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The truth about creator burnout is that it's a choice to
try to keep up. We're trying to keep up with the pace
of content that we're releasing. We're trying to keep up with the new trends on platforms and changes in algorithms, and we're trying to keep up and copy our favorite creators because they're bigger than us and we really want to be successful and.
Really what? It's a choice. It's a choice to burn out. It's a choice to feel consistently exhausting. And what's worse about all of this is that it's a choice or series of choices that we make that we don't intend to. Nobody wakes up in the morning. And thinks Hey, you know what? I really want to create content that doesn't feed my soul.
Or I don't want to wake up, or I wanna wake up and ignore my health, my relationships and wellness in order [00:01:00] to make sure that my audience is happy to make sure that. I am doing the work, I'm being consistent, and not getting results. And nobody wakes up thinking like, Hey, I want to dread the day. But so often when we make these micro choices as a creator, it really, can make us feel like we're on an endless hamster wheel with no way out.
But what if you could intentionally choose the opposite of creative burnout? And what if there were four key insights to prevent you or to get you out of burnout? that's what we're gonna talk about in today's episode of Creators That Crush. We're gonna talk about what is creator burnout? What are the symptoms of creator burnout?
What is the opposite of creator burnout? And then the four steps to get out of. I said burnout. I said burnout too many times. I think so anyways,
welcome to the Creators That Crush [00:02:00] podcast, where we help creators go from crushed to crushing it in their creative endeavors. I am your host and certified high performance coach, Sean Butner. Now. Let's start with what exactly is creator burnout. It's that feeling when you feel like you've hit a brick wall and you feel like you are suffocating.
according to Josh from the YouTube channel, momentum Productions, burnout is that feeling when you hit a brick wall and you feel like you're suffocating. Or from Chelsea Callahan, who's also a YouTuber, that when I stopped creating, I feel like I should be recording, but I'm not. It's this feeling that you're not enough or it's no matter what you do, you feel like you're trapped in your current level of stress.
And that was where I was at. In my programming career many years ago where I didn't feel like they could ever get ahead of the work. I never felt like I was doing [00:03:00] good enough work. I never felt proud of the work that I did, and it just got into this level of going through the motions. And if you've ever felt like you're going through the motions or you felt like.
no matter what you did, you cannot find your way out of the current level of stress you're experiencing because of your career or because of what you chose to do. that's burnout. But what are the exact symptoms of burnout as a creator? It's these three things. It's exhaustion, it's feeling trapped in obligations to an audience, to algorithms towards, things that you want for yourself and the just dread in showing up, right?
You feel disengaged. You don't. Really want to do the work, for a variety of reasons. 'cause maybe you've been just trying so hard for so long, blood, sweat, and tears going into your work and you're not getting results. And I know that personally 'cause I have 700 videos I've done on YouTube and my audience is still super [00:04:00] small and that's not YouTube's fault, that's me.
So you have to think though, that's what burnout is. What's the opposite of creator burnout? And I think it's creator performance. That's instead of feeling exhausted, you feel engaged in the work you are looking forward to. taking action, you don't feel trapped. You're proactively making moves to grow your audience, to further your movement or idea or to achieve the things that you want with your creative career.
And instead of dreading what you create, there's this excitement and joy and you hop outta bed, waiting to record, waiting to write, waiting to record, those audio podcasts. Or whatever it is for you. and so that's what performance is. And as a high performance coach, we define high performance as beating whatever's normal in your life, results wise, [00:05:00] sustainably without hurting your relationships or health and wellness, right?
So it's without burning out essentially. So how do we go from creator burnout to creator performance? here are the four steps to move from creative burnout to creative performance. First is you have to have awareness, and you can, very do this at a beginner level by journaling, by noticing or thinking about the choices you've made to make you feel burnt out.
And I know if you are experiencing burnout right now, I have two things to say to you. One. Sometimes it's really depression and you need to go and talk to a therapist for that, right? two saying, Hey, you're better out and it's your fault is a very triggering statement for folks, and I get that. And every time I've coached someone through burnout.[00:06:00]
There's always been one to three big choices that they've made that led to them not loving their career, that led to them not doing the work that they love creatively, but all the admin work to make the creations happen, right? They get disconnected from the creative side, and it's a choice that they made to hand it off to a team member when really they should still be writing those emails or they really should still be writing the script.
Or recording that video on themselves before the team gets on it. so the, there are key decisions that are either you will make, that will lead to burnout, which is why you need to be aware of what really lights you up in your creative business or things that you've already. Decided that are leading to burnout.
So you need to have awareness if you're going to change any of that, or to have a direction on how to get out of burnout if you're experiencing it. second thing is to socialize, right? [00:07:00] If I love this exercise, if we were to go into your calendar, right? How much time do you have for family time, for friend time for.
hobbies and activities where you're with people and if it's not on your calendar at all or it's, an afterthought, like you have weeks and weeks of all these work tasks and then maybe 10% of the time you actually plan to see your wife or husband plan to see the kids plan to go golfing.
that's something you need to change. And I think being aware that. You'll burn out if, and so that's the personal side of socialization, but it could be, are you reaching out to other creators in your space that you admire or that you think are doing a great job and you are building relationships with them?
Because especially if you are a solopreneur, it can be really [00:08:00] lonely. And to have that mastermind to have. A group of peers that are helping you achieve your goals can help you combat burnout. It makes it more fun to get on a podcast with a friend doing the same thing that you are, third thing to do is to train like an athlete.
So one of my mentors is Brenda Burchard, and he talks about, so he'll, he will do these live seminars where he'll be on stage for three to five days straight, depending on. the seminar, and he says that, he has this like Fitbit that records the steps and by the end of every seminar he is done at least one marathon of just walking on the stage.
Trying to engage people. And you know what, pacing the stage for three days, mostly speaking for himself, before. Okay. and so he does. So Brendan does these seminars where for three to five days, he's pacing back and forth. He's [00:09:00] talking the whole time, eight hours straight sometimes, and he used to get wrecked after these, and he talks about this on stage, or he used to.
lose his voice. And what he realized is that, he would do like a whole marathon on the stage. So 26.2 miles, just pacing at the same thing for three, three days straight. And so he had to start training like an athlete. So his like go-to habits for, putting on a live seminar are.
He would up his cardio three months before the event or the events, 'cause he would do multiple of these a year. So when he had his seminar season where he was doing these live events, he would increase cardio so that his body was ready for the intensity that was going to happen on those three days each, those seminars, he [00:10:00] would.
Talk about eating clean. So he'd get salads and salmon and that would be his meal. Every meal the whole time he was, performing or conducting the seminar, right? He would do ice baths every night afterwards, and he would talk about how much he did not want to go in that tub full of ice, that he got the hotel staff to fill in, or to bring up to his.
room to fill the tub because it sucks going into a tub full of ice. But it helped him recover and basically borrowed these techniques from athletes to perform like an athlete at his craft. And I challenge you as a content creator. Where are you training like an athlete to have the energy that you need?
For your YouTube channel to have the stamina, to have the capacity to create and live your [00:11:00] life and do it with a sense of joy and a sense of excitement and a sense of energy, being energetic about it. And then ultimately, we talked about awareness. We talked about, diagnosing.
Social issues. Are you maintaining relationships? Are you socializing with, your personal life or your professional life? Are you taking care of your body like an athlete? And so awareness, your relationships and your body all lead to what life choices are you making today, right? What can you do or what do you need to take back from your team or what do you need to, Change in your life to decide to do differently, to not feel burnout in your creative career over the long term. And there's a sense of agency if this is speaking to you, you probably felt that oh, like
like
I can choose something different [00:12:00] and I can make moves to. Make sure that I love the work that I'm doing and that's what I'm here for.
And it's also my job as a coach to push you into performance. So I know I'm a little bit punchier today on today's episode, guys, but I really think that, combining these three things to actively make change in your life is what's really going to get you out of burnout. So choices matter behaviors are hard to change.
And sometimes you need a little extra help. So if you want that extra help, I am offering a free 30 minute creator strategy session where we get on a call for 30 minutes via Zoom. We talk about one thing that you're struggling as a content creator or professional that you really want help with, and. We just do my high performance coaching process for that problem to help get you moving forward.
And [00:13:00] this 30 minute strategy session really is for me to match this high performance curriculum to content creators. I'm still trying to find nuances and get some data. So I'm just trying to put out some good, so there's nothing after this. This is just 30 minutes of pure value where we get on one-on-one on a call.
And so I'd love for you to go to Sean, but.com and there's a button for the free 30 minute. Create a strategy session. I'd love to walk you through or help you break through. Feel a little less burnout, make some better life choices. In your creative career, and if that's sounds great to you, awesome. If not, we'll see you in the next episode of Creators That Crush.
And if you did love this episode, I think you'll love this episode over here talking about how to overcome imposter syndrome. I just recently talked with Georgie Darling a. [00:14:00] Newsletter operator, freelance coach, it's amazing. She's, it's an amazing conversation about how imposter syndrome can seep into everything you're doing and how there's growth and the life that you want and the freedom that you want after it.
So make sure to check it out over there. And with that, we'll talk to you later. Go and with that, we'll talk to you later. Take care.
