Speaker: 00:00:00

you. can't do it all yourself. And when you try to

Speaker: 00:00:03

do it all yourself. That is the fastest path

Speaker: 00:00:07

to burnout. Doing it all yourself is the

Speaker: 00:00:10

fastest path to burnout. You are now tuned

Speaker: 00:00:14

in to the mom CEO suite podcast. I'm your host,

Speaker: 00:00:18

Felicia, wife, mom, and entrepreneur. In

Speaker: 00:00:22

this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur journey along with

Speaker: 00:00:25

strategies that will help you build your online business operations

Speaker: 00:00:29

in a sustainable way. The goal is to help you build a business that

Speaker: 00:00:33

fits into your lifestyle as a mom who values putting family

Speaker: 00:00:36

first. We will also hear the experiences and expertise

Speaker: 00:00:40

of other moms with service based businesses. You'll get a peek into

Speaker: 00:00:44

our journeys, so you'll know that you aren't alone. Motherhood

Speaker: 00:00:48

gets hard. Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together,

Speaker: 00:00:52

we can do hard things. Welcome to

Speaker: 00:00:56

the suite.

Speaker: 00:01:01

Hey friend, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much for being here. So

Speaker: 00:01:04

today I wanted to talk a little bit about burnout

Speaker: 00:01:08

because it is something that lots of moms.

Speaker: 00:01:11

Experience. And transparently, I have not

Speaker: 00:01:15

experienced burnout. Um, I have had periods

Speaker: 00:01:18

where I might feel tired or overwhelmed, but I've never been in a place where

Speaker: 00:01:22

I've, experienced a burnout. And so I want to kind of have this

Speaker: 00:01:26

conversation today from that perspective. I want to

Speaker: 00:01:29

share how to avoid burnout as a busy mom

Speaker: 00:01:32

preneur. And so just so we're all kind of on the

Speaker: 00:01:36

same page, what exactly is burnout? This is how

Speaker: 00:01:40

it's defined. Burnout is a state of physical, emotional,

Speaker: 00:01:44

and mental exhaustion. Caused by

Speaker: 00:01:47

prolonged stress. Typically from trying to

Speaker: 00:01:51

meet excessive demands over an extended period

Speaker: 00:01:55

of time. So burnout is not like, oh, you feel tired for a

Speaker: 00:01:58

day or a couple of days. This is really like

Speaker: 00:02:01

prolonged extended periods of times. Um, it

Speaker: 00:02:05

often results from feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and

Speaker: 00:02:09

then unable to meet constant work or personal

Speaker: 00:02:12

life expectations. All right. And then when I looked

Speaker: 00:02:16

up, some of the symptoms were. Um, it's

Speaker: 00:02:20

broken down into three categories and.

Speaker: 00:02:24

So physical symptoms. Our fatigue, headaches,

Speaker: 00:02:27

sleep disturbances, and lowered immunity.

Speaker: 00:02:31

Emotional symptoms might be feeling detached.

Speaker: 00:02:36

Feeling hopeless, irritable and unmotivated.

Speaker: 00:02:40

And then mental symptoms. Might be.

Speaker: 00:02:44

Decreased productivity, difficulty concentrating,

Speaker: 00:02:48

and a sense of any effectiveness. And so,

Speaker: 00:02:51

um, if you're feeling any of these things, Even if

Speaker: 00:02:55

it's not in a prolonged state, right? You want to catch

Speaker: 00:02:59

it before it gets to this burnout phase. But if you have

Speaker: 00:03:02

identify any of these things, That might be an indication that you

Speaker: 00:03:06

just might want to evaluate what's happening. In your

Speaker: 00:03:09

life so that you can rectify a situation.

Speaker: 00:03:13

Change some things before you get to a state of burnout.

Speaker: 00:03:18

And there've been people in the podcast in the past. Who have

Speaker: 00:03:21

shared, you know, specifically what burnout or even what

Speaker: 00:03:25

like anxiety has looked like for them. So I

Speaker: 00:03:28

will try to find those episodes and link them in the show description.

Speaker: 00:03:32

But of course it looks different for everybody. If you

Speaker: 00:03:36

feel like again, you are experiencing any of these symptoms, definitely

Speaker: 00:03:39

go, um, seek professional help or find somebody to talk

Speaker: 00:03:43

to. There is no shame in that. So I want to

Speaker: 00:03:47

give just really quick three specific

Speaker: 00:03:50

ways that you can, well, not that you can a

Speaker: 00:03:54

hundred percent avoid burnout, but that can help you avoid burnout.

Speaker: 00:03:58

Okay. So number one is saying

Speaker: 00:04:02

no. My sister joke with me. Um,

Speaker: 00:04:06

That I say no too much. But. As a

Speaker: 00:04:10

mom in business, there are so many.

Speaker: 00:04:14

Different things that are competing for our

Speaker: 00:04:17

attention. And we cannot always say

Speaker: 00:04:21

yes to all of the things. Like at the same

Speaker: 00:04:24

time. So if you're trying to mess you say you're in a

Speaker: 00:04:28

season when you, you have little ones, it might not make sense for

Speaker: 00:04:32

you to be, um, in this state in your business where

Speaker: 00:04:35

you are hustling and you're doing the late nights. You

Speaker: 00:04:39

know, there's lots of conversation on social media, from moms

Speaker: 00:04:43

who would prefer to have a coach who was also a

Speaker: 00:04:47

mom who also understands the lifestyle of being a mom and having

Speaker: 00:04:50

little kids. Because the capacity is different. It's just different.

Speaker: 00:04:54

And we're not able to do the same things in the same way.

Speaker: 00:04:58

Right. We can't stay up, you know, until midnight, all the time

Speaker: 00:05:02

working on the business or burning the midnight oil. Because we're

Speaker: 00:05:05

probably tending to kids. If you have a baby, your baby might be waking up

Speaker: 00:05:09

in the middle of the night, you might need to get your rest. So you

Speaker: 00:05:11

can wake up in the morning to be able to be present for your kids.

Speaker: 00:05:15

And so having to say no, We'll

Speaker: 00:05:19

help you to avoid a situation where you're burnt out, because remember

Speaker: 00:05:23

going back to how we kind of define burnt out. It's like feeling

Speaker: 00:05:26

overwhelmed by, um, all of these

Speaker: 00:05:30

expectations and Expectations that are unmet, you

Speaker: 00:05:34

can't keep up with it all because it's too much. If

Speaker: 00:05:37

you feel like you are doing too much, then that means you have

Speaker: 00:05:41

said yes to too many things. Right. And

Speaker: 00:05:45

you know, I don't, I don't subscribe to this, this thinking, but

Speaker: 00:05:49

there's. This idea that women. Or moms

Speaker: 00:05:53

are super women and. I'm not a fan of it. Like we don't have

Speaker: 00:05:57

to be superwoman. We can just be human. Right.

Speaker: 00:06:01

And with humanity comes weakness. It comes

Speaker: 00:06:04

frailty, you know? And so we don't have

Speaker: 00:06:08

to always be on 100% of the time.

Speaker: 00:06:12

So it's okay to say no to things. No, you

Speaker: 00:06:15

can't take on more work for this client

Speaker: 00:06:19

or. No, you can't do a speaking engagement.

Speaker: 00:06:22

No, I can't do this collaboration right now.

Speaker: 00:06:26

Um, and it's not that you, you won't ever be able to do. It's just

Speaker: 00:06:30

a right now. if you know what your capacity is, if you

Speaker: 00:06:33

have taken the time to truly understand. All of the things that you are

Speaker: 00:06:37

responsible for. Uh, if you've taken the time to truly understand what your

Speaker: 00:06:41

priorities are. Then you'll know what your capacity is.

Speaker: 00:06:45

and I talk more about that in the harmony private podcast.

Speaker: 00:06:49

But knowing your priorities and then saying no to things that are

Speaker: 00:06:53

not in alignment with your priority. We'll help you to

Speaker: 00:06:57

avoid a situation where you are.

Speaker: 00:07:00

Um, not able to meet excessive demands. Okay.

Speaker: 00:07:04

And you have prolonged stress. So that's the first thing

Speaker: 00:07:08

is saying, No. The

Speaker: 00:07:11

second thing. And I, I kinda talked about this a lot on

Speaker: 00:07:15

social media. But you want to have some type of

Speaker: 00:07:19

daily. Rhythm. Some people might call it a routine. I

Speaker: 00:07:22

prefer rhythm because it's more flexible. A routine is a little

Speaker: 00:07:26

bit more rigid and it's time-bound whereas a rhythm is

Speaker: 00:07:30

just more so a framework. And it's flexible. It

Speaker: 00:07:33

allows you to flow in and out, but you still know what. Nice to get

Speaker: 00:07:37

done in the day. Now sometimes when we don't have these

Speaker: 00:07:40

routines or rhythms. Uh, we have not given our time

Speaker: 00:07:44

any assignment. And so we may find that we end up

Speaker: 00:07:48

doing things that are wasting our time. We may find that we are

Speaker: 00:07:52

doing things that again, We don't necessarily need to be doing, we

Speaker: 00:07:55

shouldn't be doing because they are not in alignment with our priorities.

Speaker: 00:07:59

And so you just want to, Take some time to create whatever your daily

Speaker: 00:08:02

rhythm is going to be. What does that look like for you? And

Speaker: 00:08:06

your family. And again, this is going to look different for everybody.

Speaker: 00:08:11

I always recommend that. However you choose to do it, whether

Speaker: 00:08:14

it's, you know, very detailed. Or just very light,

Speaker: 00:08:18

do some type of time study. So you can really identify where

Speaker: 00:08:22

your time is going, how you are spending your time. And you might

Speaker: 00:08:26

find that. You've spent way more

Speaker: 00:08:29

time doing things that were not important, or you spent way more

Speaker: 00:08:33

time. Uh, focused on things that were not

Speaker: 00:08:37

your priority. And you'll be able to make changes. You may

Speaker: 00:08:41

find that the things that you do consider priority take

Speaker: 00:08:44

you longer than you actually expected.

Speaker: 00:08:48

And so when you know, How long things actually take you

Speaker: 00:08:52

and, you know, your priorities, you'll be able to create a rhythm that makes sense

Speaker: 00:08:55

for your family. Um, and this will kind of eliminate

Speaker: 00:08:59

time wasters and eliminate, think slipping into your

Speaker: 00:09:03

day. That are not going to be beneficial to you that are not going

Speaker: 00:09:06

to bring you peace that are not going to allow you to be

Speaker: 00:09:10

productive. Um, and that are not just in alignment

Speaker: 00:09:14

with your priorities. So that's the second thing.

Speaker: 00:09:18

And then finally. You want to delegate? So.

Speaker: 00:09:23

You definitely can have it all. Right there. Some people

Speaker: 00:09:27

believe that you can't have it all. I believe you can have it all, but

Speaker: 00:09:30

you can't do it all. Now, what does this look

Speaker: 00:09:34

like? This looks like. Figuring out a

Speaker: 00:09:37

way to duplicate yourself, or figuring out

Speaker: 00:09:41

a way to, have another person do what it

Speaker: 00:09:45

is. That you do. So you can

Speaker: 00:09:48

delegate to. AI artificial

Speaker: 00:09:52

intelligence. So I talked about this a lot in the past

Speaker: 00:09:55

episodes where I share how I use AI to support me.

Speaker: 00:09:59

Um, both in life and in business. And AI can

Speaker: 00:10:03

do so much. And it. It really allows you to save

Speaker: 00:10:07

time and maximize the time that you have. If

Speaker: 00:10:10

we're talking business. In terms of your content, because

Speaker: 00:10:14

content is a huge piece of an online business.

Speaker: 00:10:19

It can create tons of content for you. It can give you

Speaker: 00:10:22

creative ideas, it can repurpose your content for

Speaker: 00:10:26

you. And so things that might have taken you. Hours

Speaker: 00:10:30

to do. AI can do literally in

Speaker: 00:10:34

minutes and seconds. Okay. And so you want to find a

Speaker: 00:10:37

way once you have identified and mapped out what your

Speaker: 00:10:41

process is for doing a particular thing, then you want to

Speaker: 00:10:45

look and see, okay.

Speaker: 00:10:49

What can I. Kind of push off of my plate and where can

Speaker: 00:10:52

I push it to. So you can push somethings to AI

Speaker: 00:10:56

tools. You can push somethings to. automation and automation

Speaker: 00:11:00

is different than AI. automation is when

Speaker: 00:11:04

a software is, completing a repetitive tasks. You

Speaker: 00:11:07

have to pretty much program it to do that repetitive task. And

Speaker: 00:11:11

so, again, saving you time because you are not manually every time you

Speaker: 00:11:15

have to do this thing, you are not manually doing it. The

Speaker: 00:11:19

automation is handling that for you. So you can push things off

Speaker: 00:11:23

to AI. You can push things off to automation, and then you can also just

Speaker: 00:11:26

push things off to other people and not like in a bad way, but,

Speaker: 00:11:30

you. know, share the load with someone else. If you're not in a position

Speaker: 00:11:34

to. higher. Um, you can ask your

Speaker: 00:11:37

family for support. You can ex. your friends or

Speaker: 00:11:41

other community that you might have for support, whatever that might look like, And

Speaker: 00:11:45

so I did an episode talking about delegation. I

Speaker: 00:11:49

will link that also in the show description.

Speaker: 00:11:53

Um, but you. you. can't do it all

Speaker: 00:11:56

yourself. And when you try to do it all yourself.

Speaker: 00:12:00

That is the fastest path to burnout.

Speaker: 00:12:04

Doing it all yourself is the fastest path to burnout.

Speaker: 00:12:09

Now you might be saying, I don't have family support. I don't

Speaker: 00:12:12

have, you know, any employees or contractors.

Speaker: 00:12:16

I get it. I understand, you know, I'm in a

Speaker: 00:12:19

situation where. My family is, they're not

Speaker: 00:12:23

far from me, but they're not close. You know, I just can't

Speaker: 00:12:26

go. Um, around the corner or 10 minutes

Speaker: 00:12:30

away. To visit family or have them come and watch the kids. For

Speaker: 00:12:34

me, it has to be a plant thing. You know, they're like two and a

Speaker: 00:12:37

half hours away. Most of my family. and I don't really have

Speaker: 00:12:40

a community here yet. And so it is pretty much just me

Speaker: 00:12:44

and my husband with the kids. And as the primary caretaker inside

Speaker: 00:12:48

the home, her husband works outside of the home. It's the

Speaker: 00:12:52

majority of the time. It's me. So I get it. And even with the

Speaker: 00:12:55

business, I've talked about this before. Um, how I still

Speaker: 00:12:59

consider myself a solo preneur and I

Speaker: 00:13:03

hire contractors here and there, but for the most part, it's just

Speaker: 00:13:06

me. Now while the majority of the time it is

Speaker: 00:13:10

just me. I'm still not doing all of the things because I have

Speaker: 00:13:14

leveraged what I told you. I leverage artificial

Speaker: 00:13:17

intelligence. Okay. Chad GBT is like the bestie. I

Speaker: 00:13:21

leveraged automation. Y'all are y'all hear me talk about

Speaker: 00:13:24

automation. all the time. Okay. Um, and even

Speaker: 00:13:28

delegating things. Your grocery shopping. Delegate

Speaker: 00:13:32

that. When you use Instacart, instead of going to the store

Speaker: 00:13:35

yourself, somebody else's. Is doing your grocery shopping for you or taking, A

Speaker: 00:13:39

little bit of that task off of your plate. So that is

Speaker: 00:13:43

considered delegation. All right. So just think about different ways

Speaker: 00:13:46

that you can. You know, take some of the responsibilities off your

Speaker: 00:13:50

plate so that you are not setting yourself up

Speaker: 00:13:54

to, to be burned out. And from what I hear again, because I

Speaker: 00:13:57

have not personally experienced it from what I hear.

Speaker: 00:14:01

Um, when you are burnt out, it just takes a long time

Speaker: 00:14:05

to recover. And that's very challenging

Speaker: 00:14:08

again, as a mom, because.

Speaker: 00:14:12

Our families are relying on us for so much. So it

Speaker: 00:14:16

seems like it's a double-edged sword. Our family is relying on us for so much.

Speaker: 00:14:20

But again, we need to have some boundaries in place. We need to get some

Speaker: 00:14:23

support. wherever we can. So that, that

Speaker: 00:14:27

responsibility in that priority that we have in the home

Speaker: 00:14:30

is not burning us out. All right. So I would

Speaker: 00:14:34

love to hear. if you've ever experienced burnout, what was that

Speaker: 00:14:37

like for you? And how did you? kind of recover? Feel free to shoot

Speaker: 00:14:41

me a message over on Instagram. And then from what I talked about

Speaker: 00:14:45

today, right? If you've never experienced burnout, like what are the things that you are

Speaker: 00:14:49

going to put into action from today? Are you going to

Speaker: 00:14:53

start saying no more? Are you going to create a rhythm?

Speaker: 00:14:56

For your family. Are you going to delegate to

Speaker: 00:15:00

either AI automation or another person? Like what is

Speaker: 00:15:04

the number one thing that you are going to take action on from this

Speaker: 00:15:07

episode? Shoot me a message over on Instagram. I would love to chat

Speaker: 00:15:11

with you and I'll see you in the next episode? Thank you

Speaker: 00:15:15

for listening to the MomCEO Suite Podcast. If you

Speaker: 00:15:18

enjoyed this episode, can you do us a favor? Leave a review on

Speaker: 00:15:22

iTunes and share with other moms in business like you.

Speaker: 00:15:26

Help us spread our message and empower others who are at this intersection

Speaker: 00:15:30

of motherhood and entrepreneurship.