The Ryan Leak Podcast - Are You Okay?

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

The most underrated form of care in any workplace or family is the courage to ask one more time, are you okay? And actually mean it.One in five adults in this country lives with a mental health condition in any given year. Which means, statistically, somebody you love is carrying something you can't see. And there's a real chance that somebody is you.In this episode, Ryan opens up about something he's been thinking about for a while. Not as an expert. As a friend. He talks to the people quietly fighting to get out of bed, to put the smile on, to walk into the building. He talks to the people on the other side, the spouses, coworkers, friends, and managers who want to help somebody they love but don't know how.You'll hear why asking for help is a sign of wisdom, not weakness. Why a text on a Tuesday is more powerful than any diagnosis. Why you shouldn't try to be the doctor. And why empathy stops being a concept the moment a person you love walks into your life carrying it.This one is short, honest, and a little tender. If you've been carrying something, you'll feel seen. If you love somebody who has, you'll walk away with something specific you can do for them this week.Bring it to one person. That might be the most important thing you do.

What's going on, my friends? Welcome back to the Ryan League podcast, where we love to keep things short and sweet for you each and every week. Today, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about something I've been thinking about for a while. I'm not because I'm an expert in this subject. I'm definitely not. But mostly because I've watched too many people I love, quietly carry things.

and I don't want to keep moving past that without encouraging my audience with something. And that's something that we're going to talk about today is mental health challenges. If you are navigating a mental health issue yourself right now, the first thing that I want to say is, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you are dealing with what you're dealing with. I'm sorry that you are vastly misunderstood. You've already got the regular pressure to perform,

the pressure to show up, the pressure to answer the email, the pressure to pick up the kids to be perhaps the person you were, before. So you've already got regular life pressure, money pressure, marital pressure, dating, pressure, body image, pressure. And then on top of all of that pressure, you start carrying something that the people around you can't even see. Honestly, don't even know how some of you do it. Some of the heroes in my life are the people who consistently show up for their teams, their families, their children, their spouses, their loved ones. And the rest of us, well, we quietly, low-key, would never know what it cost them just to get out of bed that morning.

the fight it took just to get dressed and brush their teeth the 45 minutes they sat in the parking lot before they walked into the building the smile they put on for the meeting that took everything they had and so if that's you listening right now i just want to say i see you and i am sorry the second thing I want to encourage you with is to please, please, please, please ask for help. Research tells us that one in five adults, I believe it is in this country, lives with a mental health condition in any given year. That means if you see 10 people today, two of them have some sort of mental health condition. If you went to the gym and you saw 50 people, 10 of them are going through a storm that you cannot see, one in five. So I want to encourage you today if you're one of those five, you're not alone.

You're not alone. And yet a lot of people who could use support never go get it. They suffer in silence. A lot of that comes down to stigma, the strange idea that we've all bought into that needing help is some sort of sign of weakness instead of a sign of wisdom. And I think a lot of us still carry that. Like it's a badge of honor to white knuckle our way through life on our own. I don't need anybody is this badge of honor that we just love to carry. And let me just throw this out there.

Listen, I need all the help I can get. Yep, I need all the help I can get. I have a therapist. I have mentors. I have friends who will tell me the truth when I don't want to hear it. I have a beautiful wife who can read me in about 15 seconds. And I get help from all of the aforementioned. if asking for help makes me look less impressive than I would rather be less impressive in whole

than more impressive and broken every single time. And what I can tell you that I just notice in my travels all around the world is that the strongest people I know are not the ones who never need anything. They're the ones who learned early that pretending they didn't need anything, was its own kind of prison, the ones who let somebody in, the ones who said the hard sentence out loud, there is a version of you on the other side of that conversation that you cannot get to alone. Now, if you're on the other side of the conversation, if you're working with somebody that you can tell is really navigating something, let me encourage you with a few things as well.

number one don't be their doctor mostly because you're not their doctor unless you're a doctor but i'm willing to bet you're probably not a doctor right and i know that ai has empowered a lot of well-meaning people in our lives to believe they have medical training you don't have a degree you have chat gpt there is a massive difference so don't try to fix them remain cute Check on them. The most powerful thing you can do for somebody navigating a mental health issue at work is not a diagnosis. It's a text on a Tuesday that says, I'm thinking about you. No need to reply.

I'm here. Like, there's actually a reason that that little phrase matters. Because when somebody is in the middle of something heavy, the pressure of having to respond, to explain themselves, having to perform okayness, it's exhausting. And a nice no strings attached check-in lifts the cost of being cared for. Researchers who study workplace mental health keep finding the same thing, that the small, consistent gestures from coworkers and managers move the needle more than any program.

A text. A door left open. A quiet, hey, I notice you've been a little quieter this week. I'm not going anywhere. I see you. And I want to be honest with you about something. If you've never struggled with mental health yourself, it can be difficult to genuinely empathize with somebody who has.

It can feel like a concept, something you've read about, something other people have, something other people have made fun of. But the moment your kid has it, the moment your spouse has it, the moment a person you love walks into your life carrying it, It stops being a concept, and it becomes a person. And that happened to me only recently. Some of the people closest to me started navigating things. I had never personally walked through, and it changed me.

It softened me. It made me realize how casually I had treated something that, for them, was the daily weather of their life. So, wherever you are in this, whether you're carrying it yourself, or whether you're learning how to love somebody who is. Give yourself grace. Give them grace. And remember that the most underrated form of care

in any workplace or any family is the courage to ask one more time. Are you okay? And actually mean it. Are you okay? Like that you would pause in your world and genuinely look somebody in the eyes and just

make sure they're good. Are you okay? And give them the space to say no and not have to fix it. And just be present and they're not okayness. Before we conclude today's episode, I want to ask you one thing, if there's somebody in your life that maybe is a friend or family member that you've been a little worried about. maybe a co-worker that's been a little quieter than usual. I just want you to send them a text. You don't have to send them anything heavy. You can just say, hey, thinking about you. Thinking about you and no need to reply.

And just check on them. If it's helpful, maybe even share this episode with them to say, hey, I just, I was just thinking about you and I care about you. and just was listening to this and made me think of you. Just wanted you to know I'm here for you. I think that might be the most important thing you do all week on. My friends, thank you so much for listening to the Ryan League podcast. If today's episode was just what you needed,

I would encourage you to share it as a friend. And as always, don't forget to rate review and subscribe and do all the things that all podcasts ask you to do. Hey, I hope you have a phenomenal week. We'll catch you next time.