I recently tapped out a quick Google search to find the roots of a common phrase I keep hearing these days — burnout. According to the National Library of Medicine:
“The term “burnout” was coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in “helping” professions.”
Burnout might be what Freudenberger called it then for doctors and nurses. Today, it’s a popular term for what so many coaches, consultants, and contracted freelancers feel too.
The term burnout works just as well in 2023 as it did in the 1970s. Still, I call it other things because how we’re feeling burnt out has evolved quite a bit since those days.
A revolving door of access to you, even on nights and weekends (particularly painful for parents who already feel like someone is constantly tugging at their pant leg asking for their fifth snack of the hour).
The constant requests for answers, including answers to big news and macroeconomic changes, as you navigate those shifts yourself.
Screen shields — as in the screen that empowers some people to lash out at you regardless of how well they actually know you because they feel shielded from humanity by a rectangle piece of glass.
Looking sideways, trying to fit into the mold of what others are doing because if they’re successful, wouldn’t it make sense that that is your one and only path to success, too?
Comparison game because today’s online entrepreneurs can be at different levels of success in their newsfeeds than in their bank accounts and in their personal lives with social media showing only the bright and shiny side of life while leaving the darker sides behind closed doors.
Expectations to respond to a volatile macroeconomic backdrop. Today's world is scary and social media puts it front and center in our lives. Online entrepreneurs, because of their time spent on social media, are expected to respond swiftly and with conviction about all topics and all news stories. If you don’t, you’re wrong. If you do and you respond on the perceived wrong side, you’re also wrong. If you launch during the wrong time, you’re wrong. It’s a lot of pressure to carry.
Don’t get me wrong. Most people building a business online love the people they get to work with. Coaches love their students and get fired up celebrating their wins on the sidelines. Consultants love nerding out over new strategies and ideas, often coming up with the best ones for their clients. Service-providers chose that gig because they love their craft.
Burnout, instead, has become a slow pile-on of expectations (often self-induced, but not always), a desire to go deep with people they love, and difficulty holding clear boundaries. It’s that slow accumulation that has shifted industries to tipping points and led to the current upheaval we’re seeing in the online world today.
We started out with a love for what we do and who we serve, yet now we’re wondering how to escape the constant pulls and reshape our businesses to still offer value without stealing ourselves away from opportunities to jump in the RV, spend an impromptu day snuggling a sick child, or heck, taking a sick day for ourselves?
We’ve been at the online learning game for a while now, but 2023 has felt like the year of a massive shift. This year alone, I’ve witnessed:
Renowned course creators putting a full stop to long-time programs, letting teams go, and shifting back into experimentation mode
7-figure generating marketing agencies putting up the for sale sign and moving into a whole new industry because it’s not about the money
A significant shift to market discernment where customers are getting choosier with where and how they spend their money amidst a barrage of content and information being flung their way
Conversations shifting away from the newsfeed and into private pods or channels for more intimate connections
Turns out, I’m not the only one reinventing myself these days. If you’re on the sidelines watching others online starting to shift in their seats, closing their doors, or moving on from business online altogether, you’re probably wondering one big thing:
What does this mean for me? And how can I do business online without setting it up to suck the life out of me 24/7?
The feast or famine cycle of the freelancing world isn’t it (I’ve been there, and it’s the 3 a.m. worry about how you’ll make money is chest-tightening).
Starting a blog, posting once, and praying sales roll in isn’t it either.
Creating a membership and online course used to be it in 2020 and 2021, but we’re now seeing a change in that model, too.
Modern online business is evolving, and while I don’t have all the answers yet, I have been at the forefront of making these changes for myself. It’s why I closed down Roadpreneur School (the program's promise was way too broad for what consumers want and need today). It’s why I closed down my memberships (I found a better way to show up and serve in those spaces without draining my personal batteries with 24/7 customer service requests).
In the process of closing doors, I figured a few critical things out:
You can’t do everything others are doing, and it’s futile to try
Platform overwhelm is real and will cause you to spread yourself too thin
You don’t have to uproot all the great stuff you’ve created — just repackage it a bit to meet modern consumer preferences.
Since going deep into a strategy hidey-hole this past summer, I have remapped my business to open a flood of new ones that feel lighter, more empowering, and more result-inducing for my students. The old way worked, but the new way? All signs point to it working even better.
If you’re ready to strategize how to make the Internet work for you, you’re invited to join a free 5-day on-demand challenge in your inbox. Each day for five days, you’ll get short prompts where I’ll walk you through the exact process I used to make these huge decisions for myself.
Whether you’re just starting or have already started, this process will help you find the right Roadpreneur strategy. Simple. Easy. Intentional. As private as you want it to be. This approach is how we do business online today.