Episode 385

Avoiding Burnout by Design

Published on: 13th August, 2024

Absolutely! Here's a comprehensive sequence of the topics covered in the podcast transcript, broken down into primary topics with sub-topics:

1. **Introduction**

- Welcoming the audience

- Episode topic: Building a lifestyle-centric business

2. **Common Business Startup Approaches**

- Focus on making money

- Filling a need quickly

- Achieving success by filling the calendar with meetings and urgent tasks

3. **Consequences of Traditional Business Approaches**

- Burnout arising from a packed schedule and urgent tasks

- Description of burnout: chronic fatigue, cynicism, efficacy issues, brain fog, lack of creativity

- Stages of burnout and the difficulty of recovery

4. **Importance of a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

- Avoiding burnout or making it short-term

- The role of personal control over business in mitigating burnout

5. **Defining a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

- Considering personal priorities and values:

- Example: time off in summers for family or winters for travel

- Balancing work with volunteer activities

- Identifying important time frames, seasons, and activities

6. **Assessing Personal Work Preferences**

- Optimal working hours: evenings vs. mornings

- Preferred modes of communication: asynchronous, emails, phone calls

- Aligning business tasks with personal preferences to avoid stress

7. **Strategic Business Planning**

- Considering current available time and mental bandwidth

- Choosing services and products based on the time and energy they require

- Aligning business operations with:

- Preferred times of day

- Desired client types

- Enjoyable tasks and activities

- Ensuring regular rest periods and time off

8. **Creating a Custom Business Model**

- Tailoring business activities to personal lifestyle needs

- Example strategies:

- Regurgitating content

- Hosting guests

- Other customizable options to ensure time off

9. **Conclusion**

- Encouragement to reflect on potential changes in business to match lifestyle needs

- Sign-off and best wishes from the host

Transcript
Janice Chaka [:

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about building a business. Actually, I'm gonna talk about building a lifestyle centric business, and that might sound weird because I'm not into like selling the lifestyle and so I want to explain what I mean about that. So many times people want to start a business and their first thought is what will make money? Or I see this need, I need to fill it. How do I fill it as quickly as possible, as much as possible, fill my calendar, fill my bank account, fill all the things, and that's great because, of course, a business should make money. But here's the thing and here's the kicker that kind of gets people stuck in a rut or people back themselves into this corner is they're so busy trying to get more clients and filling up their calendar and only seeing success as having a very full calendar, taking lots of meetings, doing everything urgently, that they end up being burnt out. And so this is why I want to talk about the importance of a lifestyle centric business because almost everyone experiences burnout at some time in their life, but if you have your own business, you probably have a little bit more control over it than most. And so burnout is chronic fatigue, cynicism, efficacy, brain fog, not wanting to do stuff, not feeling creative, not getting that spark and there are 12 stages of burnout and it kind of creeps up on you and then people don't really sort of see it happening or notice it until it's about stage 5 or 6 and then it takes a long time to recover.

Janice Chaka [:

And so generally as humans and as business owners, we want to avoid burnout or at least make it short term and then, you know, short term stress and then back to a good baseline. So why what does lifestyle centric businesses mean for you and burnout? So here's the thing. When you're thinking about your business or starting your business actually, you can just think about this anytime in your business. What is it that is important to you? Is it having the summers off so you can spend time with your children? Is it having the winters off so you can go see the northern lights? Is it only working weekends because during the week you need to you you do volunteer work? What time off do you need that is important to you that would make you an unhappy bad human if you didn't get it? Or what things or people are important to you and therefore activities or things that need to get done at certain time frames or certain seasons that is good for you. And that's just one thing to think about. And the other thing to think about is, how do you work as a human? Are you better in the evenings? Are you better in the mornings? What type of communication works for you? Do you prefer asynchronous? Do you like emails? Do you love long phone calls? Because these are the things that make a difference in your business. If you hate phone calls, having a business where you are on the phone all day is not good for you. And therefore is not lifestyle or not conducive for a lifestyle centric business.

Janice Chaka [:

If you have a business where you are on call 247 and you like time to yourself or you don't wanna be on call 247, it's probably not a good thing to have or service to offer. So when you're thinking about services and products, think about what time you currently have. Think about how much time these things would take up, mental bandwidth, and energy for you. What should you do? And then build your business around that. What times of day works for you? What types of people you wanna work with? What kinds of tasks do you enjoy doing the most? What times off do you need? If you are the kind of person that really enjoys your summers, try and do something don't don't do something where you have to do something every month and you can't take the summers off. Build it into whatever it is that you're you're creating. That's like, well, I'm going to regurgitate, content or I'm going to have a guest in or I'm going to insert thing here so that you get your summers the way that you want them and therefore helping to prevent burnout, making sure that you get that regular rest. So thank you for listening.

Janice Chaka [:

This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week, and I hope you think about what changes you can make in your business for your lifestyle.

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About the Podcast

The Traveling Introvert
A bite-sized podcast about traveling while running a business and being an introvert.
Not knowing what introversion was until my 30s, I feel that I wasted some of my early years by not really understanding myself. An inspiration for my business is that I want to help others understand themselves better, earlier on in their careers and their lives. Introversion is a very misunderstood area – introverts can suffer mentally and physically because people typecast them or act negatively towards them. It’s not nice to be trapped in a little box. When you label somebody, they tend to act like that label, which stops people from achieving their true potential. I don’t let being an introvert define me, I let it guide me.
If you are looking for some career coaching or just want to reach out
contact me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com