FFLTV: Entrepreneur Burnout, Launching New Products, and Coffee

In this episode of Freedom Fast Lane TV, we talk about dealing with burnout as an entrepreneur, launching new products and businesses, the ideal relationship between entrepreneurs and the government, if there is such a thing, and we’ll look at a brand new coffee product line.

I’m going to be real honest with you Fast Laners. I am not operating in the fast lane the last few days. I’m actually dealing with a decent amount of burnout this week. I kind of hit a wall, especially yesterday where I just had one of those moments as an entrepreneur.

I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. Does anything I do really matter? Do I really want to work this hard? Where’s the end in sight? When do I get to retire to a beach and just hang out and enjoy my life and not work so hard?

So, I know I’m working too hard. I know I’m trying to do too many things when I have those thoughts. But at the same time, as an entrepreneur this naturally comes up, partially because we’re starters and we like to start new things and not actually complete anything.

But the other is because we’re making it up as we go. Like, there are manuals, sometimes we put some of them right here in this stack of books about being an entrepreneur. But really we are building this plane as it is flying. And, sometimes I have to remind myself of that.

So, I wanted to take a second and talk a little bit about dealing with burn-out because it is something that I worked through kind of in cycles. And I know I’m not the only one and we don’t like to talk about it as entrepreneur, we like to talk about crushing it and hustling and work your frickin’ face off and this is my ninth cup of coffee today.

And really, look, we’re human beings. And unless what you’re doing is, if you are Gary Vaynerchuk, this is a video game to you.

So we’re just constantly energizing. Not everything I do is energizing. And I’d love to sit here and tell you that wasn’t the case. I would love to tell you that everything I do on a daily basis leaves me more energized than the opposite. But that’s just not the case.

I deal with voices… voices in my head. Great. Somebody’s going to edit that into a YouTube clip.

I deal with self doubt. I deal with wondering if I’m doing it right. I wonder if I’m making the impact that people tell me I’m having. I’ve created over a hundred millionaires and I’m wondering if I’m having an impact, right?

Elon Musk has alluded to the fact in interviews, that he wonders if he’s making an impact, if he’s really making a difference in the world. So as an entrepreneur, as entrepreneurs, we all kind of deal with this.

But let me get to my point which is this, I know that the brain creates fantasy lands which means that regardless of how good you think you’re doing or how poorly you think you’re doing, the truth is probably somewhere in between there.

So when I’m dealing with burn-out, two things that I do that can really switch me into a different mind set. Even when I’m, I feel like I’m balancing everything in the world. I’m managing multiple businesses. I’m building a YouTube subscriber base. I’m trying to get six pack abs. I’m trying to be a good dad while managing personal life.

The first thing I do is I get down on paper all the things that are irritating me. All the things that are actually causing me stress. All the things that I wish weren’t on my plate. And on the other side of the paper, I write down all the things that I wish were on my plate.

What are the things that I wish I had more time for? What are the things that I wish I had more of in my life? And immediately upon seeing that list, it is out and it is manageable.

Now it’s interesting is that as soon as you put the list on paper, you know the things that can be delegated, the things that can be ignored, the things that can be put off. And there are some things on there that can be scheduled like the vacation you’ve been putting off, the thing you want to add more.

Last night, I did this exercise and the first thing that was on my list of what I wish was on my plate more of was investing more in businesses. Meaning, I wish that I had more deal flow that I could just mentor people and put cash into it and inspire people.

And then it was like, wait a minute. Why don’t I just do one of those? We could record it, it becomes content, that’s things that people would really like to see. That would create more deal flow and more good thing I would want to do. So why don’t we do more of that?

And I can delegate some of the other things that I don’t want to do and all of a sudden there’s creative strategies that start to come in and make it look more manageable.

The second thing that I do is get away from it for a while. After it is out on paper, get away, either for a few hours or a few days because when you come back, the list doesn’t seem so bad.

And giving myself a break from having a crushing every workout or crushing every podcast or hitting everything at 100 percent.

It’s okay to take a step back because when you return you’re much sharper and that list of things to do doesn’t seem so daunting anymore.

So dealing with burn-out comes from getting some perspective realizing how good you have it realizing how close you are to what you want by making that list of things that are irritating you and the things you want more of and getting away from it all so that you’re sharper when you come back to it.

And that how I personally deal with burn-out on weeks like I’m having right now.

I believe the fastest way to financial freedom and getting to a place where you have to deal with things like burn-out is to start a business because that puts you in the driver’s seat of your financial future. And I think that the way you really grow wealth and diversify is by taking the profits you make in business and then you invest them into other passive sources of cash flow.

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