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Burnout: Conclusion

I’m overwhelmed by how many people reached out in response to my article series about Burnout. Some shared they’re going through a similar phase. Some have been inspired to refocus their priorities. One reader was surprised that I would share such personal stuff.

It just goes to show that despite all the fun, exciting, and perfect lives we see on social media, everyone struggles with life. Everyone.

I’ve often said the entrepreneurial experience (and just life in general) is like this: fail, fail, SUCCESS, fail, fail, fail, SUCCESS, fail, SUCC.., oh wait, no…fail…

Successful people are successful not because they rarely fail (they fail often!). They are successful because they don’t stay down.

More than that, the high of success only carries us so far.  Unless we have a deeper, more meaningful purpose behind the day-to-day of our work, picking ourselves back up and shaking off the dust becomes harder and harder.

In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek describes the difference between being successful and feeling successful. That difference lies in the connection between what you do versus why you do it.

In other words, making money, climbing the ladder, and having all the stuff of success for the sake of success can leave you feeling miserable and empty inside.

Even if you’re just working to make ends meet every month, without a bigger vision you will hit the same wall.

Burnout and disillusionment are inevitable when you don’t have a bigger purpose behind all of your efforts and achievements.

In my last post, I asked you to ponder this question:

If you could be free from the day-to-day of the work that you are currently doing (and there was zero loss of quality in your work, relationships, and finances), what would you do with your time?

Here is how I answered it:

1 Inspire and be a positive influence in the life of everyone I come in contact with.

How would I accomplish this NOW?

Through coaching/consulting with current clients.

Through church ministry.

Through volunteering at kids’ school.

Through focused time with my family.

Through media [newsletter, blogging, video, email].

Through a successful business that supports employees, clients, and vendors who believe in our purpose.

The answer to that question should’ve helped you uncover your value goals. Here are other important value/life goals I uncovered, which require a financial engine (i.e. a source of income):

2 Buy a second home

3 Keep my kids in private school

4 Freedom and autonomy in how I spend my time

I was surprised to discover that I didn’t need to change much to accomplish my first value goal. What I needed was to focus and plan better.

For the other value goals, I saw how money was just a tool, and not a goal. It can make it easier to meet our value goals, but not impossible if there is very little of it. What is more important is purpose, discipline, and focus. Without those, you’ll still run into burnout, no matter how much money you have.

Answering these questions and consulting with people I trust and respect helped me to define the purpose behind the madness and routine of daily life, and breathe new life into my work.

Discovering your purpose, your big why is an effort worth undertaking. While you’re still in the thick of New Year “Resolution-ing” and fresh starts, revisit your goals and see if you can uncover what drives you to do what you do. What is your purpose? What do you stand for? And how is your work or your company a platform for your purpose?

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Political No-Rant Zone

I’m sure many of you are glad the election season is behind us. I certainly don’t miss the wild rhetoric and non-stop news coverage.   

But as a marketing professional I find myself pondering the marketing, and noticed a very significant principle that I talk about in a previous post.

Trump’s campaign nailed it. Hillary’s campaign missed it.

In Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, he makes a case that strong, prosperous companies have a bigger purpose for what they do. And
it is never just about their profits or their own growth. It’s about something bigger, ethereal, and transformative.

For example, Apple’s why is to think different and challenge the status quo. They just happen to make computers. On the other hand, Tevo, a company that created an extraordinary, high-quality gadget for improving your TV experience, has a why that fell flat: convenience and low price. Not very inspiring. And not surprisingly, they hardly prospered.

What was Trump’s why? It’s in his slogan: Make America Great Again. It wasn’t about him. It was about something bigger and transformative.

What about Hillary? Her slogan was: I’m With Her. What does that communicate about her big why, her purpose, her focus? If she had a bigger purpose, it wasn’t communicated well.

I’m not interested in arguing political platforms and rhetoric. I’m making an observation that illustrates an important principle and serves as another reminder to ponder your reason for doing what you do.

Your what (your actions, products, services) serves as proof of your why. But if people don’t know or don’t believe in your why, your what becomes meaningless, a commodity.

So why does your business exist? To make a profit or provide great service is uninspiring and unremarkable.

What greater purpose do you embody?  And how can people be inspired and believe in it so much that they give you their trust, loyalty, engagement,
and ultimately, their money?

People are naturally inclined towards self-preservation and self-interest. But can you think beyond that for a moment?

Sinek says it like this: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

Your big why is often revealed in your story. If you can incorporate your story in your marketing message, your why will emerge, and you will attract more people more powerfully and more effectively than the traditional benefit/cost/value marketing strategies.

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Burnout, Part 2

In my previous post, I shared with you my run-in with Burnout. I was at a point where I was feeling frustrated with the direction my business was going and wondering how to take back control. I was sick and tired of dealing with the same old problems over and over again, and questioning if I even WANTED to continue. I had little creative energy left and felt very disconnected from my business and my clients. Not a fun place to be in. Kudos to my team for keeping things moving along.

I came across an article that explained it like this:

We start our business with clearly defined goals. For many of us,
it was simply getting into this business. We plot, plan and dream.
We spend hours thinking of our company name and logo, our products, advertising, networking, marketing, and more. Once into the business, we then focus on getting work, clients, customers, jobs, getting ourselves paid, moving 100 mph in the hectic pace of a successful
(or struggling) business.

We work hard to have more money at month’s end than the beginning. Our goal was to be profitable. And then, perhaps a bigger car or a better house. No room for burnout here.

At some point along the path, we met those temporary goals. But then we never replace them.

Or, we’re just not motivated by them anymore. The big house, nice car, nice vacation…it doesn’t fulfill our need for purpose, meaning, and lasting value.

That’s where I was. And the only option I was able to see was quitting, which wasn’t an option for me. I felt stuck. On a particularly tough day, I reached out to a friend who I knew would understand, just needing to talk, not really looking for answers. Somehow, the act of writing that email lifted a million-pound burden off my shoulders, and I was able to think more clearly and focus on the problem.

I reached out to another friend, and same thing. It was like a light came on in the dark. Although they both gave me solid advice and encouragement, I had to take the step and take action. Even the smallest action was better than sitting around feeling depressed and miserable. (There are some very important principles here I will talk about more another time, and it’s not what you think.)

It’s been said that for any challenge, struggle, or failure, defining the problem (and, I would add, seeing it clearly for what it is)  is 80% of the work. And that’s what that first step helped me do.

If you’re finding yourself in the same boat as I was in, here is a good place to start: first, know that you’re not alone. Second, reach out to a friend you trust. Be honest and transparent. If you don’t have that friend, I’ll volunteer.

Third, sit down and answer this question:

If you could be free from the day-to-day of the work that you are currently doing (and there was zero loss of quality in your work, relationships, and finances), what would you do with your time?*

Stop here ponder that question for a few minutes.

This questions detaches your practical, temporary goals from your life/value goals.

Meaningful goals are rooted in our values. When reached, you feel like you’ve accomplished something, you feel like you’ve made a difference. Without that sense of accomplishment, we start to feel useless.  We begin wondering why we’re doing what we’re doing, questioning our abilities and even our self-worth. That’s the smell of burnout.

Practical goals are things like how much money we want to make, buying a home, a business, equipment, a dream vacation, dream job, dream car, dream body, etc. They are rooted in our wants, not our needs.  Once we accomplish them, we’re back to that same place of feeling like we’ve accomplished nothing. And we get back on the roller coaster for another wild ride.

If you took time to answer the question, it should shed a lot of light on what you truly value in your life and clear up the burnout smoke in your head. It did for me.

After you get your answer to that question, the next logical question is: how can I do that NOW with the time and resources I have NOW?

I’ll share the value goals that I discovered for my life next time. I’d love to hear yours. 

*Thanks to my friend and mentor Ben Glass for this excellent question. (BenGlassLaw.com and GreatLegalMarketing.com)

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The Tyranny of Jargon

“Please review the print mock up carefully. The PDF file has bleeds so we’re showing it to you in spreads to ensure the inside margins align and images are hi-res and do not appear pixellated.”

As a designer, I’m careful to NEVER use that sentence in an email to my clients. It is industry jargon. While it is beautiful and perfectly clear to me, it is maddening nonsense to the non-designer.

If you’re a marketer, then you may also be guilty of assaulting people with jargon. Here’s a test. Have you used any of these words or phrases recently in your marketing:

“flexible,” “robust,” “world class,” “scalable,” and “easy to use”?

Or “cutting edge,” “mission critical,” “market leading,” “industry standard,” “turnkey,” and “groundbreaking”?

How about “interoperable,” “best of breed,” and “user friendly”? And my personal favorite, “dynamic.”

Marketer David Meerman Scott calls these “gobbledygook phrases.” He decided to find out just how overused these words were. By analyzing 338,000 news release wires over a 9 month period, he found that 74,000 of them mentioned at least one of the gobbledygook phrases. The winner was “next generation,” with 9,895 uses. The runners-up are in the list above.

His disdain for these phrases is aimed directly at the writers. He claims that because these writers don’t understand how their products solve customer problems, they cover by explaining how the product works using meaningless industry jargon.

Instead, they should write with their buyers in mind, not the product. It goes back to explaining how your product or service will benefit your customer. Don’t just blather on about how great your product is. The buyer needs to understand how you can help them. Define the problem, touch on their pain points, and offer the solution. Incidentally, these are also winning traits of a good sales letter.

You can read more of David’s article at DavidMeermanScott.com.

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Burnout

We’ve all experienced it in one form or another. Burnout.

The dictionary defines it as fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity. In plain terms, you’re just sick and tired of the whole thing, whatever the “thing” is. You’ve lost all motivation and the only thing that is keeping you from just quitting is the fear of becoming homeless, starving your kids, or *gasp* moving back to your parents’ house.

In my life, burnout seems to rear its head every few years, mostly in business. As the business grows and as my life changes, the stress, overload, and intense moments may look different, or be triggered by different activities, but they are sure to come.

At first I think I just need a vacation, or a change of pace. But deep inside, that nagging feeling, that sense of dread won’t leave. Take all the vacations you want…unless you make significant, permanent, long-term changes, you’re just prolonging the pain. One day, you’ll wake up (maybe even be on your death bed) and wonder, “What the heck did I do with my life? All that energy and life I poured into the business, clients, projects…for what?” Ugh.

Here’s the good news. Burnout is the universe’s way telling you, “Wake up! This is NOT what your life is about!” It’s a not-so-gentle prompting that it’s time to get unstuck and change direction, and keep moving forward.

I’m reminded of the Bible’s account of Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. The night before he was to stand trial for a most certain conviction and death sentence, an angel appeared in the prison and struck him on the side to wake him up and get him out, passing through prison bars unnoticed by the 16 guards assigned to watch him. The text specifically says the angel STRUCK him, he hit him hard! Peter must’ve been like, “Whaaaa?? OWWW! Whadja do that for??”

Well, burnout is kinda like that. Something has to whack us hard and be painful enough for us to take notice and get OUT of our death prison.

So if you’re facing burnout, take heart that it is signalling that you are destined for better things. In fact, since you’re sick and tired of your life or your business or whatever you are burnt out on, it’s the perfect time to sit down and reassess what you REALLY want. You’re ready to call it quits, anyway. So what would you do if you did quit? What do you really want to do with your life?

In my next post, I’ll share my burnout journey. I did sit down and do some soul-searching to figure out what I really want to be when I grow up. What do I value? What do I want my life to look like? Hint: Having the benefit of experience and deeper values that come with age, and knowing what you DON’T want is golden. Talk to you more next time!