Balancing Overwhelm and Operations: A Conversation with Fractional COO Stephanie Warlick

In this engaging podcast episode, we sit down with Stephanie Warlick, a seasoned fractional COO and EOS integrator. Stephanie shares her expertise in helping small to medium-sized businesses run efficiently, manage operations, and overcome common challenges. We also discuss the role of mental health in entrepreneurship and the importance of managing overwhelm. From HR strategies to tackling burnout, this episode is packed with actionable insights for entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners.

Find Stephanie Warlick here:

www.stephaniewarlick.com

ttps://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniewarlick/

💬 Topics Covered:

• What is a fractional COO?
• The benefits of using EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) in small businesses.
• Tips for managing overwhelm and stress in business.
• Why pickleball is the next big thing in social and recreational activities.
• The importance of teamwork, organizational structure, and prioritization.

✨ Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments!
Hit the 🔔 to stay updated on future episodes!

[00:00:00] I'm Stephanie Warlick with Five Foot View. I'm a fractional COO or an EOS integrator. I help small businesses run their companies efficiently and successfully.

I also am an HR executive and support companies, small businesses from startup through midsize in scaling their HR departments.

That sounds like a lot

You have many hats just like me Oh, that's not even That's not even half Yeah, I know I have the same thing I get somebody's like what do you do and I start listing stuff and they're like Oh, that's a lot. I'm like, yeah, that's that's not touching it Yeah, 

So, as a fractional seal. I support, as I said, small businesses to medium sized businesses because many times small businesses can't afford a fractional COO or many times [00:01:00] businesses cannot afford a COO and so a fractional COO gives small Business is the opportunity to bring in someone with the expertise that they need, but a fraction of the cost as well as a fraction of the time.

My experiences come from the backgrounds in government contracting, e commerce, warehousing, and fulfillment. I have served in departments like HR, recruiting, Customer service, accounting, contracts. And so the breadth of experience that I have allows me to just slip right into a company and take burdens and put out burdens off the shoulders of owners and put out fires so that they can do what they do best.

So you serve as a fractional COO as well. Oh, I don't call it that. See, I, I work with usually solopreneurs and I work with them in whatever, like, [00:02:00] like I start taking on things to take out the fires and do the things so that they can do what they're supposed to be doing to grow their business and do the thing.

So I don't call it that because like, I didn't know that term, but I do kind of the same thing. That's awesome. I wondered whether I should put on my LinkedIn firefighter, not to take anything away from true firefighters, but really a good portion of the days are just settling things down and being a filter for the visionary or the small business owner between them and their staff and helping them, just mitigate risk and challenges with the depth of experience that I have.

So, what is your biggest tip for somebody who, well, let's define it. What is a fractional COO to you? Like, what is a COO? Because some people [00:03:00] don't know the corporate terms because they will never work for themselves. That's me. And so like, what does that mean?

Sure. Sure. COO stands for chief operating officer. Typically it is a right hand person role to an owner of a company or president of a company, perhaps a CEO. And that person runs the business side of the organization. If there is a CFO in place. They may not handle finances, but if there is no CFO, a COO could also handle financial matters.

But we're talking about contracts and HR and the execution of the everyday work that the people do that all falls under the COO. So a fractional COO goes into companies 5, 10, 15 hours a week or a month and provides those services. So that again, the Mulviza Soda reaps the benefits of someone with greater experience.

and [00:04:00] knowledge as well as, maybe just an extra set of hands, but more importantly, a fraction of the cost because small business owners usually can't afford it. I also mentioned integrator. I practice the methodology EOS which stands for an entrepreneurial operating system and the COO role. Is called integrator.

It is the go between a visionary who is the business owner or the founder and the rest of the team to help filter communication up and down and really allow the visionary to focus on growing the business coming up with those great ideas that they have and, taking short, making sure that the company is running smoothly what are some of the most common problems you run into when you first start working with somebody like between like their expectations maybe, or just like the same fires that you're always putting out?

Yeah, I would say that the [00:05:00] majority of the time when I go into a small business. Problems and challenges I see stem from number one, lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities, and then accountability to those roles and responsibilities. When individuals don't know who is supposed to take action, when they're supposed to take action, who's responsible for what, you either have everybody doing a whole bunch of things and overstepping each other and wasting time and money.

Or nobody doing things and balls dropping or falling through the cracks. And so that is probably the biggest challenge that I see most frequently. And when those things are resolved, so many things get taken care of. 

What are your favorite moments? What are my favorite moments in work? Well, I mean, yeah, I know it's work. I love my work. We're like, when you, like, I have my days [00:06:00] where, like, I've helped 3 or 4 people. I'm like, I'm on a roll. I'm doing great today. Like, you know, when, you know, like, what kind of tasks do you do that you're like, I love this part the most?

Okay. I love helping individuals grow in their roles to be more successful. I'm a huge believer in strengthening individuals, skills and abilities for the betterment of the organization. And I think that the individual skills and abilities are what make a well rounded team. Not everybody should be the same.

We should have a variety of skills and abilities and that that's what makes a team most successful. So, I love helping people become more successful in their roles for the optimization of meeting the goals of the team. But when you first asked me the question, I was thinking of another Like aha that I absolutely love and I experienced it just today.

I worked with a client to [00:07:00] restructure days off and or holiday like days that they are offering their team. The reason we did that was because this particular company took off for the two weeks around Christmas and New Year's and everybody came back and they were 100 percent rejuvenated happy, healthy, just feeling so great and energized to start the year.

And it wasn't necessarily just because they had time off. It was because everybody had time off together where all the email wasn't going crazy. Because lots of times we take time off and vacations and folks are still kind of watching the email from the side or checking it because they're afraid people are waiting for them.

Or there's this expectation that they have to check their email and you really, never really, truly. Get a break. And so knowing that the outcome of those few weeks in December was so positive, we implemented four additional days off that make four of the [00:08:00] standard federal holidays four day weekends. So now we know that every quarter, everybody has a solid four day weekend where the company's going to be closed.

It's going to be minimal impact to the company because it's, let's say the Friday before Memorial Day, nobody's working that day anyway, or if they are, they've checked out and they're pretending to work, but it's adding those extra days just so that people can shut down. And the response from the organization was, I absolutely love working free.

Thank you for thinking of us and caring for us and our mental well being and we all work hard. It's so nice to know that we have a break. So I love moments like that where we can implement things where the team really helps, helps them to feel a part of the organization and valued.

I get that week, those two weeks between Christmas and New Year's off. I particularly hate it. Because with my mental, I want to be doing [00:09:00] and I'm stuck for 2 weeks because everybody else is not doing and I can't get anything done. Absolutely, but I got sick this time. So, like, I couldn't do anything. No, no, I'm sorry for what I was going to do what I was going to have done and then I got laid out sick and I was like, well, at least that happened now.

Oh, gosh, well, I'm sorry you got sick. Maybe we, I mean. Hey, if you ever get bored, you need to, you want to come do some of that purging and stuff that I was doing around my house. Come on over. I'll give you plenty to do. I remember those days from our childhood. I am not going to be the one that says I'm bored and get stuck doing stuff like that.

Not watching the soap operas again. Okay. No, no soap operas. I managed to fill it up with. A little bit of work, some training and [00:10:00] reading and organizing and business catch up of things that I had put aside and hadn't yet had time to read, but again, cleaning up the house and organizing a little bit of pickleball and it was just really nice also for me to know that my primary clients were just closed down that I could take a break.

I actually have had so many people talking about pickleball lately, and I'm like, I never heard of this growing up. Why all of a sudden is everybody and their brother talking about pickleball? I don't know. I love it. Five years ago, nobody even talked about pickleball. Yeah, I think. Now, nobody will stop talking about it.

Well, I'll tell you why I'm talking about it. So. My husband and I are essentially empty nesters. We had twins graduate from college in May, although one is back home. She's very independent. We were looking for activities to do together, when we empty nested. And Pickleball was a [00:11:00] perfect, We're both athletic, so the movement and getting out of the house and off the computer was delightful and it's a really fun social sport where you you're able to socialize while you're playing.

It's can be competitive, but it's mostly just fun. But we can play together and I can't, for instance, play tennis against him because he's too strong and I can't return the hits, but pickleball, we can play as partners, or we can play as opponents. We can play 1 on 1. We can play with other people. And we have a community area.

Some tennis courts at the local pool that are really busy. And it's. It's really just a fun way to be with our peers. And again, we're exercising, getting fresh air off the computer. I learned it, right after COVID. One of our good friends was referring to it all the time. And I said, Matt, I have FOMO here.

What is this pickleball that everybody's talking about? I want to know how to play. And so our friend Matt taught us and [00:12:00] we haven't stopped. It's been a few years, but it really is. And it's something we can play for the next 30 years. It's, it's not, it doesn't need to stop. You could just modify who you're playing with to adjust the level of competitiveness or, output.

There's people that play that are eight years old to, I think, 80 years old that I know of in our community. Yeah, there's a guy in my local networking group he's a little on the older side. He talks about pickleball all the time and how proud he is how good he is at pickleball and i'm like How are you doing it?

And I personally can't go out and do sports because first of all, I'm allergic to grass. Like, I can't be outside if somebody's going to be mowing the grass in a 10 mile radius because I will, like, not be able to breathe. The thing that happens, and that's year round. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of winter.

I don't understand it. I'm just allergic to grass, which is the stupidest thing to be [00:13:00] allergic to because it's everywhere. You can't get away from it, but the good news is there are indoor pickleball courts popping up everywhere. That and my asthma is attached to physical, activity. So, I get the grass strong smells and, athletic activities.

And all of a sudden, I need to have breathing treatment for six hours to be able to, like, keep living. So, it's a thing. Yeah, well, maybe, maybe watch it on TV. It is fun. It's like large scale ping pong. So, folks that are athletic or non athletic can all participate. I really love that it's a pretty inclusive sport.

It doesn't matter how tall. Yeah. When he talked about it, yeah, when he talked about it, he said that he was in competitions where like they had like eight year olds all the way up, like you said. And I was just like, dude, who played against you? And [00:14:00] like he was saying he won. And I'm like, those people, 100% got on that court going, oh, I'm beating this dude.

Like if I touch him with the ball, he's going to like croak. So we're fine. I'm going to win, and then he won, like, I would be devastated. It's funny, well, you'd be surprised. Some older folks that look like they may not be able to perform if they were a tennis player, their accuracy and placement, because this is not a sport about strength.

It can be, but accuracy and placement is key. Lots of folks that are more competitive try and over hit the ball and hit it hard, and then hit it out of bounds. And the objective is to keep it in and just have your place it so that your partner doesn't get it so I do really enjoy it.

I had somebody who wanted one of my contracts and now he's like I have questions and i'm like So, [00:15:00] when you go in to a new client, right? You've never worked with this person before. You only have their word about what is happening. Right which can not be as accurate. Sometimes, because people have, like, rose tinted glasses on and think, oh, everything's fine.

I just need you to check on a thing or 2 and then, you know, that's not true. So, how do you handle that? Like, the difference between what they think they need and what is really needed. I have not experienced a client that thought that they were perfect and nothing was wrong. Usually I am brought in because there is a recognition that something's wrong and they don't have the capacity, the skills, the time to, to take care of it.

Or maybe they don't want to handle it and they don't want to be the bad guy and bringing someone in to play good cop, bad cop is, is, Sometimes [00:16:00] helpful. But how do I handle it? I mean, I think observation, asking a lot of questions is really critical because I have such a vast level of experience in a variety of different industries and spaces.

I am pretty observant and can usually read documents, ask a few critical questions. And start one project at a time. I mean, you can't boil the ocean and I can't if a company's been in business for 20 years and they've got several things that aren't working. I can't fix it all overnight, but I can start with critical areas.

And I usually look for key players on the team that have information. They can just fill in the blanks from what I observe either optically or through reading documents that they have available.

So I didn't mean that they thought they were perfect. But, like, I've had people where they've told me, hey, I'm bringing you in because I know I need to have better onboarding. Right? And then you get in and [00:17:00] they have no onboarding, they have no idea of, like, what anybody is doing anywhere and you're going, oh, my God.

What did you bring me into you said, it's not that they think they're perfect, but they think that they have a system in place and then you go in and you're like, yeah, where, what magnified glass do you, like, there's nothing here, you know, you have to invent the wheel to help them get, Their onboarding process to actually be a thing, you know, people actually know what they're supposed to be doing, you know, the job, what do they call

like, a clear pathway, like, the little paragraph thing that you get. This is you are to do this job and. Job description? No, that's okay. That's good. Yeah, I guess I have experienced that where people do have a misunderstanding about what they actually have. [00:18:00] You know, I've had the fortunate opportunity to be alongside sales in a sales operations capacity, so Learning and understanding a good portion of the client's gaps and needs really comes through discovery call process.

So that I could create an appropriate quote. And of course, there's always an appropriate quote with assumptions that says this quote in this timing is based on these assumptions that you provided me. And if these assumptions change. Then the telescope and we'll have to re quote that because that does happen.

So what kind of companies do you work with? I work with any company. I find that the work that I do again, HR accounting contracts, quality. Customer service, they're pretty agnostic across all industries. And that was, that's what makes it so easy for me to pop in. I've worked for a call center. I've worked for government contractors.

I've worked for marketing [00:19:00] companies. I've worked for, a site selection company. I worked for a producer. I don't know anything about. Most of those industries, I ran a promotional marketing company for a long time. And certainly I learned about government contracting after being in that field for about 10 years and 2 different companies.

But again, the other fields and people just bring me in. It's because. I just have that, that band of knowledge and depth in the back office that I can apply those skills and abilities pretty easily regardless of the industry.

People usually grab me cause I can tech anything like I can't program. Like I, I, that's a foreign language to me. I can't do that, but I can step into a program that I've never used and at least know how to do the basics pretty quickly. And some people can't like do that. Some people after i've had a conversation where i've done the whole [00:20:00] No, click on that.

No, not that x that's going to close the whole window. Don't do that This thing over here click yet. No, not that click. Yes, click that That's fine. You said well, maybe i'll need to call you I have a client that has informed me that they want me to move to a mac platform and i've always been pc based And i'm terrified of that.

You know, it's one thing to go from You Microsoft to Google workspace and back to Microsoft suite and kind of do those because those those can have differences as well But man, i'm not I don't know. I haven't been on an apple since like third grade Yeah, some of the stuff you use on your window No, not some A ton of the stuff that you use on a windows computer cannot be used on a mac Yeah, yeah, and that is the most terrible part Because, like, no, and they have, like, the red, yellow, green thing up in the corner instead of [00:21:00] wine box exit.

Come on. I mean, I can follow colors. That's probably the easiest part of it, but there's just there's just and I use an iPhone. So I'm hoping that it won't be too much of a transition, but there's just some of it. That's not intuitive to me. And, I don't know. I won't quite say I'm an old dog yet, but I'm getting there.

I have people with all, you know, with on their Macs and on their windows. My friend and her husband both have Lennox computers. I know how to do. I know how to use Linux computers. I don't have a Linux because I can't game on the thing, but I wanted one. I had one for a little while and then I started gaming and was like, I can't do Linux.

I can't do a Mac if I want to do my game. So I am, I am a PC chick. I'm going to state that way. I have a relative that loves Linux. He's a professor and researcher now in higher ed admin, but swears by it. And [00:22:00] every time someone gets a virus, he says, you don't get that. Yeah, I know I have the same conversation.

Great. Do you have any final thoughts for your section? Or is there anything you didn't say that you wanted to say? I can, I can sure add that for a company that's looking for organizational structure, I would highly recommend EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system. Those systems are typically brought into the company by an implementer and that implementer then hires an integrator that can either be fractional or within the company to be that facilitator, for the organization.

I know that when I had a small business, 20 some almost 30 years ago. Probably I would have loved the structure of something like us to help me solve problems and keep tab of all the to do's that everyone had and manage our projects. And I don't mean [00:23:00] like a project management tool, but. Here's our goal and our objective and I'm going to get it done in this quarter and it aligns with my one year goal and it aligns with the three year goal and it aligns with the five year goal because a lot of small businesses don't have the capacity to do that level of planning and it really gives it an easy structure.

So I love working with companies on EOS. And, you know, that adds, they call it traction, and one of their primary books is called Traction. It really does, help organizations run successfully. That is great. I'll have to check into that so that, you know, if I get questions about it I can answer them.

Because I don't know anything about that at the moment. 

Hey everyone, thanks for sticking with us. Before we dive into our next topic, I just want to take a quick moment to remind you to like this video, subscribe to our channel, and hit that notification bell. That way, you'll always be the first to know when a new episode drops. And we want to hear from you.

What topics are you most [00:24:00] excited about? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. Your feedback helps us create content that you love. We've got some exciting stuff coming your way, so don't miss out. Now, let's switch gears and jump into our next discussion.

Okay. So for the mental health spot, I did a thing this week and I posted I have been doing this podcast since July of last year, and I've put podcast out there at different times that are like hey I need guests.

I've never not had a guest on either one, which has been amazing But like i'm always worried that like then i'm gonna have to do it by myself and I don't want to do that So I kept like trying and I was getting crooked Nobody would say anything. No not in truth. Nobody would say anything at all Tuesday morning.

I got accepted into a podcast group That is like find a guest be a [00:25:00] guest type thing and I was like great I am going to put a post in here. Not a big deal. I had to fix it twice So maybe a big deal it has in its notes You know in its rules and in the description don't advertise your podcast. But as soon as you try to put a Thing out there.

They're like you have to have your podcast in this. I'm like, dude, you said not to They move you more clear You're a rule follower I have to like Really? Yeah, like I try to like if you have rules i'm gonna follow them and then he's like you have to have i'm like Okay, so I put this pot this. This call out for guests to be on my podcast And I was thinking I was going to get, you know, crickets again, like nobody's going to want to come out of our gas is fine, whatever, dude, I got locusts this time.

They are coming out of the woodwork, [00:26:00] which is great. Like, you're not as annoying as a real locust. I'm not saying that, but like, I have been so busy the last couple days. It has been so overwhelming. Like, I had over a hundred comments on that post and they're still going, like, I need to go in there again and like, tell everybody to message me again and then get them into 15 minute meetings.

But like, holy cow, that's not the response I was expecting at all. I was hoping maybe I'll get one or two. Hoping, maybe, maybe. Dude. I have three podcasts scheduled next Thursday. One right after the other. And it is amazing, but it is completely overwhelming for me. Because like, not expecting that wasn't part of the plan.

I didn't know I was going to be in 15 minute meetings. All day long. Yeah my life because I did that Yeah, [00:27:00] business development does take some effort so I was going so I wanted to talk about overwhelm as the mental health side of things because there's a real thing and I have in the last two days shut down completely for like a period of time, you know Hour or whatever.

I don't have much time to be shutting down, but like I completely shut down. It was just like, oh, Yeah, I understand and like but you have to keep going because you can't can't stop Because what does that mean now all these people that i've like asked to come on a podcast are just like You're not gonna do anything?

Why aren't you responding anymore? Totally not me, because now I'm worried about them. Like, okay, nope, they said something, so now I have to talk to them. It's been a thing for me, and I value every single person who has responded because that is huge, but at the same [00:28:00] time, my mental health went, holy good lord.

What did you do? What did you do? This was not allowed. Yeah, you know, that feast or famine concept is so familiar to those small business owners and really putting plans in place to be able to accommodate that, that growth through a virtual assistant that you might need to get to help you manage that if it's going to continue that way, To be able to hire or more, maybe higher again, fractional or part time virtual folks that you can scale down or scale up as you get busier.

And that's that's a really great thing about our world and the ever changing. I don't want to focus on a I, but really the virtual world and the ability for us to, use people worldwide to expand or downsize our business as we need. Has added so much flexibility to organizations. So, when [00:29:00] I say overwhelm, I mean overwhelm, like, this isn't just, ah, this is too much, no, like, like, we are not fainting violets here, like, I deal with my problems.

And so for me to shut down because I am completely over, it's not because I want to, like, there's no, oh, okay, it's time to just sit here and stare at the wall for the next 20 minutes because I can't deal with life for a second. Like, there's no thought that I'm going to do that. This is not, okay, now stare at the wall.

I understand. Like, I'm sure that there are people who might do that, but they were completely coddled all their life, and like, they're doing that on purpose. If you have a real mental illness, and you're really working on yourself, and you have those moments of overwhelm, because One. Too many people talk to you today.

I don't know. I was in like 10, 15 minute calls yesterday. All new people that I've never talked to before, that is very overwhelming for me. [00:30:00] Yeah, like I have days, like I go out once a week. I leave the house twice a week. I go to church on Sunday, and on Tuesdays I go to my appointments. I have a chiropractor appointment and I have a therapy appointment and in between these I go out to lunch the same restaurant because I have a rut that's a mile deep.

Okay. And they have a plug so I can actually work while I'm at lunch. And there are days where I can't talk to the waitress because I am just like, and I like her. We have the same waitress every week. Like, I don't have any problem with her, but like, I'll tell Kim, like, this is what I want today. And I do it when nobody's at the table because sometimes when she gets to the table, I'm just like.

Okay. That's awesome. Well, you got to do you. Just because I can't it's not and she knows that I'm not being because like I [00:31:00] talked some like later maybe but like I do talk to her. I don't always say like just smile at her or whatever like that would be weird because I've been going there for a long time, but I have conversations with her, but sometimes I just can't talk and I know you're not supposed to use can't because that's a limiting belief, but like, there's just days where things are just too much.

I have talked to 1 too many people. I have done 1 too many things. I need to like, go sit somewhere and not do anything. Which is completely opposite to the problem I have between christmas and new year where I have nothing to do and I need stuff To do so like there is a fine line, you know, so it's going to work and overwork Yes, I completely agree.

There's a very thin line. We work, right? Wherever we work, whatever we do. I personally am like an office manager for a couple of people, and I do social media for a couple [00:32:00] of people, and I do this for this other person, and trying to keep track of all the different things I do is Difficult some days, but at the same time is what I need because I have to be going.

But then you have like, what happened this week with the podcasting where I have so many 15 minute conversations popping up with all new people that I've never talked to before and my brain is going.

We're not doing this and then I have to like, force myself and I had a meeting Wednesday morning yesterday. Was that yesterday? Yes. That feels like 5 days ago. Yeah, I agree. It's been a crazy week for so many. So this guy had a bunch of military stuff in the background and I was, he was like, where were you raised?

He was asking questions that were very [00:33:00] monotone, and he was staring straight ahead like he was reading off of something, and I was like, well, I'm a military brat. I moved all over the place when I was growing up. I don't have a hometown because I went to like 20 different elementary schools.

Like, that's not a hometown. There's not a one in there. Right. And most military people will pick on me, okay, when I say that I was a military brat, they, military jokes, and I get it, and I'm good, right, it's not gonna offend me, and he didn't say anything, he just don't, they just kept staring at the And I'm like, okay, I need to be done with this meeting.

I don't, I don't like people who don't show emotion on their face. Like, what do you like? 

Why are you blank at the same time on Tuesday? Everybody I talked to on Tuesday, we're like, you're having a low day. Aren't you? Because I wasn't like this, like, I [00:34:00] wasn't and I usually am when I'm out and about and I'm talking to those few people that I know because I've been talking to them for years.

At this point, we've been in here in Arkansas. It'll be 3 years in March. So, we left Maryland the day they closed everything down for coven day was like, March 19th or something like that. Yeah, we left out of Maryland. Bye. Bye. Maryland traveled to Texas, then to California, then back to Texas and then from Texas.

Some people are like, I don't feel overwhelmed. I'm not overwhelmed. You are overwhelmed, like, get over it. It's it happens to everybody, even people who, aren't dealing with a mental health problem. Like, they don't have trauma or whatever in their background. They're kind of a normal person. They are still going to deal with overwhelm at some point in their life.

[00:35:00] They probably did in high school. They were trying to get A's on all those tests. Right.

I mean, I graduated on the honor roll, but I wasn't like valedictorian level. They want to be, and they have that kind of brain,

but like, you still have to do, like, I, with all these, I have not missed any of my appointments. Although I did have two people miss their appointment. Yes. I felt overwhelmed. Yes I took time to stare at the wall and just kind of go.

Okay, I gotta calm down You know, I have to chill out because I can't freak out during these calls to these people I can't go stone faced and low volume, you know low You know facial stuff to people because then they'll think I don't want them on my podcast. I'm just talking to them because i'm bored you still have to do, and one of the things I do when I get overwhelmed, is I do take that moment, like, [00:36:00] stop, breathe, look at the wall for a minute, if that's what you need to do, go step outside and smell the roses, if you're not allergic to them, 

Do something that is not related to whatever is making you overwhelmed. Calm your senses down for a second, and then go back to it. Right. Because, You're overwhelmed because you haven't taken a break. And however long or you're overwhelmed because you're looking at this big of a picture when it's really this big of a picture.

So you have to just kill for a 2nd, go breathe, go do some yoga. I don't know. I hear that's a thing that people do. Go eat a sandwich. I don't know. Go do something that isn't whatever it is that's in front of you that is making you go, I'm going to pull out all my hair. Pulling out all your hair is not an option.

We like our hair. Our hair is pretty. It makes us [00:37:00] pretty. We are fine with our hair. Eventually.

But we don't want to, while we're overwhelmed, force ourselves to keep going, to keep doing without that break because you're going to break. No, something has to break and if you don't willingly go take a break, you're going to end up sick. You're going to end up. You know, in the hospital with anxiety or whatever, or you're going to end up laying in bed and not being able to move that executive function thing kicks in and your body just says, yeah, we're staying here.

We're done your toast. We're just going to stay right here. Nothing is going to make us overwhelmed again ever. Now you're stuck. Right. So if you don't take your break, your body will take it for you, and it could come in a lot of different ways that are not healthy. Yes. Take the break, walk away, breathe, and then when you [00:38:00] come back, focus on step one.

And if step one is going okay, I have 10 tasks that I have to get done These two are only going to take five minutes These three are going to take an hour and these two can wait until tomorrow Do that put the two to tomorrow do the two 15 minute ones or do one 15 minute one Do the two longer ones and then do the shorter 15 minute one because now you've just Celebrated a lot more.

I love how you broke that up into chunks. And that's really, to me, what overwhelm is about is breaking, trying to, you know, Recognize or needing to recognize that one can't boil the ocean and taking bits and chunks and bites to tackle something. As a person with A-D-H-D-I do get overwhelmed, um mm-hmm

I am, an extrovert, so I usually just power through and, have learned tools over the course of my life to like meditation or going out and taking walks so that I can breathe and just refocus [00:39:00] my brain. But really, it is about breaking activities into smaller, more manageable chunks so that we can get them off the list and move on to the next one.

So that's great advice by you. It gives you a little bit of a serotonin push if you, oh, I did this one. Oh, great. Now you're in the mood to do those bigger ones. So when you get, and then you get done with the bigger ones and you're like, Oh, I only have this one 15 minute one left to do. That's great. I can do that in a second.

Not a problem. And then you do it and then you're done for the day. And you're going, why was that so over and loved again? Because you've gotten like rewarded for getting those things done by your own happy little brain. Yeah. 

So when you're overwhelmed, sometimes I get like angry and myself at the project I have to do at the stupid bug that won't go away because it's flying near me, you know, something right?

Like, there's just this burst of like, I'm going to [00:40:00] Hulk out. Right? And then. Afterwards, you feel like stupid because you were angry at a fly. Like, come on now. Why are we angry at flies? Well, because they're annoying old crapheads, that's why.

I hate when flies get in here because then they're like, oh, I'm going to kill it at some point. It's going to die.

I am a strange duck. I fully admit it. Very sorry. The world is a better place because of all different types of people. So. I love your, your positive energy, besides killing things. It's only flies, we can do that to them. They like reproduce like in an alarming rate. You know, for somebody that believes in reincarnation, it could be like your grandmother.

What you're saying is really interesting because, you know, we're both entrepreneurs and go out into the workplace and help businesses [00:41:00] and yet you're sharing. So, transparently these vulnerabilities that that you have and sometimes at work, we share those vulnerabilities and sometimes we don't, I do feel that as a manager, you're more human to individuals that you work with when you share your vulnerabilities, because really, we all have them.

You know, the next person next to us might have PTSD as well. This person might have, you know, a pet that just passed away. This person might have, money challenges. We all have stuff and so bringing that, that sense of compassion about we're all just people trying to get through and do what we need to do on a daily basis to pay the bills and support each other and hold a job that we're happy with and hopefully go home and have a great day.

Some positive time and, you know, enjoy life a little bit. But it's, it's hard and you do forget when you're, if you're, especially if you're a task oriented [00:42:00] person to like, just take a breath. This is just work and I care about my work, but it's not going to take over. My mental health and that's that's really important to recognize and feel empathetic to everybody around us knowing that we don't really know what they have going on.

Yeah, I have seen the comment in different places that everybody is fighting their own demons. We that we know nothing about. And my demons seem very big to me, because I, you know, I fully admit, I have plenty of them, right? 

The big thing with overwhelm is it's okay that it happens. Take a breath, go walk away, tell a fly if you need to, because they're annoying. And then when you come back, don't just keep looking at the same problem the same way, or you're going to have to get up and walk [00:43:00] away again in 5 minutes.

You have to look at it a little bit differently. Try to break it down into smaller tasks that you can easily get done within 1530 hour and then maneuver them so that you get the serotonin you need to be able to keep going. Make sure that if you have 50 tasks today, make sure they actually need to be done today.

Maybe some of them can go on tomorrow where there are only 2 tasks so far. But don't push off everything like, we're not going. Oh, well, I feel I'm overwhelmed. So, therefore, I'm not going to do anything today because guess what you have just done. You have hated your future self, and your future self is really going to want to strangle you, meaning yourself, from yesterday, because why would you give me everything to do today, because now I'm overwhelmed again, right?

That didn't help that didn't solve any salute that didn't solve anything that just pushed off the problem for another [00:44:00] day And we don't want to be doing that. We want to be taking care of our problems and dealing with them break it down and Get it done I sound very like But this I have to say that to myself sometimes because i'm like just before this podcast, my power went out For an hour and I was panicking.

I had people texting me and you put this newsletter out. Can you send me the information about your social media stuff so that I can get, you know, the information I need to talk to somebody about it tomorrow? Can you do this thing for me like all y'all gotta wait a minute I can't do anything right now and i'm panicking because I have a podcast and I have no power That half hour I had before the podcast started i'm trying to get everything done And like it wasn't like I got most of it done when we first started talking.

I still had to send that email and then Now I have [00:45:00] to call him back when we're done. So like work still happens Even if you have a podcast, you still have to work. This is a passion thing for me. I don't get paid to be on a podcast. I don't, there's no money in this for me at this point at all. I do this because it's something I feel I need to do.

I need to help. The next person in line, right? Like I got to this point. Now let me help the next person get up to this point. And that is by helping them with their mental health. That is by helping them get the business skills they need. I helped, I gave my sister, who has worked in corporate for a while and wants to get out.

I gave her some of the, you know, I taught her some of the skills I have that I use. That were gaps where her corporate thing was, and she's going to be starting her own business soon. So, like, I would help [00:46:00] anybody do that. I don't care. Like, here, I have a business, like, let's go. I can teach you how to do certain things.

You don't have to have the tech skills I have to do the stuff I do. You have to have the tech skills I have to have my clients, because my clients cannot do technology to save their lives. So, But they are still great people, and I just have to guide them down that road.

So, mental health is a problem, like, a lot of people have now. Like, we all grew up traumatized. I think Gen X, and Gen whoever's, and old people, and young people, like, everybody has some kind of trauma these days. Some, you know, they Everybody gets overwhelmed. There's like no perfect person that has never been overwhelmed telling you that now, like, it doesn't matter if they are over the age of 10, maybe 7, [00:47:00] they have been overwhelmed about something.

I think 2 2 year olds cry because they've just had enough of the day. Come on now, so everybody gets overwhelmed. You have that moment. It's just how you handle it next. That is going to mean like you're staying in the company you're in because if you go full on Hulk because they gave you 10 tasks to do today They may not want to keep you on board You know that that that may be a thing because you're screaming at your computer I can do that from home and I enjoy doing that because I talk to my screens all the time It gets hilarious because I get on a phone call with somebody and i'm like no don't do that and they're like wait what?

You Not talking to you, I'm talking to the computer. I don't know that I've ever experienced anyone dumping responsibilities on someone else. [00:48:00] Just to get rid of them, I think business owners in particular are so busy that they are desperate to have someone to unload work to and are really just hoping that person has learned how to prioritize what needs to get done and can self manage.

This can be done today. This can be done tomorrow. I did have some young staff in my early days as a manager where I would keep giving them things and I was just, okay, if I have 20 things and you have three, I'm going to give you something because my plate is way too full and I've got to get something off and it was that and then I'd get another one and then another one as things came in the door.

Thank goodness. You know, being busy in business is good. But. It wasn't to overwhelm that person. And finally, one of the young people that was working for me just said, you've given me three things that you said were number one, which one do you actually want to be number one? I was like, I'm sorry. I said, you know, they really are all number one, but let's look at them.

Okay. This one's going to take 15 minutes and it's due this afternoon. This one's going to take an hour, but we actually [00:49:00] have till tomorrow morning. So let's shift that one behind the other. And it's really just about, in addition to breaking things in a chunk, prioritizing and learning what. Be done and typically in a small business, what's going to bring money in the door is a priority.

Number 1 and. That's either quotes or products if they're cash basis to get it out the door and keep the lights on. So hopefully, hopefully young, newer workers learn to prioritize within an organization, realize that an owner just really needs help more than anything. Yeah. So I, that's the thing, like no matter what business you're in, like I'm in business for myself, I give myself the task to do.

I'm like, okay, I have to do this, this, and this for this person, and this and this for that person. Okay, that can wait until the end of the month that needs to be done. You know, I do that to myself and then I sit there and go, Oh, no, what did I do? You know, I still when I've done it to myself, because [00:50:00] I hate my future.

So, not like that, but it's more like I will be like, Oh, well, that can wait until tomorrow and it'll be fine. And then tomorrow I'm. No, that was supposed to have been done yesterday now i'm behind and now i've got to catch up and you know It's stupid every once in a while. I do that. I don't do it all the time I'm very responsible with the things I have to do But again overwhelm happens it's gonna happen.

It has happened. It will happen again and again and again no matter how good you think you are at doing tasks because Especially in like the corporate world or a business that has more than 1 person, you're going to have that. Oh, wait, my list is too big here. You do it. And they're going, but my list is just as big.

Why do I have to so and so you have that kind of thing. So, I don't know. I've said stuff today. I think the [00:51:00] key from everything you described is really just. One step at a time, break it down and recognize that implementing tools that work for each individual in the way their brain processes is what it needs to be.

I mean, you, you mentioned lists and I'm thinking I'm a list maker and because I'm, ADD. My mom actually taught me that. I had to write everything down when I was little, but sometimes my lists have lists. Well, I've learned as I've grown through my professional career that I actually like to keep things in either Google or Microsoft Calendar and color coded.

I have a remarkable, right? There's all kinds of things that I do. There's other people I work with that never write anything down. And their mind is so amazing. They've got it all and I'm like that is amazing because honestly if I didn't have outlook or google calendar I don't that's like half my brain Yeah But it's really about implementing the tools that work for each of us as individuals and then as teams collaborating on those, using those tools and And then what's going to support the owner?

I have another client that said, or [00:52:00] someone on the staff said, I want to use Microsoft planner. And one of the leaders said, I don't care to use that tool. That's not going to work for me, but you can use it. I'll just continue to do what I'm doing and send you things via email. And you can put whatever you want in the planner.

So as long as the team can work together on collaborating on the best way to get through those tasking so that they're not overwhelmed and keep the ball moving forward. I think they'll be good.

That's fine. This was a lot of fun chatting with you.

That's perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, wonderful day. You too. Take care. Bye.