How to avoid burnout as a business owner with a personal brand

 When "You" are the business, showing up and putting yourself out there as visible can be energy-intensive.

In this article I share how I keep fresh and energised and avoid burnout and let you in on my three go-to "circuit-breaker" strategies.

Because I'm sensing that's what a lot of people could do with hearing about right now. 

Every I look people are feeling overloaded. 

So much on, at every turn.

I get it. 

I had a "busier than usual" week with the release of an exciting new workshop around the "new marketing realm" we are now in, for global brands who need to reinvent the way they attract and connect with their audiences. 

It which was a labour of love to prepare for, and energising to deliver - because I just LOVE this content, around how the world is changing and how businesses need to adapt to be heard.

Basically in a nutshell, you can't do things the old way as people are tuning out in droves. 

And that's the same whether it's a global brand, a small business, or a personal brand.  

And it's not about you, or that you've done something wrong, or missed a silver bullet strategy others have and you don't.

Nope - it's about your audience, and how THEY are changing.

Becuase people generally have changed a lot post-Covid. 

Yesterday I did a deep dive into 7 massive shifts impacting people and businesses globally right now - and I showed a showed young and progressive marketing team how to take these and use them adapt to the changing landscape, and boost engagement amongst their 20 million members in 170 countries.

Stepping them through where to focus to get maximum leverage from the big trends and opportunities right now.

(And create a ton of positive social impact while they do it!! Win/Win)





Seeing them internalise these shifts and apply to their brand right away and identify their action plan lit me up to no end.

Because these are the times we need to think differently.

Through a new lens.

Because the stakes are higher than we may realise. 

As I was preparing for this workshop I came across a statistic that absolutely floored me.

Made me very emotional, actually. 

The headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey found more than half of young people (57%) believe their mental health is getting worse, with 42% citing social media as the main reason for the decline.

Wow. Talk about a punch in the gut.

I already knew what's going on is huge, and a massive global mental health challenge -  but these recently released numbers are just extraordinary.

In the worst possible way.

At the workshop I ran, with 15 Millenial and GenZ marketers in the room, I asked the question.....How many of you are thinking of opting-out of social media altogether?

More than half of them raised their hand.

I explained that how they are feeling, is how their audience is feeling too.

And so as a society we need to look at how we do things differently. 

This is a key part of the message I share. 

Marketing in a more Human Way.

Being more empathetic, conscious of how people feel, and intentional with the energy we transmit through our marketing messaging.

But there's another part of that message about doing marketing in a more "human" way -

And that's about the people "doing the marketing" being more human to ourselves too.

I spend a bit of time on social media out of necessity and most of the time I do it because I enjoy it.

But I'm not chained to it. 

And even though it's a core focus of my business activity (by no means the majority of it), I actively build in other ways to connect with people that are more sustainable and less social-media dependent. 

And I would urge you to do so too. 

(and that whole area is another topic for another time, and I will come back to it) 

But I also know there's a time and place to switch off completely and I routinely do that too. 

So today when I was thinking about what I could share that would be helpful to you - I thought I'd share what I do when I want to recalibrate quickly. 

To "recalibrate" means to make small tweaks or adjustments, usually to optimise the performance of something. 

I'm constantly looking for slight tweaks and ways to optimise my ability to function as a human.

That's how I've got to where I am today where I absolutely love the structure of my 15-20 hour work week, and how I can run a business and still be a full-time parent. 

I could talk about this all day, how I structure my week, my work iife, my family life, to accommodate the multitude of moving parts which comes with being a parent to five kids. 

With a growing business of clients and brands around the world that I absolutely love.

I"ve written about some of those things previously in my blogs and emails.

But even though by and large I have a really good system that works, I also give myself grace during seasons where I may need to go a bit harder, knowing I have the guardrails in place around my weekly cadence, that I can "fall back into" at anytime. 

This week was one of those. 

I brought it all.

And now I'm aware the tank is empty and I need to refill.

But switching off is easy to say, harder to do.

Maybe you can relate?

So to make it easy, I "habitualise" what switching off looks like for me. 

In my case I have three simple "go to strategies" that I don't have to think about - I just "do".

And the super good news is each of these takes less than a minute to do.

1.  I put on my email auto-responder. 
It saves me feeling like I "need" to keep across the inbox or that I might miss something important or that people are waiting for a reply, especially when I choose to take a break from Friday to Monday. It sets the expectations. It's so liberating!  

2. I delete social media apps from my phone.
If I really want to check something I can download the app and reinstall it, but it would have to be something pretty compelling and it stops the auto-scrolling and habitual tapping. I do this most weeks for a couple of days. And always feel recharged afterwards.

3. I put a simple sign on my office door
This is an "in your face" reminder to me if I feel tempted to open the door and come in to check something or do a quick task. Nothing fancy, just a clear message to myself.
(and yes, my kids make fun of me sometimes......."mum, are you enjoying your exploring" haha" )

Together these three very simple things make a huge difference and act as a circuit-breaker when I sense I may be getting close to overdoing it. 

Overall I'm feeling the need to slow things down in September, as it just feels like there's been a lot going on lately.

I'm wondering if you feel that way too?

I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Christian is a Marketing Futurist & Global Marketing Mentor who helps people do their marketing in a more human way. 

She is a Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM), Life Member and Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute & AMI State Chair (Vic) and for 20 years was director of Braveda (Winner, Best Marketing Agency, Australian Marketing Excellence Awards).

Several years ago Nina saw the world of marketing shifting – this time as people became their own brands.  With this, she created a new business as a thought leader, combining her expertise in brand building with personal positioning, resulting in a breakthrough praxis known as Marketing Me™.

She has a knack for simplifying the complex which comes from being a hands-on mum to five children, and uses this to turn time-sucking activities into easy-to-follow systems and processes that make a lot of sense and get outcomes fast.

There are different ways to work with Nina based on your situation and organisation size - with all of them you'll see rapid transformation and tangible outcomes fast. Book a chat with Nina here.