867: If You’re Battling Burnout, Try This 1-Hour Self Care Routine

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2:01For the people who are always super resistant to implementing the body or the movement, I'm like, turn on Beyonce, turn on your favorite playlist and just dance. Dance it out. Just dance. And like, you'll be amazed at how like you get into it. And that is a good cardio workout. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks, all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency.

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3:17This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Do you ever feel like your to-do list is absolutely endless and self-care is the first thing that will always fall off of it? If you've ever told yourself, I'll rest when I finish this project, or I just need to push through, or when I have something to celebrate, I'll do it with self-care. Well, if that's you, this is the episode for you. Alicia Robertson is on a mission to help women entrepreneurs manage their capacity and make rest a daily priority. After experiencing severe burnout, she shut down her coaching business, took a full year off, and did the deep work to redefine success.

3:55Now, as the founder of Doing Everyday Well, she's giving women practical tools to build businesses that don't require sacrificing their well-being. In this episode, we're tackling how to actually schedule self-care into your daily life, what the biggest misconception is when it comes to self-care, and why rest is your most profitable business strategy. I am obsessed with this topic and I have seen an absolute transformation in my own personal life due to some of the strategies we're talking about today. So if you are tired of glorifying the hustle and ready to start prioritizing yourself for real, Alicia and I are here for you.

4:34Alicia, welcome to the Gold Digger Podcast. So many entrepreneurs struggle to take time for themselves, but I feel like self-care is such a buzzword these days. So I want to kick this off and ask you, what is the biggest misconception about self-care, especially for entrepreneurs? I believe that is the misconception that self-care is just a buzzword. I think the world that we kind of live in now, like self-care has been seen as this like fluffy word that always feels good. It's all about bubble baths and spa days and lounging around. And I think that that has really made a lot of entrepreneurs feel like self-care is just like this reward that we can get if we work hard enough.

5:27Or it made us feel like self-care is just something that, oh, it's not that serious. You know, I can take a bubble bath anytime. And I believe that the way the world has kind of shifted and made self-care look, it's kind of made us feel like it's not a necessity when it really is. It should be a regular part of our day, a regular part of our life. And because of that big misconception that self-care isn't, quote unquote, that serious or is just a buzzword, a lot of us are suffering from the lack of it. And you probably know, Jenna, that self-care is not always the pretty side. It's not always beautiful.

6:09Self-care is sometimes hard. It's ugly. I mean, I don't know about you, but if I get on a therapy session and it's a rough therapy session, technically, that is self-care. but I cry afterwards and that is not pretty. It's not good looking, but it's necessary for me to be the woman that I want to be, the mom, the wife, the business owner that I want to be. And I think the biggest misconception is that it's something that can just be put to the side or done at a later time, or once we finally earned it or done enough, we can make it a priority. yes to all of this I feel like if self-care had a PR rep they would be the marketers behind bath bombs and face masks like oh that that person needs to get paid a lot of money because how we've been sold it and you touched on this and you said it and I was like yes is that it's like a treat and it's something to be earned and if we really unpack it self-care, the words taking care of ourselves needs to be a daily practice.

7:22And I think it was so powerful how you touched that. Like it isn't always the pretty parts. In fact, I would argue that most aspects of self-care aren't easily marketable, which is why we're so confused. Yeah. Cause nobody wants to talk about crying after a therapy session. That isn't pretty. Right. I mean, nobody's showing that stuff and that's like the ultimate self-care. So I want to know, let's speak to our listener right now. And I'm going to make some assumptions about them based on my own human experience. Perhaps they're burnt out. Perhaps they're overwhelmed. Maybe they perhaps are ending their day where they have worked every minute of the day and yet they go down to rest their head and they feel like, what did I even accomplish?

8:11why is this prioritization of self over all of the other areas of our lives that are pulling at us so important and why does it need to become a priority yeah because if you're burnt out no matter how hard you work within your business you're not going to get to where you ultimately want to be and if you do you're going to be so exhausted so burnt out so unwell that you're not going to be able to enjoy your success. Like I hear these stories all the time about billionaires who are making all this money and seemingly have these like perfect lives, but they're miserable. And it's more than likely because they've worked so hard.

8:56They've built this thing, which is incredible, but they haven't taken the time out to actually take care of themselves. So once they've hit like the mountaintop of their career, it's like, I'm exhausted. I'm sick. My body is breaking down on me. My family doesn't like me. And it's like, what did I do all of this for? And so if you're burnt out, even if you are able to push through and put your best work out, which is another point, I don't believe that you are able to put out your best work if you are burnt out. Are you even going to be able to enjoy this big life that you've worked so hard to build if you're burnt out?

9:37So whatever your idea of success is, whether it's money based, family based, time, freedom, like, is that going to be something you can actually enjoy and feel like, oh, wow, I really have this great, well-rounded life. if you're exhausted and burnt out and can barely even form a sentence. And I've found myself in that position before, which is why I created my company, because it's like I've reached this pinnacle of success. I have accomplished all of these things, but I'm miserable and I hate being here. And I want more than anything for entrepreneurs to realize that the money, the time, the freedom are great.

10:19But how you feel in your body emotionally in your mind is ultimately what's going to matter when you're 60, 70, 80, 90 years old. I love this so much. And I can attest to everything you just said. I know some of the most successful people out there who are still seeking and searching to find what happiness is. and I also think that you know I've had moments I'll never forget like the first time I hit six figures I remember like standing in the shower using the same herbal essence I had used the day before thinking like why are the angels not singing like where are the gold balloons that the girls on Instagram all have like why is nobody clapping and I was so burnt out and it was like this realization of like this goal isn't even sustainable, heck, it's not even the right goal.

11:17Right. And I think so many women have done that where we've kind of put like the pinpoint in the map in the wrong destination and we haven't enjoyed the journey. And so when we reach wherever it was that we were going to, we're like, is this it? Like, is this what it's supposed to feel like? And so I think this is so powerful because if I could tell entrepreneurs anything, it is to set goals that allow you to enjoy the ride because the achievement is one piece. And we are often the type of people that are already on to the next thing when the achievement hits. And so if you're not enjoying the ride, you are literally missing your life.

11:58Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it's crazy because I didn't come to that realization until after I had my daughter, because I was so used to hustling and going and setting another goal and setting another goal and setting another goal. And it wasn't until I had my daughter and you know how it is with kids and newborns, everything stops. Everything stops for them. And I unfortunately went through a really rough stint of like postpartum depression. And while it was hard, I'm almost thankful for it because it forced me to sit with myself and ask myself, like, is this the life that you want? this constantly trying to go after something else, constantly going through like the ebbs and flows of burnout and just constantly like stuck in that cycle.

12:51And it forced me to sit with myself and say like, I don't want my daughter growing up thinking this is okay. That newborn baby season, as you know, only lasts a second. I didn't want to miss any of that. And I knew that I, in that moment, I needed to take better care of myself if I wanted to be the ultimate idea of success, which was being a good mom, which was, you know, being able to show up in my home as I wanted to be. And that life I was living before was just no longer sustainable for me to be able to be that. This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money.

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15:31Go to shopify.com slash gold digger. shopify.com slash gold digger. I couldn't agree more. And I don't think you need kids to have this realization. Oh, anyone that has walked this journey. Like I remember when I had my second daughter Quinn, and now I'm chasing a toddler, sustaining a newborn, trying to heal myself, and do all the things like that for me, it was when I actually really started taking my own health and my rituals and practices and my own self-care so seriously because I was like, if I don't have the energy it requires to do the things I actually want to do, none of it is going to get done.

16:15And that for me was such a wake-up call of like for so many years, I think I had this belief of like, you can either be successful in business or you can be well. like I don't know where my brain came up with that but I think there was this piece of me that was just like so all in on my career which is beautiful right I really love that version of me but it wasn't one that could follow me into the next stage of life and I just remember being in this place of like breastfeeding chasing a toddler you don't really get down time the second time around and thinking about like, I have this book that I really care about and I want to launch it into the world.

16:59Well, I need energy. And in order to get energy, I have to take care of myself. And so it's just interesting because it shifts so many of the narratives that I think we as women specifically battle when it comes to, you know, exercise is a punishment, not a way to celebrate. and food is either a reward or something to be withheld. And it really changes the dynamic. It changes the conversation. It changes your identity with it. And it puts you in a position where like self-care can become a non-negotiable without taking away from your life, but only adding to it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I got to that point where it was like, girl you have to do this because if you don't you're going to end up in a really dark place and I knew that's not where I wanted to be so like you said I had to shift my mindset around yes like doing this cardio workout is going to hurt but you know what you're going to feel stronger you're going to feel more like yourself you're going to feel more alive and I really had to shift my mindset around like, no, this needs to be a natural part of your day and not just something that we use almost like, I use the example of like cough syrup.

18:21When you have a cold, you want to take some cough syrup, you know, to instantly try to make yourself feel better. But we have to stop using self-care as like a quick fix. It has to become a regular part of your day, a regular part of your life, if you want to get real results. Now you can go do yoga and probably feel a little bit relieved for, you know, 20 minutes or so, but if you're going to skip out on it for the next 20 days or so, you're not going to really get the full benefits of it. So you have to stop using self-care as like that quick fix. And that was probably the biggest mindset shift that I had to overcome.

18:58It's like, okay, no, this needs to be just as important as eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, taking care of yourself. Yeah. I love that. I think too, it's so interesting because, and for me, kids was a great magnifying glass on this, but like when you look at when your time evaporates, you really notice like a lot of projects expand to the amount of time we give them. right? And so whether you have, you know, a two hour nap window or an eight hour work day, a lot of times you can be shocked at what you can get done in those. And I think what happens, and I know what happened for me is like all of the different self-care rituals or routines that would benefit me were always put at the bottom of my list.

19:45And we all have the bottom of the list, right? Whether it's starting your email list or actually scheduling that, you know, meet up with your friends where you feel alive again or whatever that is. We all have the bottom of the list and we know what's on it. And it's just really interesting to me now because I, at this stage of my life and in this stage of entrepreneurship, have more energy and more stamina than I ever had before. And I often look back and think, if I would have had these practices and these rituals and had this level of energy, what could I have done? And so it's interesting how we usually put it to the bottom of the list.

20:23But when we take care of ourselves in the ways that energize us, that ground us, that bring us back into balance, you will be a better entrepreneur than if you cracked open that laptop 30 minutes sooner to get to that email, right? Right. Exactly. What is, so one thing I love that you talk about is you talk about taking at least one hour a day of rest. So for a busy entrepreneur, let's dig into this, who is like, wait, I have no spare hours. I have no spare minutes. Why do you believe in this? And what are some practical ways to make this work? Yeah. So going back to what you literally just said, like we have more time than what we think.

21:09And when I talk to other entrepreneurs, I'm like, no, but I, you know, I'm a caregiver. I'm a mom. I work full time. I have my business. It's like, I don't have any space in my day to take care of myself. And I'm like, you, I'm pretty sure you do. So I created a framework called the Me Hour, which is a super simple framework that helps entrepreneurs to realistically implement time for rest and self-care into their day. And the framework looks like spending 15 minutes on your mind. So mindfulness, that could be a meditation. It could be sitting in silence. It could be spending some time just brain dumping or journaling.

21:51And then you spend 15 minutes on your body. And this does not have to look like a hardcore workout if that's not your thing. It could be going out and tending to your garden for 15 minutes or walking your dog around the block for 15 minutes. Just something that will get your body moving. For the people who are always super resistant to implementing the body or the movement, I'm like, turn on Beyonce, turn on your favorite playlist and just dance. Dance it out. Just dance. And like, you'll be amazed at how like you get into it. And that is a good cardio workout. Zumba doesn't exist for nothing, right?

22:29And then I say to spend 30 minutes doing something that brings you joy. I feel like for entrepreneurs, we get so wrapped up in the strategic part of our business. We are trying to create content, which is super strategic. We are trying to send out emails and follow up with potential clients that we almost forget that although we love what we do, those things are still work and business related. And I want more entrepreneurs to do things that bring them joy. So what is something that is just for you that is not tied to a specific monetary goal or business goal, but that's just going to make you feel happy?

23:08So that could be 30 minutes of coloring. I recently got really into bullet journaling. So like that is like how I spend 30 minutes of just something that has nothing to do with anyone else, has nothing to do with work, but it just lights you up and reminds you of that creativity that is inside of you. So we're all creative, like regardless of what you do, we all have a little bit of creativity in us. So just doing something that brings you joy. And I tell people, yes, it's an hour. And they're like, well, it's just an hour. It's not going to make a big difference. But that hour every day compounded over time is going to make a huge difference in your emotional well-being, your mental well-being, your physical well-being.

23:53You're going to feel so much better about yourself if you can just stick to this hour. And if you're still on the fence and you're like, Alicia, I still don't have an hour. I get it. I get it. I do. But, you know, it doesn't have to be one consecutive hour if that feels like a lot to you. start out by doing 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon, and then 30 minutes in the evening. And the best thing about this framework is if you wake up and you're like, I feel tight. I really need to spend more time with movement. Spend more than 15 minutes on the movement section. If you are kind of feeling like you are in a brain fog, you really just need to get some things out of your head, spend more than 15 minutes on journaling or working on that mindfulness piece.

24:42It is customizable to whatever it is that you are needing in that moment, and it can change within the day. You don't have to stick to a specific set of activities. You can use it to explore and try new things. The point is just get into the habit of spending at least one hour to yourself. And as you get in the groove and you realize, oh, I like this and I have more time than I thought, expend that time to two hours, maybe maybe three hours if you're really, you know, feeling yourself. But it's just a really simple way to make self-care and rest a priority without feeling like you are putting the rest of your responsibilities to the side in order to make it happen.

25:27I know as entrepreneurs, a lot of people that I've spoken to and even for myself have said that taking time for themselves makes them feel guilty because it's like I should be spending this time doing something productive. But rest is productive. Rest is, again, it's necessary. So just getting into the habit of spending like one hour a day on you and I promise you, come back and report to me. It's going to be well worth it and you're going to notice a significant difference in your life. I love that. And I also think if anyone says they don't have that time in order to prove it to me, I need to see your screen time report.

26:06Oh yeah. Track your time. Yeah. Like, okay. If somebody's like, I don't have an hour, I'd be like, excuse me, hand over your phone real quick. Well, let's just do a little audit because I feel like we don't even realize how much time we lose on devices. And I also just love the advice too. Cause like, even I remember when I was starting to get back into working out, I would tell myself like, just do it for five minutes and you can quit if you don't want to keep doing it. And I've never quit a single workout because it's like, once you start to get in the habit and you start to feel the difference, you won't quit.

26:40But it's like the first five minutes of any run always sucks. The first five minutes of learning something new always sucks. And it's like, if you can push past that barrier of discomfort, Oh my gosh, there's like a whole new world waiting on you. And I think that's so exciting. And I love to like, I was thinking of the joy piece, because I feel like that's a huge piece that we miss as entrepreneurs. And I think, you know, last year, I kind of called it like my year of joy, where I was like, I want to have hobbies outside of my business. And I want my business to be the least interesting thing about me.

27:19And I think a lot of people listening, if somebody asked you like, what do you do for fun? We would come up blank, right? Because like, what do you mean for fun? Like I work and I take care of other people. And at the end of the day, I fall asleep because I'm exhausted. And so I love that you focus on that joy piece that's not monetized, that's not productive because I think it can bring out like our childlike tendencies and things that we may be bits of us that we lost along the way. And I think that's really beautiful. Yeah. I understand that everyone's lifestyle is different. So if you're like, you know, that joy piece has to kind of intermingle with family time.

28:04Okay. Make them do something that you enjoy doing. Break out that puzzle, break out those crayons, like do something that yes, it may have to involve your children or your spouse or whatever, but you're still getting that time doing something that lights you up. And that's the most important piece. Yeah. And I think too, like, I love that you said doing a puzzle. We love puzzles. I feel like doing something tactile with your hands that doesn't involve screens is such a beautiful reminder of like presence and being here now. And I feel like kids definitely bring that out. Like we are dining room table.