In this episode of the CFO project podcast, we discuss how to stop burning out and start having a life you love.

Welcome to the CFO project podcast. Today we're talking about burnout. To help me with the discussion, I've invited Lauren Baptiste. She's the founder of Aquilo, a wellness to the show, and she specifically helps accountants, specifically female accountants, with burnout.

Lauren, welcome to the show.

Yeah. So this is going to be a fantastic episode. I can already tell you help people burnout overcome burnout. And that's from a personal experience that you've had with burning out as an accountant. So if you could tell the audience a little bit about yourself and why you started Akilah.

Oh, no.

Interesting.

Interesting. So. Okay, so I have a ton of questions. The first is. So you you sort of alluded that it's more of a mindset issue than it's the circumstances going on around you is you. Can you explain more about that?

Yeah.

Interesting. So. So what will be an example of maybe something you experienced where you had to ask yourself that.

Yeah. Yeah, I know, that's when I'd send emails. When I have time to do. So. Do you. So in that particular case, you were you felt the need to respond to that email 701. Is that because you're a perfectionist, a high a perfectionist and or high achiever that wants to to do that? And if so, is there any correlation between that and and people that burnout like do more people that burn out, are they more high achievers?

What do you think?

Yeah.

Right.

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like you talked about the word burnout. So can you describe or explain what that specifically means and how somebody knows that they're experiencing burnout.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Interesting. And so, you know, you you said that you ended up in the E.R.. Was that you? You said it was from exhaustion, right? So that that was one one of those three essentially you're resume. Yeah.

Yeah.

And for a Type-A person, that that's difficult because when you're dealing with, like, imposter syndrome and all this. Yeah. Okay, so it's almost like if there's, like, a Venn diagram with with burnout in the middle, it sounds like there's a bunch of other circles like imposter syndrome and, and Type-A and personality and perfectionism and people pleasing and all that.

Yeah, that makes sense. That completely makes sense. So if somebody is dealing with burnout, it doesn't necessarily mean that the work that they're doing is that they shouldn't be in it necessarily. It's just that they need to reframe their mind. Right. Is that what you're saying? So because because I would imagine if I'm if I'm dealing with burnout and I've definitely dealt with burnout before.

My immediate reaction is, oh, this thing is not this. This job or business I'm doing is not for me anymore. I need to do something else. You're saying that's not necessarily the case? Yeah.

Yeah. And there's that. Make sense? So you're saying that it's not that the job necessarily is not the problem. It's the it's you. It's us.

Right.

Okay. So what do we do if somebody is experiencing burnout right now. What what do we do.

Yeah.

A.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, I. I would love for you to. So if. If somebody says. Yeah, I'm all three of those things, I think I am burnout. What's the next step?

They have.

Yeah.

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do a lot of people put false perceptions on demands on themselves based on false perceptions.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, in case of myself. My first job out of college, I was an accounting major, so I got a job as an accounting, and. And I would stay till, like, 8:00 at night sometimes. And on the weekends, especially during month and close. I worked for a, a, for an industry, for industry instead of public and month and closed.

I would work, you know, like like Friday night till like four in the morning. Sometimes. And it was looking back, it was purely because I, I wanted to be perceived as an A player. And it would always bug me because the other stat, I was a staff account and the other staff count, it would leave 500 on every day.

And it made me so mad because the bar the the controller didn't care. Like eat it. I don't think he cared one way or the other that I worked for him, and that guy left at 501 as long as the work got done, didn't really care. So there's my perception that it's like I could have had a lot less stress on me and the stress I placed on myself because, because of these false beliefs, essentially what you're saying.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it. It makes complete sense what? You're saying, that it is really a mindset thing that we have to reprioritize ourselves, work on ourselves, which is incidental, is what you do at your company. So what you're telling me before we started the podcast. What is it? It stands for something very unique. What does it stand for?

Yeah.

I love it. So, what do you do? How do you help accountants?

And.

Yeah. I can see how that would help. Especially talking with somebody like you. Who? Who knows? Literally what they've got. Because you. You are a CPU, you know, you already count it. And you experienced the burnout. So where where can somebody find you if they want more info?

Yeah, absolutely. So we'll put the we'll put your website in the show notes as well as, the other, the, the other info. People can learn more about you. Lauren, last, what's the last what would you like to leave the audience with? What's some some wisdom that you would like to leave the audience with?

Yeah.

Yeah. Baby steps. Perfect. Well, Lauren, thank you so much for coming on the show. Yeah it was. And everybody listening are watching. Make sure you check out Lauren's info in the show notes at the bottom of the of the podcast. And also, if you haven't already, sign up for our five minute weekly email with practical tips just for accountants and bookkeepers to escape the accountants trap.

Go to the CFO project.com/newsletter. See you next time on the CFO project podcast.