Ep #164: Burnout & Taking a Sabbatical with Joanna Denton

Speak Up. Show Up.

It feels amazing to be in the flow of doing great work. Sometimes it’s hard to stop - to step away long enough to have a proper meal or get a full night’s sleep. And for short bursts of time, this can be just fine, if it doesn’t happen too often.

When you spend too much time working, especially under a great deal of stress, it can be hurtful to your mental and physical health.

The fact that our society inappropriately values hustle and overworking means burnout is way more common that we might realize. No one teaches us how to recognize when burnout is happening, so it can actually become a part of the culture of an organization.

It would be great if leaving a toxic culture to start our own business meant an immediate end to overworking and burnout, but that is often not the case. Habits and beliefs that build up over time are hard to recognize and release, even when they feel terrible.

In this interview with Joanna Denton, Executive & Speaking Coach, we get to hear Joanna’s story of burnout - two times - during her career. Along the way, Joanna learned a lot about how to recognize the signs of burnout as well as things you can do to take care of yourself when you notice these signs.

Inside, you’ll hear about:

• Some of the possible shadow side of creating a successful career
• What burnout means - and how to recognize the signs
• How Joanna experienced not one, but two, burnouts in her corporate career
• Why starting your own business is not the answer (in itself) to stopping burnout
• Joanna’s upcoming sabbatical - and how I’ve taken a few of them in my business, too
• The reason that writing a book, delivering a TED talk (Joanna has done) doesn’t guarantee success or ease in your business, thought leadership or life (and what they DO give and teach you)
• Ideas for rest and nourishment for your journey as a business leader

Joanna is vulnerable and real, funny and super smart. I hope you love this conversation as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.

Joanna’s Bio:

Joanna trained as a coach in 2015, and after working first in an in-house role for her then employer, she started her own business in October 2016, working for clients all around the world and in different industries and organisations. Prior to that, Joanna worked as a tax consultant for 16 years in Big 4 accounting firms in both the UK and Luxembourg, working up to the level of Director in 2010. Two burnouts in five years made her fall out of love with her well-established tax career, even though on the face of it she was at the top of her game. In 2014, after burnout number 2, she left tax, became a coach, and changed pretty much everything about how she lives her life. Since then, it has become her mission to make sure that her clients don’t wait till their lives are falling apart to make changes in their lives; she helps her clients continue doing what they love, AND do it in a way that they can still have the energy to have a life outside work with the ones they care about.

website: www.joannadenton.com

Download a free copy of Michelle’s book, Beyond Applause: Make a Meaningful Difference Through Transformational Speaking here: MichelleBarryFranco.com/FreeBook