The Burnout Formula for Independent Consultants
Melisa Liberman
Podcast: Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast | Coach for Independent Consultants | Bestselling Author: Grow Your Consulting Business: The 14-Step Roadmap to Make Your Independent Consulting Goals a Reality
Author: Melisa Liberman
Host of the 🎙️Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast &
Creator of the📈 Independent Consultant's Pricing Assessment
Feeling burned out?
This is a very common feeling for many independent consultants, especially around this time of the year.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Today, I’m sharing a formula with you that will help you overcome burnout now and in the future because I want you to be able to experience that fulfillment and satisfaction from your business.
In this edition of “The Independent” we’ll cover:
A lot of times we think that burnout is created by the workload, the nature of the work, or the fact that you’re juggling both working on your business and working in your business. But that’s not actually the case. Burnout isn’t caused by these external factors.
Burnout is caused by the way you are thinking about your workload, demanding clients, and/or billings. Your thoughts about all these business factors build up over time and create an immense amount of stress.
How do you know if you are in or approaching burnout as an independent consultant?
What is burnout? It is defined as the exhaustion of physical or mental or emotional strength or motivation, usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. As a result, you're feeling:
What are the impacts of burnout as an independent consultant?
Burnout will often affect both your professional and your personal life. When you are approaching or actively in burnout, you are:
When you own a consulting business, sometimes work can definitely overlap with your personal life. It’s hard to achieve a balance between the two all of the time. What I want to share with you today is a formula to overcome and eventually prevent this burnout so that you don't have to worry about whether your business is sustainable or not. And ultimately, you don't have to worry about going back to corporate to relieve the burnout.
How can you overcome burnout as an independent consultant?
I want to be the one to tell you that nothing needs to change with your workload, demanding clients, etc. Nothing about those external factors needs to change unless you want them to. But what does need to shift is your ability to manage your mental and emotional states. You have to be about to intentionally create productive thought processes about the situations that you're in.
Overcoming Burnout Step #1: Identify where you're at on the burnout scale
You need to identify your level of burnout on a scale of 1-10. You might be really burned out from:
Think about which of those personas you're operating from, and identify which of those is really burned out. Is it all of them, or is it just one of them? Is it one or two of them?
Recommended by LinkedIn
Overcoming Burnout Step #2: Ask yourself why you are burned out
Why is it that number? You want to amplify that. If it's a 9, you want to really look at what is causing the stress. What are you thinking about yourself, your business, and your clients? Is there anything about your business practices that is causing a buildup of stress?
Overcoming Burnout Step #3: Identify the short and long-term strategies that you can develop and implement in order for each of those business personas to reduce the number back down
How can you go from a burnout scale of 10 to a burnout scale of 2? You need to develop short and long-term strategies to overcome and eventually prevent burnout in the future. Let’s take a look at what some of these strategies might be with some examples.
Example #1: You might be creating burnout for yourself through constant worrying
You might have a subconscious negative talk track going on or it may be something that is blatantly obvious to you that you are worrying yourself sick about things in your business. It might show up in the form of anxiety or fear. When you notice that the worrying is happening, you can then start using the 3 steps I gave you.
1- Being aware of it
2- Understanding why you're having it
3- FIguring out what the thoughts are that are creating that worrying
A great way to really explore this “worry” that’s been created is to journal about why you are feeling the way that you are. Another short-term strategy is to sit down and really establish the true facts. Write down your thoughts and beside each one write a truth.
One of the long-term strategies you might employ for that constant worrying is to establish a daily routine to manage your mind as a business owner. You need to figure out what works for you as it relates to creating, reinforcing, and replacing your mindset and up-leveling it into that CEO-level mindset. This is the type of work that I do with my clients. I help them to create, refine, and develop a routine that works best for them.
Example #2: Potentially overworking without mentally resetting
You might be trying to maximize your billable hours and not really spending any time resetting. This is common in many independent consultants. We don't give ourselves the literal space in our calendar, which is the physical manifestation of it. But then when we don't have that, then we don't give our mind the time to take that break that it needs. As a result, we're fueling the stress and the frustration and creating burnout.
A short-term strategy for that overworking or not taking that mental break is to really set and stick to a revenue goal. Spoiler alert: more isn’t always better. it might take five years, or it might take five months depending on where you're starting from. Focus on creating a revenue goal in a way that feels really good to you with respect to what bills you need to pay and what you want to accomplish on a professional level for your business, and not falling into this trap that more is better,
Another short-term strategy is setting and sticking to your business calendar. You should be creating working hours for yourself and honoring them. You should also be creating days off for yourself and honoring them. Stick to your calendar knowing that the entire plan you put in place is for a reason.
In the long term, you want to start working your business into a model that does support you in having space for yourself, and for you to think as a CEO. This might look like reducing dependency on your current clients and creating a better lead-generation process.
Example #3: You’re really not feeling acknowledged, appreciated, or challenged n the type of work you're doing
You might have taken on a client that you can ”do the work in your sleep” and then you feel bored. You might be feeling unfulfilled. These are really important to acknowledge because over time they definitely build up frustration.
A short-term strategy is to think about yourself as your own manager. It's on you, as the person who's running the company, to make the other part of yourself who's delivering feel appreciated. Most likely you are doing the opposite.
A short-term strategy is to think about if you had an employee, how would you create that kind of employee appreciation? Would you be constantly berating them like you do yourself? NO! So how can you show yourself some kind of employee appreciation?
A long-term strategy is learning to internally create that appreciation and fulfillment vs needing something external to happen to create it. That's the ultimate in power as a business owner, and an independent consultant.
Put This Article Into Action
(1) Listen to Episode 088 of the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business Podcast - The Burnout Formula for Indepedent Consultants
In the episode, I cover:
(2) Take the Independent Consultant’s Productivity Assessment
After answering a few questions, you’ll be about to see on a broader scale where you’re watering down your own productivity. You will also be able to address it after gaining that awareness and with an action plan that I'll give you after you take the assessment. You can take this assessment at ProductiveIC.com.