Episode 221: The Power of Belief - Miguel Salazar’s Journey to Transformative Leadership (NASSP MS POY finalist)

Darrin Peppard (00:01.91)

All right, everybody. Welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. This is episode two hundred twenty one, and this is the fifth installment in our special series that we've been doing over the last couple of weeks with interviews featuring the NASSP National Principal of the Year finalists. And this is also the final of our three middle school principal finalists. What an incredible trio of leaders this has been.

Today I'm joined by Miguel Salazar, and Miguel is the principal of Sundown Middle School in Sundown, Texas. His story is one of deep personal transformation, growing up in poverty, facing significant challenges in his youth, and ultimately returning to his hometown to become the very leader he needed as a kid. In our conversation, we talk about how he and his team are changing the game for students with the Beyond the Classroom initiative which is a daily period where teachers connect with kids through life skills, fun, and authentic relationship building. It's more than a cultural shift. It's a movement rooted in equity, love, and relentless belief in what kids can become. This is a great conversation. You're going to love it. So let's jump right in with Miguel Salazar, National Principal of the Year finalist from Sundown, Texas.

Darrin Peppard (00:00.725)

All right, everybody. Welcome back into the Leaning into Leadership podcast. We continue with our special series interviewing each of the national finalists for principal of the year. And today on the show, I'm joined by Miguel Salazar, who is principal at Sundown Middle School in Sundown, Texas. Here's a little bit about Miguel before he became the principal at Sundown.

He was a math teacher, coach, assistant principal, and has been a high school principal. He's dedicated to fostering positive school culture, promoting equity, and ensuring student success. His leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that a thriving educational community is built upon shared accountability, high standards, and continuous improvement. He champions proactive strategies to cultivate a positive school culture.

focusing on building genuine relationships, addressing mental health needs, and celebrating student achievements. He is committed to equipping students with the academic and social and emotional skills they need to succeed, and he gives tons of credit to his staff for their willingness to carry out this vision. Miguel, welcome to Leaning Into Leadership.

Miguel Salazar (01:19.054)

Thank you, sir. It's a privilege and honor to be here to share the story of our school district. I'm excited to be here.

Darrin Peppard (01:25.365)

Outstanding and and so so let me open with this. First and foremost, congratulations on being named the middle school principal of the year in the state of Texas and as well. Of course, a national finalist for middle school principal of the year through NASSP. Certainly a huge bit of recognition. It's a huge honor and I'd love to have you.

We'll talk about all of that in a few minutes. I'd love to have you maybe share a little bit of your journey. I'd love to have you share just a little bit of your journey that, know, kind of an interesting trajectory. We don't see too many high school principals become middle school principals. Sometimes it goes the other way around. So

share a little bit of your background, a little bit of your journey with our listeners so they know a little bit more about Miguel.

Miguel Salazar (02:24.013)

Okay, so not going too far back, but I actually grew up in Sundown. And as you mentioned, I am the middle school principal in Sundown now. And middle school, which is crazy because I never did middle school in my previous 17 years. And so I grew up here in Sundown. I'm a child of immigrants. My parents are both from Mexico. I'm number two of six children. We grew up in poverty. I didn't know we were poor. We had a lot of love. My parents loved us.

and they did the best they could, but we were just, again, my parents were immigrants and my dad came over and he was working in the oil field. Oil was booming in Texas and when you think of oil, you think of money. Well, that's the owners. That's the people that own the wells. That's the people that have rights to the minerals. My dad didn't own anything. He was the guy that was trying to extract all of that stuff. He was the worker. He was down towards the bottom.

And so again, you know, back in the 90s, my dad probably made $25,000. And that's for a family of eight. There are six kids. I'm again, I'm number two of six. And so I grew up with a lot of great values because of that living in that poverty. And for me, I felt like that also was my trajectory of there is better for me out there. And my parents knew that too. They didn't necessarily know how to get me there because they didn't have the experience of going to college. My mom has a

she actually had dropped out and went back to school and got her high school diploma or equivalency. My dad had a third grade education from Michael. And so my parents knew there was more out there, but they didn't know necessarily how to get me there. And so that, you know, it kind of leads me into why I'm here and why I do what I do. You know, what my why is, is huge. And if your why isn't greater than your biggest obstacles, that's where we see teacher burnout. That's where we see people getting out of education. And so for me,

That has been the foundation of what I do and why I do what I do. I've become a hero leader, using that term very loosely, and the fact that I just take on more, and I just want to do more, and I want to do everything I can for anybody and everybody. And so for me, I had a teacher as a freshman, kind of given a little history of myself. I was told, Miguel Salazar, we've never seen anything like you in sundown before.

Miguel Salazar (04:41.461)

Now that was as a sixth grader and the reason they said that is because I'd just gotten in trouble for burglary. And so that had definitely had a negative connotation. We've never seen anything like you before in Sundown and that wasn't a good thing. As an eighth grader, I was also seen as the leader of a gang here in Sundown and Sundown is a small rural town where there's no gangsters here. Gangs are not real here.

Darrin Peppard (04:51.325)

Yeah.

Miguel Salazar (05:07.639)

But I was given that title of gang leader of a very derogatory term of a group of kids called Los Mojados. And that's wetback, that's a very derogatory term towards Mexicans in my Mexican culture. And as a 10th grader, I got in trouble for vandalism and shoplifting. And so I had quite the history. And it was, again, through my failures that I was able to overcome and do the things that I do. But in the process, I had a teacher that came along. He was a teacher and a coach. They came my freshman year.

Darrin Peppard (05:07.838)

Yeah.

Miguel Salazar (05:36.959)

And I had a clean slate with him. His name is Danny Randolph. And he was the one that put me on that trajectory of making me believe that I could be something that I had no idea was even a possibility for me. Again, my parents knew they wanted better for me, but they didn't know how to get me there. And it wasn't until a coach and teacher, Danny Randolph came along and was like, there's something in you. You've got potential. Where are you going to go to college? And he spoke to me in such a manner that I'm like, wait, college?

from sundown, I'm a poor Mexican kid, don't you know that poor Mexican kids from sundown just go work in the old field? Like that's what everybody does around here. My kind of people, my type, doesn't go to college. We don't do stuff like that. We just were meant to work for the rest of our lives. And so it was because of him that completely changed my mindset. He instilled in me so much discipline and gave me the hope that, and saw me for who I could become, not for who I was in the moment. And again, who I was in the moment was

Miguel Salazar, we've never seen anything like you before in Sundown. And so he put me on this trajectory of making me believe that I could be something. And that's my why. I want to be Danny Randolph to as many kids as I can. I want to be that person that changes that mindset in as many kids as I can. And I feel like that has been my journey. That's how I'm here today is because my why is bigger than my hard days, is bigger than the, you know, the

the hard parents that I have to have conversations with. It's harder than the kids that just continue to disappoint me time and time again because I don't see them for the disappointment that they are in that moment. I see them for what they can become 10, 15 years down the road because that was done for me and I owe it to them to give them that opportunity.

Darrin Peppard (07:22.897)

And that is really powerful. That's extremely powerful story. I think I think there's so much to be said for educators who genuinely want to pour into kids. And I love how you said that, that it's not about who they are in the moment, it's who they can become and really looking at them for the potential that they have. I also think it's an incredible story that you know, you are

Number one, you're in the town where you grew up and two, you are embodying exactly what you want to be for other kids because that happened for you, because somebody did that for you. I'm curious, you mentioned that teacher and coach when you came back and you began your teaching career, your school leadership career, was he still?

teaching at that time? does he know the impact that he had on you?

Miguel Salazar (08:23.756)

And I would say yes. And a big part of that for me is through my journey, through all the failures that I've had in life and some valleys that I've had, through all of that, I have come out a changed man, a better man. And one of those things is gratitude. And so for me, gratitude is very, very important. And through that gratitude, I have reached out. Anytime I've ever gotten anything, I've always put his name.

out in the forefront and I've always thanked him. So he was a teacher and a coach here for many years and he's actually out but he still lives here in town. He still lives here in Sundown and so through this journey he's been right there to continue to encourage me and just he just honestly and he's a very humble man and he's like I don't he doesn't feel like he had that big of an impact on me. He doesn't even realize what he did for me and his wife has always been very

appreciative of me giving him his flowers. And I think she's probably told him for many years how impactful he was for so many kids for so many years. And I'm hoping that he starts to believe it because he had a profound effect on me. And again, for his character, I think this is just something that was innate in him. I don't know if at some point somebody did this for him and instilled this same.

Encouragement for him that he just does it so naturally that he doesn't realize what he's doing And so that for me is where I want to get to that point that it just becomes second nature to me and I think it is I think it has become second nature for me because it is such a passion for me and I do give it my all in those situations and those situations happen all the time because I get a kid that comes in here that again that has been in trouble and Oddly enough most of the kids that come in here aren't doing

quite as bad stuff as I was doing. And so I'm like, you're light work, man. You're down at the bottom. I was doing way crazier stuff than you. So you have way more potential than I had. And I truly believe that about these kids. But again, that gratitude that I have is I do put him on that pedestal. do reach out and I do tell him, anytime I have an opportunity to speak about the educator that made me who I am. Danny Randolph's name is gonna be said.

Darrin Peppard (10:22.367)

Yeah.

Miguel Salazar (10:40.028)

every single time, every single interview I do, I'm always going to include him in it.

Darrin Peppard (10:45.587)

That's outstanding. Yeah, shout out to Danny Randolph. Folks, as you're listening to this, you have to be thinking about that that one or two, you know, teachers that are in your past that have made a difference. Shoot him a text today, you know, hit him up on Facebook. I mean, whatever if they're still around, if they are still in your life and you're able to communicate with them, do that because you know what? Hey, all of us as educators.

You know, we've had those moments where somebody has reached to us and said, you know, hey, you don't have any idea the impact you had on me. Continue to pay that for because it's just so powerful. I want to talk about this Miguel, want to know more about Sundown Middle School. And I want to know about the work that you're doing there, the work that you have led. What are some of the things that you would say people need to know?

about your school and about what's happening at your school.

Miguel Salazar (11:45.484)

Sundown is in a small rural community. We're miles away. We're 40 miles southwest of Lubbock. And so you don't just happen across Sundown. You are intentional in coming to Sundown. We are not a drive through town. We are the final destination. And so Sundown for many, many years has a reputation for being an elite style school. We're a blue bonnet school for many years. Our elementary has done some great

fantastic work and I think that's where the foundation of our success comes from is from Sundown Elementary. We're in a unique situation that we're in a district of about 500 kids and we're housed in one main building and so elementary is on the far end, they're on the north end of the school. Sundown Middle School is here on the south end and then the high school is right in the middle. We share cafeteria, we share the gym, we share everything.

And so a big part of our success absolutely comes from Sundown Elementary and they build that foundation so that when we get here, we're just here to try to sustain and even improve upon what they've done at the elementary. Again, we are known for being elite when it comes to our academics. And so here at Sundown Middle School, my job isn't to try to reinvent the wheel. I'm really, again, here to just enhance what has already been happening here. And so

Darrin Peppard (12:57.185)

God damn it.

Miguel Salazar (13:09.115)

We are successful in many of the things that we do. again, my goal is what can I do to add to this? Again, because I have walked in their shoes, literally walked these halls myself. It's important for me to, again, with that mindset of growing up in poverty myself, one of the things that is talked about for students in poverty is having that champion, having somebody that can kind of take that kid and then pull them along.

One really neat activity that I have done is our red, yellow, green dot activity. And what I do is I put a picture of every single kid up on butcher paper, and every teacher is given a sticker. And those stickers are, again, red, yellow, and green. And so the stickers symbolize, do you know anything about this child outside of school? If you know nothing about that child, you have to put a red dot, a red sticker underneath their picture.

If you know one or two things, you get to put a yellow. If you know three or more things, you get to put a green. And so we do that for all of our kids. And then we look at it, and we look at it micro and macro. And so we're looking to see what patterns are we seeing? And at the end of the day, what kids have all red dots? And why? Why do they have red dots? Why don't they have the yellow? Why don't they have the green? Why don't they have a teacher? Because if a teacher doesn't know about that kid,

That kid most likely does not know about that teacher either. There's no authenticity there. There's no relationship there. And so that's one of the coolest activities that we have done, which led me to, you know, we've got to do better. We've got to be better. I've got to make sure that my kids have a champion. We've got about 135 students here at Sundown Middle School. I've got about 20 staff members. Each one of those kids should have a staff member that they can look up to that has a green sticker next to their name.

And so that's very intentional in doing that activity. And so one thing that we brought about is we started doing something called Beyond the Classroom. And Beyond the Classroom, again, I consider myself to be a visionary leader. And being a visionary leader oftentimes comes change. With change comes, know, and change is hard. Change is hard for us as adults. Change is hard for kids. Change is just hard. And so I've got to make sure that whatever I'm going to put in place is got to be something that I get complete buy-in from my teachers.

Miguel Salazar (15:26.943)

So we've got 30 minutes, 25 minutes set aside each day. We call it activity period. And it's something that I had envisioned and talked to number of teachers about over the past few years and finally put it into place this year. And again, the reason for doing it is because I need these kids to have that champion. And so each teacher has a skillset that they can teach. How often do we hear, man, I wish my kids would have learned that in school. And so we started to bring about those things. So what

is it that we can teach kids how to do? Well, my teachers came up with a list of things that they were comfortable teaching. Not something they had to go out and learn, something they were already comfortable with. So I had teachers that were doing simple car maintenance stuff. I had teachers that did budgeting, cooking a meal on a budget, teaching kids how to sew a button, teaching kids how to count money back, teaching kids how to play pickleball. You don't have to all just be a skill set. Sometimes it's just fun stuff and there's so much work.

Lane Pethick does a lot of work on just having fun and just playing and how that rewires the brain. And so that's one of the activities that are done. We do trust falls with somebody. have a number of making friendship bracelets. And so my teachers had an opportunity to connect with kids. So I have teachers that are my eighth grade math teacher. So they see eighth graders all day long.

They don't get to see these sixth graders or seventh graders. They don't get to start building those connections with them other than seeing them in the hall. And so we had this rotating schedule where we went to each teacher twice a week. Each of our kids is already grouped in sections and they're done by grade level. And so one week they're with their activity teacher doing the activity that the teacher has planned. The next week they may go to an eighth grade teacher that's teaching them how to start a budget. And in that they're not teaching X's and O's per se. It's more about

having that opportunity to build those relationships with the kids. And when it's all said and done, I may have had a sixth grade kid that had been struggling because they didn't really have a sixth grade teacher they connected with. But that eighth grade teacher is just like them. That eighth grade teacher had some of the same struggles that they had growing up. They're quirky, just like them, and they don't even realize that until they have an opportunity to spend some time in their class teaching, you know, being taught how to do an origami project. And because of that, I feel like I have built

Miguel Salazar (17:44.859)

more champions for my kids in the process. And notice I haven't talked anything about curriculum. This is more about the building that culture of building genuine, authentic relationships for my kids because that is so powerful for me. That is my why. So how do I incorporate that into my school? And that's one way that we have been able to do that.

Darrin Peppard (17:50.823)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (18:05.341)

I think that's really, really powerful and kudos to you, but also to your staff. think it's one of the neatest things that I've heard, giving staff an opportunity to take something they're passionate about and share it with the kids. Instead of thinking, I have to, know, every one of us has to teach, you know, budgeting or every one of us has to fill in the blank. Instead, if it's, hey, I love pickleball.

I want to teach kids how to play pickleball, then that's what we're going to do. And you know, the thing is, your teachers, I'm sure, are they're doing what they're doing with a big smile on their face. And like you said, it's really about them building the relationship more than it is about what they're teaching. And when it's something that they care about, when it's something that they love, I mean, this is true for every one of us. When we're talking about something we love, we're going to really

share that passion and people are going to feel that. And so I'm sure that that really does drive a lot of relationship building there within the school. And again, I think that I think that's one of the most important pieces. Now, really quick, tell me how long have you been at the middle school because I know you were at the high school previously.

Miguel Salazar (19:22.506)

So I was at a different school. I was there in Rawls for 17 years and I worked my way up as teacher and a coach. Again, Danny Randolph was my coach and so that's what got me into education. I started, you know, how can I continue to make an impact when I got out of coaching because I had my own family. I started a family very young again as if I wasn't making life hard enough already. I had my daughter, Alyssa, who's now 23 years old. I had her at 19 and her mom at the time was 17 and we got married very young.

Darrin Peppard (19:25.104)

Okay.

Darrin Peppard (19:34.119)

Okay.

Darrin Peppard (19:45.043)

Ha

Miguel Salazar (19:52.499)

And so I wanted to also be there for my family and coaching didn't allow me to do that. So I got out of coaching, got into administration shortly after that. And so now I have had to find a way to make an impact. And again, I have found that if people can be an extension of my values and my vision, that I'm able to impact so many more people through my staff to so many more kids than just the kids that I have.

Darrin Peppard (19:59.72)

Yeah.

Miguel Salazar (20:19.976)

you know a handful of kids that see me as their champion. If I can help build champions for all of these other kids, life can just be so much better for so many people.

Darrin Peppard (20:26.045)

Yeah.

So, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Miguel Salazar (20:32.362)

And with this Beyond the Classroom, just like you said, it has allowed, you know, one more thing for the teachers, but it's not work when it's something you're passionate about. My teachers were actually looking forward to it. Ashley Buffie, she's one of my, she's my GT teacher, and she tries to give me a hard time about it. And just like you said, I really think that she likes it, but she likes to complain about this, you know, having to do this extra activity.

Darrin Peppard (20:52.979)

Yeah

Miguel Salazar (20:55.07)

but I've gotten so much positive feedback from her included. She's the one that does the pickleball and she just loves it. In fact, she's already emailed me about her plan for next year. She already knows what she's gonna do. She's on summer break. Why is she emailing me during summer break? Because she's passionate about it. That passion is, and it resonates and the kids see it because kids can see right through the fake. Kids are looking forward to coming to school because they're looking forward to be on the classroom. Parents have come up to being expressed.

how much their children look forward to their beyond the classroom thing. They're not coming up to me and talking about, they're looking forward to math class next week. And I'm a math teacher so I can say that. They're looking forward to this beyond the classroom and it just changes the culture here in my school. It has completely transformed it. And our culture was already good. Like this wasn't a doom and gloom place, but it has elevated it to a different level.

Darrin Peppard (21:32.018)

Right.

Darrin Peppard (21:49.47)

So here's where I want to go with that. We have a lot of listeners who are maybe in their first year or second year in their building principalship, or maybe they're just getting ready to get started. And if they're regular listeners to the show, they know that I talk frequently about developing that compelling vision of your school. Like, here's where I see my school can be in nine months, in 12 months, in two years.

When you first came to Sundance Middle School as the building administrator, one, talk about maybe that process of how you found that vision of here's what I believe we need to do and where I believe we can go. And how much time did it take for you to kind of pull that all together?

Miguel Salazar (22:43.923)

So I have been here, I just finished my fourth year. We just did this in my fourth year. So this is, I don't know how long this has been going in my head. I actually envisioned this when I was at my previous school and doing stuff like this. And I kinda had little snippets of it where maybe we did a day of it and had teachers teaching something. But again, that was coming for me. I, again, through my failures,

I have refined what it needs to look like. And in fact, for this year, I'm already thinking of ways to improve it. For me, again, the vision is solely based on that relationship aspect of it. And I had been a part of Raise Your Hand Texas, which is funded by the Charles Butt Foundation. And it's a great organization that paid for me to be able to go to Harvard for a week of professional development. It's like the Mecca of professional development. You think about Harvard or the leaders in

research and you know I was there for a week and this is one of the activities that we did I can't remember specifically how it was done but for me when I go to professional development I always think how can I change this to work in my favor how can I use this because a lot of times we're small school things that we go to it's a lot of big school people a lot of big school ideas that don't necessarily translate for us so I've got to take it and I have to modify it and so in the process I modified it into an activity

that showed kids that don't have that adult in their life. And when they don't have that adult in their life, now what? Now that I have this data, it's one of the worst things we do as educators is we run and we do and get all of this data and then the data goes into a box and it goes into a closet. It's terrible. How are we utilizing that data? So for me, how do I utilize this data? And again, I've done this activity and I've done it a number of times in Rawls and I think I've just...

tried to find ways to use that data to go along with my vision. Again, my vision, my overall vision is to give every single one of our kids a champion. And so that translated into utilizing this one as I think I finally have a way that I can put my kids in contact with my staff. At high school, it's a little different because most of my high school teachers had a better connection with my kids because they taught multiple classes, they got to see multiple grade levels.

Miguel Salazar (25:08.679)

This was my first time being at Sundown Middle School, being in a middle school setting. And so I didn't realize that it's pretty much a grade to itself. You have a seventh grade ELAR teacher. You have a sixth grade science teacher. That's it. They don't really cross grade levels. And so for me, I'm like, how can I do this? I started to incorporate the activity last year with the idea of let's do some social emotional learning things.

let's do other things. I found, again, being that hero leader, I was the one doing all of these extra things. The social-emotional lessons that I was doing, I tried to get my teachers on board to doing it, but again, it was requiring them to go out and seek it and then bring it into their classroom. I'm a control freak. I'll be the first one to tell you that. And it just wasn't jiving with me. It just wasn't working for me. And so I had to find a way that I could still be in control by knowing what teachers were going to be doing.

But still trying to balance not giving them something extra to do that's where the passion comes in of what can you bring to the table? Let's create a Google sheet everybody put your things down I had a couple teachers that wanted to do the same thing had them have conversations of who could do it who could do something different and When it was all said done we had a model that we created it was a 10-week program They met with those kids twice a week They did the same activity they taught kids how to sew a button for 10 weeks straight which

would seem like it would get mundane and get old and boring, but you had 10 different groups of kids that were coming through. And again, the goal was not to teach them how to sew a button. The goal was to learn about this kid and to start building that genuine connection with them. I had zero discipline problems in my Beyond the Classroom stuff. Kids, whether they were into sewing buttons or not, and you think about one of your tougher kids, he'd never sit in a classroom and sew a button. No.

That same kid that we're thinking about was one of the most meticulous kids and he was just like right here. So in this button, he was completely into it. didn't talk. He wasn't a discipline issue. It was magical, truly magical. The magic was in the details of how we organize it, put it together. And then just the setting, the environment that my staff and the tribute to my staff of how they created just this great environment of

Miguel Salazar (27:30.953)

I'm gonna teach you how to sew a button, but I really just want to get to know you guys.

Darrin Peppard (27:35.42)

That's so powerful. I think it's amazing too. And I would imagine now that there are very few kids that it's not just that you have a few kids who had red dots, I would guarantee now there's not a single one of those. But I would bet there aren't very many kids on that campus that every teacher doesn't know by name as as you've gone through this process. And man, what an amazing way to build culture to create

a true community in your school and just simply to as you put it so eloquently to give every kid a champion I congratulate you and your staff on that that is absolutely amazing, amazing work. And I'll tell you this too, Miguel, it's amazing. Our time is just flying by here on the show. I do want to ask you one more thing though, before I ask the last question that asked of everybody here on the show. So

National Principal of the Year, Middle School Finalist. When you are in Seattle in July, you and the other two Middle School Finalists have to give a 10 minute presentation to talk about something at your school. I find this, I find this amazing. I find it mind blowing because I can't introduce myself in under 10 minutes. I don't know how you guys are going to

I mean, and I've met all three of you, and I can't imagine they're going to put a clock on you guys, because I can't see any of the three of you telling your story in under 10 minutes. just give us a minute or two. What are you thinking you're going to talk about? Are you going to talk about this this particular project, the Beyond the Classroom?

Miguel Salazar (29:26.844)

I don't know that I'll have 10 minutes to talk about that. So I think a big part of my story is going to be that story of redemption, that story of you have students that got in trouble, maybe didn't do burglary at sixth grade and gang leaders at eighth grade and vandalism shoplifting at 10th grade. But the next finalist for national principle of the year might be sitting in your classroom today. And how are you seeing them? So it goes back to that mindset of

You cannot continue to see kids for who they are in the moment. You have to see them for who they can become in the future. And what is your passion? Because if you find what that passion is, you'll find that you'll never work a single day in your life. And when you do that, you're going to find people saying, we've never seen anything like you before. Because you're going to be, one, you've got to find that balance. And the advice that I would give to myself when I first started is,

balance. have to take care of yourself in order to take care of everybody else. Because if you don't take care of yourself, you're going to find that you can't be everything for everybody. In fact, you're going to find that you're nothing for everybody. So a big part of my speech is also going to be about taking care of yourself, taking care of yourself physically, mentally, spiritually. And I talk about how I do that myself. How do I go about

When I leave this building, I cannot be a principal 24-7. I cannot be on call 24-7. And I think in education, we have lost that. And we are not afraid to just pick up the phone and call our teacher at 8 o'clock at night because something popped into our head. That's unfair. And it has to start from the top down. It has to start from the board members to the superintendent, superintendent to the administrators, administrators to the teachers, teachers to the students. And we have to find that balance that we mentally, our world is in disarray.

and we have to make sure that we are taking care of our own mental health so that we can help students take care of their mental health. So again, my message to the people is we have to start taking care of ourself. How do we do that? Here are a couple of things and here's a couple of ways that I do it. And because of that, I am now able to become the best version of myself. What is my why? That allows me to come to work each and every single day without feeling like I'm working. And it helps me to elevate myself, it elevates my staff and in the process,

Miguel Salazar (31:49.619)

The kids are the ones that benefit from it. And that's why at the end of the day, that is why we are in the business that we're in. How do we best take care of students? By taking care of ourselves. Don't be afraid to fail. I have stumbled through failure after failure after failure. Winston Churchill said failing without losing enthusiasm and going through all those failures is where you encounter success. And so I am successful because of my failures. I'm not afraid to share my story. I'm not afraid to be vulnerable.

Ask me a question, I'll tell you. I don't need sympathy from you. I don't need you to feel sorry for me. It's not why I'm telling my story, but I'm telling you my story because I wanted to give hope to that next person. Because those of you sitting in the audience today, I know that you're struggling with things and it's hard being a principal, being a leader is lonely. We are lonely at the top. We've got to start sharing our story. I'm grateful for this opportunity, Mr. Pepper, that you have given me to share my story.

because maybe this resonates with somebody and maybe this helps somebody to get out of that bunk that they're in. And if I can change and impact one life, I've done my job today.

Darrin Peppard (32:54.868)

That's outstanding stuff, Man, I unfortunately I will not be at United this year, I will be I will be doing some work with one of the districts that I support that particular week. So I'm bummed, I would love to get the chance to to see all of you guys there. But I know it's going to be it's going to be a wonderful event for all of you. So again, our time has flown by. at this point, Miguel, I'm gonna ask you the same question I ask everybody here on the Leaning into Leadership podcast.

How are you leaning into leadership right now?

Miguel Salazar (33:29.288)

Again, just like I explained, I am taking care of myself. And a quote that I heard from Ryan Holiday, the great stoic, he's got a couple books out, but I had an opportunity to hear him speak. I got presented at TASSA this past year. And so one of the things that he said and something that really just stuck with me is, you don't have enough life experiences to sustain you.

And I thought that was very powerful because how am I supposed to lead? How am I supposed to serve? Because to me that's what leadership is. It's serving others. How can I serve others if I'm not taking care of myself? How am I supposed to give them what they need if I'm also not learning it myself? And so I fill my head with a lot of things mentally by reading books. Anything I put into my head is going to come out. Anything I put into my heart is going to come out. And so I stay away from negativity.

see a lot of things on Instagram that empower me, that motivate me, that give me the key to success, that help me with the struggles that I'm dealing with. Mentally, when it comes to my physical health, I also take care of my physical health. And then spiritually, that's a big part of my life, that's a big part of who I am. And I firmly believe that God doesn't qualify, He doesn't call on those that are qualified. I do not feel qualified to be here today. I do not feel qualified to be

Middle school principal of the year or a finalist for a national principal of the year But I feel like God has put me on this journey and put me on this path many many years ago as a sixth grader when I was breaking into houses For this moment today. I feel like he is qualified me To be here. He has called on me By qualifying me to tell my story. So I have to tell my story. I have to be vulnerable I have to open up and I have to share

all the struggles because that's where I am now. The balance that I have now of making sure that I take care of myself, that when I leave this place, that I leave it and I'm there for my family. I cannot be a principal 24-7. I owe it to my children here at school to be the best version of myself. But I also owe it to my family to be the best version of myself when I'm at home with them. So it's about that balance.

Darrin Peppard (35:46.899)

Outstanding stuff. And this has just been so much fun and I really appreciate you coming on the show and sitting down and having a conversation with me. And I'll say this, having met all three of the middle school finalists, of course, having met the all the high school finalists, who I am so glad I don't have to be the one to decide between the three of you because I'm telling you, all three of you are brilliantly qualified to be the national middle school principal of the year. So

Miguel Salazar (36:07.109)

You

Darrin Peppard (36:16.625)

Again, congratulations on that. Enjoy that that recognition. Enjoy the the celebration that is coming your way. And definitely, I know you will lean into that platform to not only tell the story of your school, but to encourage other administrators to take care of themselves and define that balance. Thank you again, Miguel, for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership.

Miguel Salazar (36:42.311)

Thank you, sir, it was an honor.

Darrin Peppard (01:30.828)

All right, everybody fantastic conversation there with Miguel Salazar again, I really appreciate him and all of these incredible leaders for joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. As always, I really appreciate the partnership with NASSP and them giving me the opportunity to sit down with these leaders. Man, it's going to be exciting in Seattle to find out who our National Principals of the Year end up being.

Thank you so much for joining me here on the Leading Into Leadership podcast. Get out there, have a road to awesome day.