“There’re so many outside factors making our kids feel like they need to be perfect. Whether it’s continually comparing themselves to others on social media, all they absorb from their phones, struggling to be the best on the sports field, or doing great at academics. This adds so much outside pressure to their lives. They don’t get a chance to be themselves. It’s really hard to be a kid these days” ~ Superintendent Joel Bailey

The quote above sounds to me like it would be from a superintendent of a school district in a big city like LA, Chicago, or New York.

BUT, it actually comes from our guest this week, who is the superintendent of the Platte-Geddes school district in south central South Dakota. Platte is a town with a population hovering around 1,300 and Geddes has around 156 people. In other words, the school district serves kids who live seemingly so far away from the problems and pressures of big city life. Yet, these students struggle with the same stress and anxieties, just as kids all over the world do. Superintendent Joel Bailey is passionate about helping them.

He points out that while young people are stressing over some of the same things their parents did, they’re also saddled with the seemingly impossible task of competing with the world as presented through their Instagram and TikTok feeds. They’re judging their beauty and measuring their self-worth against unrealistic filters and AI augmentation.

Joel guides students from the understanding of his own experiences with anxiety and depression. He began his career teaching 4th and 5th grade and middle school. However, he jokes that his anxiety started in earnest the summer he taught driver’s ed to high school students. Teaching is indeed his first career passion, but he also loves the ability school administrators have to improve so many students’ lives at once. Having earned his PreK-12 Administration degree from University of South Dakota, and his Education Specialist Degree from the University of Sioux Falls, he is not only the current superintendent of the Platte-Geddes school district but also the principal of one of its schools.

I’m excited to have an Awkwardly Awesome conversation with Joel about the ideas and tools he has for combating the anxieties and complexities our young people face.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

“I’m fifty-five. If I can’t be authentic now, when is that going to happen? I don’t want to go to my grave being inauthentic.” ~ Dina Lantzer

“Temporary, extreme fear while speaking the truth is easier to overcome than perpetual fear of the unspoken truth.” ~ Matt Lantzer

Against all odds, Matt and Dina Lantzer had a marriage that worked. They married young, when Dina was 21 and Matt was 18, but they stuck with each other through thick and thin, raised 3 kids and have 4 grandkids.

After 35 years together, they discovered a painful truth: they had both developed a long standing habit of hiding things from each other, both big and small. In this discovery, they came to realize that their fear of transparency with each other was simultaneously limiting their marriage's potential and smothering their individual joy.

Join me for this nitty gritty conversation on the power of speaking our truth within our most intimate relationships.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

Do what you believe in and let meaning and service follow from that.

This is the core concept I keep coming back to as I think about my next guest’s story…

Scott Ehrisman is a multi-talented artist, a community activist, community builder, a friend to a great many people and an all around kind person. He’s truly committed to doing the things that interest and excite him. He’s had twenty different jobs, fueled by a drive to constantly better himself through learning new things and challenging himself. This drive led him to lose 130 pounds over the course of the last two two years. A personal commitment to himself found him commuting everywhere by bike last winter, sans four inhospitable days. AND keep in mind, Sioux Falls, South Dakota winters are windy, snowy, icy, and bitterly cold!

Scott’s commitment to making his convictions actionable is astonishing. A few years back, he took six months off of work to recharge, develop new fascinations, and refocus on what he wanted from life.

After researching and dreaming about starting a pedicab business for a decade, he took a leap this summer and started Downtown Rickshaw in downtown Sioux Falls. For those who aren’t up on your pedicab or cycle rickshaw lingo, picture a human-powered, three wheeled, taxi-bike service.

I love talking to Scott because in this super challenging world he has found the courage to be himself, exactly as he is, in all his brilliance, and that helps me find the courage to embrace who I am. I hope our conversation inspires a deeper recognition of your own brilliance.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com