Recovering from extreme burnout while still growing the business

Recently I had to take a huge step back from my business and podcast to finally take care of myself. The past 3 years have been really crazy and busy, so today I'll be sharing what's been going on behind the scenes and how I've kept my business running and growing while recovering from extreme burnout.

The backstory

I started my business 3 years ago. At that time, my daughter was almost 1 year old. The time since has been a whirlwind! I found out I was pregnant around 6 months after starting the business and that pushed me to bring on contractors and team members so I could have a bit of maternity leave (which didn't really end up happening...). That was a crazy time when he was born, and then the 2 years since have just felt like 10-15 years have gone by 😅 We moved into our dream home sooner than we expected to be in this position and it's needed a lot of renovations and updates.

With little kids and home renovations and moving and farming and all the things, it's been a lot. Good, but a lot. I've also gone through some personal health issues postpartum and everything. On top of all that, I've been running my business. It's been manageable since I started, but it's grown at a pretty healthy, fast pace. Again, I'm so grateful for that but it's been a lot with everything else going on in our lives!

So now cut to October 2023, I pretty much hit rock bottom. I was to the point where by noon I was on the couch until bedtime for the kids. I would maybe get up to make dinner, get the kids ready for bed, then go back to sleep. I couldn't remember things, had a hard time functioning, didn't want to work out, had tons of anxiety, all the things. And that's not normal for me. I had to seriously scale back what I was doing and stop doing the things that weren't absolutely necessary, like my podcast.

The benefits of having full-time employees

One of the first things I did to get through this slump (from a business perspective) was bring on a full-time employee. We're bringing on our second full-time employee in March. Prior to having full-time employees, I had a team of contractors. Some of them are still with us, and they're amazing! I LOVE my whole team. But there are limitations to having contractors vs someone fully committed to your business. My full-time employees can hop on calls whenever throughout the week, team or client calls. They can do side projects to support the business, where contractors just do their main job.

I will say, I did not realize how much time and energy the onboarding and training process would take for hiring someone full-time. But the benefits have outweighed it 10x. I can hand off certain tasks and responsibilities and get them off my plate so I can get that brain space and capacity back. That has allowed me to focus more on the creative aspect of growing the business, like marketing and upleveling our client experience. We've been able to bring on some incredible clients the last couple months because of that!

What I've learned

You CAN still pursue and achieve your goals and dreams. Yes, even if you're going through times where it feels like it's impossible. Yes, you can continue to grow your business while dealing with burnout, fatigue, and health issues (which I'm still working through). Fun story, with everything going on over the last few years my body was just shutting down. My cortisol levels were trashed. My adrenals were in chronic fatigue, and my doctor said it was one of the worst cases she's seen 😬 I've been learning a lot about hormone levels, and trying to figure out some other blood levels that were off. Basically, my body was forcing me to slow down. But even when you're forced (or choose) to slow down, you don't have to completely shut everything down. You just have to shift and adjust.

Something I wish I would've noticed earlier is seeing the signs of this happening before it got really bad. I don't think I could've completely avoided it, but now going through it I'm hoping to stay in tune with my body and catch those signs of needing to slow down. Sometimes we can get so caught up in hitting that next goal or revenue number. Or maybe it's hitting a certain number of clients. But when our focus is too much on those things, we can lose sight of our purpose. I had some big goals for 2024 that I've scaled back because it's just not worth sacrificing my mental and physical health for. You have to look at the full picture and see what it'll cost you to hit $500,000 or 1 million in revenue. What's that going to cost you, mentally and emotionally and physically? And are you willing to put in the effort to do that? That answer is different for everyone, and that's ok!

Being a mom and a business owner is hard work, and I don't think there's ever really a full-on balance between the two. The scale might always tip a little more one way or the other. Sometimes I'll have to put in a lot of dedication, energy, and time into my business. And other times and seasons I'll need to pull back from the business and put that dedication, time and energy into my family and kids. There's a seasonality to everything. Whatever season of life and/or business you find yourself in, feel free to follow along my journey on Instagram @loriannkuntz.co to see the behind the scenes of farm life, living in Ohio, gardening, holistic health, and of course business.