111 - 5 Signs Your Business is BUILT to BURN YOU OUT
Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify
Summary
In this episode, let's talk about BUSINESS BURNOUT. But, even if you DON'T have a business, don't fret. This is still applicable to you.
We'll be talking about 5 signs that your business is built to burn you out. And if you're a high-achiever? I believe they're applicable to you too! We'll dive into insights, strategies, and specific examples for each sign AND I've got an invitation for you that will TOTALLY help!
Join her Burnout Proof Business Bootcamp for further support: https://www.coachellyn.com/challenge
For show notes, head to coachellyn.com/podcast, and, of course, follow me on Instagram OR check out my YouTube Channel for more!
Takeaways
If every offer in your business requires your time, it is a sign that your business is built for burnout. Consider creating passive streams of income to reduce the time burden.
Knowing your values is crucial to prevent burnout. It helps you stay aligned with your own definition of success and avoid being influenced by others.
Working every day of every week is not sustainable and can lead to burnout. Make sure to schedule regular time off for rest, self-care, and social activities.
Prioritize personal life and self-care by scheduling them first and then fitting work around them. This helps create a healthier work-life balance.
Relying solely on social media for marketing can be exhausting and ineffective. Explore other marketing strategies like SEO, YouTube, and podcast guesting.
Sound Bites
"If every single thing you are offering requires you, that is a sign that your business is built for burnout."
"If you don't know your values, it is so easy as business owners to get distracted by shiny object syndrome."
"If you work every day of every week, you're going to burn out."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Context
02:52 Sign 1: Every Offer Requires You
07:07 Sign 2: Not Knowing Your Values
13:56 Sign 3: Working Every Day of Every Week
21:07 Sign 5: Relying Solely on Social Media for Marketing
26:21 Conclusion and Invitation to Burnout Proof Business Bootcamp
Resources
Check out the Burnout-Proof Business Bootcamp for help with these things!
Do you have anything to add?
Drop a comment below…
RELATED POSTS:
TRANSCRIPT:
Ellyn Schinke (00:00.73)
Hello, my friend, and welcome back to another episode of the Burnout Proof Podcast, episode number 111 today. And we have been talking about all the things lately. We've been talking about pivoting. We've been talking about how do we shut down from our workday, saying no boundaries. We talked about stuckness and how do we overcome that stuckness when we're making decisions. We've been talking about all of the things lately. And today what I want to do is pivot a little bit to talk specifically to those among you who are business owners, whether you are a solopreneur, somebody who just ...
has kind of an entrepreneurial curiosity, you're working your business on the side, whatever. I want to talk specifically to you guys today. Now, if you are not a business owner, don't stop listening at this point, because what this might give you is A, a little bit of context for what your business owner friends might be experiencing, but also there are going to be some nuggets, excuse me, some nuggets. I feel like I just said nuggets and kernels at the same time. I was about to say nurls, but some nuggets and some kernels of knowledge that we're going to talk about today that ...
regardless of whether or not you have a business are going to be super, super helpful and applicable to you as somebody who is a high achiever and somebody who is ambitious and has a lot on their plate. I have been saying to so many people so often lately that like, I love so much the community that we're creating here because I feel like we are all in the stage of life where we get it, that we are never just juggling one thing. Like if I think about my last several months, my business has been obviously,
like taking a lot of my time, but it hasn't just been my business. It's been, you know, my health goals and all of the things that I've been focusing on with my health, all of these personal goals with my health, all of these trips that I'm going on, all these things that are happening this spring, all of these programs that I'm enrolled in to just kind of enrich myself and learn and grow. I literally could, if I look at my schedule, there are, you know, probably upwards of 10 different aspects of my life that I'm working on simultaneously. And it's always that way for all of us. So,
The things that we're talking about today, even though we might be coming from an entrepreneurial context, best believe they do not just apply to entrepreneurs. It's applicable to all of us. What we're going to be talking about today is five signs your business is built to burn you out. These are things to look out for, little insights and a -haws to look out for that mark telling you, hey, you're probably going to have to make some changes to your business. And this is super, super well -timed because I've got something coming up that I'm going to be talking about throughout this episode that's going to be very, very supportive of you if any of these things are applicable to you. But again,
Ellyn Schinke (02:23.706)
You don't have to be a business builder for this to apply. These are things that frankly are stuff that a lot of us have to think about when it comes to our schedule, when it comes to our mindset, when it comes to how we're approaching self -care. So let's go ahead and let's dive into that with no further ado here. Number one, the first sign that your business is built to burn you out is that every offer requires you. This is something I had to learn the hard way in business, that if every single thing you are offering, every single thing that you are selling requires
time on your calendar or for you to have your hands on, that is a sign that your business is built for burnout. Because ultimately what you're going to find is that is not necessarily going to be scalable. Yeah, it does matter what those things are and in what situation, you know, those like, what types of offers those are. Like if it's an hour every week for a group program that you have the potential to make like a ton of money from, that might be a little bit different. But the fact of the matter was very early on, I learned that I had, you know, I had my one -on -one coaching.
So I had anywhere from maybe five to 10 one -on -one coaching clients that I was working with each week. That was an hour on my calendar. Every student that I'm working with is an hour on my calendar or more on some instances. And then if I also had my group programs or my memberships on top of that, those were maybe an hour and a half to maybe three hours out of my calendar every single week. So you can see how that starts to add up. If you have multiple offers in your offer suite as a business owner,
that are all taking energy from you and requiring time on your calendar, it is so easy to see how all of those things stacked on top of each other can create a schedule that frankly is very, very exhausting, very stressful, very burnout inducing. And again, whether or not you're a business owner, this is something to think about as well. Are all of the things that you are putting on your calendar, all of the things that you're saying yes to requiring time and space in your life.
Are they requiring mental capacity in your life? If every single thing that we are engaged in requires a massive emotional, mental, or time burden from us, that is a sign that, frankly, our business and our lives are just built to burn us out. In a business owner context, what this might mean for you is you have to start thinking about, can we create more passive streams of income? I've been talking more and more about this to my clients who are business owners. I think it benefits all of us.
Ellyn Schinke (04:42.842)
to have passive streams of income. And I know for some of us we're like, oh, but I don't know about courses because I don't want to put a course out there that somebody isn't going to use. I can speak for the fact, and I feel like we're probably a similar person in this sense. And if we exist out here, best believe there are other people that exist out here. I am kind of over the whole, well, I don't want to sell something to somebody because what if they don't use it? Frankly, A, it's not my responsibility if they don't use it. And B,
I know there are people out there like me that when they buy something, when they buy a course, I make sure that I am going to use that. I make sure that I schedule space in my calendar where I'm prioritizing that project and I am learning from the thing that I paid for. I even sometimes do that with freebies and I'm going to assume I'm not an isolated incident. I'm probably not super unique in that context. So if there are people out there like me, they want to
They want the thing that they can just do on their own time, that they can do on their own schedule. I know I like that sometimes. Sometimes I don't want to be in a group program that's gonna take up time on my calendar. I wanna be in something that's more self -guided. So the weeks that I have way more space and way more time to work on something, I can't. And those are passive income streams for us. Those are ways that we can make income that don't require us to have actual time on our calendar. And those are super, super valuable for us. But whether or not you are a business owner,
Think about, are you getting involved in things that are actually requiring you to have time, space, and mental bandwidth in your life? Because if every single thing you're doing requires that from you, that's going to burn you up. So that's thing number one. Sign number one, if every offer, everything that you are selling and everything that you are putting out there requires you, your business is potentially going to be built for burnout. And we need to find some ways to create passive income in our lives and in our businesses so that we can be bringing things in on the, you know, you know,
off to the side without us having to think about it. That is exceptionally beneficial and we can do that through digital products, we can do that through courses, we can do that through various different things, affiliates, we can do that for so many different things, but we've got to start thinking about how can we bring income into our business in a way that doesn't require us to have our hands on it. So that's sign number one to think about. Sign number two, and this is one that probably of everything that we're going to be talking about today, actually, I think this is one of many things that we're going to be talking about today that is,
Ellyn Schinke (07:07.194)
very applicable to a business owner, but also for somebody who does not have a business. Sign number two that your business is built for burnout is that you don't know your values. And the reason why this is so stinking important when it comes to preventing burnout is if we don't know our values, if we aren't clear on what our values are, it is so, so easy as business owners to get distracted by shiny object syndrome. It is so easy as business owners to follow somebody else's definition of success that's not our own.
It is so easy as business owners to let other people's opinions influence us more than our own. When I was first starting a business, and I'm sure I've told this story before, but maybe you haven't heard it, when I was first starting a business, I joined a mastermind. I joined a mastermind with probably the biggest name coach I've ever worked with in the five years that I've been in business. And that mastermind, in hindsight,
I wish I hadn't signed up for it because I didn't get a lot of benefit out of it other than getting a lot of confusion and a lot of being told what I should do. And I didn't know myself well enough and I didn't know where I want to take my business and my direction well enough to know not to follow that advice. I was told, you know, I got so many inputs and perspectives, frankly, over the course of that year in that mastermind and in other group programs I joined because I had the mentality that if I pour money into my business, if I invest in these mentors,
that they'll tell me what to do to be successful. But the fact of the matter is the things that I was hearing from these mentors and these people that I was basically felt like I was paying to tell me how to be successful, it never jived with what I wanted. People were telling me I should work with scientists and people in STEM because that was my background, but I didn't want that. I wanted to kind of get away from that path. So that never felt right. I was told I should be a productivity and systems coach. And yeah, I do some of that in my work now, but...
That never felt right either because it felt so pigeonholed. It felt so trapped. And I've always wanted to have a business that is very multi -dimensional and I can support people in various different aspects of their businesses in their lives. So that never felt right. I was getting told all of these things that I should do and they never felt right. Even when I was trying to pursue them, even when I was trying to go down that path, my heart wasn't all fully in it. And I think that's what happens when we don't know our values, whether in business or in your profession, in your career.
Ellyn Schinke (09:23.61)
We don't know our values. We are so easily externally influenced by society, by mentors, by family and friends who mean well and want the best for us. But frankly, we might follow their advice and not be fulfilled and not be happy. It's the stereotypical picture of the person who has the dream job or the dream business, and yet they're not happy. The reason that happens is because you have a values misalignment.
And there is an aspect of your life and your profession and your career that just doesn't jive with those values. It's the same thing with your definition of success. If we don't know our definition of success, it's so easy to chase the next five -figure launch or to chase the next six -figure year in your business or to chase the next six -figure corporate career.
when that might not actually be the lifestyle we want to create. I will never forget, and I think I mentioned this a couple episodes ago, this post I saw on threads that was something along the lines of, what if I don't want 10 -figure months and five -figure launches and a six or seven -figure business? What if I just want a business that is going to pay for my needs and pay for my life and that isn't going to require me 24 -7? What if that's what I want? And that person,
I loved that post because that person knew what their values were. That person knew that their values were not to have success for arbitrary reasons and to have these big numbers just so their ego could feel good. This person knew that their values were, I want to have this kind of a lifestyle. I want to have a slower lifestyle. I want to prioritize moments over income. They knew that about their values.
And for me, that's why my first one was about basically creating passive income. My first sign is for me, I know how important it is. And I feel like this is the case for a lot of us to create freedom in my lifestyle. And freedom is not having an overloaded calendar to me. I'm actually literally staring down a week where my calendar is very full and I don't like it. The only reason it feels good is because Friday, I am doing a whole heck of a lot of nothing. Well, that's a lie. I'm not doing a whole lot of nothing because I'm going on a hike.
Ellyn Schinke (11:38.202)
But I'm getting out of the house and I'm taking a day off and it's gonna be fun and it's gonna be free and so I'm willing to have a few days that are more jam -packed because I get that freedom. It's almost like the reward at the end, the light at the end of the tunnel, you know? I get that and my lifestyle may not have as much freedom earlier in the week but I feel like I'm getting what I want at the end of the week to not have to work on Friday, to not have anything on my calendar so I can go do this thing with my friends.
that freedom is ultimately what I want to create. And frankly, I feel like a lot of high achievers want that. Yeah, cool. Income is helpful. Security is helpful. That feels good in the moment. But the fact of the matter is we probably want those things because we want to create freedom. You probably want the high earning job or the big launch or the six or seven figure business, not because of maybe there's a little ego in it. I was going to say not because of the ego, but maybe there is a little ego in it.
But I think the biggest thing that we want and the biggest reason why we want that is because we want freedom. We want financial freedom. We want the freedom to feel like we are taken care of and that we are secure. Frankly, yeah, my ego probably loves the idea of having a six -figure business in the same way my ego loves the idea of being Dr. Ellen. But you know what? I left being Dr. Ellen because that wasn't aligned with my values and that wasn't giving me the kind of fulfillment I wanted in my life. And yeah, I want a six -figure business.
but I don't want a six figure business nearly as much to just say I have a six figure business as I do for the freedom that it's going to create for me. Sorry, I had a lot of trouble saying freedom there. That's why I want it. So know your values because your values are going to keep you on track and to keep you aligned toward creating the lifestyle you want in a way that if we don't know our values, we're just so susceptible to basically over prioritizing and listening way too much to the people around us. So.
That's sign number two. So first, every offer requires you. If every single thing you're offering in your business requires you, that's a potential sign that your business is built to burn you out. And two, if you don't know what your values are in your business, that's another sign that your business might be built to burn you out. The third sign is if you work every day of every week. All right, this is calling out all of y 'all. This is calling out me too, because if I'm being completely honest, I did this last week. I...
Ellyn Schinke (13:56.538)
I have for a long time had a standing policy if I have to take a day off every single week. And I will say, I'm actually really, really proud of how often I do that. Probably, I would even venture to say maybe 98 % of the time, I take a day off every single week. Now it might not be the same day every single week, and I've talked about this before. Like it literally could be Friday one week and Saturday the next week, or it could be Friday from noon to Saturday at noon.
But somewhere in my week, I'm getting 24 hours off from my business. I didn't do that last week. That was one of the anomalies. But if you are expecting yourself to work every day of every week, you're going to burn out. And this is a place where I run counter to Gary Vee and this might not be what business coaches tell you and it might not be what a marketer would tell you. I don't believe we should be working every day of every week, even if it's in some small capacity.
There are going to be exceptions to that. Last week was an exception to that for me because it felt frankly, I had a very unproductive Friday. I had a ton of trouble focusing. So when it came Saturday, I was just like, you know what? I'm feeling focused and I'm feeling awesome, so I'm going to go for it. But the fact of the matter is that's an anomaly for me. I learned very, very early on in my business, especially as I was building my business. If you are somebody who is, you're working a full -time job and you're building your business on the side, oh my God, do I get you because I did that for five years.
literally did that for five years, but I learned very, very quickly that I can't work seven days a week because if I don't, I am going to crash and burn. I am going to really start to feel those values misalignments happening. Working seven days a week doesn't feel like freedom. Working seven days a week doesn't feel like fulfillment or insert whatever other value you have there. All of us eventually are probably going to have some sort of value that ties back to our relationships. And working seven days a week,
probably isn't going to align with that value either. If you work every day of every week, you're not making space for your relationships and social support is stupidly important when it comes to preventing burnout. If you're working seven days a week, you're not making space for rest. You're probably not making space for self care. It is just not meant to be how humans live. We need social connection. We need fun and play and enjoyment and life outside of our businesses.
Ellyn Schinke (16:20.058)
I get that it's occasionally going to happen and that's okay. I'm not arguing against those occasional moments when you have to work seven days a week, but we can't make that a pattern. So if your schedule, your MO for the last six months or year, ever since you started your business or ever since you started your career has been that you work every day of every week, we've got to find a way to stop that. We've got to find a way to create those non -negotiable
at least 24 hours off. Honestly, sometimes it might mean 12 hours off. Maybe you literally work up until 10 p .m. on Friday, but you are a no -work person on Saturday, and you are not allowed to work from the moment you wake up on Saturday till the moment you go to bed on Saturday night. Maybe that's what it looks like for you, but we've got to make that space once a week in your calendar to let yourself turn off. I swear to you, it seems counterintuitive, especially for those of you who are going, yeah, but… yeah, but…
Yeah, but right now it seems counterintuitive, but it is going to make you more productive in the long run. So if you're working every day of every week in your business and your career, and that is your MO, that is another sign that your business and your career are built to burn you out. Now, number four, and this is a mindset shift, frankly, around our schedules and how we approach things and how we prioritize. Number four is you schedule work first and personal life second. In my busiest, most overwhelming seasons, this is what I was doing.
I was scheduling work appointments around and I was scheduling work appointments as a priority over personal appointments. It's really the thing that made me realize I needed to put my workouts and my routines and my social time in my calendar. I needed to make it take up space on my calendar. As honestly, most of the time recurring tasks.
my routines, my workouts, and even a lot of my social activities, especially the ones that are like recurring social activities. This has actually gotten even more so now that I've been in networking groups this year. But I had to learn the hard way that if you schedule work first, especially as you're building your business, especially as you're trying to scale your business, especially in those seasons where there is more stuff to do than time to do it in, if you don't schedule your personal before your work,
Ellyn Schinke (18:40.922)
work is going to take over your life. You are going to end up working every day of every week. You are going to burn out. And the thing that I had to learn is I had to literally block out the time on my calendar. Like if you've been in any of my, you know, Notion systems, webinars and master classes and things, if you've ever done anything where I've shared my screen and you've seen a look at my calendar, you see in my calendar the things that are blocked off. I have a
Literally as I look at my calendar right now and I'm realizing somehow my workouts got turned off. I'm really glad I'm doing this right now actually. But if I look at my calendar right now, I have a morning walk in my calendar. I have my power hour in my calendar. I have, and I'm going to schedule them right now, workouts in my calendar. I have social activities in my calendar. As soon as my friends and I throw up a hiking day, even if it's just a proposed hiking day,
That goes into my calendar as an out of office, even if it's a question mark. I've learned that I have to put those things in my calendar because if I don't, it gets overtaken by work. And I'm going to assume it's the same thing for you because you and I are the same, right? You and I are both high achievers. You and I are probably both Enneagram threes. You and I are both people who have a lot of shit on our plate. And if we don't make that space for us to have lives outside of our work, guess what? We're not going to have lives outside of our work.
So if you're scheduling work first and personal life second, and again, you are forgiven if you get into seasons where you do start to do that. I've been in seasons in the past and quite recently where that's what I did. I scheduled work first and my personal life second. So if you're in a season like that right now, forgive yourself, but take this as a reminder where you got to make that switch. You got to start putting those personal and those life things and those self -care things into your life and into your schedule first and then schedule work.
around them. And then our fifth sign that your business is built to burn you out, and this is probably the most specific to business owners of all of them, your marketing is only social media. Your business is built to burn you out, especially if that social media is TikTok and Instagram, because those platforms, those algorithms are basically 24 seven mayhem. They are basically asking you to be on them 24 seven.
Ellyn Schinke (21:07.45)
I was on a webinar this morning where she literally said to be relevant on Instagram, and I would love to know where she got this data from. I don't know, but she said to be relevant on Instagram. You have to post 18 stories a day. I think she said something like six reels a week. Eighteen stories a day, six reels a week. So basically, you don't get to turn off.
You know, I took six months off of Instagram last year, five and a half months off of Instagram. I rounded it up to six because it sounds better. Off of Instagram last year, and I had the best year I've ever had in my business. Don't get me wrong, I love Instagram. I'm back on Instagram now, but I am actually in this moment contemplating the role that Instagram's gonna play in my marketing moving forward because it is such a time suck. It is such a distractor. It is.
not frankly that effective for my business. So it's really, you got to call out whether or not social media is the only way in which you market your business. Because if it is, your business is going to burn you out because your business is going to hit a point where for you to get new leads, for you to scale, for you to build your business, if that's the only avenue that you have to market and to find new people, it's just going to require you to be on social media more and more and more and more and more.
And frankly, it's not the most effective means for a lot of businesses. For some businesses it is, but for most businesses, that's not going to be the most effective means for you to grow your business, to find new people. And I'm particular, I know I said social media before, but I really, really think in particular it's TikTok and Instagram. For a lot of business owners, you need to have a very, very real, real talk, come to Jesus moment with yourself and ask yourself, is the work I'm putting into this platform?
actually benefiting my business? Or are you doing it because you feel like you should? The things that have benefited my business the most have been SEO, nothing to do with social media, YouTube, which is social media, but YouTube is more like a search engine. It's more like Google than it is like Instagram. YouTube has been really good for my business. And frankly, podcast guesting has been really good for my business. Those have been some of the things that...
Ellyn Schinke (23:28.602)
have helped me market myself and grow my business. And frankly, YouTube is a lot of work. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that YouTube is not a lot of work. It is, it's a lot of work. But podcast guesting is like an hour maybe. Like when you're doing the actual interview, maybe an hour and a half if you like count all the like logistical hurdles of like communicating. And then what was the other one I said? SEO. SEO is literally something that I think I put a good chunk of effort into at first. And it is definitely a slow build. You have to give SEO time.
to work and to really, really click into place. But now that it has, that's my number one driver in my business. People find me on Google. I have very good SEO on my website for what I do. Granted, there are ways I can improve my SEO, but that's another conversation. So does your marketing only depend on social media? Because social media is a rat race. It is a hamster wheel. It's a hamster wheel you're never gonna get off if that's the only way you market your business. So are there ways that you can be more creative with how you're marketing your business?
So these are our five signs your business is built to burn you out. And if any of these resonated with you, I really, really highly encourage you to go to coachellen .com slash challenge and join us in a bootcamp that I'm running next week. I know I called it challenge, but then I decided to change the name to bootcamp. We're gonna be talking all about how do you burn out proof your business. And again, for those of you who are maybe just like curious about being an entrepreneur, you've wondered about it, you've thought about it, something that's been in the back of your head.
or you just really want to hear about the schedule, self -care, systems, mindset parts of things. There are going to be aspects of this that are 100 % absolutely focused on business next week. And we are going to be looking at this through a business context. But even if you don't have a business, there's things in this that you're going to be able to benefit from. That I can assure you, we're going to be doing a boot camp from April 14th to April 20th. And even if you're listening to this after the fact, my plan is to take all of that content,
and still keep it available to you. So head to CoachEllen .com slash challenge. If this no longer exists, you'll be redirected elsewhere. If it does exist, you can join the challenge after the fact. But for those of you that are listening to this now, currently in early April, 2024, head to CoachEllen .com slash challenge, register for the Burnout Proof Business Bootcamp. And we're going to be talking about all of these things, how you can create sustainability in your business. Because the fact of the matter is that's what all of us need. You didn't join and you didn't start your business.
Ellyn Schinke (25:54.81)
to trade your nine to five for 24 seven. You didn't. But that's what a lot of us are creating in our businesses. That's what I was creating because I was, you know, I fell victim to the mentality that the harder I worked, the more likely it would be that I would be successful. But the fact of the matter is if you can create a mindset, you can create systems, if you can create a schedule that is sustainable, your business is going to stand the test of time. And I think that's the ultimate goal for a lot of us.
We don't want to go so hard that we're going to burn ourselves out in three to five years. We want our business to stand the test of time, to last the rest of our life, to create a legacy for us. And the only way we can do that is to create a business that's sustainable, to create a business that is burnout proof. So if these resonated with you, if this is something that you feel like you need support with and you are a business owner, or again, you are your entrepreneur curious, you are curious about going down this path for yourself, head to CoachEllen .com slash challenge.
Join us in the Burnout Proof Business Bootcamp. We're going to run from the 14th to the 20th, and I will see you inside.
