Managing Founder Burnout

Dispatch from a seed-stage CEO and WIP

This week, I cohosted NYC #TechWeek panel Scaling for Fulfillment: Tools to Avoid Burnout + Enjoy the Journey with coaches Megan Hellerer and Barbara Levin and multi-time founders Ali Kriegsman and Jordan Fliegel.

After recovering from a mini burnout earlier this year, and reading about Ali's burnout + recovery journey in her substack, New Motives, I knew sharing Megan's work and spreading the word about her forthcoming book Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life could help a lot of founders in the startup ecosystem.

Dr. Barbara Levin guided us in a powerful discussion on boundaries, signs of burnout, working with sprint seasons, letting go of perfectionism + control, managing investor expectations, and what the startup ecosystem has to gain from deprogramming from hustle culture (spoiler alert: innovation, creativity, aka EVERYTHING).

Here are a few guest submitted questions + my responses.

Q: What does ‘work-life balance’ mean to you?

A: I don’t see work and life as opposing forces. My life’s work is to live in alignment with my purpose and my work is a manifestation of my mission: to help others increase their resources.?

Q: How did you first recognize that you were experiencing burnout and what steps did you take to get through it?

A: After taking a few days off around the December holidays late last year, I entered 2024 super rested + bursting with energy.

By Jan 9, I was flat on the ground with a blaring headache and unable to think straight. Because I had taken some rest, I was able to feel the difference between rested and overworked and quickly.? On "early signs of burnout" day, with the help of mentor Kevin King, we identified that I had not deputized our leaders to make decisions without me. Therefore, I was drained from being involved in nearly every decision big or small (and every mtg and slack channel).

Kevin told me: "You can create an environment where failure is accepted and your team can move fast without you to achieve 110% of your goals. Or, you will be the block to every decision and maybe only achieve 60%."

I had been micromanaging by default and it took us identifying the problem, having a conversation with the leaders, and then being diligent to create the culture of radical ownership and determine which decisions I should be involved in and which I can butt out of. This is an ongoing WIP and takes commitment on my part to give up perfectionism + control to save myself from burnout and let the team move FAST.

Q: How do you approach your work at the intersection of success and fulfillment?

A: I’m building for the biggest possible outcome for myself, team, and investors and, there is no guarantee of a massive exit. I have to decide to continually choose this path despite the potential outcome because it could be huge or it could be zero. I don’t want these years to feel like a waste.?

If I’m living in alignment with my purpose daily then I’m directionally right and that is success and fulfillment for me.?

Through my work with Megan and her approach to directional vs destination-driven living, I am always asking myself: "Is this the right path, do I want to keep going this way?"

It’s a daily check-in: "Would I rather be doing anything else today?"

I keep actively choosing my path every day. The destination is not a given. It’s the daily journey I need to enjoy.

Q: How do you prioritize solving short term problems with building longer term strategy, making space for brainstorming, visioning when you have so many immediate fires to put out?

A: 1. I need blank space. Time without inputs. I won’t have energetic space for creativity and long term visioning if I’m up-to-here with to-dos or booked with back-to-back calls and an overflowing inbox.

This is space I didn’t have until I hired help and then deputized the leadership team to move fast and fail without me (see above). That structure was critical to creating space.?

2. Next, add creative inputs. Make the time to read a book, listen to a podcast, or meet with a coach or mentor; brainstorm with a team member. The next big idea may not come in that meeting but the combination of having space for the inputs and the free brain space in the following days creates the conditions for the ideas to emerge.

Q: How do you prioritize the right opportunities to say “yes” vs “no” to, and how has that changed for you over time?

A: In the early years (prior to seed round), networking and making enough potential connections as possible was the name of the game.

During Techstars, Jordan gave us the best framework for how a CEO's time should be spent: Fundraising, Hiring, Sales, and Product Roadmap / setting the vision along with being the face of the company / PR activities. I want 90% of my time to be allocated to those tasks. The other 10% is admin and bullshit we just have to deal with.?

Saying NO is a practice.?

If it feels like a “should” - then it’s a NO.

I owe it to my team to give my time to the company and to them. This has helped my guilt of “feeling bad” about saying no to others + intros I don't have time for. My team deserves my time more than a stranger.

I substitute intro meetings with support via email by sharing resources including my podcast interviews, posts/articles, and answering questions or making investor intros.

Q: Would love tactics and how to schedule days/weeks to move forward and not burn out

A:

1. Focus on one thing at a time, multitasking is a myth
2. Scheduled times to check emails + slacks so I'm not constantly distracted by them
3. Mini breaks throughout the day for mental break / mini meditation or breathwork?during my shower, meal, or walk to a meeting. Short bits of time without any inputs: phone in face, podcast playing, etc.
4. Time for deep work (Fridays)
5. Avoid code switching throughout the day with similar meetings blocked together
6. No evening plans two nights in a row

Pre-order my coach, Megan Hellerer's book here.