It was such an honor to except the media award for online platform at the annual Mental Health America Conference! And it was awesome to stand up in front of so many leaders and advocates in the mental health space and give remarks. Here is a sample of what I said:

As you well know, so many of us live with anxiety, depression, OCD, Bipolar Disorder and trauma. So many of us have neurodivergent brains that are amazing-- but require us to work differently.

The Anxious Achiever is a leadership toolkit for anyone who worries that anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges are preventing them from having the big career they want.

There is so much shame and stigma around discussing mental health at work, and mental illness- especially anxiety and depression-- is conflated with weakness. But actually the opposite is true: leaders who understand how their emotions show up at work are stronger, more self-aware, and much better to work for.

And this stuff matters! The upstream and downstream effects of unmanaged anxiety, for example, are huge. Often work just sucks because people are anxious, and they act it out in ways that hurt -- micromanaging, controlling behavior, overwork, perfectionism. But when you understand your anxiety, you can manage it. You can keep the useful parts and dissolve the ones that hurt.

Because there is so much shame and stigma around mental illness and diagnoses like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, and other mental health challenges we rarely learn about leaders who struggle with their mental health. But of course leaders struggle!

I like to say… Anxiety comes with the job.

By highlighting the experiences of successful people from all walks of life, I hope we can provide inspiration, hope, and helpful tools for people out there with big dreams who also manage mental illness.