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The last year took a mental, emotional, and physical toll on us all. The things you experienced in your life and business are validated and real.
It’s likely that you’ve experienced, are experiencing, or are even approaching burnout as an entrepreneur. I want to share a few principles you should consider to avoid that burnout as a creative.
A Few Simple Steps to Avoiding Burnout
Start Every Day with Intention
What’s the first thing you’re doing in the morning? Are you opening your life to everyone else’s energy and thoughts and what they need from you?
Stop opening email or texts first thing in the morning. Help yourself start a morning ritual that is easy for you, but also removes any distractions from your life.
You can find another way to start your day by creating a simple morning routine. Your morning routine is yours. No on knows you like you know you—so customize it to you.
It could include things like meditation, journaling pages, hydration, etc. Simply set aside time for things you enjoy that get your day started the way you prefer.
Identify Your Daily Priorities
Every day, I approach my day by identifying my top 3 priorities. When you determine what is most important to accomplish in your business, you’ll know where you need to focus your energy.
“Where Your Energy Goes is Where Your Mind Goes”
Stop Focusing on Problems and Focus on Solutions
If you’re in a busy season and you don’t know how you’ll get it done, take a moment to just focus on a solution to completing the tasks. Stop asking the questions that aren’t create a solution.
Rather than asking, “How do I generate X clients?,” ask instead, “What do I need to do to generate X clients?” Keeping your questions action based helps your mind create a solution versus focusing on the todo list and getting overwhelmed.
Be Kind to Yourself Mindset
The way you think about things carries a lot of weight that you may not realize. For example, if you are in a season of overwork and overwhelm, telling yourself how hard it is, you will believe that is true all the time.
In any situation where you become overwhelmed, ask yourself:
How do I want to show up?
Who do I want to be?
How do I want to feel about myself in this?
Cut out any belief that is negative in your mindset. When you’re in a season of burnout and believing things are tough, it’s challenging to feel that this narrative will ever change. When you begin to shift your mindset, your perspective will shift, along with your outlook on the current and future state of your business.
No Is A Complete Sentence
You do not have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Be thoughtful in what you’re saying yes to, because you may be missing out on the projects you really want to take.
You’re in this business for you—so make sure you’re serving yourself well.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Bisforbonniedesign.com/training
FOLLOW ALONG
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Review the Transcript:
Bonnie Bakhtiari 0:07
Hi friends and welcome to the brand strategy podcast a show created to equip you with the inspiration, encouragement and clarity you need to build a brand of your dreams. I’m your host Bonnie bakhtiari brand designer strategist and founder of Illume retreat, from sustainable strategy to heartfelt encouragement. Each episode is designed to equip you with the tools you need to chase after your dreams. Because you deserve a brand that empowers you to do what you love, connects with your dream clients, and offers a deep sense of fulfillment along the way. So grab a cup of coffee and join me on this journey. W.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 0:47
Hey, friends, welcome back to the brand strategy podcast where today we’re having a little heartfelt conversation about no one’s favorite topic, burnout, we’re talking about how to avoid burnout as a creative entrepreneur. And I’m coming to you from a really open and honest place of someone who has wrestled with burnout many a time, just in full disclosure, and the spirit of full transparency, I’m actually coming out of a season of burnout right now. And I think so many of you listening can relate to that, when we think about just how 2020 was, and then even just how we’ve started out this this year of 2021, there’s been so so much on our plates, so much that has taken mental emotional, physical toll on us. And whether 2020 was a season where thankfully, your business wasn’t horribly affected by the pandemic. Or maybe it was a season where there’s been a lot of struggle, and there’s been a lot of challenge, I want you to know that I see you, I support you, I want to validate your experiences. And in this episode today, I just want to talk through a few simple steps that have helped me in my own journey of avoiding burnout. And although it’s unavoidable, sometimes we have those seasons where we’re just going crazy and things are happening, and we have to keep moving at a breakneck speed. My intention here is to share some thoughts that will hopefully help you create a more sustainable kind of routine with yourself, that makes it easier to avoid burnout, because you’re not operating at that breakneck speed, you’re not going nonstop and you are prioritizing yourself just as much, maybe even more than you prioritize your business.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 2:38
So in talking through what that looks like today, let’s kind of dive into just some really simple steps that can be incredibly helpful and making sure that burnout is not your everyday reality. And one really simple way to go about doing this is by starting every day with intention. What I mean by this is thinking about how hectic especially if you have kiddos at home, or you have a really demanding career or something along those lines, where every minute of every day, especially at the start of the day feels like it’s already kind of assigned away before you even really dive into it. How you start your day can be so incredibly powerful, so that you don’t end up giving away your time or energy to others before you’ve prioritized your self. This can be something incredibly simple. I know that so many people talk about the power of strong morning routines. And I’m a big, big fan of that myself. But for some of us having a really elaborate, intricate morning routine isn’t isn’t feasible. So even starting small even by having just some simple boundaries in place can be so incredibly game changing for you. So if we think about it this way, if you open your eyes first thing in the morning and you open your inbox, you open your text, you are hopping on Instagram, the very first thing you do, what you’re doing is you’re opening up your life to everyone else’s energy to everyone else’s thoughts to what everyone else wants from you. And when that happens, you are stuck in this space where you are prioritizing and thinking about and focusing about what other people are thinking or wanting or considering. And so your thoughts, your feelings, your energy that takes the back burner. So something just simple like keeping your phone in a different room or keeping it in a separate part of your room that can be so incredibly powerful to help you start a morning ritual that works for you is easy to implement and removes a distraction that sucks you in. So if if there are other ways that you might want to think about how to start your day if you are one of the blasted few who do not worry about showing up on social media or picking up your phone first thing in the morning. I know encourage you to think about just a really quick and simple morning routine or ritual that works for you is really easy to accomplish, and does not necessarily take a lot of time, especially if you are in a season of life where you are time poor, having a really intricate morning routine is not going to be sustainable, and it’s not gonna help you very much. So if you’re the kind of person who likes to meditate, or if you like to exercise first thing in the morning, or you like to start your day with journaling, or something like that, I would encourage you to prioritize that. The beautiful thing about having a morning routine or morning ritual is that it is yours. And so no one else gets to decide what you do. If you look at the way that other people have their morning, like routines and ritual setup, and it doesn’t resonate with you, you don’t have to do it because no one knows you. Like you know, you No one knows what fills your cup and the way that you know what fills your cup. So I am the kind of person just if this is at all helpful, I’m the kind of person where I like to start my day with meditation, morning pages, moving my body hydrating drinking a cup of you know, warm, something warm, like coffee, or tea or something like that, even though Yes, I know, coffees not exactly hydrating. And just like the ritual of holding something warm in my hand is just such a simple kind of moment for myself that I don’t know, it doesn’t really does something good for me. So I like to go through that process. And in a way where that’s non negotiable. That’s something that happens before I turn on my computer before I take calls or open my inbox. And that’s another way to help make sure that burnout is not necessarily looming large in your future. If you think about the way that you start your day, personally, that kind of same thought process, I believe should apply to the way that you start your work day. So the very first thing you do when you clock in, so to speak, is you dive into your inbox and you get sucked into all the requests that people have, or all the feedback that clients have. Or although calls that people want to want to book with you. That’s great. I mean, email is definitely a necessary part of running your business. But that’s where energy goes. First thing, man, that is not exactly a life giving place to be for a lot of people. So what I would recommend is before you dive into your inbox, and get sucked into that and lose half of your workday to just answering emails, sit down and identify what you want your priorities for that day to be. I personally like to identify my top three priorities. And those are kind of like my three non negotiables. Like, if I only do those three things today, then it will be a good and successful work day. Anything on top of that, it’s just gravy. But I focus on just the the top three things that I want to do. And one of my favorite things about that is it helps me really challenge and channel my focus into what matters. So if I’m placing an unnecessary amount of emphasis on like, I don’t know, recording reels for Instagram, over client work. If I’m sitting down and writing out those three steps, those three priorities that I want to focus on for that day, I can clearly see Oh, my gosh, I need to realign my priorities on the directly revenue generating activities and my business, I need to focus on showing it for my clients. And I can really put some of those content marketing pieces a little bit more on the backburner, or they can just be lower on the priority list. Again, it’s your list, you get to choose what goes on it and in what order those things appear. Where your energy goes is where your mind goes. So if you are diving straight in your inbox, if you’re diving deep into putting out fires first thing in the morning, you’re operating at that kind of heightened level of like pressure and anxiety and not not a very like low key stressless mindset to be in. So I’d really just encourage you to think about the way that you’re starting your day as well.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 9:13
The next piece of encouragement that I would want to share with you is if you are in a season where you have so much going on, and you’re incredibly, incredibly busy. And you don’t know how you’re going to get all this stuff done. Don’t focus so much on how you’re going to get it done. I say focus on how you can create a solution for what you’re going to do. What I mean by that is when we think about how like how am I going to get all this done? How am I going to do this? How am I going to do that? How am I going to generate all these clients or whatever, whatever that problem is, it’s on your mind. Our brains are having a hard time creating a solution because we’re asking a question that does not easily lend itself to creating a solution. So instead if we can go from How do I generate, you know, X number of clients to? What do I need to do to generate X number of clients? What’s great about that is it helps you to see the next steps that can happen. It kind of puts your brain in a problem solving mode where you can create a solution and you can, you know, brain dump, you can create a list, you can prioritize what’s important. If there’s a problem, then our brains are these incredible supercomputers that can help you figure out what that next next step needs to look like. So asking questions, and keeping those questions, action based, is a really simple and thoughtful way to help your mind create a solution. Rather than focusing just on the to do list or getting stuck in a space of over welcome.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 10:54
Another kind of final little piece that I want to share, when it comes to focusing on how to be kind to yourself in a really busy season, I want to remind you that the way that you think about problems, the way that you think about yourself, the way that you think about your business, that carries a lot of weight, there’s something really incredible about how where we choose to invest our energy mentally, directly can help us create the kind of results or lack of results that we see. So if we are in a season of overwork and overwhelmed, and we believe because we keep telling ourselves right now it’s hard and it’s heavy, and I hate this. And so business is always going to be hard, and it’s always going to be heavy. And I’m always going to hate it, what we do is we’re unintentionally creating a relationship to ourselves and the world around us and our business where we’re telling ourselves over and over and over again that this is hard and heavy, and I don’t like it. So instead of approaching things, and I know that this is hard, I trust me, I know that this is hard. But when you are in a season where you’re feeling that way, ask yourself, what kind of mindset would I like to have about what I’m experiencing? from there? What would I like to believe about myself, like, if you’re in a season, I’m just kind of thinking back from personal experience here and in seasons where I have been really burnt out. And things have been hard and challenging. And I don’t know how I’m going to do it all or how it’s going to like work out in the end. I I oftentimes I’m telling myself a story about how I am not capable, I’m not talented, I’m not able so many different things. So instead of approaching every day, from that mental space, ask yourself, How do I want to show up? Who do I want to be? How do I want to view myself? And what do I want to believe about myself in the context of this situation? So this is this is something that I really love. And it’s actually kind of a tool that I have learned over the years in therapy with my, my therapist, but she always encourages me like when you’re dealing with something that is triggering your anxiety, or you’re really struggling with it. Ask yourself, what am I currently believing about myself in the context of this situation, and identify what that is? And then from there, if because oftentimes you’re telling yourself a negative story about who you are, or your abilities or your worth. So instead of that focus on, how do you want to feel about yourself? How do you want to see yourself in the context of the situation, and what you’re doing is you’re creating, you’re identifying the story that you’re currently telling yourself in your head, but then you’re creating an alternate ending, and you’re creating an ending that is full of possibility and hope, and one that can help you combat the anxiety or stress or overwhelm that you’re currently experiencing. So friend, I really just want to encourage you that in those times where stress is unavoidable, instead of operating from that heavy, hard, negative, you know, kind of just really stressful kind of headspace. And then believing something negative about yourself as a result. Think about, okay, I’m in this tough situation. This is what I’m telling myself currently, and I don’t like it. It’s not cutting it for me, this isn’t doing anything good for me, and it’s not serving me well. So what do I want to believe about myself instead that is positive that is capable, that is confident and that is good, because trust me when you are in a heavy season or a season of burnout and you are believing that things are tough, and that’s the way they are and they’re always going to be that way it can be challenging to feel like that narrative is ever going to change. But here’s the cool thing. You are capable and you are talented and you are resilient. And if you are listening today from a place of overwork and overwhelm and you’re feeling like you’re on the cusp of burnout, I see you and it’s gonna be okay.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 15:03
Friend, I’m so grateful that you’re joining me for this conversation today tuning into this episode. This is something that I’m really passionate about because I see so many entrepreneurs wrestling with burnout. And one thing that I do want to share is burnout is something that happens I think a lot of the time when we just say yes to too much. So I would really encourage you to be very thoughtful with what you say yes to. It’s kind of just basic math, right? What we say yes to means that we have fewer opportunities to say yes to other things. If we say no to things, then actually what we can do is we can open up more yeses in our lives and in our businesses. So I encourage you to be thoughtful with what you’re saying yes to and why you’re saying yes to it. And you know, just as a little little reminder to no as a complete sentence, and you you have that power, you have that available to you to say yes to what matters, and to say no to what will not serve you well, or what is not a good use of your time or your energy. Speaking of time and energy, as you can tell, probably by now, I care a lot I care a lot about you. And I care a lot about entrepreneurs who are wrestling with anxiety and burnout, because that’s something that affects so many of us. And I don’t I don’t believe that we have to build businesses and live our lives in a way that just feeds that anxiety monster and keeps us in a perpetually burnt out state of existence. So when you’re saying yes to too many things, or when you are taking on more than you can handle, I want to encourage you and challenge you honestly, to change the way that you are saying yes to work specifically. And saying yes to client work, especially for designers, graphic brand. And web designers, I actually teach a totally free training where I talk about how you can kind of break up with this mentality of trading your time for money. And the point of that is that you are able to take control over how much you can earn as a designer in a way that does not require you constantly say yes, to more work to more client work to all the cart projects to low paying projects that are not filling your cup creatively, and are just putting you on the fast track to burn out. If you are excited about that idea and want to check out that free resource, you can actually just go to BS for body design, comm slash training, and grab your free seat to that kind of Netflix style training for graphic brand and web designers. But if you are a service based entrepreneur in general, one thing that is incredibly useful is the idea of changing your mentality when it comes to client work. And believing that more client work is not always a good thing, quality client work client work, where you’re working with the kinds of people that you want to work with and you feel uniquely equipped to serve. And you are making what you want to be making, you’re being paid at a level that is commensurate with your level of experience. And the value that you offer. That is freedom giving that is incredible. Because what that does for you is it helps you take on only the client projects that you want to take on knowing confidently that you can take on fewer projects at a higher price point because you’re not pricing your packages based on the time that it takes for you to do that work. You’re charging based on the results that you deliver through the work that you do. So you’re implementing value based pricing, which again, something I talked about in that free training for designers that I mentioned earlier, but something that I believe is so incredibly powerful, and action based for any kind of service based entrepreneur.
Bonnie Bakhtiari 18:52
So friends, I hope that this episode has been encouraging for you. burnout is absolutely not a fun place to be in. But I think that there is something powerful. And validating that that is just a part of the human experience. You are going to experience those seasons, and you’re not alone. And you don’t need to beat yourself up when you do experience those seasons. Because it’s just a part of the human experience. You’re not alone. And there are so many people who see you who believe in you who value you and who want to walk alongside you in that season. Friend, I’m really grateful for you hanging out with me today. If this resonated with you feel free to shoot me a message you can always find me on Instagram at Bonnie j Murray. I’d love to just cheer you on and support you or hear any questions you might have or thoughts you might want to share about today’s topic. Because it’s just such an incredible conversation, something that I think when we talk about the not so glamorous sides of entrepreneurship like burnout, we give ourselves The freedom to be honest with ourselves and others about where we are, where we’re struggling and when we need help. So all that being said, thanks again for hanging out with me. You know, as always, I’m cheering you on from waco and I can’t wait to hang out with you on the podcast again. So soon,
Bonnie Bakhtiari 20:26
Thank you so much for joining me today friend. Before you go, I would be so grateful to receive your feedback on the brand strategy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, or the podcast in general has helped you grow your brand. I’d really appreciate it if you left us a review in iTunes. Your positive reviews enable the brand strategy podcast to continue to grow and reach like minded creatives just like you. Plus, I’ll be randomly selecting a handful of lucky reviewers each month to receive a little Thank you surprise for me in the mail. Thank you for all your support and encouragement as together we pursue building brands with purpose and intention. Until next time, I’m cheering you on from waco.
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