Elizabeth shares her journey through burnout and how she transformed her life to be more fulfilling and happy.
About Elizabeth O’Neill
Elizabeth O’Neill is an executive coach and an expert in helping founders and their teams get aligned for growth. With more than two decades of experience working with leaders and teams, she uses introspective coaching, cultural alignment, and strategic system implementation to build sustainable companies where people love to work. She holds her BA in Psychology from the University of Chicago, a MSW from Columbia University, and is an iPEC-certified coach. You can follow her on her medium publication Founder Connect.
To learn more about Elizabeth, please check out her websites:
https://medium.com/founder-connect
Transcription
Stacie Crawford
Hi, and welcome back to the podcast. I’m glad to have you here today. Today I have an amazing guest with me, her name is Elizabeth O’Neill. I met Elizabeth within the past few years through our coach training program. And we have gotten to know each other a little bit over that time. And I’m really excited to have her here today because she’s going to talk to us about her journey through burnout. And yes, through she had it and she’s gotten past it, and, and she’s helping other people with it. So Elizabeth, thank you so much for being here today.
Elizabeth O’Neill
I’m so happy to be here with you, Stacey. Thanks. Excellent. So
Stacie Crawford
tell me, what was your journey to burnout?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Stacy, I think the my journey to burnout started years ago, when I had pivoted out of a career where I was going to be a psychotherapist. And I ended up in the corporate world, working with leaders and teams. And in many ways that career was intellectually fulfilling, I kept, you know, learning different things. So adding to sort of like my professional kind of skill set, and my knowledge, and so you know, intellectual curiosity is always something that’s been very important to me. And so I felt fulfilled in many ways. But over time, I started to realize that the environment I was in was just sort of not the right fit for me. And along with that, I was raising a family, you know, so I had two small kids, they’re now 14 and 16, but they were much smaller than and, you know, I think that the high expectations that I had for myself, you know, both professionally, and as a mother, perfectionism is a is something that I’ve been working through for quite a while, I wasn’t really willing to let up on either one of those things. So I was working hard at a career that in many ways to filled me but in some other ways, didn’t end for sure was taking a lot of my time. And then trying to be the best mother that I could be for kids who were growing and starting to experience their own different challenges. And I kind of wasn’t willing to lead up on either one of those jobs, if you will, until it almost broke me. And so, you know, that perfectionism? You know, feeling like, when, in retrospect, what I realized is that I was, I was operating with someone else’s definition of success at that time. So it was like a game I was good at. But I was slowly realizing I didn’t really want to play it anymore.
Stacie Crawford
Yes, yes. Was there a defining moment for you that was like, this is just not going to work? Or was it more of that slow build up?
Elizabeth O’Neill
That I think for a long time, what’s interesting is that there was finally a moment, when I look back on it, there was definitely a moment when I had walked into my kitchen, and it was just a day that it was probably about five or six years ago. And I had come in, you know, into, like, our newly renovated kitchen, because, you know, we were doing all these things, right? Like life was just on like, much higher tempo. And so we’re, you know, we’re, my husband and I are both working full time, we’re both out of the house a lot. You know, the kid we’re trying to sort of always trying to sort of scrambled together some kind of like, support for our kids and really could never find one and, and we’re we have all this money to do these projects and things like that. So I walk into this, my kitchen, and I realized I’m like, this is no longer working. Like, the kids need more from me. I am. It’s like, from the outside. I looked like I had it all together. But on the inside, it was like taking everything I had to manage my fatigue and my stress. And this, you know, this, like this need to sort of keep it all together. Right? And so it was just at that moment that I was like this, like this can’t like I can’t do this me longer. This is just not working any longer. So that was like the moment of like, when it really crystallized for me that I could no longer keep doing what I was doing. But the truth is that, and I wrote about this in a medium piece like a while ago, when actually I was preparing to do a talk on burnout. And I realized I can, I can’t, you know, share my wisdom around burnout without also sharing the story of my own, and how I developed that wisdom in the first place. And so I wrote this article. And what I realized when I was writing, the article was that I was actually in like, a period of, like burnout for a long time. And I didn’t recognize it as such, like, for me, it was just living my life, it was just sort of surviving each day. Right? Right. And it was only when I was out of it, that I could see that. For years, I had been, you know, operating with a level of energy, like, you know, just surviving, you know, or occasionally getting so frustrated, but then dropping back down into feeling like I was a victim, because I didn’t know how to work myself out of it. So it was a long period of that, until I got to that point where I decided that I had to change.
Stacie Crawford
Yeah, you know, you said a couple of things that really struck me. The first thing was that whole, from the outside, I look like I have it all together. And you probably look like you had everything. You know what a great world, you, you’re married, you’ve got a great relationship, you’ve got kids, you’ve got a great job, you’ve got a beautiful home that you’re redoing, like from the outside, like it probably really looked like it. I wonder, did you ever have those moments of boy, I should be more grateful for what I have or be more appreciative because I noticed that when I’m talking with my clients, that comes up a lot. And I kind of think that it’s deflecting from, from what’s really going on, because they’re not unappreciative, they’re not not grateful for what they have. It’s like it’s shifting it to something else, instead of what is really going on. What do you think about that?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Oh, absolutely. You know, and it’s so interesting, because I think that when we get what, that’s that sort of self talk of, you know, like, look what you have right? And be appreciate, you know, appreciate what you have. And certainly that is the case. But I think what it ignores is, and again, a lot of this, I’ve realized upon reflection, and having now had time to really see what was happening in those moments. But that ignores your intuition. And what even like, what my body was telling me about what I was going through, right, and so I had anxiety for years that I didn’t recognize your address, I ignored it, right? Like, hey, you have these beautiful kids, right? Like you have, you have a lot of the things that from the outside look like success. And, you know, and be in be grateful for that and be appreciative of that. And so it’s like that sort of voice and that talk of ignore, but ignore what your what your intuition is really telling you about the situation. Right. And for me, I think what my intuition was trying to tell me was that this is all wonderful, but you are, you are living on, like a speed that you can’t keep up with. And that is, you know, making it hard for you to be the person that you want to be right like to be the mother that you want to be to be the person with the kind of career that you want to have like it was all on this sort of hyperspeed. And I was no longer really connecting in with like the purpose of what I was doing, if that makes sense.
Stacie Crawford
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The other thing that you mentioned was this recognition of the fact that it had been going on for so long. And that had to be quite a shock to you to kind of be like, Oh my gosh, like I didn’t realize that the way that I was operating wasn’t sustainable, because you’re just in that habit that you know, that default mode of of plowing forward at full blast.
Elizabeth O’Neill
Absolutely. And I think for me, the way that I would characterize it is that I was like panicked, right? Because here I was, I had this you know, I everyone around me was on a certain career track, right? And I knew enough that When I was imagining, you know, my future, and I would sort of play out different scenarios. I could feel like oh, no, that’s not nope, that’s not it. And so I kept rejecting all these options. And so I was panicked. Because while I knew that what I was doing wasn’t sustainable, I didn’t know what the what to do next. Right. All I knew was what I didn’t want at that time. Right. So I had kind of amassed all of these, these experiences where I was like, okay, that’s not, you know, the sort of bureaucratic bs of corporate I, like, I nope, can’t do that. You know, I can’t go another day, you know, like, having my kids sort of, like, in a super challenging situation at school that I can’t effectively address because I don’t have the time. Or the resources, right, like, so like those things. Like, it’s like, I knew what I didn’t want. I couldn’t figure out at that time, like what that future would be. And so I was like, panicked.
Stacie Crawford
Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. So when this when you came to this realization, and you’ve already been sitting in this place of, oh, what do I do next? Like, what did you do in that moment? That that kind of put you on the new path?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Honestly, I think that in that sort of panic, i. So normally, I’m, and I’m like, you know, my thinking mind is very strong, right? My go to, and challenging situation is my, my go to is go to like, sort of my logical mind, right? Like, think your way out of it. Right? It’s, it’s something that has brought me a lot of success in other ways. And so like, I can analyze, and think my way out of the situation, like I can figure out what this answer is. That’s what I was used to doing. And I couldn’t figure out the answer, just using kind of like my logic, right. And so in those moments, I think it’s the first time that I saw I sat back, it’s the first time in a long time that I had sat back and said, Okay, then, you know, like, for lack of a better plan, I just started to sit back and just be open to, you know, other ways of figuring it out. And I think that openness is really sort of what we think about as intuition. Right? Like, I wasn’t really open to that I hadn’t, I probably hadn’t sort of tapped into, like, my intuition and yours. But I would start getting up in like, the early hours, you know, I’d get up at like, five, or 530, in the morning before anyone was awake. And I would go downstairs, like, into my kitchen with my laptop, and I would just, I would start just like Googling, you know, I would go down these like rabbit holes, of like, where could this you know, who does this? And where does that, you know, like, where could that go? Right? I would start, like I started just to sort of tap into my creativity, right. And like, I started just kind of daily, I let myself daydream, right? Like, oh, like, what is it that I really want to do? Or like, what, what kind of inspires me or gives me energy? And I think that process of just it was, it’s not like it was instantaneous, right? It’s like, it was like a slow process of, oh, you know, if I just kind of open myself up and let myself imagine, like, what comes to me? Right? And so I did that for quite a while, before things started to take shape and formulate my path out of it.
Stacie Crawford
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because, you know, we, I say this about anything, but didn’t get that way in a day. It’s not going to change in a day. And sometimes we need time to process things and just allow things to marinate, you know, just allow it to, to have that moment of exploring, having those daydreams. It’s so important, because when we are sitting in that logical place, we do tend to get rid of the daydreams and get rid of, you know, that intuition and I don’t want to say that, well, that’s what leads us Sit down this road, because it’s not it relying on your logical side is not what leads you to burnout. I think it’s the stories that we tell ourselves in that process that leads us to burnout. Like you were saying, you know, this is, this is the road that I’m on, you know, I need this to be perfect. I need that to be perfect. And trying to make it all perfect being super woman, you know, it seems like that’s the fast path to burnout.
Absolutely. Yeah. Like when we agree with you,
when you finally started figuring out okay, I think I want to try this. And I want to try that was that easy to like? Do something new? Are you? Are you an adventurous person for new things? Or do you like to kind of stay in where you are, that’s what feels comfortable?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Oh, you know, I’d love to meet someone who is a perfectionist and also adventurous. Because part of being a perfectionist is trying to sort of like, mitigate any possibility of something going wrong, right. And that’s something that I’ve been doing, you know, thanks to awesome coaches, I’ve been doing a lot of work around that for myself, right, like, giving myself a little bit more space, you know, to not be so perfect. And still, no, I did not approach this, I think in an adventurous way, I think I really came to it out of desperation. You know, like, there’s that saying that change happens when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of changing. That was the that was my reality. Right? Like, I came to it out of desperation. It was it was scary. But what was super cool was that as I was in this process of like, what do I do, like, Oh, my God, you know, and also the, the reality of like, walking away from a very stable and financially, you know, a great career from that perspective, like walking away from that. Scary, right with a, you know, we’re a family, we rely on two incomes, you know, we have a lifestyle that relies on two incomes. And so, like, there was a lot of fear there. But what I realized, and this is another one of those kind of, like, learning moments is that the more open I became, the more the, the more the solution started to unfold. So it was around this time that my brother who he’s an entrepreneur, he was having some serious growth pains with his second startup. And so I started to just help him, you know, because he needed the help, and I had the expertise. But what I realized in in in the helping and just kind of helping him because I wanted him to succeed, I realized that coaching him and his team, like ignited an energy in me that, you know, I could be creative, and I could be independent. I could kind of go deep with his team on what I really felt was needed. I could work with people who were open and innovative and curious, right, so, so by my just opening myself up to the unknown, and like, putting aside the need to, because quite frankly, I couldn’t I couldn’t control the, the the my destiny and my outcome, I had no answers, right, I had to open myself up to it. And then here it was that like, this opportunity came to me, that presented itself as what I really wanted to do for my future. So that’s when, you know, I started to like, imagine, you know, this new life that I wanted to create for myself.
Stacie Crawford
Yeah. So then you after you worked with your brothers start up and help them through all the changes that they were going through? You’ve got this fire is that when you quit your job and decided to create your own business, or was there more?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Oh, there was more because, and, you know, we think about all these different intelligences that we have, right? And I’ve talked a little bit about how intuition really sort of helped me when I started to kind of tap back into it. But logic is also really helpful, right? Yeah, see that, logically, I couldn’t be like, Oh my gosh, okay, I figured this all out, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna, you know, quit my job, and I’m gonna go start this thing tomorrow, I knew that logically, that wasn’t something that would be doable for my family. And so it took me quite a while it took me a year and a half, probably from the point at which I decided, okay, this is it, I can make a business out of this. It was, it was that point, it was almost a year and a half, from the point at which I said, I can do this, to the point that I actually quit my other role, my other career and started, like planting my flag and started my business. And that was hard. Because, you know, like, once you figure out what you want your future to be, it’s very hard to be sort of staying what you’re doing. But logically, I knew that there was so much I had to do to prepare, you know, figuring out kind of what my, you know, business case would be, and really getting a proof of concept down. So, you know, fortunately, I had this ability to, like really kind of test it out and kind of kick all the tires on, you know, how I would do it with a company before I made that leap.
Stacie Crawford
So when you came to this moment where that spark was really lit within you, how did that affect how you were feeling in terms of the burnout? Because you didn’t quit your job. So you’re still doing all of this? And now you’ve added this other thing. But was that adding that spark? Did that mitigate some of the burnout? Or, you know, how was that for you?
Elizabeth O’Neill
It’s so funny, Stacy. Because like, I’m feeling like, when you ask that question, I just I got this like tightness in my chest. The The reality is that it got worse. Because when you imagine a life that you want to have, and you’re stuck in the old one. And even when being stuck is your own choice. Like I had to remind myself on a daily basis, this is your choice. of agency. This is your choice. You’re doing this, because it makes the most sense. Right. But in the meantime, you know, it is like it there is a massive disconnect. You know what I mean? It’s like there’s a massive internal friction there between what you want and what you’re experiencing. Even when you know that it’s intentional, and by design, that was probably that was probably some of my hardest because I was no longer in that place of just tolerating. Yes, you know, I was ready to take action. And I became very impatient actually, with what I continued to see around me that was not in alignment with my values. And, and, and what I wanted to surround myself with. Yeah, so that’s so it’s hard, you know, it’s hard until you actually make the change.
Stacie Crawford
And so the next thing you did was you you spent this year and a half, figuring out getting getting all the pieces put together and really having a strong idea of how you would be, I assume, marketing yourself how you’d be working with different companies, because you do primarily work with startups. Is that correct?
Elizabeth O’Neill
I do. Yeah, I work exclusively with early stage companies, mostly in the tech space. And the reason that I do that is because I love the the creativity in the innovation, and I love helping companies manifest what they’re imagining their company to be. So I want to be able to help them maintain that for as long as they possibly can as they grow. So that’s kind of my mission and that’s, that’s who I work with.
Stacie Crawford
Right? That That makes a lot of sense. What was it like to quit your job?
Elizabeth O’Neill
It was cathartic and scary and emotional. I remember the day that I finally did and this Of course, this was not something it was not like, I had made the decision. And the next day I went in and communicated it, I had made the decision waited quite a while. And so, the day, the final day was, I remember it being very very emotional and kind of scary, right? Like, here, I had this, you know, this dream, and when you’re in the dreaming, it’s wonderful, because dreaming isn’t reality, right? Like, you can be just filled with all the possibilities. And that’s a great place to be. But then the reality of okay, so you are now officially your own boss. And there’s, there’s amazing stuff that is going to come with that, you know, you can literally design the, the life and the career that you want to have. So for me, one of the things that I did, which was very important is if I was going to make this leap, I was going to do it my way. Like, there was no, you know, what’s the point in taking a chance like that, if I couldn’t design it, the way that would best fit my life. Right, as you know, trying to find more blend, like in my life. One of my pet peeves was always feeling like I, you know, first off, never really being able to, like, do the school thing or like, you know, go to the reading group or volunteer, I had very little time to do that, you know, but also like, feeling like I had to be sneaky, right? Like, oh, I’m gonna sneak out and go and watch them do something, right? Yes, I was. I wanted my life to be, you know, unapologetically, like a wave of working with great people and great clients. And, you know, whenever I had to, like, being picking my kids up or going to a game, and having that be, who I am, what my life is, as opposed to something that I have to sneak around to do, right. So I forget what your question was, actually. But oh, what was it like to quit? Maybe? Was that the question? Or did you have a follow up? Yep. Yeah. So yeah, super scary, but also exhilarating. And in very, very early on, and I still believe that this is the case. Like, it was really instantaneous, that I felt like this is priceless, right? Like getting here was painful and hard. But where I am now, it’s priceless. Like, you can’t put a value on creating a life where you’re fulfilled.
Stacie Crawford
I agree with you, 100%. How did you get? How did you get through the burnout and get to the other side of burnout? Because you and I both know that situation changes aren’t? What really changes? Like? Yes, your situation change, but there was much more to what was going on than just quitting your job and creating a new business that worked with your life. Like that sounds very simple, but there was much more to it. So what were you doing that was maybe not visible? You know, maybe not part of the situation itself that helped you to get past the burnout? Because you did get past the burnout?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Absolutely, yeah. One of the things that I actually teach people in a burnout workshop that I do, because this is, you know, burnout, obviously, we all you know, anyone who’s going through life, Ryan, feel that at some point, right? startup founders feel that very frequently because they are because change and uncertainty is in their face every day. Right? And so this is a topic that comes up a lot. And so one of the things that I teach people about is that oftentimes the deepest cases of burnout have to do with a misalignment of our values. So to your point, it wasn’t for me, for me, it wasn’t necessarily like the change of scenery or the situation, right? It was the fact that what I valued most about a life that I want to live, like, wasn’t actually, I wasn’t living it. Right. So, um, being being like really present with my kids, that was something I valued. And I was not able to live into, my daughter would go to school, I’d already be on a call, I’d be on in meetings, and the entire day long she’d come home, I’d still be on the call, right? I couldn’t be present, I was always somewhere else. Mentally, even though I was there physically. So that was a value I was not aligned with, right for myself. That was, and it was deeply important to me. Authenticity, and honesty, are are two very important values to me, which, like, sometimes you don’t know, these things are important to you until you start to feel like wait, something’s off here. And for me, being around people who are honest about what they think that’s important to me. And there are many, many cultures, company cultures, where that where, where there is no psychological safety where, where people never say what they really think, because they’re afraid of the professional repercussions, right? Yeah. And so those were the things that actually adjusted for me, the other value that I got back into alignment with was just creativity. So having the space and the time to really think about things, and use my creativity to create learning, and awareness from for for my clients. Like that was something that was deeply like doing that. Engaging in that was deeply important to me. And I hadn’t done that in years, connecting with people, like in an authentic way, and helping them with their innermost challenges. That’s something I really valued. That was a talent, I really valued about myself, that I had not been able to use in a very long time. So those were the things I’m glad that you asked that question, because it’s not, you know, it’s not the surface things that ultimately make the difference. It’s the what is it that we really, what is it that’s uniquely important to us? And to what degree can we be in alignment with those things?
Stacie Crawford
I think that when I am talking with guests, many guests that have been here with me in the past values always comes up. And you know, values butting up against each other is always causing some kind of problems. So I think that when we can sit there and dig into that kind of stuff, and really figure that out, it changes the way we operate in our lives. And whether you’re in a situation that you do want to change, or you don’t want to change, you can feel better in that situation, if you’re able to operate in a way that feels aligned with who you are and what you really want.
When you
when you sat back and looked at this, was there anything that you didn’t expect that maybe surprised you? And you know, what was something that you learned? That was like, Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t really see that one coming.
Elizabeth O’Neill
I think I expected the process of like, if I build it, they will come right clients will just sort of come to me, which was, which was, you know, as someone who was becoming an entrepreneur, I was very naive to that’s probably been the biggest learning but and so with that, I think it’s a journey right? Life is a journey as it is, and any change is going to be a journey and, and so 100% I’ve been validated in what I thought I wanted to do, and the fulfillment and the gratification I get from it. And if I could do that all day long, like I would be, it’d be awesome. But the reality is that I’m also my running my own business. And so I’m constantly having to stretch out of my comfort zone. like working with my clients, that’s my comfort zone. Right? That’s like, where I shine, right? It’s very natural to me. I’ve been doing it for 20 years, right? But marketing myself promoting my value, right? Like, oh, that gets the inner critic all worked up. Yes. So along with growing, my business has been absolutely just ongoing work to. Like, this is gonna sound a little bit strange, but like being having a relationship with that inner critic, right, like understanding that better. What I realized along this way is that fighting it resisting it, like trying to just make it go away, that doesn’t really work. Because resistance just creates more of more of it. Right? And so like, figuring out, like, what’s it trying to tell me? How do I appreciate that certain things, you know, the inner critic can be helpful, because I can it helps me to, to perform at my best. How do I though, balance that out with, you know, something that’s good enough, and it doesn’t need to be so perfect that you never actually send it out into the world, right? So that’s the ongoing journey. You know, and creating the confidence to become what I can imagine or what I imagined I can become, like, you know, there’s more that I want to do in this space. And that takes confidence. And it takes me managing, you know, that imposter syndrome, to put myself, you know, into the world, and be comfortable doing that.
Stacie Crawford
So would you say that, you would be more likely to recognize burnout happening in your own life more quickly now than before? Because, hey, let’s face it, you are building a business. And entrepreneurs are there so much that they’re on their own, and we’re doing everything for ourselves? And we’re in charge of everything. I see a lot of burnout and entrepreneurs. So do you think that you recognize like, Oh, I’m starting to go down this path? Are there certain, like signs that you have that you keep an eye out for? Or is it really that you know, what, I’m in touch with my values, and I’m really, I’m a really strong relationship with them. I’m really aware of them. So I’m okay. And I’m just gonna keep on keepin on.
Elizabeth O’Neill
That’s a great question. Because I think it gets to, you know, I don’t I’d love to meet somebody who, once they figure it out, like they’re locked in for life. You know? For me, it’s a practice. It’s like anything else, right? It’s any anything that you want to get good at, it doesn’t come immediately. It takes repetition. So there are days when I’m like, okay, like, this is feeling good. You know, I don’t feel any blocks, like, we’re gonna go for it, right. And then there are other days when I, what I am better at CC is I’m better at noticing. And it’s, it’s in the noticing and this is also something that I coach, my clients around to. Awareness is like the first step. Yes. If you can, if you can become aware, like, oh, like that’s coming up or like, huh, like, I’m noticing that just out of nowhere. I’m going down these like, I’m creating stories, like out of nothing, right? There’s like a little seed of something and all of a sudden I’ve I’ve, you know, created this whole story of negativity, right being just being aware of like, Oh, look at that, like that’s, what is this telling me about my situation right now? Right. That process I’ve gotten a lot better at But every day, you know, I’m on the same roller coaster that every other entrepreneur is on. Right? Yeah. And it’s, you know, anyone who says that, oh, yeah, it’s great, and everything’s perfect. I would love to meet them. But I think for the rest of us, we’re just on a very kind of human journey of keep working it right. Keep working it and keep learning, keep evolving. And that’s why that’s the you know, that’s the best that we can do. And I have noticed that my life has improved, like dramatically, just in the working of just in the practicing. So I love that. If you
Stacie Crawford
could give some advice to people who think maybe they might be feeling a little burnt out? What, what would you say to them?
Elizabeth O’Neill
First, I would say, give yourself some grace. It’s, it’s hard. It’s, it’s hard to be in that place.
So first, just, rather than judging your situation, give yourself some grace. And then second, when you feel like you have the capacity to try and think about what’s a telling you about the situation that you’re in? Right, and what might be available to you to shift.
Stacie Crawford
I love that. Is there something that I haven’t asked you that I should ask you, or that you think would be important for people to know about? Frankly, recognizing burnout and getting on the path to getting rid of burnout?
Elizabeth O’Neill
One thing I will share with you is something that actually came to me and I ironically, I was in the process of preparing a workshop on burnout. And at the same time, I was going through a pretty challenging situation, you know, that was going on with my family. And I was very much in that space of feeling burnout. While at the same time I was preparing to do a workshop on burnout. So it’s like one of those weird parallels. And what I was trying to do at the time, was I was trying to kind of compartmentalize, right, like, I got the I got my own personal stuff over here. That’s like, hugely challenging. And but I don’t want it to interfere with this other thing that I want to be super successful. And so I was going back to one of my typical things, which is trying to control and, you know, trying to compartmentalize. And what I learned from that experience is that eventually that broke down, right, like, that’s not possible. And ironically, what I realized is that by letting go of trying to sort of control all those feelings, and all those expectations, and just letting it all kind of blend together, that even my work product, like the work that I was doing the outcome that I wanted to have that I was trying to protect so much from this other stuff. It actually made that better, right, it made it richer, because it incorporated my own life experience into it. And so, this is kind of like a long explanation. But I think my advice is that you know, it’s all okay. Right? Like we’re all human. And the more that we can acknowledge it, and let it in. Like the more we can sort of move forward from it and, and heal through
Stacie Crawford
it. Elizabeth, I know that you primarily work with companies, how do people get in contact with you if they want to work with you? Do you typically find that it’s the head of somebody that’s coming to you or is it somebody within the within the group that, you know, is little, the little guy on the totem pole that’s like, hey, there’s some serious stuff going on, can you come over? You know, how do people normally come into contact with you?
Elizabeth O’Neill
Oh, that’s a good question. Um, usually it’s the founder, CEO, or, or CLO. Someone who’s leading the company is typically the one who would, who is feeling like the pain and would reach out to me. So yeah, and they can people can find me on my website, it’s Elizabeth O’Neil dot com. And I also write on the founder connect publication on medium that I started. And, you know, probably in the, in the vein of this whole conversation, one of my missions is to really help founders have just kind of a human experience, you know, with running their company. And so that’s why I started founder connect as well.
Stacie Crawford
So I love it, and we’re gonna have all the links to this, I know that we’ll have a link to founder connect. And also, do you market your burnout workshops outside of working with clients? Or do you just do those workshops within the coaching within that coaching space?
Elizabeth O’Neill
At the moment, I don’t offer the burnout workshop as a standalone. But I do have a program called founder connect, okay, where we work through a lot of different topics that are sort of central to the founder experience, and also helping them to develop a strong foundation for themselves as they lead and scale their companies.
Stacie Crawford
So I love it. Well, we will have a link to that as well. So, Elizabeth, thank you so so much for your time, this has been absolutely amazing. I appreciate your sharing your story, because I know that there are so many people, both within the corporate world and outside of the corporate world, that they are feeling this, they’re feeling the burnout. And really, I think it’s so great to see somebody who was able to figure out how to get past burnout being the thing that is like that’s driving your day, you know, of course, we all have those moments of like, boy today is really stressful, and I’m feeling kind of like I did back then. But overall to be at a place where, you know, like you said, your life has changed dramatically and feeling so much more fulfilled. I think it’s so important for people to hear these stories and know that they can do it too.
Elizabeth O’Neill
Yeah, that’s so important. Stacey, thank you so much. This was such an honor to be on your podcast today.
Stacie Crawford
Thank you. We’ll talk to you soon. Okay,