Approaching Burnout…

What I do and what you can do as you start to approach ‘burnout’ in your business or in life.

On this episode Russell talks about feeling burnout from preparing for Funnel Hacking Live. He also talks about his past experiences with burnout during his life.

Here are 3 things you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Russell dealt with burnout during his wrestling career and how that’s prepared him for similar situations in his life.
• How a friend of Russell’s helped him get out of a burnout slump and get exciting about marketing again.
• And what his mind does while he starts to feel burnt out from the stress of work and how he thinks he will get past it this time.

So listen below to hear how Russell gets over the stress of burnout and how he knows he’ll get past it by taking time off and relieving some pressure by making work fun.

---Transcript---

Hey everybody, this is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing In Your Car. Is that funny that I crack myself up every time? I gotta try to be louder and more obnoxious each time otherwise it’s going to be boring. So welcome you guys, I hope you’re excited. I’ve got crazy allergies happening. I’m not the kind of guy who gets allergies except for around cats. I’m deathly allergic to cats. But I don’t normally get them, but ever since I got back from New York, the wrestling tournament I’ve been sneezing 50 times a day and my nose is super raw. It’s horrible. So I’m hoping and praying that when we get to San Diego next week for Funnel Hacking Live that I don’t have allergies, cause that would be horrible on stage, sneezing every five seconds. It’d be really embarrassing. I’m sure I could take some kind of antihistamine or whatever, but those things always make me tired and throw me off my game and I gotta be on top of my game. There’s going to be a lot of you guys there.

First off, if you’re going to be there, congratulations because you need to be there, it’s going to be amazing. So that’s number one, and number two, if you’re not going to be there, you missed it, we sold out. You can come even if you wanted to. I’ve been warning and begging and pleading for a long time and now you’re one shot is gone. So there you go.

So with that said, I want to talk to you about something today that’s kind of serious. For me, right now, and probably for you a lot of times. I’m doing this on my way to my haircut, so my the one podcast when I was getting my haircut, ever since then, every time I post a video online, everyone’s like, “Nice haircut, nice haircut.” So thanks I guess for messing with me. It’s pretty funny actually. So I’m getting a haircut real quick, the last haircut before the big event. So hopefully I will look normal when we get there.

Alright, what I wanted to talk to you guys about today…Dang there’s a lot of traffic……is burn out. I’m curious, how many of you guys have ever felt burnt out? I think the first time that I ever got burnt out of something, because typically when you’re a kid you’re just doing a bunch of cool stuff all the time, everyday is like a new adventure. My kids think they get burnt out because they’re tired of doing whatever the activity is. But the first time I ever really felt burnt out was my sophomore year of high school, I was wrestling 130 pounds, and each week I would check my weight on Sunday night, and on average I would be 160. Which meant, I usually had weigh ins on Thursday or Friday, which meant I had 4 or 5 days to get from 160 down to 130. And for any of you guys that have ever tried to go through wrestling practice, it’s not easy, but the only way that it gets harder is you put on plastic suits. My dad used to call them rubber gear back in the day, we called them plastic when I was in it, but it’s basically this plastic suit that goes tight around your neck your wrists, your ankles, and it’s heat impermeable, so heat cannot get out of it. So what you do is put on a pair of sweats and put on a pair of plastic on top of that, and put on another pair on top of that and you walk in the wrestling room and by the time you’re in the wrestling room you’re body is cooking. I could feel my heart beating really…it was just horrible. Then you go through wrestling practice, and the most I ever lost in an hour was, with my plastics on, was 8 pounds. So you can lost a lot of weight, 8 pounds of water is a gallon. A gallon of milk weighs 8 lbs, I think. Does it weigh 8 pounds? Yeah, I think it was 8 pounds. So that’s the equivalent. So I’d wrestle an hour and suck a gallon of water out of my body. So you’d get done with practice, you take your sweats off, you take your plastics off, and you’re sweats would be soaking wet, and you could take them and wring them out, all the water would flush out of them. So every week that was my process.

Weigh in Sunday night 160, I’d weigh in Thursday night for the dual meet or the tournament on Friday and I’d be 130. So 30 pounds…it’s not easy. Because the first practice you lose 8 pounds, second practice you lose 5 pounds, third practice you’d lose 3 pounds, next practice you’d lose 2 pounds, because you just don’t have as much water to give and at the end you’re trying to lose the last 2 pounds and it’s a nightmare, and you’re tired and sore and hungry and thirsty. Actually, you’re not hungry, even though you don’t eat, you don’t have hunger pains, you have thirst pains are way worse than hunger pains. So typically I’d stop eating two or three days before the wrestling tournament, which probably isn’t that smart. Knowing what I know now, I’d probably do things a lot different. Nevertheless, that’s what we did. And then I’d stop drinking 24 hours before, and about 3 days before, I’d drink really minimally because the water is the weight right. Food doesn’t actually weigh anything, foods the calories. I’d try to eat really heavy calorie food because that would give me some energy. But then, I hardly drank any water because water weighs the most. So 24 hours before we cut out all water and suck the last bit and it’s painful and it sucks and it’s horrible. But in a weird sadistic way I really enjoyed it. We had to get into it. I think a lot of it, is 5 or 6 of us all cutting weight together. Just the camaraderie. Anyway, I honestly miss those days. In fact, when I go to wrestling tournaments now, even the NCAA tournament, I feel guilty drinking water or eating food, because I think, I’m in a wrestling tournament, I should not be eating, this is weird. I have this weird guilt. Anyway, I would go get mental help, if I was still wrestling, but I’m not so it’s good.

So going through an entire season like that, by the time I was at the end of wrestling season, I was burned out.  It showed. I’d beaten the state champ, the kid that ended up taking the state champ that year, I’d beaten him twice during the year, and I ended up taking 5th place in the region tournament, didn’t even qualify for the state tournament that year. I went on to watch this kid I beat twice become a high school state champ which was my goal. It was hard. I remember sitting in the state tournament watching him win, and it was sad, it was frustrating and everything and I was just burned out. I couldn’t do it anymore. I remember sitting there and to get through that burn out, I took a week off and I just did nothing except for eat cereal and watch cartoons, which was awesome. Then I went back to wrestling and we did freestyle and Greco and the way I got out of burnout is I started having fun with wrestling again. So I went to these tournaments, I didn’t cut any weight, I went up by like 5 weight classes, I was at 154 in my freestyle and my Greco weight, didn’t cut any weight, I showed up, weighed in and whatever I weighed, I went against these huge dudes, and it was good. I started lifting and getting strong and eating and getting healthy and I just made it fun again. And that’s how I kind of got through that burnout period.

So that was the first time, the next time I really know I had a burnout bad. If you listened to my podcast in the past you know some of the ups and downs. It was after we had 100 employees and everything crashed. We had a year of trying to save our butts and earn money to pay back the government and all these crazy things and at that point I was beyond burned out. I would’ve walked away from this business if I didn’t have so many outstanding debts and liabilities and coaching fulfillments and all these promises we made people. I had to fulfill on those things so I kept coming through, kept pushing it, and I was a burnout. I hated it. I woke up everyday hating what I did. And what got me through that burnout period, it was interesting it was one of my friends Daegan Smith, who was one of my wrestling buddies at NCAA last weekend. But Daegan called me, he actually called me and interviewed me on something. So he interviewed me and then we just sat there and talked for an hour or two telling stories and all these things. And he got me re-excited about marketing and about what we were doing and how we were doing it. Just all the cool things that we can bend and do and learn and discover. He made marketing fun for me again. And on the tails of that came a lot of amazing things for me and probably for you. You know the DotcomSecrets came as a by-product that we went through this testing phase for the next year. We were testing and trying and doing all these things and from that came the DotcomSecrets book, from that came Clickfunnels, from that came all the amazing things we do now. But they came on the backside of burnout, which is…burnout’s hard.

So right now, I’m a week away from our event and I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling burned out. You know, we’ve had a big mountain to climb. We had to sell over 1000 tickets, which is a not easy task. I remember my, back in the day we’d do events, we’d get 100 people show up and I remember going to a Dan Kennedy event one time and there was 1000 people in the room and I was thinking, this is incredible. I cannot believe that that is even possible that they have 1000 people in the room and thinking that was an insurmountable task, and we just accomplished this and it’s amazing. But the cost has been burnout.

So anyway, it’s 1:00 right on the dot, and my haircut is starting right now, so I’m going to stop this, go get my haircut, then I’ll come back out and we’ll talk about burnout some more. Two reasons, one, I need to talk myself through it to help me get through kind of what I’m feeling right now, and the best way I’ve found to get through some of those things is to share with others. And then number two, I know that some of you guys are probably experiencing that right now, hopefully it’ll give you guys some hope and faith in what you’re doing and keep you moving forward. So I’ll be back for part two of this podcast here in about 30 minutes.

Alright, so where were we? We were talking about burnout. I’m sure that most of you, at least I hope so, I hope it’s not just me that goes through that every once in a while, and I’ve had little spouts, but honestly since Daegan kind of came back in and got me re-excited about marketing it’s good, everything’s been moving forward. You know, I think the last two years or so has been more intense than normal and part of it is just because we had this opportunity, Clickfunnels came and so a lot of it is like, strike while the iron’s hot. However you say that thing. Anyway, we did, we went intense. We’ve gone hard and we’ve pushed it and we’ve done amazing things and it’s been so much fun. So because I’ve been working so hard, I just haven’t thought about…You’re focusing on this one mission and you’re pushing things forward. I was reading Gary Vaynerchuck’s new book this weekend and one thing he talks about is the dirt and the clouds. The clouds is your vision and the dirt’s getting your feet dirty, and moving forward and working. That’s how I’ve been. It’s been the clouds hurts the vision, and then boom hit the dirt and pounding it, and focusing on those two things and it’s been good.

There’s been so much stuff happening and we’re moving things forward and all of this amazing momentum so we’ve been running with it. But this last week and a half, two weeks or so as we’re moving towards the event, all the things we’re doing to push forward, to fill the event, and we were about to launch Funnel University and Clickfunnels and all this stuff along with new sales page, new one day challenge, new certification program. Man, there’s so much more stuff that I probably haven’t even talked to you guys about that’s happening, that’s all at the point of fruition where everything is going to be rolling live now. And just all this fun momentum over the last little bit, and I’ve had to stop because, first I was trying to finalize, finish up, my goal in this was to finish the new book by the event which didn’t happen. But now it’s like, I just stop everything to get all the presentations done for the event and with that there’s the handouts, and the order forms, and all these little detail things that I just not a details person, but we’re at a part of the game where the details are what matters. I’m in charge of executing a lot of those details because I’m really the one who understands what and why and how and all those kind of things, you know.

So that’s kind of where I’m at, and I’m not going to lie. I’m starting to feel that burnout, cause this is the part that I don’t enjoy the most, which is all those kinds of things. So I have to slow back and all these other projects we’ve been trying to push out push out push out before the event, I’ve had to stop and just like, this cannot happen before the event. I’ve had to start cutting things to be able to execute correctly on the event, and make it an amazing experience for everyone’s who’s there. I’m just kind of feeling it. So for the last four days I was supposed to be working on my presentation and day one I didn’t because I was focusing on this and day two there’s something else and each day I keep putting it off, I think it’s probably because I got a lot of pain associated. There’s something about the finality, is that the right word? This thing being final, like writing a book. When you write a book, at least for me it’s stressful, because it becomes so final. It’s concrete, it doesn’t change. When the book’s done, it is what it is. You don’t change it, right. I feel the same with the event. When the presentations are done, next step is me giving them, there’s so much, it’s so final, I think I put a lot of pressure on it, so it kind of stresses me out.

Anyway, I’ve been moving forward, moving forward and yesterday I spent probably 2 or 3 hours just outlining all the presentations and I think I have 6 presentations that I’m working on. And I got excited because it’s looking really cool and I know what to deliver, and I know what I’m trying to bring across, but now I know I gotta break those core concepts into slides, and power points and images and things that’ll make this all make sense. In a very streamline format. You know to take really complex thoughts or ideas and make them simple, it’s hard. The Dotcom Secrets book was hard. How do we take this abstract idea that I understand in my gut but then change it into something that I can explain to someone and they can look at it and be like, “Oh that makes perfect sense.” That’s kind of where I’m at now. I’ve got all these amazing things, for the next two days I have to lock myself down and figure out how to explain them in a simple easy way and get doodle drawings to match, and all those kind of things. So it’s a lot of work to do, but the other thing I got is this looming deadline that I have to get them done so we can get them printed so we can have them in people’s books by the time the event starts. All these things that, and I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling that burnout.

Last night at about 5:30 at the office I had this pounding headache, I was just like, I gotta stop and go home. I’m going to go home and play with the kids for a little bit, put them to bed then come back. I didn’t’ get them to bed until late, because it’s Spring Break for them. We didn’t get them to bed until 10:30 and I was just like, I don’t have it in me to come back, I’m going to wake up early and come in. Then the morning came and I was like, I don’t want to, I’m not ready. I kind of slept in a little bit, but now I’m feeling really good. I’m still in this phase where I’m kind of, there’s so much pressure and stress and buildup and all this stuff that I think part of your brain, the burnout happens where you just want to relieve that pressure, you want to take the pressure valve off and just ahhhhh. But I can’t yet because the big show’s about to happen. So that’s how I’m feeling. In complete transparency, I’m feeling the pressure and stressed and worried and I want to make a good experience, because there’s things happening and that’s kind of where, and I think a big part for me is because I have to cut all these things, that are important to me, that I want to have done, that I physically cannot get them done anymore before the event, I feel a lot of stress and pressure and guilt because I had to cut these things. I don’t know why, but that’s kind of where it’s at.

So there you go. I’m at a point where I’m feeling it, and I’m sure you guys, have ever felt in the past, you’re there right now. So I just wanted to kind of give you some of my thoughts on what I’m trying to do to be able to kind of push through the burnout. Because we still got to execute. We’re seven days away from the event, starting at the time I’m recording this, we can’t stop. But how do we still make it fun and  then when the event’s done, take the pressure valve out so we can keep executing and having fun. Because when you’re having fun, it makes it hard to be creative an deliver the cool stuff. So here’s my game plan.

So first off, I have to get through, I talked about this on a recent podcast, I had pain associated with the birthing process of these presentations. So I have to, today and tomorrow, I’ve got two days to really dig in deep into these. A big part of that is because I attach and associate pain with this I have to attach pleasure. How do I? What do I make fun? How do I make these into games? What do I give myself when I finish one? How do I do that? So that’s a big part, is that.

Second big part is my mind, I know as I start working, my mind’s going to try to go to pleasure every single time. Let me chat with someone, let me check Facebook, let me do all these kind of things. So for me, what I do, and I talked about this on a different podcast, but when I switch to power point zone, and I’m going to use my treadmill desk, and shut off everything else and just have me walking and focusing on presentations. So that was number one.

Number two is, I have to celebrate the little whims along the way, so as I finish one I have to do something to celebrate. Either go out to eat, or eat junk food, or hanging out with friends, go walk, or check Facebook, or whatever it is. Have these big rewards as I get things done, it’ll push me through those pain points. Second off, I’ve got to, you guys can tell I’m creating this as I go, I’m trying to think this through, so that’s a big one for me to get through the day to day.

I think when the event is done, I’m not very good at taking time off, it stresses me out, but I think I need to force myself. When I get home from the event, I  need to take one or two days off and just not do anything, because I need to take that pressure valve off. Part of me wants to do a product launch. Tuesday after the event I want to launch Funnel University. IT’s driving me nuts that it’s not live yet. I probably shouldn’t but I still might. But taking that pressure valve off so we can execute right. I would in theory, back when I was wrestling I would have been better in Freestyle if I would have cut weight during the off season, but I didn’t and it was hard because guys were bigger and stronger than me, but I enjoyed it more, I had more fun. So I think it’s, you’re taking some of the internal pressures off. I don’t know about you guys but I give myself a lot of pressure. Probably that’s unneeded, but I don’t know. I was thinking about this a lot, I think it comes from my wrestling background. In wrestling we’re always focused on who could be beating us. I could be the number one kid in the state but I’m thinking about, Man, this guy’s training this guy, this guys training this guy. I have to do more than them because I don’t want them to pass me.

I remember Dan Gable, who’s one of our sports legends. He’s like the Michael Jordan of wrestling. Dan Gable, when he was training for the Olympics and he’d work out 7 hours a day, and he’d try to go to bed at night and he couldn’t sleep because he knew that on the other side of the world the Russians were awake training and it made him sick to his stomach knowing the Russians were training while he was sleeping, so he’d get up and run at night.

And I kind of feel that for me, and I don’t know if that’s normal, or something I got from wrestling, but I feel like, right now we’re in the number one position in our industry. We’re doing amazing things, but I feel this pressure. Like, “Wow, what’s everyone else doing that we’re not? We got to make sure we’re on top” So I put a lot of pressure on myself which is maybe unnecessary, I don’t know. But it is what it is. So I think I’m going to try to take the week after the event, try to release some pressure on some things like that and set more realistic timelines and goals on things, so that way we can make it fun. Just like Freestyle and Greco was fun  because I took the pressure weight cutting out, and just enjoyed the process. It’s like how when I worked with Daegan again, the process became fun because I had focus on the creativity in the marketing and less on the “We’ve got to launch this, we got to make money.” Things like that I stepped back and because we stepped back and enjoyed the process we were able to create amazing things. I think that that’s really for me the next step, is after the event. Because we can’t…the event’s happening and we’ve got to make an amazing show, but then after that’s done, how do I take some pressure off, so we can execute correctly and have a fun time with it and make it enjoyable. So we don’t burn out.

So that’s the thoughts from me. I don’t know if that helps you guys out at all. Make you think Russell’s strange, maybe gives a glimpse inside of my head, I don’t know. But I hope it makes you guys who are going through any kind of burnout to feel understood. Because I’ve been there. I’m going through it now and those are some of the things I’m going to be trying to do to protect myself, so I don’t hit it. Because burnouts, especially this point in my business, it’s tough because I have business partners, I have friends, I have staff, I have teams that rely on me. I can’t let them down.

I can’t just disappear and kind of take the foot off the gas because I owe it to them as well. So how do you manage that? How do you protect yourselves so you don’t go through it? If you do go through it a little bit, you manage it in a way that will actually serve you and your team moving forward as opposed to crippling you and hurting you. So there you go, that’s all I got for today. I’m at the office, it’s time for some world domination. I got to get some presentations done. So that’s what I got for you guys. Appreciate you all, have an amazing day and I’ll talk to you guys soon.