S1: Let's talk about burnout. This is an incredibly popular topic
S1: inside the entrepreneurial community, where there's difficulty and confusion and
S1: frustration around how do you create a business that you
S1: love that's successful while also having your life feel fulfilled?
S1: And this idea of burnout, when something is not going
S1: well and things are overwhelming and you're stressed out and
S1: you're frustrated, it might start to feel like you're getting
S1: burnt out. I will never forget when Grant Cardone was
S1: in a conference a few years ago, and he said
S1: this quote that forever changed my perspective on this topic
S1: of burnout. He said, you can't burn out. You are
S1: not a candle. I really like this as a framework
S1: because if you don't think and never believe that you
S1: can burn out, you're going to make choices that are
S1: different and are in accordance with sustaining your output, sustaining
S1: where you want to go, sustaining what you do every
S1: single day. Because if you didn't think that you could
S1: burn out, you're not going to burn out. So what
S1: are the things that I specifically do? While over the
S1: past five years, alongside my husband and the cartoons, going
S1: from zero in revenue to creating a company with hundreds
S1: of employees, with over $150 million in revenue that we
S1: will generate just this year. Now, don't get me wrong.
S1: There are moments of overwhelm, but I never think of
S1: myself as, oh, I'm feeling burnt out because I put
S1: these things in place that allow me to just integrate
S1: my work and my life. The first one would be
S1: I integrate my work in my life. You'll notice I'm
S1: sitting here in my home right now. I'm not at
S1: the office. I'm in my sweatpants. I don't know if
S1: you can see this. I'm not that flexible. I'm literally
S1: in my sweatpants because I'm integrating my work and my life,
S1: and I don't put these constraints on myself inside our
S1: business that I have to be somebody I'm not. I'm
S1: good with my team seeing me and my sweatpants. I'm
S1: good with them being in my house and things not
S1: being all put together all the time. When you feel
S1: burnt out, you might want to ask yourself this question.
S1: Do you feel like you're having to be somebody that
S1: you're not? When I feel like I'm having to be this, like,
S1: perfect version of Natalie that fits in this box, yeah,
S1: that can be exhausting, because I'm not being myself. But
S1: if you are being yourself and you're setting that example
S1: for your team and you're creating that environment in your business,
S1: you are going to get further and you're not going
S1: to feel like you have to pretend or put on
S1: some facade. That's exhausting. You're just being you. The second
S1: thing that I do in our business to avoid burnout
S1: is I choose to work on projects that are exciting
S1: to me. This weekend, there's a weekend. We don't have
S1: an event, so what am I going to do tomorrow?
S1: I'm going to record the audiobook for my new book
S1: that's coming out called Start the Work. This audiobook is
S1: something that's exciting to me. I loved getting to write
S1: this book. I was passionate about writing this book. It
S1: was something that I recognized over the next ten years.
S1: I was going to be so proud of myself for
S1: actually finishing, so I don't feel burnt out that I
S1: have to go record my audiobook. What a gift. And
S1: a cool thing that today Natalie, at 31 years old,
S1: gets to go do this. If you would have told
S1: me that I got to do this ten years ago
S1: and that this is what my career would look like,
S1: I would be over the moon. I wouldn't have believed
S1: you that I would be on my second book already.
S1: And so you have to choose projects that you are
S1: actually interested in, that you feel are making an impact
S1: and furthering you in getting to where you want to go.
S1: Speaking of, if you want to order my new book,
S1: you should go to Carter ventures.com/start the work. It is amazing.
S1: I put blood, sweat and tears. Well, I don't know
S1: that I put blood in and I really didn't sweat
S1: that much while writing it. And I don't remember crying,
S1: but I did put a lot of effort and hard
S1: work into the book. And if you're interested in growing
S1: and scaling, it has the best tactics. But back to burnout.
S1: The next thing that I prioritize is my health. I
S1: work out almost every single day, and I choose to
S1: eat things that make me feel good, but I also
S1: don't beat myself up if I'm not perfect in those areas.
S1: That's how you feel burnt out. You beat yourself up
S1: and you're frustrated and you're mad at yourself for maybe
S1: not being the perfect expectation that you have of yourself.
S1: So I try to eat healthy most days, but if
S1: I decide that I want to have cake for two
S1: meals in one day, which might have happened just a
S1: few weeks ago, I'm not stressed about it. I'm just
S1: going to eat cake for two meals in a row.
S1: Who cares? Don't feel like you just have to put
S1: yourself in this confinement where you're setting all of these
S1: systems up for yourself, and you feel trapped in the
S1: decisions that you have to make every single day. Yes, ideally,
S1: you're making great decisions on behalf of you, your body,
S1: your business, and the people who depend on you. But
S1: if you aren't perfect, that is okay. The expectation is
S1: always so much worse than what reality really is. It
S1: is not that big of a deal. If you do
S1: not perfectly take care of yourself and do self care
S1: all the time, do what works for you, where you
S1: feel like you are empowered by the decisions that you
S1: make each and every day. One thing that changed everything
S1: for me as it related to burnout is saying no.
S1: I say no so often the majority of the time
S1: I'm saying no. If you want to get lunch with me, no.
S1: If you want to go get dinner with me, no.
S1: If you want to go see a movie, nope. Not
S1: going to happen. I'm not interested in doing things that
S1: don't interest me. And oftentimes as business owners, especially if
S1: you're starting out or you're just getting going, you're having
S1: to break the habits and break the routines that you've
S1: been in in the past. And you've likely had more
S1: time in the past than you do today. By saying
S1: no to things that are not getting you closer to
S1: your goals.
S2: You are.
S1: Freeing yourself of the burnout. You're freeing yourself of the
S1: expectation that your family members put on you. Your friends
S1: might put on you. Complete strangers might put on you.
S1: You're just saying no, this is not the right time
S1: for me now. One of my hacks for this is
S1: if I'm going to say no to somebody, I'm going
S1: to say, oh, you know, this is a season for
S1: me where I'm just not doing those types of things.
S1: Maybe it's going shopping with friends or going out to lunch,
S1: or having dinner with family a couple times a week.
S1: You're in a season of sacrifice and you share that
S1: with the people that are asking you to spend time
S1: with them. And then if you're out of the season
S1: of sacrifice and you want to go spend time with
S1: those people, go for it. But if at that point
S1: you still don't want to spend time with those people
S1: and they are not helpful to you and they are
S1: not supportive of you, and they're not getting you closer
S1: to where you want to go, you can still say no.
S1: Just because somebody asks you for something doesn't mean that
S1: you have to actually do it. And this is one
S1: of the most effective strategies for not having to deal
S1: with burnout. If you're really struggling with burnout in this
S1: particular moment, one of the hacks that I used to
S1: use that helped me significantly was watching something that was funny.
S1: Brian and I went through a really stressful time a
S1: few years ago, and there was nothing that we could
S1: talk about. There was no person that we could go
S1: to dinner with that wouldn't just pull us back to
S1: this place of stress and friction and anxiety. So instead
S1: of having conversations, we started watching the TV show Impractical Jokers.
S1: And for 30 minutes every night, he and I would
S1: just laugh hysterically and take our minds off of the
S1: thing that was stressful. Because at that moment, at 9:00
S1: at night, you're not doing anything productive to solve the problem.
S1: So we loved watching Impractical Jokers. It got us through
S1: this really stressful period. And still today we learned something
S1: from that, which is when things are stressful and they're difficult,
S1: you can still make time to laugh. There are still
S1: things in life that are funny that you can joke about,
S1: that you can be playful with. And just yesterday there
S1: was something that came up that was a little bit
S1: difficult to handle, and he walked in and we did
S1: this whole funny skit about how it's ridiculous that everybody
S1: is just like clapping when they see Brandon, and everyone
S1: gets so excited to see Brandon. And yet most of
S1: the time he's like all grumpy. And so we did
S1: this little skit and we laughed about it, and we
S1: totally took the stress and pressure out of the moment
S1: of the surrounding circumstances. So if you're dealing with burnout
S1: right now, maybe you just need to find a way
S1: to laugh and to bring people into your environment who
S1: allow you to have a good laugh. I truly believe
S1: that there is a way to build and scale a
S1: remarkable business without feeling the stress and pressure and bringing
S1: that burnout feeling into everything else that you do. You
S1: can make very distinct choices to help you enjoy the process,
S1: to help you experience it in its fullest. Learn from
S1: those moments. Appreciate the moments when things aren't so stressful,
S1: so that when you do go into seasons that are challenging,
S1: you have those positive moments that you can reflect on
S1: and say, oh, it was worth it to go through
S1: that thing back then, because I got out of it
S1: and was able to create this. So now I'm just
S1: going through one of those seasons again. But it will end.
S1: I will get out of it, and it's not forever.
S1: As long as you can keep that mindset in place,
S1: you will be successful.