Breaking the Burnout Cycle – Tools for Sustainable Success with Brandy Zimmerman

Brandy Zimmerman 0:02
Leah, we are so reliant on our well being, and we put it so far down on the list because we think that if we focus on our well being, or if we take that five seconds to do that stress reset, that it's going to take away from the other thing, but it's actually in doing those pieces and building this into our habits and our calendar and our life that sets us up to be the person that we want to be for our clients.

Leah Neaderthal 0:31

Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share, hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now, I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress in your business and taking some time for you. So back when I was 36 I was a few years into my coaching business, and I was working really hard. I was taking on one on one clients. I was saying yes to everybody. I was doing all the things. And that year, at age 36 I had a stroke. And it's like not normal to have a stroke at 36 I mean, it was such a fluke that even after going to a stroke specialist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, we still don't know exactly what caused it, but what I do know is this, in the months leading up to it, I was really stressed out, I was overwhelmed, I was completely burned out, and because we don't know what caused it exactly, we can't say that burnout caused it, but I know that being depleted and burned out like certainly did not help. And looking back, it was the ultimate like wake up call about what burnout can do. And by the way, if you want to hear more about that story, and you know how that happened. Check out episode 70. It's called the stroke that changed my life. And I was thinking about that time and how totally burned out I was as I was getting ready for today's episode. Because today I'm talking with my client, my friend and now coach in the academy, Brandy Zimmerman, about burnout, so brandy. And I go way back, she started as a client in my old program, signed, and then my old program, pack your pipeline, and then the Academy. And over the years, she's absolutely mastered the tools that we teach here, and she's used them to build and grow her own consulting business, and because of that, and you know, seeing how she has done that, I invited her to join us as a coach in the academy, where she now works with members, specifically as a dedicated coach on the fundamentals of our system. And on top of that, in her consulting company, Brandi, spent years on the front lines of addressing burnout in some of Canada's biggest companies, and she's developed her proprietary get it done protocol so that she can help even the most time strapped business owners. Haha. Sounded familiar, but even the most time strapped business owners battle burnout and win. And the combination of these two areas of expertise, you know, knowing how to run and grow a consulting business and how to manage and beat burnout is such a powerful combination. And what makes brandy perfect for this work as well is that she doesn't just teach it. She lives it. She's a business owner. She works directly with her clients. She's a single mom of two. She's juggling all the responsibilities, and she uses the same tools that she teaches to keep herself from burning out. And the best part, what you're going to hear is her approach doesn't add anything new to your plate. I mean, these are practical tools that you can use in the middle of your real life, and that's why, in addition to being a coach in the academy, I invited her to lead a brand new six week program inside the academy, starting on October 14, where we're focusing exclusively on burnout, because it is that important. And you know, I don't think I need to tell you that, as you know, waves hand at everything going on with the economy, the news, just, you know, constant influx of everything. Learning burnout is something that so many of us are feeling right now, which is exactly why I wanted to bring this conversation to you today. So take a listen to my conversation with Brandi Zimmerman, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business.

Brandy Zimmerman 5:15

Brandi, thanks for being here. It is so awesome to be here.

Leah Neaderthal 5:18

Leah, so I have known you for a long time, but listeners may be hearing you and meeting you for the first time. And so let's start at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What you do both in your I guess, what we're calling air quotes, real job, but also what you're doing first markets paid.

Brandy Zimmerman 5:35

Yeah, I'd love to. So my real job air quotes is I run a company called thriving workplaces, and we're really all about intersection between making sure that people are feeling good when they're working, but also being able to do their best work. We know that stress is such a huge part of all of our lives, and can really get in the way of our ability to focus do our best work, and, you know, show up in the way that we want to in the workplace, and so we work with individuals, teams and leaders to help them figure out how to make it so that employee well being and productivity are actually like best friends that work together, as opposed to treating them like polar opposites or competing priorities, because at the end of the day, if your staff's not doing well, they can't work at their best, and that's going to have a negative impact on your workplace. And for the last year, so I've been really lucky to be working with the team at Smart gets paid, and the Academy is the building blocks.

Leah Neaderthal 6:35

Coach, yeah, I think we need to sort of back up on that piece, because we started working together. Was it like,

Brandy Zimmerman 6:42

2020 Yeah, or 2020 Yeah? Like shortly after, like, I was lucky in that I found you within the first year of starting my business. I think it would have been a much more painful experience if I hadn't discovered, like, the Academy and the previous programs before it, and like, some of the methods, because learning how to market your services, talk about the work that you do, and then also, like lead a sales process is some of the hardest stuff, and I think it's especially hard for for women consultants, because so much of the stuff that's out there just doesn't fit with our personalities, or it's really focused on B to C as opposed to B to B to B, and B to B is a totally different beast. And so, you know, it's certainly helped my my business, to have known you as long as I

Leah Neaderthal 7:28

have well. And it's been so fun to see your business evolve, and watch you take these strategies, master them, but also use them to, sort of, you know, ride, you know, the real life of your business. There's been some ups and downs, some transitions, changes, et cetera, and you really have come out, like on top. And so it's been really inspiring for me. And so last year, when I was thinking about, who can I bring in to share some of these concepts, help our clients, work more closely with our clients, I was like, why am I looking outside? I mean, you are not just sort of putting it in practice, you know, and sort of working the system, but you have the ability to like hearing you explain to others is so wonderful. And so that's when I was like, Hey, do you want to come be our coach for building blocks, which is the sort of first set of content, that fundamental content that everyone goes through. I mean, I just have to tell you, you've been killing it like I just want this out there in the universe, Brandy is absolutely killing it. But I think it's cool that, you know, you have this sort of sphere of work in the academy and in smart gets paid, and then you have this other whole set of work, you know, in your business, business, and when did you start to see that there was an intersection between the two?

Brandy Zimmerman 8:47

Oh, that's such a great question. It's interesting, because when you know, when I first started doing the building blocks coaching within the academy, I was like, Oh, this sounds like a really fun thing to do, like a little like, side project for me, could be fun. Try it out, see how it goes. And I just, I really love working with folks, and like watching them learn how to talk about their business in a way that lights them up. And like seeing them move through that process and move from like this could work to oh my god, this is working so well. And then also, like being able to sprinkle in some of those parts of, like, Okay, some of this is your mindset, and it's okay to feel that way. It's not your fault you're thinking this. But like, let's work through that so that you can then focus so incorporating some of the the workplace, mental health aspects of it for clients, even while we're like, talking about, how do you deal with your painkiller? How do you decide on your ideal client? Or, you know, what do we do about this particular project, which isn't, maybe our dream area, but might be something we have to take for a temporary like, for a little bit to keep the lights on in the business, or to, you know, bridge a cash flow gap, and it's what I've liked about it, is being able to talk people through my own lived experience sometimes. Times too, because it's like, I've been there. I'm on version 12 of my painkiller since I started working with you in 2020 and it's still something I continually tweak and refine. So when people are like, I don't think it's perfect. I'm like, it's really good. Get it out there and start working on it. And as you talk about your business, as you learn more, as you do more discovery calls, as you see what resonates with clients when you're talking to them, you'll adjust this, and it's no big deal. This is part of the process. It's awesome. It's good when it happens. And so being able to have some of that, like regular evolution of a business be something that's like, a win and a signpost for clients from someone who's like, been on the journey they're on, I think has been, it's been really fun for me, and it's, it's interesting you say that part too, because over the last year, I've actually incorporated a lot more coaching style elements into my business and into the trainings that I do for my clients, into the programs that I offer, because I've just found it's really helpful for people to learn something and, like, get the basics, but when they start doing it, or when they're doing it for a bit, that's where the rubber really hits the road. And so being able to be like, I'm having this challenge, how do I work through this? And being able to, like, talk to other people, or hear from other people who've had the same experience, but then also have some that targeted support for where you are. It's just been really cool. So I've really enjoyed it,

Leah Neaderthal 11:24

yeah, and we can see it, you know, in sort of the results that we see from our clients, like it's really helping them not just learn, but sort of hear your lived experience. But I think one thing that you actually flagged for me is the fact that when women are going through our program, you know, when things start working, and then they're sort of balancing, like doing biz dev and and serving clients and doing their life and all of these things. I mean, what is it about consultants, and like women, consultants that either makes us susceptible to burnout or can lead to burnout? Because sometimes it can feel like burnout is like burnout is like so inevitable, but it doesn't have to be so, and that's part of your process. But what is it that can lead to such burnout?

Brandy Zimmerman 12:09

I mean, I have a long answer and I have a short answer, so maybe I'll start with a short answer, or try to, but you've known me long enough to know that I also, when I say it's a short answer, it's almost never a short answer. I think that part of it, though, is like so much of culture, the culture around small business and entrepreneurship is hustle culture. You have to grind, you have to work so hard. You got to do everything. You got to be perfect all the time. And if you're not working 24/7 you don't care. There's also then blended in with this. This like you have to suffer until you've made millions of dollars. Mentality like I am so sick of people talking about ramen noodle budgets, so that the women who are running their own businesses are like, not sure how they're going to feed their families or cover their mortgage, right? Like, we need to make enough money to support our families. Then there's also, I think, from that, like, a lot of women consultants also became consultants or started their own business because they didn't like what corporate work was meaning for their relationship with their family, whether that's their children, whether that's their partners, whether that's aging parents, they wanted to define a life that looked a little bit different than a corporate nine to five, five days bereavement leave. You're not going to get paid for it. You need to book your two weeks vacation and oh, if your family's sick, you just got to figure that out. We expect you to be in the office every day. Like that doesn't work for a lot of women in our society, because disproportionately caregiving falls to us, and for many of us, we enjoy that right like I want to be there for my kids, I want to pick them up from school, and I want to have a life and a business that lets me do that. And so we end up starting these jobs where there's this really high expectations of how we care give, there's really high expectations of how we're supposed to spend our time in our business, and then also that we're supposed to try and do it at like, poverty level wages, or we're supposed to try and be millionaires right away. You know, like there's, there's just so much competing things, and it just, it feels overwhelming, and it feels like no matter what you're doing, you're doing it wrong. And so that really, I think, contributes to it, because there's this sense of like I'm not feeling fulfilled for this, or I, like, started my business for this reason, and it's not coming together in this way, or I feel like I have to do this to get bad, and I'm not focused on the right things, because I'm just trying to do everything. And, you know, like it just, it can feel really overwhelming. And when we're having an overwhelmed state for an ongoing period of time, when our stress level is really high, or stress level is higher than the ability we have to manage it and bring it down, that's what leads to burnout over time. And so like ultimately, I think women consultants are more susceptible to it than male consultants or male business owners, because disproportionately the family responsibility falls on us, in addition to all of the other ones. I mean, for those of us that like have homemaker wives who are taking care of the kids in the family, for us, maybe less so, but that's not most of us,

Leah Neaderthal 14:55

right. I don't feel like there are a lot of like women consultants who also have, like, a Trad wife and.

Brandy Zimmerman 15:00

Home, right? Yeah, I don't think that's really the life that most of us are going

Leah Neaderthal 15:04

for. No, no, well, let's define burnout. I think a lot of people know sort of conceptually, like, what burnout is, or maybe they've experienced it to some degree. But like, how would you define it, and how would you know if you're in it? I mean,

Brandy Zimmerman 15:16

like, the World Health Organization has a definition for it, but I find that that's not necessarily super helpful, also, because they really focus on the workplace side of it, and I think that that really misses a huge part of the picture. I take more of a like occupational therapy version of what work, quote, unquote, is where it's like anything that you are required to do, so your home responsibilities, your family responsibilities, as well as your work place and like the stuff you do for money or to run your business, all of that is the occupation that you have, and that is work that you're required to do when the amount of work that you have to do in those spheres of your life is more than the amount of time that you have and the amount of energy you have to do those things, you're at risk of burnout, and You can find yourself in a burnout state. I also find that burnout exists on a bit of a spectrum. There's like, you know, we can be like, lightly toasted, and then we can be burnt to a crisp, as it were, looking at ourselves like toast, because sometimes it's helpful to have that analogy. And so like, when we're at the like, burnt toast, end of burnout, getting out of bed is near impossible. Doing the things that we need to do is a big struggle. Sometimes. This is where, you know, if we had a day job, we might be looking into taking a medical leave or some time off. That's the worst part, right? If you get to that point, it's hard to come back from it. It's especially challenging for people who are running their own business, because your business relies on you, and so you need to figure out how you can get yourself out of bed. Figure out what it is that needs to, needs to, needs to get done. Like, not what would it be nice to do? What should I do? What could be helpful if I do? What has to get done today? And then, how can I nurture myself and recover from this burnout when you're in that, like, everything is hard state, you need to really focus on just getting the essentials done and stay focusing on recovery. But there's also, like, an entire path before then where maybe you can still get out of bed, but it's harder. You're not lining up about work. It's not as exciting. You've got a call with your favorite client. And instead of being like, Yes, this is going to be great, can't wait to move it forward, you're like, another thing on my calendar, or your kids school calls, or, like their parents caregiving place calls, and there's an emergency you need to go in, and your first thought is, oh, there goes my day. Not I hope my loved ones. All right? You know, like in your so you're not really living to your values and your priorities, because there's so much weighing on you, and that's kind of the middle zone. But then there's also, like, lightly toasted, where you're just like, I'm not as focused as I used to be, I'm not as excited as I used to be, and I'm more likely to be like, I don't know what to work on next, so I'll just do this thing because it's easy. So if you're feeling like you're not sure what you're supposed to be working on next, you've got too much to do for the time you have, and your workloads feeling overwhelming, that's when you want to start thinking about using some of the burnout prevention tools so that you don't get to the burnt toast phase.

Leah Neaderthal 18:16

Yeah, oh my gosh. Well, I think even as you're describing like middle, burnt and lightly toasted. You know, I think it's hard to distinguish. And I think, you know, a lot of the women listening would recognize that, like, as well. Isn't that just work? Right? Like, how do we distinguish that from burnout when that has defined how we have likely been working in our careers or in our businesses or whatever. I mean, you know what?

Brandy Zimmerman 18:46

I mean, yeah, absolutely. And I think, like, this is the part where, where it's tricky, because I would argue that the way most of us have structured our work days and the way that our culture talks about how we're supposed to feel at work and how we're supposed to feel in life is setting us up for failure and is setting us up for burnout. I don't actually think that the way most workplaces approach work is setting people up for success, and the challenge there is that it also then sets up the company to not be successful, because when people are feeling that overwhelm, that stress, like they're not able to function as well as they could, it kind of becomes this negative spiral, right? Like, where it's like, Okay, I've got too much to do. I don't have time to do it all. So now I'm a little stressed about what I should do next, and then this thing's taking longer because I can't focus. And then now I'm more stressed because I had two hours to do this task that's now going to take me six and I don't know where the stuff I was going to schedule is going to go. So now I'm more stressed and less focused. It becomes this really nasty downward spiral. The cool thing is, though it also goes the opposite direction. So when we learn those stress tools so that we can, you know, quickly reset our stress when stuff happens, because, like, life happens, there is going to be stressors. Things are. Go sideways, our workload is going to be higher than we have time to do step four. But when we know how to look after ourselves, how to plan our days for the most energy, how to schedule overflow time, how to set boundaries around our time, we're then able to focus better, work more effectively in the time that we do have, and then it becomes this upward spiral, because we're more less stressed because we did the things got to cross it off the list, which is the dopamine hit, which helps us focus, you know. And so it can become this really, like, awesome upward spiral. We just need to know how to do the things. And most modern workplaces, and even, like traditional workplaces, are even worse than this. But like, no one talks about it, no one learns these things. We don't normalize the fact that work is stressful, and we need to stress reset throughout the day so that we can be our productive selves and do the best work and also feel good while doing it. And it's like, it's just it. For me, it's just so neat. Like, the way the two of them are just, like, so intertwined. And like, people can't see it on the picture, but I'm like, gripping my fingertips together, you know, like, because there it's it's so interconnected. And for way too long, we've acted like productivity and well being are like mortal enemies when they need each other.

Leah Neaderthal 21:12

And you're absolutely right. And I think, having come from an environment like that, honestly, whatever type of business or company you worked in before you started your business. If we don't know there's another way, and we don't know how to do another way, then we'll naturally replicate that, you know. And I'm not saying I'm like, perfect at this. I've been in my business for 10 years. Some days I feel guilty, like, if I step away from my desk to like, I don't know, go on a bike ride or do something, you know, whatever. But it's so inherent, and we bring it into our businesses, I think

Brandy Zimmerman 21:44

it's almost drilled into us from from childhood, right? Like and so what I would say to any women who are listening to this, or any folks who are listening to this and are like, I'm lightly toasted all the time. Oh, crap, that's normal. First of all, it's quite common in our society for most of us to be lightly toasted, and it's not your fault, right? Like, this is the systems that are set up this way. We weren't taught these skills. Like, it's cool, because, like, my kids are in grade school right now. My oldest just started grade nine in junior high, and so, like, they've been learning some of these, like mindfulness and like how to take time out during, like, when they feel intense at the school day, and, like, learning some of those tools in their school, which is really cool. But, like, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, we weren't allowed feelings period, let alone saying that we were overwhelmed or stressed, right? Like, yeah, I'm Gen X. We don't get feelings like, you know, so it's like, there's been a shift, but we still haven't learned that. And I think it's one of those things where we have to learn it at some point, and then we also have to build the habit for it, right? Because we all have the habits of how we work in the same way that most of us start our day by grabbing a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and like logging in, checking our email like there's if you look at your day, there's something there's things you're doing routinely without even thinking about them. They are well ingrained habits. But that's also we have habits around how we respond to work requests, how we respond to task assignments, how we talk about our priorities or planning our week, how we book our meetings. There's so much of this that becomes habits that we don't even think about. And so part of what I like to teach people and with the tools that we learn in the burnout prevention program, it's about, how do we notice what the unconscious and subconscious habits that we're doing that are making our life harder? How do we notice them first and then, how do we start to shift them and change them so that we have healthier habits that support our well being and our ability to do our jobs.

Leah Neaderthal 23:47

Well, yeah, well, and you mentioned the burnout prevention program, and I just want to tell everybody so, you know, Brandy and I have been working together for a long time, and now as a coach, we've been, you know, doing this for a year, and recently she sort of pinged me, and she's like, Hey, I think we need to be talking more about burnout and doing more for, you know, with the members about burnout. And I was like, Yeah, let's schedule a call. And I'm thinking, oh, like, maybe we need to, I don't know, we'll do some, like, one on ones on it. So we jump on the phone, and she's like, actually, I've built an entire program around this. And I was like, oh my god, that is amazing. Like, let's do it. So I'm so excited to bring this program into the academy for six weeks, you know, starting in mid October, going through November, to focus squarely on burnout, because it is something that, for all the reasons we mentioned here, right? Like, everybody has to some degree or on the verge of and so I'm so so excited about this. So tell us about it.

Brandy Zimmerman 24:46

Yeah, so the program that we're gonna be running in the academy is a version of what I call the Get It Done protocol, which is program that I've developed that I share with workplaces of all types and all sizes, and it's really focused on. In, like the six tools we need the most, so that when life goes sideways, or when work goes sideways because it does, or, you know, when we're happily existing in our lightly toasted state, but a little worried about going further down the toasted spectrum, how can we support ourselves within the reality of our workplaces? A lot of the challenges with so many, you know, workplace mental health programs or things that people try and do. It's like, it's very surface level, and it's like, how do I like, just take a break. It's fine go. Like, take a lunch break. Make sure you have a coffee break in your morning or your afternoon, or schedule buffer time between your calls, which is fine advice. Nothing wrong with the advice. But like, how do I do that when my calendar is back to back meetings and I don't have time to use the bathroom, let alone, like, write up the notes from my meetings so that I know what my next steps are. How am I supposed to take a break? How do I get from here to there? You might as well tell me to go hang out on the moon for the lunch hour, because that's like, equally realistic,

Leah Neaderthal 26:03

not to mention it doesn't really solve a problem, right? No, it's just a surface level thing

Brandy Zimmerman 26:10

well, and then it becomes another thing on your list that you're not doing, which then further compounds the problem and gets us back on that downward spiral of like, I was supposed to take a break. I worked through my break. I suck at taking care of myself. Now I'm stressed, and I'm stressed about being stressed. I'm stressed about not caring for myself, and now I'm not able to focus even more than I would have, right like, so it can, it can be really problematic. So the program's really focused on six main tools that actually move the needle and are actually things you can do in the real world no matter what's going on with your to do list, your task list, your calendar or your inbox. Because I think, you know, we got to meet people in the real world, right? And the thing is, these are also well tested tools. You know, we often joke about how, like, you know, the cobblers children has no shoes. All of these are tools that I use regularly in my business. Whenever I find myself being stressed about my workload or how much I have to do, I'm like, When was your last calendar choreography? When was your last stress reset? And suddenly I'm like, Oh, I haven't done my tools lately. That's why it's not working. They're also intended to be ones that fit within our schedules and the reality of our schedules, right? Like you can't go do a half hour bike ride or a 10 minute walk outside if your call started five minutes ago. You need something you can do as you're hunting for your email, for the teams link or the zoom link. And so a lot of the tools and the strategies that are in there are intended to be ones that you can do in those little pockets of time, that little bit of time confetti that we get, you can also do stuff you have more time, but like, let's be realistic about what we're probably working with. So there's six main tools in the program. The first is the stress reset system, which is all about, how do we manage our stress level throughout the day? When our stress level gets higher, we're our smart thinking brain, the one that we need to actually do our jobs well and to make the most of our time not to be like spinning our wheels. It goes offline because we're in a stress response, and so we need to be able to get our brain back online as quick as possible. And so I have a bunch of tools that I share with folks in program that are all under two minutes long to reset your stress so one of my favorites, and one of the easiest ones for anyone to do, is one that's really effective at calming your nervous system, resetting that stress level. And it's really simple, basically, just breathe normally, but as you're inhaling, count how many breaths? Like, how many counts you get for your inhale breath? So some before some must be six. Who knows? It varies person to person. But then, as you're exhaling, just add one more number to that. So if you inhaled for a count of four, just stretch your exhale out to five. If it feels comfortable in your body to stretch it to six or seven, you can do that. But just one longer is really helpful, because when we're stressed, our exhales become really short because our body is trying to get as much oxygen in our bodies as it can to respond to the threat. So our exhales become short and shallow. When we extend the length of our exhale, make it longer than our inhale, that signals to our bodies and our brains that we're safe. We could calm down. We can let go of some of that stress. And the cool part is you can do that while you're looking for the Zoom link and waiting for teams to load so you can join your call that you're late for, you know, like, it's really cool. It is

Leah Neaderthal 29:29

really well. And also, as you're describing it, I'm like, trying to breathe normally, and, you know, count and all of that. But I love this. I mean, the simplicity is why it works. The simplicity is why it makes people where they are for the life that they actually live. You know, I love that. So it's a six week program, and they learn, is it that you get an implement a tool every week? Or, like, how do you structure this so that it doesn't become yet another over. Overwhelming thing that I have to do?

Brandy Zimmerman 30:02

Yeah, absolutely. Because, like, and this is part of the reason I created the program. The way that I did was because I kept hearing from clients that they were like, We don't have time for workload management training. We know people have too much to do. We know people are stressed out. We don't have time to pull them out for training. We have too much to do. And I was like, Okay, let's find out a way to do this, where you get the info quick and you can just implement it the version we're doing with the academy. We're doing a weekly lesson for about a half hour. For each of the tools, folks get a little workbook that shows them, like worksheets on how they can implement it for their own day to day. So for the stress reset, it's got the information about the one I just shared, but it also has some other tools. So you can try them and see which ones work for you. And if you want to like, jot some notes about like. This one was great. That one was medium. This one helped when I was feeling this way. There's space to do that if it works for you. And if you want to have that record, the next tool that we learned builds on that, and it's the battery booster framework. So how do we recharge our energy throughout the day? Because in the same way that we know our phone when it's at 100% charge at the beginning of the day isn't going to be functioning the same at like, 5pm and 20% our bodies and our brains are the same. And so just like how we sometimes plug in our phone to give it like a micro charge, we need to do micro charges for our bodies and our brains throughout the day. So we get to, like, figure out when I have five minutes. What do I want to do when I have half an hour? What can I do if you have an hour or longer? Lucky? How'd that happen? But like, what can you do in that time? And so having a thing laid out where it's like, it's a chart of stuff you love to do that recharges you in various time periods. Makes it so much easier, because then you don't have that decision fatigue. Of, like, I got a couple of minutes. What am I going to do? You just look at the chart and I got five minutes. This one sounds good. Let's do that. So helping again make it easier. Week three is about calendar choreography, and how do we approach our tasks and our time? One of the challenges that we run into with work is that we forget that tasks are time. Tasks require time. No matter what you want to do. If you don't have a time for it on your calendar, it's not happening. How can it? Right? If your day is all meetings, that's your only tasks that day, most of us, that's not our only work, and that's where some of that workload stress comes in, is that we don't have time set aside to work on the stuff outside the meetings, like whether that's client deliverables, setting that proposal together, you know, following up on client leads, writing our LinkedIn content, whatever it is. If we don't block time in our calendar for that and protect that time, how are we going to get the work done? Like, it's impossible. And so thinking about that, and then also figuring out how to, like prioritize the tasks that we have, because, especially for business owners, we have so much to do all of the time. And so figuring out what of the things is the most important one to do in this time. And then we marry that in the fourth week with flow framework, where we learn a little bit more about our natural rhythms or natural energy patterns, but also our natural thought patterns. Each of us has windows of the day that are best for certain types of work. Almost all of us, for example, have the post lunch slump, where stuff that doesn't require a ton of brain power, that's a good time to do that stuff doing if you're trying to do your most creative, thoughtful work when you're in a lunch slump, it's going to be a bad time. Not going to happen, yeah. And so how can you use your calendar and understanding your own rhythms and tracking your own rhythms for a couple of days to learn what they are so that you're, you know, trying to do the thing that's best suited to that time, which then means the time is going to be more effective. You're going to get more done in that window. And so then that, again, has that like boost of I got the stuff done, I got the dopamine hit from crossing it off my task list, and I'm still on track for what I'd planned. Of course, we live in the real world. Things come up. Stuff gets shifted around, and so that's why, in calendar choreography, we also learn about how do we move it around, and how do we plan for the unexpected? Because we know something's going to happen, we just don't know what it is yet. So let's be thoughtful about that. Week five is the sustainable success firewall, aka boundaries that don't suck. So like, how do we talk about these things with clients, with ourselves, sometimes with co workers, with our families, so that we can protect what's best for our brains and what's best for our workload and our well being, and then our final week is really about how we make these habits that we do right? Because as long as it's a thing that we have to think about like you don't stress about whether or not you're going to get your morning coffee or brush your teeth before bed, you just do those things. And so we want to get to a point with, like, small, sustainable pieces, with each of these tools that when you notice a stress response happening, you just start doing your stress reset without even really thinking about it. So we want to make it as easy as possible for us, and talking about that habit formation piece,

Leah Neaderthal 34:58

oh, my god. I love. All of this, and I love how they build on each other, and they all seem so necessary, but so distinct. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, there are actual ways we can chip away at this and then weave it into our lives. I'm so, so excited. And obviously, you know, if this sounds like something you'd benefit from and you want to be part of this program in the academy. Of course, you know where to find us smart gets paid.com/academy and let's see if the Academy is a good fit for you and your business. But understanding that we're all at some level of toastiness or whatever, you know, I think that it might be easy for people to say, okay, all this is really nice, but I still have clients to deal with. I still have to do biz dev. I still have my kids and my family have my other obligations. They're still 24 hours in a day, right? And they're not Beyonce 24 hours. They're my 24 hours, right? You know, I'm never gonna be super Zen in my business. What would you say to somebody who says I'm never gonna be super Zen? What is realistic and what's

Brandy Zimmerman 36:02

possible? Yeah, I mean, I don't know that any of us get to be super Zen in modern times.

Brandy Zimmerman 36:10

That's true. A little too much going on to be super Zen. Is there any other there's some stuff

Brandy Zimmerman 36:16

happening in the world. I don't know, economies, things I don't know. And I also just don't know that super Zen is a realistic goal for anyone, right? Like, I used to sometimes joke about, like, how meditation retreats are kind of silly because you, like, get really good at meditating when you're away from your life and it's quiet and there's nothing the Yeah, and, like, there's a community doing the work, and then you go back to your regular life, and suddenly it's not working. Why isn't it working? And it's like we have to build the tools within the systems and the circumstances that we have. And that's what I think is really great about these tools, and why I designed them the way that I did, is because I want to find the way that the person who is like me, frankly, who's, you know, dealing with single parenting and running a business and her dog barking because the garbage truck went by and, you know, all of the pieces of day to day life, and wants to do a great job for my clients and build a strong business. And I need to figure out how to work with my brain, work with my stress levels, and be able to show up no matter what's going on. You know, whether it's my kids are going through a tough period or my like, my parents are aging. I went through a divorce while I was, you know, a member of the Academy, like, there's, there's been a lot of personal stuff that's come through. And so how do we make it so that these are things we can do no matter what else is going on? Is, here's the thing is, if we don't do anything, if we don't apply any tools, if we're not managing our stress, if we're not boosting our batteries, if we're not being thoughtful about our calendar and our energy levels, if we're not setting those boundaries, and if we're not mindfully and slowly, gently, kindly building strong habits for ourselves, we're just going to end up in a worse place that's going to take us to the burnt toast stage, and we can't afford to be there. Our families can't afford us to be there. Our communities can't afford us to be there. But most importantly, we can't afford to be there for ourselves. And we are so reliant on our well being, and we put it so far down on the list because we think that if we focus on our well being, or if we take that five seconds to do that stress reset, that it's going to take away from the other thing. But it's actually in doing those pieces and building this into our habits and our calendar and our life that sets us up to be the person that we want to be for our clients, to do the biz dev, to be able to like assess of the like five calls that I could make today, or the emails I could send, where is each of these clients, which one is going to be more impactful for my business? Because if we're not taking care of ourselves, that overwhelming swirl of like stress spirals, like, overwhelms us so much and gets in our way, in our ability to, like, make strategic decisions that we need to be doing for our business, for our clients, and then we're just banging our head against a brick wall.

Leah Neaderthal 39:13

Yeah, well said, You're absolutely right. And we can't afford it. You can't afford it. Nobody can afford it, and we deserve better, I think

Brandy Zimmerman 39:22

absolutely. And I think that's really such an important piece of it is that, like, we can't afford it, because most of us don't have access to short term or long term disability claims, like, if we get to burnt toast and can't work, most of us don't have it safety net as entrepreneurs. So like, we literally can't afford it. But also, we deserve better. That's a terrible way to live. No one wants to be there, and there's so many spaces and so much room between. I'm so burnt out, I can't get out of bed, and I'm super Zen, and nothing bothers me. We're not aiming to get to the far end of that spectrum, but we're going to try and get as close to it as we can. And his works for our lives, and just be able to kind of come back to our baseline and that calm, chill version of ourselves, or chiller version of ourselves, like I sometimes joke with people. I'm like, I want you to feel every day at work like you do on your second week of vacation. I think that's possible. We can feel that way. We just need to use the tools and support ourselves to get there, and we can feel like second week vacation and still be getting the work done. I just

Leah Neaderthal 40:27

want to translate for the Americans, because Brandy is Canadian. Second week of vacation is when you are on vacation for longer than a week, and after that first week point, you actually can relax and your stress goes down. I think a lot of Americans, Brandy would not be like,

Brandy Zimmerman 40:44

What is she talking about? Vacation or like,

Leah Neaderthal 40:48

which is a whole other challenge that we can't solve here, but is a problem. But I love that, but I think we all have that certainly. You know, the third day of vacation is better, yeah, first day, the first day you're still coming down. Second day you're still coming down. Third day, you start to actually relax. And I think if we can feel closer to that more often than you've done your job for

Brandy Zimmerman 41:13

like that last week in December, right? The last week of December where time doesn't really exist, everyone's kind of chill. You probably a little ate a little too much cheese. I don't know if you want to feel like age when to feel like you ate too much cheese every day, but like, you know, it's that vibe of like, last week of December, we could have that, yes, more regularly, and

Leah Neaderthal 41:30

that's what we should aim for. Brandi, where can people find you?

Brandy Zimmerman 41:33

Yeah, so my company website is thriving, workplaces.ca so workplaces with an s.ca I'm also on LinkedIn regularly under brandy. Zimmerman, again, companies thriving workplaces,

Leah Neaderthal 41:46

and you can find brandy as a coach in the academy. Brandy. Thank you so much for being here.

Brandy Zimmerman 41:51

My pleasure. Leah,

Leah Neaderthal 41:56

all right, what a great conversation. I mean. Brandi shared so much goodness. And so if anything she said spoke to you, I hope you go find her on LinkedIn and reach out to her and let her know. And of course, if there's somebody who needs to hear this episode, I hope you share it with them. So as always, I want to leave you with one lesson that you can apply today. And the lesson I want you to take away from this conversation is this burnout isn't all or nothing. It doesn't just sort of hit one day out of the blue. There's a whole spectrum, and it really builds. And, you know, you might be somewhere on it, you know, maybe just like, lightly toasted, or maybe a little more crispy than you'd like, and that's okay, because, just like, burnout builds in small ways, the way back is through small steps too. You don't have to overhaul your life or go on a retreat or add more to your plate. It's about these tiny habits, these like little resets and the small ways that you take care of yourself and the boundaries that protect your energy, those are the things that really start to make a difference. And I know that's true, because even after Brandi and I recorded this conversation, the next day, I was filling out our, like, Team check in form on Slack, and I was answering some of these questions that we ask every week, and I realized, like, wow, I am burnt toast right now. There's a lot going on in my life right now, and I'm just, I'm really burning the candle at both ends. And I said so to my team, and brandy jumped in, and she said, you know, remember when you're feeling burnt toast, do that breath reset? I told you about the one where you add, like, one extra count, and she reminded me of a couple other tiny things I can do, like really small adjustments to what I was already doing. And so I started doing it. And you know what they worked like? I felt calmer, I felt a little less frantic. I mean, did it take me from totally burned out to totally fine? No, but did it take me from like a nine to a seven? Yes, and seven is a whole lot better than nine, and you deserve to be able to do that too, you know, especially right now. Again, like waves hand at everything going on, the economy, the uncertainty, people, losing jobs, etc, so many women consultants are feeling the weight of it, and we can't ignore the repercussions of, you know, again, everything going on in our business. You know, referrals slowing down, sales cycles taking longer, clients taking longer to make decisions, right? Add that to all the other responsibilities on your plate, and it's no wonder that burnout can feel inevitable. So that's why, starting on October 14, we're dedicating six weeks in the academy to focus exclusively on burnout, because the women in the academy like they're business owners too, with a lot on their plates, clients, family responsibilities and everything else life throws at them. So in this program, Brandy is going to show you how to keep your stress from spiraling so you can stay clear headed in the middle of crazy, busy days. She'll show you how to have. Enough energy to get through your work day without crashing at 3pm how to protect your time for the things that matter most, and how to make small shifts that are so simple they become automatic. That's what this program is about, tools you can actually use in your real life on your busiest days and your busiest weeks to keep burnout from running the show. So if you're in the academy, mark your calendar for October 14 and plan to join us for this six week program. And of course, if you're not in the academy yet, but this sounds like something you might benefit from. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply today, we'll hop on a call to talk through where you are in your business and whether the academy is the right fit for you right now. So burnout is on a spectrum, and our goal is to stay as far on the good side of it as we can and protect yourself, because you are the biggest asset in your business, and when you do that, you can be better for your clients, for your family and for the people in your world, but mostly for yourself, because in the battle against burnout, you deserve to win.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai