Burnout is very real for entrepreneurs. Long hours, lots of bosses (ahem, clients), and a oft-neglected life away from your business mean we are prone to the things that kill our joy and our business. In this episode, Cara and Kim take a real look at the stress that leads to burnout and some ways you can work toward halting (or avoiding!) the blaze of burnout.

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. settle up for a

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,

and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school.

And have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,

Kim Beer, and Cara Taylor Swift.

Hey there business animals. It's Kim with

Be More Business.

And Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hi, Kim.

Good morning. How are you?

I'm doing good. Cara. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. We just got off a meeting

with our pal Phyllis and planning out all the exciting

stuff for Cal gross cameras next year, and which is rapidly

approaching. So I'm actually in a really good mood this morning,

because I got to have girl chat this morning.

Nice. Yes. It's always a good morning to start

out that way. I know. So here's the thing I keep telling them.

They're they're on East Coast time. And I'm Central. So I have

to get up an hour earlier. And I just rolled out of bed to go to

that meeting. So yeah, that's the one one pleasure about

working at from home is well, there's I guess a lot of them.

But one of the bigger ones for me is I can like My commute is,

you know, five seconds.

Yeah, it helps. It makes it easier.

Normally, that's my commute. But this morning, I had to get up

and drive out to the horses and feed all the animals and then

drive back in time to get my son to school. So I've been up for

hours at this point.

Yeah. So you're, you're, you're just ready to go

ready to go. Well, caffeinated. Well caffeinated. Well, you

know, that sort of dovetails weirdly with our subject today,

which is burnout. And so I love seeing you all chipper and

happy. Because a couple of weeks ago, when we would get on these

calls, you weren't quite that chipper and happy you were in

the middle of your season, and it was kind of getting heavy and

weighing on you. And I don't know, if you were approaching

burnout, I was really having to drag myself. Yeah, but I know

you were it was it was like getting harder and harder to

maintain your happiness on some days.

Well, and that's, you know, we're talking about

burnout today. Obviously, for folks that are listening, I

think they picked up on that. But that's kind of one of those

things is that you can only maintain that that level of

intensity, I think for so long. I know I can only maintain that

level of intensity for so long. So as much as I love the

successfulness of my season, there's a reason that it's a

season and that it tapers down and comes to an end. So I can

work on some other things and regroup and reevaluate and take

a big break, which I'm looking forward to now that the holiday

season is like here, literally here.

Yes, it's literally here. And now you have

joined Phyllis and I in our more quiet time. So both of us have

been enjoying that for a little bit. Right now I'm enjoying the

holiday party season. So I'm enjoying going out. I know

that's not so much fun for everybody on the world. But I

absolutely adore going out networking and going to all of

the holiday parties, whether it be personal parties, or whether

it be professional, which I attend a lot more of the

professional ones in the personal ones. But yeah, so

that's kind of what I've been up to a little bit. So burnout is

very real for entrepreneurs. And I don't know of an entrepreneur

that's been in business for very long, that hasn't experienced it

in some form or fashion at least once and maybe multiple times in

the process of being a business owner. And it's because we all

have a lot of long hours, we have lots of bosses, which are

our clients, and an oft neglected life away from our

businesses. And that can really put a stress on everything in

our in our lives that ends up killing our joy and stealing

away a lot of precious forward motion in our business because

burnout is one of those things that does it halts your business

and sometimes even takes it backwards in in the process. So

it is really important to understand it and understand

what it looks like when it's coming into your world.

Well, and couple that with things like inflation that

we're experiencing right now, gas prices that are going up and

down. A lot of us and animal based businesses spend way too

much time in our cars, working from our cars and on the road,

dealing with things especially this time of year with the

holidays and trying to get orders out to clients in time

for Christmas things like shipping and production delays.

If we have employees trying to find employees, just the hiring

crisis in general trying to find people to work for us vendors to

work for us, and then being able to afford like rising salaries,

things that like the political climate like there's always

something different happening in the political class. Amid that

can really contribute to small business burnout rates. I don't

know that we often think about some of these outside

influencers, but especially things like inflation, gas

prices, shipping and production delays, the hiring crisis, those

things directly impact us as business owners all the time.

And I would add to that, even something as simple as the way

we communicate with each other these days can take a toll. I've

said this before on the show, I'm someone that struggles with

context and text messages and direct messages. So I tend to

have a lot of anxiety and stress around the way that a text

message is written and how I interpret it. So things like the

fact that we can't just always pick up the phone and just call

each other to understand and really feel each other out can

be, it can be something that adds a lot of stress to my life

and kind of narrows down on triggers that lead me to burn

burnout, what do you think about that?

I think that's a very insightful insight into

something that I don't think about very often. And it can

make a difference in how you perceive someone the inflection,

you put in the way that they structure their text, or that

you hear it by I think that's different for different people.

But it's, it's true, and sometimes, you know, a text can

have a tone that you perceive it having a tone, and it really

doesn't have one attached to it. i That's I think why I'm very, I

guess cognizant of that, because that's why I like to use emojis

and my LOL, which is my way of disarming someone, when I send

them a text message that might be construed a little wrongly is

to make sure i i use some type of a head that maybe puts the

the changes, or at least puts a twist to it that the other

person will feel comfortable with. Gosh, I hope I'm good at

that Cara, I now you have me all worried I'm really going to

second guess my testing.

Great, that was not my idea is to make you

worry. But I do have to ask Have you ever experienced burnout

before, as a professional?

I have I've experienced burnout as a

photographer, it particularly, I think that anybody who turns

their passion into a business or turns their talent into a

business, yeah, it sort of creates this space where you may

have used that or accessed it would probably be a better term,

you've accessed that. That particular thing in the past,

like, for me, the photography was a way to, to get myself out

of depression or I accessed it when I was sad or accessed it

when when I needed a creative or needed an emotional boost,

because it was something creative. When you monetize

that. And now you're doing it for money. A you can get

overwhelmed with it, or you do it so much that you lose that

contact or access to it as a resource to to re energize

yourself. In other words, I guess it's draining your cup

instead of refilling it or it's draining it faster than it can

refill it. And when that happens, I think burnout is a

very real thing. And there was a period of time in my

photography, part of my business where I set my camera down and

didn't use it a lot at all. I mean, I pretty well, it was like

I had to be sort of, it had to be something that I felt almost

guilty if I didn't shoot. I mean, it was more than money. It

was it got to be a little bit detrimental for me. And I

stepped away from photography for a while, and then picked my

camera back up, thankfully and was like, Oh, I remember now why

I was doing this and I came at it a little different angle to

say, I'm going to be more careful this time around in not

in making sure that the creative cup fills as fast as it drains.

And that that tremendously helped. As far as my other other

endeavors. Yes, I've been burned out, especially when on computer

stuff. Like if I get stuck in front of this computer for a

really long period of time day after day after day. I get

really resentful I get irritable. I mean, there's just

there's a ton of ways that shows up. And yeah, it's just not a

good thing. So learning how to recognize that in myself. And

when that pattern starts to happen is a big is a big way

that I can challenge the pattern and say okay, I feel that coming

in. I'm going to do something different.

I love that I've really struggled with this

idea of burnout in my life because for for anyone who's

just tuning in, this is their very first episode. I did

domestic violence and sexual assault where As part of my

early career for many, many years, and it was work that I

did that was more than a job it was, I used to tell people that

my work defined me like it defined who I was. And so when I

reached a place where I basically was experiencing

vicarious trauma from the folks that I worked with, and their

experiences and hearing stories over and over and over again and

getting to where the phone would ring, and I would have a body

body response to the to the ring tone of my phone, which I still

have to this day, if that tone, I had to switch my ringtones if

I still hear that ringtone, I have a physical risk reaction to

it, I was getting to the point where I couldn't handle it

anymore. And I ended up leaving my job and there's nothing that

is more. Well, it's sad and life shifting than when you're when

you burn out on your identity, if that makes sense, like when

you something that you have defined yourself as. And for me,

that was a domestic violence and sexual assault advocate. And it

was more than a job. And so when I burned out in that career, it

left a hole that has to this day, not completely been field

filled in the right way, if that makes sense. So I say that

because I don't I want to make sure that for me, when I talk

about this concept of burnout, it's more than like, I'm tired

of this work or entirely this job for some people that can be

ever life shifting and identity shaping and identity. I'm not

destroying, but it really shifted my identity. And I had

to do a lot of work to like, really think about how do I

define myself now? And does my career really need to be so much

of my identity, if that makes sense? So there was a lot there.

So this is something that is close to my heart, this topic.

And I like that we're talking about I think this is a good

time of year to talk about it as we start thinking about like

goals for next year. And planning what we want our our

career to look like and our life to look like next year.

Absolutely. And what you bring up is really

important about trauma in any aspect of your life. But we

don't often consider business as someplace where we would

experience trauma. But it is it can happen. And I just want to I

don't think you know this, I don't think I've ever shared it

with you. But back in the early 2000s. As a photographer, I was

traveling a lot and doing horse shows. And while I was gone to

an event, shooting a horse show, some people broke into my home

and office and completely destroyed it, and stole

everything. Every piece of camera and computer equipment I

owned that was at home, only thing I had left was what was

with me. And that I will tell you, I was already tired from

the horror shows. But that level of trauma, it was hard for me to

overcome in my business. And I think it's related to this topic

that we're talking about today. I think that you're very right.

It's not just being tired. It's it's maybe even feeling like the

world is against you or you're not, you know, things are

happening that aren't supporting your business. And so it feels

uncomfortable to continue on. And I know for me after that

that was a huge hit. For me to recover from it. I did,

obviously, but it definitely was a derailing moment to somebody

who was already struggling and that that can compound these

these issues. And I think that's why we need to be really aware

as business owners of when we're starting to see the pattern of

burnout and getting good at recognizing it. And I know we're

gonna get to the big three here in a second. But Cara has a

really nice little list here of some ways that you can kind of

assess yourself and say, am I am I maybe heading towards a

burnout episode? And possibly a way to derail that?

Yeah, I will tell you guys, anyone who's

listening that the you can go online and there's any number of

quizzes that you can take or checklists that you can look at

that have, you know, indicators that you might be on the cusp of

burnout or or they're already I have compiled a short little

list of things that I feel like have shown up personally in my

life and I thought I would share them. So start by identifying

what burnout can look like. Like a smallest owner, so let's go

there. So feeling rundown and drained after working. I mean,

some folks might say Well, that sounds like a good workday.

You're exhausted. This is something a little different. I

think it's it's more of a an emotional draining than maybe a

physical draining, having negative thoughts about work,

feeling easily irritated by clients by coworkers by people

that we spend time with regularly on the job, just those

people are really irritating, feeling less sympathetic with

the people that you work around. So, you know, I think about

people who are, you know, you're working with maybe animals that

are, you know, they have owners that have sick animals or you're

working with, you know, any number of things where you're

working with people that they have a story and they need to

tell you, and maybe you don't quite have the patience to

listen to it anymore. Or you've heard it all before, and you're

not taking the time to really listen, feeling unappreciated

feelings of underachieving, like, you're just not

accomplishing the things that you want to accomplish. Just

procrastination. I mean, we've had a whole episode on the issue

of procrastination, but this is just you're just putting things

off over and over and over again. And this one is one that

it's it was funny, when I first thought of it, it's

forgetfulness, missing appointments, late invoices,

late client orders or delivery, not returning phone calls, some

of this can fall under the procrastination, but when you

think about it, in terms of forgetfulness, like there's just

a lot of overwhelm happening, and you are someone if you're

like me that you're very calendered, you're very

scheduled, you're prompt, your early if you're not early,

you're late, you know that mentality, and you start just

missing appointments. And I remember this happening to me,

and I was so shocked, like, how is this happening? You know, I

have a calendar, I have two calendars, you know. So these

are just a few a very small list. But if you if you hop

online and google signs, symptoms of burnout, there are

probably 10 times this that you'll see pop up. And it's

there's some of the quizzes on there are pretty good, too, that

you could do and then just give you an indication of how you

might be doing on that spectrum.

Yes, it is. But I want to, I want to say

something, a couple of things. First, when you read that list,

it triggers me to think about a lot of the people that I work

with that have nonprofits around Animal Rescue, I see burnout

happen in that group so frequently, because they're

dealing with such high trauma stories and and things that are

disturbing on a whole different level. And when you do that, I

think you ramp up just like when you were working at the domestic

violence shelter, I think you ramp up. Yeah, the trajectory

for burnout. And the end all be all of burnout can be horrific.

Everyone I mean, I just I do not want to understate the the

everything. It can be life ending. I mean, it's it's not a

good thing. Yeah. And that's why checking on these things are so

important. checking in with yourself, checking in, in on, on

those around you if you start to see some signs that that maybe

burnout is sort of taking over for someone that you know, or

that you're that is a fellow business owner. And and then

just getting the help that you need assistance, not even help

just assistance somebody to guide you to get you back on the

path where you can be healthy and continue to do what you're

doing. So please take this subject very seriously, when

it's that I it's one thing to procrastinate a few things, it's

another of the procrastination has a deeply rooted reason, I

always say there's nobody procrastinates because they want

to be a procrastinator. There's a reason for it, it can be a

good reason. Or it can be a bad reason. So you've got to take a

look at those things and start to really understand and yes, I

think it's time to launch into the big three, you want to cover

that Cara?

Sure. The first of the Big Three is kind

of what we've been talking about already the identification side

of things. So identifying the stressors, causing the burnout.

And, you know, we have on here be thorough, and I know Kim will

talk a little bit about that you know, what's happening, what's

coming up, and also what is in the background, maybe that's

pulling some of that the big three. Number two is you got to

do the work. You've got to take the steps to halt the burnout.

And we're gonna give some ideas around that. And then the third

thing is it might be time to do something different. And we'll

dive into that as well. I'll let you take off with that, Kim.

Absolutely. So every time that you find

yourself having a reaction, instead of being able to choose

a response, there is something bigger than what is in front of

you going on. So for example, if you are having a conversation

with a client and they say something, and you have a

reaction to that or there's a reaction around this happened

for me for burnout when I was a graphic designer, if people

would give a certain criticism when I was starting to get

burned out as a graph Like designer I would get I would

have a reaction, I would be like, What are they talking

about, they don't know what they're talking about. They're

not graphic designers, they, that would just look absolutely

stupid. And I would have a, like a visceral reaction to, to a

client's probably legitimate desire to change something in

their branding or logo or something i That was a big hit

for me that something was up there. So every time you find

yourself having a reaction, there is generally something in

the background that is at the root of that, and it's not the

situation that's in front of you. It's that situation in

front of you is just a trigger for what actually happened long

ago. So for me, I received a lot of I'm How do I say it uncorrect

or not right or not warranted criticism as a as a child and a

teenager in particular. And I know teenagers are all a little

bit off. But in this case, it was it was, it was not good. So

it wasn't a case of I was just doing something strange. And

there was a, there was some fallout for that. It was

unwarranted. And I carried that around with me into my

adulthood. And then when I sit with clients, at first, it was

okay, right, I had a really nice line drawn in my head and in my

body. And then when I started to get a little tired, when I

started to get to that edge of of becoming burned out or

overextended and overwhelmed, that just makes the nerves all

that much more raw. Right? So then that would start to show

up, I had to go back and take a look at okay, what is it the

root of that, I need to clear that up. And then I'll be able

to sit with this new new situation that's in front of me

with a different perspective, it's not going to touch on that

nerve any longer. Because we've cured the nerve pain, we're

going to go and take a look at it in a totally different way.

And it made it so that I could sit with clients who wanted to

rearrange things that possibly I wouldn't agree with. And I would

be able to move those things around for them without any

attachment, that it basically takes the charge off of that

nerve, and then it doesn't get it's not as tender any longer

and you're able to move forward. But if you live in that space,

where the things keep coming at you that are causing those

reactions, the reactions take their toll on everything in your

system, they take your their toll on your body, they take

your toll on your thoughts, they take the toll on how you

interact with other people, they just it just is insidious in

getting into multiple different corners in your life. And so

when you see yourself getting there towards the edge of that

you need to start taking a look at say, Okay, I need to go back

and figure out where this is. And sometimes it's it's in your

childhood, sometimes it's in your young adulthood, sometimes

it's last freaking week, you know. So it's, there's something

there that needs to be examined. And when I know that I'm

treading down this path, and I need to get really clear about

where these things are coming from. It's when I'm experiencing

one of three things and that resentment, overwhelm or

frustration, when I start to feel one of those three

emotions, it is time for me to take a look at exactly what is

triggering that. Like when when it's the most intense. What am I

doing? what's being said what is what's the situation, and then

to pick up the cord and follow that back to its root where it's

plugged into the wall, and I can go okay, now I see your outlet.

Let's unplug you and take that electricity away from that

moment. There's a chem metaphor for Yeah, I was

gonna say that's probably the most clear

metaphor I've ever heard for getting to the root of the

problem. And I love that and I think it that segues us really

nicely into big three number two, which is doing the work.

And I love that because if you can, if you can sit down and say

here I am at the end of the day and I'm crying in my car after

work. I'm not I've been there. Yeah, just crying in my car

after work. Why am I crying? It's not because of the

conversation I just had with my boss. There's there's other

things I need to follow that cord back to where this is

really coming from. And I love that. And one of the things that

you know, in my past work, when you talk about doing the work

that would come up a lot is they would talk about this idea of

self care. And we've talked about self care on the show more

than once bubble bath, talk about taking a bath. Yeah, don't

even get me started on the bubble baths. But they would

talk about it in this way that was like, You need to be doing

self care and self care might look like a bubble bath. And I

would get I remember getting so there was my resentment popping

up right? In that moment, I remember getting really annoyed,

because to me those things, they're not solving the big

picture, if you don't have a continuous awareness that

burnout can always be on the horizon. Like, if you're not

doing the work, and creating a culture around you that

supportive of that, then it's all just lip service, you know,

you're not actually doing the work, you're just putting like a

band aid over the top of it. And then expecting everything else

to go as usual, continue the work as usual, continue doing

the things that you do every single day. And we're going to

stick a bandaid over the top of this little feeling of

resentment that you're having, we're going to stick a bandaid

over the top of the overwhelm and over the frustration, but

we're not doing anything at a at a deeper level to actually do

the work to fix the problem. Before you get to a point where

you're at a career ending place in your burnout,

I want to add to my metaphor, it's like instead

of going back and finding the plugin, where the nerve is that

you plug a toaster into that outlet and throw it in the

bathtub with you while you're taking your bubble bath. I could

see

too much for that doesn't help you does it?

No, it does not additionally see that it does

not help at all, we do have a few things

that you know, if you're going to be

following Kim's chord back, you're going to be following it

back to getting to the root of, of where this is coming from

where these feelings are coming from that leads to burnout,

there are some things that you can do to process some of that

and get through some of that. And, well, Kim, you have several

things listened to here, do you want to go ahead and start with

the start with them,

I think the thing I'm gonna say the biggest thing

to do is sometimes you need a guide, because you can't find

the cord. That just is the reality of the situation, it's

sort of like that metaphor of not being able to see the forest

for the trees in front of you. And that's where having someone

who has a guide that can help you do that. And then that can

show up in many different ways. It can be a gestalt Assist,

which is what I would recommend, or a therapist or a coach, or

even just a really, and I don't want to say just they're so even

a really close friend, who is willing to be really honest with

you and who you will not resent. If they are honest, on a nerve

point, that's the one good thing about going to a gestalt test,

or a therapist or a coach is that indifference difference

from a friend is that that's something if you do hold a

resentment against a coach, you know, oh, well, that's that. But

if you if they're a good coach, hopefully that would never

happen. But a good friend, you don't want to, you don't want to

damage that relationship. All that aside, you do occasionally

need help finding the cord in the mess of cords that creates

gets created in our lifetime, you may need help finding the

one that specifically needs to be disconnected for this event.

So other ways that you can start to trace that down on your own,

however, are journaling, I do an exercise when I get really

stressed out or I find myself being having starting to have

those reactions, and I can't get somewhere to have someone else

help me because I will reach out for help. I will journal about

it. And I'm not a big journal er, I'm not a let's get up in

the morning and journal kind of girl. But if I'm stressed out

about something, and I can get a piece of paper and free, right,

which is where you do not let your internal editor have an

opinion, because no one is ever going to see it. It's not a big

deal. So make the negotiation up front, there's no editing and

just write whatever comes into your head. In general, if you

are in that emotional state around the reaction, when you

start to write it down, it starts coming out as just like

anger and a little bit of vitriol and then eventually

you'll get down to the real issue. So it's a way to find

that. So those would be I guess my two biggest tips or another

one is look to your network to see if there's somebody there

that has experienced something similar that can maybe help you

understand it from a different perspective. That's always

really nice when it's something that's very deeply industry

related. That is triggering it, but I think you have to have at

least a notion of where you're going with that. What about you,

Carol? But what are some ways that you perceive doing the

work?

Absolutely. So I love the idea of look to

your network. I mean, I have people, I have multiple networks

that I feel like I can pull from any time, the thing you have to

be careful about, I think with networks is that if they're in

the same rut that you are, you can spiral together into

negativity and into Seto, so really think about your network

and the kind of conversations that you're having, and are

these people that are helping you get to the root of it, are

they coming along for the ride. And you know, I'll say it over

and over again, this is what we're talking about here in

terms of doing the work, you are not going to bubble bath your

way out of a burnout, you're not going to vacation, your way out

of a burnout, those things are lovely, certainly go take a

bubble bath, if you're a bubble bath person, go on a vacation,

we all need more vacations, but you're going to come back from

vacation and those that burnout is going to be waiting for you

only, it's going to have an additional workload on top of

it, because you've been gone for a week, you know, so I, I've

never been someone that says, Oh, you just need a vacation to

get over your burnout, that's not going to happen, you really

do have to follow the threads, you really do have to take some

extra steps and do the work. And it could be something you know,

see a coach, the therapist, a gestalt just looking to your

network, take some classes on how to manage your stress and

emotions. And you know, any of that is helpful. But you do

actually have to do the work. And it's not just going to it's

not going to go away on its own. I've even tried moving positions

within companies or taking on different roles. And if you

don't do the work in the stresses are still there. And

the feelings are still there. It's not going to help a lot in

my opinion.

Nope, it sure won't. It sure won't. Are we

ready to move on to number three, which is the one that I

think scares everybody when it comes to burnout is that

sometimes you need to do something different. And for

entrepreneurs, sometimes this feels like so, so much not an

option, right? For me, when I've experienced burnout, I have been

confronted with the choice of Do you really want to continue to

be a business owner? Would you rather go get a job somewhere?

Or would you rather stay in this environment? And I will tell you

every time that decision has been presented to me, except for

one, I have chosen to keep my business that I think the first

time probably it came up really heavily for me. I did stop the

business, I actually went bankrupt, which made me a vape.

Some people could consider that a forced business stop. It

really wasn't it was a decision of do I want to sink more money

in this? Or do I want to go ahead and pull the plug now and

say we're done. And I went back to a day job. And it was a real

quick reminder of why I left that day job and why the burnout

there. And I'm going to tell you the burnout from that was still

there. So every other time I've been confronted with that

choice. I've said to myself, I don't want to not be a business

owner, I want to stay in business. But something has to

change inside my business. So the do something different came

up with, okay, let's take a look at this. And what can you do

that's different, that will remove this particular thing

that is causing you so much stress and anxiety and burnout

out of your way so that if you can't cure it, if you can't

unplug it, you need to get away from it.

Yeah, I can totally see that. Because I

mean, a lot of times, it can't just be an issue of goodness,

because one of the things I did early on as I was like, You know

what, maybe it's this position, or maybe it's this company, and

I stayed in the same field and move to a different company. And

all I did was drag my burnout with me, you know, and bring

that attitude with me. And I think a lot of people do that,

thinking it's going to solve the problem. So sometimes you

actually have to take a step back and totally like you're

saying, you know, you still want to be a business owner, Kim and

I are not sitting here saying you know what, if you're feeling

burned out, maybe you don't need you need to close your business?

Absolutely not. But you probably need to reevaluate your goals.

And that can be your business goals, your life goals, where

you want to see yourself moving your business to in your life

to, you know, are your goals too broad? Do they even exist? Do

you even have goals for your business? Let's start there.

Maybe we need to look at our goals and say maybe they're too

big. Maybe we need to make take this big goal and break it down

into small obtainable goals. So that we're accomplishing things

because sometimes the simple act of just accomplishing things and

checking things off that list, we can see progress and we can

see ourselves moving forward, and that can help in itself. So,

so much Maybe we need to look at how we're managing our time

differently, you know, within our businesses create that to do

lists, we all love to do lists, but created to do lists with

actual set time goals, so that we're getting things done and

including breaks in that and including reward time for when

we knock things out. You know, we're getting ourselves

organized. You know, Kim, and I talk on the show a lot about

work life balance, maybe it's time, maybe it's time to add

more life into the schedule. And I have definitely had to kick

myself over and over again, and remind myself that it's a work

life balance, not a work, work balance with a little life

thrown in there, I have to remind myself that it should be

equal parts, if not more life, and less work, you know, in

trying to build my business goals around that. There is no

shame in delegating, hiring, bringing people in getting a

virtual assistant, you know, getting some of this work that

is time consuming is boring is you know, burnout inducing, put

it on someone else's plate so that you can run other parts of

your business. How many times do we talk about automation? It's

yeah, I mean, we probably have talked about that every other

episode at some point. So start thinking about things in your

business that you can automate, really trying to put some of

this stuff on autopilot so that you can change up that work life

balance, or change up what you do within your business. What do

you what do you want to add to that?

I don't think I want to add anything to it. I

think it's I said my piece kind of up in the front. And I think

everything you've added to it really helps with people

understanding how to did you talk about boundaries? I don't

think so. But I'm not very good at boundaries.

setting boundaries, one of the things

that we've talked about before, and especially when we were

prepping for this episode, is there's no shame in setting

boundaries that protect your mental health, physical person,

and protect your emotions, you know that there's no shame in

that. And this is if you're starting to feel any of those

signs and symptoms of potential burnin on the horizon, it might

be a good time to check those boundaries to

Yes, and I tend to be one of those people in the

past in particular, a much, much different attitude about it now.

But in the past, a lot of my burnout was because I did let

people blow through my boundaries, I would go back and

look at that do something different. Or in my getting help

process, I would hear you know, you need to set a clear boundary

here. And then I would waffle on the boundary and then that would

cause the burnout to be worse. So I do think boundaries are

very crucial in this process. And I do think being able to set

them is very important, and stick to them. And if you can't

set them or stick to them, that's when you need to go back

to that person who was working with you or guiding you and get

a little additional help because there's a why for that, too. So

there's a how and a why that happens.

Excellent. All right. Well, just to recap,

burnout is very real for entrepreneurs. And hopefully,

there's not too many folks out there that are listening that

are saying oh my gosh, that sounds like me, or I really need

to do some work. But if you are like, no shame, no embarrassment

of that Kim and I, as we have expressed here we have so been

there. And what our hope is with an episode like this is that we

can give you guys some tools, some resources and some thoughts

before you reach a place of no return in your life and in your

business in terms of closing your business or changing your

career path totally or leaving, like I did a career that meant

so much to me, we just want to we want to help people see that

before they get there. So think about things like identifying

the stressors that cause burnout. doing the work is the

second of our big three that we talked about. And then maybe

it's time to do something different and what that might

look like for you. We hope you've enjoyed this episode.

I've really enjoyed I can check in for folks that I know I can

check in and I can see what our audience in general has been

listening to. And you all have been enjoying so many of our

shows. And I just want everyone to know that we really

appreciate it. And especially this time of year as we're

moving into the holidays, we know that things get really

busy, but we see you still out there listening and we really

appreciate it. So I'm not sure when this episode is going to be

out but it'll probably be right around Christmas in the new

year. So for those that celebrate we want to wish you a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. So if we don't talk to you

into the new year, we hope that you guys are kicking your

business off to a good one. Please, if you haven't already,

check in on social media at The Business Animal. We're on

Facebook and Instagram. And yeah, we'll see you guys next

year. Yep. No matter what you celebrate Happy

holidays or happy December. That's right.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

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