EntreLeadership - The True Cause of Burnout and How to Cure It

Starting point is 00:00:05 Running a business is hard. I've had seasons where I was overwhelmed, wondering how I was gonna make payroll on Friday, keep the lights on, and still show up for my team like I had it all together. That kind of pressure can be exhausting, but there's a difference between being tired and truly being burned out. Tired says, I need a break. Burned out says, I don't even know if this is worth it anymore. That's a dangerous place to be as a leader, because it doesn't just have a break. affect you. It can spread to your team and do real damage to your business. And you'll stay stuck if you think working harder or taking a two-week vacation will snap you out of it. So today, Entree Leadership's head coach John Falcons is going to walk you through what burnout actually is,

Starting point is 00:00:53 the warning signs to look for, and most importantly, how to fix it before it wrecks what you've built. Let's get into it. We've learned over the years that most business owners, don't burn out all at once. Burnout tends to creep up on them. One day, they realize they don't care like they used to. They're just going through the motion. Something's off. And I've coached plenty of business owners who are successful on paper,

Starting point is 00:01:18 but on the inside, behind the scenes, they're drained. They're checked out, and they're barely hanging on. So let me ask you, do any of these sound familiar to you? Just going through the motions, feeling overwhelmed, having less motivation, maybe even feeling alone when you're surrounded by a lot of people? Is your health suffering or maybe are you daydreaming about escape? Maybe you've lost hope that things are going to get better in the future.

Starting point is 00:01:45 What we've learned from working with business owners is burnout often looks the same as depression. And if you're feeling this way, chances are your team is too. And as goes the leader, so goes the team. When you lose meaning, even success feels empty. I worked with a client once that was really successful. but they had lost their way. They had lost their meaning.

Starting point is 00:02:06 He was burned out without realizing it. And as we started to talk about goal setting for the future, it just fell flat. And he finally confessed to me. He wasn't thinking about the future. He couldn't imagine going like he was going another year. He was just looking for a way out. And that it had gotten so bad, he was mostly thinking about the payout from his life insurance policy for his family.

Starting point is 00:02:31 Burnout isn't a time problem. It's a purpose problem. Burnout doesn't just come from working too much. You have to work a lot as an entree leader. Hard work and long hours are just part of owning a business. Burnout comes from working too hard on something that you don't believe in. Money alone won't sustain you. Business has to be about more than just the bottom line.

Starting point is 00:02:55 If you're just in this to make money, you will burn out. And the culture around us, well, it'll tell you to just push harder. push harder, just hustle more. But you can't work your way out of burnout and hope it'll all get better. You also won't fix this by getting more rest or even taking a sabbatical. If you take two weeks off and you get your energy back, you weren't burned out. You were just tired. But if you actually are burned out, taking a break will only address some of the symptoms,

Starting point is 00:03:24 not the root cause. And the problem will still be there when you get back. The cure for burnout isn't more rest or an extended vacation. It's meaning. As poet David White says, the antidote to burnout isn't rest, its wholeheartedness. At some point, you've got to step back

Starting point is 00:03:41 and ask yourself, why am I actually doing this? The only way out is to renegotiate your relationship with your business and success. You do that by doing two things. First, you got to go back and find the meaning in your work. Ask yourself,

Starting point is 00:03:57 why did I start this business in the first place? Who is it that I serve? I want you to actually visualize the people that you serve. They're not just customers, they're people. And ask yourself, what difference do I make in their life? What difference does my business make in their life? What part of this actually resonates with you? We'll get right back to our episode.

Starting point is 00:04:19 But first, I want to talk about company culture for a minute. A vision statement is important, but it's not a company culture. Friday pizza parties aren't either. Your company culture is what your team feels like when they work there. And there's something that I've learned. Overwhelmed leaders, create overwhelmed teams. And if you're constantly reactive, buried in your inbox, and running from meeting to meeting, that stress eventually becomes your culture.

Starting point is 00:04:44 That's why I love Belay. Belay matches you with executive assistants who can take those repetitive day-to-day tasks off your plate and help you get some margin back in your calendar. And margin matters, because when leaders finally have space to think, communicate clearly, and cast vision, healthy, cool. culture gets built on purpose, not by accident. And look, I know the people at Belay. I know Trisha, their CEO and her leadership team,

Starting point is 00:05:10 and they want to help you. And right now, Belay has a free resource for you. It's called Culture Clarity, and you can download it for free by texting Entree to 55123. That's ENTRE to 55123. Now, let's get back to our episode. I want to tell you about a friend of ours that we've worked with for a long time,

Starting point is 00:05:31 Arlen Campbell. He has a business called Steel Tech of the Ozarks. They build steel buildings. But you know what? That's not so much Arland's motivation. What really gets him out of bed in the morning is investing in his team. His business really is a ministry that develops young men into leaders. That's why he does what he does. That's the meaning for him. He wants to invest in the next generation. And Ramsey, we don't just help people with their money. We're changing family trees. The second thing is you've got to stop undervaluing what you do. If your business goes away, your community is going to lose something valuable. If you fix cars, you don't just fix cars. You help people get where they need to be. You don't just style hair. You help people

Starting point is 00:06:19 feel their best, maybe on the most important day of their life. You don't just employ people. you create stability for them in their life and for their families. Burnout isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign that something's off. If you're on the edge of burnout or you're already there, I want you to know. It's not too late. But you can't keep going the same way.

Starting point is 00:06:42 There does need to be a change. And you need to get clear on your purpose, on your why. That's going to give you the energy to not just survive, but to actually want to invest in your business and thrive. You can be tired and still be on mission, but real burnout happens when you forget why you're doing this in the first place. And you can't just push through that by working harder and hoping it fixes itself.

Starting point is 00:07:10 So pay attention to the signs, be honest about where you are, and get clear on your purpose. Because what you're doing matters. You're serving people, creating jobs, making a difference in your community. And if you're not sure where you are right now, check out our article on the 10 signs of burnout. It'll give you a clear picture of what to look for and what to do next. We'll leave a link right down here in the description. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like and subscribe for more real world leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey, and this is Andre Leadership.

EntreLeadership - The True Cause of Burnout and How to Cure It

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