Career Burnout: What you can do when your job (and life) affects your health - #35

Show Notes

Career or job burnout can happen to anyone at any time. Currently, the average professional begins experiencing burnout by the age of 32. To understand how burnout affects your career satisfaction and what steps you can implement to reduce or avoid the likelihood of a job exodus, Lori Vajda and Nola Boea sat down with Burnout Recovery expert Karrie Brazaski. Her company, Redwood Executive Coaching, tailors programs to organizations who care about helping overworked professionals reduce stress, chronic fatigue, and exhaustion and refocus their attention on increasing wellness in their personal and professional lives.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn

• How job burnout is a special type of work-related stress
• The ‘signs of burnout’ you may have been ignoring or downplaying.
• Should you stay in your job or leave? Understanding the burnout indicators that may be telling you it’s time to call it quits.
• What is burnout costing you in terms of your health, career prospects, psychological well-being, and relationships?
• How starting a side business can reduce burnout, increase your creativity, personal growth and professional advancement opportunities.

Are you ready to break with the daily grind, stress, and anxiety in order to embrace a healthier approach to career satisfaction? As Nola and Lori found out, burnout among professional women is quite high. Women have a harder time giving themselves permission to focus on the things that increase energy, primarily because it requires them to prioritize themselves. When you do, you begin to take actions that lead to increased control of your career path. This frees you up to accomplish big things in your life, profession and side business. By prioritizing doing what you love, you open yourself to a new way of working, professional satisfaction and feelings of having professional purpose and/or passion.

• (4:58.40) How a lack of trust impacts the way professionals show up at work and why it oftens leads to an inauthentic self. 
• (6:24.93) What 3 things you can do to manage burnout and work related stress and why too many people typically just shove down their feelings and keep on going. 
• (9:26.78) Are you an adrenaline junkie? Some personality types thrive on stress. Building a side hustle can actually reduce feelings of burnout so you don't feel trapped.
• (12:20:20) This simple reframing trick can change the way an organization, manager or employee thinks about its team members and can reduce burnout before it leads to job dissatisfaction.
• (14:09:13) Five simple, yet easy and effective tips most business leaders can implement which can increase employee involvement without increasing job stress. And, one of these tips has been known to actually increase the likelihood of a future promotion.
• (18:03:87) How we’re programming ourselves and our kids to be workaholics starting at an early age.
• (21:00:27) The ways in which men and women experience stress differently.
• (24:24:54) The eight ‘telltale’ signs you’re experiencing the kind of chronic stress most people ignore because they often don’t recognize the cues. 
• (31:24:99) Nine tips and suggestions for how you reduce stress without feeling guilty for pursuing a side business, personal growth or something that you have an interest or passion for.

Resources 

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Redwood Executive Coaching

Follow Redwood Executive Coaching on Facebook
Karrie Brazaski

This episode was supported by: Be-YOU-nique​

Transcript​

Episode 35 Transcript
 
Nola: [00:00:00] Brain fog. Fatigue. Higher than normal levels of negativity, cynicism, exhaustion, and stress. Does this sound familiar? You're not alone. A recent study out of Stanford University found Zoom fatigue to be a real thing. Sadly, it seems to be affecting women more than men. And if that wasn't bad enough, according to the American Psychological Association, women consistently report experiencing more job stress and stress related health conditions than men. We wondered if there's anything you can do to help reduce stress before you become burnt out, especially if you want to pursue your side hustle. Turns out, abso-freaking-lutely. And it's the topic of today's show.
Announcer: [00:00:39] You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time-strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week,
 
Lori: [00:00:51] According to the Mayo Clinic, job burnout is a special type of work-related stress. A state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Let's face it. In a year unlike any we've ever known, lack of control, unclear job expectations, lack of social support, and a work-life imbalance are at an all-time high. And we recognize the conundrum of wanting to forge a more life-giving entrepreneurial path for yourself when you're already burnt out by your full-time job. Hello and welcome, aspiring side hustlers. Lori and Nola here with a Career-Burnout: What-you-can-do-when-your-job-and-life-affects-your-health episode of Sticky Brand Lab. But before we show you how to spot burnout, so you can take action, be sure to subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. That way, you'll never miss out on any of our weekly helpful, informative, and always opinionated podcasts. Now let's get this stress-reducing show started.
 
Nola: [00:02:01] It's been an unprecedented year, to say the least. In fact, a recent survey done by CNBC of nearly 7,000 U.S. adults polled, slightly more than half the women polled said their mental health suffers to the point of burnout because of their jobs. But the reality is, stress to the point of burnout has been around for a long time, and may have only reached mainstream consciousness as the world has had to turn to virtual meetings to connect with colleagues, clients, friends, and family. What can you do to reduce your stress before it reaches burnout? And, what if you're already at the breaking point? For that, we turned to burnout recovery expert, Karrie Brazaski. Speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, executive coach and nurse, Karrie is founder and CEO of Redwood Executive Coaching and the nonprofit, Helping Healthcare Heroes. As a retention strategist with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, she understands how poor culture and high turnover diminishes engagement and decreases satisfaction, stalls efforts for growth, and robs a team of vital organizational history. After 15 years as a hospital executive and a longtime career as a nurse, Karrie saw the toll stress takes on the health of an individual as well as an organization. Karrie knows the struggles with stress, anxiety, and burnout, intimately as a nurse and prior hospital executive for almost three decades, she has seen the struggles and sacrificed family time and personal wellness due to job loyalty and demands. Karrie ended her healthcare career that she'd loved due to severe burnout because there was virtually no support or resources to help her. Using her background as a nurse, executive, and coach, Karrie helps companies realize how stress is impacting both their staff and bottom line. Through her business, Redwood Executive Coaching, Karrie offers a holistic wellness approach, providing prevention plans and strategies designed to help organizations, busy professionals and their children create and implement the transformational life and culture they desire. Welcome Karrie. Woo so glad you're here.
 
Karrie: [00:04:12] I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
 
Lori: [00:04:15] You're so welcome. And we're so lucky. Since our podcast is all about supporting mostly professional women, but definitely anyone who's aspiring to start a side business, can you tell us, what is the most entrepreneurial thing about you?
 
Karrie: [00:04:31] I think it is being a risk taker. Mostly when we work for somebody else, there's not a lot of risk. Or if there are risk, the downside of failure, you don't quite fall so far. So I think the ability to just get out and take a risk, believe in yourself, is a huge entrepreneurial asset because it's kind of scary sometimes going forth not knowing, and just doing it anyway.
 
Lori: [00:04:58] And I think you touched on something that was really important. When you work for yourself, when problems come up, you can address them. But one of the things that's scary when you work for someone else is the ability to speak up.
 
Karrie: [00:05:13] Oh yeah. It totally depends on how much trust is in the group, how much trust is in that leader, and how invested are you in, is it worth the battle. There's lots to, you know, we always say, choose your battles and is it worth it? Is it worth taking a stand? Is it worth speaking up? When you're an entrepreneur, you get to totally be for what you stand for and you don't have to stifle your voice. That is probably the biggest thing that I love. I used to have a persona of who I was as a hospital executive and then who I was at home and they weren't the same people. And now I get to be my whole self every day.
 
Nola: [00:05:52] So that's really being authentic.
 
Karrie: [00:05:54] Yes.
 
Nola: [00:05:55] You have personal and professional experience with stress and burnout. Can you tell us about that?
 
Karrie: [00:06:01] My whole burnout story is that you just keep going. So many times, we think, well, we'll get a new job. Or I'll go transfer to another department. All that does is buy you a little bit of time so that, you know, you kind of have that honeymoon, but then if you aren't dealing with the underlying stress and what caused it to begin with, you're just back at the same point. And until you can create either new behaviors, new thought patterns, new ways in which you deal with your stress, you typically just shove it down and keep on going. And for me, it was not only, shove it down and keep on going, I was a hospital executive. So I needed to look like I had everything together. What I find is the higher on the ladder that women especially go, the more the house of cards that they have. Everything looks perfect on the outside because that's your job. Your job is to make everything look good. And to make sure that you have that all together.  on the inside you're crumbling. And that's where I was at. Is there was just nothing left. I was at the point where they wanted not only me to continue doing what I was doing, but they wanted me to move my family one more time. It had been my fifth for-profit hospital that I had worked for, and it was, I was at this point where I felt like a failure as a mom. I felt like a failure as a wife. And I felt like I was feeling in my job, there was nothing there. It was literally a, suck it up, buttercup. This is what we want you to do. Go fix this hospital. It was like, I don't want to do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. Why I'm so passionate about what I do now is I walked away without a plan. I highly do not recommend that. Neither do me for English there, but I do not recommend that plan. Literally, I walked away without a plan. It's scary, and at the same time, it was the only thing I knew to do so that I could get better. My health was in the toilet. I remember it was my priest. I was at Mass. It was during Lent one year and I was just sobbing. And he was like, what is going on? And I'm like, I just don't know how much longer I can do that. And he looked at me and he goes, well, you know, you don't have to do that. And it was like this this light bulb moment of go, wow. Really? I'm the major breadwinner. I mean, this is what we do. And he was just like, there are other options. And it was like, it had never even crossed my mind. So I love that you guys help people with side hustles because sometimes you can build that side hustle so that you don't feel trapped. You don't feel like there's no other way.
 
Nola: [00:08:38] How'd you do that? How did you make that shift?
 
Karrie: [00:08:41] I felt so bad physically that, like, every day I would wake up and I'd just want to go back to bed. But I had walked in about two months before I actually left. I told my boss: you want me to go to another place. I don't want really want to do that. So, here's the deal. You need to spend the next little bit and find my replacement, and I'm going to look for another job, and when it gets to the point that we're ready to announce this, then we will. And he just looked at me like. And then I came home and told my husband. what I did.
 
Nola: [00:09:13] Oh!
 
Lori: [00:09:14] Oh!
 
Karrie: [00:09:18] He was just kind of like, okay. We'll make it work.
 
Lori: [00:09:21] Oh, that's very supportive.
 
Karrie: [00:09:23] Yeah, for sure. I have an amazing guy.
 
Lori: [00:09:26] We seem to thrive on stress. Even without a pandemic, we thrive on it. Why do you think that is?
 
Karrie: [00:09:35] I think that we're programmed. I used to say, I love controlled chaos. I mean, I I'm a nurse. We call it the adrenaline junkies. There's people that work in the ER, I talked to friends who, they're in these high stress jobs, maybe they're attorneys and they litigate, or it's not even that they ever get to the litigation. It's the excitement of what it could be. The other thing is that, I think for so long, we have been trained and conditioned that busy is a badge of courage. And busy is the first step to burnout. When you keep hearing people say I'm busy, busy, busy, I always say that's an early indicator of a straight line, if you don't change things to where you're going to burn out. When you can't do things because you're too busy. And I'm not saying they're like, oh no, I can't do that, I'm busy on Tuesday, that that's not it. But it's when it's this chronic, over-busy. The chronic stress. You know, you'll hear people it's like, well, you know, I had to take Johnny to basketball and Susie to this and, and then you hear another and she's like, yeah, but you know what I had to do, I had to run the PTA meeting and then I had to do this. And then my boss wanted that. It's almost like we do this one-upmanship of being busy instead of being like, you know what. I am so proud of myself. I said no to the PTA. I actually said, no, thank you, but I will not be making cupcakes for that. Or, you know what, I'd be happy to do it. And I'll stop off at Smith's and get you something from the deli section or the bakery or whatever. I mean, I was the mom who like, no way would I ever not send something homemade. Besides the fact that in the kitchen is one of my de-stressors. But it's sometimes we look down on people because they bought it. Well, who cares? Who cares if it wasn't homemade? And who said you had to do everything? Usually, it's something that we put on ourselves. We homeschool now, but I remember the time when the school was doing a big fundraiser, I actually was going out of town for business. I was like, I feel really guilty that I can't do this. And they just sent the, Hey, if you can sign up, here's the sheet. No one expected it. Nobody was like, Hey Karrie, when are you going to do this? It was just a sheet that said, whatever you can do would be great. And I felt so guilty. And then I was like, wait a minute. If I don't step up, but give somebody else an opportunity to step up, I don't always have to be the one. And guess what? They never came back and said, oh my gosh, Karrie Brazaski did not donate XYZ, and she didn't participate. They were like, Hey, how was your trip? Did you have fun? So, it's usually the crap we put in our head.
 
Lori: [00:12:20] And I can relate to that.  And especially what was an epiphany right here is when you said, I think we're programmed to think that way. That we have to be the ones, or somehow no one else will step up, then we've made it all about ourselves. Instead of your second response, which was, let me give somebody else an opportunity to shine that might not have otherwise stepped up because I stepped up.
 
Karrie: [00:12:46] And think about the last time, like you were new at something. I always say it's always the same five people and one of the five steps up. But if one of the five doesn't, does somebody else step up? Not always, but maybe always saying yes makes it to where people just assume that we think we need to be the one instead of being like, Hey, you know what? Somebody else like to take the lead on this? It's the same way when you work in an organization. You have people who always go to the same people, and it's like, you're going to burn those people out because they're always the ones to do it. But if I step back and maybe Nola is fabulous at what I have historically done, but she's never gotten spotlighted from it. If I stepped back, Nola gets to step up and guess what? The whole team, the whole committee, the whole everything gets to move forward because I didn't have to be the spotlight.
 
Lori: [00:13:40] Yes.
 
Nola: [00:13:41] Yep. You know, speaking of companies, organizations, and nonprofits, how do our places of employment, how do they knowingly or unknowingly contribute stress that leads to burnout?
 
Karrie: [00:13:54] Well, I think the biggest is leadership. There's all kinds of studies that people leave organizations because of poor leadership or a poor relationship with a boss. I think there's a big difference between being a boss and a manager and being a leader. That can be for a whole ‘nother topic. But I think the big thing is that they themselves do not role model the behaviors that you want. For example, if you're an organization that, Hey, we need to create work-life balance and we really want to support our working parents, our working moms, then don't do activities in the evening when she needs to go to soccer. Don't do things that don't include her family. I remember one time we did a zoo outing for an employee appreciation. And people are like, we're going to go to the zoo? I mean, who's going to want that? There were people who were like, oh my gosh, I love it because my kids got to come. We had older people who had their kids off at college or, you know, out of the house. And they're like, we haven't been to the zoo since our kids were little. This was so much fun. And so it was like, it brought a whole different thing, but it's like incorporated into families so that they can do it. You know, not the white table dinners, where their kids are never invited, if you really want to be about families.  
The other one is, what time do you send emails at night? Stop sending emails late into the night because then people think that they have to respond. Hold ‘em. Hold ‘em there. Wait until normal business was hours, because then you're not teaching people to constantly be connected to their phone and always having to check it.
And then the other is, have some grace. Set the behaviors, eat your lunch, don't eat at your desk, don't do lunch meetings, give people a break. And if they see the leader doing it, then they're going to do it. And the one I'm giving you a lot, sorry, you said
 
Lori: [00:15:57] No, no, that was great. Yeah, there was no number on that one.
 
Karrie: [00:16:03] The other is vacations. So there was a recent study that came out, I can't remember who actually did it, that organizations have been polled about their people taking vacations. Less and less people are taking vacation. And even in the pandemic, even less people, granted there was nowhere to go, but even the, the stay vacation, just the breakaway, people didn't take their vacation because they didn't think that it would be perceived well. But the study came out that I read a couple, I think it was a week or two ago, people who actually take their vacations, actually have a higher trajectory in progression in their role. So if you take vacations, you're more apt to get a promotion.
 
Nola: [00:16:44] Wow.
 
Lori: [00:16:44] Wow.
 
Karrie: [00:16:45] The ladder and people think it's the opposite. And I believe the reason for that is we need a break. We need separation. Think of how rejuvenated you can feel. After a vacation with your family. Or just time with your family. And so we need to start making sure that we take our vacations because we will be more productive. We will be better employees. If you're running your business, you will be more present in your business because you've had a break from it. We all need that. And so take your vacations. Oh, and if you can get outside and eat your lunch, even better.
 
Lori: [00:17:23] Well, that brings me to the point that I was going to ask is, what are some suggestions you have beyond the vacation that employees themselves can do to help lower their risk for burnout?
 
Karrie: [00:17:37] The best? Like we just said. Lunch. I always tell everybody, take back lunch. The American workday is set up with a 30-minute lunch break. Not many places pay their people for that 30-minute period. Right. So, from an employer standpoint, if you don't allow your people to take a lunch, you're stealing from them. You're stealing their time.
 
Lori: [00:17:59] I think that's a really positive way to think about it.
 
Karrie: [00:18:03] And then the other is, get your work done at work. I think one of the worst things that we do in our society, it goes back to this programming. We start it in schools. We program kids that they can't get all of their work done at school, and so now they have to have homework. And then we wonder why we have workaholics and people who always feel like they have to get stuff done at night because they didn't get it done during the day. Now, there are times when I think homework is appropriate, if you're studying for something, but I have lived in school systems where it's like, you must give 30 minutes to two hours of homework every single day. Just because. But if you have them for seven hours a day, you shouldn't need an additional two hours. If they need that for studying and they need that. But to actually give them activities that must be done is just like stealing the lunch hour.
 
Nola: [00:18:58] Wow.
 
Karrie: [00:18:59] It's their time. We need people to be able to compartmentalize their workday, and then have fun in their life. Life should not revolve around work.
 
Nola: [00:19:09] What a concept.
 
Lori: [00:19:11] Truly. I mean, I'm like my mind is blown. Because you're reframing things that, that we in the United States just are so used to doing, we don't even question why we do or accept some of the things that we do, because it just seems natural.
 
Karrie: [00:19:30] Yeah. And the thing is, is if you consistently have to bring your work home at night and you have to spend a couple of hours doing your work, you either need a little bit more help. And I understand there are times. There are times where people will do things because they're committed to the job. But when the occasional becomes the chronic, and the actual button up and be done with the workday becomes less of a norm and more that becomes the exception, that's when we have problems. And that's when we build ourselves up for burnout, we need to have the separation. And if you have a business and you're an entrepreneur, you really have to set your boundaries around your workday. Close your computer. Have designated time. So that you can be present for your family. I had a father-in-law who died this year. And the last three weeks of his life, we were all right there. And the last, probably five days we were all right around his bed. No regrets. Never once, never once did anything come up about, oh, I wish I would have done this at work. The only comment about work was. Oh, dad, you got a card from Cindy. Oh, I used to work with her. We used to do dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And he had memories of it. It wasn't the work, it was the relationship. That's the only reason that work came in to that last little bit of his life.
 
Nola: [00:21:00] Pretty eye-opening. So, it was one of those studies showed that men and women experience stress a lot differently. In fact, women experience it really disproportionately than men. Can you tell us what those differences look like in men versus women?
 
Karrie: [00:21:17] What I've seen is with women, they take on the stress and the anxiety around them, where men it's more a, is this specifically affecting me? It's not to say that men aren't stressed, but women typically, like, if you talk to just about any woman, she can tell you the name of her pediatrician, chances are when you know, her kids had their last visit to the office, who the vet is, if their dogs need shots, and all of these things. And, oh, we have dentist appointments. We had them in August, so now we gotta go again here in February. It's this mental load. The amount of things that women just take on. Men typically don't do that. I've been married for 23 years. We've lived in this house for 10 years. There are still items in my kitchen where it's like, where does this go?
 
Lori: [00:22:12] I actually had that not too long ago. So yes, exactly.
 
Karrie: [00:22:18] Sometimes get really frustrated. He like, for the love of God, we've lived here for 10 years. How do you not know where this goes? But then at the same time, I'm thinking. Wow. To not have to take up mental space in his head to have, like, it just doesn't matter. Where we're like, oh my gosh, this goes there. This goes there. This goes here. And they're not as worried about that. It's just how they process it different. The other thing is that I find men can get caught up in the big stuff. The big stuff is really what seems to stress them out, where women get caught up in the little stuff. You know, didn't do this, or I have to do this. I have to. And we pile it on and then it's like a toothpick gets dropped on the floor and somebody walked up and you're just like, how many times you have to walk past this and you don't pick this up. And it's just like, oh, for the love of God, it's a toothpick. Wait, where you're like, then you kind of stepped back and you're like, wow, why am I getting so upset about a toothpick on the floor? It's the way in which they process it. And the other thing that I noticed it with. So, I have a son who's 14, and my husband, they can disconnect. And know how to, like, it's getting to be too much so I'm Just going to go over here. Like my son, he has friends and there's four of them in their family and he'll go spend the night with them and the mom will say, oh yeah. So funny, you can tell when he gets to a point where he's had enough and he just kind of goes off into the corner and he'll do his own little thing and play for 20, 30 minutes and then comes back and joins the group. Most girls, most women would feel like, oh my gosh, I can't do that. That's so rude. I would never. It's just a different way in which we're wired and we're okay to do things.
 
Nola: [00:24:04] Wow. Well, it's nice to be aware of them
 
Lori: [00:24:06] To help us really tap in, what are some low-level signs where you can actually intervene and do things, but you're just not aware that you're starting to feel that stress level? What does that look like at its lower level?
 
Karrie: [00:24:24] Typically, the signs that I see most people ignore, and they're the ones I ignored, it's chronic colds. You're always feeling sick. Fatigued. Really poor sleep. You go to sleep and you sleep through the night and either you wake up a lot, or you wake up in the morning, but you're still not rested. Those are telltale signs.
The other is, you start to get very agitated. Like I talked to a client yesterday and she said, I used to be such a fun-loving person. And I'm just frustrated and irritated all the time. And she goes, this isn't me.  That's a classic sign. The other is, you get very reactive. I like to think of, yourself as a stick of dynamite. And you remember. Wiley Coyote, he'd have it, and it kind of gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Well, the shorter that your light gets, the more volatile it becomes. As that wick burns down, the closer you are to just blowing up. And that's kind of how it is, is we get more reactive. We get more frustrated.
The other is that we start to lose joy. And then the one that I talk a lot about is, you love your profession. You love what you do for a living, and you're starting to resent your job. Oh, but you're really afraid to speak about it. I remember thinking I love being a nurse. I love being a hospital administrator, but I resent this job. I resent how it takes so much time from my family. I resent that it always has to come before my family. And the one where it really kind of hit me was, I was coming home one day and my husband said to me, and he didn't mean to say it like, mean or anything. He said, you know what, the hardest part of this whole thing is? And I said what? He said, when we come home at night after we've run errands, we've been to baseball or whatever, the garage door goes up and I hear from the backseat, oh, mommy's not home again tonight.
 
Nola: [00:26:28] Oh.
 
Lori: [00:26:29] Oh.
 
Nola: [00:26:30] Oh that's a heartbreaker.
 
Karrie: [00:26:31] I waited, I put my career and try not to get choked up. I put my career before everything. I didn't get married till later in life, I didn't have a kid, you know, until, sorry. You're not the only one I'm sure,
 
Lori: [00:26:48] exactly. And having the courage to tell it from that personal experience. Not only that, but as you're talking, I am having a better understanding of why I made a career change. You're putting words to something I didn't have language; I didn't even understand the low level that you are talking about. So, for you to be authentic about it, let me just tell you, it's tapping into my own memory base.
 
Karrie: [00:27:15] Yeah, it's rough.   I'm the very first person in my family to have a college degree. I mean, I have a college degree plus a master's degree. My husband has a baccalaureate degree as well.  So, it's like, we were kind of taught this. I used to, what does that Dolly Parton, you know, you can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, and you can have it all. You can have it all, you just can't have it all at the same time. That's where they lied to us.
 
Nola: [00:27:42] Right.
 
Karrie: [00:27:44] We made a decision that when my executive career took off and we knew, we were going to have a child, that we made a conscious decision that we were only going to live on one income, so that we could raise our own child. It's like, you know, we've waited this long, it took us nine years to finally have him, that we wanted to make sure that we were raising him. But then it's like, you still want to be a part of your kids' lives. And we put it off. And so we really need to help working moms. I mean, working dads, yes. But it's falling more to women. And even if you look at the studies, women experience burnout at a much higher rate than men do. And they also experienced PTSD. So post-traumatic stress from other things in their lives at higher rates. All of that goes in to what drives women today. And we've got to be able to take care of themselves so that they can be the moms they want to be. They can be the executives. But you can't do it all at once.
 
Nola: [00:28:56] Right. Absolutely.
 
Karrie: [00:28:58] And if your gonna do it all at once, you've got to have some help. You have to stop feeling guilty that I've got a housekeeper or I have blue apron delivered to my door, or we've got a gardener because if you don't have that help, then when your downtime, you're spending it doing all of those things versus being with your family. It's a trade off.
 
Nola: [00:29:20] That sounds really familiar. So I'm just going to shift onto the next question.
So as someone who has experienced burnout, and who started her own business, how has your entrepreneurial journey informed and contributed to the work you do?
 
Karrie: [00:29:39] Well, I think the big thing is knowing what you'll accept. There are things around your house, especially when you work from home. I have a friend, she said, you know, at any time you can come to my house, there'll always be laundry to fold. She said, I used to be anal about it. And it used to really get me. And she just said, you know what? It's just what it's going to be. And so you need to decide. Again, back to the what's worth the battle what's worth standing up for, what are the things that just don't matter, and what are the things that do? For you to do the side hustle, you still have to take care of, you. Know what you need, set boundaries around your time, set boundaries around what you will accept and what you won't accept. And then give yourself grace and try to get rid of some of the mom guilt, the woman guilt, because, you're going to fail. maybe not your business, but there are going to be things that we try, that we're going to fail. We're going to fall down and we're going to get back up. Because it's just going to push us forward. Like you can never continue to run a race and not trip somewhere along the way. Realizing that those speed bumps, those trips, are just part of the journey, and get yourself back up as quick as you can, instead of defining yourself by the bump in the trip.
 
Lori: [00:31:00] Do you have any other suggestions or tips that you could share with our audience, especially if you're pursuing your passion or interest. And I want to qualify that by saying, it might not be a side business yet. It might be that you want to get more education. You have got an interest in a new area of personal growth. So, it could be any of those things. But you still have to carve out time. So, can you offer up other tips or suggestions for how people can do that without feeling guilty for pursuing something that they're interested in?
 
Karrie: [00:31:36] Well, I think one is to vocalize it and realize what you want to do. I think so many times we're afraid to actually tell people this is what I want to do, and this is what I'm pursuing. So one is to acknowledge it to yourself, but also to share it with your family. But the best two very good ways to create more time in your day, because we all have the same 24 hours a day, but to make your day the most productive, you have to have a good night's sleep. Typically, we think sleep will happen at the end of the day. Whenever I've got everything done, whatever's leftover, then I'll sleep. And I'll even hear people say, oh, you know, there'll be time to sleep when I'm dead. Well, two years ago, a study came out that actually shows people who sleep less than six hours a day, and the, the CDC recommendations are actually seven to nine hours of sleep for adults, so if you sleep less than six hours per night, routinely, you have a higher rate of mortality from everything. It doesn't matter what you're going to die from, you're going to die earlier if you sleep less than six hours, according to the study. Yeah, from all causes of mortality. So I'm always, like, I always say, well, you know, and that might happen a little sooner if you keep up the way you're doing. So. A good night's sleep. And to be able to do that, you just have to make it a priority. You have to realize that sleep is important. Your body needs it to rejuvenate, to help you recycle through everything that you've been throughout the day. So go back to like, if you had kids, of how you had bedtimes, how you were very meticulous about the way in which the process that you put your kids to bed at night, start doing that to yourself. So make sleep a priority.
And then the other thing that you can do to create more time in the day, and this seems very counterintuitive as well, is to create white space in your day. So, even if it is five minutes of stillness, where you just sit. Maybe you have a million thoughts. Or, like, I love to have my coffee in the morning and I go sit out on our back patio for about 10 or 15 minutes, I smell the coffee, I feel the air, I noticed the colors, I listen to the birds. And I'm just present in that moment. And then it's like, I've created this calm to be able to go throughout the day. And most people think that, you know, I don't have time for that. I don't have time to relax. Five minutes a day consistently can truly make a difference.
The other that I'll add is like, if you start to get really worked up. You're feeling like I'm overwhelmed, I've got this to do, I've got that to do, this, to do. It's like the to-do list becomes overwhelming, step away. Take a five-minute break. Stop trying to trudge through. And I always like to use the example. When you go to get your oil changed, we get their oil changed so that the car will function at its optimum. You cannot get the oil changed while driving down the road. You have to stop. It has to get raised up and the oil gets changed. You have to stop every day, just as a little bit of maintenance. You can't keep going. Or, you're going to wear out. You're going to burn out. Meditation is a great way. And I know there's lots of people are like, oh, I can't do meditate. You can start off with a guided meditation because most people think that they have to totally close their mind off. That's not the idea. The idea is just to be aware, to be present, just be there. And so guided meditation works really well and it also will help increase gray matter. It also makes your amygdala, which is our fight and flight, get to a better size so that it's more functional and you're, you're not always in this go, go, go.
And then the other one is just deep-breathe. Just take big, nice breaths. Take a big inhalation and then exhale really slow. So when you take a big, deep breath in and you blow it out, you go from your sympathetic nervous system and it pulls you over into your parasympathetic, which is your rest, relax, rejuvenate.
 
Nola: [00:35:55] So these are really eye opening. I couldn't help kind of thinking, okay. So how do I handle that? When you had said, you know, when you get overwhelmed and you take a break, just step away and take a break. And I'm like, I usually do that by stepping away and grabbing the chocolate.  And of course, I come back to my desk and I'm mindlessly eating chocolate while finishing my, so I think that that's something to think about.
 
Karrie: [00:36:16] Well, you know, you know what you could try next time.
So do you like raisins?
 
Nola: I do like raisins.
 
Karrie: Raisins. I love raisins as a great de-stressing tool. So, you take one raisin and you see how long you can have it in your mouth and chew it. Cause most people, you know, they pop raise it in their mouth. Chomp, chomp swallow, done. Put the raisin in and just really feel it, feel the texture, note, you can even look at it like, is it a really plump? Is it really dried out? I know it sounds silly, but really just be present with the raisin. And then eat it. The other thing is that that little bit of sugar helps ground you. It's an Ayurvedic tool that they had us do a lot after meditation to kind of ground you and bring you back to the present. But just that little raisin can do it.
 
Nola: [00:37:04] Well. That's good to know.
 
Karrie: [00:37:05] But it's being present with the raisin.
 
Nola: [00:37:09] The other thing that I couldn't help think of is, so I've been really trying to make it a point to get that sleep. I have noticed that when I'm don't have enough sleep, I don't have a brain. And it can be really embarrassing. So I've been really trying to guard that sleep time, however, I find that to do so I often have to leave things undone, and I find myself waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about all the things I still have to do. Is there a way around that?
 
Karrie: [00:37:41] So the thing that you can do is if you can add meditation to your day. Where you're meditating. And you can even do like a sleep meditation, where you're listening to it, and it really helps get you into that theta brain state, so that you kind of drift off and into that deep calming state.
The other thing that you can do is, if you like it, now some people they do not like this at all, is binaural beats. Where you listen to music in your headphones, and it's kind of like, you'll hear it in this one, you know, and it kind of goes back and forth. And that is soliciting different brainwaves as well. They have some that you can use that as you go to sleep.
The other is that some people just will wake up and just keep a note pad on the side of the bed and just write it down. Write it down and be done. When things pop up, our brain is really like, Hey, could you like give me some attention? And usually just writing it down and doing a big brain dump will help. The other you could try is to do that right before you go to bed, whatever is on your mind. And when you do a brain dump like that, you just grab a piece of paper and, you know, you might be right in your to-do list. The next thing you'll be writing your grocery list. The next thing you'll be doing is, oh, I need a new toothbrush. Oh, look at that spot on the wall. I mean, just like crazy stuff. And you're just like, this has no rhyme or reason and you just let it all come out and then it's like, it's taken care of, and now you can go to sleep.
 
Nola: [00:39:09] Oh, that's a good idea.
 
Lori: [00:39:11] That is a really good idea. And you had brought up meditating, which I'm not affiliated with either, but I've been using the 10% Happier, Dan Harris's app for mindfulness. Are there any other apps, you've given us a whole list, actually, but I just wondered before we move on.
 
Karrie: [00:39:31] Insight Timer has all kinds of different meditation that people can do and you can try different things. I teach yoga nidra, which is a form of guided Meditation, that's on there.  And they have a free site as well as a subscription site.
 
Nola: [00:39:46] Awesome.
 
Karrie: [00:39:47] But I will tell you when I first started to meditate, there was no way I could just sit for 10 minutes. Like I would want to gnaw off my arm. Um, you have to kind of train yourself that it's okay to, to slow down. And that's why I like guided to begin with until you can get to that space where it's like, okay, I can just sit here and be okay.
 
Nola: [00:40:08] Awesome. Well, shifting gears just a little. Since you're a self-professed foodie and holistic nutritionist, Lori and I thought it would be interesting to see what your personal favorite recipe is and how it reflects your own experience and journey to successful entrepreneurship. And when we asked you gave us two recipes. One was the stress-free dinner and the other is a calming bath recipe. So for the stress free dinner, tell us about that. And what is your tip that our listeners should consider for making this a successful meal? And can you tell us also, in what way it reflects your experience and journey to successful entrepreneurship?
 
Karrie: [00:40:49] So, it's a stress-free dinner. It's pulled pork with balsamic, green beans, and toasted almonds. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's not. Um, which is what I love. And, you know, like I said, I am a foodie, I love food. And I love good food. And it needs to taste good. But we're all busy. When I like work with clients, even one of the things that they say is it's like, I don't have time. I don't have time for that. I'm so busy. So I love this meal.  You put it in the Crock-Pot it's a pulled pork. You just kind of layer some onions, put the pork loin in there, season it, let it go all day. I've also done it at night because we were going to do brunch in the morning. And then we use the pulled pork in like breakfast burritos and stuff like that. So it's very, very versatile. And then there's a pasta recipe with just a bunch of vegetables. the pasta works really well with the leftover pulled pork, and then the green beans. Green beans are my favorite. And this is just a different way to do it with just a little bit of balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire and then brown your sliced almonds, and you put it together, it looks pretty, it's yummy. But. Cooking can be very stressful for people. So having those go-to, quick meals, I think is great.
If you're not a cooker and you're not somebody who enjoys time in the kitchen, to me, that's my de-stressing happy space. But if you're not, then reward yourself at the end with a calming bath. This bath is amazing. You just use Epson salt and baking soda, buffered vitamin C.  So, it's the vitamin C powder. It's about a tablespoon I fill the capful put it in there. And then whatever essential oils that you like. And then just sit and soak. And I like to put on a little bit of music, light a candle. And don't feel guilty. So many people spend so much time and money having these beautiful bathrooms that have these fabulous tubs that they never use. So you stop wasting that beautiful space and get your body in there.
 
Nola: [00:42:51] Put a little thing above the bath that says I deserve this. I earned this.
 
Lori: [00:42:57] That's great. That is so great. And just as a little fun question, who's your favorite superhero and why?
 
Karrie: [00:43:04] You know what? I always loved Wonder Woman. But as a kid, the Wonder Woman and Bionic Woman. Oh yeah. She was one person. So it was that runner. I used to run. And she had an invisible, jet, right. You know, she could go everywhere, anywhere, and she just always had it together. And yeah.
 
Nola: [00:43:38] And we wonder why we're stressing out.
 
Karrie: [00:43:43] I think too many times we think we have to be Wonder Woman. Yeah. As a kid, she was kind of my favorite. The other was she had a cape. And I always wanted to be a nurse and a lot of nurses wore capes, so, oh, have that little crossover there.  You know, and she saved the world and that's what nurses do, they save the world.
 
Nola: [00:44:01] That's true. Well, thank you Karrie, for being our guest and helping us and our listeners. Would you tell our listeners how they can learn more about you and your work?
 
Karrie: [00:44:13] Yeah. RedwoodExecutiveCoaching.com. You can go there and send an email through there or give us a jingle. And then if you're on LinkedIn, I'm over there at Karrie Brazaski.
 
Nola: [00:44:25] And listeners, you can also get the details and resources and other information about Karrie on our website, stickybrandlab.com/resources. And that's our Resources page.
 
Lori: [00:44:37] Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember, actions create results. So, tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.
 
Nola: [00:44:56] Do you have questions about creating a personal brand, side hustle or small business? Sign up for one of our clarity sessions. For more information, contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact.
 
[OUT-TAKE]
 
Nola: It's been an unprecedented year to say the least. Did I add an extra of syllable to unprecedentedented?  
 
Karrie: [00:45:21] That's how rough this year has been.