Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Principal JL is an educational leader who explores various topics facing educational leaders today! The Mission of this podcast is to inform and inspire other Educational Leaders on how to be their best for their Schools by honing their skills and talents so they may impact their teachers, staff members, students, parents/guardians, and community members positively for their School District! Come with a Growth Mindset as we journey through Educational Leadership!
Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Episode 26: Leading with Purpose — Dr. Josh Wilken’s Journey from Classroom to Central Office!
From a small-town graduate with a class of 32 students to leading innovative educational programs across multiple school districts, Dr. Josh Wilken's journey reveals how diverse experiences shape exceptional educational leaders.
Dr. Wilken takes us through his remarkable evolution from teaching English learners across seven buildings while coaching multiple sports to becoming a transformative elementary principal. His student teaching experience in Houston—a deliberate step outside his Nebraska comfort zone—fundamentally shaped his approach to supporting diverse student needs and prepared him for increasingly complex leadership roles.
What stands out about Wilken's leadership philosophy is its deeply collaborative nature. "It takes a village to make a building run efficiently," he explains, describing how he learned to harness the collective expertise of teachers, specialists, families, and colleagues to create truly effective educational environments. This approach proved invaluable as he expanded his impact to district-level roles, where he revitalized English learner programming and built the comprehensive "Blueprint" career and technical education initiative encompassing 18 different pathways—an impressive achievement for a Class B school district.
Now serving as a professional learning consultant with Educational Service Unit 3, Wilken shares crucial insights about effective professional development: "We know how valuable an educator's time is... we want to make sure that we're giving the educator something valuable that they can take back to their classroom and implement right away." His emphasis on coaching and sustainable implementation speaks to the practical challenges educators face when trying to improve their practice.
For those considering educational leadership, his advice is refreshingly straightforward: "Be great at your job... see that there's an opportunity to lead right where you are." This mindset has guided his own career transitions, including his upcoming move to financial advising where he'll continue applying the relationship-building skills developed through decades in education.
Ready to be inspired? Listen now to discover how maintaining your educational "fire" can create an impact that "will last for generations."
Email Dr. Josh Wilken at: Jwilken@as-ne.com
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Today I'm excited and honored to have my friend, Dr Josh Wilken on the show. We have known each other since college and have many great memories throughout our time at the SHIP" and how our paths have crossed throughout our careers in education. Josh has worn many hats in education, from teaching to coaching, from principalship to district administrator and now as a professional learning consultant with the Education Service Unit 3, supporting schools across the greater Omaha area. His career has been dedicated to student success, professional learning, leadership and shaping the future of education. We'll explore his path, the lessons he's learned and what's next for him in his career. Now let's get to the conversation with Dr Josh Wilken.
Principal JL:Welcome everybody to another episode of the Educational Leadership Podcast. Today I am so excited to have my friend, Dr Josh Wilken here. He is a guy I've known since college and someone that I you know, someone that we really kind of followed each other's educational career, and so I'm really excited to bring on Dr Josh Wilken Welcome.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Thank you so much, Jeff. I appreciate the opportunity.
Principal JL:All right, Josh, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to dive right into it when I ask everybody on this show what inspired you to become an educator?
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, I think my story is kind of unique in the sense that, you know, I didn't know I wanted to be an educator, or maybe it was something that I kind of fought. Coming out of high school, you know, I think I was a little overwhelmed by all of the different choices and opportunities that were in front of me and didn't really know what that was going to be. Just yet I knew I wanted to have an impact on people, I wanted to help others and be of service, and that someday that I wanted to be in leadership. I just didn't quite know what that meant yet, and so I had a lot of soul searching to do. I had a lot of reflection to do.
Dr. Josh Wilken:When I graduated, I really thought back to the folks that had the greatest impact on my life and folks who were of greatest importance and influence outside of my family, and it was my teachers and coaches, and I think that was some of the greatest influence on me becoming an educator. I think also teachers just taking a notice in me during those high school years and through that reflection, when I was tutoring my classmates or supporting them in class, that was something that gave me a lot of joy, something I think, came fairly naturally to me, and I had teachers take notice of that, and so, through their encouragement and through my own reflection and those experiences in athletics and in the classroom, I knew that that was something that I wanted to do and the kind of impact that I wanted to have on other people too.
Principal JL:All right. So I kind of want you to walk us through, you know, your early stages of your career. This is where you taught K-6 English learners while coaching at the high school level in Bellevue. So kind of talk about that experience you had there.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, I started my career, as you said. I started in Bellevue Public Schools and I had a very unique opportunity to be able to teach K-6 English learners. And I had a very unique opportunity to be able to teach K through 6 English learners. And when I started in Bellevue, I actually taught in seven different buildings. I had 59 students on my caseload my first year. I taught kindergartners all the way through sixth grade, and so I got to see the gamut and had the opportunity to work with students who were born in the United States, others who were born in military bases overseas, bellevue, of course being a strong military community. I had students from a variety of different backgrounds, cultures, languages, experiences, and it was just so powerful to be a part of and it was really eye-opening for me in my own professional growth to think about how to support such students, unique students who brought so many different backgrounds and needs of their own.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And, as you mentioned, I had the experience of also being able to coach, and when I started in Bellevue, I coached middle school athletics you name the sport.
Dr. Josh Wilken:I did it, man, and I didn't plan on coaching everything, but any middle school coach knows, once you kind of get in that door.
Dr. Josh Wilken:You just enjoy it so much. There's going to be additional opportunities and so I coached permission, middle school football, wrestling, swimming track, anything I could get my hands on and I think the reason for that is it just allowed me to build deeper relationships with students. You know, like I said, I got to be with students in the K-6 level and then at the end of the day kind of switch gears and show students a different side of my personality and be able to build relationships with them in a different way. And then I was given the opportunity to go up to Bellevue East High School and coach freshman football and to be an assistant coach for the varsity team and eventually to be a head varsity swim and dive coach as well. And so a lot of great experiences in Bellevue as I was kind of working through some of my leadership coursework and preparing for my next chapter but kind of built the foundation for everything that I've done and I definitely cherish those years.
Principal JL:You bet. So you kind of had a unique student teaching experience. I kind of remember this back in our UNK days, where they're trying to get people to go down to Houston, texas, to do your student teaching. So how did the student teaching experience in Houston, you know, shape your approach to education when you got back into Nebraska?
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, absolutely Nebraska, yeah, absolutely. And you know, when we were going into student teaching, it was kind of one of those situations where there were so many students at UNK that were beginning their student teaching experience and Texas really expressed a need for student teachers and to kind of grow their teaching workforce as well in Houston, and they gave us the opportunity to come down there and teach and it was an easy consideration for me. I had never been out of Nebraska, at least not having ever lived outside of Nebraska, being a kid from Sutherland. My graduating class had 32 students and so the biggest place I had ever lived up to that point was Lincoln, nebraska, and I could see that this was going to be a growing opportunity for me, a great adventure and experience to be out of the state to learn new teaching systems, to learn from people I had never met in education and to work with students from such diverse backgrounds and really teach in an urban setting. That opportunity I had two roommates. We loaded up everything that we could in small cars and we drove all the way south to Houston, texas, and I had the opportunity to teach at Alief Taylor High School for physical education and to help out with their sports programs while I was there and also to teach at Alief Middle School and I taught English learners grades six through eight middle school and I taught English learners grade six through eight.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And so when I think about how it influenced my teaching, I think when I went in and my picture of what education was was everything that I had learned in my coursework, everything that I had experienced as a small town Nebraska kid, you know, kind of growing up, and I had a lot of great opportunities and experiences, not only as a student in Sutherland but through my coursework at the University of Nebraska, kearney.
Dr. Josh Wilken:But going to an urban setting, learning new systems, working with new teachers and seeing a different way of doing things to support students with so many different needs on a large scale was really powerful for me. I think it was just eye-opening from the standpoint that there's a world outside of my world and that there are students who have more life experience than I had at that point actually, and I learned so much from my students as well as the teachers that I worked with, and I think it taught me a lot about how to deal with challenging situations, how to meet a greater level of need for students at least you know when you think about the English learner side of how are you supporting language and academics. I learned so much through that experience and I'm still grateful that I got it.
Principal JL:Awesome. Well, yeah, and when you get those type of unique experiences, those things really shape kind of like how we are as educators. And it kind of makes me think about one of the reasons why I didn't stick around Kearney for my student teaching. I went to Lincoln because I wanted to see big class A school. So I was at Lincoln Southwest for my student teaching. So I kind of can relate to that. I couldn't just go clear to Houston but I thought about it. But at the same time, you know, it was a great experience in that way and so I can kind of relate. You know, learning a lot of those things being in those bigger districts kind of kind of find your niche a little bit.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Because you know, you're from a small rural town in Sutherland Nebraska which at one time I taught out in Hershey, which was the you know. You know a little rivalry there, but that's right. So at the same time we both have been in small and urban schools and kind of have that experience which is unique, not a lot of people get those experiences, which I know has probably shaped you throughout your educational career. So you're kind of doing this gig in Bellevue, you're coaching, you're teaching English language kids. What motivated you to move into administration, to become a principal at Karen Western Elementary in the Ralston Public School District? What led you to that?
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, you know, as I was going through my master's level work and my doctoral level work, I got more and more excited as I was learning the content and learning from professors who had done this work at a high level. They had been in a variety of different experiences former superintendents, directors, positions like that and as I was learning the content and building those relationships, I just got more excited about it. Learning the content and building those relationships, I just got more excited about it and it really hit me hard. When I was working through my doctoral program at UNL, I got the opportunity to shadow an intern with three different superintendents and one of them was Dr Mark Adler, who was superintendent of Ralston for a long period of time, an outstanding superintendent. And going through that internship with Dr Adler, he made me feel included and involved and important.
Dr. Josh Wilken:From the very beginning. My first day on the internship, I had a full schedule. It wasn't this idea of just watch and learn. He really made me feel like I was a part of the team and that I was valued and just that style of leadership and seeing the kind of impact that he was having as an administrator and the way he developed his team. I said to my wife Cecilia, who's also an educational leader. I said you know I'm going to work for Mark Adler someday and I was extremely fortunate that the position at Karen Western opened up and when it did I jumped on it. I still remember the interview, I remember some of the folks that I got to meet through that process and it was just an incredible first principalship for me and I was extremely blessed to be a part of that building the Karen Western community, the families and students there and a wonderful group of teachers who taught me as much or more as I taught any of them or any of the students. They were just truly incredible.
Principal JL:Right, yeah, that's. That is a connection we both have. We both know Dr Mark Adler, but also we've known each other since college too. So it's kind of kind of interesting how you know our lives kind of crossed into. You know this, you know in education throughout our career, from college now into Ralston because I was blessed enough to be in Ralston at the same time you are and got to know Dr Adler and be a part of that leadership academy that he put on, and so I'm really blessed, I had that experience. And then I remember when I got the job here at Hastings High, Dr Adler made sure that hey, don't mess it up, I'm a proud alumni.
Principal JL:So you know, having that connection with Dr Adler is pretty great. So you're working at Karen Western Elementary there in Ralston. How did your leadership philosophy evolve in that time there as you took that principal role, and how did it shape you?
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, you know, when I started at Karen, I was brand new to educational leadership. I hadn't really served as assistant principal or an administrative intern. This was my first step was a head elementary principal, and so suffice it to say there was so much learning that had to happen in the time that I was there, and I served as principal for four years and every day I learned something new. As I mentioned earlier, I was extremely fortunate to work with a strong group of teachers, specialists, counselors, school psychologists, like everybody involved, and one of the things that I really learned even in a small building like Karen Western, it really does take a village. It takes a village to make a building run efficiently.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And I knew that if I was the focus, if I was the one trying to do the work and trying to lead on my own, without the valuable expertise of the people in the building, we just weren't going to get our goals accomplished. It wasn't going to be effective. There was just way too much value in the people that we were involved with there, way too much value in the strengths of our families and the entire district as a collective, and some of the networking I was able to do with my colleagues, you know being that together, having that collaborative approach, that collaborative commitment to leadership, I think made us more cohesive as a team and allowed us to better support our kids, and that's something that was quickly apparent to me, and I'm just extremely grateful that the teachers, the families, my colleagues, dr Adler and the other folks that were in leadership at that time my wife, dr Cecilia Wilken, everybody at a high level have to be humble enough to ask a lot of questions, to continuously learn, and that's what we owe our students district level leadership.
Principal JL:So kind of take us through how did you go from elementary principal district level because I believe, if I remember right, you started you're working in that career technical education side of things at the district level. Kind of take us through how that evolved, but then how, and then kind of talk about that experience overall.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Sure, when I was at Karen Western I believe it was in my third year I got the opportunity to in addition to being a building principal, I also got to lead our district's English learner program and you know that was a great experience for me. It allowed me to kind of go back to my teaching roots and to learn more about how we run the program in Ralston and how we support kids and what systems we had in place and to be able to collaborate with a tremendous group of teachers and really think about how we continue to develop that program with a growing population of students. During that time our population continued to grow, our program continued to expand and that was something that Dr Adler recognized through his leadership and he knew it was something he wanted to prioritize and really give additional attention to. He also saw additional need in the career and technical education program for our secondary students, the programs namely at Ralston High but also some programs at Ralston Middle School as well, and he and I had a conversation and you know we kind of talked about how those programs might evolve and how I might be a part of that process and he developed a position where I served as a coordinator for both of those programs and kind of oversaw those teachers and evaluated those programs and really thought forward about our business partnerships and community partnerships, and it helped me to grow my capacity as, not only on the English learner program side but with CTE.
Dr. Josh Wilken:That was something I had never really been a part of, something I had never really been a part of, and so yet again I found myself asking a lot of questions, building my network, going to people who were doing this at a high level, not only in Ralston but across the entire state. I drove all the way out to Scotts Bluff, nebraska, to learn about their career education programs because I wanted Ralston's to be the best and I didn't want to settle for anything less than that, and so being a part of both of those programs was my full-time position. I moved to the district office but spent a lot of time in the high school as well an office there for a while, building relationships with students, the teachers who were involved across the district with English learner programming as well as CTE, and making business partnership connections too. That would help to support those programs with funding and with human resources to be able to give us that outside lens of experience and expertise from industry as well.
Principal JL:All right. So I kind of want you to kind of expand upon the career technical side of things, because that is a huge thing in education right now is how can we get kids not just college ready but career ready? So when you and I believe, if I remember right, it was a program was called blueprint, am I I got that right, correct? Yep, yeah, so the blueprint program at ralston, what impact did it have for the kids involved with that program? How did it help them become, you know, just give them experiences that they could take with them.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, the Blueprint program created so many opportunities for students and you know it didn't really matter if there were students who were looking at trade schools, associate degrees, four-year degrees, military entry into the workforce. There was something for everybody idea what they wanted to do after high school. It was valuable for them as well, and one thing that I love about career and technical education is it helps students to kind of think about the why, the why of education, why am I coming to class every day? Why should I be here? And it gives them a reason to be excited about school. They find purpose in CTE classes they learn to develop their skills, their interests and their workplace values as well.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And so, being a part of so many different programs and when I left Ralston, we had 18 different programs of study in which, for a Class B school district, is substantial programming, automotive programming, uh, construction, manufacturing.
Dr. Josh Wilken:We created an agriculture program from scratch there were just so many unique opportunities and experiences, and so I think for many of our students you know they knew what they wanted to do. Some of our students specifically like in the trades, they loved working with their hands and so giving them an opportunity to showcase their talents and their strengths and to develop was huge. And for other students, you know, they really didn't know what they wanted to do after high school and so they would try a little bit of different classes, introductory level courses across many different disciplines. But it gave them a more focused approach before they walked out those doors and across that stage for graduation and in many cases it helped to save students time, money, college tuition kind of looking for what is my next and what should I be doing A lot of our students got that question answered when they were in high school, thanks in part to career and technical education
Principal JL:Awesome.
Principal JL:Now here at Hastings High we don't have that big of a career technical programming but we did start a work based learning program, which we're in our second year and so, hearing you talk about those things, our students had a lot of the same things where they are learning like, hey, I really like this or I really don't like this, and we actually it helps us be a part of growing our own, we're out or we're growing our work base in our community as well as trying to grow our educational work base as well. And a lot of the kids that got placed into the education side of things they were paras at elementary. Almost all those kids decided I'm going to go to school to be an educator, and so we can see that those things are really impacting their decisions on what they want to do, but also give them the opportunities to explore these different options in the career and technical side, and so that we kind of have a little small program on our end. But it's something that we're evolving as we get going and that's why I wanted you to kind of expand upon that, because I think a lot of people are looking for those type of opportunities for their students when it comes down to just you know how do you give the kids motivation to want to come to schools.
Principal JL:Besides, just because you have to type of that, you know what people say yes, absolutely, as the law says so. But we want kids to be excited to be here and I think that really does come from the people that lead and the people that teach within the school district. You know to make those kids feel welcome and all those things on top of having those opportunities. So I want to kind of transition from your district level position into your you know right now your current role as an educational service unit leader, where you are a consultant. So what got you into that? What made you go? I'm going to go from here to here in this situation.
Dr. Josh Wilken:You know, I think back to my first years in Bellevue and I can still remember my initial year working with some of the folks at ESU3.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And the consultants in the professional learning department did so much to help me develop as an educator and I remember going through literacy training and Boys Town, well-mended Schools training and so many different things and how that partnership with the ESU3 consultants to be able to train and coach folks in so many different districts was just so powerful and had such an impact on me.
Dr. Josh Wilken:So much so that when I moved into building level leadership I continued those partnerships and leveraged those relationships to be able to train some of my folks in professional learning in connection to our school improvement goals, our continuous improvement process.
Dr. Josh Wilken:And it was just so powerful and I had such a positive relationship with so many people there.
Dr. Josh Wilken:I knew that that was a goal of mine in education was to be able to have that level of impact on others, to take the experiences and the knowledge that I had acquired through my career to be able to train others and provide support to others the way so many people had done for me at different stages of my career, and I just saw so much value in that as an educator, as a leader and that's something that I wanted to bring to other people being at ESU3, we are extremely blessed to be able to work with 18 different school districts, some of the largest school districts in the entire state of Nebraska, and, as a professional learning consultant, you know whatever they need support with, whether that's instructional coaching, leadership support, professional learning on a variety of different topics you topics, it's our job to carry that out and I love that challenge, the camaraderie of my colleagues in our department, my boss, dr Scott Bloom, just so many wonderful educators who have taught me so much and continue to make me better as an educator as well as a leader every day.
Principal JL:So in this role you've seen a lot of different things, so what would you say is the biggest challenge for educators when it comes to the professional learning side of things?
Dr. Josh Wilken:Yeah, I think, from an educator standpoint, one of the challenges is time and making the time and being allowed the time to focus on reflection and coaching and professional learning, and that's something that we don't take for granted at ESU3.
Dr. Josh Wilken:We know how valuable an educator's time is, and if they're coming to us for a workshop or we're coming to them for a district in-service day, that might be time away from students, and so we want to make sure that we're giving the educator something valuable that they can take back to their classroom and implement right away. I think another piece of this is, you know, making that transition from professional learning to implementation and having the support necessary to be able to carry that out. Sometimes, when you go through professional learning, you gather so much new knowledge and you're so excited to get started, but thinking in terms of sustainability and systems development can sometimes be a challenge, and that's why we believe so so strongly in coaching and leveraging the resources in your building, whether those are administrators, evaluators, directors, whoever it is who are those coaches that can help be a support to you as you're implementing new practices and really working to develop your instructional knowledge and your instructional implementation.
Principal JL:You kind of knocked two questions out at one time. Shout out on that one. You know that's really great information, just understanding, hey, when a school come into us, we are going to make sure we're going to give them high quality training. That is something that they can utilize and take back and it can impact their teaching, because when you can impact or give the teachers some tools in the toolbox it's going to help the students learn better and that's best for everybody.
Principal JL:When you talk about you know just your guys' role in the education side, because not a lot of people understand what an educational service unit really does. And so just to understand that insight on how they can help school districts get what they need so they can develop their staff is really important. And I know for me I've been at a small rural school as a principal and I use the service unit extensively. I'm at a larger district now where I may not have to use it as much but I still do, and the reason why is people get tired to listen to me talk anyway. So if I can bring high quality training in and someone can deliver that high quality training, it doesn't have to be me, I'm all for it.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Well, and building principals and directors and folks at different levels within school districts have so many responsibilities. Right, you have so many things that you have to do to put students first, have to do to put students first. That's where I think that partnership with the ESU can be so powerful, because we can help you take whatever your vision is, whatever your plan is, and help you to find the resources or develop the professional learning and kind of work together in tandem to be able to carry it out, to allow you to be able to carry out your responsibilities more efficiently, because we know you have so many things on your plate and that's where I see the power in that collaboration.
Principal JL:You bet. So what advice do you have for educators who are considering moving into a leadership role?
Dr. Josh Wilken:First things first, be great at your job, be a great teacher and, even as you're looking forward to that leadership opportunity, see that there's an opportunity to lead right where you are. Be a leader in your classroom, be a leader in your building. Seek to serve and to put students first always, and let your intentions be known. Let your building principal, or whoever your supervisor is, know that you're looking to be an educational leadership and they will give you opportunities as you earn them. You're looking to be in educational leadership and they will give you opportunities as you earn them. They will delegate to you and when you get those opportunities, take it and run, do the best you possibly can and ask questions through the process, build your network, work with other people and continue to grow your capacity as you look for those opportunities. It's not just looking forward, but also being great right where you are.
Principal JL:That's very powerful to say like you got to be great at where you're at, but you have to look for those leadership opportunities in the classroom and just around you. I remember those are some things I did as a classroom teacher was try to figure out what are some things I could do, what are some committees I could be on and talk to your administration about that. I know if someone came to me and said, hey, I would like to be an administrator someday, I'm going to find them things to do because I want to help build that capacity, because that's part of my role as well as a principal is to build my staff's capacity to get them where they want to be. So that's spot on. Great advice there for future leaders of education out there. So is there anything that excites you most about your future?
Dr. Josh Wilken:I'm extremely excited about what's coming next for me professionally and I've enjoyed every single role that I've had in education. I've been extremely fortunate and blessed to be a teacher, a building principal, district administrator and now to work at Educational Service, unit 3. I've learned so many wonderful things and been a part of so many wonderful systems. Moving forward, I'm actually going to be taking on a new role in a new challenge going to be working for Asset Strategies here in Omaha as a financial advisor, and I see so many connections between this work and the work that I've done in education.
Dr. Josh Wilken:To me, it's financial education really to walk alongside someone, to be able to coach them, to help them meet their goals and to build a life of wealth. And the relationship capacity that I've learned through education to be able to partner with people effectively, to listen intentionally, I think, is going to make me a more effective financial advisor. And, having been a client of Asset Strategies for over a decade and working with their leadership, I know this is a company that operates with integrity and aligns with my values, and they have been teachers to me in the time that I've been a client of theirs and I'm really excited to join their team and it's a bittersweet feeling for sure, as I've loved being a part of ESU3 and all of the folks there, and I look for many of those relationships to continue, but I'm also extremely excited for what's next.
Principal JL:There, you guys got it. If you need a financial advisor, I recommend you look up Dr Josh Wilken here. He'll do a great job. I know you personally, Josh. I know anything that you put your mind to and anything you want to accomplish, you're going to do it. I think you're going to do a great job in that role and we'll probably be talking a little bit about some of that stuff. Just because I got to learn more about. You know some financial literacy myself. So that's it Absolutely. You know. I think you know.
Principal JL:I think you know you know just your journey through education. It's kind of coming full circle. Yeah, you may be leaving the world of education, but the skills and the things that you learn you're going to take into this new role and you're going to apply those things just in a different capacity to where you're still a leader in an educational type of role. It just looks a little different. So when you think about just leadership and just what education can lead you to, there's a lot of different avenues. You know.
Principal JL:I know a lot of people that go from. You know doing this work, getting into speaking engagements, and you know doing things outside of it, but also having that impact just in a different way, and so I applaud you on that, and I know you're going to be great when you hit that challenge, um, and so I will, of course, you know, be rooting for you and we'll we'll keep in touch on those things as we go. So, before we get um, before we wrap everything up, I'd like you to give your final thoughts. What's your final message? You want to leave educators out there when it comes to just being in education and how they can be successful educational leaders.
Dr. Josh Wilken:I don't think educators or educational leaders can hear that enough. They deserve to hear it every single day. This is definitely one of the most challenging roles, the most challenging careers there could possibly be and for the people who do this at a high level, regardless of what your role is as an educator if you're a classroom teacher, a principal, a director, you're an educator and you put students first and those that put the extra time and energy and care and love into what they do to put students at the forefront of this work valuable and on the toughest days, on the most challenging days, when you question yourself, always think about what you're doing for students and putting students first and keep that fire. Keep that fire that got you started. Remember your why and the fire that's burning within you is definitely brighter than the fire that's burning around you and I hope you know that you matter and keep showing up for kids and know that your impact, regardless of your role, will last for generations.
Principal JL:Boom, you just put it all in one nice package there. That was awesome. That was a powerful statement. I really loved everything about it there. Now, Josh, this was a great interview. I love having you on the show. Of course, I'm going to put some information about you down in the show notes. So if people want, need a financial advisor, I'm going to get you guys that information so you can just link into it and we'll get you connected with Josh on those things. And so, Josh, it's been great to have you. Thank you for coming on the show today.
Dr. Josh Wilken:Thank you so much, Jeff. I appreciate the opportunity and, if anyone has any questions about the interview or about next steps with Asset Strategies, I look forward to hearing from you and look forward to the conversations.
Principal JL:You bet. All right, Josh, that's it for the day.
Dr. Josh Wilken:All right, thank you, Jeff. Have a good day.
Principal JL:Wow, what a great conversation with my dear friend, Dr Josh Wilken. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did, and if you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with someone you know who would get value from it. And don't forget to leave a review Until next time. Always be 1% better.
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