Overwhelmed in Business? Why Faithful Women Burn Out Trying to Do Everything

If your business feels harder than it needs to be, this episode is for you.

In Episode 3 of the Grit + Grace Podcast, Daphne Boyd breaks down why so many women feel overwhelmed in business — not because they’re incapable, but because they’re trying to build everything at once. From juggling multiple platforms to creating too many offers, many women mistake complexity for maturity.

In this practical, faith-grounded episode, Daphne shares what actually matters: one clear offer, one primary platform, one simple system, and consistent stewardship over hustle. She explains why social media is often the cherry on top — not the foundation — and how building with order creates peace in both business and home.

If you’re ready to simplify your business and focus on what truly moves the needle, this episode will give you clarity and direction.

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Transcript

Welcome

0:01

Welcome to the Grit and Grace podcast. Where faith, family, and real life leadership meet. I'm your host, Daphne Boyd. Let's dive in. I wanna talk to the woman who's building a business that she feels called to, but feels overwhelmed because she's trying to do everything at once. Today, we're gonna simplify what actually matters so you can build with clarity instead of chaos. If your business feels harder than it needs to be. This episode is for you. I wanna talk to you about why doing everything isn't the answer and what women should actually focus on instead. So there's no shortage of advice when it comes to building a business online. Especially if you are a woman, there are a ton of influencers and creators who are trying to get your attention to buy their book, buy their course, join their membership or their program and they can help you solve all of your problems, right? Or so that's the thought. And so most women aren't failing in their business. They are simply overwhelmed. Overwhelmed at the amount of information and opportunities that are out there, and they don't know which direction to go in. Should I focus on social media? Should I start my own podcast? Do I write a book? Um, what about YouTube? Should I just focus on reels or, maybe I'll just email my list or start a blog or, sell a product. And I've always wanted to create digital products, so maybe I should do that too. So it's, there's just an overwhelming amount of opportunities in this day and age to create a business online about something that you're passionate about. So this episode is definitely not about touching on each one of those opportunities. It's about actually simplifying your business and not striving and working so hard. So this isn't about doing more, it's actually about doing less on purpose. I see women spending time on things that actually don't move the needle when I see them posting on social media, and I know that seems counterintuitive to say, especially because we live in a world that is ruled by the media, right. Especially social media. You're talking Facebook. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest X, you have threads now. And there are a variety of podcast platforms and blogging platforms and we have groups and Skool apps and Voxer and all these types of things. We say where, where do we spend our time? And so that's where I see a lot of business women spending time that doesn't actually move the needle in their business because they're posting out into the void. A lot of the people that you are connected with on social media are personal friends and family. Now, there are some of you who have done a really great job of networking with other, women in business or like-minded women or building a community of people who you can reach with your products or your services, but that doesn't go for everyone. And I also want to say that it's not that social media doesn't do anything, it's that I see a lot of women making that the standard when social media, I see it more like the cherry on top. So let me explain. If you have a coaching business, or say you have a book that you've written that you wanna sell, so one is a service, one is a product. How you get that across to an audience of strangers depends on a variety of things, right? It has to do with your influence, it has to do with your reach, it has to do with your, connections and your network. Are you the. You know, pastor's wife of a very large church, then you might have a little bit different influence when you release a book than someone who sits at the very back of the pew and comes once a week. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not making the comparison of one is more important than the other. I'm saying how you start off is going to look a little bit different depending on where you're starting from and who you're connected with, and it absolutely has to do with who you're connected with. I run a few Facebook groups that are business, oriented and I see women all of the time who create, say, a service or a product. And they don't want any interaction from real people, but they would love for everybody to see their posts on social media, click the link and make all of these sales. Right. And in reality that just doesn't happen. And that's where I see women spending time on things that don't actually move the needle you posting in these various groups, or even on your personal accounts and hoping and you know, crossing your fingers that somebody is going to just make random purchases and you're going to be, you know, a six figure earner overnight because you know your product or your service is that amazing. It very rarely happens, and I think in reality there's a lot of real women in business who don't actually believe that, but they work and they operate as if they actually do believe that. And so what, i'm gonna talk about today is some of the things that you need to actually do to be successful in business, and some of that is very foundational. And so it doesn't necessarily have to do with always being on social media. So if you stripped your business down to the basics, what would actually matter first, right? And. It seems simple enough, but there are a ton of women who want to create an income from home or who have business ideas or who, who are 2, 3, 4 years in their business, and they don't know the answer to this question. So if you stripped your business down, what would actually matter first? The thing that matters first is your core offer and or product. So if you create products, then what is the core product, right? If you have an Etsy shop or a Shopify store, or you know, any of those types of things, you have a, you bake home baked goods. What is the actual product or service that you're selling? If you are a coach or, a marketing, agency or a marketer or some variation of a digital marketer. There's so many out there. What is your core offer? What do you help people do? And you're like, well, I can help people do everything right. This was my mistake when I first started in business and when I started my agency, in 2016, is I felt like I could help every business owner with every single digital marketing, problem. Right? Like, I could build your website, I could do the SEO, I could do the lead generation and it, that would've been one thing if I would've focused on a specific type of business owner. But I was like, I could do this for everybody. We can do boutiques and restaurants and blue collar service workers, and you know, on and on and on. The problem is we need to strip it down to what actually matters, and that is one core offer, one core product. And I'm not saying you can't have any more than that. I'm just saying that's what it comes down to. The basics is selling the one thing, being successful at the one thing. Because here's where I see burnout, is when you have four or five offers. Or four or five services, or four or five products, and none of them are moving the needle. None of them are really selling. You've got customers that'll buy one thing, off the wall here, there, and the other, and then there's no real consistency. There's no real growth. And then you always feel like you need to be creating something new, something different, a different offer. I need to create a different digital product. I need to create a different t-shirt design. I need to create a different scent of this soap, right? And so you always feel like you have to be creating and in creative mode when that's not the actual problem at all. It's not that women are not creative, it's that the fact that we're not focused enough. And so the one thing, if you take anything from this, try to nail down what that one core offer is. And if you're like me and you have a, you have an agency or you have a multiple skillset, package that into one core offer and sell just that. I'm not saying you can only do one thing, I'm just saying package what you have into one core package or offer. So there's that. The second thing is, why trying to be on every platform is such a mistake, especially early on. So I'm gonna break this down and I'm not, again, I'm not against social media. I absolutely use it and I personally am on as many platforms as I can possibly be on. The problem that I see early on, especially with businesses that are just starting out, is that they try to be on every single one and every single platform moves and operates and optimizes a little bit differently. There's a different algorithm for each one. So if you are on Facebook and you are comfortable on Facebook, stay on Facebook for a while. And I'm not saying don't make an Instagram account or don't try to learn TikTok. I'm saying stay on that one platform for a while. Learn your audience. Learn your people. Find your people, attract your people, sell to your people, and then branch out, right? And you say, well, I'm not have any luck there. And I'm not against you trying a different platform. You know, right now, actually TikTok is doing better than all the other platforms because their algorithm works a little bit differently. I have been on Facebook personally for, oh, I don't know, since 2009. So however long that is, really long time. And I have a ton of followers, but my views, my algorithm, my reach is very low, and it's just based on. The pay to play system that meta uses now versus what they were using when they first got started. Used to could post something and get a ton of views and now that's really not the case. And so when something like TikTok has come along and you have all of this reach potential, right? You can post a video and 700 complete strangers can view that one video. That is a lot better reach than what we currently have on Facebook, but also how the platforms work differently. Right? Same thing with Instagram, Facebook rewards content. It can be in the written form, which is historically what they've always had and they are favoring videos and, photos now because that's what people are into, but it's because the other platforms have come along that Facebook has changed that. Whereas TikTok and Instagram are primarily visual platforms. So the mistake of trying to be on every platform all at the same time early on is that you have to create different pieces of content in different ways to say the same thing. On all of the different platforms to be optimized, right? I can't create written content on TikTok, and if that's my vein, that's where I've always thrived, then I'm gonna feel like a loser on TikTok. I'm gonna feel like a loser on Instagram, right? But if you take beautiful photos of your products, then. You know, Instagram's your place and you feel like you can't compete with the dancing and the jokes on TikTok. So. I'm not gonna go into a long tirade of how the different algorithms work and how the different platforms function, but I do wanna say, focus on the one that you're good at. Find the one that you feel like you have the best potential and outreach and that you're comfortable using in whatever content capacity that is, whether it's video or shorts and reels, or, you know. Photos, still photos or just written content, right? Engagement and all of that, that that tends to work well on X as well. But find the one. Make the one work. Sell your one core offer on the one, attract your people there, and then you can grow into these other platforms and start to develop. But when you try to do them all, when you're trying to be on LinkedIn. And you're trying to be on TikTok and you're trying to be on Instagram and X and Threads and Facebook and Pinterest and YouTube. Every single one of those requires a different type of content. And this is what happens with most business owners that I, coach and meet with, is that they just are worn out. They're exhausted. They have burnt out, and they like, you know what? I tried everything. I've tried all of those things, and I'm not winning anywhere. So this is why I created this podcast is so that we can actually simplify all of this and make sense out of it. One clear offer. Is more powerful than several half-built ones. So going back to that is having the one clear offer, the one core package, the one thing that you're focused on in this season. I'm not saying that's the only thing that you can build or the only thing that you can offer. I'm just saying having one clear offer is more powerful than having several half-built ones. That's because you can move on that one. There are some women that I coach that have a lot of ideas. They are very creative and they're like, I wanna do this, I wanna do this, I wanna do this. But then they never really follow through with any one of those. So if you are one of those types of people that has a ton of ideas, a ton of offers, a ton of things that you wanna make work, choose one that feels the best to you, and you will know that feeling. You'll feel like this is it like. I have these other 10 things that I really, really wanna do and I really, really wanna offer, but this one feels more like me. Go with that. Go with your gut on that stuff. Systems and structure are actually gonna create more freedom for you and not less. And now on previous podcasts, I've talked about systems and structure and how sometimes that just doesn't work because we put this undue pressure on ourselves, and that is true, especially when it comes to time management and everything. And I am not a time management coach, but I am a systems coach, right? I definitely believe in systems and structure, especially with tech and automation, and so I love implementing automation for my clients. Something as simple as having a CRM that you can build a simple landing page on for your one core offer. And that landing page triggers an email sequence that we've put together. It could be five emails or 10 emails or dripped out over time. Depends on what the offer is, right? And all of that happens. We do it, we set it up once and it happens automatically, and we're hands off. And so those emails have links in them. To go to the website or to purchase the offer or to book a call or whatever it is that you're selling, and then you're kind of hands off at that point. So you're then your only job. Is to get more people into that funnel. And that is the really the core of what a funnel is, is having a large amount of people come in, that's the top of funnel. And having them sort of filter through, they either sign up, read, the emails, go down. So the, the more things they do with you along the way, the smaller that funnel gets. You could have a hundred people come in and maybe, 30 of them, which is actually statistically true, about 30% will sign up. So they might sign up for your email list or for your lead magnet, and then out of those, 30% of those people are actually going to read your email. And out of those, maybe 10% are the ones that actually take action. So you can see it's, it's actually a numbers game and how you get those numbers is not through posting like a crazy person on social media. How you get those numbers is consistency. So that will do more for your business over time than these short bursts of inspiration and intensity ever will. So how can women tell the difference between obedience and anxiety driven busyness? And this is a good one because I have fallen probably between both ends of the spectrum. I have fallen in between being, feeling like I heard something from God for me, and a direction to go in. And I'm like, yes, Lord. Okay, I'm gonna do this right. And then it gets hard. And six months down the road, I'm just a busy, crazy lady. Okay, I'm miserable, I'm frazzled, I'm stressed out. My kids are stressed out, my husband is stressed out, and I have created because women have this power to create and we create these environments for ourselves and for our families, and you know, like the saying goes, when mom is not happy, nobody's happy. It really is that women really are the thermostat in their home. And so, this is especially true when you are a woman in business, whether you still have children that you're raising at home or you are an empty nester, you are still the thermostat in your home. And you know that women are very, very powerful. We are very, very creative and we have the power to affect and influence our environment. And so when we sway between this obedience to God or this obedience to a calling or this obedience to this passion and desire that God has placed in our heart and we allow our own flesh to swing us the other way, to where we're this anxiety driven, busy, crazy lady, right? How can we tell the difference between the two? Like, I feel like God caught me to do this, but in order to be successful doing this, I have to do all the things right? And so the biggest takeaway for that, and i'm not telling you as someone who has all of the answers and I have figured out the secret to life, what I am saying is to follow peace. And that's what the Bible says, follow peace. And it's not that, did I hear the Lord wrong? Am I going down the wrong path? Oh, because this feels hard. It must be wrong. None of those things are true. God can have a calling on your life, you can be gifted, God can grant you some opportunities and you can also be stressed out. You can also feel the pressure to perform or to deliver, right? Both of those things can be true at the same time. The difference is we don't want to live in anxiety and stress. We want to live in not just obedience to God, but. In grace and in anointing, and I believe that grace and anointing follow peace and the Bible says to follow peace and it would lead us. So that's been my guide is when I start to feel like something is stressful. It could be a season where I just need to finish a project. And get it off my back, and that's totally valid. And there's other times where it feels like the work is never ending, or I feel like I'm constantly in a striving mode. That's when I know I'm not following peace. I'm not. I'm kind of all over the place. I've lost some direction somewhere. Something that many women need to stop doing in their business right now is trying to do everything. And I know you say, well, that's easy for you to say. You're sitting on the other end. The problem is, I've been on your end. I've been on that other end, and sometimes I still feel that way. I still feel like I'm busy trying to do everything. So what we need to stop doing, and I say we is trying to do everything all at once. Okay? If you can get somebody to come in and help with your business. That's amazing. But a lot of us can't afford to pay that. So we're just, you know, hustling and we talked about hustle culture, but we legit women know how to hustle. We are amazing at multitasking. We are amazing at having the laundry going and something in the crockpot, and also being behind our computer and having notebooks on our next blog post, but also having a tab open with our Instagram or our Facebook so that we can respond to whoever's commenting on our last post. But then also have our website open and looking at everything that needs to be done or changed on that site. Because we just always feel less than. That's what I'm talking about, that right there. And it's easy to fall into that trap, believe me. Women are so good at multitasking that we have a thousand tabs open at all times, and that's just our nature. Even if you're not a Martha type of person, women still, are the people that have a thousand tabs open in our brain all the time. Our brain runs a thousand miles a minute, right? So what we need to stop doing in our business right now is trying to do everything. What we should commit to doing is the one thing the one offer, the one product, the one thing, we should commit to doing that well, instead of doing more. What would change if you gave yourself permission to focus instead of feeling like you had to prove yourself all the time? What would change in your business if you felt like you had permission to focus on what was important? Instead of trying to prove your worth, your value, your importance, your validity, what would happen? What does peace look like in your business when it's built out of order in instead of chaos? What would happen if that peace came from God instead of your striving? What I want you to know before you go back to work today, whether you are working on your business or working in your business or working at home, or raising your children right now and thinking about a business, what I want you to know is that God's got you. It's okay. To be in the midst of all of this and it feel messy. Complexity though is not maturity. So I want you to have one clear offer. Use one primary platform. Have one simple system like we talked about with the automation. Have a landing page and an email sequence to your one offer. That's really it. That's what you need. All of the other stuff is extra. I want you to have stewardship over your business and over your life versus hustle. I want you to simplify, and I want you to recognize that there are seasons of sowing and seasons of harvest, and sometimes you need to understand the season you're in. If you are starting out or you have changed direction or you are launching something new. You are in a season of sowing, so don't compare that to somebody else's season of harvest. You're not behind. You don't need to do everything. Focus is not failure and simplicity is strength. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Thanks for spending this time with me on the Grit and Grace Podcast. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the show and share it with another woman who needs it. You can find resources, episodes, and lots more, and Daphne Boyd.com. Until next time, walk with grit and grace.