Today, I'm bringing you Part 2 of my experience with business burnout. If you missed Part 1, click here to read it.
When we last left off, the pandemic was just getting started, I was coming off a not-great launch, had a brief second wind with some lower priced classes, and I was going into the summer of 2020 with those feelings of burn out creeping back in...
Here's Part 2.
Then the new school year rolled around and through a series of events, I ended up pulling my daughter out of public school and creating a pod-school of sorts with a few other families in our neighborhood. We basically built an entire school for six 1st graders from scratch in 4 weeks, and my love of organizing and creating systems was in full swing. That entire school year (2020-2021) working on the pod school and getting to know those 6 kids and their families, was one of the coolest experiences of my life. If I ever write another book, it'll be about that! Our made-up school definitely scratched my itch for a few months and was a welcome distraction, but I found myself bored and burnt out again at the end of 2020.
By this point, I knew I needed a solution that would stick, not a temporary project to use as a bandaid. Enter ceramics! I had taken two ceramics classes in college, and I absolutely loved them. But I was studying graphic design, so my pottery tools got tucked into a ziploc and moved around from house to house with me for the next 10 years. I wondered if one day I would get back into it, so I held onto them as a reminder. Little did I know a worldwide pandemic and a stint with burnout would send me back to clay.
I missed making art with my hands and not on a screen. So I took a private pottery lesson at a local studio, to make sure I still liked it (spoiler: I totes did). Then I got to researching, bought a wheel, and slowly transformed my basement into a pottery studio using mostly supplies I already had laying around (and those 10-year-old tools).
Around this time, I also started life coaching with a friend who was in training to be certified, and that was equally eye-opening. We spent a few sessions exploring what I loved about my business in those early days — why was it so fun? And I landed on this: it was all an experiment. Everything was new, so it all felt very low risk. It was a time in the online business industry when Instagram was just becoming a place for businesses to share about their work. Online courses and digital products were a shiny new thing, and it was fun to get in on the ground floor. The experimenting allowed me to PLAY in my business, plus it added variety to my schedule. I wasn't doing the same type of work over and over, I was working on a wide variety of tasks and projects. The landscape was constantly changing, and it was exciting!
Knowing this — that experimentation and variety were key parts of why I fell in love with my business in the first place — allowed me to explore ways I could incorporate those elements back into my work. I also paid attention to when that experimentation and variety vanished in my existing course business. I realized it became harder and harder to be experimental and take risks in my business the longer it was my full-time gig, and I think this has to do with being a single parent. With my steady day job gone and this business I created out of nothing being my only means of income, the experimentation slowly slid away and the pressure of keeping it all afloat became my focus. With all that pressure on myself, there wasn't much room to play anymore.
Another exercise my life coach had me do was to write a list of every skill I had. And I mean e-v-e-r-y skill, including things like driving a car, picking out clothes, cooking a meal. This simple exercise was just meant to boost my confidence and remind me that I have all the skills I need within me to build a balanced, fulfilled life. Even if my business was feeling stale, there were other skills I already had that I could tap into to earn money (or not to earn money, and simply bring me joy!). Not necessarily to take over my business income, I wasn't interested in that, but something that could supplement it and take some pressure off the parts that felt stale. My courses weren't going anywhere, but I didn't want my business to hinge on them as much as it was.
In looking over this list and thinking about the type of work I really enjoyed doing, I also came back to another former love: book design. So I experimented (see there!) with that and took on a few book design projects that brought variety back into my day. I allowed myself to play again and experiment with a new idea, knowing full well it may not work — and that's okay! But good news, I have loved coming back to this work and finding new ways to approach book design projects. Pottery has been a great new way to experiment again, while the book design projects are adding variety to my work life. A winning combo for me so far. (Yes, I'm selling some pottery online now, and some might say I've accidentally turned my hobby into a business – whoops! – but I'm working very hard to keep it a hobby and just sell the work to pay for the supplies. Also I just can't fit that many mugs in my cabinet.)
Over the last few weeks I've been reading this book called (appropriately) Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking The Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. I cannot recommend this book enough, I have loved diving into what burnout means, how to notice it, and what to do about it. In the very beginning of the book, the sister authors define burnout as "caring too much for too long." That got me right in the gut. I finally had words for what I had been feeling since late 2019. I cared about my business so much for so long that it eventually led to burnout. The book describes how burnout can show up in all areas of life – parenting, work, family, relationships, news cycles, etc. And it's especially prevalent in jobs where you're directly helping others, like teachers and healthcare workers (God bless you all!). And it's gradual! You don't wake up one morning suddenly burnt out. It's a slow burn (pun intended) that creeps in over time. For me it was over several years, so I think it's important to notice the signs of it early on. If any of my story about burnout has resonated with you up to this point, I highly recommend you check out this book. I just finished listening to the audiobook, and both sisters are great narrators.
Next week, Part 3! I'll be sharing some specific things I'm doing to combat burnout in my business. Feel free to hit reply and tell me about your experience with burnout if you can relate. As you can see, you're not alone! 💛
