In This episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Doug Smith shares how to overcome anxiety in leadership. In this vulnerable and faith-filled episode, Doug shares from his personal experience in battling and overcoming anxiety.
Episode Summary:
Anxiety and Panic:
What does it feel like? What does it look like?
12 Keys to Overcoming Anxiety:
Links mentioned:
Breathing to Heal by Max Storm | Ted Talk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb5L-VEm34
Dr. Caroline Leaf APP | https://drleaf.com/products/switch-app-pre-order
Crowned with Dignity and Worth by John Nuzzo | http://www.mediaatvictory.com/sermons/crownedwithdignityandworth1
Freedom From All Fears - Keith Moore Series https://resourcesforchristians.net/music/Keith%20Moore/Series%200803%20-%20Free%20From%20All%20Fears
Married on the Rock - Jimmy Evans | https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Rock-Gods-Design-Dream/dp/0964743507
When God Becomes Real by Brian Johnson, Bethel Music | https://www.amazon.com/When-Becomes-Real-Brian-Johnson/dp/1947165577
In This episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Doug Smith shares how to overcome anxiety in leadership. In this vulnerable and faith-filled episode, Doug shares from his personal experience in battling and overcoming anxiety.
Episode Summary:
Anxiety and Panic:
What does it feel like? What does it look like?
12 Keys to Overcoming Anxiety:
Links mentioned:
Breathing to Heal by Max Storm | Ted Talk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb5L-VEm34
Dr. Caroline Leaf APP | https://drleaf.com/products/switch-app-pre-order
Crowned with Dignity and Worth by John Nuzzo | http://www.mediaatvictory.com/sermons/crownedwithdignityandworth1
Freedom From All Fears - Keith Moore Series https://resourcesforchristians.net/music/Keith%20Moore/Series%200803%20-%20Free%20From%20All%20Fears
Married on the Rock - Jimmy Evans | https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Rock-Gods-Design-Dream/dp/0964743507
When God Becomes Real by Brian Johnson, Bethel Music | https://www.amazon.com/When-Becomes-Real-Brian-Johnson/dp/1947165577
Everyone. And welcome to another episode of the[inaudible] leadership podcast, where we're obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Henny jewelers. And he jewelers are our jeweler of choice. My wife, Laura, and I got our engagement and wedding rings at Henny jewelers, and we just love them. In fact, their owner, John is a great friend and mentor of mine. And so if you're in need of a good jeweler, check out Henny jewelers.com. Now in today's episode, I'm going to get very vulnerable with you, but very practical as well. And I'm going to be teaching a lesson called how to overcome anxiety and leadership. Now, anxiety has been a battle that I've had to face a few times in my leadership journey and had, had to face again recently. And so I, you know, as I started sharing that with other people, I was surprised how many people, one thanked me for sharing that I was struggling with that. And then two, um, that the, the ways I was battling anxiety to overcome it was helpful to them. And so I think this is going to add a ton of value to you. We're in the middle of 2020. So I know anxiety is high for a lot of leaders. And so I hope that this will just be a divine appointment in your life to listen to this episode, before we dive into the, uh, the episode, I just want to also thank our other sponsor bear tongue advisors, the financial advisors at bear tongue advisors, help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. You can find out how bare tongue advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future to do that, please visit their website@baretongueadvisors.com. That's B E R a T U N G advisors.com, securities and investment products and services offered through Waddell and Reed, inc member FINRA, and SIPC bare tongue advisors, Waddell and Reed, and L three leadership are separate entities. And with that being said, let's dive right into the lesson. Here's my lesson on how to overcome anxiety and leadership. Well, Hey everybody, today, I'd like to talk to you on the subject overcoming anxiety and leadership. And just to tell you upfront, this is going to be a vulnerable lesson for me to teach, and it's going to be filled with faith. I want to tell you that upfront, uh, many of you know, I'm a person of faith and, um, and I just want to let you know that personally, I don't believe I could get through and overcome anxiety without a relationship with God. And I, I say this all the time, but I don't know how people go through life and especially leadership, uh, without God. And so, uh, there's going to be a lot of faith integrated in this, but I really think it will be helpful for you. So I just want to let you know, in case you're not a person of faith, I love you. And I still think that this will be extremely helpful and practical to you if you'll listen to it. So I also want to note that I'll be sharing a lot of resources and I know I can tend to speak fast. And so just know that all the resources that I'm going to list will be linked to in our show notes. And again, you can get those@ltvleadership.org forward slash two six, four, and they'll all be right there in the show notes for you to look. So with that being said, let's dive right into this, um, overcoming anxiety and panic. So my personal journey with this is I've, I've dealt with panic and anxiety attacks, uh, three times in my life now, uh, once when I was, when I was in high school, um, and this was drug related for those of you who know my story, um, I, I basically did acid and freaked out and had a series of panic attacks and anxiety related to that, uh, for multiple weeks while I was in high school, I also had an another season of anxiety, uh, probably about 12 years ago. So 2008, 2009, um, the lasted a little while. And then most recently, uh, in the beginning of August of 2020, I also started experiencing the same thing. I experienced two other times in my life, this anxiety and panic. And just to explain to you what I was experiencing, uh, for when I was having panic attacks, I, you know, it felt like my chest was going to explode. My heart was beating out of my chest. Um, it felt like my mind was going crazy. And so I consistently basically thought I'm going to die or I'm going crazy. And, uh, I couldn't sleep. I was exhausted and I couldn't be present where I was. It was very difficult for me to, to engage. And so, uh, as soon as I started experiencing these things, uh, my personality is just like, Hey, whatever we have to deal with to overcome this, I'm going to deal with, and I'm going to seek help wherever I can, uh, to overcome this. And so, uh, I'm just going to share with you my journey of the past month of what I've done to, to combat this. And I think these will be extremely helpful and practical things to help you overcome anxiety and panic in your own life. And let me just say this on the front end, I am not a professional therapist or counselor or doctor. And so these are just things that I've experienced that have helped me overcome anxiety in my leadership and life journey. So let's dive into this, the practical part. Here's what I want you to know. If you're experiencing anxiety and panic, number one, you are not alone. You're not alone. You're not the only person on the planet dealing with this. In fact, you'd be surprised how many people were dealing with this. You know, as a person of faith, the Bible tells us that we are all going through the same tests and trials. There's, there's, you're not the only one on the planet going through this. And to be honest with you, and again, this is a spiritual, uh, the enemy. Our enemy will tell you that you were the only person on the planet, dealing with us. You are going crazy and no one else will understand you and nothing could be further than the truth. So just know that you're not alone. And I'm sharing this lesson to let you know that you're not alone. I've been there. I've had anxiety attacks. I've had panic attacks. I've had times that I just showed that I could not be present with my friends and family because of the impact it was having on my life. You are not alone. The second thing encourage you with is I want to encourage you to become spiritually curious if you're in a season of anxiety. And this was actually an interesting, when I started opening up with a leader who was a spiritual leader, a mentor in my life, um, he's just said, Doug, you're, your body is trying to tell you something. You should become spiritually curious while this is happening on and ask God to give you revelation about what it is that's causing your body to do that. And so I just started and I just started praying, God, give me, give me revelation of what's causing this. I want to be spiritually curious about what is going on. And so I really wanna encourage you men. Maybe you need to pray that prayer. If you're dealing with that, God helped me identify the roots or whatever's coming against me, help me to identify it and give me revelation on how to overcome it. That's huge. The third thing that I would encourage you to do is get help, get help. It's one of our core values here is community, but like we tell leaders all the time and people like stop doing life alone and stop holding everything in and not sharing your issues with people. Get help, share this with other people. You'd be surprised at just what sharing your struggle with can help you, how much that can help you overcome something that you're going through and what is getting helpful. Like for me, I wrote down three things. Number one is God. So for me, and I'm going to share a lot about how, what God, how I rely on God through this, but God asked God for help. God is always there for you. He will always be there. He said, he'll be with us always. And he's one prayer away from intervening and interjecting in your situation. The second is share with your friends and family and community. Again, don't be ashamed of what you're going through. You know, I was having a rough morning one morning and I had our mastermind group, uh, that I'm in. And it just happened to that. I had to be on the hot seat and that was where I got to share an issue. And usually it would be something professional or a goal related, but I just said, guys, I've been experiencing this panic stuff. And I kind of shared what I was going through. And they heard me, they listened to me. Some of them had experienced the same thing and we had a conversation and I felt so much better on the other side of that, just by sharing and allowing them to love on me. So share it with your friends, share it with your family, allow people to love. You allow people to see that your need people love to help me needs. And so share it with friends and family. And then three, uh, what I would encourage you to do is get help professionally for me. I actually call it a therapist that I know, and I started going to therapy. And that was one of the most beneficial things that I've ever done. And a lot of times people, especially leaders will think, Oh, getting counseling or getting therapy that that's weak or weak people do that. Or people, you know, et cetera, nothing's further from the truth. It's one of the wisest things you can do is actually get help. And so I started seeing a therapist and I'll share some of what I've learned from them and this as well. So get help. That's number three, number four, and this is spiritual, but this was a huge, huge revelation for me. And I'll share why this time, but I believe that God wants to, to equip you to fight this on your own. And when I say on you, and I don't mean without God, I'll qualify that, but I'll say it again, recognize that God wants you to fight on your own. Now, um, historically I've mentioned that I've dealt with this three different times. So the first time I dealt with it was in high school and how I fight it was basically allowing my mom to care for me. Uh, you know, I would just, I slept in my mom's bed. I would, I just wanted her to hug me and care for me. The second time I did it. Unfortunately, I had lost my mom by that point. And I actually had a second mom quote, unquote from the church and I called them and they took care of me. And, uh, this time, you know, I'm married at this point. And, uh, and I started relying on Laura and Laura is amazing the best helper forever, but she's also pregnant with our third child and a mom of two and a and again, then our kids were up late one last night and largest had a rough night. She's like, I can't be everything to everyone. And I really felt like God started dealing with me, a friend, um, called me, or I'm sorry, text me and said, Hey, have you ever heard of this book by Brian Johnson? Who is the, the head of Bethel music it's called when God becomes real. And he actually shares his journey of overcoming anxiety. And he, a lot of what you're telling me is sounds like the exact same thing. And so this person gave me a copy of the book. If you're dealing with anxiety, this is an absolute must read, go to our show notes now and purchase this book when God becomes real by Brian Johnson. And it was certainly comforting in the fact that though that, you know, someone that's a spiritual giant and the body of Christ today went through something very similar to I did. So again, just, it was comforting reading that book to know that I'm not alone. Um, but there was a story that he shared in it that he went camping. Well, he was dealing with a season of panic and anxiety. He went camping with his father-in-law and he had a panic attack and he was up for five hours, panicking and anxiety. And he was saying, I need to go to the hospital. I need to go to the hospital. And his father-in-law made a statement. And he said, um, I know you think you need to go to the hospital, but we're not going to go to the hospital. I think God wants you to learn how to fight this on your own. And so they ended up worshiping and, and literally God set him free. And for me at that moment, I felt like God spoke to me. I want you to learn to overcome this. I want us to learn how to battle this and you'd overcome it. I don't want you to have to rely on your mom or your wife or anyone else. I just want you to be able to rely on me. And that was absolutely huge for me because I'm a person that I want to lean on other people for help. And God's say, no, no, no, no. I'm going to equip you to fight this on your own. And Brian made the statement. This was the key statement in the book for me, he said he was talking about healing and that healing could be for anything in this case, it's an anxiety. But he said, when someone is healed instantly and often speaks to their identity as a son or daughter of God, but when healing or freedom is progressive and takes place over time, it's often because that person is being trained for war. And when you're training for war, you're gaining authority and power in that area, or you gain the authority that you already have in the power in that area. And when that jumped off the page for me, and that's exactly what God was speaking to me, you are being trained for war and I am equipping you and allowing you to know the authority and power you have over this so that you can overcome it. And that was absolutely huge for me. So listen, you may be in a position where God wants you to learn, to fight this on your own. And again, he'll never ask you to do something without him. God will be with you and he'll see you through it, but maybe God wants you to fight this on your own. The next thing I would tell you to do on a practical level is journal. I'm a huge advocate for journaling, as many of you know, if you've never journaled before, don't know how to, we actually just released a course for L three members, uh, by becoming a member today, you can actually get free access to that course and I teach you how to journal. Um, but specifically when you're working through issues like anxiety and panic and doing deep soul work, you have to have a journal. You have to be processing and documenting what you're going through. And so, um, some of the things that I'm going to be sharing in the next few minutes are going to require you to journal. So make sure that you have a journal and be willing to do a deep work in that journal. The next thing I would tell you to do is that I learned on how to overcome anxiety is just notice, notice, or noticing. And what I mean by that. And this was such helpful advice. Uh, my therapist actually said, Doug, when you're going through a panic attack and you feel like you're going to die, or you feel like you're going crazy, instead of saying, I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Say, I notice that my heart is having the sensation and is beating out of my chest. Or I noticed that my mind feels a little bit off and it almost take yourself out of the situation and just notice it. And I don't know what it was about that advice, but that helped me so much to actually just sit there and just say, okay, wait a minute. I just notice notice. And so I don't know if that's helpful for you, but it was extremely helpful for me. Um, and so anytime that it's come up since even at night, um, I may feel an onset of anxiety and I just say, okay, I'm noticing that I'm having an onset. That doesn't mean I have to go crazy. It doesn't mean I'm just noticing. And that's helped. That's helped diminish the amount of time that the anxiety actually, um, keeps producing. So hope that helps. Uh, the next thing I would tell you to do is identify and deal with root issues, identify and deal with root issues. And this will really be, this is where therapy so helpful. This is what journaling so helpful, um, be willing to go to deep places. And because back to the whole be spiritually curious, you may not know what's causing this. You know, I love what Brian Johnson said to the book. You know, people always ask like, Oh, is this a spiritual attack? Is this, um, is this a stress-related? Is it, you know, all these different questions? And the reality, the answer to most of those things is like, yes, it could be all of those things, right? It could be a lot of different things. And so you need to be spiritually curious and identify those root issues. I remember I was, when I first was getting attacked with this in early August, I was actually on a leadership cohort experience. And I had a coworker, um, basically, uh, a coworker was there and I told them that I was experiencing this panic. And they said, well, Doug, it has to be, stress-related like, you have so much on you. And I look back to them and laugh. And I said, if this was this time, last year, yeah. I would say it was stress related, but I feel good. I don't feel stressed at all. I just came off vacation. I feel relaxed, rested. Um, but, um, if I wasn't careful, I would have put up a wall and say, it can't be stressed. It can't be stressed, but I was so desperate. I said, okay, I'm going to be open to anything. And so for me personally, I'm just going to share with you what I've learned, but through therapy, through reflecting through time with God, through opening up to others. For me, I learned that there was three root issues that were driving, um, my recent attack. And yes, I do believe it is a spiritual attack. Not going to spend a lot of time there, but I'll just say that the biggest revelation I'm going to do a whole leadership lesson on this. The biggest revelation I've gotten this year is, uh, learning how to rest and Sabbath. And I think it's interesting that the very year I actually learned to slow down and rest is the very year the enemy tries to take away my rest, my joy and my sleep. Right. All of those things just interesting, but there were some other key issues. One is toxic thoughts. I have this negative core belief that I'm not enough and that's haunted me for years. And so I've had to process that and deal with that recently. And it's been absolutely awesome dealing with that through therapy, through the word of God through counsel. Second is stress. I do have a lot on me. And so just learning how to better manage stress. And then lastly, and this was probably the biggest one. Um, some of you may know some of you may not, but I lost my sister to an overdose, um, in December of 2019. And I actually had a mentor in my life who who's my boss and executive director, Joe Gilliam. He said, you know, Doug, like you really, you really just like came back to work and just went after it. Like you didn't really like stop and grieve. And, um, and you know, I had actually processed that. And then I'll share about that in the next step. But, uh, I, I don't believe I grieved my sister's death. And so I've had to take time over the last month to do that, which leads me to the next thing that that was practical, um, is breathing, breathing now. I'm, uh, as I talk fast, I don't breathe often. I just go, go, go. Um, you know, when people say, do breathing exercises, I'm like, Oh man, are you kidding me? However, I'm open. Cause I'm desperate. I don't want to deal with anxiety. And uh, someone had sent me a Ted talk and if you want to see it, it's called breathing to heal by max storm breathing to heal by max storm. And he basically talks about, he works with executives all the time who have stress, anxiety, and panic. And basically he teaches them to breathe. And he said almost every time, within 30 seconds to five minutes, they started bawling like babies. And, um, and so anyway, I get to the end of this Ted talk and he actually walked you through a breathing exercise. And I was, I was going for a walk, which is another way to deal with anxiety. And I started breathing and I started deeply and I started reflecting on my sister's death and I just started bawling like a baby. And I felt like for the first time, since my sister died, I actually grieved to my sister's death. And it was so healthy. And I felt such a release, um, in my heart and in my body, into my soul, just by breathing and actually processing my sister's death. Again, it was something that I had not been dealing with and so learn to breathe. And I encourage you all to watch that Ted talk. The next thing I would tell you to do is get your thought life under control, get your thought life under control. Now I've studied scripture for a long, long time. 17 plus years, I've read Philippians four, eight, probably a thousand times, Philippians four eight. Let me just read it to you. It says, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true. Whatever is noble, whatever is right. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy worthy, think about such things. Think about such things. Now I've read that a million times and it's like, of course you should think good things. Of course you should. But I've never realized the power of thinking on those things until I experienced, uh, this latest panic attack or a season of panic. And what I noticed is when I have feelings of anxiety or panic come up, if I don't think on, on positive things, if I don't start meditating on the word of God, if I start meditating on I'm going crazy, I'm never going to be the same. Um, I'm going to die. The anxiety and panic gets worse and worse and worse and worse and feels worse. And I end up absolutely paralyzed. But the minute I start thinking about scripture, that God loves me. The God has a plan for me that God doesn't want me to live with anxiety and fear and depression did that. He surrounded me with great people that love me and done a great work in my life. As soon as I started thinking about those things, the panic and anxiety go away, your thought life is incredibly powerful. And so think on good things I'm going to talk about in a second. Don't just think them speak to them, but that's a whole different subject, but notice, and again, this is why journaling is important. When you've experienced anxiety, where do you go? Do you go positive or negative? Which direction you go is going to affect whether or not you overcome the anxiety. And, um, I just saw this today. I thought it was powerful thought. So I thought I would share it with you. Um, but John Maxwell, someone posted something that John Maxwell wrote to someone personally, and he just wrote this. And this is in the midst of 2020. He said, finish your sentences with the words for now, for example, things are not going well for now. It reminds us that difficulties are not permanent. That's huge because what the enemy will do and what he did for me and my anxiety was he would just take a snapshot when I was in my anxiety and panic. And he say, this is what your life is going to be like for the rest of your life. You're never going to be able to connect with your family. You're never going to be present. You're always going to feel like you're going crazy. You're always going to feel like you're going to die. And that is an absolute lie. So if you're experiencing anxiety, panic, fear, learn to say, Hey, I'm experiencing these things for now, but I'm going to be set free. This will not be permanent. This is not permanent. This is not going to define you the rest of your life. You will be free. The last thing that I would say on that, on your thought life is dr. Caroline leaf. Who's a Christian, the neurologist psychologist. I don't remember. She's awesome. She has an app called switch and it's a 21 day program that I'm in the middle of and it's on how to replace toxic thoughts in your life. And it's absolutely amazing. And so I encourage you to go again. That's dr. Caroline Leaf's app, switch a few more things that I think will help you. Very, very simple spend time with God. And here's the key. And if you're a believer, you know this, but when's the last time you spend time with God without an agenda, or because you had to check it off your list, but you just said, I'm just going to open my Bible and let God speak to me or, Hey, I'm just gonna let turn on worship music and just worship him. W when was the last time you did that with no agenda connect with God and get intimate? I will say this. I don't believe God caused my anxiety or panic, but he's using it to be a divine appointment. I feel like I've gone deeper in my walk with God in the last month. And I have in the past two years. And I'm so grateful for that. And I feel the intimacy that I was lacking is back. And it's, it's the most refreshing thing that I've experienced or spend time with God. But the next thing I would tell you to do on a practical level is confess the word or speak your positive thoughts. One of the greatest things that my therapist told me that was helpful. He said, Doug, you can't fight thoughts with thoughts. You have to fight thoughts with words. I'll say that again. Cause that's absolutely huge. You can't fight thoughts with thoughts. You have to find, fight thoughts with words. And so for me, as a believer, I wrote down and found, you know, a hundred scriptures on overcoming anxiety and peace and love. And, uh, my therapist also had me write a letter to myself and he said, anytime, you're experiencing this, read this letter out loud and then start confessing scriptures. And I'll just share some of the scriptures that I confessed out loud. So I'm 34 four. I sought the Lord. He answered me and he delivered me from all of my fears, Psalm 94, 19, when anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me great joy. Second Timothy, one seven for God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self control. First John four 18. There is no fear in love. In fact, perfect love, casts out fear. And I am telling you this was a supernatural experience for me, but I was deeply afraid to go to bed. One night I was experiencing severe anxiety and my wife said, read that letter out loud, start confessing scripture. So I started doing that a few minutes and I felt a physical snap in my body. And I just felt my body be filled with warmth, peace, and joy. I fell right asleep and I've been sleeping great ever since confess and speak out loud, the word. So just a few more things. And then I want to end this lesson by praying for those who may be experiencing anxiety in their leadership. But the next thing that I would tell you that was helpful for me is changed the content you're consuming. Now, my hero and mentor, pastor Larry Bettencourt. I called him and I shared with him that I was going through this. And he said, you know, Doug, he calls me Baba. He said, you know, Bubba, um, men, you listen to leadership stuff all the time. Do you know? You could probably go five years and not read another leadership book or listen to another leadership podcast. And you'll be fine. Maybe you just need to spend some time just listening to the word of God and, uh, and studying some other content and, uh, that minister to me. And so, um, specifically I've been listening to a few series. One is crowned by dignity and worth by pastor John Newso my pastor and hero love him. Awesome series. We'll include a link to that one. And this sent me free. The second time I've experienced panic attacks, but there's a series by Keith Moore called free from all fears, absolutely huge muscles. And if you're experiencing anxiety and then recently I've been listening to marriage on the rock by Jimmy Evans. Now it is a series on marriage, but for me, because my primary indicator or my primary toxic thought is that I'm not enough. What it's really teaching me is that just realizing that I could perform all day and do all kinds of things to get, get my needs met by people, but people can never meet my needs, whether it's my spouse. Um, you as a podcast, listener people at work, the only one that can meet all my needs is God. And for me, that's really helping me deal with the toxic thought that I'm not enough. And so change. Maybe you need to change the content that you're consuming. And then lastly, uh, exercise and get good sleep. This is huge. Now I exercise all the time, but you'd be surprised. We're just going for a walk would do, or a good workout and to sleep. Now, I usually sleep around seven hours a night, but while I was going through this, I just said, I'm not going to send an alarm clock. If I sleep for nine hours, I'm going to sleep nine hours. And there was multiple nights where I slept eight or nine hours. And maybe that was exactly what my body needed. My body just needed to rest. Cause I'm constantly on the go. And so exercise go for a walk, workout and get good sleep. And so these are some practical things that have helped me immensely. I hope that you'll be able to apply some of them in your life and they'll help you as well, but more than anything, just remember, you are not alone. You are not alone and you will get through this. You are not alone and you will get through this. Let me pray for you, father. I just thank you for everyone listening or watching this lesson father that may be dealing with anxiety or panic or fear in their life. Father. I pray that I'm Lord through the words that you spoke to me and what you've taught me, Lord, that it would just minister to others Lord, and that they would be able to take some of these things and apply them Lord. And that you would just set them completely free from fear, panic, and anxiety for the rest of their life. But I thank you for freedom for them. I think that they're not alone, father, Lord, I thank you for giving them the strength to reach out and ask for help. Father, Lord, I pray that you would send just divine appointments that way, whether that's through a therapist or mentors, but I just pray that you would surround with people who will point them to you and, and help them get free from this burden of anxiety father. So we thank you for that. We thank you for what you're doing and thank you just for doing what only you can do. Lord. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, everyone, thank you so much for listening to my lesson on how to overcome anxiety and leadership. I hope that it helped you. And Hey, if you can think of two or three other people who may be struggling with anxiety, that this lesson would help, would you do me a favor and just send them the link to this? We want this to help as many people as possible. I know, I wish I could have listened to something like this before I started dealing with all this anxiety. And so thank you for sharing. And if it did help you, please let me know. You know, it's the most encouraging thing in the world when I get an email or a tweet or a text saying, Hey, when you said this, or when you did that lesson, it really helped me. So thanks in advance for that. I also want to thank our sponsor. Bab Anka led by my friend and mentor Russell Livingston. They've been supporters of L-3 for years and they're insurance brokers. So if your company has any insurance needs, they are your answer. I know the nonprofit that I work at light of life rescue mission. We've been using them for four years now and they are absolute rock stars. They've helped us so much. And so if you have any insurance needs go to baboons.com, that's BA BB ins.com. And as always, I like to end with a quote and uncle Joe Brooks. And I probably shared this again recently, but I think for me, this quote just speaks to the lesson that we just went through. And he said this, he said, dreams always involve drama. So if you're going to have the dream, then you're going to have to deal with the drama. And the reality is, if you're listening to this, I'm guessing that you're in leadership or have a passion for leadership or want to be in leadership one day. And the reality is drama and battles are going to come our way as leaders and we have to deal with them and how we deal with them. It makes all the difference in the world. And so hopefully some of the tools that I shared today will help you overcome not just anxiety, but some of the drama that's ahead of you and your leadership journey. Cause there's no such thing as a drama free leadership journey, but we need equipped so that we can make it through our finish line. And that's part of the purpose of this podcast and why we exist as an organization to help you get to your leadership finish line. So thanks for being with us again this week. Lauren, I appreciate you so much and we will talk to you next episode.
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