Reflection, Controlling the Controllables, and Positivity on the Road to Awesome with Dr. Darrin Peppard

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 hosted the teaching champions podcast. And today I have a great interview for you with Dr. Daren pepper. And he's a man who has 25 years of experience within the education system. And during that time, he's filled roles from a teacher to a coach, to an administrator to superintendent. And in 2015, he was the Johnston's Renaissance Educator of the Year. And then in 2016, he was the Wyoming Secondary School Principal of the Year. And Dr. Dr. Pepper, he is also an author, a publisher, and he's currently doing consulting and speaking work. But beyond the awards in the experience, I know Darrin personally, and he is such a genuine and great guy. He drops a lot of wisdom in this interview. So I hope you enjoy what's going on everybody. I am super excited today, because we have Dr. Darren pappert. Here with us. Dr. Pepper. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks so much, Brian, man, I'm super excited, big, big fan of your show. And it's an honor to have a chance to be on here and have a conversation with you. I just want to say before we get started, so the listeners have an idea of who you are as a person. When I first started the podcast, I reached out, we connected a little bit. And then about a month or two later, I posted a tweet about my podcast. And you reached out and said, Hey, let's meet up on Zoom. And we met up on Zoom. And you said, Hey, man, I just want to congratulate you on the great work that you're doing. And you were like, How can I help you? And I think that was no strings attached? It was how can I help you, and congratulations on what you're doing. And that meant so much to me at that time. And I think that just illustrates who you are as a person. As we get into this interview. I just want our listeners to know that you're the real deal. And I appreciate you so much, my friend. Well, I appreciate that a lot. Man, I remember that conversation. And, you know, buddy, we're all in this together, right? And, you know, if we if we're not willing to reach a hand down and lift somebody up, then you know, we've got our priorities a little bit out of control. So it was an honor to have that conversation. It's an honor to have this and the many conversations that you and I have had in between. And I know that we'll have going forward. So the podcast is amazing. You've done incredible work. i It's one I listened to every week. And just like I said, I'm excited to be a part of it and be able to be here with you today. Appreciate it. And for our listeners who haven't had the opportunity to connect with you, could you share your story a little bit for us? Yeah, you know, so. I, I'm probably the least likely person to have become an educator. You know, when, when I was in high school, I was uh, I don't know, I just wasn't, like really dialed in on being a student. And it wasn't the you know, I was, you know, goofing off or anything like that. I just, I don't know, I just wasn't really super connected in my classrooms. And I was an athlete, but I wasn't like, you know, the star athlete. I was just, honestly, I'm, I'm a classic middle child. My older sister was an incredibly high flying student. I was the kid that a lot of teachers said, why can't you be more like your sister, which the classic middle child pushed back and said, Oh, you think that's bad? Watch this. So I wasn't, you know, likely to be an educator and ultimately, my path changed because of basketball. You know, something you and I certainly share in common with with coaching basketball, but I actually dropped out of college and I went back had a buddy of mine who said you know, hey, I know you played in high school. And we we were talking and he said I got asked to coach this basketball team and I don't know anything about basketball, but you can help me and two things when I went went to that first practice wherever that one he was right. Brian Hayes did not know anything about basketball. And, and two, I was hooked. I was absolutely hooked. And it wasn't the X's and O's or whatever. rails ran. Honestly, it was fifth grade girls. So I mean, it was, it was organized chaos. But I was hooked. And that is what, you know, got me to kind of shift my mindset. Went, saw my advisor a few weeks later and said, Hey, here's what I want to do want to change my major, I wanted to be head basketball coach, and ultimately I had that opportunity as a teacher in, in Arizona, who's the head girls basketball coach for a handful of years. Before that, it was a boys JV coach, loved every bit of it taught science but but knew that I wanted to be able to have a little bit more of a leadership opportunity and completed a master's degree in leadership and went back to my home state of Wyoming. And first was an assistant principal and then ultimately a principal of a high school in the southwestern part of the state, fairly decent sized High School for that, that part of the state. And that was really, I think, where I figured out not that I've figured it all out, not by any stretch of the imagination, but started to figure out what some of the more important things in leadership are in leadership, obviously, is one of my huge passions. Culture, to me, is probably the most important thing, organizational culture. And it that all started in just a silly staff meeting. You know, we're having the staff meeting about what we're going to what are we gonna do about hats and cell phones, you know, just the silliest of staff meetings, but also a very important staff meeting ask any any high school teacher, even middle school teacher, to be honest with you. And those are the two things we got to solve these most important things education, you know, and I say that tongue in cheek, but yeah, when that was when that's when it all really started. For me. That's actually when the rhodopsin was born, standing in front of the entire staff of high school teachers, and somebody said, Why is it always got to be about what to do wrong? Why can't it be validity, right. And, and so many years ago, and I still I just got chills, tell them that it was a moment that changed me, it was a moment that Two roads diverged for me. And I chose to go down that road where instead of catching people doing things wrong, we focus on catching them doing it right. And it's an incredible thing, Brian, if you think about it, and I'm going to challenge you this weekend to do this. And listeners, I want to challenge you to do this too. Next time you're out driving around, count how many white cars you see, pick any color, I don't care what color it is, you're gonna see a ton of them, because you're looking for him. That's that's how it works with there should be how it works with what we do in education. If we're looking for the things that people do wrong, we'll find them. They're easy to find. But if we focus on the things we're doing, right, man, it's addictive, and you see it, and Lita started recognizing rewarding and reinforcing the right things. Yes, there were still consequences for the wrong things. But it was amazing how many great things were happening in our school right under our noses, my notebook. I was at that school for 11 years. Just some amazing success, some amazing relationships, lifelong relationships that I built with kids and parents, and teachers, and so forth. And then the last four years, I was a superintendent in Colorado at a small rural district, I loved every bit of that to a lot of fun. And it was an opportunity for me to continue to see, you know, Brian, how can I, you know, reach my arms out a little wider, and embrace more leaders. And that's what led me to, to doing what I do now, which is leadership, coaching and leadership development work at school culture and climate work through both consulting and speaking. And then of course, you also know, we have rhodopsin publishing, where we publish books by educators for educators. So there's, there's my story in a nutshell, right there. Yeah. And it's a great journey. And I just want to circle back because I've read your book, road to awesome. And those two questions that you talk about, like you said, they're so powerful, and I gotta say, there's been many times when I've stepped back, and I've had to question myself. No, because sometimes, we're not always going to be 100%. We can talk about it all the time. But sometimes we slide back a little bit, and I think about your book, and I think about those questions. Am I concentrating on what is wrong? Or am I concentrating on what is right? And I think like you said, That's powerful, because where you put your vision where you're focusing on you know, I think Tony Robbins always goes where your focus goes, your energy flows. So we're always looking for what's wrong. That's where energy is gonna flow. Before looking for what's right. We're gonna see what's right, that happens with students that happens with our staff members, and just our own mental state, when we start looking for the good, I think we feel a lot better to. Oh, absolutely. You know, I think, I mean, I still came home exhausted every day, you know, as a high school assistant principal, and then later on as a principal, but it's a different kind of exhausted, you know, instead of, you know, spending all my time with discipline referrals or spending all my time, you know, in that there was trash on the floor, it was, hey, let's solve problems, on chases squirrel here and tell the trash story real fast, because I'm sure people are dealing with that. We, like every high school of America had a problem with trash on the floor. You know, kids, kids are messy, but not on purpose. You know, and my predecessor in the principal role, his method of solving them standing at the front door and making them throw things away when they came in the door. I was like, no, no, no, no, our kids are coming in with their coffee, or they're coming in with breakfast. High school kids aren't very good at eating breakfast. If they're coming in with breakfast, let's not make them throw it away. That's that's not the right approach. I read a study that talked about what Disney had done with all of their, with all of their theme parks. And in a nutshell, real quick, they hired people to eat the food at all the Disney parks and walk around. And they counted how many steps it took for them to eat the different pieces of food. And then whatever the shortest distance was, that's how close together their trash cans are. It's the miraculously clean place. Yes, they had people cleaning up, that's fine. So to schools, but if kids have trash cans available, they use them for the most part. And, you know, that's just a simple example of how do you how do you problem solve, instead of getting angry and looking at the things they're doing wrong? You know, hey, how about we don't blame them? How about we look at the problem? Let's find the solution. It wasn't perfect, but it was a million times better. Absolutely. I love that focus on the solution. So awesome. Yeah. And you've had an amazing journey from teaching in Arizona, to going back to Wyoming, going from Wyoming to Colorado. And now you find yourself in Nebraska, and going from those roles, from where your teacher to assistant principal, to principal, to superintendent, and now you're doing consulting work. I think that you have a ton of experience a ton of lessons. And what do you think the biggest lessons for you that you took away from all of your different roles that help you today? And that's a great question. And, you know, we were talking before we came on about one and now I'm thinking about another one. So I'll try and hit both. But I think one of the most important lessons that I learned as a leader was to do everything you can, I can't say always, because there's nothing we can do, always, but do everything you can to let go of the things that you can't control. And just focus on the things that you can control. You know, I mean, especially like right now, you know, whether it's in my role as a consultant where, you know, each and every day as about, you know, working with clients and supporting clients and identify new clients and all this other stuff. Back when I was was a classroom teacher, or you know, superintendent or whatever, right now, teachers like yourself in the classroom, it can be so easy to get pulled into just all the noise, the negativity, the, you know, all of that, that stuff that can detract from what you really are supposed to be doing and what you want to do what brings you joy. You know, I know what brings you joy as being with your fourth graders, there's no question in my mind, that that brings you joy, I hear it in your voice every every single podcast you when you when you talk about that. But we can get pulled in a million different directions that are all things that we have no control over. So for me, I think one of the big lessons that I learned and I continue to remind myself almost daily, is we focus on what we can control. And we let go of the things that we can't. It's just an essential, essential element. I mean, one of the things I know I can control each and every day, and this is true of every individual is I can control how I choose to show up that day. You know, whether it's I'm showing up to speak at an event or I'm showing up to you know, have multiple conversations, you know, on Zoom or whatever with with clients or, you know, with recording the podcast or whatever. I control how I show up and I get to be the one that decides that. I can't control what other cars are going to do on the road, I can't control, you know, what, what I'm going to be faced with or the attitude of somebody else. But if I focus on what I can control, that's, that's, that's the best thing I can do, you know when in allows me to maintain control. And if, as soon as I start letting go of that control through blame, as an example, we talked about this a little bit before, blame, honestly, is probably the second pandemic right now in the United States, you know, and it's 100%, about pointing fingers in other directions, because we let go of what we can control and we focus on the things we can't. And, you know, if you think about it, Brian, it's like, if it blame, or I'm sorry, if if my power is a ball in my hand, and I choose to blame you for something that's happening, it's like I'm throwing you that ball, I'm throwing my power and saying, Here you go, I'll have control of myself anymore, I'm letting you do that. We just focus on what we can control focus on how we show up, that's probably one of the most important lessons. The other one I know you and I talked about just prior to coming on and hitting record was just letting go of toxic relationships. That's another thing that we have control over. Sometimes, we reach that point where a relationship has run its course, and people are not bringing value, or there's not a mutual benefit to that relationship, maybe it becomes the person, the other person in that relationship is pushing you down, in order for them to feel a little better about themselves. You know, I just feel like, if we don't have people who are around us who are willing to help lift us up, they gotta go. So those to me, those are the two biggest lessons that I remind myself of quite frequently. And that really made a difference. Once I figured them out. I didn't figure it out right away. Once I started to figure that out in my career, I think I started to make a big difference. Absolutely. And I love that I think our circle, the people that we allow to take take space in our heads is huge. And like you said, controlling the things that we can control, I had a conversation with my students, you know, we're younger. So we're often some of the art issues we're talking about, like the words that we use, and I talk with them all the time, you know, I can't control and I always use my aide in the classroom as an example, I can't control what. And his name's Andrew. So what Mr. Andrew says to me, but I can control how I respond, I get to control the words that I say, how I like you, we're talking about how we show up the energy that we bring, controlling the things that we can control and letting those other things go that we can't. It's just another way that we keep ourself in a nice, healthy mental place. And you just said that, I love that you just said that. I don't say I apologize for interrupting. But that's one of the most important pieces with with what is probably becoming a little bit overused with with self care. But God, like all of the stuff is toxic, quit holding on to it, it doesn't serve you get rid of it. Sometimes it's hard. I I'm not saying that it's easy sometimes to get rid of a toxic relationship. I totally get that. But the first step, of course, is acknowledging it and if you know it is then start working towards Hey, how do I get out of this? Because you're right, your own personal health? It doesn't serve you well. Now I have absolutely. And with your experience, you know that the school year it has an add to it has a flow, and how have you dealt with the hardships and maintain that healthy perspective? During those tough moments? Yeah, boy, the school year, it's it's got its seasons to it, does it? You know, he sure does. You've I mean, you've got the excitement of the beginning of the year. And then yeah, you get into that ebb and flow and, you know, maybe get, you know, I guess down into the weeds a little bit. And, you know, we were talking a little bit ago about how, you know, January to March is just like the dog days of, of education, you know, it's dark when you go to work as dark when you come home, and the only way you get to see the sun is if you're outside, you know, on on recess duty, and it's negative 11. So that barely counts. You know, but I think I think what, what, what I did to make sure that that I was dealing with the more difficult times and even the successful times, you know as as the year flows through, is maintaining that balcony perspective of The work that I was doing, I talked about it a little bit in the book. I mean, there were six things that I felt like as a school leader were critical. Not for every school leader, but for me. And so, I would specifically go to the balcony that overlooked the gymnasium, because I wanted that that visual in my head, and you'll get this as a basketball coach, when you watch film, it's shot from a high level, it you know, you don't watch game film from on your sideline, he can't see anything. You know, I mean, you really need the eye in the sky. And so, same thing is true in any leadership role, you know, teacher, principal, superintendent, you know, whatever the role may be, you need to be able to have that eye in the sky. And so, for me, I would actually go into our gymnasium and stand on the balcony, and kind of in my own mind, and put those six things out on the floor. And just check in on myself, you know, how am I doing with continuing to build a maintain positive culture? How am I doing with ensuring that I'm lifting up and supporting the voices of all of my educators? How am I doing with telling our story? How am I doing with coaching everyone around me, you know, you know, how am I doing with walking my values? And, and how am I doing with with energizing and giving our students authentic learning experiences. So I think that was a critical thing for me just to be able to take the step back, you know, it's hard in the moment, it's hard in the moment to do it. But find some time I was intentional, I put it on my calendar, you know, boom, balcony time, you know, 15 minutes, I'm across the hall. You know, that's what I'm gonna go do. But, you know, the first couple of times, my secretary Das, we'll put plus balcony time, but then she got it. And she's like, No, no, no, leave him alone. It's balcony time. But, you know, you have to be able to take that step. Put yourself maybe up at about 10,000 feet and just get that third perspective of, you know, how are things go? Or are they as bad as I think, are they as good as I think, you know, is my perspective really where it needs to be? Yeah. And you know, what is interesting about that, that balcony perspective, that's something that I think that we should be doing all the time. And sometimes, like you said, in the moment, it's hard. It's hard in the moment. And as I was driving home from school today, so we just as we're taping this interview, I'm going on spring break, and one of my goals over break, is to step out on that balcony. And I was thinking about that today. And look is we're going into that homestretch. How am I doing in these different areas? What changes do I need to make going forward? Is we round out that fourth marking period. Now, coach, and you wrote about this in your book, and I think it's huge. And sometimes I don't know that our profession has embraced it as much as other professionals, whether it's in the business profession, or coming from sports background, you know, I've been around a lot of division one coaches and listen to them talk, and how they bounce ideas off of one another how they're taping film and watching their own film and getting sometimes you need that outside voice. How did in your career, how did coaching help you evolve? changed me completely. As a leader, I had an opportunity. Just shortly after I accepted the principal position. We got a new superintendent, I think it was my second year could have been my third year. But this new superintendent came in. And he, across the board, our entire leadership team, were going to have coaches for everyone. And he had come from a district where that was just commonplace. He also came into being in education from the business world. And as you said, coaching is so much more common and honestly just embraced at that level, in education, for some reason, and it's starting to get a little better. But coaching still has this almost this underlying message of you give a coach to somebody who's in danger losing their job or as a well, we gave me a coach, and it still didn't get any better. And that's not what it is. And that's not what I think it should be. Now, that said, I will tell you my first year as a building principal, I was in the same building that I was the assistant principal, and I moved 40 feet down the hallway to my principal office, and Brian demise within 400 miles. I mean, it was unbelievable the difference between the two roles in so many ways. But the superintendent that had hired Let me say you don't sit at the, you know, sit at the end of the table for the interview, there's, you know, 12 other people, you know, sit down there. And one of the questions I asked at the end of the end of the interview was, you know, what's, what's one thing that you would expect for me, and I can't tell you what 11 of them told me, but I can tell you what superintendent said. He said, Darren, I want to be the instructional leader the building brand I already was, in my in my assistant principal role in charge of curriculum instruction, special programs. I mean, I was the instructional leader of the school and it I think it kind of threw me for a loop. And maybe I overanalyze it. Because I felt like that first year is the building principle. I had to be the, the one, I had to know everything, I had to have every answer, I had to do everything. And I was resentful towards my assistant principals, because they didn't feel like they were doing anything. Because they weren't because that is, it wasn't their fault. It was my fault. But I didn't see that. And so you asked about coaching, this new suit comes in, we get a coach, I get this incredible guy named Tom, who came in, we work together actually for two years. And I'll never forget the first day he was at my school, that the parking lot 630 By the time I got to my office, which wasn't terribly far into the building, I've been hit with 10 or 12 different requests, my push board with notes was flooded. I had a handful of students who stopped me and said, Hey, I'm in touch about this. And you talked about this at a group of angry parents in the office. And by the time all the fires were out, I'm thinking, you know, Okay, Coach, let's sit down and talk. He wouldn't even in the room, it won't even there. You know, we went and found him. He was in a classroom. And he's like, let's go. And we were in classrooms. For most of the day, I'm like, What are we doing? I mean, I had all this other stuff I need to do. And I'll never forget what he said. It's like, during this time you stop being a firefighter, it's time for you to start being a leader. You know, and then we, you know, we talked about how how you move away from being the one who thinks they have to be the smartest one in the room and realize that the smartest one in the room is the room, be the one to talk last as a leader, and listen, and listen, and listen, and listen, and talk last, and so forth. And I mean, he really, he helped me evolve so much as a leader. It was an incredible experience working with him, I got to go to his school a few times, he came back to my school multiple times. He helped me to put it back into perspective. And this is really where my balcony perspective came from was was from him. You know, what's really important to you? And how are you doing in those areas, quit trying to be everything to everybody, nobody expects you to do that. You know, you can't be Superman, just gonna be the best person that you are, you know, you got the job for a reason. They didn't offer it to you because you were Superman then. And they don't expect you to be that out. Go be the best person you can be. And so, so now, I push that forward. I mean, let me say one more thing before before I put that it was such a powerful experience, you asked how it how it changed me. It was such a powerful experience. I completely scrapped my dissertation in my doctorate program from implementation of instructional technology to principal preparation, and the perceptions that individual principals held of their own readiness when they started their position. Because every one of them said, Yeah, Coach would have been awesome, I would have loved to coach and there were a handful who did. So now that's, I love growing leaders. So that's what I do now. And when I work with, you know, whether it's a full leadership team or individuals, you know, we start with what's important to you, you know, what is it you really want to see? And then we start talking about, okay, if I go ask everybody else on your staff, are they gonna tell me the same thing? You know, or at least be close? Are You Living Your values out loud? Or are you marching one way but thinking another and just really focusing on you know how to get them aligned? It's, it's no different, right? In the coach in the basketball team, coaching football team, you know, you need all the parts moving together. You have one kid who stands still, on offense, your offense is sunk. I mean, care what you're running doesn't matter. Everybody runs Duke motion out. That won't work. You know, I mean, everything has to be moving together. And you talked about it, I hit it a little bit earlier. It's about that third point perspective, it's about that high in the sky. It's how do you give feedback to someone? That's not evaluative. That's not harsh, but rather, here's something to think about. Coaching again in education has such a, such a negative connotation. But, Brian, the best athletes in the world have coaches at salute right? Lebron James? Right? LeBron James who the best basketball player out there has had coaches for his whole time at the NBA. Yeah. And I love you, you've had that full gamut. So you've been there, it worked for you, it was huge in your development. And like, how you're giving it to others, right now, when I listen to the questions and what you're talking about, I can break that down to my classroom. If I listened to everything that you're saying, it can come right down to class on level two. And, you know, as we get into this coaching, and everything you travel, now, with the job that you have with the consultant, you get to travel all around the world. And one thing that I get jealous of is, I am in a school with some amazing educators. But I never see them teach, you know, we get into those teaching silos, and I'm so caught up in my daily grind, they're caught up in their daily grind, that we might bounce an idea off of each other that the photocopy machine, but I don't get to see them teach. You had that luxury now, where you're traveling across the country, and you're seeing these amazing school districts. What are you seeing out there that you would say, with the educators, the administrators, the Staffel? T, that you meet? What are they doing with the ones that are the most you I would say, fulfilled right now? The ones that are probably doing the best mentally? What's making them tick? Would you say? You know, I think I think it all starts with levels of support. Even the very, very best teachers right now are exhausted. I mean, first off, when we're recording, this is first April, so, of course, they're exhausted. But I mean, this, this has been a really, really difficult couple of years, as educators and you know, throw in all the negativity and stuff, and I think, even our very best feel a bit demoralized at time. And what it comes back to is, you know, who's getting the different levels of support they need? And, you know, sometimes, sometimes that's professional development. Sometimes, that's just just a quick pick me up, you know, sometimes it's working with, you know, with a team with whether that's leadership team, or an entire, you know, the entire educational staff at the school that has each other's back, you know, I think that's what the ones who are probably feeling the, I don't know the freshest right now, I don't know if that's very fair, because nobody's fresh. Now, this time of year, you're exhausted. I mean, we're in testing season, for goodness sakes, everybody's tired. But I think those who, who have a lot of good support those who you just mentioned it, and I'll quick run on a tangent on that. Sometimes the best professional development is go watch the teacher next door, the teacher across the hall, and great leaders, a, they got to find a way to make sure that those things happen. Because when teachers get to go observe other teachers, and then get to have a conversation about it, just those two people, two professionals who are really great at what they do, but they learn from each other. It might be something subtle, could be something big, could even just be something they saw that made them laugh, and the teacher who was teaching the class, maybe didn't see it, or if they just need to hear those things. I think when when we're supporting each other, and working really hard to make sure we have each other's back. And again, that gets back to organizational culture. You know, if we have a culture where I'm fine with opening my classroom door, and Brian, come on in, I'm not going to feel judged. I want to grow want to get better. The best teachers I've ever worked with the best teachers when I was a principal. And I had a handful of teachers that some of my younger assistant principals were like, I don't know if I want to evaluate this one. I mean, she's so good. I'll take those. And not because they're easy. Those are the hardest evaluations because they want feedback. They don't want to be told hey, you're a rockstar. Here all five Stein here, no aside, they want want to know how can I get better? How can I get better get better and sometimes that's go watch the calculus teacher next door. I don't care if you teach science, go watch the calc guy has nothing to do with your content. Go watch how he does it. Something like that. But again, I think you know, not that keep looping on this. But those who really have systems in place that support teachers, whether that's Hey, I got your back. Pay this is the the process that we're going to use to hold each other collectively accountable. This is the process that we're gonna learn from each other, whatever it is, those are the ones I think, who feel the most fulfilled right now. Awesome. Absolutely. And I think that, like you said, you were talking about having that crew around you, that support system, having that those people that make you laugh, are some that you can, you know, share your feelings with and, and in a positive way, be there to support one another is critical. And one thing that I've found is, I fought off Twitter, I'm not on some of the other social media networks. So I'd say Twitter's my main one. But finding that PLN in that space, and making those connections has been really gratifying for me as well. And I know that you have a good PLN going and everything. That's one of the most critical things, you know, is we gravitate to like minded people, we want to learn, I mean, those who really want to learn need to hear from those who aren't like minded. But we do get we do gravitate towards like minded, and teachers who want to grow are going to find other teachers who want to grow, and they're gonna learn from each other. And it's the same thing with, you know, with us as leaders, or, you know, now me with running a business, you know, finding connections of other entrepreneurs, so I can learn from them. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel, if I if I can learn something from this person, or that person, or they can maybe learn something from me, even if it's something I did wrong. They that's perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Learn and make it your own. Put a little twist on it. Let's go into the championship questions. The final questions here, there. What is one piece of advice that you've had to give yourself lately? So you go around, and I've listened to you talk a lot, and you have a lot of wisdom, a lot of motivation. But all of us struggle at some points when you've hit that tough patch recently. What have you had to remind yourself of? You know, I think, probably I love this question. I think the thing that I've probably reminded myself of the most in this, you know, eight or nine months now than in full time in this in this entrepreneur role is patience. Patience, patience, patients. Sometimes it's it's difficult, and it's challenging, and sometimes you're going to hear no, and sometimes, there, there are things you that you do. And this is very much like teaching where you put in a lot of effort. And it may be quite some time before you see any fruits of your labor. You know, you work your tail off with fourth graders every day. Heck, you may not know you made an impact until they're 30 years old. I mean, you really never know. And so it's the same kind of thing. And in this role that, you know, there are certain pieces that I need to focus on getting this accomplished today or this week. Man, I write on my whiteboards here, in my office, probably as much as I wrote on my whiteboards as a teacher, I mean, it's constantly putting things up there and working through things. And I just have to remind myself to be patient, to you know, to stay the course and to just continue to just focus on what I believe in and what brings me joy. And, you know, the good things follow when when we do that. Absolutely. And I know that you are continuously learning and growing, especially moving in and transitioning into this role. And I think one of the best ways that we can learn is to look outside of the field of education, I think, when you were talking about Walt Disney World, and where they put the trash cans that's looking outside of the field of education and bringing it in, what are some of the whether it's a book podcast, what is something you're learning or listening or reading right now? That is outside of the field of education that you found to be really beneficial for you? Yeah, man, there's, there's a bunch of looking around here. There's, there's there's a book right over there that I probably read three times. Now. The One Thing by Gary Keller, it's an incredible book. In a nutshell, what is the one thing you can do there, but there by doing, it makes everything else easier or irrelevant? That's the premise of the book. It's a powerful, powerful book. The other thing I'll tell you, I love podcasts so much, and there's some great educational podcasts I listen to but outside of education. Oh, there's a whole bunch that are really good, but my favorite is all it takes us gold. The All it takes is a gold podcast is John a cuff and he's always got great guests on or he'll do some solo episodes. Honestly, it kind of modeled my podcasts. little bit just after how he does that with some solos in some some group or rather than an interview, he just say has this has this gift for hitting a topic that's just really timely and really critical for for where I guess in my development as an entrepreneur and no matter what it is that you do what what Jon Acuff is doing on that, on that podcast, it's I know you're a listener to it's it is such a great podcast, and I learned something every time I listen to him. I have to second day. He's an amazing speaker, great wisdom. And he throws in, I want to say maybe comedic style tomb, where you throw he makes it entertaining. And he also, one of the best books I've read recently was soundtracks by Jon Acuff that's all about self talk, and everything. And that's another great book and everything. Our final question, my friend, is, what's one thing if you could have the listeners, walk away from this podcast episode with one thing, one takeaway, what would that be? Oh, that's an easy one. Focus on what you can control and let go of what you can't. There's no reason, no reason to spend all your time. And I know it's human nature. And I know it's hard. Not try to make it sound like it's just a switch, you can turn off it's not, but do everything you can to focus on the things that you have control of how you show up each and every day. Focus on the things that bring you joy and let go of the things that don't we only get to go around once, man, you might as well enjoy the trip. Absolutely. Now how can people connect with you? One other platforms? I know you're putting a ton of great content out there. So what should people be looking for new there? Well, so So with me on social media, everything is Darrin and peppered. Whether it's Twitter, or Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tik Tok, I mean, all of them are our deryni. And peppered the website is road to awesome dotnet. And everything we have road to awesome is on there. You can connect with me, whether it's you know, you want to book me to work with your leadership team or speak at your school or provide some professional development through the course your school year. If you're interested in dropping a book and in our direction, you know, you've got a concept or an idea for a book, folks, you don't have to have a fully written book before you bring it to a publisher, at least not to us. So you can connect with us there. We have a weekly newsletter, just go on the website, go to rhodopsin dotnet. The very first thing that pops up is click here to sign up for the newsletter and our newsletter every week. Every Monday, there's going to be a road to positivity challenge, you'll get a link for our podcast, which is leading into leadership, our blog, a featured Book of the Week, usually a couple of fun stories and some of those kinds of things. So easy to find me easy to get connected with us. And if you remember only one of them just go to road to awesome dotnet because it'll link it everything. Absolutely. And the content is fantastic. I read the blogs every week, I listened to the podcast every week. And like I said at the beginning, Dan, you're the real deal. You took that timeout, and early on and you've taken the time out today. And you're just a good friend, a mentor. And I appreciate you so much my friend. So thank you for being with us today. Well, thank you so much, Brian, for having me on. Thank you for the kind words I think super highly of you feel the same way about you and just really, really appreciate the connection and the friendship that we have and everybody else just get out and have a rhodopsin week. This was a fantastic interview with Dr. Daren Peppard, so much wisdom. And I'm truly grateful that he was able to stop by and talk with us. Now, this is the teaching champions tape, where I'm going to give you three gems from the interview that I really liked. Number one, what you're looking for, is what you're going to find. And Darrin talked about where we point our focus at is important. Because if all we do is look at the negative, if all we do is look at the problems, the things that we don't like this happening all around us, that's all we're going to see. But if we take our focus, and we direct it at finding solutions, if we direct it, it the good things, all the things that the people around are doing that helps lift others up, that helps students and faculty alike feel as if they're seen, heard and valued. If we pay attention to that, it's going to put us in a more positive state. If we pay attention to that, and we recognize it, we reward it. And we reinforce what is right. Just like Darren said, that is a addictive, and we start noticing more and more of it. And it has a positive impact on us. And it's going to have a positive impact on our school culture as well. The second gem that I really like that Dr. Daren pepper talked about, was controlling the things that we can control, and letting go of the things that we can't. Because so often, we end up focusing on things that are outside of our control. And it really hurts us. And it puts us in a bad place. But if we focus on the things that we can control, if we focus on controlling how we show up, it helps us and it helps our students. The third gem that I really liked, was when he talked about taking that balcony perspective, when he talked about going out on the balcony, zooming out, and really paying attention and taking a look at certain key things that were important to his success is a school leader. And I think that's something that we should all be doing. Taking that balcony perspective, identifying certain things that make our classrooms run certain things that make our classrooms successful. And seeing what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? And what can we do better? Those are just three of the gems that I took away from this interview. And I just want to say thank you for being here, for being part of the teaching champions community, we support we encourage we lift each other up. If you think someone would benefit from this message. I would truly appreciate it if you would share it with them. And always remember, whether you're from urban America, to rural 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 your shine, and let's build our champions up. Have a great week, everybody