How to prevent burnout as an entrepreneur
This is the face of depression, burnout and anxiety.
It’s taboo to be a “successful” entrepreneur and talk about this. But, way too many people are suffering in silence.
There’s someone ready to give up on their business today. I’m hoping my smile and my courage gives you hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel. With help, it does get better.
I’ve worked hard in the last year to rethink and question EVERYTHING about how I operate and how the business operates.
4 questions that help when you’re feeling burnout
Recently I had to send an uncomfortable email to a client of 3 years.
This is the end of our working relationship.
I will not be seeking another project or any more work.
I will fulfill my responsibilities for the docuseries and send all hard drives at the end.
It has been a long time since I’ve had to send a breakup email to a client.
Of course, this isn’t an easy conversation to have, but it was necessary. One thing that keeps my team and me from burning out - choosing what clients we work with.
Every year, I take 2 months off (June and December) from my business to focus on making tough decisions like this one.
I also ask other important questions, such as:
What worked?
What didn't work?
What has helped me make the greatest improvements?
Are you aligned with your purpose or mission?
The 4th question keeps me aligned with what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.
It’s a question you should be asking yourself too.
For example, you don’t need to be trying to save the world, but how are you impacting the people around you? Your kids, your spouse, and your clients? What is the one thing driving you, that is bigger than you?
If I had to choose one thing that’s helped me recover from burnout, it’s realigning with my purpose.
My purpose is to lead and empower entrepreneurs to have relentless, unwavering courage.
Purpose allows you to be selective with your time, helps you make better decisions, and gives you unwavering confidence.
Purpose reminds me of what I really need to be focused on.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of running a business, making money, bringing in new clients, fulfilling the service or product.
But purpose reminds you WHY you show up.
The real cost of burnout - fear, anxiety, and being physically paralyzed
On October 10, 2020, I woke up that morning and could not physically get out of bed. My heart was racing. My teeth clenched shut. My face was drenched. My arms stiff at my side.
The next 2 hours brought a soup of anxiety and emotions.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. No matter what I did, I could not move.
I had been through tough challenges before and prevailed.
There was the 2008 recession where I didn’t make any money for 6 months, but the business survived.
There was failing my first 5 years in business and having to start over.
And then there was even losing my dad, my hero, to cancer in 2014.
But this was something different that I had never experienced before.
When I was finally able to get out of bed (about 2 hours later), I set up an appointment to go see a therapist and was officially diagnosed with burnout.
Not long after, I received two other diagnoses - clinical depression and anxiety.
How could I be depressed?
2020 was my best year financially. I should be relieved and happy. While there were other small stressors in my life, for the most part, I was in a good position in life.
Or so I thought.
After more evaluation with my therapist, 14 different stressors were going on at the same time. For context, most people can only handle 4-5 stressors at a time before they begin to collapse under the pressure.
This was a massive wake-up call that I wasn’t playing the game I wanted to play.
Removing the stressors was priority #1. But also rethinking how I work and where the business was headed was equally critical.
My business model has always been unconventional.
Video production company that only creates documentaries for entrepreneurs and visionary CEOs
Only working with five clients a year
Charging $17,000 for a consulting session before ever pulling out a camera
Charging $100,000+ per video project
Getting 100% of my clients through referrals
Rarely any social media promotions of my work
Taking two months off every year
Somehow I had lost my way and needed to get back on track. When I see this happening in my friends’ lives, I often tell them a story about alignment to get them to see how they’re operating.
Years ago, when I had my first car, a 2001 Toyota Camry, the time had come for me to get a brand new set of tires.
While getting the tires, the mechanic told me I’d also need to get an alignment, and it would cost me an extra $100.
What?! No thanks. He’s just trying to get more money out of me, I don’t need the alignment.
So I drive away with the four new tires and no alignment.
A couple of months go by, and I start to notice the tires on the right side of the car are wearing rapidly.
Aren’t these things supposed to last years?
So I head back to the tire shop. The same mechanic greets me, and I tell him what’s happening.
“Well, I did mention you’d need to get an alignment.”
“No, I think you gave me faulty tires.” I leave and head to a new tire shop to change the tires.
This new mechanic tells me the same thing. “You can switch out these tires, but you’ll need to get an alignment as well.”
Wait… so they’re all in on this scam? I get the new tires WITHOUT the alignment.
This dance goes on another 2x, before I realize, maybe I do need an alignment after all.
The story seems ridiculous, but we all have done this before in our lives.
Trying to move forward in life, but somehow ending back at square one. We think a brand new set of tires is the solution, when the alignment is the real solution.
It was time for me to get back in alignment in my own life.
What happened in October 2020 has been a blessing in disguise. I uncovered a critical piece to the puzzle of working smarter, not harder.
A deeper conversation about burnout with Rick Mulready
Being a guest on podcasts has been a big part of my purpose. It helps me go beyond helping only five people a year (the number of clients I work with every year.)
Burnout is a topic I’m passionate about it because there aren’t enough voices out there talking about the real cost of burnout.
So my friend, Rick Mulready, invited me on his podcast to have a deeper conversation about burnout.
LISTEN to / WATCH this podcast episode below:
Here are a few highlights from the podcast
Burnout is a heightened state of stress
"For many people, they don't even know they're going through burnout. But burnout is just a heightened state of stress for a long period of time.
We, as human beings, go through stress. That's a common thing.
But you're not supposed to stay there, and I had stayed there for over 2 years before I ever knew I was burnt out."
Operating out of fear
“I started my business in 2006, two years later was the recession, and I knew what it was like not to make a dollar for six months.
And so in 2020, I was like, “Pandemic? We've never seen that before. Recession is going to happen again.” I started operating out of fear.
By October 2020, I couldn't move anymore… I hit a brick wall. Like if you can imagine riding as fast as possible into a brick wall, that was me and I had to figure out what to do to get out of that place.”
Busyness is a response to unresolved trauma
"I don't often talk about this side of the story, but in July 2020 I proposed to my girlfriend.
By August I had broken up with her.
So my world was breaking apart slowly. Instead of dealing with it, I kept myself busy.
Busyness is a response to unresolved trauma."
Rick and I also talked about:
Being VS doing
How to deal with an identity crisis
Feeling like I’m not enough
Why you need to question everything
My first Roadmapping session after burnout
What happened when my team and I were robbed of $20k worth of equipment
And my personal favorite, Rick asks me about taking 2 months off every year.
You take 2 months off every year, what goes into setting your business up so that it allows you to take this time off?
"I built it into the business. I charged enough to be able to take two months off. I knew I needed those two months off.
I'm an introvert. I need the time. I love to analyze things and just look at them deeply.The way that I grew up, being the youngest of 10 children, seeing how everybody else did it… I took a different path. I continued to think “is there another way to do this?”
Dramatic Leverage Newsletter
A version of this post was first featured in the Dramatic Leverage Newsletter. In the newsletter, I share in-depth about storytelling, self-leadership, and creating assets in your business that compound.
For example, I talk about:
The good and bad way to tell stories…
How to turn skeptic prospects into clients for life by showing behind the scenes of your business…
How I’m making 15x more money now in 2023 with only 3 clients instead of the 21 clients I had back in 2010..
Behind the scenes of 7 and 8-figure businesses — for example, I show you what a CEO does when faced with the risk of losing $5mm worth of inventory to a sketchy business partner…
How I discovered what “leverage” really means — what it looks like, how to create it over and over. And how I used it to create an unfair advantage in my life that took me from earning $10k a year to multiple six figures a year working with only 3 clients…
And so much more...
You can apply to join the newsletter here: JudeCharles.co/newsletter