Life Has Been Life-ing Lately

This week’s episode is a little more personal and a lot less polished.

After a difficult couple of weeks filled with bad news, sickness, burnout, and trying to balance life behind the scenes, I wanted to sit down and have a real conversation about what people don’t see behind running a character entertainment company.

In this episode, I’m talking about:
 ✨ burnout in creative industries
 ✨ the pressure of always being “on”
 ✨ balancing personal struggles while running a business
 ✨ showing up imperfectly instead of disappearing completely
 ✨ protecting your peace and creativity
 ✨ why I still continue creating magic after decades 

Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is simply keep showing up.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, or burnt out lately… this episode is for you. 💛

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome back to the Party Princess Podcast. If you can already tell by the title of this episode, this one's going to be a little more casual and a little more personal. Honestly, life has just been lifing lately. And I almost didn't film an episode this week either. The past couple of weeks have really been heavy for me personally and professionally. I got some really bad news recently, then this week I ended up getting sick on top of everything else. And I feel like I've just been running on fumes a little bit. But I also know that sometimes these are the episodes people connect with the most because, well, it's real. So today is less of a teaching episode and more of a sit down and chat with me episode. I think one thing people don't always realize about running a business, especially a business like this, is that the magic doesn't stop just because life gets hard. Kids, they're still having birthdays, events are still happening, emails are still coming in, social media still needs posting, contracts still need to be sent out, and performers still need direction. And somehow you still have to show up smiling while trying to hold everything together behind the scenes. And don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I I truly do. I mean, so many years later, and I'm still here talking about princess parties and wigs and events and chaos and glitter. So clearly there's something about this industry that has my heart. But I think people sometimes assume that because our jobs look fun online, that it means they aren't exhausting. And whoo, they absolutely can be. I think burnout in creative industries is so weird because it doesn't always look dramatic at first. Sometimes it just looks like not feeling inspired, or here's a good one, avoiding emails or not wanting to make content, staring at your phone, trying to think of captions, or feeling emotionally tired all of the time. And then you start feeling guilty because technically you're doing something you love, but loving something doesn't mean it can't also overwhelm you sometimes. And I think another thing that's hard when you own something is that you don't really get to fully clock out. Even on vacation, I'm still thinking about future events, costumes, social media ideas, team issues, bookings, pricing, summer camps, podcast episodes, you name it. My brain literally never shuts off. And when hard personal things happen on top of business stress, it can make you feel like your brain is carrying way too much weight at one time. But I will say this: one thing I've learned over the years is that consistency matters more than perfection. And honestly, this episode is proof of that. Because the old version of me probably would have skipped this week completely because I didn't have the perfect topic or the energy to make some huge educational episode. But sometimes showing up imperfectly is better than disappearing completely. And honestly, I think a lot of business owners need to hear that. You do not have to be at 100% all of the time to still move forward. I also think social media has made all of us feel like we constantly have to be on, especially in entertainment. People are used to seeing the highlight reel, the perfect costumes, the happy birthday parties, the smiling selfies, and the successful events. But behind every business page is an actual human being trying to survive life just like everybody else. And sometimes that human is stressed or grieving, maybe exhausted or sick, or just simply discouraged. And that doesn't make them weak or unsuccessful, that makes them human. One thing I've really been trying to focus on lately is protecting my peace more, protecting my energy, protecting my creativity, protecting my joy. Because if you lose your joy in a creative industry, everything starts to feel heavy. And I never want to lose the part of me that truly loves creating magic for people. I never want this to become something that drains me more than it fulfills me. And honestly, even after hard weeks, I'll still have moments that remind me why I do this. A little kid hugging a princess, a parent crying because their child had the best birthday ever, a performer telling me they finally feel confident, or watching events come together after months of planning. These moments still matter to me. They still make the hard days worth pushing through sometimes. So if you're listening to this episode and you've also been feeling burnout or emotionally exhausted lately, I just want you to know that you're not alone in that. Maybe this week your best looks different than it normally does, and that's okay. Sometimes surviving the week is the accomplishment. Thank y'all for listening to this very random little life update episode. Honestly, I think I needed this conversation probably as much as y'all did. And hopefully next week I'll be back with a more structured episode and a fully functioning brain. But for now, this is what y'all get. Thank you guys for always supporting the podcast, supporting the party palettes, supporting my crazy ideas, and just sticking around through all the seasons of life. I appreciate y'all more than you know. I'll talk to you next week. Bye guys.