05 From Overwhelm to Alignment: A Woman's Guide to Beating Burnout

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Burnout Isn’t a Personal Failure—It’s a Leadership Signal | Joyfully Unstoppable Podcast

Are you constantly overfunctioning, emotionally drained, and wondering why your leadership role—something you used to love—now feels so heavy?

In this powerful kickoff episode of the Joyfully Unstoppable burnout series, leadership coach Becky Hamm reframes burnout not as a flaw, but as a flag—your mind, body, and spirit waving a red flag that it’s time to lead differently.

You’ll learn:
🌿 What burnout really looks like for high-achieving women
🌿 The hidden causes no one talks about (hello, people-pleasing + self-abandonment)
🌿 Why pushing through isn’t the answer
🌿 What sustainable leadership can actually feel like
🌿 How to begin moving from frantic to flourishing

✨ Ready to stop running on empty and start leading from alignment? This episode is your invitation to begin again—with more clarity, more capacity, and more joy.

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✨ Let’s stay connected
Want more support as you lead with clarity, confidence, and joy? Here’s how we can keep growing together:

📝 Download the Burnout Recovery Checklist!
👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏾 Join the Women Lead Well Community on Facebook!
📋 Join the Waitlist for Frantic to Flourishing!
🌿 Meet Becky – Get to know the heart behind the mic
💼 Coaching for Women Leaders – Ready for personalized support? Explore 1:1 coaching
📚 Free Leadership Resources – Practical tools to help you lead (and live) well
🏡 Explore Women Lead Well – Learn more about Women Lead Well and everything we offer

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable,the podcast for women who were
ready to lead boldly, livelightly, and reclaim their joy.
Whether you're leading a team, aclassroom, a boardroom, or your
own big, beautiful life, I'm soglad you found us.
Hi, I'm your host, Becky Ham,leadership coach, speaker and
founder of Women Lead Well.

(00:26):
After years of high levelleadership, I discovered that
success does not have to come atthe cost of your peace, your
values, or your wellbeing.
Each week, we'll explore what itmeans to lead with clarity.
Confidence and authenticity.
Even in a world that tells youto hustle harder, to prove your
worth, you carry a lot.

(00:48):
Let's help it feel lighter.
Today we are diving intosomething that I know many of us
have faced, burnout.
If you have ever said, I shouldbe able to handle this or
thought, what is wrong with me?
I used to love this work.
I want you to know you are notalone.

(01:08):
I.
And friend, you are not theproblem.
Burnout isn't a sign that you'reweak.
It's a signal, and it might justbe the most important leadership
signal you will ever get.
So let's take a minute and let'stalk about what burnout really
is and what it looks like,especially in high functioning,

(01:30):
high achieving women.
It is not always dramatic orobvious.
Sometimes it's subtle.
You wake up and you are alreadytired.
You used to care deeply, but nowyou just feel flat.
The things that used to lightyou up, now, they just seem like
items on a never ending to-dolist, and even though you're

(01:53):
still crushing deadlines andyou're showing up for everyone
else on the inside, you feellike you're barely holding it
together.
Burnout is emotional exhaustion.
Disconnection from meaning.
It is a constant sense ofdepletion and my friend, it
doesn't happen because you'rebroken.

(02:16):
It happens because you've beencarrying too much for too long
with too little support, too fewboundaries, and too little room
to breathe.
Over on the blog I just postedabout this concept called a body
budget.
It's amazing.
It is from a neuroscientist, Dr.
Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Now body budget refers to thebrain's continuous effort to

(02:39):
predict and regulate yourinternal systems.
Things like your heart rate,your hormones.
Blood sugar, immune response andmore.
In short, your brain isconstantly managing the
resources your body needs tosurvive and thrive.
And now obviously this is not aconscious process.
It's happening behind the scenesall day, every day.

(03:04):
And just like a financial budgettracks income and expenses, your
body budget tracks energydeposits and withdrawals.
So everything you do.
Every choice, interaction, andemotion either adds to your
energy reserves or drains them.
When your body budget isbalanced, you feel grounded,
alert, and capable.

(03:25):
But when it's depleted, whenyou're in a chronic state of
deficit, you feel scattered,reactive, overwhelmed,
emotionally numb.
This isn't about being weak orsensitive, it's biology.
Your nervous system issignaling.
We are at a reserve.
So burnout is not a personalfailure.
It is a leadership warninglight.

(03:50):
Now, here's the part peopledon't often talk about.
Burnout doesn't always come fromlong hours or high pressure
roles.
Those contribute, sure, but manywomen burnout for deeper quieter
reasons.
You might be burned out becauseyou are constantly people
pleasing saying yes when youwant to say no.
You're code switching to fit theenvironment or you're over

(04:13):
identifying with your role,evaluating your worth with your
output.
You're leading from pressure andperfection, not purpose and
peace.
And here's the big one.
Many of us.
I have learned to lead by selfabandonment.
We tune out our own needs.
We override our instincts.

(04:33):
We ignore the tension in ourshoulders or the knot in our
stomach because there's work tobe done and people to serve.
We become so alienated from ourauthentic needs, desires, and
values that we can't even tellyou what they are anymore.
That strategy has a cost.
Over time, you lose touch withyour own rhythm.

(04:54):
Your nervous system stays inoverdrive.
Your body budget is in the redand your burnout deepens, and
you can't just gut through it.
And now you might be thinking,well, it's just a season.
I just need to get through thenext thing.
Friend.
That was my story too.
For years, I told myself I justneeded a better planner, a

(05:17):
better system, a betterstrategy.
Things would get better when ourstaffing shortage resolved
itself, or once the next bigproject was behind us.
No amount of productivity hackscan fix a pattern of self
neglect.
We got the staff we needed, butI was so addicted to
over-functioning that I justfound something new to add to my

(05:37):
plate.
Hear me when I tell you.
You don't need a better planner.
You need a better pattern.
You might need staff too, butthe truth is, burnout doesn't
end when you check off the lastbox on your to-do list.
It ends when you start treatingyourself like a human being

(05:58):
again.
When you give yourselfpermission to rest, to feel, and
to lead differently.
And now I'm not just talkingabout resting on the weekend.
I mean rest in your body, inyour spirit, in your nervous
system, because your nervoussystem is not a machine.

(06:18):
We were not designed to run onurgency 24 7.
So what does healing even looklike?
It looks like this.
Like moving fromover-functioning to energy
alignment.
I've got a handy mental loadreset guide that can help with
this.
I'll link it in the show notes.

(06:39):
It looks like trading self-doubtfor self-trust and now that
doesn't mean that you willalways get it right.
Perfect is a myth.
Let it go, but it means that youcan figure it out.
You can adjust if needed and youcan still get your job done.
And healing looks like lettinggo of the need to prove showing

(07:00):
up from presence and clarity.
Your team does not need you tohustle.
Your team needs you to be therefully as yourself because
authentic and fully resourcedbeats pretend and strung out
every single time.
This is the work I've built intofrantic to flourishing, a 12
week transformational journeyfor high achieving women who are

(07:22):
ready to reclaim their time.
Energy and joy.
It's not about doing more.
It's about leading from a placethat feels like you.
Again, in the program, weuntangle the patterns that lead
to burnout, perfectionism,people pleasing overextension,
and we rebuild from the insideout.
We create nervous systeminformed rhythms.

(07:45):
We realign your time, values andvoice.
We help you come home toyourself again.
So if you're tired of whiteknuckling your way through
leadership, you're not alone andyou don't have to keep doing it
that way.
Doors open later this summer.
Subscribe to my newsletter, theconfidence edit for the early
bird special.

(08:07):
Now, here's what I want you toremember as you move away to go
on with your day, burnout isn'twhat happens when you're not
strong enough.
It's what happens when strongwomen keep going long after
their wellbeing is depleted.
You're allowed to leaddifferently.

(08:28):
You are allowed to rest.
You're supposed to rest.
You are allowed to be deeply andfully human, even in high impact
roles.
So here's your takeaway promptfor today, friend.
Where in your life are you whiteknuckling it?
And what would it feel like tolead without proving?

(08:48):
Or pushing, pretending orperforming.
Let that question sit with you,maybe journal on it.
You might be surprised with whatcomes up.
If this episode spoke to you, Iwould love for you to share it
with a friend who's running onempty.
We need more women leading fromalignment, not adrenaline.

(09:09):
And if you're ready to beginyour burnout recovery journey,
stay tuned.
Frantic to Flourishing is cominglater this summer.
Just make sure you're on theemail list so you don't miss the
launch.
You can also grab one of ourfree tools, like the Mental Load
Reset I mentioned, or we have aweekly reset
[e-mail].
I'll link it in the show notesbelow.

(09:29):
They are gentle, powerful waysto begin reclaiming your
capacity because remember.
Joyful, sustainable andauthentic leadership is
possible.
You deserve it.
You deserve to flourish.
Until next time, I'm Becky Hamand this is Joyfully
Unstoppable.

(09:50):
Have a great week.
Bye.