learn more: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership #TeacherToLeader #InterviewCoaching #CareerGrowth

  4. Oct 14

    Episode 47: Too Many Interview Tips? Here's What Aspiring School Leaders Should Do

    Are too many interview tips confusing you? If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, learning to trust your preparation is just as important as preparing your answers. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II explains how too much interview advice can create confusion, weaken your confidence, and make you question your leadership abilities. Learn how to choose the right mentors, stop overthinking your answers, and trust the experience and skills you already bring to the table. Discover why you don't need to sound like another leader to succeed in a school leadership interview. Instead, learn how to communicate your authentic leadership style, share your experiences with confidence, and approach your next interview with a clearer mindset. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction 03:40 Choosing the Right Interview Advice 05:44 Trusting Your Interview Preparation 09:06 Embracing Your Authentic Leadership Style If you're an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you rethink your interview preparation and build confidence in your leadership journey. 👍🏾 Like this video if it helped you rethink your interview preparation. 💬 Comment below: Are you getting overwhelmed by too many interview tips? 🔔 Subscribe for more practical guidance on school leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, and leadership development. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. 📘 Grab Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 🎯 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: Preparing for your first school leadership role? Get personalized guidance to strengthen your interview skills and leadership confidence. Learn more: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership #TeacherToLeader #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth

  5. Oct 7

    Episode 46: How Chanel Rutty Got Hired as a Vice Principal (After a 7-Hour Interview)

    Are you an aspiring school leader trying to land your first Vice Principal role? Wondering what it takes to stand out in a grueling leadership interview? In this episode of The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, Dr. Donovan Smalls II talks with Chanel Rutty, a Vice Principal in Newark Public Schools, to explore her incredible journey from struggling with initial teaching exams to landing her dream administrative role in just 48 hours. Chanel gives strong advice on surviving a 7-hour interview, transitioning from charter to public schools, and the crucial mindset shift needed to ace your upcoming interview. 📌 Sections 00:00 Introduction: Meet Vice Principal Chanel Rutty 01:50 Chanel’s Inspiring Journey: From Failing Exams to Pre-K Teacher 04:42 Director vs. Vice Principal: What are the REAL differences? 09:22 Biggest lessons from Year 1 as an Elementary School VP 10:35 Charter School vs. Public School: The truth about work-life balance 15:22 How to stand out against other candidates in an AP interview 16:57 Surviving a grueling 7-HOUR leadership interview 18:48 How to make yourself marketable for administrative roles 21:45 The best advice for your first school leadership interview 22:55 The #1 Interview Mistake: Thinking like a teacher vs. a leader 23:58 Building School Culture: The power of "Community Walks" 26:08 How to connect with Chanel Rutty for mentoring If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to transition from the classroom to an administrative role, this podcast will help you prepare for the challenges ahead and speak about your value with confidence. You will learn how to: ✅ Overcome career setbacks and find your true purpose in education ✅ Differentiate between the roles of a Director and a Vice Principal ✅ Survive intense, multi-part leadership interviews ✅ Shift your mindset to think (and answer) like a leader, not just a teacher ✅ Make yourself highly marketable to school districts ✅ Build authentic community relationships through "Community Walks" Great leaders are not born when they're given a title. They are learned via experience, connections, service and the ability to inspire others. 🔗 Connect with Chanel Rutty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chanelrutty1908?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios About Dr. Donovan Smalls II : Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready and confidently land their first leadership role. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on: School Leadership, Assistant Principal Interviews, Educational Leadership, Leadership Development, Teacher Career Growth, Interview Preparation for Aspiring School Leaders. #SchoolLeadership #VicePrincipal #LeadershipInterview #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders #LeadershipinEducation #TeacherToAdmin

  6. Oct 1

    Episode 45: Fix Your Interview Weaknesses Before It’s Too Late

    How do you uncover your interview strengths? One of the best ways to identify your strengths is to understand your vulnerabilities. By evaluating the areas that may be holding you back, you can better prepare for a school leadership interview, strengthen your responses, and become more intentional about communicating the leadership strengths you already possess. You may have years of teaching experience and plenty of interview questions to practice, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are equipped to articulate your leadership effectively in an interview. Chapters: 00:00 — Do You Need Interview Coaching? 02:08 – Information Does Not Equal Transformation 06:53 — You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See 09:46 — Confidence, Feedback & Interview Success In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II discusses the importance of recognizing the areas that need improvement and how objective feedback, focused practice, and the right interview framework can help aspiring school leaders uncover their interview vulnerabilities, strengthen their weaknesses, and more clearly communicate their leadership strengths. You will learn: ✅ Why you can’t ace interviews only by gathering interview questions ✅ How to identify frequent interview blind spots ✅ How to frame your teaching experience as leadership ✅ Why feedback is better than memorizing answers ✅ Managing unexpected interview questions ✅ How deliberate practice can increase your interview confidence ✅ How interview coaching can make you perform better in the Leadership interview If you’re an aspiring school leader, a teacher getting ready for an assistant principal interview, or an educator working toward your first leadership job, this episode will help you approach your school leadership interview preparation with better clarity and confidence. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first school leadership role. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #EducationalLeadership

  7. Sep 23

    Episode 44: Why Will the INTERVIEW Committee Choose You? | The SECRET to Becoming a School Leader

    A school leadership interview is not only about your experience, your qualifications or the answers you give. It’s about how well you tell your leadership story, how you demonstrate your effect, and how you convince the interview committee you’re ready to lead. In this special episode of The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, Dr. Donovan Smalls II talks with Principal Kelin Mark Sr. to explore the journey from teacher to school leader and the disposition of aspiring leaders to thrive. Kelin Mark Sr., Principal with 24+ years in education, gives strong advice on leadership growth, interview prep, mentorship, developing relationships, and what separates the candidates that stand out from those who go missed. 📌 Sections 00:00 The Importance of Your Leadership Story 01:04 Classroom Teacher to School Principal: Kelin Mark’s Road to Leadership 04:43 Middle School Leadership Understanding 06:28 When to Think about Leadership as a Teacher 08:35 How to get leadership experience before an interview 11:05 Mentorship and the role in developing leadership 12:50 Leader Vs Manager: The Difference That Counts 18:32 How to make an interview board remember you 25:39 How to Build Confidence Before Your Leadership Interview 30:45 Why Family Engagement Matters in Schools Leadership 36:10 The Advice Every Aspiring Leader Needs to Hear If you’ve ever wondered if you have enough experience to be a school leader, this podcast will help you identify the leadership qualities you’re already growing and how to speak about your value with confidence. You will learn how to: ✅Transform your teaching into a powerful leadership tale ✅ Know what interview boards are really looking for ✅ Stand out from other candidates in leadership interviews ✅ Confidently and clearly describe your leadership style ✅ Move from being a task-oriented manager to a people-oriented leader ✅ Build authentic relationships with teachers, students and families ✅ Prepare to land your first school leadership role Great leaders are not born when they're given a title. They are learned via experience, connections, service and the ability to inspire others. About Dr. Donovan Smalls II : Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders prepare for interviews and boldly pursue leadership roles in education. 👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Streaming on: 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr

  8. Sep 17

    Episode 43: You Don’t Need More Interview Practice… You Need This

    A school leadership interview can make even a prepared candidate question their experience, strengths, and ability to lead. But often, the problem isn’t preparation, it’s confidence in your own leadership story. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3-mindset shifts to help aspiring school leaders build confidence before their next school leadership interview and communicate who they are, what they’ve accomplished, and what they bring to the table. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Your Confidence Starts With Your Story 02:59 Own the Uniqueness of Your Journey 06:37 Lead Your Interview With Your Strengths 09:07 Recognize the Leadership You Already Carry If you’ve ever walked into a school leadership interview wondering whether you’re the strongest candidate, this episode will help you stop focusing on what you lack and start recognizing the leadership you already demonstrate. You’ll learn how to: ✅ Embrace your unique journey and experiences ✅ Communicate your strengths with confidence ✅ Answer leadership questions from a leadership perspective ✅ Stop comparing your experience to other candidates ✅ Recognize leadership skills you already demonstrate through mentoring, collaboration, problem-solving, and initiative ✅ Show up to your interview with confidence, clarity, and ownership You don’t become a leader when you get the title. You expand the leader you already are. 🎯 Need Support Preparing for Your Leadership Interview? If you’re an aspiring school leader preparing to land your first school leadership role, personalized coaching can help you practice scenario-based questions, clarify your leadership story, and receive targeted feedback before the real interview. 👉🏾Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching 📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview ready & confidently land their first school leadership role. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen & Connect ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube 🔗 https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k 🎧 Spotify 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders

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About

The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is the go-to show for educators ready to step into school leadership with clarity, confidence, and impact. Hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II, an assistant principal, best-selling author, and interview coach, this podcast helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Dr. Smalls supports educators with interview preparation, equipping them to step into new roles fully prepared and confident. Each episode delivers real-world insights, actionable strategies, and honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities that come with school leadership. Whether listeners are preparing for their first interview or already walking the halls as leaders-in-waiting, this podcast provides the tools and guidance they need to show up ready. For educators ready to elevate their impact beyond the classroom, this is the place to start. Ready to dive in? - Get my book Beyond The Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h  - Check out my Elevate Your Impact Interview Preparation Coaching Program: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching  - Visit my website: https://www.donovansmalls2.com  - Email us at donovansmalls2@gmail.com 

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