The Aspiring School Leader Podcast

The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is the go-to show for educators ready to step into school leadership with clarity, confidence, and impact. Hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II , an assistant principal, best-selling author, and interview coach, this podcast helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Dr. Smalls supports educators with interview preparation, equipping them to step into new roles fully prepared and confident. Each episode delivers real-world insights, actionable strategies, and honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities that come with school leadership. Whether listeners are preparing for their first interview or already walking the halls as leaders-in-waiting, this podcast provides the tools and guidance they need to show up ready. For educators ready to elevate their impact beyond the classroom, this is the place to start. <p

The Aspiring School Leader Podcast is a education podcast hosted by Dr. Donovan Smalls II, with 37 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Dr. Donovan Smalls II hosts The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, a education show with 37 episodes published.

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  Episode #39

  Episode 39: How to Know If a School Leadership Job Is Right for You | Interview Tips

  Aug 18, 202615 min

  A school leadership job is about more than getting an offer—it’s about finding the right school, district, and leadership environment for you. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares how aspiring school leaders can evaluate a leadership opportunity before saying yes. Chapters: 00:00 You’re Interviewing Them, Too 02:33 Know What You’re Looking For 07:12 Ask Questions That Reveal the Culture 09:33 Remember the Value You Bring When preparing for a school leadership interview, it’s easy to focus entirely on proving yourself to the interview panel. But remember…you’re interviewing them, too. This episode will help you approach your next leadership interview with confidence, clarity, and discernment, by learning how to: ✅ Evaluate whether a school leadership job is right for you ✅ Ask questions that reveal the school’s culture ✅ Understand whether the district supports leadership growth ✅ Recognize the value and experience you bring to the table You’ll learn how to determine whether a school leadership position aligns with your long-term goals, leadership growth, values, and ability to make a meaningful impact on students, staff, and families. If you need personalized support with your leadership interview preparation, let’s explore 1:1 coaching below. 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. Streaming on: YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders

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  Episode #38

  Episode 38: How Qualified Candidates Can Stand Out in Leadership Interviews

  Aug 10, 202615 min

  School leadership interview success takes more than experience and qualifications. In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II shares 3 powerful leadership interview strategies to help aspiring school leaders answer with confidence, reduce interview anxiety, and position themselves as the leader a district wants to hire. Two candidates can have similar experience, qualifications, and resumes—but one gets the job while the other doesn't. Often, the difference isn't experience. It's strategy. ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 — Why Qualified Candidates Fail Leadership Interviews 01:56 — Strategy #1: Know the District Before You Sell Yourself 06:38 — Strategy #2: Think Beyond the Question 09:27 — Strategy #3: Control the Narrative If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, this video will help you: ✅ Research the district before you sell yourself ✅ Connect your experience to the district's goals and needs ✅ Understand what interview questions are really designed to reveal ✅ Answer unexpected leadership interview questions with confidence ✅ Use frameworks instead of memorizing answers ✅ Reduce interview anxiety and communicate your leadership more effectively ✅ Control the narrative and leave the interview with a clear leadership message Ready to Prepare for Your Leadership Interview? If you have a strong resume and the experience to lead, but need additional support preparing for your next school leadership interview, Dr. Donovan Smalls II's 4-week interview preparation coaching program, Elevate Your Impact, can help you: • Clarify and confidently communicate your leadership story • Practice scenario-based leadership interview questions • Receive real-time coaching and targeted feedback • Complete a full one-on-one mock leadership interview 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy About Dr. Donovan Smalls II: Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. Streaming on: YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr Subscribe for weekly videos on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders. #SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #AssistantPrincipal #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership

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  Episode #37

  Episode 37: 3 Things Hiring Committees Want to Hear in Leadership Interviews

  Aug 4, 202614 min

  Leadership Interview Tips for Aspiring School Leadership Interview Success. Learn what hiring committees want to hear in leadership interviews. You don't need a stronger resume. You need stronger interview answers. The candidates who consistently earn leadership roles aren't always the most experienced—they're the ones who clearly communicate how their leadership changes outcomes for teachers, students, and the entire school community. If you're preparing for your first leadership interview, these three principles will completely change how you approach your next interview. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **INSIDE THIS EPISODE** 00:00 | The mistake that weakens great interview answers 00:24 | Why hiring committees think differently than candidates 03:08 | Principle #1 — You shouldn't always be the hero 06:18 | Principle #2 — Think beyond your classroom 12:16 | Principle #3 — Put students at the center of every answer 14:24 | The interview framework every aspiring school leader should remember ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **WHY THIS MATTERS** Hiring committees aren't simply looking for someone who can manage a school. They're looking for someone who can develop teachers, inspire people, and improve student outcomes. That's the difference between sounding qualified...and sounding like the leader they're ready to hire. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **IN THIS VIDEO, YOU'LL DISCOVER** • The three things hiring committees actually want to hear • Why talking about yourself too much weakens your interview answers • How to communicate leadership impact instead of accomplishments • How to connect classroom success to school-wide leadership • The mindset shift that separates teachers from future school leaders • Why student-centered leadership creates unforgettable interview answers • How to position yourself as someone who develops people—not just manages them ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ONE IDEA TO REMEMBER** Great leadership interviews aren't about proving how impressive you are. They're about proving how many lives your leadership will improve. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **ABOUT DR. DONOVAN SMALLS II** Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders strengthen their interview skills, communicate their leadership story with confidence, and successfully transition into their first leadership role. Beyond the Classroom https://shorturl.at/74Bgy Interview Coaching https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LISTEN & CONNECT YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for weekly content on leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, school leadership, educational leadership, leadership development, interview preparation, and career growth for aspiring school leaders.

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  Episode #36

  Episode 36: The #1 Interview Mistake Aspiring School Leaders Keep Making

  Jul 27, 202616 min

  Preparing to land your first leadership role? This episode reveals the #1 mistake aspiring school leaders make and how a student-centered leadership approach can help you stand out with interview committees. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **CHAPTERS** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 – The #1 Interview Mistake 00:24 – Why Most Leadership Interview Answers Fall Short 03:08 – Principle #1: Stop Making Yourself the Hero 06:18 – Principle #2: Connect Classroom Impact to School-wide Impact 12:16 – Principle #3: Make Students the Center of Your Leadership Philosophy 14:24 – Three Principles That Transform Interview Answers 14:51 – Leadership Interview Coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Many aspiring school leaders miss out on leadership opportunities—not because they lack experience, but because they communicate leadership the wrong way. In this episode, you'll learn three practical leadership interview principles that will help you answer interview questions with confidence, demonstrate student-centered leadership, and leave hiring committees with a lasting impression. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **WHAT YOU'LL LEARN** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✔ The #1 leadership interview mistake aspiring school leaders make ✔ Why hiring committees look beyond leadership skills and experience ✔ How to stop making yourself the hero in your interview answers ✔ How to connect your classroom experience to schoolwide leadership ✔ Why student-centered leadership creates stronger interview answers ✔ How to develop a leadership philosophy that hiring committees remember ✔ How to communicate leadership impact instead of listing accomplishments ✔ What separates great teachers from great school leaders during interviews Great interview answers don't just explain **how you lead.** They explain **who benefits from your leadership.** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **About Dr. Donovan Smalls II** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders become interview-ready, strengthen their leadership confidence, and confidently land their first school leadership role. **Grab Beyond the Classroom** https://shorturl.at/74Bgy **1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching** If you're preparing for your first leadership role and want personalized interview coaching, learn more here: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **Listen & Connect** ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YouTube https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for weekly videos on **Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development,** and **Career Growth** for aspiring school leaders.

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  Episode #35

  Episode 35: Why don't you get the job even with a great resume? | Interview Tips 2026

  Jul 20, 202614 min

  Preparing for an assistant principal interview or school leadership interview but still not getting hired? In this episode, discover why hiring committees often reject highly qualified candidates—and what they're actually looking for during an interview. How to communicate your leadership experience, demonstrate real impact, and answer interview questions in a way that builds confidence and trust. 0:00 - The Harsh Truth About Great Resumes 1:01 - Your Resume Isn't the Problem (The Savior Misconception) 2:53 - Principle 1: Don't Tell Them What You Did, Tell Them Why It Mattered 6:20 - Principle 2: Translate Your Experiences Into Leadership (Influence vs. Authority) 9:36 - Principle 3: Every Answer Should Reinforce Your Leadership Identity 11:00 - The Closing Challenge: 3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself Learn: ✔ Why a great resume isn't enough to get hired ✔ The biggest interview mistakes aspiring school leaders make ✔ How to turn your experience into leadership evidence ✔ What hiring committees really want to hear ✔ 3 powerful interview principles to help you stand out ✔ How to build a strong leadership identity during an interview About Dr. Donovan Smalls II Assistant Principal | Best-Selling Author | Interview Coach Dr. Smalls helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready & confidently land their first leadership role. Grab Beyond the Classroom → https://shorturl.at/74Bgy 1:1 Leadership Coaching is available for aspiring school leaders who want to strengthen their interview skills and confidently transition into administrative roles: https://donovansmalls2.com/coaching Listen & Connect YouTube: https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/L0Y2m Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/mv7f683k Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4wydt4nr ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for weekly content on school leadership interviews, leadership development, and career growth strategies. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #InterviewTips #LeadershipInterview #SchoolLeadership #CareerGrowth #InterviewPreparation #LeadershipSkills #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringLeaders

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