Stacy Mayer: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Maximize Your Career. I'm your host, Stacy Mayer, and super excited especially to be here with you this week as I have a very special guest. This guest in particular lives like really, really close to me, but also kind of far. And I got very excited when I met her just a few weeks ago when I was a guest on her podcast, stressed. And we had such an amazing conversation. And then she said, she's actually in Tahoe. And as you might know, I live in Berkeley, California. And I was like, Oh, my goodness, I was just in Tahoe. We should hang out.

Stacy Mayer: And it's always so amazing in this virtual world how close we can really be to somebody and not even realize it. Because you're just meeting up with people on video. They could be across the world and it feels like they're in your backyard or they could be in your backyard and it feels like they're across the world.

So when I was speaking with Julia, she had so many amazing things to say about peak performance. This is her specialty and this is what she works at organizations on, and she's developed a specific methodology. And I thought, this is so incredible for you as my listeners to really understand. You've heard me talk on this podcast about what it's like to be a corporate athlete, what it means to really operate at these peak performance states. And I think so many of us take stress and other sorts of like being in the weeds or this job is just hard or this is just the way it is for granted. And when you really meet exceptional executives, people who have been able to not only manage their own levels of stress, but really take control of their productivity, you can see that there are other options out there. And so I wanted to bring Julia on today to to talk to us about some of those other options, to give us some tools, and then to also share her own journey. Because I personally, I'm fascinated by it, and I just want to learn more from her as well.

Let me give a more formal introduction before we get started. So Julia Arent is the founder of the Peak Performance Method a unique model combining critical productivity, mindfulness and leadership tools to help forward thinking individuals and organizations develop the next workplace superpower through scalable programs. After working at Google and Silicon Valley for seven and a half years, while the company grew from 30000 to 100000 employees, Julia has been running her own consulting and coaching business, helping over 7000 employees at innovative companies. Julia, I'm so excited to have you here with us today.

Julia Arndt: Oh, thank you so much, Stacy. I'm super thrilled to be here as well.

Stacy Mayer: So let's just start. What do you feel like personally are some of your secrets to success?

Julia Arndt: Yeah. You know, this is a good question, and I think. The biggest one is consistency. I talk about this all the time. I actually joined a panel discussion last week at an event here like a local event in Reno, and it was on the panel discussion was on mental health and entrepreneurship. And it was really interesting to hear, obviously, the other panelists speak from their own experience, but then also hear the questions from the audience. And I think it always makes me realize that I'm a pretty structured and disciplined person. And I'm I really believe in consistency. And I think for me it comes super natural and I don't really. It's just who I am and I don't really question it. But as I'm surrounding myself with leaders, of course, as I'm, you know, one on one coaching them, but also with with entrepreneurs, just friends and like, you know, other female leaders that are building their own businesses. I do get constantly that reminder that I'm a pretty structured person, and I think that's the secret to my success, because when I started my own business, I told myself, Well, you know, this is I'm here for the long run. I'm not just doing this for years to see what's going to happen. I really believe in this mission. I really believe in this company, and I really believe in social media. And I really believe in YouTube. And I really believe in nurturing my audience. And I know it takes time. It's not going to be something that's going to happen from one day to another. It's it's a it's a long game thing. And so I set myself the goal at the beginning of the start of my company, which was on February 2019. So a little bit over three years now. And I set myself the goal to record one podcast a week, one YouTube video week and post four times on Instagram a week and send one weekly newsletter a week. And I haven't not done it once in the last over three years.

Stacy Mayer: You are amazing. Oh, my gosh. This is such a big deal. I love it. Yeah, but you know, what you just described is basically a process that you created. And being an entrepreneur myself and having my own business, I realized that there are so many ways that we can be leaders in our company. Right. And there are so many possibilities open to us. And, you know, and if we if we want to structure our business in one way, that's possible or another way. And I think the same is true for executive leadership. And and what is so fascinating about what you outlined is it sounds like it was an internal discipline, right. Like that. It was just like, you know, this is what I'm going to do. This is the goal that I'm going to set and I'm going to do these certain things first. As and I'm making an assumption here that you had somebody who was like, you know what, Julia, if you want to be successful, this is what you got to do, right? And because just because I can tell by the way that you described it, and I think that for executive leaders, we have role models and people around us that are creating their own careers in a certain way that maybe doesn't feel like the way we want to create it, but we sort of feel like, oh, we have to go with that methodology. We have to do it that way, otherwise we can't be an executive. And so can you tell us more about this creation of your own discipline? I have a feeling that it's twofold, right? You might be a disciplinarian, a disciplined person in general, and that's just your strength. But it has to also have been something that you created for yourself.

Julia Arndt: Yeah, great question. I think when it comes to when it comes to discipline and building your business, I think there's always that balance between what is authentic and what is what is a little bit of a pain, but you still have to do it. Yes.

Stacy Mayer: Yes.

Julia Arndt: Exactly. All working at the company or if you're building your own business. Right. There's always things that you enjoy doing and that you love doing and there things that are a little bit more painful. But, you know, like when we were talking on my podcast about leadership and about promotions, you were saying, you know, have these conversations, right, these conversations with leaders on an ongoing basis and make this not just part of going towards the promotion, but because you're really curious about this. And I thought it was really powerful because some people might think, oh, I don't really want to do this, but in the long run, it's actually something really helpful, right? And so yeah, I think what I've been really doing, what I've I've been just following other leaders in the space that have really inspired me and that have done a great job and that have shown that through their consistency, you know, in the long run, their hard work paid off and they really believe in that. And so I think you you always need to find the balance between what do I need to do and what still feels authentic as well. And I do this all the time, and I think I still find a lot of flexibility in the decisions that I make. You know, like when I started my company three years ago, it had a completely different name and it was a little bit focused on other things. And, you know, then over the first year, working with clients and with groups, I realized, oh, there's actually that productivity piece that I hadn't really thought about at the initial stage of starting my business, and then I rebrand it in the second year. And I actually redid my logo design and branding, not like I still have the same. Company name now. But it's you know, it evolves over time every year because it's fun and it's creative and I develop and evolve as a person. And so, yeah, I think as a leader, it's important to to find that balance.

Stacy Mayer: There are two things that come to mind. One thing is when you do I think we might have talked about this on your podcast too. I'll definitely link to that interview. It's so rich and really fun in the show notes, but we talked about strengths and finding your strengths and when you the way you just describe this idea of productivity, I want all of the listeners to remember that our strength is the biggest thing that we take for granted. You know, so the way you described it, it's like, you know, you have this strength, which is that you're incredibly disciplined and productive and consistent and it just comes easy and naturally to you. And so then therefore you're like, Oh, that's not something that I teach. It's just something that I do. And then you realize what a key component was and how valuable that would be to other leaders, and that you could bring that into organizations and teach them to to literally create peak performance. And I think that is so fascinating and amazing, and I applaud you for being able to notice that and really so quickly, right. Just a year into your business. So that's super cool.

Stacy Mayer: So the second thing that I wanted to point out was this idea that you basically developed your own leadership style and then you were willing to pivot in it. And I think for so many women, it feels like I need to come up with the perfect strategy. Like what? When I ask them to define their leadership style, sometimes they're like paralyzed and they're like, I don't know, I can't come up with it. And a lot of times it's because they feel like that's the end, right? If I name this leadership style, then that's just who I am. That's how I'm defined. But it sounds like you've been able to reinvent yourself and that actually is becoming part of who you are. And that ability to reinvent, that willingness to say, I'm not I'm not one dimensional. Right? I have many different facets to both my business and my own personality and how I show up as a leader. So can you share with us a little bit more about how you're able to continuously make it sounds like very bold decisions, but then also be willing to pivot along the way?

Julia Arndt: Yeah, you know, I think one of the biggest things that I've learned over the last three years is that reinventing yourself is fun. And I you know, people that have been listening now for the last few minutes are probably wondering at this point where I'm from, because I have an accent and I do like to kind of refer to this, even though it might be silly because I don't think that every German is like super structured and disciplined. But I do believe that a little bit about myself and I do believe that that's kind of where it's coming from. So I grew up in Germany and for the first 21 years of my life, that's where I was born. That's where my whole family still is today. I'm the only outcast that lives abroad. And you know, for me, I'm super disciplined person to the point that probably sometimes it gets a little bit rigid. Right. And I think over the last a few years, I've really learned to find flexibility through just my own learning process and my, you know, just kind of my experience. But obviously also working with other leaders and seeing how they were struggling and how, you know, they kind of almost reflected back to me like when I'm, for example, talking with them about time management or setting boundaries, they're like, I'm like, this is not something that you can never break again, right? When you're thinking about boundaries, for example, and you think about the rules that you're trying to set with other people, you always think, Oh, like we oh, I think we always go into this like all or nothing kind of mindset.

Stacy Mayer: Exactly.

Julia Arndt: And so what I've learned as the German that is very disciplined and structured is that it is absolutely okay to to be flexible and to find ways to reinvent yourself, because imagine if you would always be the same way, like it would be super boring, right? And it is really fun to get inspired and to see other people and see what works for other people, what to see what also doesn't work for yourself. Right? Because sometimes you might see something in another person and you might think, Oh, wow, like, this is super cool. I'm totally going to apply that or adapt that in my own life. And maybe six months down the line or even just three weeks afterwards, you realize, hey, that that actually doesn't feel authentic. That's not me. But that's great because I think in that learning process, you learn that who you are, who you really are, who you. I feel like you get more and more connected with who you are and you let go of the things that you're not. And that makes you a more confident leader. It makes you more authentic leader. It makes you more and more inspiring leader, I believe.

Stacy Mayer: And more fun.

Julia Arndt: Yeah.

Stacy Mayer: It's just so much more fun. I love it. You know, one of the things that I really admired about you when I met you and when you meet Julia, it's just like she just has this kind of attitude of being very curious and very in the moment. And we could call it mindfulness or something like that, right? It's like there are terms for this. And and when I met her, I was like, I want to learn more from her. I want to get to know her. Right. And she just had this quality, this energy about her that made you want to be around her, which is incredibly magnetic and fun and enjoyable. And when I think about stress and since that's the name ish of your podcast, can we talk a minute about this idea of stress? And I'd love to learn more about your podcast in the journey and what you you share with us in that podcast. And then how perhaps mindfulness or this work of being curious and in the moment and flexible, as you've just described, actually creates less stress and allows us to have more freedom in our lives.

Julia Arndt: Yes. Absolutely, yes. So I started the podcast while I was still working for Google, actually, because I had that realization after going through burnout myself in 2018 that a lot more people were struggling. I think in the moment when everything happened and when kind of my world came crashing down, I thought I was felt. I felt really guilty. I felt really alone and lonely in that process because it is scary, right? Burnout in 2018 wasn't even officially recognized disease by the World Health Organization. I had never had any mental health issues. My family never had any mental health issues. So I wasn't really I didn't really know what that was and where it came from, you know, and I don't know, it was just kind of an interesting process. And so through that process and through going myself to stress management workshops and learning more about where stress comes from and what it really is and how can we manage it, I realized, Wow, there are so many people out there that are actually struggling with this and so many people that probably also don't know this information that I just learned. And so when I got back to the to the company after my medical leave, I reached out to some internal groups and asked if people would be interested to also learn more about stress management. Because I had learned so much. And so in I think a matter of two days, I had over 350 people reaching out to me from all different offices all over the world.

Julia Arndt: And they shared with me their their own struggles and their own stories and was a really powerful time for me to realize, wow, I'm really not alone in this. And and I thought to myself, there's not there's no way that I can teach skills or strategies in a one hour workshop. I need to do more. And that's kind of when the podcast came to life and I published my first episode, like I said, even before I left the company on January 1st, 2019. And yeah, and it's been I, I honestly love podcasts. I love it myself. I find podcasts super inspiring. I honestly, it's been a wonderful process to meet so many aspiring leaders, so many inspirational people that do incredible work in the world. And honestly, during COVID has been also a really powerful networking tool for me to to talk with other people. Right. And so over the last three years, I've gotten over 75,000 downloads on the podcast. I don't know how many people I've interviewed, but I would say it's probably coming close to 100 people at this point. And yeah, and I've had mindfulness speakers, I've had so many, honestly, I love my podcast guests. I, you know, I always celebrate them and I think everyone has just something so unique to bring to the table.

Julia Arndt: And, you know, it's taught me so many things about myself and it has, you know, triggered so many questions in myself of how do I live a more mindful life, how do I create more awareness? And yeah, and I think having these conversations, being more mindful in the moment of what is happening has been a really powerful stress management tool. And, you know, I think especially in the corporate world, as leader, you know, as aspiring leaders, very intellectual, smart people, we always look for the complex solutions because the complex solutions always feel feel more complex, feels a little bit more challenging in a way. Right. And stress management is actually always going back to the basics. It's going it's applying more simple tools in your life and which are, you know, which mindfulness kind of embraces because it's the that fact of just being in the present moment and taking a deep breath and being being there where you are right now. And instead of thinking about the past or the future and, you know, I'm far from being perfect. I obviously think about these things, too. And I there's moments where it's harder for me and moments where it's easier for me. But obviously, since I'm in this work, it's wonderful because I get to talk about it all the time and I get to be reminded on a regular basis to practice my own tools.

Stacy Mayer: Yes, exactly. So I hear a couple of anecdotes to stress and then I'd love to hear you elaborate on this a little bit more as to what we can actually do to help ourselves. One is mindfulness. Another thing that you've mentioned a couple of times is this idea of connection, right? So understanding that you're not alone and that there are other leaders at your company that were also experiencing the same thing globally and really feeling like you're a part of like that. It's not something that you did wrong, right? It's just it's something that people experience. What else is there that we can do from a practical standpoint to help regulate our stress, so to speak?

Julia Arndt: Yeah, I think honestly, the biggest challenge that I've seen people have why they do have stressful. Who lives and why they do experience high anxiety is that time management. I always that's kind of where I start. I usually start to educate people about burnout and what it is, because I think it's just important to understand the neuroscience of that, right? Like what happens in your brain, what happens in your body when you're having that stress trigger. And we believe all of us have at this point heard about the fight or flight response, but we believe it only happens in like extreme dangerous situations. But it's happening all the time, every day, you know, multiple times a day. And we're just riding that wave of high, high stress, and that's extremely unhealthy. 90% of doctor visits are stress related illnesses because our system is so affected by high levels of stress and unhealthy levels of adrenaline and cortisol. And so. Yeah. I think again, like through this wonderful work that I've been doing and I've had the chance to to do, this is really the realization that people struggle with their time. Right? That's the first thing. You know, I can talk, I can tell people to meditate and I can tell people to go to yoga. And I can tell people that exercise is important, but if they feel like they don't have time to do that.

Stacy Mayer: So tell me something. How do I manage how do I manage my time? What do I do?

Julia Arndt: Well. Well, first of all, I think it's important to take a snapshot of how you're currently managing your time. When do you get up in the morning? Do you check your your emails first thing in the morning, write questions like that. And then looking at your calendar, one of the most powerful exercises that I do with clients is to to do the following. It's just kind of two or three simple steps. Number one, what are your priorities for the day and the week? So write down 2 to 3 priorities for the day and then for the week. And then the next step is to actually check your calendar to see if your meetings that you have aligned with the priorities that you have going on. And oftentimes the calendar said, I oftentimes see working with my tech clients is that they're filled with meetings, back to back meetings all day long, all week long. And then what happens is, is that their project time, the things that they actually have to get done happens either really early in the morning for the people that like to get up really early or really late in the evening or during the weekends, and that obviously if we are constantly connected and again when we are constantly connected and we have all of these different triggers like email here and meeting there and notification here, it triggers our stress response. And so we're riding on high levels of stress and that becomes super unhealthy over the long term.

Julia Arndt: And so time management to actually to actually manage your calendar based on your priorities is a huge game changer. And I get this feedback over and over again. I've done this now for over three years for myself, applying it in my own life, but also obviously helping leaders do it in their own life. And it's made all the difference because then when you take control over your time, which is the first kind of awareness or intentional thing to do, is to realize I'm actually managing my time, right? I do. I do. I've had conversations in the past. I know. I remember this PM in a workshop once who was absolutely convinced that he did not manage his time. And it was such a powerful moment because I said to him, if that is what you believe, that that's the problem. If you feel like you don't manage your time and you have no control over your time, then yeah, of course, like you are the victim of of these external circumstances. But if you take a moment to really take that power back and to remind yourself that you manage your time, like those are also the biggest realizations for my clients that they are like, oh, like I have had that meeting on my calendar and after this workshop or after the conversation with you, I reached out to this organizer and said to them, Do I really need to be there or can we change it? And people changed it and they're like, Yeah, and they changed their meeting.

Julia Arndt: Or like or they told me, I don't have to be in this meeting. And I'm like, Yes, because you have to question like you have to be your own timekeeper and you have to challenge these things instead of just taking them for what they are. And that that's really powerful. And that always obviously excites me as well to see how when people make these changes. Because then when you're starting and I'm going to wrap up with this, when you see that you can manage your time and you start to set those boundaries and you start to actively manage your calendar, then you can create space for your projects during your workday and not before or after or during the weekend. And then you have 15 minutes to take a nap or to go outside in nature or to be active or to be more mindful, you know, because I think the biggest problem is that we don't have the time. We just run from one thing to another. We don't take a breath anymore. Right. We are not we are not aware in these moments because we are just doing instead of reflecting and being what we need to be in order to show up as our best selves.

Stacy Mayer: Amazing. I love that so much because it sounds like there is this idea of taking back control. So I'm just going to reiterate what we're learning today because I think it's so fantastic. So if you want to feel less stressed, it's like be more mindful, you know? And then also this idea of taking back control, really understanding that you are always in control of your time. You are a time management. All right. Even if you think that you're not, that's causing part of the stress and being able to really look at this bigger picture and and really take that step back, because I think for a lot of executive leaders, that's a huge part of our job, is that we can take that step back, right? That we can look at the bigger picture, like in our actual work. And if we're constantly reacting and constantly in the weeds and constantly putting out fires in the middle of the night, then we're never going to be able to have that that bigger perspective. And so what better way to do it than on your own life as well? And it also carries over into making you more effective and a peak performer, so to speak, at your job as well.

Julia Arndt: Well, here's the other thing that I think is really important to mention, especially for your listeners that are striving towards that next promotion. Right. When you get to the next promotion, you will have less time because you will have more responsibilities. And if you don't learn these really basic tools of time management and calendar management and gatekeeping your time and setting boundaries, you will burn out. Like, I see this, I work with VP's and I work with really senior managers and directors and they haven't learned that and they usually burn out and then they realize they have to make a change because it's because they burn out oftentimes multiple times until they realize that they actually have to change some habits in order to not get into that burnout cycle anymore. And so, yeah, I think, you know, my biggest mission is, is to bring peak performance programs actually into onboarding programs of companies, because I truly believe that people need to learn these really simple skills at the beginning of their career. It's not something we should learn after three years or five years, because time management like this is such an important habit and. You can be so incredibly successful when you master that.

Stacy Mayer: Absolutely. And I think that it also limits your success in the roles that you choose not to go for. Because I think as women, we're incredibly intuitive and we sort of see that burnout right before it happens. And we can kind of see, oh, if I take this role, I'm going to everything that I'm doing now is just going to be magnified. And so I don't want to take that role. And so a lot of times they say that women don't raise their hand because of imposter syndrome. And I really believe that we don't raise our hand because we don't want to put up with the crap. Right. And so what I suggest to my leaders a lot of times is like, let's not put up with the crap. And what is the crap? The crap is that we're purely managing our own time. Right, exactly. As you're saying, we're we're putting up with a lot of things being thrown at us and reacting and different things like that. And so flip that and start to take back control, so to speak. Then we can scale ourselves because I want you to be in that higher level position, right? Your company needs you and we want you to be able to raise your hand, but not to create burnout for yourself. And so I love that there was something that you said earlier that I just thought was fascinating. So this is a little side tangent, but you talked about burnout as being a disease. And so I was like, Oh, tell me more. What does that mean?

Julia Arndt: Mm hmm. Well, so, you know, I think over the last two years, especially with the pandemic, mental health has become more of a topic. Right. And when we talk about mental health, we oftentimes think about anxiety and depression. Those are kind of the biggest, you know, most common mental health diseases that are that people suffer from nowadays. And then there's burnout. And burnout is kind of somewhat a combination of anxiety and depression, but really coming from the workplace workplace, it's really workplace burnout, workplace related stress that has led to us experiencing mental and physical symptoms. And so the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an official disease in May 2019. And I think it's really powerful and it just shows that really so many people suffer from it. So many people have issues with burnout. And I always say, you know, it's interesting how we made COVID a pandemic because burnout is a pandemic, too. You know, the newest numbers, the newest research from 2021 specifically showed that nine out of ten Americans, nine out of ten, 89% of us workers experienced burnout. And it's a big problem. And if we don't start to create awareness around that and we don't, because it's not like you can't get out of it, you know, it's it's kind of almost self inflicted and self imposed habits that we have built on our lives because we are people, because we are peak performers. I think we have sometimes also learned very unhealthy habits to sustain that level of performance. But it is not a healthy level. It's not it's actually not sustainable, you know, maybe unsustainable for the long run, but not for the not for me.

Stacy Mayer: It feels refreshing to hear that it's a disease, right. Because you talked about how it's this self, this thing that we did to ourselves. And for me personally, when I start to think about things that I've done to myself, then I. I feel bad about myself. You know, I make it even more of a problem because I say, Well, if I did it to myself, then I'm the problem, right? I'm the reason I'm, you know, yes, I'm the solution, but I'm also the problem. And when you think of it as a disease and when you think out of nine out of ten workers experience burnout, then you feel a sense of relief. And it lets that emotional toll of it being my fault to really be able to transition into the solution. Okay, so if I have control over this, then then what can I do to prevent it? What can I do to change it? Right. I'm not the the terrible person that created this for myself. It is something that is commonly created for many, many different leaders. And how can I start to pull myself out of it? And I think that's so helpful.

Julia Arndt: Yeah. And you know, I was just thinking as you were saying that, you know, in the past we probably didn't call it burnout. We you know, the the burnout just showed in other in other ways. It either showed as like an anxiety, anxious depression or something, or it showed us like literally physical symptoms. Like I talk about this all the time with people. They feel so exhausted. They feel so overwhelmed. And then, you know, they constantly get sick because their immune system is super low because of the high levels of stress all the time. So that the body doesn't have time. To recuperate and recover or they have they have panic attacks. I have friends, multiple friends that I know that have experienced that. I've had many people on my podcast that have, you know, that have talked about how they got to that point where they realized it was just too much or it could be really anything. And I think that's a little bit maybe also the tricky thing about stress, because it's not just like this is this one symptom, and if you have it, then that's that stress or that's burnout. It's so individual in every person. And so to really recognize that and that's what I talk about as well, like to identify your early warning signals, your own like your individual early warning signals of what what what do you do? What do you experience when you have high levels of stress? Maybe your shoulders are super tense or your eye is twitching all day long, right? Or you have stomach ache, you have a stomach ache or digestive issues, or you feel super angry. I talk with people again all the time about this. They they say to me, I am feeling because they say yes to everything and I want to please people and I want to do so many things at the same time. They get resentful with the people at the same time because it's just too much and they they know that they can't it's actually not really feasible, but they also have not really learned how to say no.

Stacy Mayer: So and I love it because what you're doing is you're saying no to something so that you can say yes to peak performance. And I think that's just such a great theme. So speaking of your peak performance methodology, why do you personally feel motivated to have a seat at the table to have this voice in the community?

Julia Arndt: Because I truly believe it can help so many people? I really and it's the simple tools and it's the things that are not taught in school and that are not taught in college. Right. I think there's a lot of unhealthy habits that we learn in those in those structures. And yeah, and I think I'm really grateful to have a seat at the table so I can help people understand that it's not just the way they feel. It's not just, you know, not just accepting that, accepting burnout as you want to be a leader and want to be successful. It doesn't have to be that way. There's actually another way, and it was really powerful for me. It was really powerful for many of the people I've worked with and. I want to help more people.

Stacy Mayer: I love that. So how can we find you if we want to learn more about you and also your podcast? Of course.

Julia Arndt: Yeah. So the podcast is called Stressed and it's a little bit of a unique writing, so I'm just gonna spell it just to make sure that people know this story. Sd Instead of the ED, it's just the D, so that's the The Stress podcast, which you can find on any play on all the platforms, right? Spotify, iTunes and so on. And then by the best probably space to just start is my website which is w w w peak performance method dot com. And then I'm obviously, as I mentioned, I'm good on Instagram and good on YouTube. You can find me there under my name, Julia Arndt. And then coaching. Yes.

Stacy Mayer: Oh. Julia. So any final words of advice for a woman who's looking to transition into higher level leadership positions? Anything that we either haven't talked about or that you want to expand upon before we go today?

Julia Arndt: Yeah, there was actually one other question that I really liked that that you sent me earlier, and I do want to kind of elaborate on that because I thought that was a powerful question, which was what did you have to let go of in order to kind of be in that leadership position? And I think I had to let go of being the victim. I think we are oftentimes making our external circumstances responsible for how we feel. And it's easier to point the finger and say, but if only this would be different, then I would be so much better, right? Like I was at the time when when I was struggling with a lot of different things, I was always thinking if my partner would be this way or if my manager would allow me this thing, or if only I would get this other project, then then I would be I could be in my power and you know, through personal development and listening to podcasts. Like when I started my whole personal development journey, it was one of the biggest things that resonated with me where I was like, Oh, I'm actually the victim. I am putting myself in this victim mindset on this victim role of everyone else's fault, just not my fault. And actually step and I had to let go of that and actually stepping into my power and realizing it's my responsibility. And there's always something I can do. There's there's always something that's in my control. And I need to focus on these things. Instead of focusing on the things that are outside of my control, I would say have made all the difference.

Stacy Mayer: Huge. Oh, that's so good. Julia, thank you again so much for being here. I've loved this conversation as I knew I would, and I look forward to our continuing connection and relationship as well.

Julia Arndt: Thank you so much, Stacy.