Hi I'm Zee and today with me we have Rowan and
Ian from Plain Black Creative. Can you tell us
more about yourself? My name is Ian from Plain
Black Creative and I was a Jack of all trades
for 20 years. Master of none. Life experience.
Yes and then about 12 years ago I talked my way
into a sales and marketing position. complete
and utter bollocks interview where I just lied
essentially. Did really well in that position
and then took on a marketing role and then got
into sales and advertising and realised the whole
industry is pretty much corrupt and geared to
take money away from small businesses. So Ian's
sitting here right now with tin foil wrapped
around his head by the sounds of things. I can
assure you he's not one of those guys. Definitely
not. Just yeah, so we decided to be the change
really and started a small company called Your
Copyright and then changed the name of that about
four years ago to Plain Black Creative because
of plain black t -shirts. So just the basics,
plain black tees. and decided to look after the
little guy a little bit more with simple branding,
effective branding, all the experience that I've
gained from a few years of life experience, being
an old guy. And yeah, it's gone really, really
well. I was very interested in your podcast on
building a business because that's definitely
not what I've done. I've bought myself a job.
But you enjoy it. I do enjoy it and I have the
luxury of not having to work too much because
there's a bit of money around. So pretty lucky.
Yeah cool. So we thought we'd get Ian on board
with the podcast. He's got some interesting thoughts
and it's been around small business honestly.
He is in a small business as well for a long
time. So just a bit of different opinion, different
perspective and make a little bit more interesting
for everyone. Yeah, welcome to the Business Abundance
podcast. Cheers. So we've had some really good
feedback on our previous episode. Thank you all.
Yes, if you have any feedback that you'd like
to send us or any topics you'd like us to touch
on, just shoot us a message on Facebook or email
us at contactedbusinessabundance .online. Today
in this episode before just interrupt you there,
but about the last podcast. Thanks everyone for
listening But did you have anyone come up to
you and just say oh listen to your podcast? I
was literally I played cricket on on the weekend
I was I was playing cricket batting in this this
guy came out who doesn't really play just filling
in for the team and After a couple of overs.
I just I know he owns a business. How's business
mate? and hadn't told him for a couple of months.
He's like, oh, it's business, company. I've been
listening to your podcast. And yeah, I thought
that was quite interesting. I see a few people
listening to it. For our team or the other team?
Ian's on our cricket team too. She had no one
on our team, but go on Zahara. That's fine. Today,
we're going to be talking about how to avoid
a burnout. Rowan, can you tell us why this is
important? Wow avoiding burnout saves your tires
on your car or in business it sort of helps you
Stay in control of it If you burn out you're
generally stressed so burnout comes from stress
You burn off you're gonna be a bit low on energy
You're gonna make some questionable decisions
You're not gonna really enjoy anything you're
doing And you're probably going to annoy everyone
around you as well. Any of you ever been in a
burnout stage? Yeah. Yep. And pretty much what
Rowan just said. It sucks, for want of a better
word. It's not ideal. You don't really notice
it happening until it's fully fledged burnout.
Oh, there's an arm. I got one in. Yes. Guilty.
Yeah, it comes from a, what would you say, not
an abundance mindset. So when I first started
with a business, actually before I started a
business, it was, we need more money, we need
more money, we need more money, gotta work harder,
gotta work harder. You start doing 12, 14 hour,
15 hour, 16 hour days, all you're doing is working,
not putting that time aside for yourself and
your family. And before you know it, you're crushing
a heap. Yeah, it's not much fun. You don't notice
it happening until you've got no energy and you're
cranky at your kids for no reason or your wife
or significant other or they thems whichever
we're talking about in this world today and It's
not fun. So avoid it. I think a lot of people
can relate to that listening Welcome to the Business
Abundance podcast, providing the tools and knowledge
to help small business owners succeed. For additional
resources, visit www .businessabundance .online.
So Ian, you touched a little bit on your burnout
story. Could you share a bit more about that?
Yeah, yep. The first time it happened, I was
actually working in a factory and it... It was
just work, work, work, no social life, got to
make money. You're trapped in that rut of need
to pay bills, need to do this, need to do that.
And you're not really making any choices. Your
commitments outweigh your life choices. And yeah,
you just didn't feel it coming on. Eating crap,
absolute garbage because you just grab bites
to eat whenever you could. How good are chips
though? Chips are good. Chips are real good.
Hot chips are great. But yes, not so nutritious
that they help your mental state, let's put it
that way. And yeah, it all of a sudden just one
day felt terrible, more terrible than I normally
did. You reach a point where you're not feeling
great, but it's just your new norm. and then
all of a sudden it peaks and down you go. Can
you tell me what the consequences are after that
day that you just woke up and you felt quite
nasty? What happened after that? You don't like
to say rock bottom because there's plenty of
people who have it worse but personally it was
not great. You're very Lacking energy, I suppose.
Not really talked about it a lot. So it's hard
to put into words, but it's... We just put it
on the spot this morning. Yeah, yeah. You haven't
got the energy. You're not very productive. You
don't like who you are, if that makes sense.
You're angry a lot. I felt that I was not myself.
I'm normally pretty jovial and pretty happy these
days because I've come out the other side, but
you're... you're not a likeable person. Looking
back, you can see people kind of avoiding you
because of who you are and you don't feel great.
A trip to the doctor who said, yep, you're malnourished,
you're not eating right, you're burning the candle
at both ends. Tell me something I don't know,
doc. Yeah, if I was in a business at the time,
I would have pulled up stumps. put it that way
and I had it happen early on in business where
I noticed it early and that was again coming
from that lack of abundance where thinking where's
the next dollar gonna come from so once you realize
that there's plenty to go around for me I found
much more enjoyment in my life knowing that yep
there's plenty to go around we don't have to
be scrimping and saving or Trying to get over
the top of somebody else to get the next dollar.
It's an interesting comment. You said there's
plenty to go around but Changing from chasing
the dollar like where's the next dollar? Where's
the next dollar worrying about that to going?
Oh, you know, there's plenty to be around the
city Obviously you're getting clients and works
coming in but we talked about business models
and things like that I think usually that has
a lot to do with people once they've got their
business set up correctly, you know doing the
right thing for the right people doing a service
at a price people are happy to pay that they
actually want, you know, you get those clients,
you find out there's a lot of work out there
because you're doing something people value rather
than going, oh, I really need money. I've got
to do whatever every day to get that money. So,
you know, do you think that's relevant at all?
Absolutely it is. That's probably the catalyst
to burnout right there. I mean, you start a business
and there's a lot of... Costs involved in starting
a business and then you're gonna try and retire
that debt So it's all about money and you stop
you stop doing What you started doing it for
in the first place? Yeah, and that's that's your
first step to burn out right there in my opinion
not being a psychologist but to have it having
experienced it it's always come I've been probably
through two actual burnouts where you would say
it's I've crashed and Both times has come from
me not Feeling like I've got enough. Yeah, and
instead of focusing on the positives of There's
plenty out there for everyone and there's plenty
for that I can do that creates value in another
person's life. It's all about Me me me me me
me me. What can I get? What can I get? What can
I get? And you forget about the important stuff.
Yeah, it's good points good points So you're
going back to what's, you know, what is burnout?
And I think Ian's experience there is a really
good example. And, you know, I've seen it a lot
of times with a lot of people through my career
and, you know, I've been burned out times as
well. But he's touched on a few points that the
signs of burnout, you know, it's people feel
exhausted. Burnout comes from being stressed
from a long period of time and burning the candle
at both ends. you're stressed and you remain
stressed for a long time. People say, oh, I can
handle it, I can handle it, I'll handle it, yeah.
You can always handle it, till that day you don't
handle it. Like the straw that breaks the camel's
back. You know, that saying's there for a reason,
isn't it? That's a really good point because
it is, it's a tiny little thing. In the scheme
of things, you've handled everything big, you
think you're just starting to get your head above
the water, and one of your kids will say, can
you make me a sandwich? Bang, down you go. And
it's something as small as that and your kids
notice it or your family notices it or whoever
notices it and it'll be the tiniest little thing
and all of a sudden, you're like, I really don't
like who I am. Yeah, that's nasty. It's no good.
I remember for me, my story of the struggle breaks
the camel's back, just a really good example.
I remember I had a yacht and it wasn't a great
yacht and required a bit of work and we invested
a fair bit of work and money into it and we had
a lot of equipment we bought on board and it
got broken into and... in the middle of the river
and whatnot. So I was pretty unmotivated to fix
it after that for a while. But one day, I remember
sitting at my desk and then I was doing something
and then I was looking around and I can't remember
what happened. And I think I missed about half
a minute, something like that. I was like, that's
not normal. I didn't feel stressed. I didn't
feel like I had a problem or anything like that.
But I was like, well, that's weird. And then
I was talking to my colleague, a good mentor
for me. He's like, are you stressed? I'm like,
no. I'm all good, pretty much normal. He's like,
what's going on? I'm like, what do you mean?
He's like, well, just tell me everything you're
doing at the moment. I was like, doing this,
doing this, doing this. Got this going on, this
person's got this problem, and then do, do, do,
do, and then blah, blah, blah. You know, this
was when my boat got broken into or anything
like that, but it was in the middle of the river,
so every time there was a storm, you had to go
check on it, go look after it, you know, all
these things. He's like, I think you've got a
bit of mush on your plate, mate. I was like,
nah, it's all good. And then he goes, oh, yeah,
just cut a few things out for a while. You'll
probably feel better. And then I sold the boat
for a dollar. Someone paid me $2 because he didn't
have a dollar coin. He could fix it up, and that
was fine. I was like, go to a good home, and
if you've done boats, they're expensive, and
you need time to maintain them. So I thought,
well, at least this guy, he's got time and money.
He can go nuts and look after it. But yeah, immediately
felt better. It was just that one thing taking
off my blade. It wasn't really a problem. you
know it was every three weeks maybe with a storm
I had to go check on it but it was just one thing
you had to think about and and just reducing
that that burden and it makes a big difference
but yeah so the other signs um you mentioned
like you didn't feel like you're doing a good
job and you felt like people were looking at
you like oh who's this guy yeah he's no good
um but one of the signs of burnout is that you
you have a reduced sense of achievement um you
don't feel good about what you're doing like
Even if you do something awesome, you just don't
even appreciate it your self -worth. Yeah, thank
you. You're highly critical on yourself and That's
what drives you to try and in my case be better,
but there was never good enough. Yeah now it's
Now it's I know what I can achieve. I know what
I can do and I give myself realistic timeframes
I give my clients more importantly realistic
timeframes and realistic expectations based on
our abilities. Yeah. The last thing to sort of
say about depression that some people link it
to, well, burnout, sorry, jumped the gun there,
but yeah, some people, some professionals that
know a lot more about it than I do, link it to
depression. If you look at a lot of the symptoms,
it's really similar. It comes from a similar
place. It's not the same thing. It's not proven
that, you know, burnout is depression or anything
like that. But, you know, depression's a serious
thing. And, you know, some people think, oh,
burnout, I just need to take a break for a while.
But you've really got to go back and look at,
you know, what's going on. You know, it's a serious
thing. And like you say, the impact it had on
you and your life and, you know, like kids and
things like that, you know, that's not good for
anyone, is it? They're very similar. And again,
these are all my opinions. Doctor yeah, just
disclaimer. We're not yes. I know we're not we're
not diagnosing And we're definitely not giving
you a cure, but yeah, it's Based on people that
I know who have gone through depression and and
being right down at the what I would call rock
bottom where it's live or die stuff you can see
the signs are very similar and Yeah, I wouldn't
surprise me if there was a medical expert out
there who would say yeah. Well it is the same
You said that when you reach that burnout stage,
you, if you owned a business, you would close
up shop, basically, if you owned a business.
So our audience is primarily business owners.
What as a business owner, Rowan, what would be
the consequences for that business? You would
see the flow on effect. Oh, yeah. So I've seen
a lot of people start struggling in business,
they start working bigger hours, they start having
more problems, money problems, time problems,
people doing the wrong thing, fixing things,
breaking things, just, you know, everything going
wrong all the time. And, you know, essentially
those people generally, they're not making much
money as well. Because if they're making good
money, they probably just let it go. Whereas
if they... They've got the double whammy where
things going bad and they're not making money.
They've got to get the money in because otherwise
they've got to find it from somewhere. So generally,
the people I see going through that, they just
don't make sense. They go from being intelligent
people to intelligent people that they know what's
wrong. They generally know what to do about it.
They might ask for help or advice about what
to do. And they'll go, yeah, that's spot on.
But then they'll just do nothing else. They'll
either do nothing or they'll do the opposite.
It just, they just don't make sense. And I think
it's, it comes from stress and rarely stress
people like that as well. Yeah, they're just
dysfunctional. Like they go, I know these are
all problems and I know I need to do this to
fix it. And yes, I'm going to do that to fix
it. But then you'll talk to them three weeks
later and they would have done nothing and they
were going, no, no, no, these are all my problems.
And you didn't help me. It's like, well, we talked
about this. I found a lot of self -sabotage as
well. Yeah. Like a lot of procrastination, excuse
me, and hang on. Excuse me. Self -sabotage. But
you knew you had to get this thing done. I'll
do it tomorrow. I'll do this instead because
this is the easy job. And it's almost like a
spiral. And again, you can hear yourself in the
back of your head, I need to get this done, I
need to get this done. but you're just not doing
it and you don't know why. You can't put your
finger on it and then you're getting more stressed,
you're getting angrier, you're getting more irrational
and then explosion. Yeah, so go back to the question
of what impact it's had on the business. You've
got a business owner or a leader or whatever
your role was in that business and someone that
basically becomes unpredictable, unreliable and
whether they know it or not but generally they
stop helping and start becoming part of the problem.
What's the first way to avoid forgetting things?
Fantastic! Because you came second in that golf
course. Yeah, so the first way I think to avoid
a burnout or when you've got a burnout, it's
easy to say, but you know, you probably should
be doing more things with friends and family.
If you've got no friends and that's what you
like, that's fine. But most people like friends
and family and... you go into business to create
more opportunities for yourself, create a better
life for yourself, your friends, your family,
and maybe spending some more time with those
people is a good step. I agree, but what about
those people that feel like they can't make time
for friends and family because they're working?
Yeah, well, in Ian's story about his life experience,
it's the buzzwords of the day, life experience.
He's talking about how he was chasing it all.
He had to get that money. Now, a lot of people,
if you're in the situation where you have to
be at work, you've got problems you need to fix.
And so I can't just say, do this, and you won't
have those problems. Because it could be that
they have to work in a warehouse. They have to
do admin. They have to do in -board. Who knows
what it is? There's probably a thousand different
things people might have to be doing at work.
But then he talked about what changed. In business
now, he doesn't get burnout because he knows
he does enough work. He does good work for people.
He's getting paid enough. He's got enough clients.
He's got it at a level, a manageable level where
it's enough work for him to keep him happy doing
what he wants to do. He said, you know, I'm not
running a business per se with lots of people,
but he's got to set up just how he wants it.
So if you don't have the time to be able to do
things with friends and family, the solution
is still the same. One of the things that will
help you is to spend more time with friends and
family. So you've got to look at, well, how can
you do that? Priorities. Yeah. So if you're too
busy at work, what can you do not to be too busy
at work? If you have to be at work, what can
you do to change that? Is your business model
completely wrong and it's never going to change?
Well, probably shut down your business and go
get a job or start a different business. If you're
finding yourself at work doing things that someone
else could do, well maybe you should pay someone
to do those things. That's just a couple of examples.
But I think it's about looking at what the outcome,
one of the outcomes you need is to spend more
time with friends and family and forget about
work. So how can you do that? You've got to define
enough, basically, or your goal. So essentially,
you know, what is enough that you can do to...
Are you able to spend time with those friends
and family? There's a social contract there as
well and defining it like that. Social contract?
Yeah. You look at your work, your business, your
life, your family. Your family's going to be
there no matter what. Your job might not be.
Your business might not be. make some time if
there's one lesson I could pass on from my limited
life experience. Thanks, Steve. Ian's 85 next
year, by the way. Looking good though, thanks
to the Botox regime. My kid, I missed the first
three years of my son's life and you don't get
that back. You just don't. So I made damn sure
when my daughter was born, that I was in a position
to be able to spend the time with her because
you just don't get it back. Your business can
go through fluctuations, ebbs and flows, prosperity,
breakeven or worse, but you get one shot at that.
So don't sacrifice anything to miss that. Yeah,
it's a great example heavy yeah You know like
people give you give you energy so there's I
can't namby -pamby. I can't remember the guy's
name, but There's a good speaker. I listened
to years ago He was talking about energy and
then some people's bit fuddy -duddy, but it made
a bit of sense You know everything you have everything
you own in your life. I think it's a Buddhist
concept It has a string connection to you. So
if you've got a TV is that they believe that's
got a string to you all these things and the
more Strings are drawing your attention or your
energy away the less you have so the more things
you have the harder it is to maintain and He
that's that's one interesting point But the second
thing was that some people give you energy some
people take energy So, you know, friends and
family generally, if you've got good friends
and family, I don't mean go spend time with the
friends you don't like or, you know, the hard
work or you've got to solve their problems, but
you have friends and family that give you energy
or make you feel better or, you know, give you
confidence or any of those things. By spending
time with those people, you're going to get more
energy. You're going to be better equipped to
do your job. And going back to what you asked
to say, which was, what if you don't have the
time to do that? Like you can't, well... If you're
more productive, you're probably going to end
up with more time. So you can try it, but if
you can't do it, you've got to change something.
You can't just go, I can't do it. You've got
to go, what can I change to make this happen?
The hard pill to swallow is there's always time
for what's important. Yeah. Whenever someone
says, I haven't got time to do that, it means
it's not a priority to you. You'll always find
time to sit on the couch and watch TV. Oh, yeah.
You'll always find time to do what you enjoy.
Sometimes you have to make those hard choices
and go, this is the thing that needs to be done
so that I can improve my life 10 years from now.
I know for some people too, if you, you know,
I keep coming back to money, but you know, sometimes
it's really associated with that because it's,
it's the bit where you have to go there. But
what's the worst can happen for most people,
you're probably still going to have your family.
You might not have your house, but you know,
at the end of the day, especially in Australia,
we live in Australia. You're going to get government
benefits. You're going to get government housing.
It's not the status you might want, but you're
not going to be living in a cave or on the side
of the street, generally. If you lose all your
money, you lose your assets, you owe a lot of
money, you're bankrupt, you're bankrupt for not
a very long period now, and then it's all gone.
It doesn't exist. But like you said, your friends
and your family will still be there. You're not
going to get time back with your family, with
your kids. So what's the worst that can happen?
Well, you're still going to be alive. You're
still going to be eating. There's a lot of people
worse off in the world. And you can always do
something again, you know? If you're really failing
and struggling so much with what you're doing,
you're probably just doing the wrong thing, you
know? If you've made it once, you can do it again.
And anyone who's listening to this has probably
been through bad days. Yeah. And some people,
horrendous days, horrendous years. Unless you're
Zahara playing golf. Well, I'm always happy.
Yeah. Just always good at golf. Except when she
misses those greens in regulation. Never do that.
I don't even know what that means. And you look
at your worst day. For some people, the worst
day is, I know there's a scratch on my car. For
some people, the worst day is they've lost a
limb. Yeah. But you got through it. And you look
back at that and you go, well, I got through
that. I can get through this. And that's something
that someone a lot wiser than me, I can't remember
his name, but he helped me out a lot. And it
was just a random person at a workplace. who
just said, you know what, doesn't matter how
bad it gets, you've got through it in the past.
Yeah, still alive. Yep. So yeah, so I think that's
number one, to answer your question. Friends
and family do what you need to do to spend time
with people that are going to give you energy
and get you happier. Do you have another way
that we could help with burnout? Yeah, well,
I touched on change what you need to change,
but definitely, definitely working on your problems.
So burnout comes from stress. So what's making
you stress? What's causing you issues? Fixing
the problems obviously will reduce your stress,
but even without fixing them, having a plan of
what you can do to make it better or how something's
going to look in the future immediately makes
people feel better. I'd go one step back and
admit that there's a problem. Oh, yeah. So you're
assuming people. Yeah. Because you don't know.
and a lot of the time you'll avoid the fact that
you find a good mirror and have a good hard look
at yourself, essentially. Are you happy? No?
Fix it. Are you happy? Yes? Alright, good. Nothing
to fix. I suppose that's an interesting point
and unrelated to the second thing to fix it,
but a lot of people, especially probably males,
won't admit that they're stressed because you're
meant to be stressed, you're meant to be doing
stuff. Big tough man. Yeah. So yeah, we're all
meant to be stressed, we're all meant to be working
hard, but I guess there's a difference between
being under a bit of pressure and doing things
because it's healthy and being overwhelmed and
taking it out on other people, isn't it? Would
that require that every week, every month, you
kind of sit down? Because if you're at a point
where you just go, go, go and you don't have
the time to just stop and go, okay, there is
an issue. Does it take... consistent monitoring
of what's happening in your business. So for
example, like I was listening to a podcast this
morning and they basically said, just write down
at the end of every week, what went well, what
went wrong. And that way at the end of the month,
if you look at it in one month, two months, you
can look back and go, well, that's bad. That's
causing me stress. That's a consistent issue.
How do I fix that? Yeah, I think even just writing
something down, you're probably going to notice
it straight away. Because you wouldn't write
it down if it wasn't important. Just write something
down that you're perfectly fine with. Today was
a perfect day. You're not going to just write
that are you? And if you do, well good on you.
Have you read Hugh Kylenberg's resilience project?
Have you read his book? No? Yes? Crickets? No,
I've read a lot of books, but which part are
you talking about? What went well. So Resilience
Project focuses on gratitude, empathy, mindfulness,
which sounds a bit hippie when you say it like
that, but the story is behind it. It's impossible
to feel bad if you're feeling grateful. Empathy
obviously is being able to put yourself in someone
else's shoes and feel what they're feeling, and
mindfulness is living in the now. The gratitude
part of it, for me, I was lucky enough to hear
him talk to Kylenberg, maybe put a link in your
thingy, and we'll get paid for it. Okay, this
is why Ian's not stressed. No, it's unpaid promotion.
It's impossible to feel bad when you're feeling
grateful. So at the end of each day, and I've
started doing this with my kids, is three things
that went well today. Do that in your business.
What went well today? Not. what's going good
it's what went well today specifics yeah and
and it's amazing the difference in your mindset
um in a very short period of time yeah it's a
really good one spot on um so essentially we've
pointed out family yeah so the other one just
looking at fixing the problem so When you feel
like there's no way out, there's no change, today's
gonna be the same day as yesterday. You know,
the stuff, you're never gonna find someone, you're
never gonna fix this problem. It's a pretty hard
way to get out of things, no matter what else
you do. But if you can sit back and go, okay,
well, what do I need to change? How does this
need to look to work? If you can figure that
out and then come up with two or three things
that move you in that direction, even before
you've implemented them, you're gonna feel like
you can actually do something about it. and feeling
like there's an end in sight makes a massive
difference. So yeah, like Ian said, you probably
need to admit you've got a problem and then be
able to look at, okay, well, what can I do to
fix it? Like, who do I need to talk about to
fix it? Talk with, sorry. Do I need some help
with it? Can I just sit down and look at my go
back to my business model and look at okay? Well
does this fundamentally work? No, it doesn't.
Okay. Well, what do I need to change? Can I change
it? Yeah, you know spend a day spend two days
trying to do that Well, you know, the other problems
are probably still gonna happen, but it's not
gonna be the end of the world. So Just look at
yeah, what can you do to change things? Making
a list is huge. Yeah, you know and then just
work down work down what's most important, but
generally, if you are burnt out, probably share
that with someone, whether it's a friend or a
consultant, advisor, or a mentor, whatever, because,
like I said, people that are burnt out, from
my experience, just don't make sense. They don't
know exactly what they need to do, so you might
make that list, it might be a good list, but
then you just won't do it for whatever reason,
you can't with a million excuses, so. I've made
a list, everything's going fine. Yeah, so you
still, once you've done that, you need to do
something about it, because otherwise, you're
gonna be burnt out. overwhelmed and you've got
your plan but then you haven't done it so you're
gonna say it didn't work but you didn't really
do it and then you're gonna be twice as bad off.
Is there a third way that you'd like to comment?
Yeah, look there's lots of individual strategies
and we've touched probably a few little ones
in between like Ian just gave a good example
there and I'm talking about before you know having
a lot of stuff and a lot of connections to things
and people but I think pretty simple stuff but
get a hobby. You know, it's um, if you find yourself
obsessing with work and you can't take your mind
off it You probably should find something else
to obsess over, you know currently I play a lot
of cricket, but Yeah, you know, I'm not thinking
about work. I'm de -stressing that means I'm
more productive when I'm at work You know, it
gives me something else to do. That's yeah, it's
it's not make or break if I if I go bad It's
not the end of the world, but I'm gonna have
fun with them catch up with some people and do
things And I generally feel better I'm not thinking
about work and the next day I can go and do what
I need to do and that's all good. So I think
friends and family is one thing, but have a hobby
because friends and family, you're talking to
other people. It's not for you, but with a hobby,
you're doing what you want to do. Fully your
passion. Yeah, whatever it is you like, go do
it. Make time, like we talked about before, but
do what you need to do to make the time and generally
people. Hopefully they'll support you and allow
you to do that life. You've got a family might
be like I you can't you gotta look after the
kids or you look after your partner or whatever
that is but the end of the day if you're You're
not looking after yourself. That's what they
say in planes when the the mask come down You
put your mask on first because if you can't breathe
you're not gonna help anyone else put their mask
on you know Whereas everyone's like, oh no help
my partner put her mask on or his mask on first
and that doesn't really fundamentally make sense
because then you're going to be stressed out,
no one's looking after you and then you're going
to be snapping at them and you're going to be
walking in. I think someone said to me the other
week, I can't remember what we're talking about
because it's the worst thing when you get home
and you don't feel upset but then someone says
something to you, my wife says, how's it going?
And you're like... And she says, what's wrong
with you? And that's not how you want it to start
off the evening. That's exactly not what you
want. It's not what you're looking to do. But
that's just what happened because people sense
these things. And then you're like, oh, I just
need something in between to just get back on
a level keel, yeah. It's OK to put yourself first.
Yeah, well, you've got to not say be a selfish
pig. No. But if you can't look after yourself,
like if you don't have enough money to look after
yourself, you don't have enough money to look
after other people. If you don't have enough
resources to look after yourself, you don't have
enough resources to look after other people.
If you don't have the head space to look after
yourself, or you don't have the head space to
look after other people. So if you want to be
looking after other people, the first thing you
need to do is make sure you can look after yourself,
and then you're in a good spot to do what you
need to do, you know? That's the not eating the
hot chips. Not eating the hot chips. The hot
chips are so good. Ah, but not good. Vinegar.
Vinegar's good for you. Yeah, we just dose it
in vinegar and then we let out the hot chips.
Good for your gut. I want to try to figure out
why in the UK it's smashed or smooshed peas with
the fish and chips. So it's like fish chips with
vinegar and the peas. That's so random. Like
how do you think they came up with that? Need
to get the greens in. Yeah, they feel good about
it. It's like a salad. It's like a pie floater
in Adelaide. Yeah. Someone said to me the other
day, and you can fact check this, I have no idea.
It's not my specialty. So fish and chips is really
fatty. The oil is bad for digestion. So peas,
good for digestion. And vinegar helps break down
fatty food. So here in Australia, everyone just
puts tomato sauce on. and then probably upset
stomachs all around. And if you're eating a good
bit of battered fish and then you eat a bit,
you're like, this is great. And then quickly
it turns into, oh, this is hard to eat. The vinegar,
the vinegar and stuff makes it so you can keep
eating more. That's terrible. Yeah, better for
digestion. That's a young person's attitude.
You see, your digestion's all good. Once you
get over 35, better have some smash peas and
vinegar with my chips. Anyway, we're completely
off topic. Yeah, absolutely. That's terrible.
Take control. Okay, so essentially, to avoid
burnout, you just want to... It's no easy solution.
And again, we're not... counselors, we're not
psychologists. If you are struggling, you do
get some help, you know, go talk to someone.
But from our experience with business owners,
seek family and friends, identify your issues
and then take up a hobby. Yeah, there's lots
of other things you can do. But if you're looking
after yourself, you're spending time with people
that matter. You're doing things that, you know,
just probably adjust your perspective. Ian talked
a lot about perspective of the world goes on,
what's what do you want? Like your friends and
family aren't leaving and this, that and the
other. You know, work's not everything, so do
what you can to change your perspective, get
a bigger picture, and then look at what you need
to do to fix what's making you stressed. And
realise that you're probably not gonna be able
to avoid stress in all its forms. Yeah. So learn
how to deal with it. Yeah. The better off you
are, the better you're going to deal with it
when it comes along. If you keep dealing with
it as it comes, you're not going to get built
up. It's going to take more to make you stressed
because you've dealt with that anxiety, you've
dealt with that hardship. We didn't mention it
particularly, but if you're really struggling,
if you haven't got people to talk to or seek
professional help, there's nothing wrong with
that. Because going through it with other people,
sometimes you... I do it all the time, if I get
frustrated I'll go complain. I was playing cricket
the other day, I got run out and I went by my
partner and I went back into the change room
and someone was sitting there so I blamed him
for it. I knew it was ridiculous, he knew it
was ridiculous but it made me feel better. So,
you know, sometimes just talking about things,
even it's crazy, it's good for you. The problem
shared is a problem halved, even if it's a run
out. Yeah, so there's this free professional
line you can call. There's counsellors and, you
know, professionals actually know what they're
talking about, whereas we're just talking from
our experience. But, yeah, definitely talk to
people. We're going to wrap this episode up now.
In our next episode, we're going to take some
time to discuss how to improve employee morale.
For us it's just finished Christmas season and
people are heading back to work so I feel that
people are in a holiday hangover. So if that
is your employees I encourage you to stick around
for the next episode and then create a fantastic
business for your 2022. If you have any questions
about what we've talked about today, make sure
to visit our website, book a catch up, or you
can email us at contact at businessabundance
.online. We will talk to you in the next episode.
Goodbye. See ya.