Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast.
My name is John Mahalio, the President and Founder of
Elementary Advancement Solutions.
The goal of this podcast is to connect Catholic school leaders from across
the world to grow Catholic education.
Visit us at www.
elementaryadvancement.
com to see how we can help you make advancement seem
elementary at your school.
Well, recently I had a unique opportunity to chaperone a field trip to a place that
I've always wanted to go, but someplace I never really dreamed would be possible.
And how it just all came about was really unexpected, But the experience
is something that I will never forget, and it taught me a lot of things
about being a better Catholic school leader that I want to share with you.
So I'm going to talk about where I went, a very, very, uh, special place, unique
place, not just going to a zoo or, uh, I don't know, wherever, uh, around town.
This particular field trip actually involved an airplane, quite a distance.
So, first and foremost, before I get started, just a quick favor to ask you.
If you like this podcast, if you're enjoying this podcast,
please be sure to like, subscribe.
Uh, if you can drop a quick review in there, share it with other Catholic school
leaders across, uh, the world and across the country and those that you know.
Um, by doing that it really helps to reach other Catholic school leaders
just like you and that helps us grow Catholic education together.
So I can't say thank you enough for that.
Um, if you would just do that, take a quick second to give it a like, give it
a share, give it a subscribe or a quick review, I would be so grateful for that.
So let's talk about the field trip that I chaperoned and what it taught
me about being a better leader.
And so this started back in February when a former colleague of mine
called and said, Hey, uh, I'm going to be taking a group of students on
a field trip and one of my chaperones is no longer able to make it.
And I want to see.
If you want to join us for this field trip, uh, and I said, sure, where, where
are you, where are you looking to go?
And he said, we'll be going to Italy for 10 days.
And so my heart immediately just got really excited right there
because Italy is a place that I've always, always wanted to visit.
and so of course, after talking with my wife, family, this became a reality.
so my daughter and I went on this field trip, uh, with
this group from another state.
And so, As a leader and somebody who had never been to Italy before, there
were some lessons that I learned, as part of this field trip that really,
really taught me some lessons, taught me some things about being a
better Catholic school leader, and I want to share them with you today.
Uh, if you're not, this is not going to be one of those pull out
the screen and show you 10, 000 photos of my trip kind of thing.
These are some real practical, pieces of advice that I learned that I think you're
going to be able to apply immediately in your job, no matter what it is, whether
you're a principal or assistant principal, advancement director, uh, recruitment
and marketing, a dean, whatever the case might be, but in your, in your leadership
role as a Catholic school leader, I think you'll be able to apply these immediately.
So, here's my 10 things that I learned from my trip to Italy that I hope
will make you, and I know will make you, a better Catholic school leader.
Number one is I said yes to going and a lot of people when they hear an
opportunity that presents itself in front of them They go, uh, that that
sounds scary That sounds like something that is just gonna be a little bit
too much and they shy away from it So first and foremost when you're given
an opportunity and it looks like it's an amazing one say yes Look into it.
Obviously discuss it with those that are close to you but say yes
to those opportunities because so many opportunities that, that
we have in life just pass us by.
you know, if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time.
And so giving yourself that opportunity to try something new, to put yourself
out there, uh, in a strange place where you've never been before, it can be scary.
But, saying yes is that first step to making it happen.
Number two, if you've ever been anywhere in Europe, anywhere, uh, traveling
overseas or anything like that and you're in the United States, You know
that, unfortunately, nothing like Star Trek here or Star Wars exists where you
just boom and telepath somewhere else or light speed or anything like that.
It takes a while to get there.
And usually there's connecting flights and we're going to go here and go there.
It's a long trip to get there.
And I think that as leaders, we want to just have things get to that place
that we want them to be immediately.
But we have to recognize that it's a journey, and it's not
just going to happen instantly.
Those days are going to seem long, but those years are going to go by quick,
just the same way as our flight over on a plane, eight, ten hours, whatever it was.
the, the minutes were long, but once we got there, the hours went by real quick.
Watch a movie, or read a book, or whatever the case might be.
but, it's a journey.
It's a long trip to get there.
But it's worth it in the end.
So I guess my second lesson that I learned as a Catholic school leader
for my trip to Italy was Don't rush.
Don't be in such a rush to get to that final, uh, final finish line.
Okay?
We all want to get there, but it's not going to happen without some hard work,
without some patience, and without some, just that journey to get us to that point.
So, I know we want to get to the finish line, and we want to get to what we
think is going to be our final goal.
but getting there is part of the fun.
Number three, and this was something that, that was, really, really an awesome
part of, of this trip and that is meeting new people and, and hearing their story.
I think sometimes in, in leadership roles, we're constantly meeting new people and
we're constantly, uh, being bombarded, but, but making new connections and
making those, uh, new friends and making new acquaintances that we hadn't met
before can open ourselves up so much to grow as individuals and as leaders.
Hearing their stories, laughing with them, and just hearing who they are as a person,
and learning about them, and learning about what makes them Uh, a unique person
of God is something that was so, so cool and something that I, I hadn't expected,
uh, and so obviously when you're on a field trip and you're there with other
adults and students and things like that, there's time to connect with people over a
meal or over a bus ride or over, you know, visiting in a group or things like that.
Just learning what other people are all about and meeting new people.
Don't just kind of limit yourself to those people that you know, especially
if you're going on something like this.
Obviously you're going there with somebody that you, you know, uh, but
expanding out to kind of go, hey, I don't know these folks, but I'd like
to get to know a little bit more about them and, uh, and hear their story.
And so don't be afraid to put yourself out there to meet new
people and to hear their story.
Now, the next one kind of goes along with that.
But obviously when you're going to a country where English is
not the first language, Italian is the first language there, uh,
there could be a language barrier.
And oftentimes when we were arriving there, there was.
I would want to say something in English and the person I was
speaking to would only speak Italian.
And so we had to find ways to break down those barriers.
And so many times when we are in our schools, we may think that we're just the
most inviting school community possible, but not realizing there may be people out
there who aren't feeling welcome, or who aren't feeling like they can approach you,
or who don't feel like they can ask you.
Maybe there's a language barrier as there was with me, And so, there's so many ways
that we found to break down those barriers of, say, the language communication.
that were so amazing.
Uh, one night, uh, our, our bus driver who was there, only spoke
Italian and, was being left out of a lot of the conversations.
And so, he and I sat down next to each other and, and I spoke no Italian,
uh, and he spoke very little English.
Uh, but by using my phone with Google Translate and, and, uh,
the, the dictation of things, uh, I was able to communicate with him.
He was able to communicate with me and we had a great conversation
and some, and some laughs and some, got to, to hear his story.
It turned out that, that he did know some Spanish and I
know a little bit of Spanish.
So between my English and, and, and his English and, and my Italian and
his Italian, and both of our Spanish.
Uh, we were able to have a great conversation which brought him more into
the trip and really made it so that he was part of our group and part of our
community from that point moving forward.
And so, breaking down those barriers to find ways to communicate with
people within your school setting.
Maybe it's a teacher, maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a student.
But looking for creative ways that you can involve people in your school and
breaking down those barriers to make sure that everybody is part of your school
community is something that was just so important as a lesson that I'm going to
take with me for the rest of my life.
When you're in a different country, and this is going to be my fifth
one with this, is to rely on people who know more than you do.
And I know as leaders, sometimes it's, it's hard to admit that
we don't know everything.
but I used to always say that, know what you know, know what you don't know, know
who knows what you don't know and get them on your team as quickly as possible.
And so when you rely on people who know more than you about a particular subject,
That just makes your team stronger.
Uh, we were blessed enough to have a wonderful tour guide over there who could
tell us, Hey, this is where you want to go, or this is what time you want to
visit this exhibit, or this is something that's really not worth you going to see,
or this is something that you're going to be waiting a long time to go for, but
if you go at this time, you'll be able to get right in, or these are some hidden
fees, or whatever the case might be.
Even being able to tell us, hey, this is a city where there's a lot of pickpocketers,
so you're going to want to make sure that you Don't bring anything valuable or don't
bring this or make sure you have this in your front pocket, not your back pocket
or things like that to help us navigate through those dangers that might exist
out there that we don't even realize.
So finding other people that know more than you or that can support
you in the journey is something that I think is so important.
I think this is why I love our Mastermind Group so much.
A shout out to our Mastermind Groups, our Principals, and our Advancement Directors.
Getting together with them is such an awesome thing each week because
we all learn from each other.
And so relying on people who can help us navigate through some waters that maybe
we don't know about, uh, is something that we can You all, all benefit from.
And so, talk to the people and, and let them help guide you through
these areas, uh, that's gonna make your school a better place.
You don't need to know everything.
Spoiler alert, nobody expects you to know everything.
Rely on those people who can help you and who can get you through things.
One of the things that I also learned from this was to say, I said earlier,
say yes to going, but also saying yes to unexpected opportunities.
one of the days that we were there, it was a travel day.
There was nothing planned.
And the opportunity came up for us to visit this little town that
I had never heard of in my life.
Lucca, Italy was, was the name of the town.
And the opportunity came and I said, Hey, We can visit this town, it's not
on the tour, but if we want to go, uh, you know, this is how much it'll be,
if we want to do this, because it's kind of deviating away from things,
and so, yeah, okay, we'll do it.
And I didn't really know what to expect.
It turned out probably to be one of my favorite places that we visited.
And it was something that I had totally, totally not expected to even do.
it was a small town.
It was a, uh, a little town with, the cobblestone streets and, just different,
beautiful, beautiful scenery, little markets, shops, things like that.
I chuckled because as we're walking through this, this little, town, uh,
we heard music in the, in the distance.
And, and apparently there's a music festival that happens here every year.
And Ed Sheeran was getting ready to perform the next night.
And so, it's a well kept secret, but I guess over there, it's something that,
uh, a lot of people go and visit and it's a great place for concerts and, things
of that nature, but had we not said yes and no, we got to stick to our schedule.
We got to stick to what it is that we're doing, and not said yes.
So in response to this unexpected opportunity, we would have missed
probably what turned out to be a lot of people's favorite place
to visit while we were there.
And so obviously, we want to evaluate the risks if we're going to do something
new and evaluate what it is that, you know, we're going to benefit from it.
As you would in a Catholic school leadership role.
But, saying yes to something that seems like it's a great opportunity and saying
yes to, as I went back before, work.
People who know more than you in terms of a particular area.
Our tour guide said this is a beautiful area.
It's going to be one you're going to want to see.
We took advantage of that and it turned out to be something that really, really
was an amazing experience for everybody.
So don't be afraid to say yes to unexpected opportunities.
If there seems to be something there that's going to make you a better school.
One thing that I learned very quickly, if there's one thing that I didn't
like from the trip, it was we visited, I think, eight cities in ten days.
That's a lot.
And for anybody that's been to Italy, you know that's a lot of time in
a bus, that's a lot of time in the car, uh, that you're missing out.
And one of the things that I looked back on, I said I would have liked it
more if we would have spent three or four days, or three or four cities, and
focused on those a couple of days each.
And so I think as we look at this, one of the things that I would advise, or
that I would learn from this trip, that I would advise to all Catholic school
leaders, is don't try to do too much.
There's things that we all want to get done, but we have to focus on just
a couple of areas and put all of our energy into that, because if we're
spreading ourselves too thin, uh, we're not going to accomplish any of them.
I personally would rather accomplish three or four things and do them well,
rather than try to take on ten things.
And only one or two of them get done well.
if you tackle two, three, four things, and you're gonna focus on those things right
there, and do them well, and make them part of your culture, I guarantee you that
your school's gonna be a lot better place.
Besides, if you try to focus on 10 things, even if you get eight of them
done, what are gonna be the only two that everybody's gonna talk about those
things that didn't get accomplished?
So by focusing on a smaller amount of things and getting really, really
good at them, and making them really part of who you are as a school and
part of your culture is just gonna make your school community better,
not just for now, but for the future.
So next trip for my, or next advice for my trip to Italy is don't try to do too much.
Number eight is to expect unexpected challenges.
And I know that kind of sounds like, well, yeah, we run a school.
Of course there'd be unexpected challenges, but
you don't know what's coming.
You don't know what's, going to be around the corner and how are you
going to react to those things?
one of the days that we were traveling, we had about a three
hour bus ride to go from, where we were at to our next location.
And as we're traveling through, this area, uh, a tunnel.
Uh, there was an accident up in front of us.
And so here we are in a tunnel, with 50, people in a bus, and the
road ahead of us is shut down.
So that 3 hour trip turned into almost an 8 hour trip.
And we got to our location that we had planned to be at significantly later.
And so when those unexpected challenges come up, how are we going to handle them?
Uh, yeah, okay, we can, we can get upset, we can get mad, hey, we didn't miss our,
but what are we going to do as leaders to say, okay, this is a problem, this is a
challenge that we, we, we hadn't expected.
How are we going to respond to this challenge?
And so, You may have a fact.
You may have a full faculty right now, and in August, somebody may walk into
your office and say, Hey, Hey, We're moving, uh, and, and, and I'm going
to have to resign, and now you have an unexpected challenge ahead of you.
How we handle those challenges as leaders really says a lot about
us, but it also sets the culture for what we want for our schools.
And so being prepared, know that unexpected challenges are going to
be part of what we do as leaders.
Much the same way as these unexpected challenges, we're going to be part
of this trip for us kind of kept our attitudes in a good place as opposed
to being rather grumpy from sitting in a bus for as long as we did.
I think the other thing that I really learned, and this would be number nine,
and, and before I left, Father Luke Riewicki, who I interviewed on a previous
podcast, if you hadn't had a chance to listen to that, it's an amazing interview,
uh, with the chaplain of Cardinal Gibbons High School in, in Raleigh.
And I said, what advice, he studied over in Rome, and I said, what,
what advice do you have for me as somebody who's never been to Italy?
And he said, make sure every church you pass, you go into it, because
they're just different architecture, different, you know, the holiness
of them, but you also don't know which person may be buried there, or
may be named for, things like that.
Uh, and so, as I did this, as we were walking through each of these areas,
I was sure to follow Father Luke's advice in making sure that I visited
every church that we possibly could.
some of them were cathedrals and basilicas, others, uh, smaller churches.
But I think what I learned from this is, you can find holiness all around you.
even in places that you're, you're not, uh, expecting to see it.
Uh, I mentioned Lucca and being this, the, the small, uh, area that it was as, as
you compare it to Rome or other big cities that you, you hear all about in Italy.
and as we were just walking the streets with, with nowhere particular to be,
uh, we stumbled upon a, a, church, and walking into this church, you know,
discovered, you know, a lot of, of, of amazing history within this church, and
a lot of, just amazing, uh, architecture, history, began talking with, uh, with a
nun who was there playing the organ and had a wonderful conversation with her.
and so learning all about these different saints, these different,
people that influenced, the particular church, the particular basilicas,
uh, was just an amazing experience.
And, and if you've ever been to Italy, you know that the churches there and the
basilicas there are something to be seen.
We have some beautiful cathedrals and churches here in the United States,
but to see some of these churches and basilicas and cathedrals in Italy, was
an unbelievable, unbelievable sight.
And so, there's holiness all around you.
There are so many saints that we don't even realize are out there.
and so this is a great opportunity, even as a school leader, to introduce those
different people and different saints, to our kids, you know, having a saint
of the day or having a, celebrating a feast day or things like that, uh,
to really bring these saints to life.
You know, bring awareness to our kids and our faculty and our
families is something that, just is, is, is beyond my wildest dreams.
And so, there's so much out there.
Uh, it's such a holy, holy place.
Assisi is, is probably one of the most beautiful cities
I've ever been in in my life.
to get to, Acutis is, is, is, laid to rest and be there was an amazing experience.
And so there's so much holiness all around you.
and just stopping to not pass by any churches or not pass by any,
uh, basilicas or cathedrals as Father Luke recommended to me.
is something that really helped me learn that even more.
And I guess the last one I would say, is to appreciate what you have.
Um, when you go to Italy, one of the things that I was told going in
is, is that the hotels are not like they are here in the United States.
most of the hotels are very small.
Most of them don't have air conditioning, uh, and so when you're in a hotel room
that's maybe, I don't know, 12x12, and the bathroom off to the side of
it, which is also really small, you start to appreciate those things that
you have here in the United States and those things that we take for granted.
And so, as you look at your school, and you say these are
things that we really want to fix.
Maybe it's a parking lot that needs to be paved.
Maybe it's a room that needs to be fixed up.
Or something that needs to be done, and you're trying to
figure out a way to get there.
Um, just appreciate first and foremost what you have.
And yes, hey, there's improvements that we want to make.
We're not just going to rest on our laurels here.
We're going to make sure that we continue to improve as a Catholic school leader.
But let's also be appreciative of what we have within our schools, first
and foremost, to even allow us to have a Catholic school for our kids
and our communities to be part of.
By being grateful and being appreciative of those things that we have, I think
it's especially brings it to light when we don't have those things or when we
see Some things that others may not have that we just take for granted.
Like I said, uh, when you're in Italy in June and you're in a hotel room that has
been closed up without air conditioning, uh, it's a little uncomfortable.
And so, uh, but by doing that, learning that, it just makes us appreciate the
things that we do have so much more.
So.
That's just a quick recap of my trip to Italy.
Like I said that I was just so blessed to be able to take and have the
opportunity to go with my daughter and we spent this time over there.
It was a wonderful, wonderful father daughter experience, but also made
some great friends along the way, some wonderful experiences, some great
laughs with students from multiple states that were part of our trip.
It's an experience I'll never forget.
It was a wonderful experience, but by saying yes.
By getting that long trip to go there, meeting the new people, and
hearing their story, breaking down those language barriers, relying on
those people who knew a whole lot more than me, saying yes to unexpected
opportunities, not trying to do too much.
Expecting the unexpected and appreciating what we have and
finding holiness all around us.
I think this trip would make me a better Catholic school leader and
I hope maybe vicariously living through my trip will help make you
a better Catholic school leader.
Thank you so much for listening today.
Again, if you would, please like, subscribe, share this with others.
If you've been to Italy and you've had the same experience, I would love
to hear maybe some of your favorite memories or some of the places you
visited that you really enjoyed.
just such a beautiful place.
It's someplace I can't wait to go back to someday, and I hope you get
the chance to experience it as well.
So thank you so much for listening.
Uh, www.
elementaryadvancement.
com if we can help you with any of your school's needs in terms of advancement,
leadership, um, organizational structure.
Anything along those lines to help you with the business of education.
We're here for you and, take a look at our mastermind groups as well.
Great opportunity to get part and get connected to a community that can help
you grow as a Catholic school leader.