Transcript: Burnout Story of Me

Hello, I'm Brittany Campbell-Turner and this is the Constructor Podcast, session number 14. Hello and welcome to this episode of Constructor. I'm Brittany Campbell-Turner and this podcast is dedicated to helping property owners have certain team decisions about the construction projects. I want to help property owners foster trusting relationships with your project teams, help you to understand how to lower risk, be under budget and on schedule in your construction projects, and exceed your end user's desires. Hello everyone, thank you for joining me today.

I'd like to thank you for making it with me to episode 14. I have come back from the Link to Construction Institute Congress and I have loads of content to share with you. But I have a recount of what took place and wanted to give you an update of what transpired with me. Unfortunately, hence why I haven't been able to produce podcasts here the past couple weeks. I hope you guys gain a lot from this and I'm truly looking forward to getting your feedback.

Do want to just remind you, if you like my content, please subscribe at Constructor.com. This will encourage me to keep providing you with interviews, with excellent interviewees. When you subscribe, you'll be getting an email from me weekly letting you know when a podcast is released and you'll have a link to the contact directly from your inbox. Alright so we'll hop to this little different style of a podcast. Alright, let's sign in.

Thank you. Okay guys, I'm really excited to tell you about the Link to Construction in Congress and I really wanted to release the last episode on Tuesday because I've been releasing on Tuesdays as best I can weekly so forgive me if I miss one. And particularly this past one because the Link to Construction Congress was awesome. It took place from October 3rd through 7th. It was an awesome week.

It was a long week but after I came back I had lots of work to do and I got sick. I got really sick. I thought it was a head cold. I thought it was something that could easily be addressed and if you listen carefully I'm sure you can hear the sickness kind of lingering a little bit but I'm no longer sick fortunately and I do want to give you guys an update particularly in relation to the Congress but how Brian basically predicted my burnout because that's really why I got sick.

If you guys already have listened to episode 6 you know who Brian Darnell already is. I interviewed him at the last Congress and he was one of the first podcasts interviews that I posted. If you haven't had a chance to look at it or listen to it yet go ahead and go to constructor c-o-n-s-t r-u-c-t-r-r dot com slash zero six and you'll find the podcast there. Jerk Stressor to Emotional Intelligence Guru is the name of the podcast there and Brent talks about his own experience on how he basically was an engineer and decided to change into doing training for people in the construction industry to make sure they have emotional intelligence.

So emotional intelligence has so many facets and a lot of it really it's based obviously on how you relate to people but first and foremost how you relate to yourself. So go ahead and listen to that if you haven't already but I want to kind of give you guys a blow-by-blow chronological experience as to how Brent basically predicted my burnout and how the burnout took place, why it took place and what I'm doing to recover from burnout. Yeah so I'm going to go ahead and just kind of go down the line.

So Brent he had an amazing training session matter of fact on Tuesday of the Congress he had two training sessions and he also spoke on Thursday morning. He if you haven't listened to him yet he's done a great job of just kind of bridging the gap between the soft skills and you know the technical skills that people in the construction industry typically utilize and he showed that the people who are able to test he has these you know sort of assessment tools self-assessment tools to help you assess whether you have emotional intelligence what areas you're strong in and you know he helps you understand where you are but these people who score high they end up doing very well they end up being a little bit more successful than the people that don't have those soft skills.

So I think it's really important to be aware of that no matter what you do whether it's in construction whether you're in sales whether you're in marketing whether you sell a product you really need to understand what the impact of your emotional intelligence is. So I attended his training session in the afternoon on Tuesday and during the four-hour training session he provided the Geist Emotional Intelligence Test or the Geist EI Test. You can find a link to the Geist EI Test in the show notes. I also included the file path of how to get to it on Brent Darnell's website.

Go to Brent Darnell.com, hover over the about Brent and click the drop down labeled EI Test. But I did the assessment after you do the assessment you kind of score in particular areas and you know overall I think I scored pretty well but there were a few areas I was like hmm okay this is a little weird and Brent after everyone has done their assessment he kind of goes through in the open forum just kind of talking about the different areas. If you're strong in certain areas you fall in a certain category and so like for instance there's like the the I'm not calling everything correctly but it's basically one where you just kind of you like to give and you like to continuously give and sometimes you probably give too much so there's one of those looks like that and then there's the assessment category that you can become an alpha

or you know just you always play that alpha role like you're always in charge maybe a little bit domineering and then what else I don't know a couple others but probably the one that resonated with me most I would say what's the alpha and as women that's not typical but anyway I I wasn't it wasn't clear right he had the assessment he said these are the categories if you have you know a strength in interpersonal self self-perception self-expression decision making stress management or well-being point being I went up and asked him because I totally I was like I don't know what category I thought live now I've interviewed brain I so I know him and we've been in contact he's he's now becoming great friends so I walk up to him I'm like Brent I'm walking up to you and asking you this because I don't want to I don't want to learn about

what's wrong with me or what's right with me and so he looks at me he just kind of laughs but he you know he takes my assessment form and he's like hmm this is really interesting and the first thing he says to me is you know you look like you're on the way to burnout and I was like yeah I yeah I probably okay I can see that and then he goes you know it's a little alpha-ish but that probably serves you well in this industry so I'm not too worried about that but you probably should you know look at taking care yourself a little bit better then he also noticed that myself emotional expression was was low okay and I was like hmm okay I you know it is low I suppose and I'm not always saying how I feel every day all the time to everyone but he was like he's like that's probably why you're on the way

to burnout and I said hmm okay well thanks but he didn't tell me I fell in a category I guess it's alpha which is fine I surround myself with a lot of alpha people so that being said Brent predicted I was going to burn out on October 13th only a few days later a little over a week I snapped on a few people you know you know when people are talking to you and they just you know it could be a normal day they could be themselves no change and you just kind of snap like you they annoy you more than they should for what you should be expecting from them um you know I snapped on probably about three people and um I was at work um but when I got home I also snapped and um you know my my poor husband got the brunt of it but you know I was

already aware of my snapping like I always already was aware of my kind of unstableness um and I had in addition to that started feeling sick I started feeling like I'm getting a head cold and my breathing had become difficult now I have asthma so and I've had asthma all my life um but I've not had a flare-up probably for about 10 years um so this was on the 13th and uh I decided I would work from home the following day so I did that um pardon me guys um and so the following day was Friday work from home did that um but that evening I could not literally sleep lying down I had to sit up on my couch I have a couch in my room and I sat up in I sat up on the couch I did I was not sleeping on the couch

because I snapped on my husband we had a very you know good heart to heart after that and we solved the issue there because it wasn't anything that had to do with him it was all me so I slept on the couch sitting up because there was no way I could breathe um otherwise and um Saturday you know I I reflected on Brent telling me what he did about the emotional um expression being alone and um I said wow now a lot of a lot of people don't realize how connected feelings and physical um manifestation of those feelings really really come up from day to day like people just don't realize it all my life I've been surrounded fortunately um around natural health and it's afforded me well and understanding you know that that foods when you eat them they you know they affect how you feel they affect uh you know there are people who who can you know

get rid of diseases by changing their diet um I mean it's something very simple that we we can see with diabetes you know for instance my dad my dad has gotten rid of diabetes um simply by dying exercise it happens it's not something that is uncurable and I believe that the majority of sicknesses out there um are curable by diet and exercise but one key thing um that is missed is attitude about things and um how you manage your life and uh I think that I think that I've been a little bit ambitious working working um you know full-time job and then outside of that coming home and um working on this podcast so when I started reviewing them um I said you know what something's got to give something needs to happen and I'm not able to breathe um so you know when you're not able to express yourself you're you're stifling

your expression right you you have something to say but you're not saying it and so it's almost like a balloon is going to burst it's going to burst it's going to burst and then it you know you're you're you're pulling it back like a rubber band and you you feel like you're going to burst and you're just constantly feeling you're going to burst one moment and it's going to be very soon you're going to burst um and so I burst um with a cold but my emotions didn't burst um because I still wasn't paying attention to everything so burnout happened and just to kind of give you a sense of my sickness um you know and it's and I'm still recovering it's not that I mean quite honestly it's not that bad but I do think that it is a burnout result um I hadn't

had an inhaler okay don't chastise me guys but I hadn't had an inhaler a working one I possessed one but it was expired and um I yeah so I was struggling couldn't breathe I was trying to do all these natural um remedies for breathing easier which are great when it's not severe um like drinking lemon water um having raw honey from the area um that you live in because the allergens are in the honey and it helps you know to get rid of the bad smell and the bad smell because the allergens are in the honey and it helps you know build up your immunity it's kind of like a a natural vaccine if you will um apple cider vinegar anything that reduces inflammation curcumin whatever turmeric all like I went down the list I had everything oil of oregano like name something else I did everything now the shot of apple cider vinegar lemon juice when I

had to put cayenne pepper I you know they taste it tastes really good at least for me I don't know about anybody else but I did that a few times but let me tell you I I woke up struggling and I probably should have gone to the hospital but um I took some more shots of that stuff and I was able to sleep sitting up on the couch Saturday night um and I promptly the next morning went online and made an appointment with my doctor um for for Monday so I made the appointment for Monday and um explained to her the scenario she's like what changed why did it you know get so much worse I was like well I had the window open for a little bit and I did have the window open for a little bit but um you know I didn't really talk about okay well I'm a little stressed I'm a little burnt out

I'm doing a lot um so you know she just she made she got me a prescription a steroid um and now that has been helping soon enough I have to take my next one either way moving on now you get a sense of of that um I do want to give you some value now I just explained to you you know that I went to burnout and Brent um he's just so good he predicted it right now Brent is that good um and you should consider taking his um total leadership program because these are the types of things that he teaches you how to prevent so I wanted to get some feedback actually from Brent so I reached out to him in order to see what his thoughts were on my burnout experience so here is my phone interview with him my apologies because the audio quality is a little bit uh less good

just due to the fact that I we've recorded via cell phone here all right listen in hey can you hear me Brent yeah hey how are you I'm good how are you I'm doing well thanks for agreeing to chat and uh give me some feedback sure it's it's funny that um you you know you came up after and when the first thing I saw was the burnout and and it was like it was I can't believe it was a predictor of like a collapse uh-huh but uh that yeah those things are can be pretty powerful and that's what we talk about it's not just your relationship to other people with the emotional intelligence it's your own health and well-being and we can look at things like burnout and impulse control issues that are preventing you from leading a healthy lifestyle and all those things that affect you not only

just emotionally but but physically and mentally and cognitively so yeah completely agree completely agree um it's just it's making sure it's in that loose sight of those things because you can get caught up in a whirlwind right yeah awesome as far as recovery did you have any recommendations about how someone would would recover from burnout yeah take my online course on stress management would be one way to do that um the other I mean there's go to the places where you get restoration and it's about it's about building in more recovery instead of trying to reduce the stress so take breaks every hour and a half to two hours stay hydrated meditation is also really good for this make sure you're getting your sleep exercise good nutrition you know you don't want to um go down that bad road it's like when we get stressed

when we get stressed and tired and and we eat crappy food and do a lot more fast food and it becomes this downward spiral so a lot of times it starts with just good nutrition just focus on eating stuff that's good for you that nourishes your body yeah that's perfect if you want to check out the course that brent referenced for burnout recovery i've included a link for the stress management course in the show notes which is a part of the total leadership library or training stress management and peak performance training participants will discover the powerful impact stress and burnout have on precision and decision making brent teaches you how to identify and combat stress triggers before they manifest in the form of low productivity absenteeism and illness big surprise huh in addition participants will learn to use powerful recovery techniques to create a healthy work environment and increase energy and productivity he mentions that you should

go back to that place of restoration i'll tell you really quickly how i got back to a place of restoration but first a little bit of why i actually weren't into burnout i continue to review my emotional suppression and um there were a couple things that i realized in my life were just very uncertain and um probably the biggest thing is i'm trying to close on a health and it's just been taking forever and they keep asking me for things and it's just taking a really long time and even when they ask me for things you know there's a there's a wait period and um in particular this has been a long closing um they there are things that you know they'll they'll be asking for they get it and then there's a wait period for reviewing it and there's nothing absolutely nothing i can do other than ask do you need anything else and then

they say no i don't need anything else so that probably is the biggest thing also there's been some leadership changes at work which you know that happens in every that happens in every company so that's fine so the value i want to give you is how i got out of burnout and the kind of the steps that i've actually taken in order to put back into my life some of the things that i had been doing in order to say sustain the type of lifestyle that i've been living um i reflected on my emotional suppression and um i realized that though i believe in god you know and no judgment this this is just what i believe um i believe in god and i felt like my faith was was shot like i didn't have any i felt like i had no connection to god whatsoever i had no peace i had no sense of

his presence like so for me you know being a christian and like believing in god that's just something that is i think i suppose it happens to people from time to time but you feel very alone if you're used to that i've concluded that those three reasons closing on a house leadership changes at work and the feeling of spiritual dissonance or disconnection are the reasons why i burned out how did i fix it i sought my restoration i took one book i heard about um in an entrepreneurship organization i'm part of it's a non-religious book it is called the miracle morning by hal anwar i'll put the amazon link there for the book in the show notes i get no proceeds from for many of the sales i just believe in the book i believe in the process that it outlines and it outlines a

simple morning routine to ensure a day of success i do a very of variation of the steps outlined in the book but this is how i found my rhythm again how elrod uses an acronym savers to help readers remember the steps to a day of success so i'll outline them for you really quickly silence through meditation or just quite breathing affirmations reflecting on your vision doing some exercise reading something uplifting or helping you to focus on the things that you've prioritized for your day and scribing or writing something it could be journaling it could be creative writing it could be writing a book even that you're you're writing to actually publish uh it's just it's just making sure you get your thoughts out in a creative way so again savers silence affirmations vision exercise read and scribe by following these steps every morning i have a few moments to reflect on my day before the day

starts coming at me i choose to set a day with purposeful intention intentions for positive hopeful attitude a mindset with gratitude one that is healthy mentally physically and spiritually the things you focus on are up to you but doing a morning routine such as the one prescribed in the miracle morning will really help you you will have willpower in the morning in order to go ahead and make those decisions to take action on the things that are most important to you in the morning and you'll be able to reinforce those intentions throughout the day more easily i've been doing this every day since then since i've burnt out we've since closed on our condo and i'm getting back into a much better routine at work at home i'm connecting spiritually again i'm feeling refreshed and looking for more and more ways to provide valuable podcasts for you guys to listen to the podcast tagline the best way to build it

it references buildings when you look at it on the onset however if you haven't realized it yet i'm not just talking about buildings here on this podcast but building up yourself so you can give more to others so that you can respect others so that you can grow and learn from others and industry this is why constructor exists to do all of the above i'm happy i can share with you this particular burnout experience giving you value on how you can get back into life being your best self lastly i'm preparing a few more podcasts for you to listen to um particularly relating to the lci congress still i will definitely share with you the key takeaways of people that i've interviewed so