Kim McCaffery, InventoryLab’s Customer Learning & Development Coordinator, was among this year’s speakers at Midwest eCom and the CES VI conference. She presented on the topic of burnout and the often overlooked impact it can have on entrepreneurs and the success of their businesses. She’s now joined by Jeff Campbell, one of InventoryLab’s Customer Champions, to continue the conversation and really get into the specifics of burnout as well as the tools eCommerce entrepreneurs can use to banish it forever. We’re pleased to present the video and transcript of this important discussion below.

Transcript

Kim: I’m really excited we’re getting the chance to have this conversation. We went to Midwest eCom this year as well as CES VI. At both, I ended up getting the chance to present on self-care and burnout and how it applies to eCommerce entrepreneurs. We got a lot of really great feedback about the topic and we’re still getting really great feedback about it. So you and I were talking and thought let’s make this into an online training that we can post in the YouTube channel so more people can get ahold of the content. So that’s what we’re going to do today! I’m really excited that we’re able to do this together.

Jeff: Yeah, same here!

Kim: So the topic, I started to look at it back earlier in the year. It just seemed like I started to hear more and more from people describing symptoms of burnout and I thought that was really interesting. I think I’m not alone in that because around the same time I started seeing other folks having webinars on the same topic like Robyn Johnson at Best From the Nest, she speaks to that pretty often and self-care. She really prioritizes self-care very well. Stephen Smotherman also back in May had a really great webinar where we looked at burnout and how it’ll  affect your business. In fact, I think he even said something along the lines of Come find out why your business is failing but the purpose behind that was really about burnout so it’s really a significant issue. Would you agree?

Jeff: Yeah, I think so. We’ve all come to this InventoryLab team from different viewpoints and careers and we’re all moulded together now but you’ve always kind of prioritized self-care, preventing burnout, making sure that we’re all taking the time for ourselves. So things don’t affect us and our families and those sorts of things. Is that something that comes from your professional background or your work history? How did you come about that?

Kim: It does. And it probably played a big role in your previous career also. Before IL I worked in the nonprofit sector and that particular sector, folks working in that line of work are really at high risk for burnout. A lot of victim advocacy work, violence prevention work. I did a lot of public speaking but also a lot of one-on-one victim advocacy work and in that kind of work it’s called Vicarious Trauma so it’s always being just very vigilant about avoiding vicarious trauma and having pieces in place so you’re able to navigate through that. Because burnout, really in any occupation could bring things to a screeching halt. The same the true was for you I assume in your previous background in 911?

Jeff: Yeah, definitely.

Kim: So were you given tools and education around avoiding burnout or having an ongoing discussion around it?

Jeff: To be honest, early in my career it was not anything anybody ever really talked about. You just of… for us it was call to call to call. You’d get off one call with maybe a baby not breathing and right into the next call where there was a horrific accident. You barely have time to breath before you’re picking up the next one because in the 911 industry, it’s notorious understaffed so we didn’t have the luxury of getting off the floor for half hour and take a breath. It just doesn’t happen. You’re going going going and the mindset is just buckle-up, you can do this, you don’t need to take a break. You know? Eventually, in the last few years of my career they started to emphasize more, but they still have the issue with understaffing but they’re trying to do more stress management and that sort of thing. So it’s getting better but there’s still a lot of that attitude like you can push through it.

Kim: Yeah, there really are a lot of conversations around self-care but even in fields you’d think would be – that would really prioritize it. My son’s a First Responder, he’s a Firefighter in the City of Philadelphia and they do have conversations around self-care but not to the extent that I think that they should. 911 would definitely be one that I’d say are folks that need to have ongoing self-care education and not just encouraged, but should be required. In social work types of fields, non-profit, self-care is really a conversation, but I did, I kind of developed a reputation as somebody that prioritized so I’d be called in to offer education and trainings to other professionals other agencies around self-care; hoping to perpetuate that. But honestly I didn’t anticipate seeing the kinds of signs of burnout I’m seeing among entrepreneurs and when I really started to look at the topic, I found a lot of things that really surprised me. For example, entrepreneurs are really at one of the highest risks of burnout.

Jeff: So when you’re talking about burnout, is that something different than Depression? How would you define the two and the differences between the two?

Kim: That’s a really great question and really important question. So they do kind of manifest the same but it is so critical to differentiate the two. When we’re talking about Depression we’re going to see things like ongoing fatigue, isolation, [change] from a routine that they enjoyed, whatever the case may be. And burnout can also manifest the same way. But what they [also] have in common is that they both take place over time. And that’s really important to remember when we’re talking about treatment or what treatment is going to look like and how you navigate through that.

The big difference is that burnout is occupational. It’s always going to be occupational. So, when we’re talking about eCommerce entrepreneurs, people selling on Amazon, eBay, whatever, a change in the bottom line, a nice uptick in the net profit can alleviate symptoms of burnout or the opposite direction in net profit, can exacerbate symptoms of burnout. But when we’re talking about Depression, it doesn’t matter what the net profit or what the bottom line is doing, Depression is going to be consistent. And the treatment is going to be, sometimes medical intervention, talk therapy, those sorts of things. But self-care is going to be entirely different.

Jeff: Gotcha. Are there any risk factors you’ve found that you’ve seen that are maybe unique to some of the eCommerce or online retailers that differentiate them from say a different type of business?

Kim: Yes, absolutely. So teachers, they experience burnout, they’re at high risk. Physicians are at high risk. There’s all sort of roles you would think of but entrepreneurs, again, they’re at high risk and they do have unique risk factors.

#1 Especially working with InventoryLab, we have a lot of new entrepreneurs that don’t have that background in business. So they may have left traditional careers and now they own the
business. They’re responsible for the well-being and the whether or not this thing floats or sinks. And that’s a very uneasy feeling for a lot of people.

#2 They’re going to have more skin in the game as well. Financially maybe they’ve got their own financing funding that – which is usually the case. Thankfully with Amazon and eCommerce that doesn’t have to be a financial risk that if you were to lose it would be devastating to your family or to your well-being, but they usually have their personal finances in the game.  

#3 A lot of folks are brand new entrepreneurs so they didn’t start businesses right out of high school, maybe they’re starting businesses post retirement or a different phase in life and it’s new to them and very, very exciting. It feels like it’s their baby. So they have a lot of emotional investment in that as well. So that’s going to be a factor.

#4 If they have employees. That’s usually a very uneasy feeling for people at first. They feel like not only is my well-being on the line theirs is too.

#5 A lot of folks are going into partnership with a spouse or a partner a family member, a really really good friend and that’s a really great thing if people can maintain healthy boundaries, but it can also, well… it does, even if it’s going perfectly it does add a different layer of stress; a different kind of stress almost on top of it.  

#6 And then especially for the eCommerce crowd: Location or geography puts them at risk. You know, if they’re inventory is stored in their home, if they’re listing and packing and shipping in their home, if they have easy access to their workspace it is extremely difficult to separate themselves from that. But it is going to be necessary at some point in time.

#7 You’ve got to unplug at some point in time and it’s very very difficult; especially our crowd, they’re known for multitasking. I used eCommerce forever. I relied on eBay and Amazon to keep the lights on before I joined IL. It just felt like I can’t just sit here and watch this movie. I could also be listing on eBay while this movie is on. You know? I could be multitasking. I can’t just duck into TJMaxx and just get what I need to get and get and get out because it would go against every part of my being to not take a swing by the go-to areas of TJMaxx to source or to scan. It weaves itself throughout your daily life. You know? Especially Retail Arbitrage, you’re not home with your family, you’re getting out early for Black Friday. So, it’s difficult. It’s not 9 to 5, it can be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You kind of have all of these things intertwined with each other and together can really put somebody back them into a corner and they’re all of a sudden facing burnout and they’re not really sure what to do.

Jeff: When you mentioned, “I’ll just duck into this store or that store. You never know what you’re missing if you don’t. So there’s always that kind of pull and it’s constantly on your mind. So it sounds like they’re are unique risk factors for the online retailers. But as far as the signs of burnout, is that also unique? Are they similar? How does that all manifest itself?

Kim: A lot of it, again, is still going to look like those traditional signs of Depression that we’ve all heard from the many commercials that we see. So ongoing fatigue, exhaustion that is ongoing. But we’re not talking about exhaustion because you stayed up late the night before, but this is ongoing, almost like unexplained sort of fatigue. Sort of like being run down.

Short-temperedness, sudden cynicism. So this is going to be anything that’s really differs than who you were before. So if you were short-tempered before and you’re short-tempered now we’re not going to look at that as a red flag. But something that is very different from who you were before.

But outside of that you want to keep yourself in check if you’re saying things like,

“What’s the point? What’s the point in doing that? Everybody else have this thing figured out, I don’t. Everybody is gaining traction and I’m not. I’m going online, looking at all these videos and seeing everybody screenshots from the Seller App… It’s not working for me, what’s the point? I can’t make a difference.”

It always kind of makes me cringe when I see people post the screen shots to say Look at the sales I had today! but it’s like seriously? If you got all your expenses out of there and got all your Cost of Goods Sold out of there, then tell us what it is… And we’ll celebrate that with you and we’ll pat you on the back and tell you what a great woman you are and awesome entrepreneur… But posting that kind of stuff without the explanation, it really is very harmful to others. You know? Because they don’t understand; they don’t have that true perspective. But that sense of – the loss of a sense of self-efficacy. That what you do matters and that your voice matters. So if you’re feeling or even articulating, what’s the point? you want to start to see that as a red flag.

Feelings of isolation, definitely. Like, who am I going to talk to? Especially if you’re doing it on your own, if you don’t have a partner or business partner it’s difficult to talk to a spouse or partner. A guy named Brett was just speaking at CES VI and he said that his mother has no clue what he does and she asked something like, ‘What do you do for Amazon again?’ and I thought, Oh my gosh, that’s my mother! She still tells people I work for Amazon. So I can’t call my mom on the phone and talk with her about that because she doesn’t understand what I’m doing. If I don’t have that network, who am I going to talk to? Who can I say, everybody has this figured out, I’m hitting a wall here. So, kind of just feeling isolated from everybody.

Lack of desire to engage whether it’s business or personal. But again, this is going to be something very different than who you were before. If you weren’t very engaged with your family before …you need to engage with your family. Just sayin’. Just putting that out there… But if you weren’t before and you aren’t now, we’re not going to look at that as a sign of burnout. Just as if you were very excited to get up in the morning to work on your business, you want you didn’t mind the clutter of your eBay inventory, you just liked to go down there and kind of mess around with it because it made it you feel good, and now all of a sudden you’re thinking, I don’t even want to look at it. I just want to forget it’s even there. That’s a very big difference in behavior.

Jeff: So those negative effects that people experience with burnout, it sounds like those are unique as well in eCommerce? Is that correct?

Kim: A lot of it really can be because, again, a lot of times people are going to be in business with their spouse and that location factor. So entrepreneurs in general can be at risk for this but when we’re talking about 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year… it’s unique to somebody that that’s an electrician and starts her own business or his own business, they can walk into TJMaxx and it’s not going to be an issue. They don’t feel like if I don’t look this is going to be the one time that it was going to my breakthrough and I missed it. I just walked through passed an entire shelf of those things I could’ve done something awesome…
So they’re at risk in very different ways.

But when we talk about those things like the effects and how am I going to know if I’m experiencing burnout if you’re already experiencing burnout it’s important to say you’ll have a tendency to lack the self-awareness to recognize those signs. So it’s almost that’s why I would want to say – if you’re hearing in your head, What’s the point, what’s the point, what’s the point? and that wasn’t there before know that even though you might not be able to pinpoint that as burnout, that should start to draw your attention to that. So even if you’re not self-aware of it, trust yourself enough to know it’s something you need to evaluate.

Jeff: So those are kind of the broad signs I guess that people might can get an inkling that something’s wrong, what should they specific be looking for and those negative effects of burnout?

Kim: If they’re experiencing burnout, first it’s going to have a ripple effect. Being the leader of a business, especially if you’re the head of your household or both heads of household are running this business, someone experiencing burnout might start to see their family stepping back a little bit and isolating themselves because they don’t know what to do. They don’t understand what’s happening. They’re seeing that cynicism and they’re seeing that short temperedness while they have their [security] wagon hitched to you and this business. So that can cause a sense of insecurity like, Is everything going to be OK? So you might see them pull back.

It’s the same thing with employees. They’re really taking their cues from the leader of that business and they start start to see burnout and they don’t know what it is. All they see is
Maybe we’re not OK. Maybe this isn’t as healthy as we’d like it to be. That’s when you have a team of people that are taking a lunch break and saying, “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on with Angie but maybe we need to start looking for some other work.” So they’re not fully invested in the success of the business either, so performance is going change – as it should. They’re uneasy, they’re feeling insecure. So that’s going to take a dip as well.

You’re going to feel increased anxiety, and an increase in frustration maybe where you really hadn’t before. Like that anxiety that starts working its way up. Asking, Why can’t I feel like I have a handle on things? I can’t get in front of things. So ongoing anxiety impacts the ability and willingness to take those calculated risks and the ability to make informed decisions. This is where we really start to see the impact on the business. You cannot have burnout and scale your business at the same time. These two things cannot co-exist.

Because your family is withdrawing and you don’t have that support network, your employees aren’t performing as well, you’re not able to take calculated risks or make informed decisions… this directly, and very quickly, will impact your bottom line. Burnout takes down business all the time. All the time.

We were just as CES and I getting ready to present, thinking how many of these people aren’t going to be here for CES in 2019 because they hit this wall and they weren’t able to navigate through it. It just really… profitability and growth, that’s going to to come to a screeching halt.

And we all know if you’re not growing, if you’re not scaling and you’re staying still… There is no staying still. The moment you stop moving, like a shark you’re toast if you stop moving forward.

Jeff: We have the risk factors and the effects but say  you notice you might have those risk factors and you see maybe a couple of those effects happening, what do you do as far as self-care when that the light bulb comes on and you realize I’m going down a path I shouldn’t go down. Kim, warned me about this! What do I do as far as taking care of it? Self-care is what you call it.

Kim: I would break it up into 2 different scenarios. One is what you just said. What do I do if I’m already experiencing [burnout]? What steps should I be taking in this moment?

First it’s important to identify what self-care is and what it isn’t. A lot of people hear self-care and especially among social workers and teachers, self-care might be – I took a bubble bath last night or I took the whole weekend and binge watched Netflix and things like that. And those things are great! Those small incremental things can really help you refocus. For me that’s Candy Crush. I was talking with a woman at CES and she said “I use Candy Crush too!”

We decided to compare to see who’s [reached higher] levels. She was excited and said, “I don’t know I think I’m going to beat you!”  but then I was really embarrassed because she was around level 500 and something and we were comparing phones… I’m trying to see if I can’t pull it up right up here to tell you what I’m on, but I was on level 2000. So I was like, yeah, I needed a lot of self-care there for a while. Two-thousand six hundred and ninety-three. For the record, I don’t know if you can see that, 2693.

(laughing)

So she was embarrassed and I was embarrassed but those small incremental things can be good. Self-care is part of your life. It’s woven into who you are. It’s not a thing, it’s a declaration. It’s an outward manifestation, a communication, to the people around you that you prioritize your well-being. It shows up in your words, actions and behaviors. People just equate self-care with you. When I said that Robyn Johnson is really good at communicating the importance of self-care. She has established health boundaries. We’ve only worked together a handful of times and I’ve seen her speak but can tell you that was something I picked up on very early. She prioritizes her time and has healthy boundaries. It’s like these things that you weave throughout your entire life. But that would be before self-care is an issue.

If you haven’t been practicing self-care or you haven’t been aware of burnout and all of a sudden you’re experiencing symptoms,

Get some perspective. Especially in business when you’re eyeball deep in the minutia of running it and you’re experiencing burnout, you cannot have perspective. You’re immersed in it and it’s really really difficult. So one of the things I tell me people to do is to offer to somebody exactly the thing that you lack. By that I mean, if you’re feeling like I can’t figure this out, I can’t get traction, everyone else has this figured out…

You and I talk about that in the InventoryLab webinars with new users, we talk about people come to IL for the bells and whistles of listing and labels, and those are all great time savers. The labels got me right out of the gate! I felt like oh yeah, this is luxurious! But the power of InventoryLab comes in after the sale. Being able to see exactly where you stand as a business.
But [feeling like] I don’t know… Money is going out, money is coming in... I know how discouraging that was for me personally.

If you’re one of those people instead of working harder and harder and harder and harder which is going to exacerbate the burnout, I want you to stop what you’re doing and I want you to offer what you lack to someone else. That doesn’t mean go figure out somebody else’s number for them, but it does mean something like go find somebody like a recent college grad, or someone who has recently found themselves unexpectedly alone, maybe they’ve lost a partner, maybe someone just entering retirement and they’ve expressed that they need to get a handle on their money. Sit down with them and help them make a simple budget. Not re-doing their portfolio. We’re not moving things around in their investments. But that 90-minute – what’s your income, what are your fixed expenses, what are your variable expenses, what’s left, let’s tell that where to go, and that’s it. Just giving that time to somebody else.

The other one would be a mentor. If you feel like I just need somebody to walk through this with me. Everybody says something different! I’ve got all these tabs, I can’t figure out and I’m scared to death I’m doing it wrong, every thing contradicts, I don’t know who to trust! Then mentor somebody else. That doesn’t mean start your own course, unless that’s something you want to do, but that means somebody in your circle really really needs something that you’re an expert at doing. They need a mentor. That might be someone in your family has mentioned, or said something in passing, asked a probing question about Amazon. [For instance], what is this Amazon thing that you do? What is like drop shipping? They’ve kind of asked that almost like side-eyed kind of question, but maybe it was because they want to be able to chart their own course, they’re interested and you can give them information that took you months to learn. And you can help them understand it better. Send them links to content  that you know to be reputable.

When I presented at CES and at Midwest eCom I said somebody in this room is lacking exactly what you’re [already] an expert at. That’s all, just a 10-minute conversation where you can give information that’s invaluable. I used the example, I think I asked something like, where were you in March 2015?

For me, I had done the work. I had done eBay for many many years before that. And I decided I was going to do this FBA thing. It was very complicated and I did have all those tabs open at the top of my screen. I had sourced probably what may have been the worst possible products I could’ve chosen for the first time I was sending in stuff but I had my impulse sealer when I didn’t even know what an impulse sealer was before and I had this inventory. I had listed it in Seller Central, I was ready to go, Seller Central said they wanted thermal labels on their products so I had bought my DYMO printer. I had created shipments and I’m ready to go. It took me 16 hours to get to that point. Literally 16 hours from start to finish and I was exhausted.

If I wasn’t working my job, I was researching this constantly, webinars, articles, everything you could possibly think of, and I got to that point where I had created the shipments but I couldn’t figure out how to print the labels on my DYMO. I couldn’t figure it out! I didn’t understand, It keeps wanting to print these 30-up labels but they said I needed to have a DYMO, Brother or Zebra printer. I’ve got my DYMO! I got it on eBay, but I got my DYMO. And I’ve got my correct sized labels. All my stuff is impulse sealed so why can’t I print this?

I was exhausted and I hit a wall. I just cracked. I cried and cried. Like I sobbed. I’m not ashamed to say it wasn’t just tears, I sobbed. I felt like a failure. If I can’t figure out how to print barcode labels, who in the heck do I think I am thinking I’m going to run a business… After all of that, after all those months and I can’t even figure out how to print a label, what’s the point?

And just, I don’t even know what made me do it, but on a whim I posted in a Facebook group, one of the many that are out there, that I can’t figure this out.  Literally within a minute or 2 there was a response and it was this guy and he said, “What’s your phone number?”

I was like, [sigh] oh gosh…

Jeff: Right? Like here we go…

Kim: Clearly I’m a little vulnerable right now, sir. Could we not make this gross? (laughing)
But I had seen his name. 

Jeff: Did you double check to make sure you were in the right group?

Kim: I’d like to say that I did but I can’t for sure that I did. Honestly. There was snot going everywhere, there were tears everywhere. But I…

Jeff: You had labels on your mind.

Kim: I’m telling you I was so tired. It was awful. He said, what’s your number and I gave it to him! And I might have even posted it in the group? I hate to say that. I can’t say for sure but it’s possible that I did that. So here I am – yes sir, here’s my personal telephone number and then my phone rang. On the other end was this great guy named Jared. I still see his name around all the time and I think he’s still helping people the same way. He was working and I think he has a whole gaggle of kids because I heard them all playing in the background and having fun. He was pushing this cart around he had just picked up from Costco.

So he’s working, but while he’s doing all that he talked me through step by step by step by step how to print the labels on this thing. And I would have never figured that out in a million years. Him doing that, it was a very short telephone call, between him doing that and not doing that is the difference between me being here. Not just as an Amazon Seller but me being here. It made such a huge difference because I didn’t know. [He told me] Amazon tells you to do that but they don’t have the tools in place for you to print your labels like that. Well, that doesn’t make any sense! But I didn’t know that at the time. I just thought I was a failure. He gave to me what was simple for him but was something that I lacked and was the difference between me starting that business or ending it right there. It never would have gotten off the ground.

Neither of those things, whether you’re helping someone start a budget or you’re helping someone figure out these simple tasks, these are not things that that’ll cure burnout. Like I said at the beginning it’s important to remember these things take place over time and you need to allow yourself the opportunity to get reacquainted with not being burned out. What these exercises do is it allows you to pan out just a little bit, enough to get that perspective.

You cannot work through it unless you’re able to really evaluate where you are in the spectrum of burnout to figure out how to make your way back out of it.

Before burnout, you always want to have folks knowing who is in their support network.

I should be able to ask anybody to tell me 4 people in their support network and they should be able to rattle those 4 off. Someone experiencing burnout, I would tell them I want you to go to 2 people in your support network and tell them you think you’re experiencing burnout. I would encourage folks to not have 2 of those people be someone that has their lives in any way, shape, or form hitched to your business. Go outside of your company, go outside your family, but someone in your support network. Just tell them, I think I’m dealing with some burnout. But nothing beyond that. They might say something like I’m here for you and if you ever want to talk, what’s going on, let me know… If you’re feeling up to it, by all means but just the act of articulating it is enough today. You’ve done well at that point. Just articulating that you’re experiencing burnout to 2 people would be something I’d really suggest.

Identify what I like to call the ‘moveable pieces’ A lot of time we feel like I don’t have there is no wiggle room, there is no flexibility. If you feel like that you’re looking too broad. Simplify, simplify. The moveable pieces might be really getting down to the fine print of things that are moveable. Because sometimes the bigger pieces aren’t moveable. So it might be, I can commit to not being on my mobile device during a movie. Or, I can commit to not being on my mobile device just during the trailer of a movie. Get smaller until you can find the moveable piece.

Maybe it’s I won’t get on a mobile device 15 minutes before the movie starts. Whatever. Get control over something you almost feel like you  have a sense of control over your own environment and your can get a handle on things. Just get down to the nice small pieces. What are the moveable pieces on that chess board? That will help you, again, this is about getting perspective. Panning out a little bit, being able to get that perspective.


Reducing business related conversations. We all love to talk about it all the time. We’re also bouncing ideas off each other. This community particularly is good as just this rapid exchange of information. And that’s awesome but that constant exposure keeps you engaged even if you’re not working. Mentally you’re still engaged with the business and not present, maybe where you need to be so you can get that distance. So maybe that moveable piece is reducing how often you’re taking about business-related type of topics.

I would never even try to tell somebody, 9 to 5 and you can’t talk shop anymore. So I encourage folks to pick a 10-hour block of time for each day. We know 7 days a week folks are usually doing one thing or another. But outside of that 10-hour block of time, try to cut down business-related conversations by 50%. Just start there.

Jeff: That’s a good point. Yeah.

Kim: Cold turkey doesn’t work for anything so just 50%. So if that’s 9am to 7pm you can still talk about it but just cut it down by 50%. Monitor that conversation. It really brings attention and draws your focus to how often you’re wanting to talk about it. Which again gives you that perspective. Like, that’s ALL I’m talking about! That’s getting that perspective. So these are all things that take tiny steps toward being aware that burnout is occurring but then you’ve got to allow the time to go by to recover from that. It’s one of those things like when you get an antibiotic, “Do not stop taking this medication till it’s gone.” Gaining that perspective is great but you really have to continue that work. Once you get handle and gain that perspective you really want to have an opportunity to bring in the things that would help you avoid it to begin with.

Jeff: You mentioned avoiding it. Those are all great tips on how to deal with it after it’s happening when you recognize it but what would you tell somebody on how to avoid getting to that point of the burnout in the first place. There’s must be some sort of prevention tips.

Kim: That’s actually my favorite topic, primary prevention. That came out of the federal health initiative from way back when. They were looking at the primary prevention as opposed to tertiary and secondary prevention. So it is prevention, meaning at the root; uprooting it. So the problem never occurs to being with.

#1 Embrace the fact that you’re going to be at high risk for burnout. If you can accept that fact and really internalize the fact that you’re at risk and put some things in place, first of all that’s going to play a really big part in avoiding it altogether. When you know that that’s going to be a risk you’re going to want to put a plan in place. So just acknowledging that you’re going to hit that at some point in time or be confronted with that you start to put those pieces in place.

#2 Prioritize your well-being. Kind of what I was talking about earlier. And that really means bringing all of those pieces into your life so that the people around also know that you prioritize it. That can start out in really simple ways. Things like, on my desktop I have memes and graphics. Some are funny just to make me laugh, some are for when I’m feeling frustrated. Or something that maybe validates my frustration. That says, yeah, you should totally be frustrated. Something that’s encouraging even. Some of them are all of the above. But I also share those with other people. I’m constantly sharing one thing or another with the folks on our team or posting things like that.

#3 Make yourself vulnerable – which I do pretty often with our team. I’ll probably show this during the webinar so I’ll probably cut over to it at this point in time, but the video that I did when we were about to roll out Scoutify 2. Tensions were really high. We put a lot of work into that and we were nervous. Like what if doesn’t, what if something breaks? Anything can really happen. And we’re, you know, we’re pretty on point, it’s all hands on deck with any release but Scoutify 2 was really big for us. And I was about to go live with Stephen Smotherman; he was going to be introducing Scoutify 2 live to his membership. You know, I was nervous also! So I made that video of me dancing in my chair and singing to George Michael’s ‘Freedom 90’ while dancing with my phone. But making myself vulnerable really… I don’t know what kind of an impact it had because we’re a remote team so I wasn’t there to see anyone’s faces, but it really can break the tension and help give that perspective.

Brings it back to, look, we worked really hard to make this app and we want it to be awesome. If we were putting out an app with the intention of it being mediocre then yeah, you should be nervous! But when we look at our intentions, we put our heart and soul into it. We left no stone unturned and with any software there are going to be glitches and we’re going to find bugs.

Jeff: Yup. That’s the nature of the game with any software. That’s what I love about the team too. Everybody cares so much about the product and then also making sure the business owners have what they need and it works right. We do take that to heart. We really invest ourselves in it.

Kim: Yeah. Ryan and Elizabeth especially they’re very; it’s all very personal. It’s personal for all of us but I think even more so. This is their baby. Just like we’re talking about entrepreneurs and businesses, that being their baby; this is theirs. Making a video like that is almost a love letter to myself as much as it is to the rest of the team. But even though being a remote team, still have developed that reputation of prioritizing self-care because it’s like speaking fluent self-care. It’s in a lot of what I do. And having those healthy boundaries, establishing those healthy boundaries. My words, my actions and behaviors reinforcing that I prioritize that.

#4 Know the true value of your time. So for entrepreneurs especially, we actually get to see a lot because we see a lot of people right at that tipping point where [they’re asking] am I going to delegate tasks, am I subscribe to a software tool… That first investment, especially if it’s a monetary investment is a really big tipping point for people and and I know they’ll come to it eventually but it’s always hard to see that they don’t have a true perspective of the value of their time. They don’t understand the value of their time.

In the webinar Stephen Smotherman had done, he made this really great point, that the tasks we all spend our time on in eCommerce, he said if you’re doing a task that could be accomplished by a minimum wage team worker, you’re working a minimum wage job. What a great point. So you’re going to be running a minimum wage business. Was that the goal you set out to accomplish when you launched your business? Probably not.

Stephen Peterson said something the other day, He posted about everything he had done in his day. And a lot of was stuff like he had put together a rack So I said, “Stephen Smotherman said…”

(laughing)

But he actually made a really good point. He called me out on it and I so appreciated it. He was talking about that there’s really something to be said for getting your hands on something and building it. And I thought that was a really good point. So the following weekend I actually pulled out my power washer and power washed my front steps which really needed it. So I took a picture and I going to send it to him to say thanks for the reminder, Stephen. He’s got a great podcast too. I love listening to his podcast episodes.

Jeff: I like that perspective because it can take your mind off of all the stressors that seem to be bearing down on you. Just to say, I put together a rack. I didn’t have to think about anything else… other than screw A into this part and that sort of thing. Unless it’s IKEA furniture I guess, then that could be frustrating.

Kim: I had totally forgotten about what an experience that is for me power washing, for my husband, J.P. it’s mowing the lawn and yard work. You process things, things are filed away.
You’re clearing out the clutter in your mind. Then also being able to see the results of your work. So when I say “work a minimum wage job” there are going to be some of those things that you need to reserve for yourself. Those tasks that delight you that you know will just let you [deep breathe]. Washing the car or whatever. Continue to do those things don’t get rid of those entirely. And you can thank Stephen Peterson for reminding me of that. This is always going to come back to perspective.

#5 Understand that today’s outcomes are today’s outcomes and are not a predictor of tomorrow’s bottom line. You’ve got to keep these things in today and not letting the outcome of today impact the decisions of tomorrow. Remember, taking those calculated risks and making informed decisions if you’re still factoring things in from the past that’s going to hold you back and you won’t be able to make the best decision.

#6 You are not your business. You are not your business. Your business is your business and you’re a human being, a living breathing human being with intentions that were good, I hope, and you’re doing the best you can. So you’ve got to detach the two because that’s, when we’re talking about burnout, when somebody starts to internalize their business outcomes as their personal outcomes that is very difficult to undo. So really making sure we’re separating those two and keeping that perspective.

#7 Things are going to happen! There’s going to be downturns and upturns and that sort of thing. So friction should be anticipated. It drives me nuts; it’s almost like a pet peeve I’ve had for forever when people say, “This too shall pass.” First they say it’s Biblical, it’s not Biblical, it’s a great cliche a great saying but it’s not Biblical. But nowhere did anyone ever say that that only applies to the bad times. I don’t like when people say it to people going through difficult times because I think it’s very minimizing but it applies to everything. If you’re killing it in Q4, this too shall pass. If you’re struggling to get that traction, this too shall pass.

Jeff: I thought it was great at CES the one presenter talked about, he was up there and you think of him as an expert and when they’re presenting but he also mentioned, “I really had a really rough day. I wasn’t sure I was going to keep [the business] going a certain point, then it turned. Hills and valleys. You’re going to have the hills, but prepare for the valleys.

Kim: And they’re inevitable. It is going to happen. I had a really smart man once tell me, “One minute you’re going to be on the ceiling and the next minute you’re going to be on the floor.” He said it about something entirely different but I’ve carried it with me. Because when you can anticipate when things are going great, and you anticipate that things aren’t always going to be going great it really just reduces the time it takes to get your feet back under you again and to accept that you’re now on the floor when you were on the ceiling before. You expected that to happen. There’s no question like why did this happen to me? How did I get? It’s irrelevant. You expected that to come.“This too shall pass” applies to all events in our lives. All seasons, Winter will turn to spring and spring will turn to summer and before you know it you’ll be back in, if you live in my area outside Philadelphia, it’ll be February and it’s going to be freezing cold, slushy, and wet, and muddy. Some people like that, but I’m not one of them. That’ll pass. Anticipating that you are at risk, embrace the risk and understand that there is going to be friction that applies to you on a Wednesday is not going to apply on a Thursday. Especially as an entrepreneur, you cannot let those things drive your future outcomes. Because they will if you let them. And nothing positive can come from that. And that also means the good stuff.

If you see sales like you’ve never seen before on one day wake up really to work just as hard the next. Do exactly what you did and my hope is that every day will be like that for you. But we know that that’s not the case.

#8 Get that support network in place. So important. I will say though if you’re in partnership with somebody like a spouse, partner, best friend, whomever, also have separate networks from each other. Because you’re already up in each other’s stuff all the time especially if you’re living in the same house together. But also if your networks are the same you’re not going to grow. You’re in an echo chamber essentially because you’re both getting the same information. And bringing different perspectives and information together, challenging each other, asking those bigger questions you’re going to see something grow. But it’s also healthy.

#9 Get those healthy boundaries in place. You’ve got to find a starting and stopping place for your work. And if you can’t, those smaller things – what are those moveable pieces?

Jeff: You mentioned delegating and maybe I believe Smotherman called it the minimum wage job, if you can pass that on to somebody else, but he also but that applies to certain apps out there, certain other software tools you can delegate some of that stuff that’ll take on the work of what you’re doing manually. Maybe automate a little bit. Can you tell us a little bit about that aspect of it?

Kim: Sure. It’s not always about hiring out work but also upgrading your gear. So hiring out stuff obviously, in fact there are 3rd-party services kind of like InventoryLab that’ll connect you with really great VAs (Virtual Assistants) that are trained and take that off your plate. And if you’re ready for that, great! But if not, remember getting a little bit smaller, little bit smaller. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve met that getting a DYMO is a tipping point.

Jeff: Right? Yup.

Kim: It’s a really big deal! It’s not a huge investment but we’re all, especially folks my age, your age, we have this antiquated idea of what running a business is supposed to be. It was ingrained in us that meant risking a lot financially, nose to the grindstone, and sacrifice. So people will think that they’re paying for something with elbow grease but what they’re really doing is detrimental. So VAs are great and outsourcing things but things like even in your house like lawn care, painting, whatever the case may be. Start using the services where you can just go by and pick up your groceries or have them delivered to your house instead of walking up and down the isles. Except that you’ll be passing up opportunities to source from the clearance isle.

The DYMO, people are not really aware of how much time they lose especially listing in Seller Central where they list everything, create shipments, print these 30-up labels and then they go back and link them all up. Yes, you’ll save a lot of time but the value of your time, I typically find is much more valuable than people think it actually is. Things like bubble wrap. I use myself as an example again. I found a guy on Craigslist that offered bubble wrap for free. I was like I’m all about that! Because that would have been a big expense and I was getting ready to get started. So he said come on up. So I had to drive about 20 minutes from her to this really big manufacturing plant of some kind and he said drive around back of the plant, pull up right there by the bay doors, come up the steps and ring the buzzer, and we’ll know you’re out there. So I did… by myself.

Jeff: Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie.

Kim: Right?! Just giving out my number to random guys on Facebook and going into the back of manufacturing plants. You don’t even want to know how I sourced that first batch that took me 16 hours. That was terrible. That was very reckless on my part. I would go there, and now looking back on it, it probably was maybe not the best thing but it worked out great and I got a whole lot of free bubble wrap. In fact he would give it to me in a huge bag that filled the back of my minivan. Just one big bag that was huge. It was amazing. But when I really looked at it, the time it took me to reach out to say hey, do you have any bubble wrap set aside I’d love to run up and get it. I’ve got to wait for him to call me back or text me. Then I get everything situated at home, get in the van, and drive there, drive around back of the warehouse, walk up the steps, ring the doorbell and we go in and chit chat for a while get the bag, load it in [my van], drive out to the road again and drive home. When I look at the hours spent doing that. Yes, the bubble wrap was free but what would be the monetary value of that versus the time it took me to go get that compared to the time it would have taken me to just order it and had it delivered to my door.

Same thing with craft paper. If people are going to newspapers asking for their end rolls, that’s great but when we’re talking entrepreneur, you need to look at your time very different.

If you’re self identifying as an entrepreneur those are things that people with hobbies selling online do. If that describes you, then by all means continue to connect to your community and use those resources. But when you’re looking to grow a business you’ve got to let go of the free bubble wrap. Unless it’s your neighbor and they’re bringing it to your door it’s time to start ordering that and investing in those tools.

What do you need in your business? What are the tasks that you dread? Maybe that’s InventoryLab maybe that’s something else but you’ve got utilize those tools. I think they all have free trials, use them.  If you’re using spreadsheets, the time that you’re losing the money you’re losing is really would really be shocking if you were really able to get a handle on that, it would be shocking. Not just delegating, not just VAs and employees or having someone come in to organize your eBay stuff, while that would be great, look at all those other things as well. You’ve got to upgrade your gear.

Jeff: It’s as simple as, like with InventoryLab, finding out what did I pay for this last year? Where did I get it? You can look it up very quickly instead of finding which spreadsheet it was on. That sort of thing. It’s all condensed into one. And there’s other software to do other things [that are] similar. Simplifying your process you can find that stuff quickly.

Kim: And a lot of people will say I’m going to sit down one day and create a system for myself. I’m going to create those spreadsheets and put them in a folder so it all makes sense to me. If you’ve been saying that for greater than 90 days you’ve already exceeded that value you would get from that system. Let it go. Move on. Get those automated systems where you don’t have to create those folders, let somebody else do that for you. That’s not good use of your time. Let folks like us take care of that or whatever program that is. You’re not a hobby seller you’re not just somebody with a hobby selling stuff online, you’re an entrepreneur. You’ve got to take those steps. You have to.

Well I think that’s about all we have to cover. Jeff, do you have anything left that you’d like to add at all?

Jeff: This was really informative. Especially recognizing the signs because when you get into that mindset of going and going and you don’t feel like you can take that time to take a break then, like you said, the bigger picture, it’s really good to have those signs out there and have a team. Someone who can also recognize it in you if they see it before you do. Then, they can tap your shoulder and say hey, hang on a second, let’s talk about this. Very good information.

Kim: That’s where that support network and telling those 2 people can also be very helpful. Because you’ve told them, they feel like they can approach you when they see some signs. Because you do, you lose that self awareness very quickly and you don’t even know that it happened.

We got some really great feedback. I really liked as we were putting together the information I was really overwhelmed with the feedback that we got. A lot of people approached me and shared some really touching stories, stories that I’m still kind of worried about them and hoping they’re OK. I want them so much to succeed. I know that they’ve really hit a road and block and I’m hoping they be able to navigate around that. So I’m glad we were able to put this together. But if you’re asking yourself or if you’re watching this webinar and saying to yourself, I don’t know if I need this self-care stuff… It’s really comes down to one question – Do you need self-care? or Can I practice self-care? If your answer to that question is anything that sounds like “I don’t have the time” you need to immediately to practice self-care. If you don’t have the time for self-care, by definition you definitely need to start practicing self-care. You need to really step up that game and value yourself as an entrepreneur. Value everything done. Enjoy where you are on the way to where you’re going. But you’re not going to be able to do that if you’re treading water or trying to stay above water. So take care of yourself. It’s a love letter to myself
as much as it is to everybody else.

Jeff: Life comes at you pretty quick. Take the time. You only have one, so take the time to enjoy it. Thanks Kim that was great. A lot of good information there.

Kim: Thanks and thanks for hanging out with me! I appreciate it.

Jeff: My pleasure.