To The Loyal Members of Ruckus Maker Nation:

This is the 7th consecutive annual letter to Ruckus Makers. I started this tradition in 2017 as a way to update Ruckus Makers around the world and reflect on the year at Better Leaders Better Schools.

This practice is common for publicly traded companies, and although you don’t own shares of Better Leaders Better Schools, you invest something much more important that money: your time, attention, and effort — making a ruckus in education around the world.

Past letters:

• 2017

• 2018

• 2019

• 2020

• 2021

• 2022

Thank you for making 2023 the BEST year yet.

Where will you be in 2026?

In 2023 I completed my three year vision. It’s amazing to see how much of it actually came true.

The process is simple: dream » execute » enjoy.

You throw a lot down when you’re considering the next three years. Some items rise to the top of importance and others fade away.

When working on a big vision it’s important to make sure it’s flexible and written in pencil, versus rigid and written in stone.

Trust the process.

A future post on OKRs and my updated vision will be coming to The Ruckus Maker Newsletter.

The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™

This is our flagship program helping leaders become even more effective and innovate — something I call Do School Different™. More on that in the Category Design section.

We have grown to ELEVEN COHORTS, with a few exciting additions:

• Two cohorts for women in leadership

• One BIPOC focused cohort

• And a cohort that meets Monday evening in Europe & Africa. I’d love to launch cohorts in the future focused on leaders in Asia and one in Australia.

It has been two years since I left facilitating the mastermind cohorts. I wanted to prove that model worked and wasn’t dependent on me. I miss coaching/facilitating on a weekly basis, but I enjoy more that the mastermind is growing because the model works and the quality of our members — it doesn’t have to do with me!

How effective is The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™?

I’ve been told, “It’s not bragging if it’s true.”

That said, The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ is hands-down the best professional development available for Ruckus Makers who want to Do School Different™.

How can I support such a claim?

Easy. I have the data to back it up.

According to our NPS, we provide a “world class” service.

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. You’ve seen this before shopping online. A survey pops up and asks you to rank 1-10 how likely you are to recommend X product to a friend or family member.

Here’s how Qualtrics describes the score:

As of writing this annual letter, 43 members have completed our 2023 survey.

• 1 member was a detractor 😡

• 8 members were passives 😐

• 34 members were promoters 🤩

We need to collect data from 31 members, but these early results are very promising and something the BLBS team should be SUPER proud of.

Our members tell us it’s the best.

We ask our members the following questions on a 5-point scale (1 sucks and 5 is the best). Here are the results:

• In the last 6-months, I can point to one (or more) meaningful ways my leadership has grown (4.6/5).

• I regularly learn new ideas, approaches, tools, etc. that are helpful (4.6/5).

• I feel that The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ is a safe space. I can "talk about what I need to talk about" without fear of consequence or judgment (4.9/5).

• I value connecting and learning from my mastermind peers (4.9/5).

• I am a more confident leader as a result of my Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ experience (4.7/5).

• The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ is an essential part of how I grow as a leader (4.6/5).

Our members are outliers in the industry.

I’ll share a future post that details the qualitative data we collected recently that share what our members think of the experience in their own words.

The national average turnover rate for principals was around 16% going into the 22-23 school year. 0% of principals in The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ left their school last year.

A Texas study of 16,500 found that principals on average stayed at their schools:

• Elementary School Principals: 4.96 years

• Middle School Principals: 4.48 years

• High School Principals: 3.38 years

Currently The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ members have stayed at their school an average of 5.11 years, yet again, beating a major benchmark.

They say that “the proof really is in the pudding.”

I can’t remember the last time I ate pudding, but I can tell you The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ is incredible.

You really won’t find a better leadership development program out there.

If you are growth-minded leader and consider yourself a Ruckus Maker, consider applying today.

And make sure you ask your district to support your membership!!!

Last week, I spoke to Jen who has been considering The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ for three years. She never thought of asking the district to pay, but this year she asked. The district said YES and we are thrilled to serve one more Ruckus Maker.

The answer is always NO unless you ask.

We have three levels of membership available:

If The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ is too much of a time or financial investment, then I recommend subscribing to this newsletter.

When you become a paid subscriber:

• Micro-books (4000-8000 words) focused on how to Do School Different™.

• Stories and case studies of the world’s most legendary Ruckus Makers of all time.

• Tools and other resources that will help you produce positive results that will make you proud. These are usually reserved only for The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ members.

• An ad-free version of the Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast — ranked in the TOP 0.5% shows in the world + bonus content not available on the regular podcast feed.

• Bonus podcast content that won’t be released on the regular feed.

• Coaching opportunities with Danny Bauer.

Not bad for just $20/month or $200/year. That’s very affordable and you’ll be glad to have made the investment.

The Podcasts

The Better Leaders Better Schools podcast has unique 2,453,052 “unique” downloads.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has created an industry leading way to measure downloads that is different than a “unique” download. IAB started in 2019 from what I can see (who knew?!?) and my IAB downloads since 2019 are 1,574,222.

The show has obviously been a success so I’ve long stopped looking at these numbers (I used to obsess over them in the early days).

I now focus more on telling better stories and facilitating better conversations and it’s paid off.

Read the below screen shot from Libysn to see the difference between unique and IAB downloads:

Thank you for being a loyal listener and helping this show be such a success ❤️❤️❤️

Sponsors

Organized Binder and TeachFX are still strong partners. They have been for years and I am so thankful for that continuous partnership.

We have one sponsor slot open and if you own a biz and are interested in advertising one of the world’s most downloaded podcasts, you can learn more here.

Books

I teamed up with my favorite editor of all time, and now writing partner, Ariel Curry.

She was the editor of my first best seller: Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader.

Now, we’re on a mission to create books that are practical, to the point, avoid fluff, and get you a result.

You can read these new books in an hour.

And if you schedule a 3-4 hour “deep work” block of time, you can read the book and then implement the ideas for a positive result in a short amount of time.

We are targeting areas that are critical to Ruckus Maker success, but not taught in grad school or within districts.

So we wrote a book on effective 90-day entry plans …

And one on how to create a “remarkable” 3-year vision.

By the way, when you become a paid subscriber to this newsletter, you get those books in their entirety:

Entry Plan Posts

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

• Part 5

• Part 6

3-Year “Remarkable” Vision Posts:

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

5+ hours of coaching videos on creating your vision:

• Day 1 Content

• Day 2 Content

I’ll be posting future books here as well :)

Category Design

One coaching program I joined in 2023 is the Category Design Academy led by the Category Pirates.

You can see I’ve modeled my work here after them. I’ve been reading about Category Design for years and doing my best to implement the ideas.

But reading and taking action is not the same as being coached by the experts in a given area. Over the years I’ve learned there is tremendous value in coaching and cohort-based programs. So when the Category Pirates announced they started an academy, I jumped at the change to learn from the best and take my understanding/execution to the next level.

Two months in I can easily say this is the BEST investment I’ve ever made in myself.

Category Design is about changing the world and playing in a competition-free space.

Category Designers earn the majority of market share in a given industry (up to 76%). Think: Netflix, Uber, AirBnB.

Copycats come around: Hulu, Lyft, Vrbo, but they are always playing catch up to the category designer.

Here’s how it looks in education:

Better Leaders Better Schools could compete in “executive coaching” or “professional development” in terms of mega categories.

Or smaller niches like “professional learning communities” or “culturally responsive pedagogy.”

These are crowded spaces with tons of competition and proven leaders in each area.

But I don’t want to fight over limited opportunity. I also don’t want to do what’s already been done.

I want to innovate, create, and dominate spaces that serve a very specific kind of educator: A Ruckus Maker.

Better Leaders Better Schools introduced the idea of “mastermind” to education in 2016. Now there are a number of masterminds out there, but if you want the original, the best, and one that is constantly reinventing itself, there is only choice: The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™.

Now I’m designing the category of Do School Different™ which is essentially about shifts from an OLD to NEW way of thinking and educating.

I am very excited to partner with Ruckus Makers who want to make these kind of shifts (and more) on campuses and within districts.

There’s a meta lesson here too …

Category Design works for business (remember: Category Designers capture up to 76% of the market share in a given category).

Category Design will also work for schools.

Schools and districts often compete over students, staff, resources, and so on …

But the schools and systems of the future that apply a Category Design lens will create exponential results. 

Reach out if this sounds exciting to you, me and the Ruckus Maker team are here for you 🙌

Did I accomplish what I set out to do in 2023?

Yes and No.

We had great success in 2023, but looking back at last year’s letter, the things I *thought* I wanted to accomplish weren’t really the priority.

I learned that one of my super powers is incredible intuition and vision. I kinda already knew that, but now it’s been validated. My Kolbe score is 3-3-9-3 ideal for visionary leaders and entrepreneurs.

Taking this assessment was a game changer because it game me permission to be me. The Koble report told me to lean more into my gut or “intuition.”

So I decided to do more of that in 2023 and for the most part it worked out quite well.

I got out of tracking every minute little detail (which I hated) and learned to paint in broad strokes and BIG IDEAS.

This is what works for me based on my personality, your Kolbe score (and strengths) are probably different. They key is to know who you are and be that version of you 100% of the time. No exceptions.

I encourage you to check out the Kolbe here. I don’t make any kind of commission if you follow that link. I am recommending it because it’s useful.

Some examples of the data you get back in your Kolbe report:

What’s in store for 2024?

• Continue to innovate, add value, and grow The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™. Ideally, I’d like an average of 5 leaders a month joining us. That would be 60 new leaders in 2024 for a total of 134 members. We could easily fit in the new members to our existing groups.

• Host a live event in Nashville, July 12-14. More info coming soon …

• Consistently add value here in The Ruckus Maker Newsletter by creating micro-books, tools, new podcast content, and coaching opportunities for paid subscribers. Make sure you subscribe today!

• Hold speaking with an open hand and charge a premium when I do decide to travel — live events are truly my super power.

• Begin Do School Different™ design work with a few campuses or school districts.