We were lucky to catch up with Meg Garcia-Jahrman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Meg, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
I can remember a few distinct times in my life where I was quickly approaching burnout, or I was already there, as I’m sure many of you can as well.
My story with burnout is the same of everyone else’s where it is obvious that you have been doing to much. Where my story differs from others is that, I was able to recognize the patterns of burnout in my early 20s and I decided then I didn’t want that for my life.
I am sure many of us can relate to watching loved ones in our lives experience burnout. Taking on too much because that is what is expected— especially if you are a woman in our society.
We are expected to take on everything and anything regardless of our own capacity and well being. I slowly began to unpack the expectations I had of myself as I was leaving college and around the same time I was discovering more and more about my health. I was diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and mental illnesses that have only gotten more complex as I have gotten older.
That was a huge turning point for me— I realized I COULDN’T be burnt out anymore. The consequences were too much. Burnout could quickly turn into illness and it had the potential to be debilitating. It wasn’t something I was going to be able to afford with my health. So I kept unpacking and unpacking the expectations I had of myself and began setting boundaries around my time and energy.
It absolutely has not been easy, especially as someone who identifies as a people pleaser. But I do have some tips on how to avoid burnout that I want to share.
-Start by getting comfortable checking in with yourself and your energy. We are not taught in our society to check in with ourselves and our capacity. Start noticing your energy levels, what takes up more of your energy, what is easy, and try to make it a practice to check in with yourself multiple times a day. Check in with your emotional needs, physical needs, and mental needs.
-Evaluate your relationship with the word no. Is it easy for you to say? Is it hard? Is your automatic response always a yes? I noticed that I was always saying yes, even when that wasn’t practical or feasible for my current energy/capacity/time. So, I would eventually have to back track and say no. It is easier to just say no from the start, but you have to be comfortable with the word no and telling others no. Start digging into your relationship with the word no.
-Examine your relationship with perfectionism and productivity. How do you speak to yourself when you aren’t able to do something perfectly or you can’t do as much as you think you should? Do you have realistic expectations of what you can do with your capacity and energy? Or do you push yourself to do as much, as perfectly as possible at any given time? Our society expects perfection and the top level of productivity at any given time. It’s not your fault if they are deeply embedded into your thoughts, but they could potentially be fueling burnout.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I come from a background of nonprofit work, nannying, marketing, and politics.
I was able to attend college and graduate early with my degree in political science and sociology.
Once I graduated I recognized that I wasn’t going to be able to enter the workforce as I traditionally thought I would due to burnout and chronic health issues which is what led me to entrepreneurship. I needed something that could be flexible and malleable for my life and my needs. And starting my own business seemed to be the answer.
Over the years I have offered many different things and my business has gone through many iterations, but I have been exclusively working in marketing and business strategy for over 3 years now.
I identify as a low energy entrepreneur and work as a marketing + business strategist for other low energy entrepreneurs. What does this mean? A low energy entrepreneur is anyone who deals with a mental illness, a chronic illness, disability, they are neurodivergent, they are a parent or caretaker, or are generally someone who doesn’t have the same capacity as everyone else OR they just are interested in doing business in a slower and more gentle way.
Low energy entrepreneurship is something that I co-created with my business bestie, Kendall Barger. Together we have been able to cultivate a community of over 600 other low energy entrepreneurs in our Mighty Network community. (The Low Energy Entrepreneur Community is what it is called if you want to check it out!)
I feel so honored to work with the types of folks that I do because I know how hard business can be when the strategies and advice being shared just doesn’t work for you or your brain or your energy. Being able to share with folks that there is another way to do business is one of the things I love most about the work I do.
If you want to check out The Low Energy Entrepreneur Community, philosophy, and more, check out the Mighty Network community! We post a tip every week day, have a resource vault, and we also have one of our most popular calls about low energy entrepreneur strategy available for you to purchase as well.
Link to the Mighty Network– https://lowenergyentrepreneur.mn.co/share/3h9Vb6SCn7mJld4Y?utm_source=manual
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three things that I feel have been most impactful on my journey are persistence, flexibility, and learning to trust myself.
Persistence— Never truly giving up on my business has been one of the qualities that has been most impactful on my journey. Does that mean I haven’t given up at all over the last 6+ years? Absolutely not. I have given up a lot of things like offers, clients, strategies, etc. But I have never given up on the idea that I wanted to have a business that works for me.
Flexibility- Things almost never work out the way you expect or want them to when you are working as an entrepreneur or in your own business and being flexible is one of the most important qualities and skills that have allowed me to keep going. Allowing yourself to be flexible as things change and come up is going to be super supportive when it comes to the longevity of your work.
Learning to Trust Myself- There is so much talk in the entrepreneurship space about outsourcing, asking for help, hiring people to get you to the next level or the next place you want to go, etc. and for me the most impactful thing has been learning to trust myself and doing things without needing permission or approval from other people. For a long time I would rely on others to help me make choices about my marketing, my offers, branding, etc. when I really just needed to lean into trusting myself.
Once I began trusting myself, taking feedback and advice from others became a lot easier and more beneficial. I was able to take what resonated and leave the rest. I wasn’t forcing myself to do things that I didn’t want to do, just because I “should” do them. Trusting myself to make choices, even if they aren’t always the “right” ones.
For anyone early on in their journey, learning to trust yourself sooner rather than later is going to be so helpful. The process for that is unique to each person, but I always suggest starting with something small, like making a smaller decision and working your way up to bigger and bigger decisions.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Overwhelm can feel like a constant when you are a business owner or entrepreneur. Some of the ways I deal with overwhelm include…
-Practicing gratitude— if I am feeling more overwhelmed than normal I like to start up a daily gratitude practice again. I just have it on my list of daily tasks and I have myself write down 3-5 things I am grateful for. Even if they are silly! It can help ground you into the moment.
-Lean into my supportive practices— Supportive practices for me are things like tarot, breathwork, acupuncture, yoga, other forms of exercise, etc. It feel counter intuitive to spend time doing things that aren’t “accomplishing” anything when you are overwhelmed but leaning into supportive practices can help bring you back to a place where moving forward isn’t so overwhelming.
-Talk to friends— Sometimes all you need is to share what’s going on with a friend. Even better if it is someone who knows about your work and being an entrepreneur, but sometimes just having someone listen is all it takes.
Spend a day out of the house working somewhere else— when I feel super overwhelmed I make myself get out of the house and work somewhere else. When I used to have an office, I would also make myself go anywhere else but there. Getting out of your normal spaces can help trick your brain into feeling differently or into doing some things to help the overwhelm.
-Checking in with life responsibilities outside of business— I always like to check in with life/care tasks outside or business and see if life tasks are really what is overwhelming me. Sometimes when you are working for yourself, business and life become inseparable and what is actually overwhelming is the life/care tasks and NOT business itself. If this is the case, I try to set aside a couple of hours to tackle the things that are making me the most overwhelmed.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.meganjgarcia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meggarciajahrman/
- Other: Tiktok– @meggarciajahrman
Image Credits
Blue Flame Studio for all professional headshots
