Perspective, Balance, and The Principal's Journey with Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And today we have an amazing guest. We're joined by Dr. Rachel Edo EK. She has been in the field of education for almost two decades. She's a wife, a mother, a principal, an author and a speaker. And in this conversation, listen, as Dr. Atul ecot talks about lessons learned from being a division one track and field champion list. And she talks about the importance of controlling how we respond to situations, lists. And she talks about the power of a mentor, listeners, she talks about being an experienced collector, how to accept feedback, identifying blind spots, having work life boundaries, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I am super excited for this episode, we have someone who is absolutely amazing, who have so much wisdom to share with us. I want to welcome Dr. Edo Eket to the teaching champions podcast, Dr. And okay, Welcome, my friend. Thank you so much for having me, Brian. Yeah, this is going to be fantastic. Now, for the listeners who are not familiar with who you are, would you mind sharing a little bit of your journey? Yes. So I am currently a school principal from Maryland. I've been a principal now for five years. And before that, I was an assistant principal for four years. So this is my ninth year in the administration realm. And before that, I was a teacher in kindergarten for the majority of my career for nine years. So I've hit now 18 years, half of which have been in the classroom, and the other half have been in administration. So it's a nice little sweet spot, I feel that I have now enough experience as an administrator to feel like I know more about my job and can do it well. But I also still have that closeness to the classroom that's really most important to me, and keep my relationships with my staff, my students and families. Yeah, I say that's a it's amazing how fast the time goes to. I'm sure those 18 years flew by. I did it definitely did time flies when you're having fun. Absolutely. Now we were talking beforehand, a big piece of about your journey as well was like your athletic career, your college experience. Would you mind diving into that a little bit? Yes. So before I went to college, as a young child, I played soccer that was very big in my community when I was growing up. And so I started playing soccer in fourth grade, and all the way up through high school. So I made the varsity soccer team as a freshman. So I played all four years on varsity. And then I had this brilliant idea to run track in the winter time and in the springtime, so I could stay in shape for soccer. But what ended up happening was track really took off. I loved running track, I loved learning, when I learned how to run hurdles, it just really changed my entire trajectory. And so I ended up winning the state championship in the 55 meter hurdles, the 100 meter hurdles and the 300 meter hurdles and was offered a full scholarship to Temple University. And so I designed to go there for four years and just had an incredible experience, meeting new teammates, and really, we're working with great coaches and great competition. I ended up being a five time Conference champion there. We ran within the Atlantic 10 conference at that time, and just a wonderful, wonderful experience. We had 6am practices, which was a little bit crazy. But we had a very structured time. So we went 6am practices, then we would eat breakfast and go to class. And then we would have weights in the middle of the day. And we would come back for the evening, practice and study and wake up and do it all over again. So that discipline really plays a major role in who I am and later informs my leadership journey as well. Just having that tenacity that drive that being very goal oriented. That's a big part of who I am that I'm proud of. That's unbelievable and your athletic achievements are pretty crazy, my friend. One thing is number one When I think about college athletics as a full time job, yeah, but what would you say like high level D one? super impressive. What were would you say? Were some of like the biggest takeaways that really helped you? Yeah, I think, well, first of all, it's very humbling. Because you might be coming out of high school with like very big fish in these little ponds. But when you go to college, everyone is elite. And so it really forces you to step your game up. And to work even harder, because the skills that got you there were great, but that's not necessarily going to take you to the next level to be a champion in college. So that was something that I learned very quickly. I couldn't just do what I always did, I had to work a lot harder, I had to push myself more in the weight room, I had to watch my diet, so that I was in tip top shape. And so that was very humbling, in the beginning to come out as a freshman and still be able to win, because I was able to win during my freshman year, but it took a lot of work. And just another one just around that discipline piece that I talked about. My coach at the time, I'd never heard this phrase before. If you're on time, you're late. I've never heard that. But I know that's a belief system that became one of my belief systems, because at the time I code said, if you were a minute late, or if you were on time, you would not compete that week. And so Philadelphia has this long street called Broad Street. I mean, it runs from the top of the city to south, south Philly. And one time I woke up just a little late, it must have about 550. And I ran from my bed to Broad Street and got their 559. That's disappointing, right? I had to absolutely, I couldn't let that go that week, I wanted to compete every week. And thank goodness, I didn't like it at the time. But that's still me as a leader. I am you know, I'm very prompt. I'm very responsive to people. That's, that's a part of who I am. If I sit down on time, I'm nervous because I want to be prepared for my meetings, and I want to be available for people in a timely manner. So that has stuck with me as well, just just some of those life lessons that I think will always be a part of me, I learned at Temple. Yeah, I think that's unbelievable. That was probably your fastest time we need that. So you know, you talked about like humbling and coaching, high school basketball, we had a really good team, and a lot of kids, they would go on to play like Division Three, basketball and everything. But then they would kind of filter out. Because, you know, they didn't play off for years. And there's a difference between D three and D one, and that level of commitment. But I think a big thing, like that humbling piece is how we deal. You know, you said, super successful coming out of high school, but then you get up to a level where everybody has that, you know, super successful. How did you or like, did you see any teammates how they handled adversity? Yeah, when it first hit him. Everyone handles adversity very differently. I'll tell a quick story of something that happened to me that I still referenced today. So my freshman year, as I mentioned, I was winning a lot of the races. And when it came to time preceding for our conference championships when I was seated number one, and the day of the meet and my and I should mention my teammate who was also amazing. Jessica was seated number two. So all year we had been going back and forth. And it was great to have her as my main competitor because we practice together. So we were consistently working hard every day. And we went to the meets. And when I went to check in my name wasn't on the list. And I continued to warm up and I didn't think anything of it. They did second call went back. My name still wasn't on the list. So I went to the judge's table and I said, Hey, where's my name? And they said, Your name isn't on the list. You can't run. And I went to my coach and I'm like, coach, what's going on? And she said, I'm really sorry, I forgot to list your name. So I did not compete. But in that moment, I had two choices. One, I could sulk and be upset about it or two, I can help my teammate who was number two become number one. So I chose to help my teammate I went helped her with her Starks. We knew the time we knew she was going to be but now the number one seed and I cheer for her when she won. And looking back at that experience I realized that took a lot of character to do because I did have choices. I could have made it all about me and make cried and made a big deal but I need At least pivoted and said, Hey, our team needs these points, we've got to get these 10 points in our corner. And so I still talk about that today. Because even in leadership, there's definitely times when we might have a particular personal goal, but the school might have other goals, or our teams might have other goals that we need to achieve. And so it's really about taking yourself out of the equation and focusing on what's best for the community focusing on what's best for the school. So that still sticks with me as a lesson that I share with people that everything is not always going to go your way. But if you're helping someone else, then you're doing your job. Well. Yeah, no, that's so good. And it speaks so much volumes, like to type a person that that you are, because obviously in that moment, it's not. There's a PC that was probably beyond for you. You don't get to where you're at without being a competitor. Yeah. To get past that to help your friend out. Yeah, I was heartbroken. But I quickly just channeled it to we need these points as a team, there's nothing I can do about it. So let's make the best of it. Yeah, yeah. Do you think, you know, being at the primary level k pre K through five? Like, how can we best help our students with that? Like, yeah, that's even like you said that our staff members, yeah, I Well, you know, during COVID time, because I can speak to that, that was when I was a new principal. So me coming into the role new as a principal, but then also dealing with the newness of COVID-19, and closures, and then hybrid, and then half in person happy. You know, this whole, that whole transition that took about three years was a lot. It was a lot mentally on people. And I think it was very challenging for everyone to understand what was going on and to make sense of it. And I remember there was a graphic that came out years ago, and it said, What's in my control, and what is out of my control, you may have seen it before, but it was things like within my control how I respond to situations, but out of my control with how people perceive me, or how people view me, I can't control that piece. But I can control my emotions, I can control how I respond to different situations I can control when I'm eating and how much sleep I'm getting, those are things that I can control. So I sent that out to staff and I sent it out every year. Now as a reminder, there's a lot of things that happen out of our control. And it's important for us to to spend our energy on and time on what we can control. Because we get frustrated when we spend our time on things we cannot control. So with children that similar one thing with my with my students, I always say if something happens in the moment is the best time first of all those teachable moments when something is happening is the best time to do it to say, what are our options? What can we do? Because sometimes when things are happening, children are like one track mind. And adults too. We don't always see we have options in almost every situation. It's really sometimes a matter of like pausing and thinking, What can I do now? So I think if we can help people to become flexible with their thinking, what's possible, what are my options, that immediately helps people? Because if we're just like, it has to be this way. And if that doesn't work, then people get stuck. And it's the same with children. So I usually will try to say to a student, oh, no, this happen. What can we do next? What are our options? Oh, I guess you could do this is this also something we could try? So I think that that helps children and also helps adults just to realize that there are some things we have in our control, we just need to figure out how to access those things. Ya know, they're so good. And that's why I listened to a podcast called Finding mastery. And the gentleman who, who runs it, he used to be a work with the Seattle Seahawks. And he he talks about, like, not just controlling the controllables. But he says master the control. And like you said, like the conversations that we have with our students really planting that seed, and I love how you touched upon like, it's the action. You know, what, what can I do? Because when we when we just sit around and we think about things, sometimes we don't even realize we're thinking about the uncontrollables and I had start spinning. Yeah. It's a cycle that cycle. It is absolutely is. So you came into principle right at the right time. Yes, apparently. I said I don't remember any of this on my interviews. I don't remember any questions about COVID-19 on my interview panel. No, that's pretty crazy. That's a lot to take in especially for like a new administrator. Yeah, so you know, no, As you transition from the classroom, to being an administrator, what were some of the things that you would say, have really popped out that you've learned along this journey, whether they can help you if you're an aspiring administrator, or a classroom teacher like myself? Yeah. So I would say, first of all, if you're interested in being a school bass leader, and you have want to develop those skill sets, or you have some skills, definitely get a mentor that was so critical to me, was to. So for me, it was more osmosis. That's how I describe it. I always wanted to be the best teacher that I could be. I love teaching, I saw myself as a career teacher, because I'm third generation. And we all retired from teaching. So we don't have administrators in our family. And the idea was sparked in me from my principal, who at that time, said, Rachel, I think you have the ability to be a really good principals, if something you ever considered and at the time, I said, No, I don't want to do that I want to retire and stay in kindergarten. But over time, she was inviting me to more things. And she would say, sit in with me on this meeting, or can you give me feedback on this? Or can you helped me organize an event, and those experiences, were really building my capacity for leadership? I just didn't know it. And then once I realized, wow, I can make a big difference in my classroom of 25 kids, but what could I do in a school? What can I do in a community? What level of impact can I have on hundreds of kids, that's when I became more interested in more formal leadership and went back to school to get my certification and leadership. So I definitely would encourage anyone who wants to become school based start, start saying that start talking about it with people start seeking out mentors, people who are in the role or have been in the role who can help you, because that was really important to my journey was to have people who believed in me who could could help me along the way. And definitely, when I was in school, doing that hands on internship was incredibly important. I really tried to stress myself and take risks, working with all different, you know, working with discipline, working on school improvement, planning, working with the budget, with my principal, just getting as many experiences as I can, so that when I was sitting on my interview, I could speak very specifically to the role and how I would perform within that role. So I definitely first would say, Find a mentor, make your goals clear, talk to people align with other leaders who want to do similar things, other teacher leaders. So at the time, I had opened a new school as a team leader, and many team leaders at that time, were saying, I want to be an administrator. I wasn't there yet. But I did get there. And I we all started working together on different tasks to build our leadership together. So I definitely also recommend aligning with other teacher leaders who have similar goals and mindsets to yours. Awesome. Now, you talked about like taking risks? And is that something that comes natural to you? Or do you have? Do you have to push yourself? Or is that always been hardwired? I'm not gonna say it comes naturally. But I will say every time I've taken a professional risk, meaning I am not taking Riddick, I don't gamble, I don't do any risks like that. I mean, professional risks, meaning, if someone had a project, and it was offered to me, I took it. I said, Yes, I'll do that. Now. Even if it wasn't perfect, that was okay. Because it was still a learning experience. And if it went really well, you get rewarded, of course, with more work, right? You get more projects. And then you build trust with people, Rachel did really well on this project, I'm gonna give her something else to do. Then you get your name out there, okay. This is someone who can do things well. And she could do more opportunities. So yes, it was very important to me to have those opportunities and to take advantage of those. Awesome, awesome, and I think it's so like, when when we look at it, the more we do, and the more we put ourselves out there, you talked about, like collecting experiences, right? Because, you know, the more experiences we collect, we don't realize, but we're adding that to our tool back. Absolutely. And that's one thing I think even during hard conversations, and you and I talked a little bit about that one and the principalship you have to navigate lots of tough conversations usually every day. Usually, something might be happening with a staff member or perhaps there's a disagreement with a parent or even with children, you have to navigate around some tough situations sometimes. And every time I really tried to look at as as the learning experience, okay, so this person is upset. Let's make a plan. Let's work together. Let's figure out what our goals are collectively see what I can do to work with this family. What resources can we put into play? As who can I pull into the conversation to help us? And then like you said, it goes in my tool belt. So next time when I see that situation, be it next week, next month, or next year, I can say, Oh, I remember this, I can point to a time when I had a similar situation. Here's how I cancelled it in the past. And then I can say that very transparently to the person, these are some of the things that I did, is this something that you're interested in exploring with me? And if not, we'll work on another pathway. So it's helpful, even though you're in the middle of some tough situations, I always try to keep the mindset This is learning. This is an experience and I'm tucking it away for next time, because they always come back, you always see it again. Yeah, so that's so good. Like, the if you approach it with like that, that growth mindset that this conversation is a learning experience. Is that um, because as an administrator, man, you guys, you have some tough conversations. How any tips on like not taking it personal. Is it just viewing it as a learning experience? Or how do you separate the emotion from the conversation? Yeah, so that's a great question. And it is one I talk with aspiring leaders a lot about right now. I'm mentoring three different aspiring APS, and they're all going to be excellent assistant principals. But that's one, one thing that is hard. First of all, we all want to be liked, that's a human need. We want to be liked by people, you're in a role where you are very visible all the time. So you want to be like, but But what I have learned, and I tell my staff this as well, in this particular role, it's all about perception. So what I've learned is, if someone asks me for something, and I'm able to honor it, the responses, I like Rachel, she's great, she's nice. If on the other hand, I'm asked and requested a something and I'm not able to honor it, it's a different response. It might be I don't like Rachel, or Rachel doesn't support me. But ultimately, what I've shared with my staff, and because they're the same way, sometimes it's with teachers as well, you might be the best teacher, when you're able to honor what someone is asking you to do. And you might be the worst. And when you're not able to do that. What I've shared with my staff is my perception is I'm not the best principle in the world. Nor am I the worst principle in the world. So so when I hear you're the best, and you're the worst, usually it flies off my back, because I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not the best. I am a good principle. That's my belief system. But it is not predicated on whether or not I've done something that you liked, or something you didn't like, I am still myself. So that's how I do it. I have to separate myself from the role, which is challenging, because we love being a principal, we love the title. We love all of that. Just like teachers, I'm a teacher, always I love that title. But I'm also have to separate myself from the role, because I know who I am outside of my job. I'm a wife, I'm a mother, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm an aunt and all these other things. So that helps me when someone says I love you or I hate you. Okay, okay. I mean, that's great. I'm okay. But it's very important to know who you are independent of the role itself. And I think that that helps you with a get a little bit of a thicker skin over time. Oh, that's so like, know who you are? Yeah, outside of whether you can say yes or no to someone. That's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. Yeah. You have to just know who you are as a person. Do I treat people nicely? And my respectful? Do I help people? Those are the things that I focus on? And I know I am all those things. So I'm comfortable with myself. I sleep very well at night since then. Yes. No, I you know, I believe that, like, at the end of the day, if we can look at ourselves in the mirror. Yeah. And be proud of the person that we see staring back at us that we that's what matters most. Yeah. Awesome. Now, with those aren't conversations, just want to talk about like accepting feedback? Yes, yeah. Now, is it as an athlete or through your role as an administrator, like, I don't know. It's hard, like, especially as an adult, sometimes to accept that feedback? Yes. Do you have any tips on that? Yeah. So one of the things that I impress upon leaders and new leaders in particular is if you are going to be successful in this role, you have to accept constructive feedback and feedback that's not constructive. Because this is a job you get a lot of unsolicited feedback. You get unsolicited feedback from your students. You get it from your parents or community, your staff. This job is all about feedback. And so if you know in your heart Aren't you have trouble accepting feedback, I would just say this job may not be the best for you. Because you are always someone that's always going to have something to say. One of the things that I recently that I do every year is I actually send out an anonymous survey to my staff, I started this my first year as a principal. And it had three questions. What am I doing well, what do I need to improve upon? And is there anything else you want to tell me, and that's it, I sent it out to my staff totally open ended. And before I sent it, I took a deep breath. And I'm like, Okay, if I am sending the survey out, I need to be prepared to read and interpret what everyone is going to say about me, because it's anonymous. And I mean, it's an anonymous survey. So you never know, if people are going to use that time to unload on you. Or if there's going to be something constructive or critical, we just have to be prepared for it. But what I know is, if I'm going to be a better leader, I need to be aware of my blind spots. And I need that feedback to get better. Particularly since this has been my only school in my in my principalship. And in my assistant principalship. I've been in my school for nine years, I love and adore my students and my community members and my staff members. But to me getting feedback is even more important there because of our relationship. Because we've been together so long, I want to make sure I'm continually growing and that I'm never stagnant. So I asked for that critical feedback. And one of the examples that came back out of that was, was great. I'm really responsive. as I share with you, email, I'm very responsive on emails, and I'm a problem solver. But the critical feedback was, even though I like how responsive you are one person said, You are not engaged with me in person, you're always on your phone, or you're on your device answering emails. And so I said to the staff, I'm going to once I take all the feedback, I'm going to address all of the questions and talk about it with them. And that's what I did, we had a meeting about it. And I said, I want you to know I got two sets of feedback, one that people love on responsive, but two in person, I'm not being respectful of people, because I'm on my computer responding exam. So I need that was a reflection point for me was absolutely correct total blind spot, I said to the staff, if you are okay with this, I am going to delay my responses just a little bit. Particularly if I'm in a meeting in person with someone, I'm going to put my phone down and close my computer. And that was my agreement that day, you'll still get a response. It just may not be within minutes, it might be within the hour, but I'm going to give people my undivided attention when I'm with them. Because that's respectful. And that's what's owed. And everyone agree. And we're great. But that was something I needed. I needed that feedback. And without that anonymous survey, I'm not sure people would have told me that. So I always encourage leaders, I do that survey at least twice a year. What am I doing well, and what needs to be improved. And I just mentally prepare for what people have to say, and I really do try to reflect on it. I don't get defensive about it. And I really try to, to incorporate what what people are saying so I can become better. Yeah, no, that's so good. And and I love you know, you talked about like, I'm not the worst, not the best, but how do I get better? And we all have those blind spots, right? Like you were talking about? And how do we find those blind spots? We can't unless we interact with others, and welcome. And I love how you make it anonymous so that people can feel you know that they can be trusted with it. Yeah, I think initially, some people didn't believe it was anonymous. And you know, and I get that too, because there was some distrust. But over time, I think my staff really trusts me. And they know that I do care about their feedback. And I want to know, so that has created pretty open transparency. I mean, I have people come into the office like, Hey, Rachel, even with my assistant principal, our relationship is very strong, like, Hey, I didn't like that you did this. And I want you to know how they feel. And again, in this role, you better be ready to apologize to people you have to right, no one thinks no one is above reproach. We all do things sometimes not with Not intentionally, but things occur. And we just need to say we're sorry, and move forward and try to correct the behavior moving forward. And it's the same with our students. When we make when students make mistakes. It's the same grace we give to them. It's a learning experience. So I try not to internalize my mistakes. I really try to acknowledge them and fix it moving forward. That's it. That's all I can do. Yes. Oh, so good. Number one. You made that happen. Like I can see it as an educator. Like if my administrator sent that out where I might be a little bit nervous. Yeah, you know, this numbness, but obviously how you approached your staff and the trust that you got in the conversations that you had afterwards that you earned that ability to have those conversations? Yeah. That's so good. That's good. We've got a long way. We've come a long way. Yeah. And you know, it's a process, everything takes time, and it takes work. Awesome. Now, how do you like, because you got your doctorate, you wrote a book, you're raising kids, you're an administrator. That's a lot. How do you keep it like that, that work life balance to achieve all those things, but also like, you know, keep that family going strong, too. Yeah. So I've been married almost 14 years now. And I have twins, I'm a mother of multiples, like you said, and I'll be fully transparent. The reason why I have a good life balance is because two years ago, I almost quit my job, I almost left the district because I was in the middle of COVID, I was questioning a lot about is this something I'm i It's my correct skill set. At the time, it was just so much administrivia, meaning so many emails, policies, just a lot of different things. And I felt at the time, I didn't know if that was like my strength. Some of the administrative tasks, I wasn't seeing kids a lot. So it was really challenging. I was staying up all hours of the night, you know, we were building the plane as it was going along. A lot of work. And it took me to go. So our school system offers like therapy sessions through their EOP. And so that's their employee assistance. So I actually called them and said, I need help. That was the first time I had ever been I've ever seen a therapist, you know, particularly for work, but it was really good for me, because this was someone who did not know me. And the first thing she said was, she said, Rachel, you are a mother, a wife, you have your doctorate exactly what you just said, she just said, that's a lot. And I'm like this a lot. You know, personally, the pace that I was moving to like, you know, you're young principal, you're doing all these different things. And she really helped me with that, when we talked earlier about what's in your control and what's out of your control. She really helped me to understand that there's always options. And what I found out was I can do the job? Well, I just have to do it on my terms and within my parameters. So some examples are that moment, I decided that I was going to put a boundary between my work time and my home time, I've never had boundaries. before. I was working all hours of the night I was text messaging teachers all hours of the night, it was ridiculous. Yeah, we were we were up all night just talking about school the next morning, things that could have waited, I didn't wait, I was on top of it. And so I addressed the staff, again, very transparently. And I said to everyone, hey, I want to be here, right? This is a hard job. But I want to do this well. But I have not seen my family. And that's not okay with me. And I said, and I bet you haven't seen your families either. And I said, I want to make a commitment that after school hours, we're not going to email. And we're not going to call now if there's an emergency, you all have my cell phone number. But outside of an emergency, we're going to respect each other's boundaries. That was three years ago. And we have kept to it we have kept to those boundaries. So I work from eight to five, those are my time 100% All into school at five o'clock, that's it. I rest for the next day, I do scheduled emails if something pops into my mind, because my mind is always moving. I still scheduled I write the email, but I scheduled it when we're on the clock contract hours, because I don't need to bother anybody with that. But in the morning, I That's okay, we can start over again. So that's what I just want you to realize that females will always be present, but your family is not given that same guarantee your friends are not giving that same guarantee. And so once I put my job into perspective, that I can do my job well and I can still be good at home, right? Because sometimes we're really good on the job, but we're not good at home. I didn't want that to be my story. I want to be good at my job and I want to be good at home. Or better if you know really. Yeah, for my own children and my family. So I think that level of commitment really helped because my team leader said, Oh my gosh, we used to have this group chat, and we would chat with my teammates over dinner. We stopped doing that. We stopped doing that or my staff would say pull me this site. Thank you for saying this out loud. This is what I was feeling, but I felt pressure to come But, but I didn't really agree with what was going on. Yeah. Well, number one, thank you for sharing about going to see a therapist, I think all of us at one time, you know, could benefit I think all of us could benefit from it. I'm a huge proponent now having having benefited from it. And that was such a crazy time, especially like, you know, everybody was just trying to rally and it easily took over so much time and the burnout and I heard a hell Bowman he's a presenter and speaker. And he said, you know, the school gets the best of us. Right family gets the rest of us. Yeah, and that's not okay. So, yeah. And you modeled for your staff and everything. And that is, that's it that made a difference in our school culture. Now, when I say staff walking out on time I smile, because I know the work that my staff was putting in during the day, because we talked about it, I am absolutely as principal, I'm going to push you during the day. That's a That's a fact, I'm going to ask you to do things that are going to push you because we're here. That's why we're here. We're here for our students. And we're here, families, and we're here for each other. So I absolutely they know, okay, Rachel is going to push a little bit. But after hours, you're not going to hear from me, you're not I just I don't do that. Unless it's you know, true emergency or something that's really, really important. I do not contact my staff. And my boundaries are finally so great. I was able to write this book. That's how good my boundaries are. I can say that with pride that I had time to sit in line, because after five o'clock, you know, doing homework with my kids and cooking dinner and all those things. I did have time, even after that I had several hours where I could devote to something that was important to me. And the goal that I always always had, which was being a published author. So I'm happy to have those boundaries in place because it's made a difference in my life. Yeah, those boundaries are huge. And that's a perfect transition. Let's get into this book that you wrote the principles journey. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, so I wrote the book right after I had decided to stay. And it's one of the things that was on my mind was this job is hard. And we need good people to do it. And there's a lot of good people who want to do the job, but they don't know how, or they don't know, the pathway to get there. Every time when I would speak at seminars, or when I would speak at training sessions for aspiring leaders, people would come up to me afterwards and say, How did you do it? And I've read lots of leadership books about what to do when you're in the job, or what are things to consider. But it was never about how to get there. So my book really is comprehensive, because it talks about a steps it provides a pathway. So I mean, I start with, we know the job itself, what are the challenges? And what are the you know, benefits of the role, but then I talk about resume writing and cover letters, I give sample interview questions. I talk about mentoring, how do you secure a mentor if you don't have one? How do you build a relationship and reach out to people? And then I talked about how, you know, what does it look like in your first year on the job when you're getting there? What are some things you can do to be successful? Getting to know your community building that school culture? How do you navigate hard conversations I really tried to think about, if I were in the position as an aspiring leader, what would I need. And I felt that this book fulfills a very specific need, which is talking about that pathway and the steps to get there. And every chapter has reflection questions at the end that are related to the chapter that really helps you as a reader to make a plan for yourself. So as you're going through the book, and you say, Okay, I need more experience in this area, there's time for you to notate that, and make that plan to strengthen your journey. So I'm very, very proud of the book. Yeah. So that, you know, I dove into it this week, and fantastic read. And yeah, and I love the reflection questions, because reflection is huge. But also, what I really loved is, whenever we think we're gonna want to do something, I don't think unless we're walking that path, we truly know all the little steps that it takes. So you really break it down, which which I love. So for any aspiring leaders, phenomenal reads, thank you so much. And I tried to make it as practical as possible. It's not something that's going to take you weeks to read, it might you know, it's a quick read and you can come back to different chapters, particularly if you're working on something like if you're getting ready to interview, you can go to that chapter look at the questions and if you know you need more support, that's an action step for you. talking with people and gaining more experience in those areas so that when you're on your interview, you can speak specifically to them. Awesome, awesome. Now, two of my favorite questions, my friend is, what would be a book recommendation that you might have? And podcasts recommendations? Okay, I'm gonna recommend my book. Absolutely. Of course, for any aspiring leader or assistant principal who wants to transition into the principalship, or any, like new principles, I think the book is very helpful. I'm also reading EQ around emotional intelligence. That's a book I think, is very helpful to leaders. So that's when I could I would two books I would recommend and principle cup Bailey, I'm going to plug his book as well. He has lots of books out. But one, the new one, the second principle identity, versus 10 principles, or aspiring leaders is a good one, too. Awesome. Awesome. And if the listeners want to get in touch with you, whether it is to pick your brain about becoming an inspiring leader, get your book or I know you're doing working with true leaders, what would be the best way for that? Yeah, so I'm on Twitter, which is my name Rachel, Edo, Eket. I don't believe there's another Rachel, I don't like it. So that's me. And then I'm also on Instagram, at the principal journey. And so you can find me there. And I'm also on LinkedIn, I've been connecting with a lot of people on LinkedIn, which is nice, too. And just messaging with people and asking where they are in their leadership journey and giving them advice here and there. I love doing that. So I'm happy to do that as well. Awesome. And if there was one thing that you could have listeners walk away with today, what would that be? I would say just trust the process, know that everything that you're doing is preparing you for your next role. So there's nothing too small for you to do. And just always keep the mindset that if you're helping someone, if you can point a one person you help that day, you're on the right track. So definitely continue to work hard, and you know, receive that feedback to get better. And just knowing all these experiences are building and leading you in the direction where where you'll where you'll end up, which is great. Yeah, so good. Like if at the end of the day, that we can lay our head on our pillow know that we helped someone? Yes. A pretty good day. Yes. Awesome. Absolutely. Well, Dr. Atul packet, your energy, what you bring your transparency, the wisdom that you shared is so unbelievable. Thank you so much for this time, my friend. And as I said, before we started taping, this is only the beginning for you. Thank you so much, Brian. I really appreciate this opportunity. And thank you listeners. This podcast is a proud member of the teach better Podcast Network. Better today. Better tomorrow, and the podcast to get you there. Explore More podcast at WWW dot teach better podcast network.com Now let's get on to the episode. This conversation was so good Dr. Ed Olek. It was amazing. And she just shared so many gems. Now this is a teaching tamping state where I share three of my favorite takeaways from this conversation. And the first gem that I loved was how Dr. Edo Akkad talked about how we all have choices and how we handle different situations, that it's important that we recognize that there's always a choice that we seek out the things that we can control. And then focusing our energy and all those controllables the second gem that I love is how Dr. Edo Akkad discussed hard conversations, and that we should look at them through a lens of a learning experience. Because each and every single one of us we all have room to grow. And oftentimes, those hard conversations they provide us with so much that we can learn from the third gem that I loved was how Dr. Edo packet dropped a simple reminder, but it was a profound one. If you're helping someone, you're on the right track, and that's something that all of us should take to heart. You know, it's a pretty good day. If we know at the end of the day that we help someone even if it was just one person because we never truly know the impact our kind deeds have. These are just a few of my favorite gems. Hit me up on X slash Twitter at be Martin real or at teaching champions podcast on Instagram, and let me know what were a few of your favorite gems. A big thank you to Dr. Rachel adelakun for sharing so many amazing gems. And a big thank you to all of you for being here for being part of the team Ken champions community, we support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone would benefit from this conversation, please share. And always remember, it doesn't matter whether we're from rural America to urban America, to Canada, to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission, and we're always better together. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as you go out into the week, May step into your strength may step into shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody