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Sam 0:09 You're tuning into the Still Minimum Wage podcast with your host, Courtney, Fifa & Sam! We're three creative entrepreneurs who met during a group coaching program and started a podcast so that we can share all of our struggles, talk about all the real and the raw of owning a creative business. Each week, someone's gonna step into the hot seat. And we're gonna get coached by our other two ladies on the call talking about business systems and getting organised, and what does it look like to finally build a business that pays you a little bit more than minimum wage.

Courtney 0:50 Welcome back to the Still Minimum Wage podcast with Courtney, Sam and Fifa. We're here to coach you through another issue this week. Every week we take turns rotating sharing about a specific struggle and our other two coaches will talk the person who is struggling with this through their mindset and give them takeaways and things to try. Our topic for today is what every single entrepreneur is going to encounter, if you haven't already, and it is burn out! So Sam is going to be in our hot seat today! Sam, can you tell us about your battle of burnout and how you feel like it's really blocking you in business?

Sam 1:35 Yeah, so I'm a brand designer for Instagram and I help coaches and service providers stand out on Instagram. My business literally exploded when the world shut down. I just had a flood of people asking to work with me. Especially with my program that I do with my friend who's a coach, it's called 'Surefire CEO' where we take coaches and we do business coaching and branding at the same time. That was like 15 clients at once, and it was just me at the time. I was still learning the ins and outs of the business that they don't teach you in design school, which by the way, I say that because I went to school for design. Taxes, hiring, having a process for clients to go through... just all that admin stuff on top of marketing. Because even though you kind of have a hot moment when people are interested in you, like ... there's still that voice in the back if I just like, okay, this is gonna be over soon. You know you're gonna finish with these clients and then like, who's next? Where's that coming from? And so ... for me, it happened rather quickly. But I think others relate to- like just eventually you're going to get to that point where things start to pile up and you kind of feel overwhelmed and you don't know what to do with it.

Courtney 3:04 Can you define for us what- or tell us what burnout looks like for you? Do you know when you've hit it? What are the symptoms?

Sam 3:15 Great question! From what I heard, burnout is different for everyone. I think, but usually it's when you kind of are juggling a lot of things and you still feel like you're spinning your wheels. So things could be looking good on the surface where like, money's coming in, you have that attention, and things are moving. But it just feels like nothing's working and like, you don't have control and then you don't also have direction as to what's the next step that's gonna move you forward. You're doing a bunch of things, but you still feel like you're in the same place. Like unicycling in one spot while you're juggling balls.

Courtney 3:58 That's a really good way of describing it. For you personally, what do you feel like your reaction to burnout is? So whether you're there or you're approaching there, have you seen any signs in your actions, in your attitude or in your mood?

Sam 4:12 Energetically, I'm just drained at the end of the day. I don't feel motivated to get out of bed and do the same thing the next day. I get to wind down on the weekend, Monday starts and I'm like, I hit it good and like yes! had a really great Monday. Tuesday, it starts to kind of slow. And then Wednesday, I'm just on the floor, like, I don't want to do anything today.

Fifa 4:37 One thing that I have heard before from Mel Robbins. I know you love Mel Robbins. But I did remember coming across one of her videos where she was talking about overwhelm and burnout. And she said that whenever you start to feel like, you know, your head is about to explode or you just don't feel like doing anything, just stop what you're doing, and take a bath. She says it just works wonders. It just helps to relax and just stay in the moment. I take baths, and it does help so much and just calming the mind. Just take that moment to meditate a bit, maybe bring it your guided meditation or something while you're taking a bath. It does help to just like, calm down and take that break in the middle of the day even when you feel like you have so much stuff to do because I've felt that before. And when I did take a bath, I would feel so much better and come back feeling more refreshed so maybe you can try that.

Courtney 5:47 Those are some really good points to just take a break from work and to separate and maintain balance between the rest of your life and your hustle. So thanks for adding that in, Fifa. Definitely! I've been more into baths as well so those are some really good pointers and good reminders that we can't be about work 24/7 even in the startup, in the hustle mode. Cuz you know, for all of us we're in that first full year of running our businesses. I was actually in a clubhouse room yesterday and they were talking about kind of the myth of hustle culture and where hustle culture has come from. When they were talking about that-especially for coaches, like you can work as hard as you possibly can work but things could still not be generating income, generating revenue. Referring back to Sam's description about burnout, it's not that you're not doing anything and you're totally out of commission, but you tend to get to that burnout mark when you're juggling a lot of things that you feel like you're not moving the needle.

Courtney 6:54 So Sam, I had another question for you. And that is, now that you recognize what your symptoms of burnout are, what does it look like when you're not burnt out? So when you get that jolt of energy and when you feel really energetic, have you noticed any triggers or anything that gets you in that mode? And what does it feel like when you're really motivated and energized?

Sam 8:54 So, a lot of like... the burnout thoughts are really, I have so much to do I can't disapppoint my clients, there's not enough time for anything. And so, I wouldn't say that stuff goes away. But in a way, I don't really beat myself up too much about work stuff when I've gotten something done for myself because then I feel bad like oh, all I did was work. It's kind of difficult to now, because we're still in the pandemic and so it's not a lot of socialization or escaping the rooms that we work in. Hm... good question. So, I've been trying to implement better morning routine habits just to kind of get in the right mindset because my default is I wake up and I have like 10 things to do so I'm going to get started right away. So, other than like the priorities of taking my dogs out and feeding them breakfast, my mind is like, okay, what do I have to do today? So, what I've been trying to do is... so recently I changed my schedule so that the mornings are focused on my personal development. So things like meditation, I try to do... Melissa Piers' meditation stuff I like. And also, I'm trying to hydrate more. Sleep is really probably a contributing factor to feeling burnt out just because like energetically, like... if the energy is not there and you push really hard, it's not a good combination. So working on sleep. Personal time ... so, I have a side project. It's a YouTube channel and one of my dreams is to having a Youtube channel, if not multiple. And so ... I've really taken a conscious decision to block out time first thing in the morning or after I wake up and get ready for the day. I sit down and I spend an hour just kinda working on the channel. Like no hard design or anything but just .. after working on that I feel like, oh cool I did something for myself and then there's still a lot of time for business.

Fifa 9:32 Yeah... I'm pretty much the same. I'm pretty big with my morning routines probably since one or two years now but it's really like last year that I took the initiative to always take at least like maybe 1.5 to 2 hours every morning before I do anything, before jumping into any work. I usually always try to do some meditation and my affirmations. I kind of got the inspiration from you Sam where when you were talking about it, that you need some time for yourself to do your own stuff. And I think that's so important because I now take about an hour every morning to just like, do something for my own business and not always client work. So that really really does help a lot and it doesn't make you feel like crap. I remember when I was working at a corporate job and I had a really chill manager. Every time I felt like I was starting to get burnt out and, you know, I had a lot of stuff she would always be like, "okay just calm down... Just stop what you're doing and just think nobody nobody's gonna die. Nobody's gonna like- go into.. well people are gonna go into frenzies of course but like, just think okay no one's dying today. Just take it easy and just step back and prioritize." Brain dumps are really good too. Just doing some brain dumping maybe once a week would be really really beneficial because throughout the day, especially as entrepreneurs, especially as creative entrepreneurs, we have a million things in your head all the time. And it would be really beneficial if you just take a few minutes, just like five to 10 minutes and just sit down. Brain dump everything, all the shit that you have to do -just dump it down on paper. And then, all that stuff is just going to get released and I feel like that helps so much because every time I do that exercise, I feel like my brain is just refreshed. And then you look back on it and then you prioritize later on but if you have so much stuff in your head, you're going to carry it out day by day and then, hour by hour. It's just going to always be there and it's going to make your head really really heavy. So I do advise just doing more brain dumps. It does help a lot.

Sam 11:53 Yeah, I definitely have a bad habit of holding all the thoughts in my head but then also it's not even just like creative thoughts and business thoughts. It's like I'm an emotional person so a lot of emotional thoughts too. It's just all circling there ... weighing me down. And so, I definitely have to make it a point to do maybe two dumps a day. Just one in the morning to kind of get all the initial thoughts out and then at the end to kind of collect what I feel like wasn't done for the day I guess.

Courtney 12:24 So you mentioned that you know Monday comes around and you feel energetic, you have a mission and then by Wednesday, you're starting to hit a block. I also want to know if within your day, are there times where energy is flowing more and then you're kind of out of gas like later within the day? And you can also reflect about your month. Are there months in total or times during the month where you do have that energy and what is that connected to? Because there might be a block of your energy and your productivity where you're working and then you're hitting something that you don't enjoy doing. Then everything else that you do enjoy is getting blocked up behind that. And I ask that because you and I have worked together on different projects and there will be times where ... you're very resistant to doing something and sometimes it's an energy thing, sometimes it's like a bad fit. And so ... take a moment and reflect. And our audience can do this too, you know, when you are dealing and struggling with burnout, what are the things that you were doing prior to that that may be leading to it? Is there something that's blocking your energy flow? Or just a task in your business that you don't enjoy doing? Sam, have you recognised anything like that? When are you most productive during the day and during the month?

Sam 13:47 Wow, that's a loaded question Courtney, thank you. I'm gonna have to journal on that. I will say that I do keep track on Notion what my productivity level is, based on my own metric, my energy levels and my focus are on a day-to-day basis. And there is a pattern where Wednesdays are kind of a low day for me. It used to be Fridays but then I put my calls on Fridays and so that solves the problem because I was doing something Friday. But creatively, I found that Friday I'm not really super creative. There isn't necessarily a time of day where I'm more creative in doing design work. It's more like I just blocked the time out and the design has to get done and then it just does. As far as like creating content, again, not a particular time of day where I work best but like I really have to catch myself off. And then also, I kind of have to feel like there's nothing urgent in regards to clients that needs my attention. And then, I think, with working with you it's really helped minimize a lot of overthinking because I don't have to make a decision about my marketing. And that's usually what stresses me out a lot. It's either not fulfilling on client work on time or like not having more clients because I'm not focused on my marketing. And so ... I feel like I did solve that problem in hiring you to help me. I mean, did that answer the question?

Courtney 15:17 Yeah, that gives a lot of insight. You know like ... it's partially decision making is something that contributed to your burnout. It's just having decision fatigue. And so, pacing out when you need to make different decisions and getting resources and people to help you make the decisions in areas where you aren't an expert and need that reassurance is a huge way to prevent burnout. And that's why outsourcing is a huge thing too.

Courtney 15:42 Now, caveat for our audience. You know, if you're building out your business you may not feel like you have the funds to outsource and that is a totally different episode. But it is very important to identify the areas within the business that you don't enjoy doing at all and just are a complete energy sucker. And so that those are the first things that you can outsource when you get to that point in the business where it's crucial to move forward and that can be a time indicator, it can be a money indicator. For myself personally, I've noticed that there are certain tasks where until it gets done, I feel like I'm holding back all of the fun work that I need to do. For me, what is really fun is making content, it's making things and not necessarily being on calls. And so, for me I've stacked my day where there's only particular days where I take calls and there's whole days where I do only creation. Whether it's content, it's instructional courses, or it's something else with my hands, whether I'm making something for Etsy. And then, my most creative energy is in the evenings. So I placed my calls earlier in the day. And for me, I find that if I take a call later in the evening, I kind of resent it because I feel like it's cutting into my like, creation time. And so ... those are two things that have helped me. And then the last thing that I noticed and when we were in group coaching, this is a huge thing that I did all the time is, I would just try and fit too much stuff into a day like, the quantity of things I was trying to do. The average person can get done six to seven things and I was easily trying to fit in 10 to 12 and then would feel like I sucked when I didn't get most of them done. But it was like five days in a row of trying to finish 12 things in that day. So, pacing myself has been really key to preventing spiralling and just spinning my wheels because I'm not focused on anything and trying to do too many things.

Sam 16:19 I just wanted to ask, what were you referring to when you said I was so resistant?

Courtney 17:49 There are ... certain things like going live or putting yourself out there like, usually talking to other people where ... or like we laid out a plan it's like okay, you just need to make these five things. And you'll share with Fifa and I, you know we have a group chat that we are in all week and it's like, guys, I don't feel like I have any energy to make anything and I don't know why. And so ... they'll just be certain things where the energy is very different or there have been other times where, even if it's not something that you feel it comes naturally to you, like I know I got to do it and I'm just going to do it. And so, I've seen these two sides of the different coin and I was wondering if there was something that was attributed to when you do feel resistant.

Sam 18:32 You don't notice if the resistance was before working together and there's less resistance working together? Would you say that's accurate?

Courtney 18:41 Real talk right here everybody. There's a little bit after still. Less so but there's still times where I'll be reading what you're saying and I'm like okay I think we need to address something. There's like a block here like, this is something that is really challenging. But I wonder too, and you can answer this, is there a little bit of feast and famine mindset going on? Where there's times where it's just an overflood, like there's a flood of work, a flood of people coming in.. and then you're trying to get all of that done. And then when there's nothing going on, you're so drained because you just like invested a lot of energy into this flood of work coming in and then it's just perpetuating itself?

Sam 19:19 I do feel like that was last year where it was like super on and then it was off. And I was just like okay, what do I do next? But then another wave hits.

Courtney 19:31 So with the flood that comes in, do you feel a lot of pressure to book everybody into like, getting through it as soon as possible? Is there an added factor there?

Sam 19:39 No, I don't feel any pressure to book everybody. The goal is always, can I help this person? Is the vibe there? Is there a good energy between us where I feel like, we would have a good working relationship? I would say ... a lot of the drain comes from those moments when I am doing surefire because that is a legit old group but I'm still taking personal clients. So, having to manage them with only one team member to help me fulfill those design works gets stressful sometimes. And it's like, I'm building my reputation so it just feels like very critical that I can't disappoint people. Even though like I know, I could talk to myself and be like, listen, it is not the end of the world if you're a day late or something like that. You can always apologize but in the heat of the moment I'm just like, oh my god I'm gonna fail. And then for the days where those are over and I kind of have room to breathe, I'm just like, how do I show up again? Even though, I just did a live yesterday and it was fire thanks to you guys. But that drained me so much. Like, I'm so good at speaking. I will say that I can talk for days. But being in front of people drains me. I'm definitely more introvert than extrovert. I just happen to have the gift of being a good communicator, you know, graphic design. But like, just energetically showing up even if it's on like video or the group setting. I love giving value but energetically it drains me.

Courtney 20:52 I did notice that your energy was on another level yesterday. You're energetic here on the podcast but like watching you, I was like whoa, where did this come from? So it makes sense that you're really exerting a lot and you're giving a lot in those times. And so ... maybe there is, and this is something you and I have worked on, just some systems that you can put in place to do the work for you of capturing the follow up without you having to exert additional energy. Whether it's making a new marketing container of giving away where people can submit their information to you and you can communicate when the follow through will happen. In a sense, relieve that pressure from having to be on for another 24 hours to capitalize on that opportunity.

Courtney 22:09 One more question for you. Do you feel like your pressure valve of performing, whether it's showing up, it's designing, it's doing client work ... is always on? Or do you have times where you are turning that pressure valve down low? And that can be connected to self care time.

Sam 22:29 Yeah, I would say yes there's a on and off switch to the pressure valve. I don't think it's necessarily tied to self care or how many morning goes. It's really tied to the cycle of projects I think. Because I'll start on a Monday and then I'll end on a second Friday. So those second Fridays are usually like really draining days but then at the end of the release, I'll start anew on Monday but there's a little bit of the on and off throughout those two weeks where I'm just, "oh my gosh, I have to make sure that this is done, right." I would say it's a little less than it was last year and for the reason that I'm going to say, pricing attributes to that. Now I feel appropriately priced where I can kind of take a breather because I'm not taking on as many clients and that's helpful. I found a good median between how many clients I can work with at what price point. And then also because of that price point, I'm able to get help on things that are maybe like, not things I like to do or decisions I don't necessarily need to make for myself. I think that contributes.

Fifa 23:39 When it comes to your days, how many clients do you do work for per day? Do you like work for three clients in one day, or how is that looking like it comes to client work?

Sam 23:55 Yeah, so we're closing on January right now as we record this. Kind of like six clients in January. I don't feel like with the amount of clients it was that it really changed it. I usually work on one main client project per day, or on a day. But if they're just little tweaks I kind of like mash them in a work session. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter anymore what I work on on one day, it's pretty manageable and again I think it's because of price point and being able to get help.

Courtney 24:30 So when I think about burnout I think of it as like a big upright piano and you're pulling it by like a rope, right? Like you're trying to pull it along to get it somewhere. And then, if you have a lot of energy you can pull it fast. And then, you know you hit burnout when you're like slowing down. It's kind of like that cartoon character were they're like pulling an anvil, they're just like almost down to the ground, the sweats like pouring down our face. And so ... we've talked a lot about different areas to approach and to remediate. But my question for you is, do you feel like you have clarity? Is this burnout coming from like, is that piano a personal block? Is it the weight of the business? Like, you know just the things that you have to deal with in the business? Or is it the way your work style is structured? Is it any one of those three?

Sam 25:20 If I had to pick one, I would say ... personal burden feels like the most accurate. I think workstyle is pretty solid. I don't think there's-

Courtney 25:31 It doesn't sound like it's there.

Sam 25:33 Yeah, like business structure was an issue last year but I've cleaned things up. Especially with having a process for the client so it's pretty fluid. It's like this day, this day, this way, like they're moving through the "assembly line" pretty smoothly. And ... yeah, so it's a personal burden.

Courtney 25:51 Awesome, so a lot of Fifa's tips about reflection, taking time, getting that rest which you identified for yourself as making sure you're getting adequate sleep are going to be super key to test out. You know you might need to try a couple of them to figure out what actually resonates. I'm sure Fifa can go on for forever about self care practices because she's really prioritized that and you can tell it shows. But for our listeners, you know, just think about like those three areas to identify where's that block coming from. It's amazing Sam. You did turn your business around where that was a huge block for you and causing that burnout. You've walked our audience through some really key decisions that you made to remedy that. So, our listeners if that's something where you're getting really burned out by, go back and listen to that section there. Sam, do you feel like you have some steps that you can take away?

Sam 26:42 Yeah, absolutely.

Fifa 26:45 So I randomly came across this book and I think Sam would do really really well reading this book because it gives so many practical tips. The title of the book is called "How to thrive in a world of too much busy," and it's by Tony Crabbe. It gives so many actionable tips in it. For example, it does talk a lot about, even if you feel like you're really really busy, it's not about time management. It's about priority management and that is just so key when it comes to managing all of the tasks that you have to do throughout the day. So I advise anybody who is interested to just read this book there's like at the end of every chapter it does summarise key points of every chapter and also gives you exercises that you could do that can help you manage your day.

Courtney 27:38 Yeah, that's actually something we didn't cover is that it's really important to identify your priorities and then to have your cutoff point. So, as I mentioned, to know how many things you can realistically do in a day and it's not just for that day but like for that week. And you make those decisions based on the priorities so you need to prioritize some actions that are money making, some that are client serving if you are a creative entrepreneur and to keep that balance there. So definitely a great book recommendation, I encourage you guys to check it out. Thanks for calling that out Fifa.

Courtney 28:12 But yeah you know burnout does look different for everybody. It's not going to be the same cause and so the remedies aren't going to be the same. But identifying where your block is in terms of energy flow and mindset and just processing things, especially for creatives is really important. And you need to set aside time to refill your creative bank. Where do you get inspiration from? Whether it's learning, listening to a podcast, it's doing and making stuff just for yourself. Make sure you build those things into you, time to rebuild your health along with refilling your bathtub when it's time to take a bath again to relax. So Fifa's going to give us our takeaways for the episode.

Fifa 28:56 So we've discussed a lot of things throughout this episode but probably the two most important things to keep in mind would be to do brain dumps often. Journal whenever you can. Those things are going to help you so much in terms of getting the shit that is just stuck in your head all day long and getting it out on paper. And when you see your ideas and when you see all of these things on paper, you're going to be able to actually think better because your head is clear and you can visualize all the words on paper. It actually does help in terms of processing your information and coming up with new breakthroughs and new ideas. Another thing is try not to pack your days with too many tasks. Prioritize. It's not about time management, it's about priority management. So take some time at the beginning of the day ideally, because at the end of the day, usually you're already burnt out. Take some time like five to 10 minutes, list out the tasks that you want to do but prioritize three so that if those three are done, then you can move on to other things. But at least getting those three things accomplished by the end of every day. At least you're going to feel satisfied with what you've accomplished even if you didn't finish the rest of the things that were on your task list. So prioritize over time management.

Courtney 30:25 We're now going to highlight our free resource of the week. Every week we will tell you about one of our favourite tools that is low to no cost because we're starting out that entrepreneurial life and want to use our resources wisely. So to help with that priority in time management, our tool for the week is Calendly. It is a way to get people to book time with you and to coordinate meetings without the needless back and forth of emailing. You can set up a link and have different calendars for the different types of meetings that you want to be scheduling and even collect all of your other contact's information such as their email. And you can give them pre-qualifying questions. I use it for my discovery calls and actually can make applications for it. And then, the person who wants to meet with you can pick a time that you've preset that works for their schedule. So give it a try at calendly.com. It's super crucial for my business and it was the best way to get me out of inbox management and keeping track of "wait, when did this person say they wanted to meet with me?" Because you can also add a zoom integration so it will automatically create a Zoom meeting for you.

Sam 31:35 That concludes our episode of Still Minimum Wage podcast! We hope you got some valuable takeaways from it. If you did, we'd love for you to leave us review with what you learned and be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple or Spotify or wherever you subscribe and listen so you don't miss any episodes! This has been Sam, Fifa and Courtney. We'll catch you next time!