Avoiding Teacher Burnout for Over-Givers with Phil Januszewski

In this episode, Grace talks with Phil Januszewski, a science teacher, keynote speaker, and positive psychology enthusiast, about practical strategies for teachers to avoid burnout and bring more joy into their lives and classrooms. This conversation is a delightful reminder to prioritize self-care and intentionally cultivate positivity.

Highlights include:

• Meet Phil Januszewski, a high school chemistry and physics teacher, who's on a mission to help educators avoid burnout and become happier through positive psychology 🧠💡
• Discover the power of focusing on your "ERs" – the things you are, do, and perform daily that build you up (e.g., father, baker, singer) 🎤🍰👨‍👩‍👧
• Learn how to intentionally schedule and structure your day to hit on those fulfilling "ERs" more often, leading to an overflow of energy and inspiration 🗓️⚡
• Explore the idea of leaning into your unique purpose and quirks to create positive change for yourself, colleagues, and students 🦸‍♀️✨
• Hear Phil's 10-minute "TED Talk" on three practical strategies for avoiding burnout as a giver ⏱️🔥
• Find out how Phil ended up on Netflix's amateur baking show "Nailed It!" and his hilarious alien cake adventure 🤖🍰
• Discover Phil's tips for empathizing with and connecting to even the most resistant or negative audience 👂💞
• Get inspired by stories of intentional acts of kindness and their profound impact on well-being 🙌🌟

For more information on Phil Januszewski and his mission visit:
https://www.philjanuszewski.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philjanuszewski

➡️ To get your FREE 🎁 PDF Guide The Professional Teacher's Guide to Saying "No" visit: www.gracestevens.com/sayno

Want to truly thrive in teaching without sacrificing your personal life?   
Check out my signature on-demand self-study course, Balance Your Teacher Life.  Complete details here: www.gracestevens.com/balance

📘 My latest (and greatest!) book:
The Empowered Teacher Toolkit
Check out the best-selling Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers book here
Beat Teacher Burnout with Better Boundaries book here

My TPT Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/grace-stevens-happy-classrooms

Wanna get social?
https://www.tiktok.com/@gracestevensteacher
https://www.facebook.com/GraceStevensTeacher
https://www.Instagram.com/gracestevensteacher

Old school: Website : www.GraceStevens.com (courses, blog & freebies!)

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

  All right, teacher friends, you are gonna love today's episode. Things have been a bit serious of late, but this episode is just pure joy. A gentleman reached out to me, I really wish this was a video podcast, because if you could see us, I think he's gonna make some clips, because we actually did record some video, but I'm telling you, we look like chalk and cheese, you would never think that we actually do the same thing.

So his name is Phil Janison. He is a science teacher, but he also gives keynote addresses on really  inspiring what he calls carers. So it's really about avoiding teacher burnout or how, what he likes to call it. to say being more inspired and less tired. But I got to tell you, we covered everything. I cannot tell you the last time I laughed and smiled so much with somebody who I just met, my face literally hurt.

We talked everything from alien cakes to how do we show up and bring our best selves when maybe part of our audience is a little hostile. positivity. So anyway, I think you will love this conversation. I sure did. I asked him to give us a 10 minute Ted talk of his keynote for, for over givers and over doers, and it was, it was just fire.

It was awesome. So I think you will enjoy this episode, hopefully as much as you will enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it because he seemed to be having a good time too. So, it's my conversation with Phil Janiszewski. We will see you on the inside.  Welcome to the Balance Your Teacher Life podcast,  where we talk all things avoiding educator burnout, setting healthy boundaries, and achieving better work life balance.

If you're passionate about education but tired of it consuming your whole life you have found your home in the Podcast Universe. I'm your host Grace Stevens and let's get going with today's show. 

Alright, welcome back everybody. This week I am so excited. You know that I do not have a lot of guests but this week I do. Our paths crossed and I was immediately, yeah, like, Oh my God, you are my people. You need to come speak to my audience. We do the same thing, but probably in really different ways.

And so I am thrilled to welcome today, I'm going to try very hard with his name, Phil Janiszewski. Yay. I get it. How'd I do?  Yes. Pretty good. Pretty good. I did great. Okay. So I'm going to read just a little bit of your bio so people know what we're getting into and then we get to right into the conversation.

Okay. So, Phil, first off, science educator, Phil is a proud high school chemistry and physics teacher since 2005, holding a bachelor's degree. Degree in chemistry, a master's in teaching leadership and a positive education certification. I'll tell you who I didn't even know what that was. I had to Google it and I'm like, where was that when I was learning by myself for 20 years?

All right. His focus is on the human side, embracing positive psychology in order to better reach, teach and support students. So he's a science educator, but here's the magic. He is also a keynote speaker. And he inspires givers like us to avoid burnout and become happier through leaning into their purpose in order to better serve others.

As an educator, Phil experiences firsthand the daily struggles and energy drains that can fall onto our hardworking givers in the world. So we feel that in our soul.  We feel it in our soul, right? That's, I spent a lot of time coaching teachers on. Positive psychology, the science of being happy, how happiness can be synthesized, how we need to set boundaries, we need to take accountability for doing that, all the same things.

So, thrilled to have you here first off. So, tell me how you got started on this journey. You were living your best life as a teacher. I'm sure I looked at your website, you look like you have a lot of fun. In in chemistry and physics. You really do look like the type of teacher everybody wanted. But how did you kind of move into this other world of realizing that teachers are so burnt out and they need help? 

Well, Grace, thanks so much. And thanks for the bio intro, man. I truly appreciate it. So I think that I've always been super energetic and happy go lucky and being an educator has been a natural fit for me. And I would say that I've always really been into personal development. So learning how people are successful and how people are happy has been a really natural thing for me to dive into, but I would say, and I think a lot of people probably have the same story, right?

Grace it's 2020 when the world shot down and shut down we really saw a change in education and I. Really saw a change in a lot of the wonderful, beautiful humans. I work with my mentors, my colleagues, and a lot of them, including myself, we're starting to really get down, really feel like things were just feeling mediocre, not feeling as energized and inspired.

And because of. My consistent interest in  personal development. I was really drawn to positive psychology and that's when I really started diving deep into that. I started reading Sean Acor and from there it opened up everything to me and I was just obsessed with positive psych about, well, how do people push through rough times?

So automatically, just like I hear you talk on your podcast often, we see such great humans that are. That can create so much positive change, but yet they're just, we're drowning in either tasks or we're low on energy or we're starting to burn out. So  by digging into that, I really got passionate about it.

Then I realized, like you mentioned, that there's a positive education certification offered through the flourishing center, which is a group of people that I thought were credible. And had a great program. So I immediately signed up and then dove even deeper. And what I realized was that there's a lot as you consistently preach grace, there's a lot of things in our control.

We can do to try to make the best possible outcome, even in tough situations, even when a system is set up, sometimes. not to serve us well. And from that I've, I've been really called to try to help these awesome givers, especially educators that give, give, give, give, give. But if we don't properly take care of ourselves, as you said, how to set healthy boundaries, then how can we give our best self?

How can we make that, that wonderful impact? So,  

yeah, I feel like gosh, I taught  young kids for a very long time. I taught first grade for nine years. Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. That was me, the stump at the end. Like, come on, man. Like what is going on? I would liken it to people who are givers, people who are naturally drawn to education.

Because we're, we want to help, right? And we, we feel we have a purpose, but at the same time, a lot of us. I hate to say it, especially because it's very female dominated, have been very conditioned to give, give, give, nurture, nurture, nurture. And I really recognize there are a bunch of when I try and work with people and, and coach them on setting boundaries, you know, this image I have is even of myself, like, you know, always taking the middle seat on the plane.

Don't take 

up space and not even wanting to put my arms down on the oh, let's not, you know, like not ruffle feathers, it's easier to keep going than is to set a boundary, you know, whatever. And so it really is very important. But I have to say, yay you for being happy go lucky. I got into this work because I was battling a lifetime and a family history of depression and anxiety.

And and It was, you mentioned Sean Aker. He was, gosh, I love his TED talk so much. And I did it the hard way. I needed to fix myself. I'd burnt out a corporate career  and then I had made this huge change in my life to become a public school teacher and then recreated the same circumstances for myself. 

Like, oh my gosh, now for a lot less money, like I am stressed and overwhelmed. And I boundaries and feel like I'm not present in my life and all those things. So I, yeah, I wish I had known there was a certification program. I did it the hard way. I went and got about 20 years ago, I got certified in neurolinguistic programming and that back then was really like, woo, woo.

Right. I've actually wrote a book called the happy habit, like 12, 13 years ago. And people were like, that is so woo woo. No one said that. And then, you know, I kind of rebranded it as positive mindset habits for teachers. Yay, Carol Dweck for bringing all that growth mindset to the forefront run. And suddenly like that was really, it was like, it was the same stuff I was saying before, but now I got packaged differently.

Suddenly it's more acceptable because Harvard has a big class in it. Right. Yeah. Happiness can be synthesized. It's one of my big things, but it is an important message. And I especially. I feel like it has more impact when it comes from teachers because there's nothing worse than getting PD or having the keynote speaker from somebody who, you know, just got hired and like, what do you know about teaching?

Like I'm not in the classroom anymore, but I only stepped out at the end of 2022. So I taught, you know, through COVID. After COVID, like it is different. It is different. And and it really needs  people who can demonstrate that they, people can have a different experience. It doesn't all have to be, you know.

Teach a quick talk. Like we know what all the issues are, right? We don't have to look hard for the issues, but we got to be intentional about keeping ourselves kind of bringing the best of ourselves to our students. So, so I really appreciate that. So tell me, so I'm glad that we talked about the positive education certification.

So is the idea that a teacher on a campus gets certified and then they're like a go to resource on the campus? Is that how it works? Yeah, 

definitely. They're trying to create that, that ripple effect. Someone in the building has it, and then you can go even further to become like a certified trainer where you could bring that.

I honestly did it just selfishly for myself just because I was,  because I was obsessed with it.  And, and and then from there, now I can inject it without my students even realizing it as we talk through our conversations, through our activities. I did a little positive education research where I had random sets on tests and quizzes right at the top to give me Three things you're grateful for.

And then I've been collecting data. Does it impact the average test score and quiz score? And surprisingly, because I thought I didn't know if I believed it. I'm a, I'm a science guy, so I must admit grace. I'm skeptical. Yeah, I'm skeptical on a lot of things. And I was surprised that majority of the time.

When the students who did the three points of gratitude average as a whole random sample tended to do a couple percentage points better. So I'm like, wow, 

you know what I would do my students before we did testing, you know, especially at the end, I taught third grade and then fourth grade and in California, third grade is the first time you do those really high stakes testing and so one Kind of strategy that I have with adults is this idea that I don't know if you know, Jen Sincero from you are a badass, right?

So one of her kind of strategies is to write a bad ass list, right? Like, so for me, it would be, you know, went back to school, you know, never, I'd never ridden a bike, got a bike for my 40th birthday and, you know, within Four years, I was riding a century race, a hundred kilometer race, right? Like, so just things through your past that like, you know, that  to look at on a day when you're feeling like it's like, you know,  pretty bad ass,  right?

And so I can't use that word with the kids, but before we would test, we will do the same thing. I would like, let's get out the piece of paper, right? We'd practice some, you know, test taking strategies, some things like that. Some self regulation strategies, but the last thing I would have them do before you started that test was write down five things that you're really proud of yourself that you've overcome.

And it really just put kids. Yeah. In that mindset of like,  Badass, right? Like I can do this. And I loved it.  You did that. You need to keep going. We need to publish those statistics.  Let people know that this is really a thing. I mean, it is, you know, backed by science. I think, you know, my book, Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers, I think it got more People will, you know, I could quote the science, but you know, my magic isn't really like, people could go read the science, like, no, how do you integrate that into a classroom?

Right. 

What does that mean day to day for you and for your students? And how do you make those habits? And so that was really my level of interest, but I am thrilled. I will make sure I put in the show notes if people are interested in going and getting that certification. Okay. So let me ask you this because we do talk on the same topics.

Yes. I love that.  I mean, if you put me, me and you together in a room,  people will not say, yeah, these people are talking about the same thing. Could, could we be any different, but we do seem to have the same soul. So  I am curious. I know that you have a bunch of keynotes that you do, but the one that you do forgive us, let's say, and I hate when people do this to me on a podcast, like give me a 10 minute version.

Like, Oh my God, that's 20 years worth of 

knowledge. 

But if  you had like. A TEDx stage for 10 minutes. Like I, you know, not every school is, has the funds, has the resources, has the,  the common sense. I'm going to say to hire somebody to come out and really give more than just a positivity pep talk. Like you're going to give some tangible strategies.

So if you had my audience here for 10 minutes, could you give me like an abbreviated kind of overview or like a little keynote light on what we're going to do to avoid burnout. Forgive us. 

Absolutely. I'm taking 

notes. I want to know, tell me all about it. Let's do 

it. Let's do it. Okay.  As givers, 100 percent we give, give, give, give, give.

Like you said, we don't even put our hands down and the, and the airplane, we don't want to bother anybody. And what we do is we pour out, we pour out and accidentally, sometimes when we pour out that pitcher, we know it can drain and then it's empty. And then we have to refill. And I think Rachel Hollis said that analogy that we're a pitcher.

We got to refill, but she said the analogy, if we can treat ourselves well that our picture overflows. Now we can be full and then that overflow we can continue to give. Mm-Hmm, . And that's what I really doubled down on. And I started looking at the positive psych and also the actions I've taken in my life that have allowed me to consistently be energetic and inspired.

I wouldn't say 100% positive, I'm human. 100%. Well, yeah. But that, but what has allowed me to be like an outlier with energy that has served me well and what IS. Boiled it down to was number one is that I really dig into my errs. So my errs are the things that I am, that I do, that I perform in my daily life that build me up.

So I'm a father, I'm a teacher, I'm a creator, I'm a music listener, I'm a baker, I'm a cooker. I am a lover. I'm a singer. Not a very good one though, Grace, but I do like to sing in the car. So I started thinking about all these things that I love that fill me up.  Am I hitting on them daily? So what I love to do with my audience is get them to start thinking about all the errs they are.

And let's be honest, we have a lot of errs that we aren't fans of. But that are important. I'm a bill payer, you know, not exciting, but it's important. I'm a grader and honest. I don't know if other teachers feel this way. I hate grading. It's important. I do it. I give feedback, but it, it depletes me. It never excites me.

And I wish it did. Cause I have a lot of it. So anyways, we have all these errs. The next thing I have my audience look into is in their 24 hour day,  how often are they building in those errs intentionally, not hoping we hit on it, not praying that it's going to happen, but when do we schedule and structure it?

And so a lot of what I help my audience do is be intentional about, are you actually building in some sort of structure? And a lot of people Have a lot going on. I, and I totally understand. I have two children. I have a wife. I technically have three, three jobs, teacher and two side businesses. I get it. I mean, there's a lot going on, but am I building in a schedule so that majority of the days by the time I go to bed at night, if I think back, I hit on a lot of those errors that actually fill me up.

And if I do that consistently. And I end up net positive. I'm going to continue to fill up that pitcher and hopefully get to the point where I start overflowing. And my favorite part of life is when I'm feeling like I'm overflowing. That's when I feel my best self, because that's when I can give.  So the final step for me and my three strategies, once we get the structure down and you got to give yourself time and grace takes a while, is that we can start really leaning into our purpose.

So when we start thinking about the quirky things that make us unique in us. So for me, even though I'm a chem and physics teacher and a keynote speaker, I also love to be an amateur baker and cook. So something that. Lights me up and fills my creator side and baker side and giver and pay it forward or side Is I love to bake create things and then give it to my neighbors give it to my co workers.

I saw the netflix clip thereafter  

Yes  That's not a good resume 

after but I do I don't want to interrupt your flow and now I totally have that's okay 

Oh, don't don't you worry? This is your show, Grace. So you, so you,  

no, it's everybody's show it's a community. So you lean into your purpose. So what you mean by that is the things that you're passionate about, bring them into the classroom.

Yeah. And not just the class, yeah, but not just the classroom, but with your coworkers, your building, your family, your neighbors, strangers, once we get to the point where. Obviously we can't control the world around us, but when we have structure, we have this  false sense of control that we feel safer and more comfortable.

We're more creative. We're more empathetic. We're more patient. We're more supportive. We're more understanding. And from that, That creative side, we have the mental capacity and room to start thinking about, you know, what I should do for my tech team and my building. They have been working nonstop to make sure this wifi has been perfect.

I should, I should be thanking them somehow. And the way I do that with me, grace is food. Food is my love language now, but, and, and so when I talk to people, I always say, listen, I'm not saying bring a skillet to the classroom and just start making pancakes and life is going to be good though. In my opinion, I think life's pretty great when someone's making me pancakes.

But I said, but we all have our unique gifts. So, so Grace, maybe you have a beautiful gift of communicating with the written word in a few sentences. Are you writing little notes to your friends or family members and just slipping it in their bag? Like that is a beautiful thing that I would tell you would take a lot of depleting energy for me to be creative.

But that wouldn't be one of my natural gifts. Some of us are just incredible athletes and runners and enjoy running long distances, but have those people who do that. Have you invited a neighbor or someone to inspire them to just go for a short run, but motivate them and inspire them to start taking better care of themselves.

So. What I'd like to remind us all is that there's not one way to give, but all of us have a few of those little gifts, those quirky things about us that when we do, it doesn't deplete us. And when we give it others feel better and we feel better. And all's it does is it continues to overflow and overflow our picture so that when things get tough and they will, when things get a little out of control and they will, when things get depleting and they will, especially in the world of education,  You've already had a lot of picture water in that picture, and maybe you only go halfway, but you have systems so that you can slowly build that back up again.

When you hit up top, how can we give again? How can we create that, that culture of support and love in our own unique way?  

Oh, I love it. Hey, you nailed it. That was less than 10 minutes. Yeah, no, absolutely. Everybody has different gifts, right? Lean into them. Lean into them. We tell that the students all the time, right?

Everybody has different gifts. I hate in fourth grade we have to do the gifted and talented screening. And the kids are like, I'm not gifted or talented, you know. And I'm like that generation of teachers, you know. They don't ever let me coach or do anything to do with sports. So I want everyone to win.

Like I am that teacher who gives everybody a prize. I used to do the science fair, everybody got a participation ribbon. It's like, yeah, like, so I used to hate that, like to, you labeled a kid, like when you label one kid gifted and talented, you told the rest of the class they weren't like, come on now.

No. So lean into your gifts. No, I do love that. And yeah, it's like that whole idea, which, you know, I'm sure you've, you've studied the literature, you know, it's the idea of random acts of kindness, 

you 

know, great. Yeah. What's better though, is an intentional act of kindness, an intentional act of kindness. 

Those ripples, that effect on your own well being is so more prolonged. And I'm profound than on a random act of kindness, if it is intentional. And if you kind of keep it to yourself, you're not doing it for the, you know, Instagram moment, right, whatever, right, you'd and it just is you know, a beautiful thing.

So yeah, cultivating, Gratitude, appreciation, one, you know, one of my gifts is just noticing people. And yeah, I am a writer, so I am the person who'll write a little note. And I remember during just before COVID, it must've been 2019. It was my first year at a new school and they had a very different culture than I was used to.

And I was feeling really burnt out and overwhelmed. And I decided I need to change the energy, right? My whole thing is your energy teaches more than your lesson plans. And there are about 50 staff members on that campus. And I'd come from a very small campus. There were only 14 of us. And it occurred to me, I don't know, even the names of some of these people.

And I've been at this school like four months. So I went and I got, I don't know if you've ever seen the little pop up notes. They're like a little square and you open it. Saying in it, but it's kind of cute. Cause you have to peel it open and it has room on the back. And I literally one night just got 60 of them from the television wrote down, you know, I see you.

I appreciate you. I see you. I appreciate you. And in the morning I walked around super early, handing them to people. Do you know.  Three people started to cry.  I didn't even know them and they were like, somebody sees me and were like giving me hugs. And I, you know, it was like, oh my gosh, like, because it was my feeling like they're, they're, they don't, there's something on this campus that isn't like a family, like you say.

I mean, I don't want to confuse, you know it's a job, you know, it's not adoption. Okay. But at the same time, you want to feel like connected to people. You need to support each other. Right. It's hard. And so I remember that was the smallest thing, like from every, you know, the custodians to the the lunch ladies to teachers in like, I taught.

You know, younger kids, it was a big campus or younger kids upper grades. It was like, it was this big, you know, different playground, different, this different vibe. And just reached out to people and it was the smallest thing and it had the biggest impact. It raised my mood. Everything that I felt about that campus and that job afterwards felt better because I took responsibility to say, you know what, I'm just not being my best self.

I'm finding all the things I don't like about it and I need to change the energy. And it was, you know, fantastic. Yeah, I'm not the person to bake cookies. Okay. Tell people about,  we're going to get back to the positive psychology, but I loved it. I saw the clip. How on earth, tell people what it was and how on earth that came about.

Yeah. 

Oh, gosh. Yeah. I ended up on a random amateur baking show on Netflix called nailed it. And if you haven't seen nailed it. Yeah, it's you get an eight hour professional cake made by a professional baker and they give you two hours or so to make it. They want you to set you up to 

fail. 

Yes. Yeah. So it was, it was great.

I had a blast. It was during lockdown. My kids and I really got into it. Enjoyed. We all love to cook and bake and we enjoy cooking shows. So we were laughing a lot and they said, you should try out. You're, you're actually a good baker. You would win. And I said, Oh, come on guys. There must be thousands of people who try out.

And then my son called me on it. He said, you're always telling us to take healthy risks, dad. Why don't you try out? So he called me on my own words. Yeah,  

they're listening.  

So I said, fine, fair enough. So when they went back to school one day, I had one more day off than them. Spent the day recording, baking a cake and doing the whole interview process.

Sent it in, heard nothing for about 11 months. And then randomly out of the blue, I got an email 11 months later that said, Hey, With new COVID regulations, we've got a new system for applying. Would you be willing to reapply again? So I blew up that night, did it? And I said, yep, it's all in. They said, perfect.

Can we call you tomorrow? And it was like, boom, boom, boom, five different interviews. And I ended up flying out to Los Angeles on a weekend and did a 14 hour filming and ended up blowing it and losing. But I had a great time. 

Oh my God. So it, for the, for I'm sure everybody who obviously they're listening, they're not watching, they might watch it was an alien cake, right?

And it had real ooze coming out of his stomach. That was amazing. It was amazing. You just looked like you, you know what it was? It just looked like you were having So much fun. 

Oh, I was, I smiled, I smiled the whole time. And I, at the end, I went against two other people and they were exhausted. And you know, now I'm an extreme extrovert, Grace.

So I mean, stuff like that, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Blows me up. So I told him, you know, if they told me they forgot to put film in the camera and we had to do this all over again, I said, I said, I'm ready. Let's give me a new cake. I'm ready to do it. And they were like, I think we're ready to go home.

Let's but it was, it was a chance of a lifetime. It does nothing for my resume, but I'll tell you what, Grace, it's a hell of a story, so I really, I'm really grateful it happened.  

It's yeah, it's something you can talk about sometimes when there, it's your party trick now. What's your party trick? Oh, well, let me tell you, there's a clip.

Out there of me making an alien cake and having a really good time. So that's very cool. All right. What would you tell if you, I, so I know you go and you do keynotes and you work with, you do, you do your, you know, your presentation, but I know you go deeper. I know you talk to teachers and then you talk to admins and you're kind of like that kind of beautiful kind of go between in between.

And I think that's really needed and important, but if you were with a group of teachers and you noticed that they what's a nice way of saying it. There's a lot of people in education who focus on admiring the problem. Should I say, they're going to call out the problem, which is appropriate. None of us are about toxic positivity, but instead of like, You're being inspired to fix that. 

Or, or like talking about it in a way, like, okay, yeah, this is awful. Cause we will need to vent a little bit and  how can we make it just a little bit better and how, given that we can't change this, like focus on what you can control. It's one of my big things. Right. But like when you are working with a team, cause I'm thinking if the staff are already fantastically motivated and everything's going fantastic at their school, probably you're not the guy they call. 

Copycat. Copycat. They already fixed that. They want someone to talk about PLCs in data. Okay. But like it's the schools where it's like, Oh my God, there's a lot of people standing around admiring the problem and you know, just being toxically negative, right? Whatever solution you have, they already have a problem with it.

Like it will never work. That won't work. We tried that a decade ago. You know, the person who's what I call a road teacher. Like a retired on active duty teacher, right? They're just there waiting for their, waiting for their, you know, retirement. And it's just like, ah, we tried that 20 years ago. Like it's not going to work.

So what would you say if you had a room full of those people, which it happens, huh, and that's why we get called What is it that you say that manages to, and I'm going to say, just not annoy them, because I know that people have accused me of being like, Oh, you're just a Pollyanna or like you were just born, you know, peppy, which absolutely not true.

Right. 

You said you were a happy go lucky kid. Not me. You're dressed in bright pink. I'm dressed in black. That just sums it up right there.  You could just leave it right there. Right. Just, you know, if we were outside, I'd be in Greek just blend into the background, honey. So so people  do like, you know, they take it personally.

Who were you to tell me I should be happy? Right. I'm just like, that's sometimes the vibe that you get because or sometimes I'll have a, A well intentioned admin by their whole staff. My book, you know, positive mindset habits for teachers. We're going to do a book study and  people can be annoyed.

Like who do you insinuate now? I need to be happy on top of everything else. Right? Not bad enough. I work 60 hours a week. No, I need to do it with a smile on my face. So how do you kind of,  I wouldn't say win people over to you, but have people be more receptive to you? To your message. Cause it is a tough call.

It is a, it is a fine line. Sometimes I find.  

Yeah, I, well, I always start off my keynotes with first of all, like empathizing. So I share stories of my wins and my huge losses. So I think right away that helps put some of the guard down, right? That they know that. All right. So this guy has at least experienced some of the things that we have, which I think helps.

And then I also like to do a little ice cream test. I call it. I put up a bunch of different flavors of ice cream and I said, I want you to think about your career and your year right now. And I want you to pick the best ice cream flavor that represents your year and how you feel about your year. Are you Rocky road?

Are you plain vanilla? Are you of old Ben and Jerry's hazed and confused? You know, are you, are you, are you coping and self medicating? You know, are you Neapolitan? Is it a little bit of everything? Is it scooper man? And you're on top of the world. So I have them do a little self reflection and then some of them for sure are rocky road.

And then I tell them, About how, when I've been Rocky road and what that was like, and when I've been at scooper man, what's that like? So again, I'm trying to let them have that moment and share that moment with them to say, I get it. We're all in different places. Then we kind of go into, for my scooper man, people like anyone who's down here with Rocky road.

I want you to remember that we can't hate the scooper man. We should be happy for them. And then also scooper man.  You got to remember that the rocky road could use some help right now, you know, so we're in this together. So from that, it's a little bit eases the tension for sure. And then I think through sharing again, stories  and different experiences of some of the things I've done.

To start shifting my mindset, I think helps again, break down the barriers. And then I tell them that this isn't about how to teach a better lesson. This is all about us. And it's no, so, and that's when we start digging into our errors. And I think people, even when  the admin is out of control or everything's burning down or we're not respected.

And I'm like, listen, I've, I get it. I've experienced all those things. And I think many of us have, I said, but. Let's focus just on us. Let's be selfish right now in a good way. And then when we start digging into that and build from ourselves and then figure out what are the things in our control, as you already said, Grace, right?

How can we slowly start to make things better? Not because we're not playing the game of you know what, no one, they don't deserve it because they're not treating me well, but why, why can't we do this? Because it's going to make us selfishly feel better too. And can we start making a positive shift?

So from that point of view, a little bit more upstream, like instead of worrying about us here, let's just worry about us right now and how we're living our life inside and outside of the building. Okay. Thank you. And then I think that naturally opens up a little bit more of that door into, so when we're here,  are there things we could do that could make an impact?

I love that, I love that.  Now I really, I think you nailed it. Yeah, I I find for me, one of the things, um, I wrote one book and it started with me in a fetal position under the bed. Hiding from my students. Like it was a lockdown, like close the blinds, like turn off the lights. I didn't want anyone to see me fall apart.

Like, you know, how the, the, like the stereotype of like people crying in their car while I walk to work, I couldn't walk home, I'm telling you, if I walked home, I wasn't coming back. Right. So it's like, so I was hiding and I'm like, you know, and it was my second book and I'm like, it's a funny way to start a book when my brand is positive mindset habits, but it's like, it's real.

It doesn't mean you're like one and done. Like, Oh, I got happy. Check that off the list. Like that is, it requires constant intention and attention. And I think yeah, I,  I really try and encourage people for myself, what I learned early on was, you know, there are always more initiatives. There's this, there's the hat, there's, you know, flavor of the month.

And then, you know, oh, we're rolling this out. It's the best thing ever. And then when you've been in education for a while, you know, they're not even going to send a follow up email, right? Like next year it will be something else, some other acronym. And so I always like to think, you know what, when I go into a meeting or a PD, like I have the intention, let me find three things I like. 

And leave the rest. Or maybe I want all of it. But setting my attention for the three things that I like, you know, take what you need and leave the rest. And so I always encourage people to do that when I start speaking. Just like find one thing you can do, you know, from here that you like. But I encourage, you know, myself and it's how I help myself get through.

When I close my door, I'm a revolutionary. Like I'm queen of the castle. That classroom is mine. Right? And all the other noise out there, you know, It doesn't really impact day to day what happens with my students in me and and so that's kind of how I kept myself accountable. But I think one thing that I do do very early on if I'm working with people who are kind of resistant is I have a keynote on busting the school life balance myth and I just let people know it's a myth, right?

You, you can't balance, you can integrate.  But you have to be very intentional about things you're not going to do, right? You're not going to wait till I'm going to get it all done and then, and then I'll do my other errs. 

Right. 

Right. It's never, it's gonna, it'll always be one more grading period, science fair, I spoke to music teachers last week, one more concert, one more this, one more that. 

New grade, split class.  You know, there'll always be something. And if you handle it all with grace, guess what? You're going to get more, right? The teacher who handles everything without complaining.  Which basically just makes an admin's job easier, that the kids aren't going to the office, they handle their own discipline, the parents aren't calling complaining.

Like, they just assume you have it handled and they're just going to give you more. So you got to be intentional. And I think that's one of the things I use this analogy that I've heard, I don't know if you know it, but I first heard it from Ryan Dyson, who is the CEO of Coke commencement, and he was talking about keeping all the balls in the air.

And he really explains that some A rubber and some are glass. Some you got to keep in the air. Just got to. Others, no consequence if you drop it. Let it roll away. Be intentional. Let it go. Pick it up later. And how those flex. Sometimes home is more glass balls. You know, you have children. I was a single parent.

You know, when their activities were going on, when they were graduating, when other things were happening, there were more glass balls there. Right. And then for five years when I taught, I had an empty nest, like I could pick up all kinds of balls for other people because they had picked up balls for me in the past.

Right. So I think that kind of lets people be on guard that what I'm really not coaching people to do is this.  Take on more,  being intentional about like really prioritizing what you have. I can't give you more hours in the day. Recognize the average teacher works 15 hours a week for free.  That's 13 and a half weeks a year.

Like I was in business for a long time. That's a whole quarter.  If I could go to another business and say, Hey, you know, I would like you to work for me for free for a quarter.  Right. So, so anyway, all the same challenges. Right. But beautiful. All right. Well, I have really enjoyed this conversation. You really nailed it in your 10 minute Ted talk.

You should go, go do that now. Tell everybody. I am interested in, you know, let them know where they can find you. If they want you to come to speak to their school. But I also know that you have a membership, which is a beautiful thing for teachers who want to hang around like minded people.  Because maybe your campus, you know, we always tell the kids, mind who you hang with, you know,  if you, if you don't mind who you hang with and I encourage people, you know, look around campus.

Somebody's leaving on time. Somebody's having fun. Go hang out with them. See what they've figured out that you haven't yet, right? But maybe if it can be very isolating to be a teacher who's wanting to make positive change and to focus on, on all these things if the campus culture is not supporting it.

So I know you have something for those folks. So tell us all about it. 

Well, thank you so much. Yeah. If anyone's interested in just connecting and having a conversation or potentially me visiting their school and helping bump up there, I'd like to say that to help people show up more inspired and less tired that you can reach out to me, just search my long last name, but it's, it's a horrible marketing strategy, isn't it?

Grace? That's a terrible last name.  But I'm everywhere. If you just Google search Phil Januszewski, I'm like the only one online, but all my handles on social media are at Phil Januszewski. And then as Grace was so wonderful to bring up, I do run a teacher membership called the Positive Growth Lounge.

And we meet twice a month, virtually. I'm in the Chicagoland area. So according to my time, we meet 7 30 PM central Chicago time, two Wednesdays a month. We meet for about 40 minutes. It's teachers all across the nation. And to be completely transparent, it's not a huge group. It's a nice intimate group.

So it's not like you're walking into 300 strangers. We're which could be overwhelming, right? And every time we meet, I'm the head coach and we have a different positive psychology theme that we dive into besides checking in and leaning in on each other and working through each other's. successes and cheering for them and also their struggles and brainstorming together.

We dive into a positive psychology idea and how we can implement that. First of all, most importantly in our personal lives, and then how we can also bring that to our school, the building in some way, whether that's the classroom with our coworkers. Whatever that may be. And I honestly started it just for selfish reasons.

I wanted to meet new teachers from across the nation. And that's, that's where it's at. And it's such a blessing to have. So two Wednesdays a month, I look forward to my Wednesdays so much. And if anyone's interested at all, feel free to reach out to me. Everyone's always welcome to come check out a meetup just to see if it's their vibe.

Grace, they might find that we're a little too happy for 'em, and that's okay. We're 

a little like I said, I've been accused of being a little too woo woo.  A little too kumbaya. People don't like that. 

NLP huh? People 

do not  . I know. I rarely tell people NLP. They're like, what's that? And I'm like, oh, neurolinguistic programming.

And then I'm like a brain science nerd. Right? like you, you know when you're like, what's your gift? Your's just baking. Mine is talking about brain science . It's not the same vibe. At all, let me tell you, people just like glaze over like, this is what you study for fun. Like, yeah, no, wait, wait, this is so exciting.

So yeah, no, definitely. Well, I'm going to put all your credentials in the show notes so that people can find you on that funny note. Like, yeah, your name is so maybe hard. Mine is Grace Stevens. I have to tell you, I grabbed that handle. Well, just the email address and the, and the. com, like the website, I grabbed that.

I want to say maybe 15 years ago, just because I had a different business vision. I was a writer doing other things. That was a ghost writer. And I never really did anything with it. I just kind of forwarded it to my Amazon. Page, my kind of author page, whatever. And so by the time I got to, you know, writing about teaching and doing other things, there is another Grace Stevens, who's an author. 

And she's in Australia and she's all about cupcakes,  cupcakes. She's a master baker. She sells courses on making cupcakes and other stuff. And  I would say. Quite often I get her emails, somebody would say, I was trying to buy your course. And, and I like, and I feel so bad and I have to say, Oh no, it's another Grace Stevens, here's her email.

And and I always laugh cause that looks kind of more fun. Like her cupcake class looks, she has a whole thing on buttercream frosting. And like, it's like super cute. I'm like, Oh, well, so yeah. So yes, well. Januszewski is hard. You know, if you have a common name, like Stevens, there's a whole bunch of them.

You get chomped for a little, like you're the author. I am the author. And then I start talking about cupcakes. Oh yeah, not that one.  And there's also another Grace Stevens who writes a bit  risque stuff. So let's not get me confused with her. Grace. 

I feel like, even though I know you have a mission on this podcast, I feel like the other Grace Stevens need to come on for like a Grace Stevens talk.

Yeah.  

That would be very, yes. My doppelgangers need to come on. That would be very fun. That's a good podcast episode. All right. Well, I want to thank you so much. And for all the listeners I think, you know, usually I'm audio only. I, I think Phil's going to take a few clips and put them somewhere and I want you to go find them.

He's going to share them with me so I can share them because just this guy's face, he  smiles just like you think, his enthusiasm, that is very, very, very  Like it emanates off you to go woo. If I could see your aura, my friend, it would be sparkly and yellow. And I love that. So to all of you listening until next time,  create your own path and bring your own sunshine.

And we will talk soon.