Friend, can I be frank with you?
I have never experienced burnout before until Q3 2021.
You see, it was inevitable.
I kept pressing forth with miniscule breaks to survive the pandemic. I didn’t want FocusCopy – my first company – to be a casualty. Then even more detrimental, I took on everyone’s emotional burdens this year.
Thanks to the Law of Attraction, I was attracting more disaster and emotional weight than I knew what to do with.
From the numerous suicides, deaths, hospitalizations, illenesses, failure, and exhaustion… I took on all the pain.
For a minute, it seemed like the world was crashing down.
If that’s you right now in the holiday season, you’re not alone. There is more burnout going around – especially with entrepreneurs – than anything else.
And when there is burnout, the first thing to go is the one thing that drains your energy.
Is that thing for you marketing?
Burnout Is Real & Serious
Before we get into the nitty gritty of navigating your marketing strategy when you need to take a step back, I want to free you to take a step back. Your mental health is imperative. If you need help, reach out to a counselor or mentor.
As a leader of your company, you need to take care of yourself first.
Your team needs you to be at the top of your game.
I recently scheduled what I hope to be quarterly one-on-ones with each member of my team to see what they need to better succeed, how they want to adjust their roles, and how I can better support them. One question I asked was, if you were in my position, what would you do differently?
One of my copywriters immediately said, “I’d take a week-long vacation.”
Gut punch.
If burnout, having 4 people in one day telling me I need to take care of myself first, and the stresses of being a business owner in this day wasn’t enough, then that statement tipped the scale.
(Thank you Caroline for your wisdom!)
1. Figure Out What Fills You
The first thing you need to do is figure out what fills you up. Get inspired again! You started your business for a reason. For me, I love marketing (content and email especially) and passing referrals.
For so long, however, I was stuck in editing and dealing with client “fires”. Once I figured out that editing was an essential task but it wasn’t filling me, I hired a fantastic editor. Now, I’m free to do what fills me up.
With that being said, what part of your job do you love and feel fulfilled while or after doing?
Consider reevaluating the tasks you delegate. This may sound crazy, but you can even decide to retake ownership of previously delegated tasks.
Yes, that’s adding to your plate. But hear me out…
This would be a part of restructuring delegations. You’ll take this task on because you love it, but will ask your team to cover new tasks that you really don’t enjoy.
Take this blog for instance. I employ a team of copywriters. I don’t need to write this myself, but for me, writing clears my mind and rejuvenates my creativity. So this is one task that I added back on my plate.
Need help coming up with a marketing plan that converts and works with your busy schedule? FocusCopy is ready to partner with you and bring your business to the next level. Schedule a meeting with me today!
2. Evaluate What’s Most Critical
As you may discover, you may not be able to give up everything that doesn’t fill your cup. Trust me, I’ve tried. There are some critical things that you can’t neglect – sales, accounting, delivery, etc.
Write down what’s critical in your business that cannot be outsourced or delegated.
Some examples may include:
- Speaking engagements
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Blogging
These are the tasks that most often require you to show your face.
But that doesn’t mean you have to take on all the subtasks yourself. Ask for help coming up with ideas, drafting social media posts, or even asking an employee to hold you accountable for things that you need to get done.
Just because you own the business, it doesn’t mean you have to run it alone.
I hope you have a great team like mine that you can rely on to make magic happen. But don’t forget their potential is probably more capable of helping you with your own tasks than you realize. And if you haven’t reached the point in your business to hire employees, there’s a plethora of services you can outsource to get things done.
Don’t sell yourself (or your sanity) short by trying to do it all and be everyone’s everything.
3. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
But especially when it comes to content creation, can you outsource or delegate those tasks?
For example, you could delegate your speech writing to an intern or copywriting firm. Your graphic designer could put together your slides for you. At this point, you’ve skipped all the subtasks for a speaking engagement. Now, all you have to do is practice through your presentation.
What about email marketing? Write all the documentation with email templates, tasks, and instructions for your team. They can either write your emails inside or outsource to an email service provider. Depending on your preferences, your team can either schedule those emails themselves or you can schedule them (already designed and ready to go).
Depending on the type of social media marketing you’re conducting, you can either delegate either all or most of those tasks. For video that requires your voice or face, have your team come up with the ideas, script the video, source the music, and edit your videos.
Ready to delegate your copywriting to the experts and get back to what matters most? Contact FocusCopy to schedule your free consultation.
4. Cut Costs If You Need To
With delegation, you can drastically increase your costs. If that’s the case, look at your team. Do they have free time to take on other tasks?
The other day, I was recently reminded of my team member’s previous work experience. It was just the experience I needed to offboard some work that was draining all my energy.
Guess what I did the next morning?
I rewarded myself and my dog George by taking a longer morning walk than usual – enjoying our Houston “winters”. If it wasn’t for moving that task off my plate, I would’ve walked quickly and checked my phone for emails from clients too many times to really take in the beauty of my morning walk.
Sometimes cutting costs means reevaluating your work flow.
While that may feel like an overwhelming time suck, it could mean a much more productive and happy you moving forward. So look at your tasks management tool and consider what can be moved around. Give your team the opportunity to show their potential rather than assuming you’re the only one who can handle certain tasks.
After all, didn’t you start your business to truly start enjoying life while providing for your family?
When you take the time to step back and rearrange a few things, your quality of life and business success may very well increase along with your newfound inspiration and reinvigorated ambitious drive.
Ready To Navigate Away From Burnout Towards Optimized Content?
Outsource your most time consuming and creative energy draining marketing task to the copy pros at FocusCopy.
We know writing copy can be frustrating. With our combined experience, we have a process that works. And in following that process, we consistently write copy for our clients that truly converts.
Ready to hand over the writing, lighten your load, bid burnout adieu, and watch your business grow? Let’s grab a cup of coffee, streamline your goals, and structure the right process for your business. Schedule your consultation today!
