Intuitive Marketing Podcast
Ditch the bro-marketing BS and embrace big sister vibes instead!
Your New Biz Besties Are Here
Welcome to the Intuitive Marketing Podcast, where we guide heart-centered entrepreneurs, changemakers, and purpose-driven business owners through the wild world of marketing with heart and soul.
We're Meg and Chelsea, your hosts and intuitive marketing experts who have teamed up to help you align your passion with profit and make a bigger impact in the world.
With solo episodes and our juicy joint chats, you'll walk away with strategies, tools, and inspiration to grow your business intuitively, attract your dream clients, and create a brand that feels authentically you.
Intuitive Marketing Podcast
#4: Balancing Business and Well-Being - Preventing Burnout As a Business Owner
Ever wonder how the relentless grind of entrepreneurship can lead to severe burnout and what you can do to prevent it? On this episode of the Intuitive Marketing Podcast, we promise to share actionable strategies to help you cultivate a more easeful and expansive CEO mindset. Chelsea recounts her battle with mold contamination in her home, which not only threatened her health but also her business. Despite the immense pressure, she found a way through and emerged stronger, emphasizing the value of self-compassion and personal transformation. Both Meg and Chelsea's stories set the foundation for understanding how to balance business demands with well-being.
We dive deep into practical tips for prioritizing self-care and managing time effectively to prevent burnout. From establishing non-negotiable routines like journaling and strength training to setting boundaries and minimizing social media consumption, we cover how these practices can foster creativity and sustain energy. Learn how automating, delegating, and systematizing tasks can optimize your business operations, allowing more time for high-energy activities. We also touch on time blocking and time auditing techniques to ensure you’re spending your time wisely and efficiently. Don’t forget to tune in for our upcoming solo episode where we’ll address common business frustrations and explore impactful small changes that can make a big difference.
Ready for Support from Meg & Chelsea?
👉🏼 Looking for the Intuitive Business Community? Visit www.joinibctoday.com for all the details. We're here to help you step into bigger visibility. Bolder opportunities and greater impact with three coaching calls a month, hands on feedback, and a powerful network of like minded women.
👉🏼 We can take a deep dive into your client journey or your visibility strategy and show you exactly what's working, what's not, and how to fix it. Ready for clarity and a plan that actually works book your audit today at www.intuitivebusinessbydesign.com/audit
👉🏼 Explore the services offered by our marketing agency Intuitive Marketing Collective and request a free Discovery Call to explore how we can support your business. Go to www.intuitivemarketingcollective.com
👉🏼 Follow the agency on Instagram to continue to conversation beyond the podcast @intuitivemarketingcollective
Want to connect more with the hosts?
Follow Meg on Instagram @megoneill10
Follow Chelsea on Instagram @intuitivebusinessmentor...
Have you ever had a season of burnout in your business?
Speaker 2:Oh, we have, and today we're going to talk about how we prevent it, moving forward with three specific actions to embody a more easeful and expansive CEO mindset.
Speaker 1:Hey there friends.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Intuitive Marketing Podcast, where we ditch the bro marketing BS and bring you big sister vibes instead. I'm Meg.
Speaker 1:And this is Chelsea, your new biz besties.
Speaker 2:We met on TikTok in 2023. Fast forward to now and we have teamed up here to guide you through the wild world of marketing your business with heart and soul.
Speaker 1:Are you feeling lost or overwhelmed, maybe unsure of your next steps, but you have a big vision of where your coaching, healing, speaking or writing career could be in the next five years, 10 years. Don't worry, we've got your back. We'll help you tap into your intuition, build a brand that lights you up and leverage proven marketing strategies to grow towards a six or even seven figure business in a way that won't make you cringe.
Speaker 2:We're actually here to help you bring the magic back into your marketing.
Speaker 1:Because marketing should feel good, not gross.
Speaker 2:Grab your favorite drink get comfy and let's get started. Okay, so we're going to kick off this episode sharing some stories. Badge of honor We've both been there. I'm going to share a little bit about burnout. That is really over the course of the past couple of years. Being able to now look back and understand and have some grace and be like oh, past Chelsea, that was so hard.
Speaker 1:You were going through so much.
Speaker 2:I was going through so much. So if you don't know much about my and I won't go into all the great details but about two and a half years ago we found out that the home we're living in had mold that was a thousand times higher than is safe to live in, and so up until then I was getting tested for every autoimmune disorder MS like. The symptoms were absolutely wild. If you ever want to chat about mold and mold symptoms. I learned way more about it than I ever needed to in a lifetime. But during that period of time, like while I was ill and then even into remediation, I was feeling like I needed to push in my business because, a we needed money, b it was just this like self-imposed pressure, like when we would see, oh my gosh, we're going to be spending like tens of thousands of dollars to remediate our house.
Speaker 2:It just felt like there was a very real need, but also layered on top like this self-imposed pressure, and at the time I have a toddler and then we both start detoxing, which detoxing yourself from something hard is like next level, but detoxing a toddler alongside you it's another kind of yeah, salute, insanity.
Speaker 2:And so there's this period of time where we actually moved out of our house to live with my parents, who thankfully have a little over the garage apartment, and so we were living with them and making a bazillion decisions at once, like we're going to pull out the popcorn ceilings, we're going to pull out the house, all of that, repaint everything inside. We had to get rid of about 90% of our possessions because they weren't safe to keep, and so we're like sending each other pictures of things we need to replace or buy. And so it was just so many decisions in life, right, and maybe you haven't gone through the specific scenario, but if you've ever been in a time where just life keeps lifing on you and there's just so much beyond your control, and so I kept through all of this, setting goals and running my business, like I remember running a mastermind actually launched my membership during this whole period of time, and I remember it was actually inspiring to some of the mastermind members. I remember Mary Beth Robinson, if you're listening to this at one point we didn't have internet because we had to do all the remediation and so I was running my mastermind calls out of the car, but it was like July in the South, and so I pulled over.
Speaker 2:It was hanging out in this little area with a gas station behind me and I remember her just being like if you can run a business that I know is at least moderately successful, like a front mirror car with a gas station behind you, that's inspiring to me, right. But at the time I was pushing myself beyond the physical capacity. Now I can look back and be like, oh my gosh. This is also the period of time where I started to realize I was neurodivergent. I went down the rabbit hole of self-diagnosis and starting to just understand I was actually in autistic burnout at the same time. And now I can just see and look back with such compassion for that period of time, because now they say that if you're in mold, that it takes about two years for your body to really detox. And I'm at the just beyond two year mark and I'm like, oh, I can feel myself, my brain is made of cylinders.
Speaker 2:I just feel so different, and so now being in a push mode feels expansive and feels really joyful and feels like, oh my gosh, this is.
Speaker 2:I get to put my energy into something I'm excited about. That's not just like scraping it from the bottom of the barrel. Yeah, I think when I'm in that kind of burnout it feels very fake. I do genuinely want to show up for my clients, but it feels fake. And if anybody has chronic health, if you're like I remember days where I would nap for three hours in order to run a call after.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They'll have that energy and that just always felt like I do what I said I'm going to do, and so I'm going to show up and hold space for this call, but it just felt very shitty, if I'm honest. But I feel like I still made impact and income during that season, but I don't want to go backwards and be showing up in business in that way, and so we're having this conversation right the way to reflect back and then also to think what do you and I do now and so from your perspective, like where is a season or a period of life running your business where you have felt burnout?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, thinking back, there's been a few different times in my life, but most recently this summer, I felt burnt out. But it was a much shorter window of time than I think I would have had in the past, because I actually noticed the signs and I honored them and made changes. Noticed the signs and I honored them and made changes. Coming into running a marketing agency along with you, I was putting expectations on myself that no one asked to be there and I was putting on this expectation of what professionalism should look like in marketing. It was a lot of this self-imposed set of beliefs that I was putting on myself. I also had already said yes to a few different projects because I felt like I had the capacity at the time, but I overextended myself and took on too many projects.
Speaker 1:I was doing volunteer things for my community. I was running an Instagram page that went absolutely viral very quickly with a ton of visibility around a very sensitive topic, and then I was also trying to manage my children in the summertime and all of those things. So I was feeling I was also trying to prioritize my health and then come to find out my cortisol was so high and looking at that and saying this is your body showing you signs of like you are in burnout. You have to slow down. In years past, I think I would have kept just ignoring those signs and saying this is our time to grow, or holding an expectation on myself because, and saying, chelsea's, I have to do this for Chelsea, like looking outside of me where now, with years of intuitive practice and I am able to tune in and say no, I can communicate this. I can say this to Chelsea.
Speaker 1:I can say this to the people in my life oh, I just got chills, yeah, and that's type A in some capacities like oldest daughter, neurodivergent like we. We are perfectionist sometimes too, and that leads to that feeling of just being completely burnt out. So I stepped away from the Instagram page and the community and it was. What was a really beautiful lesson in this season of burnout for me is that when I honor myself and I show up transparently and I tell the people that I'm partnered with. So at that time, my friend Rebecca, I let her know how I felt it was just like this beautiful transition of I get it, I see you, I see all the other things you're doing and that's great, no ill will, and the same with being able to say things to you.
Speaker 1:I can't do that during the day because the kids are here. So let's figure out. And I think because of that it's also shown me how healing like really a lot of people are scared to get into business relationships right, because they, yeah, it's. Sometimes you get to these periods of burnout and then you also see these very valuable lessons and that's what I took away from my season of burnout know when to stop and then see, look at all the lessons that you have learned and how you can implement them. Sometimes they're unavoidable and they lead us to some gold which feels good.
Speaker 2:And I think I had a long run in direct sales, so for a decade I was in direct sales. That just made me think of the story that there's this big mantra in direct sales of like short-term imbalance for long-term balance and grind your face off for a season, you'll be able to have everything everybody can't have. Be rich. Yeah, and I remember there was this man I think he was a chiropractor, talking about how he like drove across the country for one meeting and slept in his car and ate gas station hot dogs and got stood up and I remember just looking at someone who was sitting next to him being like that's not a fucking business plan, it's insanity.
Speaker 1:That's not something I'm buying into.
Speaker 2:But I think we sometimes talk about, like the bro marketing, the hustle culture. We are both moms, we are both really trying to honor self-care and we're not going to fling ourselves out into the universe to go like chase crazy leads or whatever, but also just closer on the spectrum, I think there's things that we're going to talk about that are really actionable, like now. We are recording this at almost 830 at night because we both need a lot of flexibility in our life, and it might seem out of balance to someone, but I was able to spend most of the day with my son. I would drop into a channeling class for two hours, like you were able to be in flow with your kids, and so sometimes I try to stay away from the word easy in business, because I feel like there are push seasons and if you can set them up appropriately and see them as temporary, that you can step into a push season. That's what we're calling it. Maybe it's your former working with birth worker.
Speaker 1:It's so true, we are birthing something right, and we're in that period, but just with birth too, that push that you have to do can also come with some ease. It's not easy, but this is something that's joyful for us. We like to record this podcast together. Yes, we have to do it at 8.30 at night, and so it's being able to have the discernment of are you doing this because of other people's expectations or do you know? This is actually going to move the needle in your business, and I think that's really valuable.
Speaker 2:That's a big one and we were also talking before we started recording that sometimes there's push and the opposite of push we could think of as being just complete rest. But that in business sometimes that in between push maybe meaning more visible, more magnetic, more scheduled, more things on your calendar, like whatever that would mean. Sometimes it's not the opposite being rest, sometimes it's the opposite of still working but being in the back end stuff Like the things that aren't super sexy. We're over it a little bit too, but we've had to be like setting up automations and our system and don't find it fun.
Speaker 2:But I know that between the tweaks and the changes and the like, grounded hiring the delegation. We're going to talk a little bit about this as one of the actions, but that the next push which we're stepping into, a bigger visibility, it's like this level of trust. Oh, because we've done x, y or z, now things can flow more easily do you hear?
Speaker 1:so? Yeah, and I think, as you're saying it too, it's like in the spiritual world. We hear so much about masculine and feminine energy and I think that's what we're doing. Like you, you don't want to be so far in one or the other, so there are other times where you have to. What feels like you're grinding a little bit more, but you're doing that so that then you can lean into that masculine energy the foundation, the groundedness, and that's when we find so much magnetism too.
Speaker 1:So when you have those things set up because it also is allowing your nervous system to feel safe in your business, you're creating that kind of safety by having a little bit of structure. And so we've done this long enough where we see what are the important things for that grounded energy and how, knowing and trusting that there's going to be some easeful flow on the other side of it.
Speaker 2:And so we wanted to keep this like really actionable and to talk about things. I feel like you and I we have this joyful partnership where we get to hold each other accountable to embodiment of. You said you were going to get off screen, and so we're going to talk through three kind of action points action items, ways that you could maybe reassess how you are showing up in these. So we're going to give some like really specific examples, because if you're stepping into a push season, it doesn't have to feel so heavy or so hard. So we're going to share some of the things that we're currently doing, since we are in one of these seasons.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the tools that help you stay grounded chelsea like? What are your self-care practices? What are you doing right now in this season of push that we're in?
Speaker 2:yeah, I feel like I need to double down on self-care instead of ignore it and that doesn't really mean it's gonna be like long or complicated, but really bringing intention to how I'm spending my time.
Speaker 2:Like I wake up in the morning and, yes, I will be honest, sometimes I wake up in the morning and, yes, I will be honest, sometimes I wake up and because I have a client deadline, I'll use my like 5 am to 7 am to crank out a strategy document or marketing plan, but I prefer to wake up and journal. I have a very specific journaling system that I do for myself, for manifestation, to do some strength training I know we're both some stepping into perimenopause, girly hormone health, exactly. So if I can really start my morning and if I'm like shoot, for some reason I couldn't do that when else in my day am I going to try to prioritize that? And so I would say for me, movement, journaling, meditation, breath, breath work, and then, honestly, hydration, nutrition and supplementation, like oh, what helps my body feel good, and they're all things that are super easy to forget to do that's really making sure that I'm not stepping away from those, but being more intentional about it yeah, you're a good example for me for that, because I'm still not great.
Speaker 1:I'm getting back, I'm making my walks, non-negotiable.
Speaker 2:I'm doing those.
Speaker 1:And that feels really good to me. Even that one half hour walk, I'm like this is not a choice, we're just going for it and it's letting so much creativity come through. So this is a needle mover. It's important in our business and I think one of the things that my strength is tuning into my intuition and that helps me stay really grounded, because our gut and our logical mind are the places that we make decisions from right. But I often find that my gut is always. It always leads me in the right direction. My logical mind is the one that kind of says it brings other people's expectations in. As I continue to trust that gut instinct, that really helps me stay grounded and it helps me come back to the fact that I'm going to do this differently than other people and that's okay and that will prevent me from feeling burnt out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, as you just said, that's something we didn't even talk about is when I'm in a push season, I really get more stringent on not scrolling and consuming.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I will often be like oh, they're already. It's just so easy to be like they're already doing such and such, so this marketing agency is already doing X, y and Z. Nobody needs us, and so I really try to be stringent with my boundaries on social media, and I see that as self-care as well, yeah, and I see that as self-care as well. Yeah, yeah, am I always good at it?
Speaker 1:No, but it is trying, exactly, get better and better. So the second point that we wanted to talk about is really managing our time and making sure that we set priorities for what our goals are, looking at our calendars and saying is this really reflecting our goals? Because I've gotten it and I know that we both have. We've talked about this. We've gotten into periods of we're going to all these networking calls. We have so many calls.
Speaker 2:Coffee chats.
Speaker 1:Coffee chats. Coffee chats that's a hard one for me. I am very. We have such limited time to work, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:That we have to be so tight with our time because and it's just unless it's something that is like really going to light us up feel like it can lead to burnout very quickly. So just make finding systems, Like you recently mentioned, a system of having a questionnaire before a coffee chat that really allows you to maximize it. I think that's so important and so many other women feel that way too, but we just don't know what system we can set up. So having these conversations, I think, is really important. I think so too.
Speaker 2:And I think so. There's definitely some mornings where I'm like, yes, so my son right now and he goes to afternoon half day pre-K, and so we have the mornings together, and so I am trying to be like, okay, at least two, maybe three mornings, I want nothing on my calendar before I take him so that we can go outside, go to the beach, get his energy out. But a couple mornings you know what he's watching, some Daniel Tiger and some.
Speaker 2:Brooklyn Turtle turtle and I'm like guilt-free because I, some of my clients, do need to have calls, or like our membership calls are during the morning, and like I can't upheave everything, and so I feel like I'm fairly good at compartmentalizing and saying no when it's like oh no, I'm unavailable until 1 or 1 30. But then a lot like intentionally being like okay, there's a couple things that I'm unavailable until 1 or 1.30. But then, like intentionally being like okay, there's a couple things that I'm going to allow in the mornings, but not every morning.
Speaker 1:No, and it comes back to that discernment of trusting that you know what you can handle for your family and whatnot. We both have prioritized. Like we take our kids to school, we pick our kids up like that is a non-negotiable for the most part. Our kids up like that is a non-negotiable for the most part are there times that we have a meeting and yeah, so I think it is.
Speaker 2:It's that flexibility to know to trust your gut again and when you have to say yes or no, we created these businesses for that flexibility sometimes I have to remind myself that to be like, right, what gratitude that I can do this in the morning and at night when I need to, but I don't like to. But that I think it also just comes back to what are you saying yes and no to? Every decision is an extension of how you are spending your time. There's some really great local networking events I could go to and things I could do in person, but then I just think about okay, a, I have to get dressed up. B drive across town. The drive time yeah, then come back. I live right near the beach so there's always traffic and I think in this season, saying no to that feels right. I also know that I crave some community and dropping into our intuitive business community. That's my cup of need for community and fits more of the schedule that I can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get to do it how you want to, and if that drive time is too much in this season, there's always the next season that would be coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we talk. So point number three, kind of action item. Number three is a little bit around mindset but it is also very action oriented. So getting into, you hear people say, be in the CEO mindset or be in the driver's seat of your business, and so what does that mean to you? We're going to give some specific examples. But when we say getting into the CEO seat of your business, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 1:To me, specifically, it's like figuring out what you can delegate, automate, what you don't have to micromanage. Don't have to micromanage Like. You have to really trust your team, who, the people that you bring in to your world and your business, and let them do their job so that, because you are at me, especially as a manifester in human design, like I need to move on my urges and if I'm doing things that don't light me up, then I'm not going to grow a business like I'm not in a CEO visionary seat. So that's where I have seen a big difference of like, where I then become more magnetic as a CEO?
Speaker 2:yep, I think for me. I like efficiency and I I know that everything in your business you could automate, delegate or systematize, and I think, there's some point of, like you said, discernment assessing.
Speaker 2:For me, I don't want to be when I see someone, let's say, sign up into the membership or hire us for a marketing plan. I don't like the energy of being like, oh shit, are they going to get their welcome email, or do I have to manually do something? I do not like the energy of being like, oh shit, are they going to get their?
Speaker 1:welcome email or do I have to?
Speaker 2:manually do something. Yes, I do not like that energy. It makes me dread having sales because I don't want to experience so automating, systematizing those things like they don't could automate or delegate. I still keep on my plate because it feels like the essence of me is important and I don't I think there's some there. You can get into kind of ego of like nobody could do it as good as me, and but you have to know the one, the things that you really like.
Speaker 1:I recently heard somebody's talking about how they delegated their Instagram inbox to a VA and that works for her. That, to me, is like a huge no.
Speaker 1:Like I could never do that because to me, my community and the human relationship is so important, it has to be me responding to them. But other people feel that, maybe about their email, maybe they have to be the ones. So again, it's making that decision of like where is the essence of my business, like the things that light me up, because when you're doing that, it's just that's when you are just going to get your best ideas and you're going to continue to be magnetic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know I've been in a group now for you know, coming up on a year and like a little mastermind group, and on the onboarding there was an encouragement for us to audit our time and Nerd Virgin Chelsea was like I resist that, I'm rebelling, I don't want to do it. But so I didn't micro, I didn't keep the spreadsheet of every five minutes that she wanted us to, because it was like it made me feel like I was back in lawyer days tracking every yeah minutes oh I gotta go poop, I gotta clock out.
Speaker 2:But I did bring more intention, and I brought a intention to paying attention to what I was, the types of activities I was doing, and being like, oh my gosh, it just took me 35 minutes to do something that a VA really could have done. Or I've done the same activity five times this week. Could I set up a Zapier's app to do the same thing? That's where I like to audit and see, because then if I can take the time to do some of that back end or train someone and then not have to do it again, okay, now I've bought myself some time to be more in creative, or like. This morning I woke up early and recorded a podcast for my other podcast. I was just like I want to record this.
Speaker 2:And I have this great generator energy around this and was able to do it. And if I had to wake up and micromanage every little invoice going out in the agency, I wouldn't be able to do that?
Speaker 1:No, I wouldn't feel good. I'm working on a time blocking schedule for myself oh fun, and I think that's going to make a big difference in my in managing my energy throughout the day, because it's very hard to switch from content creation to call to. So I want to really block things out and maybe we'll share more about that if I actually get it done while speaking in some future episodes how I'm doing. Yeah, so we have a homework assignment for you for hopefully that you can do this. Let us know on Instagram at Intuitive Marketing Collective.
Speaker 1:We want you to look at your business and audit what. Are you in a season of push right now? Are you selling a mastermind? Maybe? Are you having to be really visible, or are you trying to set up the back end? Are you or are you trying to do it all at one time? Right, because when we do, that's when we really lead to burnout. So, taking a look at what, where your energy is going right now and I think it also allows you to give yourself a little bit of grace to to say, wow, I'm doing a activities, like I know some of my clients will be like, oh man, looking back, I actually had in the intuitive business community recently.
Speaker 2:The beginning kickoff of our group coaching was I want you to list everything that you would celebrate if it was someone else's business that you've done.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:I launched a website and I launched a new e-guide and I had three new clients come in and they were like really in deep celebration. I was like, okay, now remember, this is your business. And you've done this, and sometimes when you're in the oh, I burst a website.
Speaker 1:Even if you hire us to do that, it's still a lot of energy and copy reviewing and like activity and if you're also like, oh, but it's been a slow sales month while I do that, okay, having some perspective and then being able to honor that, so that you don't get into that graspy energy of I need, I need to bring the next dollar in that again where we see you feel burnt out after that because you're just saying, chasing that yeah, and not very strategically and I'm gonna be tackling, so I get to do a solo episode next episode.
Speaker 2:Oh, anybody listening in? You're going to miss Meg, but you're going to get sassy Chelsea. And I'm going to be tackling a problem that I see over and over, and it's literally people wanting to burn their business down or thinking they have it all wrong, when, honestly, there's usually a very nuanced change that can literally make all the difference.
Speaker 2:So we're going to talk about whether you have how to assess right, if you have an offer problem, a traffic problem or a messaging problem I don't even really like to call them problems, because it's really just what can we hone? That's going to make a big difference and how, once you identify which area you have a problem with, can you solve it as quickly as possible. So we're going to be tackling that in the next episode.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I cannot wait to listen to that one.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope everybody who's been listening can implement something, take away some of the homework and, honestly, if you just need to vent a little bit about being in burnout, feel free to get us over on Instagram at Intuitive Marketing Collective. We can probably vent, commissary, and then maybe send a little cheer up high five.
Speaker 1:Cheer you on. Yeah, exactly, we will see you next time.