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.
Ready to dive in?
- Get my book Beyond The Classroom: https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h (https://tinyurl.com/mr23p86h)
- Check out my Elevate Your Impact Interview Preparation Coaching Program: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching (https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching)
- Visit my website: https://www.donovansmalls2.com (https://www.donovansmalls2.com)
- Email us at donovansmalls2@gmail.com (mailto:donovansmalls2@gmail.com)
Episode 47: Too Many Interview Tips? Here's What Aspiring School Leaders Should Do
Are too many interview tips confusing you?
If you're preparing to land your first school leadership role, learning to trust your preparation is just as important as preparing your answers.
In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II explains how too much interview advice can create confusion, weaken your confidence, and make you question your leadership abilities. Learn how to choose the right mentors, stop overthinking your answers, and trust the experience and skills you already bring to the table.
Discover why you don't need to sound like another leader to succeed in a school leadership interview. Instead, learn how to communicate your authentic leadership style, share your experiences with confidence, and approach your next interview with a clearer mindset.
In This Episode:
00:00 Introduction
03:40 Choosing the Right Interview Advice
05:44 Trusting Your Interview Preparation
09:06 Embracing Your Authentic Leadership Style
If you're an aspiring school leader, this episode will help you rethink your interview preparation and build confidence in your leadership journey.
👍🏾 Like this video if it helped you rethink your interview preparation.
💬 Comment below: Are you getting overwhelmed by too many interview tips?
🔔 Subscribe for more practical guidance on school leadership interviews, assistant principal interviews, and leadership development.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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: Preparing for your first school leadership role? Get personalized guidance to strengthen your interview skills and leadership confidence.
Learn more: 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 episodes on Leadership Interviews, Assistant Principal Interviews, School Leadership, Educational Leadership, Interview Preparation, Leadership Development, and Career Growth for aspiring school leaders.
#SchoolLeadership #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #EducationalLeadership #TeacherToLeader #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth
7 Oct 2026
Episode 46: How Chanel Rutty Got Hired as a Vice Principal (After a 7-Hour Interview)
Are you an aspiring school leader trying to land your first Vice Principal role? Wondering what it takes to stand out in a grueling leadership interview?
In this episode of The Aspiring School Leader Podcast, Dr. Donovan Smalls II talks with Chanel Rutty, a Vice Principal in Newark Public Schools, to explore her incredible journey from struggling with initial teaching exams to landing her dream administrative role in just 48 hours.
Chanel gives strong advice on surviving a 7-hour interview, transitioning from charter to public schools, and the crucial mindset shift needed to ace your upcoming interview.
📌 Sections
00:00 Introduction: Meet Vice Principal Chanel Rutty
01:50 Chanel’s Inspiring Journey: From Failing Exams to Pre-K Teacher
04:42 Director vs. Vice Principal: What are the REAL differences?
09:22 Biggest lessons from Year 1 as an Elementary School VP
10:35 Charter School vs. Public School: The truth about work-life balance
15:22 How to stand out against other candidates in an AP interview
16:57 Surviving a grueling 7-HOUR leadership interview
18:48 How to make yourself marketable for administrative roles
21:45 The best advice for your first school leadership interview
22:55 The #1 Interview Mistake: Thinking like a teacher vs. a leader
23:58 Building School Culture: The power of "Community Walks"
26:08 How to connect with Chanel Rutty for mentoring If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to transition from the classroom to an administrative role, this podcast will help you prepare for the challenges ahead and speak about your value with confidence.
You will learn how to:
✅ Overcome career setbacks and find your true purpose in education
✅ Differentiate between the roles of a Director and a Vice Principal
✅ Survive intense, multi-part leadership interviews
✅ Shift your mindset to think (and answer) like a leader, not just a teacher
✅ Make yourself highly marketable to school districts
✅ Build authentic community relationships through "Community Walks" Great leaders are not born when they're given a title. They are learned via experience, connections, service and the ability to inspire others.
🔗 Connect with Chanel Rutty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chanelrutty1908?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
About Dr. Donovan Smalls II :
Assistant Principal | Bestselling Author | Interview Coach
Dr. Donovan Smalls II helps aspiring school leaders get interview-ready and confidently land their first leadership role.
👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching
📘 Grab my book, Beyond the Classroom: https://shorturl.at/74Bgy
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: School Leadership, Assistant Principal Interviews, Educational Leadership, Leadership Development, Teacher Career Growth, Interview Preparation for Aspiring School Leaders.
#SchoolLeadership #VicePrincipal #LeadershipInterview #AssistantPrincipal #AspiringSchoolLeaders #LeadershipinEducation #TeacherToAdmin
1 Oct 2026
Episode 45: Fix Your Interview Weaknesses Before It’s Too Late
How do you uncover your interview strengths?
One of the best ways to identify your strengths is to understand your vulnerabilities. By evaluating the areas that may be holding you back, you can better prepare for a school leadership interview, strengthen your responses, and become more intentional about communicating the leadership strengths you already possess.
You may have years of teaching experience and plenty of interview questions to practice, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are equipped to articulate your leadership effectively in an interview.
Chapters:
00:00 — Do You Need Interview Coaching?
02:08 – Information Does Not Equal Transformation
06:53 — You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See
09:46 — Confidence, Feedback & Interview Success
In this episode, Dr. Donovan Smalls II discusses the importance of recognizing the areas that need improvement and how objective feedback, focused practice, and the right interview framework can help aspiring school leaders uncover their interview vulnerabilities, strengthen their weaknesses, and more clearly communicate their leadership strengths.
You will learn:
✅ Why you can’t ace interviews only by gathering interview questions
✅ How to identify frequent interview blind spots
✅ How to frame your teaching experience as leadership
✅ Why feedback is better than memorizing answers
✅ Managing unexpected interview questions
✅ How deliberate practice can increase your interview confidence
✅ How interview coaching can make you perform better in the Leadership interview
If you’re an aspiring school leader, a teacher getting ready for an assistant principal interview, or an educator working toward your first leadership job, this episode will help you approach your school leadership interview preparation with better clarity and confidence.
👉🏾 Learn More About 1:1 Leadership Interview Coaching: https://www.donovansmalls2.com/coaching
📘 Grab my book, 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 get interview ready & confidently land their first school leadership role.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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.
#SchoolLeadership #LeadershipInterview #InterviewPreparation #AssistantPrincipal #EducationalLeadership
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
28
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
0
Contact The Aspiring School Leader Podcast
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
