The CharacterStrong Podcast

Today, host John Norlin shares a Leadership Toolbox episode built around one of the most important paradigm shifts: what if leadership is not about power or title, but about influence? And if that is true, then every person in a school or organization is already a leader, whether they know it or not.

He also explains why influence is a skill that can be learned, and why the two simplest things any leader can do every day are pay attention and show appreciation.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. That means every person in a building is already leading in some direction, whether positively or negatively, whether they choose it or not.
• People crave attention and appreciation more than almost anything else. Leaders who get better at those two things every day are directly meeting one of the most fundamental human needs.
• If influence is a skill, it can be learned. That makes leadership learnable too, and removes every excuse to stay on the sidelines.

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Today our guest is Dr. J.R. Rucker, high school principal in Chaffey Joint Union High School District and adjunct professor at USC. Dr. Rucker shares how he thinks about school culture, social media, and student connection as three parts of the same strategy: creating a place where students and families feel like they belong and want to be.

He also explains how giving families direct access, including his personal cell phone number, and building a social media presence that celebrates every kind of student, not just the most visible ones, turns a school's stated values into something the community can actually see and feel.

In this conversation, Dr. Rucker offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• School culture is the lifeblood of everything else. If students are not enjoying their time at school, something needs to change, because the goal is a place they speak well of long after they leave.
• Social media is not just a communication tool. It is a storytelling tool, and the schools using it well are intentionally reaching multiple audiences, upcoming students, current students, and families, with content that reflects their values.
• The more access you give people, the less they need you. Extending trust to families up front creates fewer problems, not more.

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Today our guest is Marelenise Phillips-Roberts, a District Leader of MTSS. Marelenise shares how she thinks about professional development for MTSS not as a one-time training event but as a continuous learning system that mirrors the same tiered, needs-based approach schools use to support students.

She also explains why getting curious before concluding, and connecting before correcting, is the foundation of both effective professional development design and the trust-building that makes any adult learning actually stick.

In this conversation, Marelenise offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Systems don't support students. People using those systems support students. Professional development has to equip and sustain the people behind the work, not just explain the framework.
• Professional learning must be continuous, not episodic. A single training at the start of the year without ongoing checkpoints, coaching, and collaboration will not create lasting change.
• Support for adults should be as differentiated as support for students. Some people need training, some need modeling, some need a resource, and some need someone to sit beside them and think through a problem.

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Today, host John Norlin shares a Leadership Toolbox episode built around one of the most important questions in education: if leadership is influence, how do you actually earn it? The answer, he argues, is through service and sacrifice, and he makes the case with a story about a high school math teacher who changed the trajectory of how he saw himself as a learner.

He also explains how the everyday acts of serving and sacrificing, being present in the hallway, remembering personal details about students, showing up outside of school hours, are not extras layered on top of leadership. They are how influence is built, one small act at a time.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Influence is rarely held by the person with the biggest title. It belongs to the person who has most consistently served and sacrificed for the people around them.
• The small, daily acts of presence and genuine interest are not soft add-ons to leadership. They are the mechanism through which trust and influence are earned.
• Students show up for the people who have shown up for them. Engagement, effort, and even a changed mindset follow from relationship, not the other way around.
• To lead is to serve. That is not a tagline. It is the practical path to influence in any school, classroom, or organization.

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Today our guest is Alex Alvarado, co-founder and CEO of Daybreak Health, a school-based mental health company partnering with hundreds of K-12 districts to connect students with the care they need. Alex shares a three-part framework for how schools can build a team-based approach to turning a concern about a student into a real connection to care.

He also explains why the answer to serving struggling students is not caring more, it is building better systems, and why closing the loop between internal school staff and external providers is the piece most schools are still missing.

In this conversation, Alex offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Schools are full of adults who care deeply about students. What breaks down is not the caring. It is the handoff system between the people who identify a need and the people who can meet it.
• Before implementing a screener, schools need a plan for what happens after. A screener without a follow-up system creates overwhelm, not outcomes.
• Making a referral to an outside provider is not a failure. It is the system working. The goal is building a network of partners who function as an extension of the school, not a disconnected add-on.
• Good intentions don't work. Mechanisms do. A system that removes the guesswork from getting a student into the right level of support is what makes consistent care possible.

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About Alex Alvarado:

Alex Alvarado is the co-founder and CEO of Daybreak Health, a school-based mental health company that partners with 200+ K-12 districts to get students the care they need to change their lives. He started Daybreak after watching his own brother go years without mental health support as a teenager. The company is built on a simple idea: the right help at the right time can change the entire trajectory of a kid's life. Prior to Daybreak he spent his career in healthcare, with a conviction that everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable care. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, son and two huskies.

Today our guest is Chris Moore, Director of Behavioral Health at Salem-Keizer Public Schools. Chris shares a poem he wrote and delivered as a commencement address to a cohort of leaders, a piece that started as a love letter to leadership and became a ritual reminder of why educators show up, stay in it, and choose to keep going even when the work is hard.

He also reflects on the importance of building space for reflection into the daily and long-term rhythms of leadership, and why giving ourselves and others permission to slow down, sit with what is hard, and surface what is true is not a luxury. It is part of the work itself.

In this conversation, Chris offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Staying with people twice as long as anyone ever expects, and loving them anyway, is the anchor that cuts through the noise when the work feels overwhelming.
• Sacred space for reflection, even just 90 seconds, is a daily leadership habit worth protecting. Without it, the heart-centered part of the work gets crowded out.
• The work of education is heavy and sacred at the same time. Holding both of those truths together is what sustains leaders for the long haul.

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Today our guest is Dr. Stefan Bean, Orange County's 12th Superintendent of Schools and author of Lifted to Lead. Dr. Bean shares the LIFTED framework, a practical leadership model built around the idea that a leader's job is not to be first up the ladder but to hold it steady so others can climb.

He also explains why listening is the foundation everything else in the framework depends on, and how leaders at every level can build real systems for gathering input from the people most affected by the decisions being made.

In this conversation, Dr. Bean offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Every person in an organization has a strength worth cultivating. A leader's job is to find it, name it, and put people in a position to use it.
• Listening is a skill, not a given. Building purposeful structures for it, cadenced meetings, skilled facilitation, shared norms, and dyad conversations, is what makes it real rather than aspirational.
• Leadership is not about self-fulfillment. When leaders orient themselves toward lifting others, the entire organization rises with them.

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About Dr. Stefan Bean

Dr. Stefan Bean serves as Orange County superintendent of schools, guiding regional efforts to ensure every learner has the knowledge, skills and opportunities to thrive. With nearly 30 years in education, he is known for building genuine connections and leading with heart.

As county superintendent, Dr. Bean leads the Orange County Department of Education, which provides direct instruction to the county's most vulnerable students and critical support to 28 local school districts and more than 40 charter schools serving hundreds of thousands of learners. Under his leadership, OCDE's work is anchored in the 5-3-1 Strategic Plan, emphasizing student success, service excellence and shared leadership.

Dr. Bean was unanimously appointed as Orange County's 12th Superintendent of Schools in June 2024 and was elected by Orange County voters in June 2026 to a full four-year term. Before joining OCDE, Dr. Bean served as superintendent for Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles, where he oversaw 11 TK-12 campuses after advancing from principal to superintendent during nearly 12 years with the organization. He subsequently served as executive director of the Irvine International Academy.

Today our guest is Sonia Ruiz, Principal at Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois and 2026 National Middle Level Principal of the Year. Sonia shares how her school built a system for gathering student voice that goes beyond surveys, turning what students share into concrete action, staff training, and a more inclusive school community.

She also explains why collecting student voice only matters if it leads somewhere, and how her team uses what they hear to change systems, equip staff with practical tools, and ensure that every student, including those in multi-needs programs, has a named adult connection in the building.

In this conversation, Sonia offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Asking students what makes them feel like they belong, and whether they can name a person they connect with, gives schools far more useful information than a standard survey scale ever will.
• Gathering student voice without acting on it is a missed opportunity. The real work begins after you hear what students are carrying and what they wish adults knew.
• Belonging is not a feel-good add-on. It is the foundation that makes academic risk-taking, vulnerability, and growth possible in the first place.

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About Sonia Ruiz: Sonia E. Ruiz is the Principal of Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois, where her leadership has guided the school to Exemplary Status for three years in a row. A proud Latina leader, Sonia has dedicated her career to ensuring that every student learns at high levels in safe, supportive, and inclusive school communities.

Her leadership journey spans more than two decades, beginning with her early years as a school social worker and progressing through roles as assistant principal, associate principal, and now principal. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for transforming school culture, strengthening teacher collective efficacy, and advancing equitable practices. In recognition of her impact, Sonia was honored as the 2021 Lake County IPA Assistant Principal of the Year, the 2025 Three Rivers Middle School Principal of the Year, the 2025 Illinois Middle School Principal of the Year, the 2025 Illinois NAESP National Distinguished Principal of the Year, the 2026 NASSP Illinois Middle Level Principal of the Year, and, most recently, the 2026 National Middle Level Principal of the Year.

Today, John Norlin and Houston Kraft mark the launch of Season 9 of the CharacterStrong Podcast by digging into a framework that was unpacked this summer around what it actually takes to cultivate the conditions where students and adults can thrive.

They also reflect on what nine seasons of conversations with educators have made clear, that the leaders who create lasting change share three consistent traits: they are passionate about the work, they build systems rather than chase goals, and they stay with it long after the initial energy fades.

In this conversation, John and Houston offer important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Before adding anything new, leaders have to ask what needs to be removed first. Invasive ideas and programs crowd out the things that are actually meant to thrive.
• Preparation precedes growth. Watering the soil before planting, building belonging and culture before instruction begins, changes what is possible once the work starts.
• The initiatives worth investing in are the ones that give back as much as they take. If something only costs the people doing it, it will not last.
• Passion, systems, and persistence are the through line across nine seasons of educators doing work that matters. Goals without systems and staying power rarely move the needle.

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Today our guest is Torrin Johnson, Executive Director of MTSS at Merced Union High School District in California. Torrin shares how his district built a Tier 2 support system from the ground up, what they got wrong at first, and how pairing trained intervention coordinators with explicit skill-based curriculum helped bring their suspension rate to below 1% across 11,000 students.

He also explains why matching the right intervention to the right student need is the most important and most commonly skipped step in Tier 2 implementation, and why the difference between a skill gap and a motivation gap changes everything about how a school should respond.

In this conversation, Torrin offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• A strong Tier 2 system does not replace Tier 1. It runs alongside it, and students receiving Tier 2 supports still need a solid Tier 1 foundation underneath them.
• Applying the same intervention to every student regardless of need is not neutral. Matching the right intervention to the right gap is what makes Tier 2 actually work.
• Students who have never been explicitly taught self-regulation and interpersonal skills will tell you so. When schools teach those skills directly, students notice and respond.
• Principals are central to Tier 2 success. Investing in their understanding of the why behind the system is just as important as implementing the interventions themselves.

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About Torrin Johnson: Torrin Johnson is an educational leader who serves as the Executive Director of MTSS for the Merced Union High School District. Driven by a strong commitment to educational equity and student advocacy, he oversees district-wide Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), alternative education sites, and key academic interventions such as the Read 180 program. Prior to his current district role, he served as Principal of Atwater High School from 2015 to 2019, where he significantly reduced truancies and suspensions. He also served as Principal of Yosemite Continuation High School from 2010 to 2015. Johnson holds a Master's degree in English and Bachelor's degrees in English and Interdisciplinary Studies from National University, an Associate of Arts from Merced College, and clear California administrative and teaching credentials.

Today our guest is Angela Walle, a teacher at Geiger Montessori in Tacoma Public Schools and recipient of the Tacoma Public Schools Whole Child Champion Award. Angela shares how replacing classroom rules with explicitly taught character traits transformed her classroom from one of the most difficult she had ever managed to one where students described it as their safest place in school.

She also explains how spending 30 minutes a day on character trait instruction gave her more instructional time, not less, by shifting her role from behavior manager to guide, and how holding students accountable to shared values rather than rules builds the kind of community that students carry with them beyond the classroom.

In this conversation, Angela offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Replacing rules with explicitly taught character traits shifts the dynamic from compliance to community. Students learn to hold themselves accountable rather than waiting to be corrected.
• When educators share their own struggles openly with students, it lowers anxiety, builds trust, and creates the psychological safety students need to take risks and learn.
• The time invested in teaching character traits is not time taken away from instruction. It is the foundation that makes instruction possible in the first place.

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About Angela Walle:

Angela Walle is in her 19th year as an educator. She was awarded Tacoma Public School's Whole Child Champion award in the spring of 2026. Majority of her career has been spent working with students in grades k-3. In 2018 Angela stepped out of the classroom to work directly with teachers as a mentor and co-teacher. From Sept 2020 to June of 2023 Angela took on a special project for Tacoma Public Schools called TV Classroom. She worked closely with a team to produce videos that allowed families, students and teachers access to learning during the Covid Years. These videos included virtual field trips and instruction for SEL, Math, and Literacy. The 2026 school will be her 4th year at Geiger Montessori and she currently teaches a 1st-3rd grade multi-age class.

Today, host John Norlin shares a strategy called Staff Chips, a simple physical system that helps building administrators be more intentional about connecting with every member of their staff, not just the ones they naturally gravitate toward.

He also explains why systems matter more than goals when it comes to relational work. Having the intention to connect more with staff is not enough. A concrete, repeatable process is what actually makes it happen consistently over time.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Every leader has staff they naturally connect with and staff they do not. Staff Chips makes the intentional ones just as likely to happen as the natural ones.
• Systems outlast goals. A physical reminder that you carry through the day is more reliable than a general intention to connect more with your people.
• You do not have to connect with everyone every day. Working through the jar over time is enough to ensure every staff member receives intentional attention from their leader.
• This strategy works beyond administration. Teachers, family members, and friends can apply the same thinking to the relationships that matter most to them.

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Today, host John Norlin shares a strategy called Deck of Destiny, a simple way to weave relationship-building into the daily fabric of the classroom without adding time to an already full schedule. Using a deck of cards connected to get-to-know questions, educators can create two-minute connection moments that are random, engaging, and easy to sustain.

He also explains why the real barrier to relational work is rarely time and more often priority, and how reframing "I didn't have time" as "that wasn't a priority for me" changes the way educators think about what gets woven into the school day.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Saying "I didn't have the time" and saying "that wasn't a priority for me" mean the same thing. Sitting with that distinction changes how we make decisions about what gets into the school day.
• Two minutes of intentional connection at the start, end, or transition of class is enough to build the relational foundation that makes everything else work better.
• Giving students a random, choice-based entry point into connection increases engagement and makes the routine feel fresh rather than formulaic.

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Today, host John Norlin shares a strategy called the Kid in the Middle, a simple, low-burden approach to recognizing the students who rarely get attention in either direction. By calling home to compliment a family member on a positive trait their child brings to the classroom, educators can make an impact that lasts far longer than they might expect.

He also explains why this matters most for the students who never cause problems and never stand out. For many of their families, a positive call from school may be the first one they have ever received across an entire K-12 experience.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• The students most likely to be overlooked are not the ones causing problems or earning top grades. They are the ones quietly in the middle, and they deserve intentional recognition too.
• A phone call home that compliments a student's character costs less than five minutes and can stay with a family for years.
• Families of middle-of-the-road students often go an entire school career without receiving a single positive call from school. That is worth changing.

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Today, host John Norlin shares an evidence-based reflection strategy called EMR, developed by Dr. Clayton Cook. Using a simple roster exercise, educators categorize each student or staff member into one of three relationship phases: Establish, Maintain, or Restore, and then focus their energy where it is needed most.

He also explains why this kind of intentional reflection matters. You cannot be all things to all people at once, but taking a few minutes to identify where each relationship stands gives educators a clear, actionable starting point for being more purposeful in the work they do every day.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Relationships with students and staff are not all in the same place at the same time. Some need to be established, some maintained, and some restored, and knowing which is which changes how you show up.
• You cannot prioritize everything at once. The EMR exercise helps educators zero in on the relationships that need the most intentional attention right now.
• Restoring a relationship takes real, deliberate action. Naming it honestly is the first step toward doing something about it.

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Today, host John Norlin shares a practical classroom check-in strategy called the Temperature Check. Using three simple questions at the start of class, educators can get a quick read on how students are actually doing before instruction begins, and act on what they learn.

He also explains why that information matters beyond academic readiness. Knowing where students are emotionally on any given day gives educators the opportunity to respond, connect, and support students in ways that going straight into content never allows.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Three questions at the start of class, a name, a one-to-five rating, and an optional reason, take almost no time and give educators information they would not otherwise have.
• A student who checks in low on a day they are normally high is information worth acting on, even without knowing the reason why.
• How many days did we not know what a student was carrying because we never asked? That question is worth sitting with.

Learn More About CharacterStrong:

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Today, host John Norlin shares a simple weekly strategy for helping students get to know the adults in their school: True Story Friday. By taking two to five minutes at the end of Friday to share a personal story, educators give students something they often want but rarely get, a real look at who their teacher actually is.

He also explains how a little preparation goes a long way, having stories ready in advance, offering students a choice of topics, and even letting a story carry over to the following week to build anticipation and connection over time.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Students want to know their teachers as people, not just as instructors, and giving them that access builds the kind of relationship that makes everything else in the classroom work better.
• True Story Friday takes two to five minutes and requires no curriculum changes. It fits inside what educators are already doing each week.
• A small amount of preparation, having a few stories ready before Friday arrives, makes this strategy easy to sustain and genuinely enjoyable to deliver.
• Letting students choose the topic and leaving a story unfinished until next week turns a simple routine into something students actually look forward to.

Learn More About CharacterStrong:

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Today, host John Norlin shares a leadership concept called The Law of the Lid, drawn from Dr. John Maxwell's work. The core idea is straightforward: as a leader, you cannot expect the people around you to bring more energy, effort, or authenticity to the room than you are willing to bring yourself.

He also explains how this principle applies at every level of a school, from the classroom teacher setting the tone with students to the building administrator setting the tone with staff, and why the controllables like mood, preparation, and vulnerability are where leaders should focus first.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• The energy level in your room is a reflection of what you as the leader are willing to bring. If you want more from others, start by examining what you are modeling.
• Students and staff crave leaders who set the tone consistently, not just on good days.
• If you want students to share more openly, they need to see you sharing. If you want them to work through difficulty, they need to hear how you have done it.
• This concept is simple to understand but not easy to live out. That is exactly what makes it worth returning to.

Learn More About CharacterStrong:

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Today, host John Norlin shares a simple strategy for connecting with students, even thought who may have been hard to reach: The Student Becomes the Teacher. By asking students what they could teach you, educators can gain personal insight that opens the door to genuine connection, often in less than three minutes.

He also explains how a small investment of time outside the classroom, looking up something a student cares about, can change the entire dynamic of a relationship, and why that kind of intentional move is not one more thing on the plate, it is the plate.

In this conversation, John offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Asking students what they could teach you is a low-burden, high-impact way to learn something personal about even the hardest-to-reach kids.
• A few minutes of follow-through, like looking something up and referencing it at the door the next day, signals to a student that you see them as a person, not just a learner.
• Students notice when an adult makes an intentional move to connect with them, and that moment can shift a relationship that nothing else has been able to crack.

Learn More About CharacterStrong:

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Today our guest is Brandon Bakke, assistant principal at Gig Harbor High School and author of Lessons from the Bench. Brandon shares the core ideas behind his new book, a nine-lesson framework for bench players and role players in any organization who want to understand how to contribute meaningfully to a team's success.

He also explains why broadening the definition of success to include relationships, not just outcomes, gives role players a powerful and often overlooked way to contribute, and why leaders have a responsibility to explicitly connect every person's role to the larger goal the team is chasing.

In this conversation, Brandon offers important reminders for educators and leaders:

• Most people will spend time on the bench at some point in sport, in work, in life, and how you operate in that role matters more than most people realize.
• When people don't know why their role is important or how it connects to the bigger goal, effort declines and disengagement follows, that is a leadership problem to solve.
• Athletics and other team environments are some of the only places where people can fail, struggle, and grow. Removing that adversity robs people of their greatest potential growth.

Learn More About CharacterStrong:

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About Brandon Bakke: A former high school and college basketball coach and player, Brandon played at Fresno State University from 1991–1996. He is a former high school head coach, and brings 29 years of experience in education—primarily as a high school administrator. He currently serves as an administrator at Gig Harbor High School in Washington State and previously worked as the Director of Secondary Education for CharacterStrong. Brandon has spoken to thousands of educators and students across the country on building school culture, leadership, student mental health and well-being, and is an author and speaker who champions leadership, teamwork, and character development—both on and off the court. He is also the author of The Ordinary Extraordinary Soldier: The Letters and Journey of WWII Mechanic SSG George Henderson, 80th Infantry Division. Brandon earned his BA in History from Fresno State University. He earned his MA in Educational Leadership from City University of Seattle.