Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, and I've

been working lately with a number of organizations striving to amplify the care and wellness their

employees are feeling. Today's episode is a bit of an ode to these companies. You know, I've been

running my business for nine years now, and I started it from a place of

uncertainty and anxiety. And today, I'm tremendously proud of what I've built, totally on my own.

But toward the end of last year, a friend recommended I look into a community she had recently

joined, one first service-based business owners. So I looked, I joined, and the game

has really changed. This community has taught me so many things, but top of the list is this.

You don't have to go it alone to be independent. You can walk proudly forward on your own,

with a team also there to support you to offer well wishes and

cheers. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Mental Health America has declared this

year's theme to be, look around, look within. And to me, this is a message of care for yourself

and for those around you. Like, let's all be in this together because it's better.

Like running a business, providing care for oneself is an active independence, but the experience

can be so much richer, so much more robust, if the care runs through and across a team.

I'd love to talk today about how I think teams can demonstrate team care

in service of supporting everyone's self-care. First, ritualized check-ins. I remember in the first

few years of adulting when my income and expenses were essentially one and the same, I had to

cut corners, like a lot of them.

I mean, expiration dates on dairy products and contact lenses were just loose suggestions, right?

Same went for car maintenance. I mean, an oil change every three to five thousand miles?

Please, no thank you. A night out with friends ranked higher. Until, of course, that choice

...