The Private School Leader Podcast

On August 15, 1973, Richard Nixon gave a televised address to the American people from the White House. During that speech, Nixon said, “I had no knowledge of the Watergate break-in and I had no involvement in it.” His supporters believed him, but the investigation would eventually reveal that he had lied. The Watergate tapes were released to the American public on August 5, 1974. Just 3 days later, Richard Nixon became the only President to resign and Watergate became known as the largest scandal in the history of American politics. When we tell a lie, there are usually consequences. When we lie to ourselves, there are almost always significant consequences. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about The Leadership Lie That Is Keeping You Stuck. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 71 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help. I would love to he

Has this ever happened to you?  You receive an email from an upset parent, an upset teacher or an upset board member. The email makes you angry. You immediately write a response to that upsetting email. You hit send. And almost immediately, you wish you hadn’t. You wish that you could put the “toothpaste back in the tube”, but you can’t. You wish that you had a time machine, but you don’t. This has happened to me far too many times during my career. Unfortunately, it usually made things worse, damaged trust that I had worked hard to build and just escalated the level of drama. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about The Email That You Should Never Send. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 72 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help. I would love to hear more about your biggest problem and I would love to be your coach. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1. I am excited to

Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, I was a basketball coach. I coached Boy’s Varsity for nine years and coached 5th/6th Grade Girls for seven years. I wasn’t the same coach the entire game: If my team was making a lot of mistakes, they needed a teacher. If my team was down by a lot of points, they needed an encourager. If my team was not playing up to their potential, they needed a motivator. My team needed me to be a different kind of coach at different times during the season or even during the same game. Your school doesn’t just need a leader, your school needs the right kind of leader… right now. The leader your school needed in August might not be the leader your school needs today. The leader you were last year might not be the leader your school needs this year. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to give you 4 ways to be The Leader Your School Needs You To Be Right Now. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 71 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help. I would love to hear more about your biggest problem and I would love to be yo

Where I live, we are lucky enough to have all four seasons. Last week, I saw the first robin of the year and some of the daffodils are starting to pop up.  Spring is a wonderful season because it means winter is over and everything will be lush and green in just a few weeks. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a wonderful season for private school leaders. Why? Two words. Enrollment Season. I think that there are three reasons why so many private school leaders get so stressed out about their enrollment numbers at this time of year: Enrollment affects everything: staffing, budget, facility needs, curriculum purchasing, etc. Enrollment is a public number and the board always knows that number. No matter how hard you work at it, the outcome is mostly out of your control. The good news is that we still have time to take action. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to give you 5 Strategies That Will Boost Your Enrollment Before August. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 71 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day,

On October 17, 1995, Kyrie and Brielle Jackson were born at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. The twins were 12 weeks premature and each baby weighed just two pounds.  Kyrie was gaining weight in the days following their birth, but Brielle was having difficulty breathing, and her oxygen levels were dropping critically low. Nurse Gayle Kasparian, who was on duty that night, tried everything she knew to calm the baby girl. But nothing worked. As the minutes passed by and Brielle’s crying became uncontrollable, her condition worsened, and she started to turn blue. What Nurse Gayle Kasparian did next was against hospital rules. What she did next also changed the course of Neo-Natal care around the world. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about Extraordinary Empathy: The Hug That Changed Everything. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 71 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help. I would love to hea

On March 11, 2010 I was lying on the bathroom floor at my house. I had been lying there for an hour, because I couldn’t stand up. I couldn't keep anything down for two days and I was severely dehydrated and dizzy.  I said to my wife, “I need you to take me to the emergency room.” After a lot of tests, I was told that I had four ulcers in the lining of my stomach and esophagus. Then the ER doctor asked me, "Do you have a stressful job?" My job as a Private School Leader had finally put me in the hospital. I have experienced:  My daughter saying, “Dad, when do we get to see you instead of the back of your laptop?” My wife saying, “I feel like you are married to the school instead of me.” Feeling guilty and lonely Feeling stress and anxiety Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted I know how it feels to be in survival mode. I thought that I knew how to make it better: Just outwork the problem. Just come in earlier, stay later, work weeknights and weekends.  Just put your head down and work harder. But that didn't get me out of survival mode. It just made things worse. Then my self-talk was: “What's wrong with me? I must be weak.” I don’t want YOU to stay stuck in survival mode any longer. I know that you don’t want to be there and you definitely don’t want to stay there. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to give you Your Survival Mode Escape Plan. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus If you like the podcast, please write a review and leave a rating. Your review helps to push this content out as a suggested podcast to private school leaders all over the world. The Private School Leader Podcast has been downloaded in 71 countries and all 50 states. Thank you for listening and thanks for your review! I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide!  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolle

90% can be an awesome number or a terrible number. It can be an awesome number when: Your favorite team has a 90% chance of winning the championship You live in a city where 90% of the days are sunny It can be a terrible number when: 90% of the students in your Middle School have earned a detention in the last 2 weeks There is a 90% chance of rain on the morning of your annual Field Day Over the last three years, I have had conversations with over 200 private school leaders and there are two big problems that keep coming up again and again. In fact, most of the school leaders that I talk to actually struggle with both of these problems at the same time. So, on today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about The 2 Problems That 90% Of School Leaders Face (And How To Fix Them.) Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your bigg

There are very few guarantees in life. However, there are probabilities. Think about your car. If you drive the speed limit, obey the rules of the road, have good tires and good brakes, you are less likely to get into an accident. However, if you speed, run red lights, drive on bald tires and your brakes are shot, you are probably going to get into an accident. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in our private schools. Sometimes, we work really hard all year on retention and recruitment and still don’t hit our enrollment goals. We go above and beyond to have a safe campus and someone still slips and falls on the ice. Sometimes, we go all in on a new initiative and it fails miserably. There are no guarantees in our private schools. But there are probabilities. This is likely to happen if we stop doing that. This is very likely to happen if we keep doing that. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I want to let you know that You Will Lose Good Teachers And Good Families If You Keep Doing These 2 Things. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab th

When I ask you to picture the island of Jamaica, what comes to mind? Probably white, sandy beaches, palm trees and crystal clear water. What you probably don’t think about is snow, ice and needing to dress in multiple layers just to keep warm.  But, in the late 1980s, the Jamaican Olympic Committee decided to send a team of athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. The sport? Bobsledding. Predictably, people laughed. Even people from their own country mocked them. Many media members treated the team like a novelty act instead of legitimate competitors. But the team trained. They ACTUALLY qualified and they showed up in Calgary and lined up on the same ice as the most established programs in the world.  They didn’t win a medal, but they did something else. They earned the respect of their competitors and they proved to the world that they were not a circus sideshow, but they were actually Olympians.  On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 4 Leadership Lessons From The 1988 Jamaican Bobsled Team. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks! I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com

I hate going to the dentist. The thing that I hate the most is when the dental hygienist gives me a shot of Novocain and says, “You are going to feel a little pinch.” Yeah, right! It feels like a needle just went through my gum and directly into my brain.  I need to be straight with you. During this episode, you are going to feel a “pinch.” I am going to be talking about some things that your teachers wish you knew. Maybe it’s just me, but I have always felt that anonymous feedback from my teachers was the most difficult feedback for me to hear.  Can’t they see how hard I am working to support them? Don’t they trust me? How could they possibly feel that way after everything that I have done for them? This episode is about the gap between what you intend as a leader and what your teachers experience day to day. And here’s the hard truth: You cannot close a gap if you keep pretending that it doesn’t exist. So, take a deep breath, pause your defense mechanisms and remember that good leaders can hear hard things. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to tell you The 4 Things That Teachers Wish Their Principals Knew. Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that p

We all know the name Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seven-time Mr. Olympia. Hollywood action star. The Terminator. At his peak, Arnold could bench press well over 500 pounds and had one of the most powerful physiques the world had ever seen. Being the most famous body builder in the world led to notoriety and eventually led to Arnold being the highest-grossing movie star in Hollywood. But, he also had some weaknesses.  Flexibility? Not exactly his thing. Fine motor precision? Can you imagine Arnold trying to thread a needle? And early in his acting career, his size actually held him back from developing as an actor. In other words, the very thing that made Arnold Schwarzenegger exceptional also created limitations. The same thing can be true about private school leaders. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss how Your Biggest Strength Could Also Be Your Biggest Weakness. Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is fe

I don’t like snowplows. When I see a snow plow, that means that the roads are snow covered. I don’t like driving on snowy roads, especially because of the hilly terrain where I live. There’s also another reason that I don’t like snow plows. For the 21 years that I was a Head of School, getting our school’s parking lot plowed always seemed to be a recurring source of stress. There is something that I like even less: “snowplow parenting.” Snow plow parents constantly try to clear the path for their child and remove every obstacle. I can’t believe that I am saying this, but I actually prefer “the good old days” when we mostly dealt with “helicopter parents.” In my experience, helicopter parents try to micro-manage problems, but snow plow parents try to completely eliminate problems. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss How To Handle The Concerning Shift From "Helicopter Parenting" To "Snow Plow Parenting"  I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you

I listen to a lot of Sports Talk Radio. At this time of year, the NFL playoffs give everyone a lot to talk about. But, after the Super Bowl, the hosts of the local and national shows have to try pretty hard to manufacture topics. Inevitably, one of the hosts will start talking about the GOAT in every sport. Of course, GOAT stands for the Greatest Of All Time. In my opinion, the GOATs in the four major sports are Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Mario Lemieux and Babe Ruth. That said, I think that Shohei Ohtani, of the LA Dodgers, has a chance to become the greatest baseball player of all time. So, why am I talking about GOATs? Because I think that the greatest leadership book of all time is The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. The tagline of this amazing book is “follow them and people will follow you.” Law #1 is “The Law of The Lid.” On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 3 Ways To Lift Your “Leadership Lid.” Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school. Thanks for all you do, Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport, bound for Charlotte. Just 94 seconds after takeoff, the plane struck a flock of geese. Both engines failed, at just under 3,000 feet, over one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger had just seconds to make a decision. Try to turn back to LaGuardia? Try to make it to Teterboro airport in New Jersey? Or do something no one had ever successfully done before, land a commercial jet in the Hudson River?  A little over four minutes after the bird strike and total engine failure, Captain Sully had successfully landed Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. All 155 people on board survived. A catastrophic disaster had been avoided and this incident quickly became known as “The Miracle on the Hudson.” As private school leaders, we are not trying to land full jets on icy rivers. That said, we often have to make high pressure decisions, where the stakes are high and the margin for error feels really small. On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss 4 Leadership Lessons From Captain Sully And "The Miracle On The Hudson." Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week! Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going

If you watch TV between Christmas day and New Year’s Day, you will see a lot of commercials for gym memberships. In fact, if you watch the New Year’s Eve coverage from Times Square, you will immediately notice that Planet Fitness is the exclusive sponsor of the big ball drop. Of course, gym memberships are being advertised because the most common New Year’s resolution is to get in better shape. Unfortunately, most studies show that around 80% of New Year’s resolutions never make it to February 1. I strongly believe that your 2026 can be dramatically different if you make just one change.  On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to try to persuade you that, If You Only Make 1 New Year's Resolution, Please Make This One. I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. I would like to wish you and your family a safe and healthy and happy new year! Mark Minkus I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Gossip. A teacher coming to you because they can’t get along with another teacher? Well, I am excited to share with you a resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School. This is a 9 page pdf that will give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am really excited to share a new resource with you that I created recently. It is called The 6 Keys To Improving Your Relationship With Your Board. The most important relationship in our private schools is the one between the Board and the Head of School and I think that there is always room for improvement. This FREE guide is a 7 page pdf where I give you specific strategies to strengthen your relationships with your board members. So go www.theprivateschoolleader.com/board to grab your free guide! Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget. That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive  Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more! I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created a few weeks ago. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds. Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.  Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help. I would love to hear more about you