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Derek DeGeest and Jim Rieffenberger discuss how businesses can address overcoming fear with their employees.

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In work and daily life, fear can halt business and personal progress. Derek DeGeest, President of DeGeest Steel Works & LestaUSA, and Jim Rieffenberger, Business Leader Coach, speaker, and author from Renue, talked about ways to address the fears that can hold businesses back.

Rieffenberger, a lifelong friend and mentor to DeGeest, recently became a consultant for DeGeest Steel Works & LestaUSA to transition the leadership team and the rest of the shop as the company grows.

“Jim came to me about this topic of fear,” DeGeest said. “With everything going on right now with the global pandemic, Rieffenberger developed a program and asked if he could talk with our shop. Whether we like to admit it or not, we all deal with fear. We all have adversity and struggles in our lives. To bring it all together and find a way to cope with them, we thought it was a valuable insight for our company.”

“The funny thing about fear,” Rieffenberger said, “(Is) you can’t work on it unless you’re in it.”

And that recognition of present fear is critical.

“We want to make sure we’re talking about how we can cope and deal with fear and understand what’s happening and how we’re reacting, so we can get on the same page and work together to deal with the fear positively,” DeGeest said.

One of Rieffenberger’s tips for overcoming fear is exercise. But it is not just physical exercise Rieffenberger suggests for dealing with the stressful situations in life.

He recommends that people exercise their minds, both mentally and spiritually. Listening to podcasts, reading books and opening the mind to other ways of seeing a problem are things Rieffenberger suggests can provide fear-reducing benefits. Prayer is also a method Rieffenberger uses to calm himself.

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