The One Thing to Remember

For the first year or two of the RUCKUScast, Danny asked every guest the same handful of questions.

In a recent episode called “10 Years of Doing Different”, he shared that it felt familiar and worth repeating.

Then some guests started steering their answers toward whatever book or product they were promoting instead of the work of school leadership.

"That just got extremely boring, and I had to pivot," Danny said.

He hired a podcast coach who pushed him toward pre-interviews and a conversation with each guest before recording, where he developed questions built around what they'd cover together.

It was more work, but resulted in better episodes.

Only three questions made it through the overhaul, including the closer still asked today — what's the one thing you want a Ruckus Maker to remember?

Ten years and 500 episodes later, we got a chance to flip the microphone on the show's anniversary and put Danny in the guest chair.

Three of his answers are the ones Ruckus Makers keep asking about.

A repeatable process is useful right up until it isn't.

Danny leaned on the same three questions because they were easy and predictable, and for a while that worked.

But the script that used to create consistency started to feel dull, with guests reciting talking points.

The fix was less structure and more curiosity.

Several companies have offered Danny CEO and sales roles.

While he looked into a few, he turned every one down.

Instead, a few years into running the Mastermind, he stepped back from coaching the weekly groups and handed the sessions to his team.

But nobody left.

In fact, the groups got stronger.

It's part of a cycle Danny talks about often: create something awesome, coach up the team, then fire yourself and build the next thing.

Before Better Leaders Better Schools, Danny was an AP in Chicago, the third-largest school district in the country.

With no coach and no mentor in sight, a yearly conference wasn't near enough support or PD.

So he looked for one. "I do my research…. And to my surprise, there is an absolute gigantic black hole."

Nothing like a peer mastermind existed in education.

He built it, wrote the book, and Mastermind became his first bestseller.

Can you think of a process that's gone stale? Or do you have a decision you're avoiding because you're afraid of the outcome? There’s probably no shortage of challenges in your busy work week.

Pick one.

Then check out Digital Danny.

This is not the entire internet’s leadership advice.

Danny built it the same way he built the Mastermind: narrow on purpose, trained on his entry plans, coaching experience, and his frameworks.

It’s a personal coach, available 24/7 in your pocket.

Bring your questions or your mistakes and work through them with Danny in the room.

Here’s another idea pulled from the same anniversary episode with Danny. These two questions, more than any other, are consciously or unconsciously on every person’s mind:

If either one is left unresolved, problems start to surface with your people and how they interact with each other.

Make it a practice

The questions work well at the end of the year, but could also work at any time. Pick whichever works well for you:

This Selfmentorship tool gets better with repetition.

The first time, it might feel transactional.

By the tenth time, it's embedded in how you lead.

Together, these two questions might drive culture more than anything else.