BMP226 Holly Worton ~ What To Do When Fear Of Overwhelm is Keeping You Stuck in Business

Today’s Guest

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I’m back again, with another solo episode! Today I talk about what to do when fear of overwhelm, exhaustion, and burnout is keeping you stuck in business. We hear so many stories about exhausting launches and burnout in business that it’s easy to think that this is the only option, which is totally untrue. Sometimes our fear of burnout can keep us stuck in business: stuck playing small, because we’re so terrified of exhaustion that we don’t take the actions we need to take to build our business in a different way. Having a successful business without overwhelm is possible, and in this episode I’ll walk you through both the mindset and the practical actions you can take to build a business without fear of overwhelm.

Listen to this episode

What You’ll Learn

How to get the mindset you need to build a successful business without burnout
Practical actions you can take to create a successful business without overwhelm
The questions you need to ask yourself to get started on your journey to business without exhaustion

Things I Discussed

Fabeku’s Money Lab

Questions to Ask Yourself

What do you want instead of burnout/exhaustion/overwhelm?
How do you want to feel?
What do you believe about your ability to have a successful business without burnout?
What do you need to believe?
Who do you need to be?
What boundaries do you need to have a successful business without burnout?
What actions do you need to take to build a successful business without burnout?
What habits do you need to create so you can build a successful business without burnout?

Connect With Holly

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Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 226. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode. Today, I am going to talk about overwhelm and burnout, but I am going to talk about a different aspect of overwhelm and burnout than I think most people really talk about. So, I am going to start out by telling you a story, which I talked about a little bit in episode 224 – which if you haven’t listened to that, I think that’s a really important one – about how to build credibility and trust, as an entrepreneur by telling your story; and by telling different aspects of your story, and by telling your story, over and over and over again. So, you are going to get a little bit of my story over again today.

So, as I mentioned, in my previous episode, and as I have mentioned many times before, my first business was very different form this business. My first business, I started in 1999 with a business partner, and ran that business for over 10 years. My business partner was a workaholic, and expected me to be a workaholic as well, and I fell into the trap of being a workaholic. And for ten years I ran this business that was just totally all encompassing, working crazy hours every day, this business was my entire life. I mean, for many periods of this business I would get up at 7 o’clock in the morning, go for a run, come back have breakfast, and then I was working all day, all evening, sometimes until one in the morning and then I was going to bed, waking up again and doing it again the next day…seven days a week, 365 days a year. I often did not take days off for months at a time. It was so overwhelming and when I quit that business and ended up taking a sabbatical, which ended up taking more than a year, I spent that time recovering from burnout and I didn’t have a word for that at the time, and I didn’t realise what I was experiencing, I was just totally exhausted, totally burned out, my adrenals were just thrashed, and in some ways, I feel like I am still recovering a little bit from that.

And throughout this entire coaching business that I have been building ever since I set it up in 2011, when I trained as a coach, I have always been aware of the fact that I did not want to make the same mistakes with this business. So, I did not want to get myself back into that cycle of overwhelm, of exhaustion and burnout, that I experienced in my first business and that I think is so easy to fall into as an entrepreneur. Because oftentimes we are really passionate about what we do (or we should be really passionate about the work that we do!), and we don’t have a boss telling us what to do and what not to do. We often work from home, rather than work from a separate office, which means that it is easy to fall into the trap of working all morning, all day, and all night. Especially if we don’t have a partner, children, family, sometimes it can make it even easier to fall into this trap of, our business is our entire life. And we need to set our own boundaries, which if you’ve listened to last week, episode 225, on business boundaries, that I did with Jo Casey, you will know that business boundaries, in particular, are a big thing on my mind lately. So, we need to be responsible for setting our own boundaries in our business – and sometimes we are not good at that – but that is a whole other topic.

What I want to talk about today is fear of overwhelm, fear of exhaustion, fear of burnout. And I want to ask you the question: is your fear of overwhelm, and exhaustion and burnout, keeping you stuck in your business? Is it keeping you small in your business, is it keeping you from stepping into your greatness in your business and building the business and lifestyle that you truly want to have? Think about that. Because, sometimes our fear of overwhelm and our fear of burnout, keeps us from actually taking the actions we need to take, and setting the boundaries that we need to set, to actually keep us from experiencing overwhelm and burnout; and keep us from playing small, because we are so scared of exhaustion, and fear and burnout, because we don’t put the boundaries in place that we need to avoid that, which just keeps us stuck and small?

So, let me start out by asking you: are you afraid of overwhelm, and exhaustion, and burnout? Is this a fear that you have? And, as I mentioned before fears don’t often pop up as: hey I am a fear! They pop up as mind gremlins that are posing as truth. So, the truths that you may be experiencing are: business leads to burnout, burnout is really scary; I am not capable of building a business without burnout, burnout is really bad, and it is inevitable… I don’t know what your truths are, or beliefs are, around overwhelm and burnout and exhaustion; but you need to get clear on these. So, start out by thinking, journal on this, think about: what are your attitudes around overwhelm, and exhaustion and burnout; what are your beliefs around overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout? And, what are the things that you hold to be true around overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout? And are those actually truths, or are they beliefs? Because I am going to bet they are probably beliefs, and not actual truths.

So, when you think about overwhelm and burnout and exhaustion, I am going to presume that you probably don’t want those things, in your life and your business, because they are awful and feel terrible, and can be really time\e-consuming to recover from. So, instead of having a life and a business full of overwhelm and burnout, what do you want instead? What do you want your business and life to look like, instead of being full of overwhelm and burnout? So, maybe the beliefs that you need are beliefs like: my business feels relaxed and nourishing; maybe you need to believe that your business feels inspired and energised; maybe you need to believe that your business makes you feel grounded and strong. How do you want to feel? How do you want your business and your life to feel, instead of having overwhelm and burnout? So sometimes it can be really challenging for us to move away from the things that we don’t want, but when you are looking at re-programming your mindset, and releasing energy blocks, we need to be looking at what you want instead. And sometimes you want to start by identifying what you don’t want; so, if you don’t want is overwhelm, you don’t want burnout, you don’t want exhaustion: what do you want instead? How do you want to feel instead? Do you want to feel relaxed? Do you want to feel energised? Do you want to feel nourished? Do you want to feel strong, and grounded, and powerful? What do you want to feel instead of overwhelm and burnout and exhaustion? That’s a really important thing for you to get clear on. And then work on programming some beliefs around that, either with yourself, or with someone else; how do you want to feel? And what do you currently believe about your ability and capability of running a successful business without burnout, without overwhelm, without exhaustion.

Do you believe that you are capable of creating a successful business without burnout? So many people still wear that badge of burnout, like it’s a medal that they are so proud of having achieved. But, I think there are other ways of doing things. So, if you hate the word hustle, and I hate the word hustle, I don’t resonate with it at all, some people do and if that works for them, great; but hustle to me feels like burnout. And if you have read all the stories of online entrepreneurs saying: Oh, I just finished this launch, the most successful launch I ever had, it feels so good to be over it. I got so many clients, I got so many people signed up to my new thing, I sold so many widgets… and I am so exhausted! It was such a successful launch, and I am so tired. I am so glad it is over…

I think there is another way of doing things. I think there are ways of sharing your gifts with the world, of getting people signed up for your thing, of selling books, products, widgets, whatever it is that you sell, without burnout and exhaustion. So, if you have been hearing stories enough times that you believe that that’s the only way of doing things, what do you believe about your ability of creating a successful business without all that shit, without the exhausting launches, without the burnout, without the overwhelm: do you believe that’s possible? Do you believe that you are capable of that? A lot of us don’t believe that we can find another way of being successful in business, without burnout and exhaustion, because we don’t have enough examples, we don’t have enough stories of other people selling out their programmes, selling out their workshop, without exhaustion, because not enough people are telling that story – but it is there, there are people telling those stories.

So, what do you need to believe about your ability to run a successful business, to have a successful launch without burnout. Who do you need to be to be the person who has a successful launch or a successful business without burnout? You heard me talk a lot about Fabeku Fatunmese a lot in that last few months, because I think he is a fantastic example of someone who runs his business in a really coherent way, and in a way that works for him, and in a way that is totally different from most other online business owners. So, he recently launched a program called the Money Lab, which I signed up for and I was waiting months for him to come out with. He didn’t do the big launch with all the Facebook ads and the interviews on every single podcast, and website, and guest blog post and all the shit that you see other people doing. He just mentioned it: he created a simple sales page with a little video talking about it, and he put it up on his website, and he mentioned it on his free Facebook group that he runs. And people jumped to join this thing and it sold out; he has got 265 people in there and that was what he wanted, he closed it when he felt that was what he wanted to have in the group, and that’s that. He did not do all the overwhelming stuff that people do when they have an overwhelming, exhausting, launch. So, let’s run the numbers here — sorry I just checked my numbers, that’s 165 people. So, he has got 165 people in there at $500 a person, and he filled the group how he wanted to fill it. I am going to assume, not having talked to him about it, but it didn’t look very exhausting. He didn’t complain online about how thrilled he was to have a successful, and yet overwhelming, launch. He just filled the thing in the way he does, he mentioned it online, filled it with 165 people; and that’s that, and there you are. There are others of having a launch, there are other ways of running a successful business; and it takes time to build the kind of business, and community, of people who are your true fans and jump to buy the stuff that you put out there – he did not build his business up overnight – but it’s possible.

So, who do you need to be, and what do you need to believe about your ability to have an easy launch, a successful launch without burnout – whatever the words are that you need to use to express what you want in your business. It is possible to run a business without burnout, it is possible to run a launch without burnout. So, what do you need to believe about your ability to do that and what boundaries do you need to have in your business so that you can create a strategy and a business that will be free from overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout. If you haven’t listened to the boundaries episode – that’s episode 225 from last week – take a look at that, where we talk about all kinds of business boundaries. And having those boundaries in place, and setting boundaries that work for you, will keep you on the track to having the sort of business you want, which I am going to assume is free from overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout. So, take a look at what boundaries you need and set those in place, so that you can avoid burnout. And identify if you have experienced overwhelm and burnout and exhaustion in business in the past, or in a job. Identify what are the things that got you on the path to burnout and exhaustion, identify what were the actions that you took that led you to burnout, what were the boundaries that you didn’t have that led you to burnout. What were the habits that you had, that led to burnout? Look at how you have experienced burnout in the past, and what led to that, so that you can make different decisions this time. Make a different decision that’s going to change your habits, and change your actions, so that you can take different actions, and make different habits, that will lead not to burnout but to whatever it is that you want instead; whether that’s a feeling of energised business, relaxed business, inspiring business, grounded business; whatever it is that’s the word that you want; whatever quality it is that you want instead of burnout.

So, as always, this is a two-pronged approach, we are looking at the practical things, and the mindset stuff, to help you avoid overwhelm, and burnout, and exhaustion. It is really important — I am going back to the question that I asked you at the beginning — is your fear of overwhelm, exhaustion, and burnout, keeping you stuck in business? Because so often I see business owners, they are so afraid of overwhelm, they are so afraid of exhaustion, they are so afraid of burnout, that they are not taking these actions they need to take to build their business, because they are so afraid of building a successful business that’s going to give them burnout. Because so many of us have believed that a successful business means an exhausting business, and that’s absolutely not true. That can be the case, but you can also make another decision. You can make a different decision that involves a successful business, making the money that you want to make, but with the lifestyle that you want. And that’s why it is so clear, it is so important to get clear on this stuff: what does a successful business look like to you? What does happy, joyful mindset look like to you? What does the lifestyle look like that you want to have? And, focus on getting the mindset you need, and building the business with the boundaries you need, and taking the actions and creating the habits that you need, to build that business without burnout, without exhaustion.

So, I hope this has helped you pick apart that fear, pick apart those beliefs that a successful business necessarily involves burnout because it doesn’t, there are other options, there are other ways. So, to recap, is your fear of overwhelm and burnout keeping you stuck in business? If it is, and I am going to assume it is because you are still listening to this, what do you want instead of overwhelm, and burnout? Get clear on what you want instead. Get clear on how you want to feel instead of feeling burnout. Be clear on what you need to believe about your ability to run a business without burnout. Get clear on who you need to be to run a business that is successful without burnout. Get clear on the practical side, get clear on what are the boundaries your need to run a successful business without burnout. Get clear on the actions you need to take to run a successful business without burnout. Get clear on the habits that you need to create to run a successful business without burnout. So, you need to look at the mindset part of your business, and you need to look at the practical side of business. And you need to take action. So, what actions can you take, today, to release that fear of overwhelm and burnout so that it is not keeping you stuck in business and take the actions that you need to take. So, go through these things, go through these steps that I have just mentioned. Look at your mindset and how it might be keeping you stuck in business, because of fear of overwhelm and burnout; and look at how you have set up your business, and how you can change things, and how you can make different decisions so that your actions and habits and boundaries are supporting you in creating a successful business without burnout and exhaustion.

And that’s all I have today, now this is a little bit I shorter than usual but very kind of condensed. So, please drop me a line, let me know what you thought about this week’s episode, you can email me at [email protected] or find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and get in touch.

I would also love for you to join me in my private Facebook group: Business Mindset Alchemists, so we can continue the conversation there. I would love to get some feedback from you in the group about this episode; how do you feel about overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout and are you afraid of it and is that fear of burnout keeping you stuck in business?

So, head over to: https://www.hollyworton.com/group and you will be redirected to the Facebook group.

Finally, whether you have been listening to the show for a while, or whether you have just heard your first episode, if you are drawn to learning more about mindset work and releasing your mindset and energy blocks in business, if you would like to learn more about how you can work with me, get in touch or head over to https://www.hollyworton.com/call and you can book in a call with me to learn more. I would love to work with you and help you transform your mindset using heart-centred energy work.

Thank you so much for listening, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a quick review at iTunes, it would really mean the world to me, and remember to visit hollyworton.com/226 for the show notes on this episode. I am actually going to include there the questions I asked you in this episode so that you can easily access them and do this work. Please take action on this stuff, please take action on, not only the mindset stuff that I talked about today, but the practical business actions. Don’t just listen to this and think: oh, I learned something useful today, that was inspiring, that was interesting! No, take action on this stuff I am not talking to you on this podcast just because I want to be inspiring and interesting, I want you to take action.

So, go over to the show notes, look at the questions I asked you today, journal on them and take action please.

And I would love it if you tuned into next week’s episode with Louise George where we talk about how to understand your soul story, and find out what makes you unique. And this is really important because it can be really hard to figure out what makes you unique, because you are you and you are in your head all day. So, we are going to talk about how to get clear on your purpose, how to get clear on your soul story, simple actions that you can take to get started on your path to finding your soul story, and more. We talk about Louise’s very unique business journey and how she shifted things in a big way in her business and went from kind of having a hobby business to building the six-figure business in under a year, because she simply made the decision to step up and do so. And she did it without burnout, without overwhelm, without exhaustion, because that was something she had had in the past and she made a different choice to do business differently and yet still be successful. So, that episode is super-tied-in with this week’s episode, so again, tune in next week.

And if you want the questions for this week that we just talked about, go over to: https://www.hollyworton.com/226. Thank you so much and I will see you next week.