How to Achieve Work Life Balance and Overcome Burnout

02:02

in and talk about your movement and talk about on hustling which you coined that word, did it you?

02:10

Yes, I did. I came up with it because of a personal burnout story, which I'm sure we'll get into it. But yeah, and hustle is the word I coined. And off we went with that.

02:24

I love it. So before we dive in and talk about the struggle of the hustle, which is real, y'all, I'd love for you to share with us some backstory of what what what is your journey been to where you have gotten to today?

02:43

Why, wow, how much time do we have, and I'll try to keep this short. that's a that's a long story. But I'm originally from Bulgaria. That's where the action is from, I know, listening to this, and they're trying to figure it out. So I'll just put it out there. I'm married to an Australian. So I kind of have a really funky accent. And I have lived in in the United States for half of my life 25 years or so. So I came from Bulgaria to get a master's degree in international marketing. And I went down a marketing career path. I was in the opinion, digital marketing since 9697. And I love it. And one thing led to another I worked for a ski resort in Lake Tahoe for 10 years, which was one of my dreams to work at a ski resort, so passionate about the outdoors. And after social media started to really big, pique my attention, I decided to start my own digital marketing agency. And you know, I was crushing it. I was winning, hashtag winning and hashtag hustling as well. And I, you know, I love working with some phenomenal clients, like Madonna and Steve Nash and Dr. Weil and I know amazing. I mean, I was just very fortunate I have a great network of people. And so we were doing a fantastic work. I was really into it. I was loving it. And at the same time, you know, I was listening to wilcom hustle porn stars. Yeah, who, you know, are unseen. And I won't get into names but you know, they're there. They're constantly promoting this notion of hustle all the time, do more. You know, sleep is for losers. All of that. And that was you know, living breathing and no surprise, I ended up burning out. I have no idea I was burned out, you know, the burn that wasn't classified as a medical condition back then. But what happened is my adrenal glands or at up I was I was running on chorizo and white balls and coffee. My stress level obviously was through the roof. I was

my sleep was not really there I was sleeping with my father had clients from all over the world. So I didn't want to miss out on anything.

05:18

You know my relationship more gone because there's only so many times your friends will call you and say let's hang out and you say I'm too busy. raincheck my marriage was you know, my husband is very understanding and we are soulmates. But at some point in time, he's like you we don't spend any time together anymore enough we are you're not really present with me. You know, you're not listening to me, you're thinking about work. So bottom line is, it was impacting my life. Instead of impacting my productivity as well, my creativity was diminishing, my my productivity was diminishing. So I ended up going to a 10 day trip down to Baja California sur to a place called love. And Tana. I know you go to Cabo, as well. So it's about two and a half hours from Cabo and this Yokota side. And, you know, it turned out to be a digital detox trip, because there was no internet there, I didn't know that I would have probably never agreed to go, because I was totally addicted to social media addicted to working. And I would have never thought I can take 10 days off to disconnect from work. So I did. And then once we got there, we had nothing else to do, we decided to cut to learn to cardboard, which happens to be one of the scariest activities are done with oh my gosh, with all my skiing with all my traveling that was you know, the most mindful activity? I did, because I had to focus on July's like I either have to focus on this oil die. Yeah. And that was my first experience is a flight that I can think of getting into a state of flow. I mean, I was fully in the moment, everything stopped around me. Everything got really quiet. And I was thinking, this gotta be more to life than working. Yeah, both of my parents passed away early on from different health conditions. And so it was really in my face that you know, we don't live forever. And what is the point of all these hustling if you have no time to enjoy life? And I was thinking, you know, I am, I'm an overachiever, I'm, you know, I want to pursue my dream. So, you know, I'm passionate about what I do. But there's got to be a better way than then all these 12 1416 hour days crazy. And so I went down on the path to figure out what is this better way of working? Turns out that science and other latest study in research, and a few brave individuals have already gone down that path of actually working less, and being more productive, being more creative, you know, getting into a state of flow, tapping into a high level of performance. And so I sign up with human potential Institute, I studied. I got into mindfulness. I studied biohacking, I studied, what high performance people do. And that's how on hustle was born. It's It's It's a counterintuitive, but scientific approach to the way we live in work. So you can actually tap into your full human potential. And when you do, you get so much more space and balance, enjoy, and you're actually more productive.

08:40

I love this. Because First off, I remembered, recently, you and I were on social and we were dming each other because you're like, I was just at last been taught this. And then you're like, Oh, I got to be there. And so I love it, though, that you were at that serene place where you knew that there was something more and you were like, I'm going to go get this and I'm going to go figure this shit out. Because this is not how life really has to be an eye like you thought the same thing like no one in my family was an entrepreneur, no one taught me how to do these things. It wasn't until I was surrounded by a group called eo that other people had been I call it potty train your brain had been potty trained to where you can be present. And you can do all of these things, but you have to learn how to shut out all those distractions and and quit the FOMO and and and put the phone down and like it'll be there when you get there and like your clients don't always need you the way that you think that they need you like it really is going to be okay. But my thing is like how did you even start to unravel and Start to really put those, I guess boundaries in place. Because that's, that was the hardest part for me is like telling my clients or telling my family like, Hey, quit calling me quit texting me all the time, like, I'm not gonna pick it up anymore. Like I'm gonna we we've got to stop all this distraction stuff like, how did you go about that? And how did you start to communicate it? But listen, I am going to do this movement called on hustling and it's the thing. And so that's my first question. How did you go about it? And then did people start to follow suit? And did they respect that out of you? Hmm.

10:46

These are very good questions, Angeles. So how did I go about it? I didn't tell anybody Stop calling me and stop emailing me. I don't think that's possible. People are still going to do that. But what I did is I said, I created better boundaries with a with where my attention, my focus, and my priorities are. And I did that by getting very clear on what my values are. And my values are for, you know, wellness, and freedom, and creativity. And in order to go after all these things, you really need to create more space in my life. And you have to look at the trade offs, right? What are you saying no to. So you can say yes to. And it's really easy, but the only thing I can control is my own mind and my own behavior and my own focus, I can't control what other people are doing. And that's where I think
my mindfulness training came in very handy. So how I went about it is, you know, I started, I started with a mindfulness training of everyday, just 20 minutes, whether you do it outside, I'm not necessarily talking meditation or the meditation could be one form of mindfulness. But just taking time, just taking a little bit of time for yourself. And this is how I started my own hustle morning, which is a set of rituals and practices that I do in order to take care of my mind and body first thing in the morning. And in order to set the intention

for the day. So that I don't get distracted, it's so easy to load yourself up with all these things that we have to do, we should be doing. Most of us, first thing we do is grab our phone, right? So not sleeping next to your phone, leaving your phone on airplane mode until you take care of your mind and body. And until you're very clear on your priorities for the day has been very critical for me. So taking really time out of your day, making it a priority, making it like scheduling on your calendar, if you have to, I never had to go down that road. But sometimes I do sometimes if I have like a three things I want to accomplish on my day, it's like okay, well, I'm gonna take 30 minutes at lunchtime and get a workout in. So basically, knowing what you want to put your energy and the focus on and honoring that with yourself.

13:19

So for me, I know that like I'm a big visionary. And so every quarter now we do a vision map of, Okay, what are we going to focus on this quarter, he's V, I laugh because prior to that thing called COVID, like we would we would do once a year we get to Cabo once a year, and like the whole year, it's like how we're good. And then we'd schedule it all, you know, we were just kind of on autopilot. And so now it's like looking at the vision board and saying, okay, like, where do we want our priorities? And where do we want our time to be spent so that we can be present is really important. And so and but I am the person that does have to put it on the calendar, otherwise, it doesn't happen. So

14:06

you know, and then that's okay. I mean, if that's if that's what works for you, I think that's perfectly okay. But the one thing I want to bring up there is this whole notion of purities plural is something that as entrepreneurs, you know, we have our priorities and all the sudden you have 30 things on your, on your to do list that are priorities. And when that happens, nothing is a priority. So priority Originally, the whole word started as a single thing. And even when you look at like a quarter or a year or a month, what is the one single thing that you if you accomplish that you would feel like you've made progress? I'm not saying don't do anything else, right. But in my case right now, I want to finish my book. So my priority for the first quarter of 2021 is finished my book, everything else is secondary, and it's so hard for us because we want to achieve all these things. You know, we like, especially mission driven entrepreneurs, we have so many things to do. But we scatter our energy and our effort when we put 20 things down instead of one or two.

15:19

And that and that's a great segue into because I want to ask you, because I know you have all the science behind it, like the rate of burnout, like in America, and this culture of just Hustle, Hustle, Hustle, Hustle, Hustle, Hustle. Like, what is that? Like? What is the rate of burnout? And do you think since COVID, and people are working from home, do you think that it's gotten better? Or has it gotten worse actually, with with the whole burnout thing?

15:49

burnout, unfortunately, is considered now, a pandemic across America. Quite honestly, it's not just America, it's not just an American phenomenon. About 76% of people are burnout at the moment in the country. And that's gone up since the pandemic, because work from home, let's face it, I've worked from home so that for the past nine years, it's not easy. But it's not just work from home isolation is not easy. You know, we're hardwired to be with other people, especially in stressful times. So we're stressed, we're tired, we're overwhelmed, anxious, and burnout, and it's especially affecting women moreso than men, because women are also you know, trying to be caregivers and taking care of kids and taking care of senior of their parents or friends. So it's it's the serious, serious rates, alarming rates, and it's affecting mental health, it's affecting our resilience, it's affecting our productivity. It's affecting our health. And that's the one thing we should be really the most focused on right now. Overall, well being, resilience, being able to adapt, being able to pivot or being able to refocus our business so that we can, you know, come out of this pandemic or stay strong during the pandemic. So, burnout is a serious thing. And it's really hard to really figure out that you're burnout. I've seen it with me and it's not anything that when I talk about mental health, it's not really like serious mental health conditions. It's more like oh, you you have brain fog in the morning. And you're not able to focus or get like simple things done. Like maybe you can't pay your bills online, you just don't lacking motivation, which for entrepreneurs, so hard to get out of, right. So taking care of your, of your sleep of your of your, of what you eat of how much time you take to taking time to you know, rest and recharge are actually critical to your performance into productivity. And it's so hard for us to get into that do nothing mode because we want to go go go doo doo doo, checkoff lists, and turns out all these deep play, when you have that deep play, I could mean going kiteboarding consider that deep play because you just this challenge is when you are working, and you feel like you're using all your, your, your skills to to do this one thing, right. And that's actually a very similar thing to being to staying in the in that creative space when you're working. And when you when you complete want to complete your project. So it complements what you're doing at work. So the importance of deep play the importance of you know, active race, active race, meaning not sitting on the couch, watching Netflix, eating chips, but actually going outside for a hike and spending a little bit of time in nature and letting your mind wander. I find so much creativity in these

moments of just not really doing anything but just putting one foot in front of the other and yeah, all the science is there that Oh, these things make us more grounded make us less stressed. Which all burnout prevention measures, right. But we think of it as Oh yeah, I know I need to go exercise we think of it more as, but if you do, go out and go hike, it will improve your productivity or improve your creativity or make you more fulfilled at the end of the day because you'll feel better, you'll be more present. You'll be more, you know, able to see. See the trees in the forest. Yeah, it's it's so key, but we get hammered on these. Do more, accomplish more, sleep less. And it's the absolute worst possible advice that can be given to entrepreneurs and it affects our lives and people will actually literally dying from it. So it's so sad.

19:56

So what are some things like I know that Whole. And I don't even know like, who started this whole thing of like,

20:04

hustle hustles.

20:06

And I say that for years, I'll sleep when I die, which, no. And then I turned 41 day and my doctors, like, you have to sleep eight hours, I don't know who you think you are. But like, your hair's falling out, you're getting gaining weight you're not. This is not healthy. And if you don't take care of yourself, How in the hell are you going to take care of other people? It's like my mother says he was saying it to me all the time. She's always like, you look so tired. You're so aggravated, you look so agitated, like, Where's the happy girl? Like, what? Why are you doing this? You know, but then it took like my entrepreneur friends and my doctor to say, like, why are you doing this? Like, who has it's like someone has conditioned you to think this way. And like you said, there are so many books out there that do say that, and I agree with you. I mean, now that I'm an older, wiser entrepreneur, and I'm like, No, you need to sleep eight hours, you need to take care of yourself, you need to do these things like, and I feel like it's just going to take so long to like uncondition some of these younger entrepreneurs. And when I say younger, I don't mean it like that age, because they're 1617 year olds who are retired, who are at the entrepreneur center, who are bred brand new entrepreneurs. And but they're excited about their idea. And it's like, they can't contain their excitement. And they're like, I can't sleep at night. Because I'm so excited. And I get it like I've been there, I feel that, but what do you think that it's going to take?

And which I know one of your your whole movement of the whole hustle thing? But like, why is the culture like why do we need to stop the whole hustle culture? And like, what is it going to take to stop this culture? That it's not okay, like, this is not okay.

22:07

Well, these are some excellent questions, Angela. And, you know, hustle culture, which starts from you know, I've been doing a lot of research working on my book, but I mean, it started back in the industrial. Actually, the Why does the 40 hour work? Let's go to not forget about Passover, where does the 40 Hour Workweek comes from right? It comes from the industrial age comes from Henry Ford, who said, instead of working 12 hour shifts, I'm going to go down to work eight hour shifts, well, of course, because he wants to optimize three shifts in his factoring in he saw productivity increased by working less. And so then a few companies followed suit. And that's how we ended up with the 40 Hour Workweek. Now, put that forward, we no longer in the industrial age, we don't go to factories, we don't work on machines, we're using our brain for work. And there's countless studies that show our most productive time, our creative time, if you're really in deep work and focus work is you know, four to six hours a day. Now, the whole castle coach mentality, that's, it's not just somebody's fault for their I mean, I can, I can say names and point fingers, but really, it's just this society thing. It's, you know, it's our school tells us to, to perform better to work harder. You know, our, our parents have told us that, and at some point in time, that was the case, right? Hard work, hard work, pays off, and I have nothing against hard work I have, again, what I have against is, is that business in that glorification of business, and always on mentality and technology, unfortunately, added to it marketing, unfortunately, added to it. So I was just watching a movie on Netflix of the Alesis. Now, you know, the minimalism movement. And they said in the 1920s $50 million was spent on on marketing. And now it's like in the billions you know, $300 billion is spent on marketing. Well, these are all messages telling us that we're not enough that if you only, you know work harder, you would make more money and you would buy the house that you always wanted and you would buy the car you always want you buy more clothes and you buy buy, buy buy more, more, more more. So we're chasing this happiness, instead of happiness. The goal is always moving you know, one more client one more email one more, one more deal and then I'll be happy. But that happiness girl that happiness standard is always moving with the Chase is always on we never achieve it when when we achieve it. We have a next goal and that's why as intrapreneurs when always going when, when if we can put our attention more on finding joy every day and finding joy in what we do. Then you act really feel better, you know, you find more contentment in what you're doing, and you end up being happier. Now, in terms of the young enterpreneurs I actually I was just looking here, the survey from Meredith and the Harris Poll that they did a survey on burnout, Flashpoint, and the stress epidemic

confronting American women in 2020. And I just wanted to share a couple of stats here with you. It says nearly half of the women say, burnout is so extreme that it keeps they keep, they stay up at night. And work life balance is a mitt. So half of the women think that work life balance is a myth. And it was funny, one of them said that a quarter of women will give up sex and chocolate to gain an hour, a day of of their time back. And most of them 70% See, taking care of their well being as the one way to get more done. So, you know, the stats are there, the research is there, the science is there, it really comes down to us shifting our perspective as to how to go about it. And what's the future of work. I'm speaking to the World Economic Forum on Thursday about how to go about it. And I think it's gonna take in, I think it's gonna take leadership, it's gonna take more companies, you know, I have plenty of examples where companies have gone on a four day workweek, let's say, aren't being able to maintain their productivity or increase it. So, from a solopreneur entrepreneur working from home, it's a little bit harder to do, right. So creating some some better work life boundaries, going from FOMO to Java, the fear of missing out the joy of missing out, shifting your perspective on learning old habits of what you've been trained to do all your life. So it's not easy to do, because our ego gets in the way, but knowing that it's the way out, it's gonna take it now I'm not the only one speaking about this. Arianna Huffington with thrive global

27:08

wisdom 2.0. Chip Conley, Christopher Lochhead. I'm definitely not the only one vision from mind Bali. I'm not the only one speaking about this. And I'm so happy to see that more and more people I was just on the phone with. And from less labs, you know, who also has a website about how to increase your creativity and productivity for people using their mind. So there's a lot of people, oh, it's not a lot of us. But at least some of us going down that conversation path, and it will take societal change, it will take mental change with habits of how we go about working. But I'm hoping that one day, we'll have a much more healthier and more sustainable, and quite honestly, more productive way of going about the opportunities. Are there technology, is there leverage is there. We just need to start using it better.

28:11

Right? So would you say like the one main solution to getting the work done, and still having a life, it all comes down to priorities?

28:24

It comes down to getting clarity on your values, okay? And creating a way to work that's more sustainable with your lifestyle. And really focusing on what's essential to you. That will give you the fulfillment you're seeking.

28:50

And sometimes what at least for me, I know I was too freakin busy to even know, what do I want? What are what am I doing? Because I'm so freaking busy. And so one way to get into this whole flow thing? I'm just got a lesson Thomas, it'll fix it all. I just haven't been funny, but not really.

29:17

But what

29:18

would you suggest if someone is even so busy to even have the time and the space and the energy because they have no energy left at the end of the day or the end of the week? To think about? What are my priorities? And what are my values and what do I want? What are what's something that they can do to like, get into the flow of thinking a little bit differently?

29:46

I mean, start asking yourself better questions. You know, start asking yourself different type of questions that you're asking. You know, we're so stuck in our head sometimes and we're stuck in the story, you know, And what are we really so busy with? And what matters at the end of the day? And how do you define your success without? Without comparing yourself to others? You know, what's important to you? What does success really look like to you? And what does it mean to you know, at the end of the day, if this is your last day? Do you have any regrets? And if you have any regrets, what can you do today to change him, there's a lot of practices, and whether it's just, you know, having having 10 minutes to sit down and start journaling. And just let that let whatever comes to your mind, go out on paper, I feel like we're sometimes dealing with too much of like, I'm not being enough. I'm not I don't have enough success, or I don't, I don't, I'm not as successful as someone else, or I don't have enough money, or I don't have enough clothes, or whatever it is. And so just

knowing that as of right now, you enough, you have everything you need to if your basic needs are met, like you, if you have a roof over your head, and if you have food to eat, and if you have some clothes to put on. Everything else really becomes secondary. And so what are you trying to accomplish with your life? Personally and professionally? What are you, your your four or five things that matter to you? And do a quick audit, you know, from a, what's your health? Like? What's your love life? Like? What are your experience is like, just do a quick audit and see where you're at and see what needs to be. Maybe you need to put more attention on that one thing that's missing, because at the end of the day, if something is missing, and you have caliber, that's why you're not happy. It's not that because you are too busy. It's because something's missing in your life. So what's the one thing that's missing?

32:13

I know when I when I was challenged to ask myself these questions, the one thing that was missing was the time for me to put into what do I really want out of doing all of this?

32:26

So what did you do in your case?

32:29

Well, so I had a mentor that challenged me to literally turn off all the technology for a day. And really, I mean, he, I felt like he was trapping me like in a room all day. But it was what I needed. It was almost like an intervention with a therapist, but with a business mentor, who asked me all the questions that you just said, but actually got me to talk about it out loud. Because I had never been forced before or asked by anyone. He's like, We're not leaving here until you come up with some of these answers. And you saying, I don't know is not an answer. And he's like, we can sit here for five hours for 10 hours, I really want you to think about it. And that created the space for me, to not worry about what everybody else was needing what was happening on my phone, the text messages could wait, the calls could wait everything else could wait because I was there for me. And especially for women too. I feel like it's hard for women sometimes to just sit down and take time for yourself. Because sometimes people like I would feel guilty. Because I'm like, Oh my god, I have so many other things that I need to be doing. Like I was sharing with you earlier, like, you know, like half the world. I got COVID too. And my mom kept saying to me quit, I know you're laying there worried about working and worrying about the things that that you need to be doing. And I'm like, actually, I'm not I'm all I'm sitting here telling myself is

I'm going to get better, my body's going to be okay, I'm not going to die. And that's all the energy that I have right now is to focus on the positive. And I'm going to lay here and enjoy this time of just being quiet and still, and I'm actually okay with that. Now 10 years ago, probably a very different story and I probably would have had anxiety through the roof. But I'm now more trained to understand that taking time for yourself and taking time to rejuvenate, rejuvenate and clear your calendar is 100% necessary to just as it's necessary to get work done and to be productive, that I can't be productive without having the that time to Where I am just sitting at less than Thomas at the bullet, it's okay to sit there and do nothing. Because we all need to be recharged, like, you've got to recharge yourself, you can't work yourself to death. And like, I literally watch my dad do that. And it's something that I decided, you know, I don't want to, to end my life like that. So it's a very serious thing when you sit down and you start asking yourself these questions. And it does help when you have an accountability partner, or a spouse or a best friend or a mentor, that can help you think through some of these things. Because sometimes it's hard. Like, it's hard to sit there and just have a conversation with yourself. That's why I so enjoy other entrepreneurs, because like, we're all going through some of these same things. So it's, it's really helpful. I know that you're working on a book, but right now I know that you have an E book, which you guys, we're going to link in the show notes. So can you tell us a little bit about your E book and some of the takeaways that someone can get from downloading the E book and some of the tips that they can learn on how to hustle?

36:12

Sure, thank you, Angela. That ebook, I call it the seven superpowers of high performing and hustlers because I'm sharing seven stories with people who have who I have interviewed, who have figured out how to work less stress less, and still get their work done, in some cases, be extremely successful in what they do by slowing down by taking back some of the time in their days, or by working in a state of flow. And so these are examples with practical tips from real people. One of them is a company of perpetual guard Guardian who decided to put his employees on on a four day workweek. And now he's leading the four day workweek global movement, and co founder, Ray who's who's leading the slow down movement. And then there's some entrepreneurs in there who, you know, character Roy, who went from a brand strategies to starting her own business at home, working six hours a day taking naps, and working only four days a week, and she's crushing it online. So these are all examples of how what superpowers they have and how you can make these superpowers heroes. And you can download the book on the website and hustle COMM And that will give you just a few more ideas. I also included the entire hustle playbook in there with some of the talents that I believe are critical on this journey

by keeping it kind of simple, like you and I actually touched on some of these like unlearning old beliefs and and busying yourself, and actually getting into a state of high performance by getting into a state of flow while you do work. So you can actually get so much more done in less time. So that's the ebook that I have on my website that on hustle.com. Yay. Well, if

38:12

anybody wants to connect with you on social, we'll put everything in the show notes, show notes. But do you have like a favorite platform that you're on?

38:21

LinkedIn, and Instagram, for sure are my favorite.

38:24

Awesome, perfect. So we will definitely put those in the show notes, be sure to download the free ebook on hustle.com slash ebook. And then when your book comes out, we'll have to share it with everybody so that they can go and get your book and just I'm so excited to read about all the stories I loved on hustle day watching and reading like all the videos and all every everybody's story. I mean, you've really pulled together so many amazing leaders around the world who have shared with you and with the world like what hustle actually means and, and you're really doing amazing things that are going to help change the world and frankly, save lives. So congratulations. I think it's incredible.

39:17

Thank you so much, Angela. And thank you so much for supporting world and hustle day. I love everything you do and the new videos and and we'll make it a bigger event next year. And thank you for all the support are really really appreciated. I had a lot of fun connecting with you on this podcast.

39:33

You're so welcome and everybody that's listening. Thank you so much for your time and be sure to and hustle. It's okay. Go ask yourself some of those important questions and share with us get on social media and share on on hustle and let us know how this has

helped you or how it's impacted your life or your business. And be sure to tune in next week for another episode of business unveiled. Bye, y'all. That's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really, really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show, and leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com slash podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember, the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business, help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD