Burnout: How to Recognize, Prevent, and Bounce Back Stronger

Burnout: How to Recognize, Prevent, and Bounce Back Stronger

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 177 of the Business Development Podcast. And are you experiencing burnout? Today, we're chatting all about burnout, the causes of it, the prevention of it, and how the heck can we find our way back? Because if you are like me, you walk the line on a regular basis. Stick with us. You are not.

Going to want to miss this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development advice, tips, and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by capital business development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 177 of the business development podcast. My gosh, 177 episodes guys. It is an absolute honor to be on here with you today. Today, I wanted to spend some time chatting about burnout. Burnout is something that we have not really touched on much on the show, but you know what? Mental health is important and burnout is something we absolutely, absolutely have to talk about as high performance individuals.

As someone who has come close to hitting the wall myself, I know how absolutely critical burnout is. And the cool thing is today, guys. We are going to normalize it. If you experience burnout, you're going to see real quick that a lot of us are experiencing burnout or coming close to it, and maybe not even realizing what is happening.

So today. We're going to chat about burnout. We're going to chat about the power of a reset, and we are going to list off some of the symptoms you may encounter and some of the ways to find your way back to peace and success. This is going to be an awesome episode and I cannot, cannot, cannot wait to do it with you.

Before we do, though, I wanted to give you guys a show update. We are sitting at 2, 798 followers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, guys. We are about to break the 2, 800 mark. By the time you're listening to this, we will be past 2, 800 followers, guys, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And I could not do this show without you.

Without your support. And so if you are a listener of the show, whether it's your first time or you're a long time listener, and you have yet to follow us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen, please do give us a like, give us a follow, tell a friend, family member, or colleague. We appreciate it immensely.

And word of mouth guys is how shows like this grow. Can not tell you how much I appreciate it. We would not be where we are today without your support. And so please do. Give us a like, give us a rating, give us a follow on your platform of choice and help us to reach the world. We are sitting at 218, 400 downloads.

We are very quickly approaching our 220, 000 downloads, guys. And we want that number to continue to grow and get larger and larger over time. So thank you very much for supporting the show. And like I said before, if you're looking for ways to help grow this show, You know, share our post, tell a friend, family member, colleague, or someone you care about, about your favorite episode, and let's help reach new audiences.

If you are not yet following our show on LinkedIn, if you have not yet followed the Business Development Podcast and me, Kelly Kennedy on LinkedIn, make today the day you do so. LinkedIn, guys, is where everything is happening. We have posts there nearly every day. We announce the upcoming guest list at the first of every month.

And if you want to join the conversation, it is happening on LinkedIn, guys. And I cannot wait to see you there. All right. Let's just get into it. Are you hitting a wall? It happens to all of us. Eventually, burnout can creep up and bite us when we least expect it. But before we can chat about how to solve burnout and what the solutions may be, we have to understand what burnout is.

And so I want to spend some time today, guys, just going over burnout. What are some of the signs? What is the definition for it? And let's figure out how the heck to find our way back when we inevitably hit the wall. What? What is burnout? And guys, a lot of the information that I took today came from prevention.

com. I am not a mental health expert. I am an experiencer of burnout, just like many, many of you. And so I went to the internet to find some of the experts and almost all of the show's information today guys came from prevention. com. What is burnout? Burnout is a form of exhaustion that occurs when we feel overwhelmed and unable to maintain adequate balance.

It can happen to anyone who experiences prolonged emotional, physical, or mental stress. Burnout is happening to us, guys, whenever we are experiencing prolonged emotional, physical, or mental stress. You know, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a high performance individual, This can onset really rapidly because we are pretty consistently experiencing prolonged emotional, physical and mental stress.

And one of the challenges is, is that usually it's a bit lopsided. So we could be having a really tough time at work, working really, really hard, putting in all the hours. And then we have a challenge at home, a challenge with our kids or something along those lines. Or, you know, a real life thing. Family event, you know maybe a medical event or something like that in a friend or a family member that can really throw this thing over the edge can push just that little bit further to throw our balance off.

And guys, that's how it happens. Burnout doesn't typically happen from one thing. It's not typically one thing you working really, really, really hard. It's you working really, really, really hard to exhaustion nearly. And then something else happens that can set this off. This can happen in the form of a fight at home.

This can happen at the form of, you know, an argument with a child, an argument with a wife. It can happen with, you know, maybe things are really on the rocks at home and then something big happens at work that throws you off. So it can be a combination of multiple mental factors, guys. It is not just one thing.

It typically is a combination of multiple things. But we're pushing it a little too hard in one of the areas and it becomes impossible. To balance the mental load. There are three types of burnout. The first type is called overload. This is when your drive and effort to achieve creates an unsustainable pace and disregards your personal life.

This is probably one of the most common forms of burnout for high performance individuals. I think for me, this is actually one of the ones that I've experienced. I have struggled with because I'll be working, working, working, trying to drive, create success. And then I get super unbalanced with, you know, my family life, with my, my relationship, with, you know, being a parent with being a friend.

There's just a thousand things that start to feel really off balance. This can even be like, Where you start to feel like you're not looking after yourself, where you're working so hard, and you're like, Oh, where am I? Like, I'm losing myself. This is overload burnout. And I think this is probably the most common form of burnout that I have run into.

And I think likely most high performance individuals and entrepreneurs, this is probably what you guys are running into as well. The next type is called under challenged, and this is where you feel unfulfilled, view your role as monotonous, or have become disconnected from your passion. So this is my like, long time employee who's been doing a job for a really, really long time, you might be a total rockstar at it, but you're no longer feeling challenged, you haven't been able to like, work your way up, or you haven't been moving, you're feeling stagnant, this is under challenged.

underchallenged burnout and I have experienced this when I was an employee where it was like I knew what I needed to do. I was no longer challenged and I started to become very disenchanted with the position. This is an underchallenged burnout. I think most of us probably one time or another have experienced this one as well and you start to just feel dull.

You start to feel bored. You start to feel. just disconnected from yourself, disconnected from happiness and fun. And that can happen when you are under challenged. The last one, guys, is called neglect. Neglect is when you feel helpless, frustrated, and unable to find solutions to difficult and stressful situations.

This one I have not experienced, but it sounds absolutely horrible. This one sounds like it comes from a scenario where you feel completely out of control. You can not change anything that's happened and you just are trying to deal. This is neglect level and guys, I, I haven't experienced this. And if you have, I'm terribly sorry for you, but this particular one seems much worse than the others.

And so I think maybe, you know, we'll get into it later, but I think maybe if you're in the neglect stage of burnout. We need some additional supports. We need some additional help. Burnout can show up in many different ways and some symptoms are easier to spot than others. Here are some of the physical symptoms to watch for guys.

And I found this really interesting because I've experienced a lot of these symptoms in the time of me being an entrepreneur and even running this show. The first one guys is constant headaches. If you're getting headaches more often than not. One, you might need some more water. I know that's me most of the time, but if you're having headaches a lot, this can actually be a symptom of burnout, appetite changes, whether you're eating more, more unhealthy, or maybe you're eating less, maybe you're just, you're working so hard, you're not even eating.

This can also be one of the options. One year that I found that was super interesting was digestive issues. So your gut not feeling super great. This has happened to me, guys. Digestive issues can be a sign of burnout. Difficulty staying present in conversation. And I have struggled with this one before, guys, where you're thinking like, Okay, it's really great to hear what you're doing, but I have a thousand things to do and now I need to go.

Literally, your mind is elsewhere when you're having important conversations. This can be with loved ones, with colleagues, with friends, whatever it be, your mind is somewhere else. And this can also be a physical symptom of burnout. If you guys are having difficulty sleeping, yes, two hands way up.

I never have trouble getting to sleep guys. I'm a weird, difficult sleeper. I never have trouble getting to sleep, but I wake up frequently in the night. That has happened to me, you know, since I've become a dad, which, you know, whatever, I think that probably happens to most of us parents, right? It is what it is, but it is definitely happened to me more frequently in the last year and I was not aware.

That that was a symptom of burnout, but it is chronic illness, guys. And you know, like, I don't want to target chronic illness. Most of us, I think, have dealt with an illness at some point or another. I don't think all chronic illness is tied to burnout. However, chronic illness can be a physical symptom of burnout.

of burnout. Let's talk about the mental symptoms because I think mental symptoms is ones that we actually notice. I know that I have like experienced a lot of these. It was funny while I was, while I was doing the show notes for this episode, I was talking to Shelby and I was like, Oh crap, I think I've experienced nearly all of these options on the mental symptoms list.

Even recently, she just kind of looked at me and smiled, but yeah, it, you know, I think most of us as entrepreneurs, as high performance individuals, which I know all of you are, you are not listening to this show. If you are not a high performance individual, this is not the kind of show that slackers and people that don't care, listen to you.

This is the kind of show that you guys listen to you. My rock stars, my high performance individuals who are trying to really up their game. This is for you. And I can almost guarantee you, I don't want to scare you, but I can almost guarantee you that if you're listening to this. You have very likely experienced one or more of these symptoms.

Heck, maybe even in the last month, maybe even today. It is one of those things that kind of shocked me. But the mental symptoms of burnout include overworking, guilty, neglecting personal needs, guilty, and this includes guys like not eating healthy, skipping breakfast, and Skipping the important things you need to do you know, spending time with friends, with family, getting away, getting away from work, from life, going to the gym, looking after yourself mentally.

Maybe that's meditating, maybe that's doing whatever gets you into your zen space. This is one of those things, guys, neglecting personal needs is a major red flag of burnout. I wouldn't have called that at all, but it is. Anxiety guys, low level anxiety. I pretty much live with low level anxiety. I feel like that's kind of where I've been for quite a while.

It's never like too bad, but I can always just feel like a little bit of worry and half the time I'm not really sure what I'm worrying about, but I think most of us as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as high performance individuals who want to perform well and do great things. I think we're all struggling with a little bit of low level anxiety, and anxiety, guys, can be a red flag of burnout.

Irritability irritability is a tough one, because, you know, as a parent, or as a partner, or as anybody who has struggled trying to coexist with people, Irritability happens to the best of us. I don't necessarily think that you being irritable is necessarily means that you're burned out, but it can definitely mean that maybe something is a little bit out of balance.

So irritability can be one of the symptoms. A sense of emptiness or hopelessness. This one really hit me guys. To me, that almost sounds like we're heading a bit towards depression. And I was kind of surprised, but it looks like a lot of these mental symptoms They also can be the same symptoms that you run into if you're dealing with depression or something along those lines.

So it's something to watch out for. Imposter syndrome. Oh, we've talked about that on this show. Imposter syndrome, which is a persistent fear of inadequacy and a fear that you can't meet the standards that you feel have been set for you. My gosh. As entrepreneurs, we struggle with imposter syndrome as high performance individuals, as business development specialists.

We struggle with imposter syndrome at times. I've experienced imposter syndrome as a podcaster, as a business development specialist, as a coach. You name it, I have experienced it. It happens to each and every one of us. It is a normal part of life. However, also can be a symptom. sign of burnout, guys, can be a mental symptom of burnout.

Let's talk about what can cause burnout, because I think maybe if we can better understand what is causing burnout, what is causing us this struggle, if we can better understand that, we can maybe Find ways to negate it or to not take on the things that could lead us down that path, right? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure always, no matter what.

Let's chat a little bit about what can cause burnout and see if we can alleviate some of these things. Overcommitment, guys. Biting off more than we can chew. And, you know, I'm guilty for this. I know a lot of you guys are guilty for this. This happens. As, I feel like as, as entrepreneurs, as humans, as people who want to perform well, We regularly take on more than we can chew.

And this could be like, not even just in business. This can be in life. This can be in committing to our kids sports. This can be in committing to, I don't know, something personal for us, whatever that be. But overcommitment is a real thing and we can start to feel very burned out because we are just pushing ourselves, pushing ourselves, pushing ourselves and holding ourselves to a standard that is maybe nearly impossible to achieve on a full consistent basis.

So commitment can be a challenge. Feeling overextended, I think that really fits right into overcommitment. I kind of see that as the same thing. Having a difficult time saying no or lacking boundaries. Now this can happen obviously when we're being asked to do more and more and more at work, whether that be a client asking for more, whether that be we're high performance at work, and we keep getting overloaded with more tasks, we have to be able to understand what is going to push us too far, and so a lack of personal boundaries, being afraid to say No more.

We have to do better at that. We have to know how much is too much and push back when we are being asked to do more than we are capable of handling in a moment. Does that mean that you will never be capable of handling more? No. We all have moments where we have to say, Not right now. I can't do this right now.

It does not mean that you cannot take on more ever. It means understanding what is too much for you in a moment. What is too much for you based on your life today. Your life today might be completely different than what your life is six months from now. And so it's important to recognize what is going to be too much and say, I can't take this on.

At the moment, being in highly demanding environments yeah, that's a tough one, right? I think most people, if you're listening to the show, you probably find yourself regularly in a highly demanding environment. Once again, I think it comes down to personal boundaries and being able to understand what is definitely too much for you and hopefully trying to head that off before it happens.

I think most of us, we find out we've taken on too much well after we've taken it on. But if you have the wherewithal and the knowledge to be able to say, you know what? I think right now I can't take on that extra work. That's going to be your best option here. Sustained avoidance of personal needs, both mental and physical.

Yeah, I get it guys. I get it. This definitely happens when we are working really, really hard on a project, on building something, a company, a podcast, things along those lines. It's very, very easy. To focus so heavily on that one thing we're trying to do that we start to neglect our eating, our workouts, our mental health, our families, everything, the things we love, even when you are really, really committed to a project, what actually starts to happen is.

All you start to care about is that project is building that thing and you can even find yourself not wanting to do the enjoyable things you used to love to do because they start to feel like a waste of time. That has happened to me over and over and over again. It's something that I struggle with.

And I have to like pull myself back and recognize like, no, Kelly, you have to look after you. You have to remember why you went down this path, which was to enjoy your life, have fun, make an adventure, have an adventure. Be a great parent. Like it's easy to get stuck trying to do this one amazing thing and completely neglect everything else around you.

And that will 100 percent eventually catch up and put you in trouble. And so it's absolutely important to take care of your personal needs. And if you are seeing yourself in a sustained avoidance of doing that, you could be experiencing burnout or on the way to it. Excessive work hours, guys. So not having enough time to enjoy time away from work can lead you to burnout.

Even if what your passion is, is work, at some point you will start to feel a dysregulation between the amount of time you're working and the time that you were supposed to be having fun. You'll like, Remember that the whole point of working so hard was so that you could do more things were so that you could enjoy your life more, not work more.

And eventually that imbalance of free, fun, enjoyment time and work time is going to throw you into a spiral. And so excessive work hours can do it to lack of supportive relationships. Guys, the power of relationships. We talk about it on the show. All the time, the power of relationships is palpable. I can't tell you how many times I'm having a really challenging day and I can either reach out and talk to a friend or I can reach out and talk to Shelby.

Or I can reach out and talk to, you know, a family member or a peer of some type and just like vent a little bit and chat and talk about their challenges and talk about my challenges. And man, I feel like a million bucks after, but if you don't have that way to vent and you're constantly dealing with the stress of life, you're internalizing that entire thing, eventually that can put you in some serious trouble.

And so if you don't have somebody to talk to, there's a couple different options for you. Maybe therapy would be an option. Finding a way to connect as part of a support group or joining a business community like your local chamber, which is always incredible. Find a way to meet some peers, some people that you can talk to, some supports that you can chat about life because being an entrepreneur is hard.

Being an entrepreneur alone is almost impossible. Toxicity, whether that be bosses at work, colleagues, negative friends, negative peers, whatever it is, toxicity, people always negative, people ragging on you and keeping you down. That is going to take its toll on us long term, and so we have to, have to, have to support ourselves with positive, incredible people who will lift us up, not the people who will tear us down.

We have to try to avoid negative toxicity, toxic people who will drag us down with them, guys. But toxic bosses, colleagues, friends, family members. Whatever it is going to negatively impact our mental health. Financial stress, family stress, and illness, guys, these are all struggles, right? Financial stress is some of the worst stress known to man.

I feel like I have definitely been in financial stress. I'm sure most of you at some point have been in financial stress. Financial stress can eat at us. What are some of the things we can do? It's building a little bit of a nest egg, always having a parachute. Looking after our financial well being is just about as good as looking after our mental well being.

It is absolutely critical that we are looking after both our financial well being and our mental well beings at the same time, and they are interlinked. We have to look after our financial stress, family stress, hard to avoid, guys. We all have families. We all have good days, bad days, health challenges, you name it.

We're all humans. We're all dealing with that world. And family stress is one that you know, we have to do our best with, but it's not really always in our control. And illness guys, illness, illness is horrible. Illness happens to many of us, unfortunately, but I'll tell you what, if you can find ways to de stress, if you can find yourself not in burnout situations, burnout is going to lead you to illness.

We have to find ways to come back from it. Okay. My gosh, we've been talking about the tragic challenges that is burnout, but, but let's talk a little bit about how we recover. Okay, this one is, this one is close to home, guys. If you've been listening, you know that a couple weeks ago, it was a Friday afternoon, and I was finishing up production, I'd recorded two shows that day, I was finishing up my production, and I turned and looked at Shelby, and I'm like, I need to get out of here. I'm not special, but I feel like I have a really good handle on when I'm hitting a wall. When I'm really hitting a wall. It takes a lot for me to get there. Two weeks ago, I hit the wall. And I think that's why this particular episode is just feeling so relevant for me right now. Because I hit it.

I hit the wall. I was like, I'm nearing burnout. I need to get out of here. And guys, I work from home. I know a lot of you also work from home. Working from home is incredible. I love working from home. I didn't at first, it took me a long time to get used to working from home. And so if you struggle with working from home, me too, hands way up.

I'm way better at it now. I'm, I'm really excellent at it now, unfortunately, probably too good, which is why I had to run, but the problem with working from home is this. When you work from home and you get off work, you're done for the day. It is very, very hard for me to completely disconnect from work.

Why? Because everywhere I look, I'm, I'm, I'm doing those things when I'm at work. Because I'm around my house, I'm grabbing coffees, I'm whatever, working in the office, whatever it is, it's a workspace for me. Home has kind of unfortunately become a workspace. And so, Every once in a while, I like hit this space where I'm like, okay, I have to get out of here and it's not just get out of the house.

It's like, I need to get out of here. I literally, I looked at Shelby. I'm like, we need to get out of here. And I was like, we need to go. And I was like, we either need to go to Banff, Jasper, Saskatoon to visit her family. Calgary, whatever, I just needed to get away from Edmonton, from my house, like, for me to truly disconnect sometimes, I actually have to leave.

And so, like, one of the tidbits of information I wanted to give to my work from home people, and maybe this, maybe this doesn't just apply to work from home, maybe this just applies to anybody who's hitting a wall. Sometimes, Straight up, just getting away, getting completely out of the scenario and area that you work in or that things are happening to you in, it can be the reset that you needed.

And this is, this is a little bit off tangent. We're going to get back to steps to recover from burnout, but I wanted to speak to my own experience on this because For me, every once in a while, I have to just jettison myself. I have to hit the eject button from my life. And in this particular case Shelby's parents ended up taking the kids, which was incredible.

So we actually got a weekend away, just me, her, and our baby. And that was really nice. It was quiet. And I, you know, I mean, if you're a parent, you get it. It's loud. There's stuff going on. Sometimes even when you're away, it's not really a break. If you can get some babysitting or something. It can be nice for just you and your significant other, or if you're a single, maybe just you to be able to take that break away from your life alone.

But if you have kids, whatever, bring them, it's all good. We bring our kids on adventures too, but sometimes it's nice to just have that adventure alone. And in this particular case, I got it. It was exactly what I needed. We got away to Saskatoon. We visited family. Just two days away was enough to just reset everything for me.

I came back feeling like a million dollars and this can maybe be a solution for some of you who are really getting close to that wall right now. It happens and sometimes just a day or two away is all you need to get that recharge and reset. Just for the record as well, guys, when I did this I left my phone in the hotel room.

I was not really checking email. I was not really checking socials. I was gone. I was disconnected. I needed to just reconnect with Shelby. With my baby, with myself, right? And this may be you. If you, if you find that you're coming close and hitting the wall, try it. Try a weekend away, in the next town, in the next province, in the next state, whatever.

Just get away from your life for a couple days. Reset, rest, find yourself. And come back more collected than ever. I had a great week after that. Things went awesome. I just needed that break. That can be a solution for you. Okay. Sorry. That was a tangent. I kind of went off on my own, but let's see what the experts recommend.

Steps to recover from burnout. Step one, recognize the burnout. Okay. We cannot address burnout if we refuse to acknowledge that we're in it. Okay. So it's like anything. It's like, if you're an addict, you have to acknowledge that you're an addict. If you're in burnout, you have to say, huh, I think I'm in burnout.

If we can get to the point where we can say, I think I'm burning out or I'm hitting the wall or I'm getting real close. If we can recognize it and acknowledge it, then we can take it to the next steps. What are some of the ways that you can use to recognize the burnout? First off, you're a smart person.

You know your body and yourself better than anybody else on planet Earth. Ask yourself how you are doing and give yourself an honest answer. A check in, guys. A check in. How am I doing? I'm not feeling super great right now. I'm feeling anxious. Could this be burnout? No. Yeah, I think I'm in burnout. Okay, if we can get to that stage, the next steps will happen.

Some of the other ways that you can do it is this. Ask yourself, Are you having more bad days than good days? If the answer is yes to too many bad days, you are likely experiencing maybe burnout, maybe depression, but either way it's something that you should address, okay? We have to acknowledge we're experiencing something.

The last way here, guys, that they recommend, and this is a good one. Ask somebody you know. Ask your significant other. Ask your kids. Ask a co worker. Ask someone you love and trust. Do they recognize potential burnout in you? Just say, hey, you know, do I seem okay to you? Is everything all right? Or am I seeming like a little down, a little off?

And hear what they have to say. And take from there, whatever they say, and try to apply it to your own feelings about your situation. And then say, Am I in burnout? It's really a yes or no guys. Am I hitting the wall or am I not? But you can recognize it and recognizing that you are in burnout is the first step to solving burnout.

Okay. The next one, step two is to establish daily routines. Now, this isn't necessarily guys for people that are hitting the wall. Okay. This is a bit of a tough one. Step two in this list isn't recovery, it's prevention. So let's assume that I'm getting you today and you're not in burnout, but maybe you've been close.

Maybe you have been feeling some of these symptoms. You're feeling a little anxious. You might be feeling a little bit of imposter syndrome. You're struggling a little bit to stay motivated, to stay happy, whatever it is. You're not there, but maybe you're walking the line. Okay. And I think a lot of us are walking the line because.

Not all of us are living our best lives all the time. So here's the thing. Step two is to establish daily routines. Okay. So what are some of the things that we can look at to help us? Adequate sleep hygiene, guys. One of the things that I can recommend to you. And I fought this tooth and nail. I'm going to be straight with you guys.

I fought it tooth and nail. It was taking the TV out of our bedroom. Okay, I was a bedroom TV person since I was seven years old. I've had a TV in my room as long as I've been alive, except for this year. And Shelby convinced me to take the TV out of our bedroom. And I fought her on it. I didn't want to do it.

And guys, it has been incredible. It has been incredible. It's probably one of the best things you can do for yourselves, and I hate to admit it. I hate to admit it, because I love TV in our bedrooms. What we've done instead is, we'll bring a laptop in on occasion, and we'll watch a show in bed on the laptop.

But, we do not have a full time TV in our room, and my sleep has 100 percent improved from this. Another thing about sleep hygiene is try to get into bed about an hour before you want to go to sleep. Why? You have to start winding down. You have to start getting your body used to getting to bed at a certain time.

Cause if you're like me, it can take a little while to wind down. And so if I want to be in bed by like nine or 10 o'clock, I need to be in bed by like eight or nine o'clock. And that way I'm already in wind down mode. And I can start to prep my body for sleep. The other thing is your blue light filters on your phones, guys.

If you're like me, you're on your phones a lot. The blue light filter on your phone is a great thing to turn on or to have turn on at a certain time. I think my phone goes into sleep mode at around seven o'clock and my screen actually goes black and white, which helps me kind of regulate and and bring that blue light down.

Okay. The next one guys is exercise. Super guilty. I used to be an avid exerciser. And you know what? I think I'm going to get back into it. I really am. I'm not just bullshitting. I promise I'm working on it. But exercise is absolutely mandatory because we can't be fit mentally. If we are not fit physically, it's very hard to have both.

We're living in the same body. Our brain exists in the same body. And so if we are not handling our exercise to keep our physical bodies healthy, it's very hard to be performing at a top mental level as well. They are linked. So, you know, finding a way to incorporate exercise into your day. Me and Shelby right now, you know, with the baby, I try to get out for like a walk, a big, long walk every day.

We do about like a two or three kilometer walk or so every single day. That has absolutely become a part of my daily routine. But, you know, find out what works for you. Find out what your, what your thing is, right? Whether you like a workout machine, a treadmill, running, weights, whatever. Find your thing that you can incorporate daily into your life.

And it will, will, will, will. help you de stress and be able to handle those more challenging moments. Consistent meals. Okay, I'm guilty for this one too. I am I am a breakfast skipper. I love my coffees. I have coffee first thing in the morning. Love my coffees. Typically not a breakfast person. But guys, don't skip lunch.

Don't skip supper. Make sure that you are taking the time to fill your body with nutrients, and I'm not going to tell you how to eat. That is not what show this is, but I am going to tell you that you do need to eat and you do need to fuel your brain and your body with something. And so while I am not a nutritionist I play one on TV.

No, I'm kidding. While I'm not a nutritionist. What I will say to you is you absolutely do need to eat at least on a regular basis in order to keep everything functioning the way it needs to function, guys. Find ways to distance yourself from work. We have to have an identity that isn't just our work, guys.

And I know as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as high level business development specialists or executives of all types. We really pride ourselves on who we are at work on what we bring to the world and guys. Absolutely. You're incredible You are all incredible. I know if you're listening to the show, you're incredible.

You guys are Exceptional at what you do. However, what you do is your job. You are also exceptional individuals There was also things that you used to be really great at that weren't work. You were great at sports You were great at hobbies. You were great at a thousand other things You Remember that part of you and find a way to bring them back.

Find a way to do the things that you used to be passionate about and you will once again become passionate about them. Remember, you have to enjoy your life. You have to remember what life was like outside of work, and you have to dedicate at least a portion of your life to doing things that you love, that you enjoy.

That will bring your passions back. That can help you. Pull you out of burnout or prevent it right from the beginning. Remember guys, what we've been talking about here in step two is just being proactive. Being proactive is the secret to not ending up in burnout. You have to recognize when you might be getting close to it.

You have to incorporate things in your day to day life that will help you prevent it, okay? If you look at all of the people you aspire to be, Right? And this is one of the things that I've really learned being on this show because I talk to people I aspire to be all the time. I talk to exceptional entrepreneurs.

I talk to people who've changed the world, who made millions of dollars. Every single one of them prioritizes themselves, prioritizes their mental health, prioritizes their fitness, prioritizes their families, okay? Throughout all of the exceptional things they've done, throughout all of the success that they have achieved, the millions of dollars, what they realized was what they needed to do above it all.

Was look after themselves, whether they found it out late, like many of us, or whether they realized it from the very beginning, it's something that is in common with all of them at some point, they all recognize the importance of looking after themselves, taking care of themselves, taking care of their family, taking care of what matters, which at the end of the day wasn't their positions.

Not as much as it is about who they are as people, about who they are individually, about their health, their mental health, their families, the things that matter. We have to look after ourselves, and so being proactive is key. We have to find ways to incorporate these things into our lives. All right. This next step, step three is about recovery.

Okay. So this is, I'm talking to my people who are like me and you hit a wall and you needed to find your way back. Okay. And I know that's lots of us. I actually, I would probably argue that almost everybody listening to the show either has experienced hitting the wall of burnout or is on their way there right now.

I just, it's the way it is. It's the way that us super high performance people are, are motivated and driven. If it's you and I'm getting you today and you were like, Kelly, I'm at the wall, guys, I get it. I get it. I was there like two weeks ago, like it. The thing is, we ride the line all the time as high performance individuals, as executives, as business owners, as podcasters, as all these things we're doing these incredible things.

They, they, they have their toll on us. Right. They have their tool. So it's really, really important that if we are hitting the wall that we find a way out. Okay. Here are some of the ways that you can find your way back. Reach out for support. Okay. When I was hitting the wall, you know, thank God I have an amazing fiancé, an incredible, incredible person.

Who is very in tune with their mental health, who is very in tune with themselves emotionally and is able to kind of help me who's maybe not as in tune sometimes find my way back. And so don't be afraid to just say, Hey, you know what? Like I'm really hitting a wall here. Here's some of the things I'm struggling with and just have a conversation.

Just put it all out on the line. Talk about the challenges, talk about the struggles, talk about your feelings, talk about the anxiety, get it all out on the table. You would be amazed. at what, like a one hour or two hour conversation about some of the challenges you're facing with someone who's just willing to listen and hear you out will do for you.

It is absolutely incredible. So I'm not saying dump your life onto people. If you need a therapist, that's cool too. But find somebody to talk to. Find somebody, friends, family, colleagues, professionals, whatever. Find somebody who you can have a conversation about life's challenges with. Because guess what?

Life is hard. Life is challenging, but we're all in it together. That's the amazing thing about life. We're all human. We're all struggling together. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. Don't be afraid to reach out for support. Manage your workload. Okay, if we are hitting the wall, The first thing we need to do is obviously talk about it.

Second thing we need to do is figure out how the heck do we reduce this load that is causing a struggle. So find the things that you can cut back on, find the things that you can reduce, find maybe the jobs and tasks that you can put on hold for a little while. Don't be afraid to take a step back. And I know this can be really hard for entrepreneurs.

I got my, both my hands way up because I hate taking steps back, but I do recognize that every once in a while, even I have to take a step back from Take a breather. And realize that I can get back to it at any time, but right now I have to look after me. So try to manage the workload, narrow it anywhere possible until you feel normal again.

Find what brings you joy, guys. We talked about this. Find the thing. Remember when I told you I needed to get away? Well, I didn't tell you guys that one of my passions in life is adventure. I absolutely love traveling. I love to just get away. I love it. Which is why in that moment. The only thing the alarm bells are going off in my head.

And the only thing I could think of was I need to get out of here. I need to get away and do something fun, do something enjoyable. And yeah, most of you would probably say going to Saskatoon and visiting family, maybe not the funnest thing, but for me, it was incredible. It was exactly what I needed. I love going to a new town.

It's where my fiance's family's from. I love going to a new town and just having a good time. We stayed at a beautiful hotel. If you guys ever get a chance, go check out the Delta Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon. It's like from 1932. It's absolutely beautiful. We stayed there. We got to hang out. I got to hang out with my son and chill in the hot tub and just relax.

Right. But for me, that's what I needed. I needed to just get away. That was my happy place. Find your happy place. Whether you're going hiking, whether you love painting, fishing. I'm a huge fishing fan, by the way. You know, one of the things I can recommend to you guys, because I'm a solid nerd, if you guys have been around the show any length of time, you guys know, behind the scenes, nerd I loved building RC planes and flying them when I was like a teenager.

I still love doing that today. I haven't made time for it in two years, need to make time for it. But the funny thing is, those things exist, the things you used to love doing, they still exist. If you are hitting the wall, find one of those things you used to love doing and go and do it. Go and do it.

Figure out what it is. Make the time. Do things you love or used to love and you 100 percent can find your way back, guys. Find your way back. Find passion. Find joy. Figure it out. What makes you happy and go do as much of that as humanly possible. It is the way back. Okay, guys, and it wouldn't be reasonable for me to do this without saying there is a step four.

Step four is for my people who are experiencing burnout, and it's real serious, guys. You've really hit a wall, and maybe these other things, they are, they're too small. They're not enough to bring you back in this moment. Okay. In this particular case, I encourage you all to seek professional help. Burnout can edge into depression.

It really can. It can take you over the edge into something that is really, really hard to come back from, which is why we have to work very hard to prevent it in the first place. Figure out our escapes, right? Figure out how the heck we don't end up in deep burnout because deep burnout can edge into depression.

If this is you. Understand this. I don't care whether you're macho or you're the toughest person on planet Earth. Therapy is incredible. It is healthy. It is good. And there's no shame in it. There is no shame in going to therapy. I have been to therapy. Many of my friends have been to therapy. Some of the most successful people I've ever met.

been in therapy, okay? There is nothing wrong with going to therapy. And if you are in depression, I want you, please, please, please, please seek professional help. You are incredible. You are worth it. There is a way back, okay? Meditation can also help. Meditation can help you would be amazed. And you know, you're talking to somebody who frankly thought meditation was woo woo for the longest time.

I think there's still a part of me that still struggles with meditation a little bit, but it can be incredibly, incredibly effective to just sit with your thoughts and try to get to the bottom of what is challenging you. Now, this doesn't mean sitting on the floor necessarily like a monk, okay?

Meditation can be going for a drive. Meditation can be a lot of things. It's what it means to you, but what it can be is just time to sit and think and get to the bottom of what you are struggling with. Find a way to get to the bottom of it. And guys, if you are in dire straits, if I'm getting you today on your worst day, first Thank you for listening to this.

I'm sorry for what you were going through and I want you guys to know that if you were in Canada, I want you to text 988 immediately. Okay. If you are hopeless, I want you to text or call 988. That is the suicide hotline in Canada and you can text it, call it 24 hours a day and there will be somebody there to hear you out.

There will be somebody there to understand you who is trained. That to be able to help somebody like you in your scenario. Okay. So if I'm getting you on your worst day, guys, please remember this 988 text or call 24 hours a day in Canada. There's somebody there to help you. I want to give some pretty big recognition today to prevention.

com. And Charryse Johnson, she's with Jade Integrative Counseling and Wellness and she was a contributor to most of this article that we talked about today. I think this is really important work. I think burnout is happening more and more to many of us. We're very high performance and I just wanted to give them recognition.

Like I said, a lot of this information came directly from that website today. And so if you want to check it out I found it on prevention. com. All right, guys. And before we wrap up today, I just want to give a little pitch to the coaching. Okay. Now look, if you're in business development or your job in your company, whether you are the business owner, whether you're the business development manager, whether you're the marketing manager, whatever your job is, if your job has to do with growing the company.

I want to chat with you guys today about my business development mastery program. Guys, I put together a program. It's called business development mastery. What it is designed to do is to help establish an extremely effective business development process for your company. We're going to go over your corporate goals.

We're going to figure out how many meetings it's actually going to take to achieve them. We are going to review your marketing materials, get them up to par. We are going to look at your CRM systems and get them up to par. We're going to look at both your social media strategies and your personal strategies.

And we are going to chat about the active marketing process. And when we slam all of these things together, we're going to create an effective business development process that you can take with you in your current venture, any new ventures and far, far, far into the future guys. The Business Development Mastery Program will deliver an effective process for both you and your business that will pay off exponentially into the future.

Guys, you can find that on my LinkedIn under Amplify Your Impact or at CapitalBD.ca. You guys can click the coaching button and from there follow the links. It will take you to a spot where you can book a free discovery call and I very, very much look forward to meeting you. Shout outs this week. Colin Harms, Deanna Kean, Vijayan Swaminathan, Nicholas Bourque, Corey Rowe, Bassam Saeed, Stephanie McLean, Allan Staines. Ace Qureshiy, Ricardo Flores, Mack Male, Cory Sellar, Jamar Jones, Karen Unland, Marty Forbes, Aman Kumar. AmirAbbas Mirakhorloo, Susan Poseika, Shawn Neels, Saima Ashraf, Amin Samji, Ken Gee, Louise McCarthy, Zak Rayani, Lorrie Weldon, Daveed Henriquez, Gabriel Puello, Adam Kimmel, Chloe Wu, Bryan Hayes, Tatsiana Zametalina, Dawn Oslund, and Stuart Morawski.

Until next time, this has been the Business Development Podcast, and we will catch you On the flip side,

Outro: this has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry, and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.