117 - 7 Ways to Prevent Burnout to Scale Your Business Quickly

Feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or like your business is running you instead of the other way around? This episode is your reset button. If you’ve been stuck in hustle mode, trying to do everything yourself, or wondering if burnout is just “part of it,” it’s time to pause and realign.

Because building a business shouldn’t cost you your peace. It should support your life, not consume it.

Inside this episode, I’ll walk you through the seven key shifts that helped me and my clients move out of burnout and into sustainable growth rooted in alignment, clarity, and flow. We’re not just talking self-care here…we’re talking systems, energy management, and building a business that works with your nervous system, not against it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why being busy is not the same as being productive (and how to spot the difference)
  
  
• The simple organization system I use to reclaim energy and create space for manifestation
  
  
• How to know if you're stuck in motion instead of true momentum
  
  
• Why consuming less content can help you grow faster
  
  
• What it means to build a business that matches your energy, not your ego
  
  
• The truth about your business not being your whole life
  
  
• How to release tasks, offers, or platforms that no longer serve you
  
  
  

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Manifest Momentum Tracker – My 5-minute daily ritual to stay grounded, aligned, and growing with ease
• Manifest SHE Magazine – Free monthly resource to help you manifest success and stay organized
• Magic Marketing Machine – The only strategy system I use to grow online without burnout

This episode will meet you wherever you are and remind you that you don’t have to sacrifice your wellbeing to build something powerful. Let’s shift out of burnout and into a business that actually supports your life.

Chapters

• 0:42 Introducing Solopreneur Burnout
• 3:09 Busy Is Not Productive
• 5:07 Your Energy Deserves Systems
• 7:25 Motion vs. Momentum
• 9:13 Create More Than You Consume
• 11:33 Build For Your Energy, Not Ego
• 14:26 Your Business Isn't Your Entire Life
• 16:03 Cut What Doesn't Convert or Light You Up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:21

Welcome back to the Live Life Unapologetically podcast. I am Shannon Kay and today we're going to talk about something that's probably really going to hit hard for some solopreneurs and it's probably something that you don't want to admit about the business you started because of the passion you have for your business. But the thing that we're going to look at is burnout, and I'm not talking about just feeling tired or maybe needing a day off. I'm talking about that full-on, nothing left in the tank. Why am I even doing this burnout? And I'm not going to sit here and hand you a checklist of self-care ideas, because, as a woman running a business, burnout isn't just a personal issue, it is a growth issue and, honestly, when we talk about self-care, that is why, when I'm working with women, we work on the lifestyle first and then we put the business into it, because self-care, in my opinion, in my beliefs, is not something that goes on the back burner, that you find time for. But what if you've gotten to a place in your business where you are in burnout and you really just don't know what to do or where? To a place in your business where you are in burnout and you really just don't know what to do or where to go. You know, you started this thing because you love it, but you're just thinking why am I even doing this? And that's because you're not just the CEO, you're the sales team, the marketing department, your customer service, you're the visionary, the strategist, you're the creative director. And so when burnout does start to creep in, because of everything that you're holding in your business, your growth slows, it could stall. And even if it keeps going a little bit because I do talk about this you can hustle, but eventually you're going to crash. So even if you're hustling to the point where you're making gains, crash is inevitable because your ideas start to get foggy, your momentum fades and your ability to sell and show up and lead is going to disappear. According to the APA, burnout leads to lower productivity, detachment and physical and emotional exhaustion For business owners. That doesn't just cost you time, it costs you your growth. So you've been trying to scale your business, but you're constantly overwhelmed, you're scattered or you're just freaking over it. And this episode is going to be your reset, to reset to a baseline where you can then move forward and your business isn't consuming your life, it is supporting your life.

Speaker 1: 2:48

The first thing I want to talk about is the fact that busy is not productive. Busy is not productive. Busy is not productive. I can't say that enough. Busy is just freaking loud.

Speaker 1: 2:57

If you're from my generation especially, and probably the generation before that, you glamorize being busy because we've been taught that, because the calendar is packed, it means we're making progress, it means we're important, it means we're successful. But busy doesn't always equal money and busy doesn't always equal success. Busy can just be noisy, like I said before, just loud. Burnout starts when you're constantly doing without ever checking if those actions actually matter. So instead of asking, am I doing enough? You know I have a whole day where there's nothing to do. Oh my gosh, I must be failing, because busy means something, busy doesn't mean anything. That's a limiting belief. I have multiple days on my week that aren't busy. They're chill, and I designed it that way because that's how I wanted my life to be. Honestly, even if our businesses get to a point of success where we can clear the calendar because we think busy is productive and busy is successful, even though we dreamed of only working four hours a day, four days a week, even when you get there, you feel like this guilt, like you should be doing more. It's like this bad loop that we're stuck in, instead of thinking are you doing enough? Because if you're making money, if you're showing up, that's enough, like you don't have to be on every hour of every day. Just ask yourself are your actions aligned with what you're trying to create? Are my actions aligned with what I'm trying to create? Because alignment and aligned action, equal clarity, momentum and manifestation.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Busy work, being busy for the sake of being busy, is all about depletion, resentment and chaos. The second thing that you can do is to get organized, because your energy deserves systems. The second thing that you can do is to get organized because your energy deserves systems. I am all about organization. I teach manifestation and organization so that you don't have burnout, so you can have that life you actually want and the money you actually want. And to manifest, to have room to let in, there needs to be space. Well, how do I get space? I get organized. You don't need more hours in a day, you just need a system.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Burnout happens when your brain is cluttered, when your schedule is reactive and when every task feels like it's urgent. You have to do it right now. Oh, my gosh, I have to post this right now or I'm going to miss something. That's reactiveness, that is not alignment. You cannot manifest anything from that state. That's survival energy. That is not creation energy. But when you're organized, you free up energy. When your energy is clear, your manifestations move faster period For me.

Speaker 1: 5:42

I use one Google Sheet and one Google Doc every single week for all my Pinterest, for all my social media, for my blog, for my podcast. Like it all is in one place, easy to find. I have it organized in a systematic way to get me through my obligation tasks, which are those back end to do things, so that I can then flow into the creation, which is the actual writing of the blog and the delivering the podcast to you and showing up how I want to show up and serving how I want to serve and creating what I want to create. As far as products, get your business organized, not in a way to make it pretty, in a way that makes you feel powerful, so you're not running on fumes. The way I have my systems. Everything's done by Tuesday, monday, tuesday everything is done. It is a system that I go through. It has a step-by-step clear path and it leaves tons of room for creativeness. I'm not just doing tasks right, I'm doing my daily CEO ritual, I'm doing my weekly intention setting. I'm making space and room for manifesting, for letting go, for being in receive mode instead of always output. So having systems gives you that space.

Speaker 1: 6:59

The third thing is don't confuse motion with momentum, because that kills progress. Every time. If you're checking off tasks, if you're updating your website, if you're tweaking your sales page, but you're not seeing results, that's because you're in motion, not momentum. Motion is just activity. It's doing things for the sake of doing them. Momentum is intentional forward movement. One leads to burnout, the other leads to income. So if you're working constantly and you're still questioning, well, why isn't this working? This is why Start tracking what is actually creating traction and then give your aligned action to that. Traction can look like conversions, offers, shared energy, protected systems that are cleaned up. That is momentum Not more motion, but momentum.

Speaker 1: 7:54

And I've worked with a lot of people who say, well, I don't know, because nothing's working. I promise you there are things in your business that are working. I have the manifest momentum, which is that daily CEO ritual, and it proves to you what is working. It shows you what is working and then you do more of that because you look for what is working, because we're really taught to look for what's not working, to improve. Everything that we have talks about. This is how you improve on social media. This is how you do improve your conversions, and we'll talk a little bit about that in the next one.

Speaker 1: 8:27

But that's why I created Manifest Momentum, because it clears the clutter. It takes you like less than five minutes a day. I'm gonna put it in the show notes. Please make sure to get it. It is life-changing. I had one client use it and she said after seven days she already saw the difference. It's a 30-day challenge. So grab that so that you can see where your momentum is and then you can take stuff that's just motion and get it out of the way. And that really takes me into number four, which is to create more than you consume, because you were not meant to spend your whole day watching what everyone else is doing. Right, burnout gets amplified when your energy is scattered between 10 voices, 5 strategies and content that does not reflect your values. Too much input is going to kill your clarity. So if you're looking to grow on social media, stop scanning and listening to everybody who tells you do this, do that, do the other thing, because now you're consuming it and you don't even know which way to go, or you're trying to figure out a way to implement everything.

Speaker 1: 9:32

For me, I believe in Jenna and MMM Magic Marketing Machine. It tells you how to grow your business and get clients from Instagram, but let me tell you it does more than just Instagram, like her system and her method goes to every platform. I use it on every platform and I grow on every platform. I highly recommend her. When I sought her out, I was every platform and I grow on every platform. I highly recommend her. When I sought her out, I was seeing her and I was seeing everybody else and I was like you know what, I'm going to hone in on one person and I'm going to hone in on Jenna. So of course, I watched her and then I got MMM and it was a game changer.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Mmm is so powerful that I decided to ditch an old Instagram account that I had really bad mindset around, like the whole account itself. My mindset just wasn't there and I started a new account. So if you started following me on my new account, you'll see that I don't have. I think I have 41 followers or something. I get more from my 41 followers than I did from my 3000 followers using her system, but I cut out all the other voices, right? I didn't have five different social media strategies. I honed in on hers and I'm going to put a link for that in the show notes as well, because if you're like girl, I need to grow and I have to consume. Consume her Because you are a creator, you're a visionary, you are a leader, and if you're spending more time scrolling than speaking your truth, your business is going to feel heavy.

Speaker 1: 10:58

Your energy was designed to build, not binge, so create first and consume later, and that's how you're going to stay connected to your magic. The fifth one is to build a business that matches your energy and not your ego. The fifth one is to build a business that matches your energy and not your ego, because one of the biggest burnout triggers is trying to scale like someone you are not If you're doing launches that drain you because you follow a certain method, or if you're doing offers that don't excite you, if your content strategies don't fit your rhythm once again, why I love MMM? Because you make it fit your rhythm all of those things can trigger burnout. If you have an offer that you don't like but you're selling it because it's making you money, it's doing you more harm than good because you're showing up for something that doesn't feel good and eventually that's going to lead to burnout. Why? Because then you have that resentment right towards what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 11:56

You didn't start this to be a clone marketing bro. You started this to lead in your own way. When you build a business that works with your energy instead of against it, everything flows faster, sales feel easier, visibility feels natural, Creation doesn't feel like a chore. So stop following templates that require you to abandon yourself and you start building systems that offer and reflect your unique energy flow. And I'm going to put this right here no matter what system you get whether it's Magic Marketing Machine with Jenna, which is one of my favorites, if you get a system for, like me, I give my clients systems to help organize them on the back end so that they only have to use one Google Sheet and one Google Doc things of that nature you take people's systems and you make them your own for your flow. Like I always tell my clients, this is just like a base starting point, but I need you to put your own magic on there to make it work for you. Same thing with Magic Marketing Machine. I took it, I implement it, but I do it in a way that works with my organizational system. Right, I put it within my system. That works for me and my energy. But I use the core stuff. So it's okay to get systems, it's okay to hire coaches, it's okay to get methods.

Speaker 1: 13:15

I think the problem comes in when you try to mimic that method and you imitate it to a T, to how the people talk, to what they say, to their calendar, and it doesn't fit you. It doesn't mean it's not good, it means they created a method that fits their energy, like my method fits my energy. I worked with somebody one time and she said just organize how you do. You're amazing. I want your exact organization and I told her I'll do that for you. But I'm going to need you to take it and think about what is working for you, what isn't working for you and how to adjust it so that it feels good to you. Because no matter what you have, if it's not something unique to your energetic flow, it's not going to work for you like it worked for somebody else.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Number six is that your business isn't your entire life, so you need to stop making it one. At the beginning of this, I said that when I work with people, we build the lifestyle that we want first, and the business fits into that. The business is a support system for the lifestyle, and this one should hit you, because we have really been taught that if we are not obsessed with our work, then we're not committed to it. If we're not obsessed with our work, then we are not all in. But the truth is is that your business should not take up every corner of your mind, because when it does, your nervous system never shuts off and when that happens, you're not manifesting, you're managing, you're in control mode, not creative mode, and your business is a part of your life. It is not your whole life.

Speaker 1: 14:49

I know that you decided to make your own business and do your own thing because you were tired of your life being controlled by work by your nine to five. I'm sure there were other reasons that went into it, but probably nine out of 10 people I've met that's the reason. Heck, yeah, they want to make money and they don't want to have a pay ceiling, but they also want more control over their day-to-day life, what they do and when they do it, but then if we go in and make our business our entire life, it defeats the whole purpose. You're allowed to log off. You're allowed to rest. You're allowed to find joy outside of your brand, because you're a multifaceted human being. You're more than just your brand. You actually need to, because the more you prioritize living, the more your business is going to grow.

Speaker 1: 15:38

The last one number seven is to cut what doesn't convert or light you up. The last one number seven is to cut what doesn't convert or light you up. Get ruthless. If you're doing things you hate or showing up on platforms that drain you, or if you're selling offers you resent, you're not scaling, you're surviving. That's not scaling, that's surviving.

Speaker 1: 15:57

If you don't like being on threads, don't be on there. If you don't like being on YouTube, don't be on there. If you do, then do that. What you feel the best about is what you're going to give the best energy to. You're going to feel more aligned and you're going to manifest more. In that way, your body knows, your energy knows and your audience can feel it. So if it doesn't convert, if it doesn't light you up and if it doesn't align, it goes. It's fine for it to go.

Speaker 1: 16:29

There are many different things that I thought about when I first started doing offers and I was like, yeah, I want to do X, y, z, because that's what people said was the industry standard and what I should do. And then I was like I don't really like that and my energy that was in my energy. I could feel it. I know my audience could feel it Didn't matter if it was making me money, who cares if it's gross feeling.

Speaker 1: 16:53

Once again, why build a business that you don't like? Your business should serve you as much as you serve others. You don't have to suffer to serve. You don't need to do what you should. You need to do what's sustainable. That's how you grow without collapsing under the weight. Burnout is not a phase that you push through. It is a red flag that your business model, your energies and or your systems are out of alignment. You do not have to burn it all down, so to speak. You just need to rebuild your business in a way that honors your energy and your vision.

Speaker 1: 17:31

So what I really want you to do today to start getting back in alignment is to grab the Manifest Momentum Tracker. It's going to help you stay in that momentum. It's going to help you to stay in an embodied and aligned flow. There's six touch points in there for acting as if and you act as if so that you can embody the business that you want, that grows with you and that's sustainable. And it really helps you to become aware of what is just motion and what is momentum.

Speaker 1: 18:03

So, once again, that is in the show notes. If you're like I don't know if I'm ready for all that, you can always grab the Manifest she magazine. It is a free monthly subscription subscriber only subscription and it has things about manifestation and organization and different challenges you can do. I'll put that in the show notes and I'm going to put magic marketing in the show notes because if you're so stressed out about growing your business, because you need it to convert, that's what you need to get, so I'm going to put that as well. So pick one of those things that's not adding to your plate. It's actually going to help you to make your momentum to move where you're trying to go. It's three different things that you can pick from to help lead you out of that burnout and into an aligned business that supports your life and it doesn't take over your life, that way that you can scale and flow, you can lead with clarity and you can grow without burning out. I will chat with you next week.