In July of 2021, the summer Olympics were taking place in Tokyo, one year after being cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. You may remember that Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics competition citing mental health issues, especially anxiety. Her openness about her mental health struggles brought a lot of media attention and other athletes and entertainers felt more comfortable talking about their mental health issues. From Michael Phelps to Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande, more and more celebrities were speaking up and trying to reduce the stigma attached to discussing mental health challenges. Unfortunately, many private school leaders are engaged in a secret struggle. On the outside, many of us look like confident, resilient, strong, courageous superheroes who can handle anything. While on the inside many of us battle anxiety, depression, panic attacks or other issues. I can only speak for myself. When I was struggling, I earned my Academy Award every day. I couldn’t let my people see any chinks in my armor. I had to be Superman on the outside and there was NO WAY that I was going to talk about this with anyone other than my wife. This might be an uncomfortable topic, but on today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to discuss The Secret Struggle: Mental Health And Private School Leadership . I hope that you will listen to the podcast for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD. Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference! Mark Minkus I want to give you a brand new resource that I just created this week. It is called: The 4 Worst Things Parents Believe About Your School And How To Change Their Minds . Have you ever gotten really frustrated when parents believe things about your school that aren’t true? I think that it is really infuriating and discouraging. Unfortunately, parent perception is reality. Well, I have created a pdf guide that will talk about 4 super problematic things that parents probably believe about your school. Most importantly, I am going to teach you how to change their minds. You can grab this FREE guide at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/believe Do you ever have “Teacher Drama” at your school? Well, I am excited to share with you a brand new resource called 5 Strategies To Reduce Teacher Drama At Your School . This is a 9 page pdf that will go to the heart of the matter and give you strategies that will help you to actually reduce teacher drama at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/drama to grab your free guide. I am super excited about a brand new resource that I want to share with you for FREE! It is a 45 minute Masterclass called: “Winning At School Without Losing At Home” . This is a video webinar training complete with guided notes and it will do exactly what the title says. This training will help you to be successful, organized and energized at school while still taking good care of yourself AND your family! Does that sound too good to be true? Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/winning to grab your free Masterclass training Winning At School Without Losing At Home” . Are any of these statements true about you? The "tyranny of the urgent" controls my day, and I start working on my important tasks when the school gets quiet. I feel discouraged, lonely, exhausted and stressed out. I'm not sure that my job is sustainable. My school invades every part of my professional and personal life. I want to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader. I feel called to do this work, but I am not sure how long I can keep doing it if nothing changes. I have felt that way many times during my career. That’s why I created the PSL Pro Membership PSL Pro is a membership community that helps Private School Leaders go from feeling stressed out, discouraged and lonely to feeling energized, fulfilled and supported. You will have access to a thriving community of school leaders who actually "get it" and "get you"! We will go live every month for a Masterclass, a Success Path Coaching Session, two "We Get It" Roundtable Sessions and a live Q&A about anything and everything related to Private School Leadership. The PSL Pro Success Path is a Step by Step Plan to get you from where you are to where you want to be as a leader. Different Levels: The Overwhelmed Drifter, The Intentional Architect, all the way to The Fulfilled Mentor. After you choose your level, you will be guided, step-by-step, through the content in THRIVE Academy. This content, along with my guidance and the support of other leaders, will take you from where you are all the way to being The Fulfilled Mentor! Learn more about how you can join the PSL Pro community by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/membership Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? Dealing with parents is part of the job as we lead our private schools, but it can quickly lead to stress, anxiety and feeli