A Strategic Pause: Working Smarter, Avoiding Burnout, and What’s Next

Introduction to Everand

0:00If you love podcasts, you already know how to fit great stories into your busy day. So why not do the same thing with books? Everand is an affordable audiobook and e-book subscription that goes wherever you go. Your commute, your workout, your grocery run. No rearranging your schedule, no carving out reading time. Just hit play. For a limited time, new members get two free books when they start a free trial. Go to everand.com slash listen to claim yours. That's E-V-E-R-A-N-D dot com slash listen.

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Podcast Pause Announcement

1:31Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. I am here today with a different kind of episode. I'm here with an announcement. So I am going to be pausing the podcast. Really just jumped right in with it there. Kind of feels like a breakup, but it's not because this is a pause. Key word. I wanted to record this because I wanted to give you some context into why I'm pausing it. Because I know a lot of you are avid listeners. I also know there's a lot of new listeners. So for those of you that are new, there's a huge backlog that you can go listen to.

2:03Same for those of you that have been around for a while. So why I'm pausing is I have been really doing a lot. And I've been really evaluating how I work and just really thinking about sustainability and, you know, long-term, the energy I want to be putting into different things within my business. And I do realize that working, you know, harder is not my goal. I really want to work smarter. You know, work smarter, not harder. We hear that all the time, but that's something I'm really trying to start to implement.

2:33So this year, 2026, as I'm recording this, is really my year of just refining, trusting myself, trusting the process, and figuring out what I want to hold on to, what I want to improve, what do I want to do differently, and not just kind of creating to keep up because that is the fastest way to burn out. I'm sure a lot of you have been there before. I've been burned out before, and it's not good. So I want you to know that this pause is actually coming from a place of intention.

3:04I've thought about it a lot. I want to kind of get ahead of burnout, so to speak. But also, I just want to do things different. I want to do things better. And so I think sometimes that requires stepping away. And so that is what this is. It's just a moment of pause, a moment for me to step away, think about what I really want, think about what I'm doing, and then come back stronger, better, and more impactful for all of you. So, you know, I've just, I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot through this.

3:35I've learned that some of my best relationships have come through meeting people on this podcast. I think there's so much you guys can learn from re-listening to episodes. I mean, just learning how different people build their businesses has been instrumental in how I've built mine. And so I think this podcast has been a place of me learning as well. But I think this is time where I've gotten to a point where I just need to take a step back and figure out what is the best way for me to take what I've learned and share it with all of you.

4:11And so one thing I do want to share is when thinking through when it's time to pause in your own business,

Evaluating Business Decisions

4:18there is a little test that I use to evaluate things, and it is my kind of business audit. And what I do is I look at all of the different income streams, time sucks, whatever you want to think about that, you know, when it comes to your business. And then I write out, you know, on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do I enjoy it? On a scale from 1 to 10, how much money does it bring in? On a scale from 1 to 10, how much time is it? And then on a scale from 1 to 10, how impactful is it for my marketing and for my business growth?

4:50So I think at first I was noticing that this podcast was scoring pretty low. It does not bring in very much money. It is a huge amount of time and effort. For those of you that think podcasting is easy, it is not. And then I was really getting to it where I didn't enjoy it anymore because of those first two things. But I think what I neglected and why I just want to call this a pause is because it's been one of the most instrumental things for growing my business. I've become smarter. I've met incredible people. And that's why I'm not ready to give this up.

5:21I'm just ready to do it more strategically. And that's how I want you guys to think about your business. One, I want you to identify when it is time to step away from something. And I want you to pair that with, you know, when is it time for a pause or when is it time to just notice like something is taking a ton of time and I'm not enjoying it anymore or something's not making as much of a profit as I want it to. And it's important to know that. And I think a lot of times we don't take the time to just sit and pause. And that pause is what allows us to do things better and improve and refine the next time.

5:58So what this means for all of you, because I will keep it short, is I will be taking a pause and not thinking about the podcast for a little bit. I think our best creative ideas come from stepping away. And so I'm going to step away probably for, you know, the summer for a little bit of time and just initially not think about it and then come back and really think about, you know, how am I going to make this more impactful for myself and for all of you? You know, there's a lot of different directions that could go and I might have some epiphany as I'm taking some time away.

6:33But I want this to feel like something that I am bringing to you that I feel really good about, like how I feel about my sub stacks, like something I'm so proud of that I'm delivering to you every week versus something that is a burden that I'm having to do week after week, because that's not going to be good quality content. So that is what's thinking. That's what I'm thinking. I know this might be a surprise for a lot of you, but it's, you know, that's what happens in business. I've been doing this podcast for a really long time. And as you grow a business, you have to find ways to protect your energy.

7:07And you also have to find ways to really consider how you're going to want to build something long term. And sometimes that means taking a break. And this is something I want to be sustainable. It's something that I want to be beneficial for myself. And so I'm going to choose depth over volume. And so that means I'm going to take a step away and then I will be back, but it will look different. So I know you're going to love whatever comes out of this pause. I know I will love it. I know it'll come back fresh and new and with, you know, new energy behind it.

7:39But with all that being said, this is my last episode for now, probably for a few months. But I just want to say thank you, all of you, for being here, for listening. And if you don't know what to listen to over the next few months, I've got a whole extensive backlog that I think you'll be really interested in. So make sure you check those out. And of course, I have my sub stack, which I think is jam-packed with even more information that's in this podcast. So make sure you're subscribed to that.

8:09And that hits your inbox every single Thursday. And it's not going anywhere. So thank you so much for tuning in for the past few years, helping me get to nearly 300 episodes. And I will talk to you, not next week, but sometime, hopefully, in the near future. Thank you again. Bye. If you love podcasts, you already know how to fit great stories into your busy day. So why not do the same thing with books?

8:40Everand is an affordable audiobook and e-book subscription that goes wherever you go. Your commute, your workout, your grocery run. No rearranging your schedule, no carving out reading time. Just hit play. For a limited time, new members get two free books when they start a free trial. Go to everand.com slash listen to claim yours. That's E-V-E-R-A-N-D dot com slash listen. For the final trivia question, what is the largest mammal in the world? Sir in the orange, phone away, please.

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10:02If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

10:14Thank you.