#47: Avoiding Burnout as a Freelancer with Jessica Walrack

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In this episode of the Boss Responses podcast, host Treasa Edmond and guest Jessica Walrack discuss the challenges of balancing steady, profitable work with maintaining creative energy and content quality. Both share their personal journeys of handling constant deadlines, recognizing early signs of burnout, and developing strategies to gauge personal limits. They also emphasize the importance of setting boundaries, regularly evaluating projects, and continually moving up in client quality and work standards to prevent burnout. This episode is a must-listen for freelancers and business owners aiming to sustain a healthy and thriving business.

About Our Guest
Jessica Walrack is the founder of All Things Freelance Writing—a community that helps freelance writers build their ideal businesses through its blog, weekly jobs newsletter, and other resources. She’s also a freelance finance journalist with 11 years of professional writing experience. You can find her work regularly featured in national publications including US News and World, CBS News MoneyWatch, Newsweek, and Wallstreet Journal BuySide.

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Episode Transcript

Treasa Edmond (00:00):
Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast,
where we talk about realchallenges faced by freelance
business owners.
Today, we're discussing asituation that might resonate
with many of you out there thetightrope walk between
maintaining a steady, profitableoutput and preserving your
creative energy and contentquality.
It's a balancing act that canleave even the most experienced

(00:22):
writers feeling stretched thin.
Act that can leave even themost experienced writers feeling
stretched thin.
So, whether you're a seasonedcontent writer feeling the
strain of constant deadlines, orif you're just starting out and
want to establish healthy workpractices, this episode is for
you.
If you're a freelancer,business owner or anyone who
deals with clients, you're inthe right place.
I'm your host, Treasa Edmond.

(00:44):
I've been dealing with clientsand running my business for
nearly two decades and in thattime I've dealt with my share of
doubt, imposter syndrome andnot knowing what to say when a
client asked a question I wasn'tready for.
I created this podcast toempower you with the boss
responses you need to grow yourbusiness.
Each week, my guest co-host andI will bring you five episodes

(01:07):
packed with practical insights.
Monday through Thursday, weanswer your questions, and
Fridays, we dive deep to explorehow our co-hosts embrace their
role as the boss of theirbusiness.
Welcome to Boss Responses.
We are back for day two withJessica Walrack and Jessica.

(01:27):
I'm asking you the questiontoday.
This says I'm a content writerand the type of content I write
is on the lower side of thepricing spectrum, but it has
high volume, so I'm doing prettywell financially.
Lately the back-to-backdeadlines have been getting to
me, though.
I'm trying to figure out howmuch I can reasonably accomplish
in a day without suffering fromcreativity burnout.
I know I can't just write foreight hours a day.

(01:50):
Quality still matters, so Idon't want to write crappy
content.
How can I figure out what mylimits are without testing them
until I crack?
I'm really interested in yourresponse because I know you kind
of specialize in capacity stuffhere.

Jessica Walrack (02:04):
Yeah, that's a great question and you know I
learned my limits the hard way.
To be honest, I did work andwork and work until I felt burnt
out Me too.
But over the years I've learnedto spot the early signs and just
really pay attention to how I'mfeeling throughout projects,

(02:26):
like after I'm done with anyassignment, I analyze how long
it took me, how that breaks downper hour and per word in terms
of the payment, and then I writedown notes on how I felt about
the project, things that I liked, things that I didn't like and
that might include I felt likethis took way too much time for

(02:46):
what it was worth.
Maybe there was an aspect to itthat was super time intensive,
that I would charge more for inthe future and just really
gauging how I feel.
I think that's really importantand then drawing those
boundaries, like payingattention to that and then
putting it into action and howyou schedule things and that
really helps.

(03:06):
So if I write for eight hours aday one day, the next day I
need three hours or four hours.
My average I've learned overtime is kind of like five hours
before sentences start to lookweird.
I'm like looking up words likeis this a word I'm like okay, I
got to close my computer andtake a break.

Treasa Edmond (03:25):
I when I can't spell simple words or when I
think they start looking wrong.
No-transcript.
I love your idea of doing arecap at the end of a project,
and just how did you come upwith that?

Jessica Walrack (03:43):
I think it was really from having things happen
on projects that I reallydidn't like is where it started,
and I just learned to optimizemy roster and find my ideal
clients and have a business thatI actually enjoy and don't feel
imprisoned by, like I have topay really close attention to
what I actually like and don'tlike.
So when something went reallywrong, I'm like I never want

(04:05):
this to happen again.
I don't want to experience thisever again, and so I just
started taking notes and thenover time, it just became a
habit.

Treasa Edmond (04:12):
That's brilliant, and that's not something I've
done and I think I'm going toactually start.
I think I've done it informally, but I've never made it a
formal process and I thinkthat's a formal process that
would really help a lot of us Alot, and at first I was the same
too.

Jessica Walrack (04:27):
It was like I didn't like that.

Treasa Edmond (04:28):
I'll remember for sure next time, but then
there's so many things it's hardto keep track of it all, yeah,
and yeah, and I think weoverestimate our ability to keep
track of all of that and Ithink it's an unreasonable
expectation to expect us to dothat, because you have a lot of
things going on.
All of us do, and it's not goodto do that With the creativity

(04:48):
burnout.
I could never write for eighthours a day.
So if you can do that, you area superwoman.
I'm impressed Once in a whileand maybe it's the type of
writing I do, but I can go fouror five hours a day and that's
my limit, and I never schedulemore than five hours a day for
writing.
I do always block out time rightbefore the deadline for the

(05:12):
procrastination writing becausethat seems to work really well
for me.
Is it really procrastination ifyou scheduled it?
That seems to work really wellfor me.
Is it really procrastination ifyou scheduled it?
That's a bland one.
We'll have to look at that.
But the test quality doesmatter.
I know what it takes for me towrite quality content, so I
think in this case, instead oftrying to figure out what my

(05:33):
limits are, I would just be verydiligent in carving out the
time to make sure that I can dothe quality writing If quality
writing requires me to have aquiet location and a specific
candle burning and dim lightingwhatever it is, then I would
make sure that I have theability to set that mood to do

(05:54):
it.
I'm actually the opposite, whenI'm doing ghostwriting and I'm
chugging out a chapter at thelast minute for a client not
that I would ever do that.
I do all my writing with a lotof time and thought, but I go to
a coffee shop where I canignore people.
So I've discovered that I needto ignore something to write.
Really well, If I'm stuck athome or the office writing, I

(06:14):
put on British Murder Mysteriesthat I've already watched like
100 times because there's allthe noise in the background.
But I set the mood and for methat's how I avoid burnout.
Not that it doesn't stillhappen.
I think it's really importantto point out that burnout is
seldom permanent.
Yeah, so it can happen, and ifyou do need to test your limits

(06:37):
by getting to that point, thendo it, but just realize that you
need to do some self-care toget over it and then get back in
the saddle and do your thing.
This is one of those situationsI want to point out to people.
You are an employee of yourbusiness and I know a lot of
freelancers are not buying intothat and they should.

(06:58):
You're running a business andyou are your business's employee
.
So one of the ways to figureout on the limits especially is
would you require an employee todo this?
Would it be fair if you hadanother employee and you asked
them to do this thing?
If not, then don't holdyourself to that standard.
I'm just pretty hard and faston that, and that's the question

(07:20):
I constantly ask myself.
Would I lob this on an employeelast minute and expect them to
do really great work?
If not, then I'm not going torequire that of myself either.

Jessica Walrack (07:32):
Yeah, and if you're starting to feel that
pressure, like she says, latelythe back-to-back deadlines have
been getting to me, though.
To me that's a sign, that's oneof those little warning signs.
Okay, something needs to change.
Maybe you need to start lookingfor a client that's similar
work but pays a little bit more.

Treasa Edmond (08:10):
Yeah, and then once you get into that position,
it's like you feel that reliefand you can feel like, ok, now I
have more creative juice.
I don't feel that pressure orthat scarcity Like I got to get
this without sounding like aladder climber, but really
moving up in quality on both myclients.
The pay scale and the work thatI'm doing constantly be

(08:35):
improving.
Eventually you'll reach apinnacle I haven't yet.
I've been doing this for 20years.
You can do it for a long timeand take baby steps if you want,
but I really think it'simportant to consistently move
up.
The people that you work withwhen you very first start
freelancing are not the peopleyou should be working with a
couple of years later or 10years later or 20 years later,
no matter how much you like them, no matter how much you like
the work.
You should constantly be movingforward with your business,

(09:01):
because you owe that to yourbusiness.
You just have to do that.
That's a complicated topic.
It is a complicated topic andburnout is a real thing.
We didn't even really talkabout that, but burnout is a
real thing and you do not wantto consistently push yourself to
the point of burnout, becauseif you do it over and over again
, then you will absolutely endup hating your business, and I

(09:23):
don't think any of us do what wedo because we want to end up
hating.

Jessica Walrack (09:27):
Yeah, and I think that's the natural flow of
what happens.
Like, when people start, theytake as much work as they can.
They're like I can work anytime, the more I can work, the
more money I can make, and youjust like go, go, go, go go.
Once you don't have an employersaying, okay, clock out.
If you're completely new tothis, I think that it's natural
to kind of get to that place.

(09:48):
But yeah, definitely notsomewhere you want to say it can
really take a toll on yourhealth.

Treasa Edmond (09:54):
And all of your health your mental and your
physical health for sure.
Boundaries are not for otherpeople, they're for yourself.
So even if you're setting aboundary with a client, you're
setting the boundary to gaugehow you're going to react if
they cross it.
You need to do those samethings with you for your
business.
So your business can onlyrequire so much from you before

(10:19):
you cross a boundary.
If you cross the boundary, howare you going to react to that?
I think that's one of the mostimportant aspects of not getting
burned is I have theseboundaries.
I'm not going to cross them.
If I do, bad consequences.
So what do you do?
Do you have to get rid of aclient?
Do you have to not take thenext project because you need a
couple of weeks to recuperate,whatever it takes, and build

(10:42):
your business so that you canget to that point and maybe just
don't get to that point at somepoint, but, yes, those are all
really important.
That's day two.
Tomorrow we're going to talkabout a topic that I read about
a lot on social having problems,finding new.