Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Markowski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Morgan, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
It’s inevitable to feel burnt out as an entrepreneur. You’re the one responsible for your business operations, income, marketing, and so much more. Then you also have to consider what your lifestyle looks like. Habits, rituals, family, socializing, self care, etc. aka… your own lifestyle operations. They both go hand in hand. Sometimes when juggling both, you can feel extremely burnt out. Putting more time in energy towards your business one week, then putting more time and energy into your life and habits. It can get super overwhelming creating a healthy balance. I know because I’ve definitely been there.
Here’s what I’ve done to minimize constant burnout.
One of the first things I’ve done was look at my daily schedule. I wrote out the time I woke up and went to bed most days to analyze the in between hours. How much time was dedicated to my business? How much was dedicated to a healthy-ish lifestyle? I actually saw that my days were PACKED with useless and time consuming activities. These activities weren’t providing any value to my life or adding money to my pocket. Then I wrote out my “perfect day”… This is the same exercise but making up what I wanted my day to look like. After, I looked at both schedules i.e. what my days currently look like vs. how I want them to look — and decided I needed to make major adjustments. I let some things go and added more ME time whether I wanted to work on my own brand or work on my own well being. Instead of jamming every little thing into my schedule, I had more freedom to do what I either needed to get done or just simply rest.
Second thing I did was look at my business model. I was exhausting myself with lots of “done for you” services for my clients. I love working with clients and I provide excellent experiences/transformations, but it completely burnt me out to the point where I just felt like an overworked machine. I was pushing out constant work and projects but never had time to actually focus on my own brand. I’m a business owner, I should have dedicated time to work on my business so it can grow and be fulfilling to operate, but it was nearly impossible because of how I had set the model up to be a done-for-you service based business.
When I would work with clients, I ended up coaching and consulting with them throughout multiple areas of their brand building journey and digital marketing. I’ve always considered going that route i.e. consulting, coaching and/or education. But I’ve dealt with imposter syndrome and lack of confidence in those areas until I was able to push through. After I decided to go that route in my business, I decided to pivot from service provider to a B2B creator brand. I started to offer done-with-you programs and consulting sessions which has completely lightened my work load AND my brand is being positioned at a higher level than before. With this type of business model, I have more time, freedom and flexibility to choose what I need to do to either move the needle in my business or stay sane, relaxed, and at ease.
Lastly, mindfulness and mindset activities help ease my “people pleasing” tendencies. As a seasoned people pleaser and growing up in a workforce that always told me that the “customer’s always right”, I almost had to rewire my brain to find the confidence within my identity as a business owner. When you work for someone else, you usually take direction from someone higher up, but being in control of most things within my own business and even my life, I have to be the one to make decisions and essentially be in the driver’s seat. I’ve decided to create morning and night time rituals, theme my days for specific tasks, set boundaries within my own personal life to also client collaborations, and more. This has helped ease my mind, make it less scattered and all over the place and has helped me stay focused on what needs to be done vs. what would be nice to have done.
Burnout comes and goes as an entrepreneur, service provider, creator, creative, and anyone else under the sun. But to overcome this is to one be aware of the signs like restlessness, scattered or brain fog, fatigue, stress, imposter syndrome, irritability, etc. And second, looking at your day to day to see what’s working and what’s not, what’s valuable to you and what you can let go to free up more time for yourself. Lastly, trust yourself, be kind to yourself. There’s a light on the other side of the tunnel. You’ll find it.
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’m a strategic brand partner who helps creative service providers break free from their business chaos, amplify their personality online and rediscover the joys of being human through pivoting into creator brands. I’ve been a graphic designer and photographer for 10 years. Lived in Chicago for 6 and now reside in the burbs with my partner and pets.
In 2023, I realized I was stuck in service provider purgatory and wanted something bigger for my brand. I made the decision to pivot my brand into a creator brand and now teach others to do it too! In 2024, I’m launching new offers to help service providers redefine and restructure their brand and vision. I’m so excited!!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’d say my determination and ambition to succeed are two qualities that have completely impacted my journey. Just because I had the mindset that if you don’t quit, you can’t fail. But at the same time, I kind of wish I stepped into my brand pivot as a creator instead of a service provider sooner. Those two qualities probably are double edge swords at this point because having that ambition and determination to keep going and work for what I wanted also got me to the point of burn out — picture just hitting a wall constantly over and over again. There comes a point where you need to stop hitting the wall and make a decision to change something if it’s not working. It might be considered failure but I’d fail again if it meant doing something instead that actually would bring me what I’m looking for!
Third skill I wish I utilized more of is digital marketing. It’s one of the biggest drivers to getting eyes on your brand and offers. Whether you post to social media once a week consistently or five times a week — staying consistent with the quality, value and posting will go a long way.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Honestly, providing me support, interest, and space. They’ve been supportive from the beginning of this journey which I’m very lucky and privileged to have. I’m so grateful and appreciate them every minute of every single day. They’ve really given me the space to grow into the person I am today but also have respected my decisions to become a business owner, even if it meant I might fail. Their constant support and curiosity keeps me going!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.morganmarkowski.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganmarkowski/
- Other: Tik tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morganmarkowski
Image Credits
Emma Zanger | EAZ PHOTO | https://www.instagram.com/emmaazanger/ Alisha Tova | https://www.instagram.com/alishatova/
