Every principal I know is starting to play around with AI, using it to write faster, produce more, get more off their plate.

And most of them are walking away disappointed.

In this episode I'm talking about why AI keeps falling flat for principals — and what the actual line is between what AI should handle and what it should never touch.

We tried to teacher-proof teaching for decades. Smart boards. Scripted curricula. Packaged observation frameworks. Every single one ended up in a supply closet.

Now we're reaching for AI with the same hope. And it's failing for the exact same reason.

If you've ever felt like AI was creating more work instead of less, or like something important got outsourced that wasn't supposed to, this episode is for you.

In this episode:

• Why principals in both the "barely using it" and "all in" camps are struggling the same way
• The graveyard of tools that were going to change everything (and what AI has in common with all of them)
• The one question to ask before you open any AI tool
• What a 100% Principal never outsources to AI (and why)

🎯 Want to go deeper? Join me for the 100% AI Playbook Masterclass on June 23rd, 7pm ET. Five tools. Built together. Deployed immediately. Get your ticket: https://buildershipuniversity.com/masterclass

📩 Get the full newsletter every Friday: 100percentprincipal.com

Every year I step completely outside education and bring back five books that have nothing to do with schools — and everything to do with building one. This is my 2026 Summer Reading List, and it's the hardest one I've ever put together.

None of these books are education books. But every single one has something real to say about the culture you're trying to build — and the kind of principal you're becoming while you build it.

The 5 books on this year's list:

• Leading with Dignity by Donna Hicks
• Originals by Adam Grant
• One Word That Will Change Your Life by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton & Jimmy Page
• Strong Ground by Brené Brown
• The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader by Melissa Murray

After you watch, I'm curious. Tell me what books you're reading right now in the comments. I'll be reading every one and who knows? Your suggestion might just end up on next year's list.

You already have a vision for your school.

You have probably had it for years.

The problem is not that you cannot see it. The problem is that you have been waiting for someone else to tell you that you are allowed to believe in it.

In this episode of The 100% Principal, I am talking about the permission gap — why the vision problem most principals face is not a skill gap or a knowledge gap, but a permission gap. And why the only person who can close it is you.

We cover:

— Why the end of the year feels like this (and what the sneaking "I want more" feeling is really telling you)
— How vision committees are designed to produce consensus
— and why that is the exact opposite of what you need
— The difference between a vision statement and a 100% Vision
— What it actually costs to keep shrinking your vision to fit what you think others can handle
— The one question to ask before you write another plan this summer

This episode is for the principal who already knows what they want and has not yet given themselves permission to say it out loud.

📩 Get The 100% Principal Newsletter every Friday: https://100percentprincipal.com

🏃 The 100% Vision Sprint — enrollment closes June 8: https://buildershipuniversity.com/sprint/

If you've ever stood in front of your staff in August full of hope and found yourself rationalizing data in May — this episode is for you.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why the leadership playbook is keeping you and your teachers stuck in the same loop every single year — and why the only thing that actually breaks it isn't a new program, a new framework, or a new acronym. It's a 100% Vision. I'll show you exactly what that means, why it changes the math for your entire school, and how principals like Trina, Francina, Kevin, and Ashley used it to get results most people said weren't possible.

You have a School Improvement Plan. You might not have a vision. And that difference explains everything about why your year keeps ending up in the same place.

Most principals think the gap between the year they planned and the year they got is a follow-through problem. A staff problem. A prioritization problem. It isn't. It's a clarity gap — and your SIP, no matter how well-written, can't close it.

In this episode I walk you through exactly what separates a school improvement plan from a 100% vision, why that distinction matters more than any strategy you'll set this fall, and the three questions that will tell you immediately whether your vision is clear enough to actually run your building.

If your staff works hard but the initiatives still stall, if you're the only one who can see what's possible, if October keeps breaking your momentum — this episode is for you.

📩 Get the full newsletter every Friday: 100percentprincipal.com

Resources mentioned:

Learn more about the upcoming free one-hour session on May 28th at 7pm ET called the 100% Vision Session: https://buildershipuniversity.com/visionlab/

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

You're listening to The 100 Percent Principal Podcast, where those ideas come to life.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

You've given the feedback. Done the modeling. Sent them to PD. And some of your teachers are still making the same mistakes they were making in September.

Before you write that final evaluation, I want you to consider something: are you judging their decisions — or are you examining their choices?

There's a difference. And it changes everything about how you develop teachers.

What you'll learn:

In this episode of The 100% Principal, I'm sharing Issue #005 of the newsletter — and it starts with something Michael Beasley said in an interview that made me put down my crochet hook mid-stitch. One sentence that named something I've been trying to articulate for years about the way we treat the people we lead.

We'll talk about:

• Why the reflective questions we were trained to ask in post-observation conferences are failing your teachers
• The difference between a will problem and a skill problem (and why it still comes down to choices)
• A simple four-level framework for matching your support to where your teachers actually are
• What it costs you when you don't make this shift

This is one of those episodes that's going to make you rethink something you've been doing all year.

Resources mentioned:

📖 Never Underestimate Your Teachers — https://mindsteps-inc.myshopify.com/products/never-underestimate-your-teachers

📬 Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — https://100percentprincipal.com

🏫 Learn more about Buildership University — https://buildershipuniversity.com

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

You're listening to The 100 Percent Principal Podcast, where those ideas come to life.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

You've spent real time on your vision. You can articulate it. Your staff has heard it. You believe it.

And your master schedule is quietly working against every word of it.

Why? Because nobody taught you to look at the schedule the right way: as a mirror for your vision, not a logistics problem to survive.

And once you see it that way, some problems you've been fighting for years turn out to have a twenty-minute solution.

In this episode I'm going to show you how to read your master schedule the way I read it, and what to do when what you find doesn't match what you say you believe.

In this episode I break down:

• Why your master schedule is the most honest document in your building
• The one question that changes everything about how the scheduling process starts
• The scheduling decision that made teachers start recommending students for honor without anyone asking them to
• What "change your core values or change your schedule" actually means, and the principal whose teachers changed the schedule themselves once they saw the misalignment
• The specific 15-minute move you can do this week to find the gap between your vision and your schedule

What you'll learn:

In this episode I'm going to show you how to read your master schedule the way I read it, and what to do when what you find doesn't match what you say you believe.

I break down: — Why your master schedule is the most honest document in your building — more honest than your vision statement — The one question that changes everything about how the scheduling process starts — The scheduling decision that made teachers start recommending students for honors — without anyone asking them to — What "change your core values or change your schedule" actually means — and the principal whose teachers changed the schedule themselves once they saw the misalignment — The specific 15-minute move you can do this week to find the gap between your vision and your schedule

🤔 QUESTION OF THE DAY: Pick one thing from your vision. Now ask yourself: does it have protected time in your master schedule?

Resources mentioned:

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com

Get your copy of the Master Scheduling Playbook here

This episode comes from The 100 Percent Principal Weekly—my newsletter where every Friday I share one thing you can take straight into Monday to move the needle toward 100%.

Subscribe at https://100percentprincipal.com/

Most principals walk out of a hiring interview with a feeling. A 100% Principal walks out with evidence. In this episode, I'm breaking down the three-stage hiring system that changes who applies, who you interview, and who actually shows up in your building every day.

What you'll learn:

• Why your job posting is filtering for the wrong people (and how to fix it in under 5 minutes)
• The one question that reveals what a candidate actually believes — versus what they know to say
• Why a sample lesson in the second interview is the least useful thing you can ask for — and what to do instead
• The real cost of a will-based misalignment hire and why it almost never shows up in year one

Resources mentioned:

How to Hire Your Next Master Teacher Playbook — https://mindsteps-inc.myshopify.com/products/how-to-hire-your-next-master-teacher-playbook

The 100% Collective — https://buildershipuniversity.com/collective

Subscribe to The 100% Principal Newsletter — one thing every Friday you can take straight into Monday: 100percentprincipal.com