Burnout may be common for freelancers and small business owners, but you don't have to live with it. If you've listened to TWC episodes before, you know that Wudan and Jenni believe that time off, and the introspection required to combat burnout-related patterns, are key to running a sustainable business. And that's what Jenni is chatting about on this episode Katie Navarra, a freelance writer from Upstate NY. Katie started her career exclusively as an equine journalist and expanded into agriculture, education and leadership. Today she is transitioning to content marketing and life coaching.
During this coaching session, it became pretty obvious that Katie was feeling apathetic about her work. She’s found great success in equine journalism but now she’s excited about something else. We loved two things about this conversation: First, Katie was able to identify the opposite of burnout for her -- which was the feeling of being in the ring with her horse. It was a feeling of freedom, and we talked about how to harness that (no pun intended) in future months.
Second, we love that Katie and Jenni landed on time off as a good solution. Let's be clear: time off isn’t the only way to cure burnout, nor is it possible for everyone. Usually, burnout is indicative of a systemic issue (sometimes within your control, and sometimes due to factors outside of your control). So even if you take time off, you’ll come back into a situation that will cause that exact same problem all over again. BUT, Katie wanted to take time off -- like, two whole months off! -- to rehash her business plan and figure out what she wants next. Her goal is to come back to an entirely different situation, and she needs time away to figure out how to get herself into what is essentially an entirely new career.
When Katie and Jenni caught up a few weeks ago (we recorded this episode at the beginning of the summer of 2021), Katie shared that she’s designated not two, but three whole months off this winter. Who says freelancers can’t step away from their work? With strategic planning, anything is possible.
You can download resources for this episode in our banish burnout booster pack which contains journal prompts, a worksheet on signals of burnout, an ideal client mad libs page, and a business audit.
