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BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY "BEHAS"
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY / PORQUE TODOS TENEMOS UNA HISTORIA QUE CONTAR. My podcast connects and relates through the sharing of regular peoples' stories of courage, transformation, adventure, love, overcoming life’s challenges and career changes. It is a platform to give ordinary people’s stories from all over the world the chance to be shared and preserved. You will listen to stories of captivating people, both young and elderly, that I, your host Daniela, meet on my life journey. Communicating wisdom, knowledge and personal experience, these stories will connect, motivate, inspire and relate to your own. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's ENJOY, CONNECT AND RELATE. COMPARTE, CONECTATE Y DISFRUTA. I have shared stories of people from Asia, Europe, North America and South America. If you want to share your story on my show, please get in touch because everyone has a story.
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY "BEHAS"
Unveiling the Price of Burnout - Exploring Its Hidden Costs - Hannah Tackett : 145
Have you ever felt like you're drowning in your success?
After more than a decade of relentless work, Hannah found herself in the depths of burnout. In her candid and inspiring narrative, Hannah shares how she transitioned from overwhelming exhaustion to a balanced life brimming with energy and purpose. Discover how recognizing the early, stealthy signs of burnout—like irritability and anxiety—can be a game-changer in reclaiming your well-being.
Hannah Tackett is a software design manager turned burnout coach.
Her journey didn't stop at recognizing burnout; she completely transformed her approach to work-life balance. By seeking support from health professionals and pursuing further health coaching and psychology education, Hannah identified the five success traps contributing to her burnout: people-pleasing, perfectionism, overextending, overachieving, and the fear of saying no. Through her story, you learn how prioritizing self-care, setting clear boundaries, and saying no to non-essential commitments can lead to greater efficiency and a more fulfilling life.
Hannah also moved closer to nature, which played a crucial role in her recovery, showing how aligning personal passions with lifestyle can recharge one's energy and improve well-being.
Below are the seven actionable tips designed to empower you on your journey toward success and well-being.
Let's enjoy her story!
Hannah Tackett's Website
free community: https://www.skool.com/serene-success
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Thank you for listening - Hasta Pronto!
Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my podcast. Because Everyone has a Story, the place to give ordinary people's stories the chance to be shared and preserved. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it, connect and relate because everyone has a story and relate because everyone has a story. Welcome.
Daniela SM:My guest is Hannah Tackett, a former software design manager turned burnout coach. After over a decade of hard work, hannah hit burnout and she shares her honest and inspiring story how she went from exhaustion to living a balanced life full of energy and purpose. She shows how spotting the early signs of burnout, like irritability and anxiety, can help you regain control of well-being. Hannah didn't just recognize burnout. She completely changed her approach to life. With help from health professionals and further health coaching and psychology studies, she uncovered the five traps of success. Her story teaches how self-care, setting boundaries and learning to say no can make life more fulfilling. It was wonderful having her on the show and look on the show notes for the link to the seven practical tips to find your balance and success, and keep an eye, because soon she's starting her own podcast. So let's enjoy her story. Welcome, hannah, to the show. Thank you so happy to be here. Yes, I am excited, too, that you are here to share a story. And, Hannah, why do you want to share your story?
Hannah Tackett :I just think it's so important to talk about the journey to burnout and the experience of burnout because I have spoken with so many high achieving women that didn't even realize that they were on the path to burnout until it was too late. So I just think it's so important to get the message out.
Daniela SM:Yes, you're right, and the only way to learn about it is hearing other people's stories, because otherwise you wouldn't know what that means really. When does your story start?
Hannah Tackett :Goodness, I would say about five years ago. Well, that's where the big pivot was, where it starts, probably, like I don't know my teens, but we'll pick it up about five years ago. Essentially, at that point, I'd been working in tech for 11 years, 12 years. I hit a wall. I was so exhausted I could not get out of bed and I couldn't get out of bed for months. So I was just flat on my back, useless, and it terrified me. It really frightened me because at this point in my life, I had worked so hard to get into this career. I had very young children that I'm responsible for, I'm married, I have this beautiful life, basically that I had invested so much into building there. It wasn't bad not investing in it, not showing up for it and it really frightened me because I wanted to show up for my kids.
Hannah Tackett :There was a certain way I wanted to be a mom and passed out in bed, is not it? I was afraid of losing my job. I'm like someone's going to notice I'm not performing. I just felt like I had a lot on the line and a lot of things that I truly cared about on the line. I just felt like I had a lot on the line and a lot of things that I truly cared about on the line, and so when that happened, I prioritized my recovery. I was like I am going to fix this, I'm going to get my energy back, I am never going to burn out again, and that became my highest priority, whereas before I don't think I had a clear priority, I was just trying to do everything. And so when I made that shift, it really. It shifted the way I approached life. It shifted how I showed up and my recovery journey took a while and I learned a lot, but that's essentially like that. That was like the pivot point when things changed.
Daniela SM:So you were going to work every day and family and marriage, and then suddenly you got sick. You wouldn't go to work for days.
Hannah Tackett :Well, in marriage, and then suddenly you got sick, you wouldn't go to work for days.
Hannah Tackett :Well, fortunately I had some flexibility, so I was working from home, so I was able to, like you know, laptop next to me showing up, sort of, but I wasn't producing and, yes, and up to that point, most of my career I was working in the office, which was frankly awful. And you know, I've got the babies at home and the husband and like the never ending, and you know I've got the babies at home and the husband and like the never ending job of being a mother of young children. And I never changed or adjusted the way I approach life. You know, after having kids, I was just always on, you know, full steam ahead, leaning in at all times, picked up everything, did everyone else's job for them, and I didn't realize I was going to burnout. And that's kind of where I think this conversation is so important, because there are so many red flags along the way, so many opportunities to turn it around before it affects your performance, before it affects your ability to show up.
Daniela SM:You didn't know, we didn't know what the burnout. I still don't know what burnout, what level that means. You know, like I was also working, having the kids, marriage, and so now the kid, you know they're grown up. You know I'm similar to you, like I don't wake up in the morning with that enthusiasm as I used to, but I don't know what is burnout. I only feel like I feel like I'm dying inside.
Hannah Tackett :That's, that's part of it. So burning out it's not, you know, a diagnosis, it's a look, quote, a quote realism. And so essentially it's not a sudden crash, it's really a silent buildup of stress over time and it sneaks up on us. And I like to think of it as, like there's three stages to this. You know, build up and the first stage is like that stealthy stress stage that I think most of us are experiencing here or there anyways, and it begins to accumulate unnoticed and starts to affect our daily life in subtle ways. So maybe we're starting to feel a little bit more irritable, maybe we're being short with our kids, maybe we're having some anxiety and we're worried about the future, perhaps struggling with sleep or dealing with insomnia, maybe we're having some poor concentration or brain fog, having difficulty focusing, perhaps some tummy troubles, headaches and migraines. Another one that people don't think about is like the self-criticism, because as you're still feeling that stress mounting, you start to become somewhat critical of yourself and that tends to add to that pile of stress. And so that's that first stage, that stealthy stress. And if the stress and the way we're showing up in the world and showing up for our careers and showing up for our families isn't addressed, that can turn into the second stage, which I think of as emotional erosion, and that's where that increasing emotional exhaustion leads to cynicism, dread, detachment from work and personal life, where we start to feel cynical towards work. Maybe we're having the Sunday scaries where you know we're afraid, you know Sunday we start feeling anxious and dreading going back to the office on Monday. I know when I experienced my burnout I had the Sunday scaries, but mine would start on Friday afternoon around 3 PM while I was still in the office, and around 3 PM would come around and I would just feel like my soul was dropping out of my body because I knew I had to come back on Monday and I did not want to and it would taint my entire weekend because that dread just sat in the bottom of my gut the entire time because I was so unhappy and I just did not want to go back.
Hannah Tackett :Some people feel detached, like they just stop caring or like they feel resentful, like work is just this endless hamster wheel of grind and many people start having fantasies of quitting. I know I certainly did. I think like the more mild emotional symptom that we can, it's more easy to tune into, is resentment. So if you're starting to like resent your boss, resent your job, resent your husband, resent your schedule, resent all of the obligations that are on your plate, that is a big red flag. It's like, hey, it's time to change how we're doing things. It's time to change how we're showing up. If we don't change things, if we don't adjust how we're relating to work, it can turn into that third stage of burnout which is, I think, what everyone thinks of when they think of burnout, which is that performance paralysis.
Hannah Tackett :In my experience it was. I was in bed and couldn't get up. I went to the doctors and had a bunch of tests done and all the tests said I was fine. There was nothing actually wrong with me other than that I couldn't get out of bed, I was just completely fried. But I've spoken with women where one woman that I worked with ended up in the ER.
Hannah Tackett :Another woman it wasn't so much that her body shut down on her completely, it was that she stopped being able to do her job. So she was showing up but she wasn't getting anything done. She'd sit there for hours and get so little done and then she ended up being put on a performance review and she was like, you know, up until that point, her entire life she was a top performer and suddenly she, you know, she hit this wall where she just couldn't get things done. It was like she was trying to push through a fog is how she described it that third stage that people call burnout. It really there's a lot leading up to that. There's a lot of opportunities to change how we're doing things and prevent that from happening. And it does look different for different people. It has different faces to it.
Daniela SM:Huh, how interesting, how interesting. I feel like I've been on one and two for a long time. I felt somehow that I kind of I'm trapped and I'm fighting, fighting and fighting. That's the only thing that I could relate, that I was like. I just feel like I'm fighting. Obviously, I don't feel like you knew all this until it happened. So how do you learn about putting words and explaining these so well?
Hannah Tackett :Right. So this happened, you know, five, six years ago, when I made that decision to prioritize myself, prioritize health, and that kicked off an entire journey, or a discovery. And you know, I hired health coaches, I went to chiropractors, I went to acupuncturists, I went to coaching school to become a health coach. I studied the psychology behind things. I read a hundred books.
Hannah Tackett :You know like I dove deep, I was kind of it became an obsession where I, just because I'd burned out before like that was not my first time burning out, it was just I decided that was the last time I was going to burn out. And so I studied, I learned, I talked to many, many people and I reached out to many different kinds of professionals to get help for myself. And in the process I began to understand the stress cycle and what chronic stress actually does to our bodies and our minds and our spirits, how that really is what burnout is. It's an expression of that chronic stress and how there's some of us have this way of falling. I call it like the five success traps, like there's these behaviors that we have that have driven us to success, but those same behaviors can also drive us to burnout. And that's when I was like, oh, these are the people I want to help, you know.
Hannah Tackett :I think I had all of those I fell into all of those success traps. So the first one is you know the people pleasing, you know so. We were trying to keep our boss happy, we're trying to keep our kids happy, we're trying to keep our spouse happy, we want to keep our team happy, we want everybody to be fine, right. So we just extend, extend, extend ourselves, try to keep everybody else happy, but inevitably we're kind of forgetting about our own needs. People pleasing can definitely lead to success. Right, you meet the right people, happy they People-pleasing can definitely lead to success. Right, you meet the right people happy, they're going to promote you, they're going to give you more opportunities. But if it's out of balance or if it's like rooted in fear and I think fear is a big topic it can drive you to burnout, fear of what?
Hannah Tackett :The fears that tend to drive these success traps, the, you know, the people-pleasing perfectionism, the overextending or helping overachieving the fear of saying no, or helping overachieving the fear of saying no. So the fear behind those, most of the fears come down to a fear of not being worthy. So there's the fear of not being worthy, there's the fear of scarcity. So maybe you grew up in like I know in my case my parents were not wealthy, so I definitely grew up with a mindset like there's not enough. I'm going to have to work really, really, really hard all the time to make enough money to survive. So you get the survival mentality.
Hannah Tackett :Sometimes there's a fear of rejection or in the work world it's maybe a fear of job loss and I know in my career I saw thousands of people laid off in a single day and it definitely put in addition to my scarcity thinking.
Hannah Tackett :It put that additional fear in there like I could lose my job, like if I'm not overachieving, if I'm not extending myself and doing everyone else's job for them, like I'll be the next one laid off. So all these fears you know you don't have to have all the fears, but sometimes they pile up and they drive those behaviors that perfectionism, that overextending and picking up other people's problems and responsibilities, or that being the nice girl being afraid of saying no or just not knowing how to say no. I know when I was working a lot of things would end up on my plate. I would get triple booked all day long in calls and I never turned down anything. I just didn't realize I could. Part of it was I didn't realize I could. The other part of it was I was afraid if I said no to something that I would be laid off. I'd be the next one, you know, with my head on the block. So those are like the fears that I think drive the behaviors that can contribute to burning out.
Daniela SM:This is fascinating. My question still is you were lying in bed. What gave you the strength to say I'm going to change this?
Hannah Tackett :I think it really came down to I love my kids. I refused to fail as a mom. I wanted to be there for them. I wanted to be emotionally engaged and not just like a rag doll, which is how I felt. I didn't want to just meet their physical needs, I wanted to be mentally and emotionally present. And I was tapped out. I felt like I had nothing left to give. And that had to change. And it had to change in a way where I wasn't unemployed, like I couldn't burn down my career and go churn butter in the woods. I had responsibilities, I had bills to pay, I'm a breadwinner. I can't just quit. So I had to find a way to solve it that didn't involve a two-year sabbatical, that didn't involve quitting my job or, you know, taking a lower-paying job that was less stressful, like I had to solve it in the context that I was in.
Daniela SM:Yes, but that means that.
Hannah Tackett :It is surprisingly counterintuitive the process that I went through, which took a while, but what I've learned is that by prioritizing your own care and by prioritizing white space or margin in your life, you end up being much more efficient.
Hannah Tackett :So by doing less, you end up doing more, better, you're not as busy, but you're much more productive, much more strategic. In the process of this recovery, I learned how to say no. So I'm turning down work, I'm communicating with my boss and my team about what I'm going to do and what I'm not going to do, and when things are going to happen, and my fear that I had to just rewrite essentially to rewrite the fear that I'd be laid off, and then I had to accept that I'm going to be okay and I have to do this to be able to show up for my kids. So when I learned how to say no, when I learned how to ask for what I really wanted and say no to the things that weren't serving me or weren't serving the team, and be able to negotiate for timelines and negotiate for more resources, I did not get laid off. I got promoted.
Hannah Tackett :So by doing less, by holding space for myself, finding my voice and being vocal about what is okay and what is not okay in my world. What I'm willing to accept or not accelerated my career. It had the exact opposite effect of what I was afraid of Interesting?
Daniela SM:Yeah, because people will respect you more, because you can say no, it's true, you don't have to work harder, you just have to be efficient, and so you create a more white space for yourself, something that you didn't have before. Exactly.
Hannah Tackett :Yes, and the first thing I well, I don't know what the first thing I did was, but one of the things that I've done is, you know, I mentioned my calendar was always, you know, triple booked. It's always full, and I just open it up in the morning and just feel so much anxiety. So I started declining meetings and then people would come up and be like, why aren't you going to be in this call? I'm like because I'm already booked. You know, let's, let's discuss what matters most, let's prioritize, let's have these conversations. And so I would decline meetings. I started taking lunches off the entire hour and I would leave the building, go for a walk, and I started leaving at four so that I could pick up my kids and spend time with them at home.
Hannah Tackett :So I dramatically cut my hours and what happened was I had a lot of good conversations with people who wanted work done and when I explained like well, I can do this much and I can do this much. Well, if you want X, Y and Z done, then we either need a longer timeline or more people, because we're understaffed and I'm done compensating for it. I didn't say that part, but that in my mind. I was like I'm done, compensating for the fact that we are understaffed. So this is what we need to get the job done. So they gave me what we need. They gave me people, so I ended up getting a team. So, yeah, so it's.
Hannah Tackett :It worked out really well, like finding the boundaries, finding my voice, being able to express what I wanted and what I didn't want, but within the context of meeting everyone's needs. I wasn't going around flipping people off, saying I'm not going to do my job anymore. It wasn't that at all. It was like you want all of this done, this massive pile of work? Here's how we could do it on an extended timeframe. Here's how we could do it if you added two or three more people. Which one would you like to do?
Daniela SM:But you read about this, how to do it, or just you woke up one day and came up with all these good ideas.
Hannah Tackett :Oh, I'm constantly reading. Okay, yes, so I definitely read how to Negotiate, I read about boundaries. I read books on codependency. I read books on stress and chronic stress. I read books on holistic health health, read books on communication Like I'm always, my head is always in books, so I'd read a ton and I would just take bits and pieces of what I've learned and try them. You know, my life is the experiment. I'm going to try it out. And at the same time, I was working with people, like I worked with a health coach, because I thought, well, maybe a health coach can help me get my energy back, maybe my acupuncturist, maybe my chiropractor, maybe my Algosia therapist. So I talked to a lot of professionals over the years and learned from them and pieces of this and pieces of that ended up coming together to being a holistic solution that, for me, ended the burnout and paved the way for me to prevent burnout from happening again and help others to do the same.
Daniela SM:And Hannah, do you feel that this is also part of people's personality, Like, have you met people that are in the same boat as you, however, and they have read books? However, they don't know how to apply it.
Hannah Tackett :Yeah, so one of my clients I don't know if I'd call it personality, because that implies like it's permanent or like it's ingrained in us. It's more like a learned behavior or a pattern or a story that you believe in. So, yeah, so one of my clients, like she'd been to therapists, she'd taken sabbaticals, she even switched jobs, she switched companies, she tried everything, she switched companies, she tried everything and she was still dreading her job every single day. And she was the one that I mentioned ended up on a performance review because she went from being a top performer to being barely able to get through the day.
Hannah Tackett :And so we went through this process that I've put together I call it the peace method and within less than 90 days, she was waking up excited in the morning. She felt like she had a clear vision for her future. She was showing up to work, she was showing up for a personal life, she was having things shift with her relationship with her children that she wasn't even expecting. So it is completely possible, like, even if you're stuck, even if you've done a ton of things, to try and turn around, for yourself to actually, like, get over the hump. And I think that working with others because sometimes, like you know, if it's on, if there's like a speck of dirt on your nose like you can't necessarily see it, it's too close. So you need a mirror or another person to kind of give you the feedback as you're going, and I think that's kind of like a critical aspect of it.
Daniela SM:She did all the book and everything, but she needed somebody to like a coach, somebody to help her Essentially.
Hannah Tackett :Yeah, and I think it's also the method, like the method that I'd put together, because she's done it. She'd been to therapists, and I don't think this is a replacement for therapy. I'm a huge fan of therapy. This She'd been to therapists and I don't think this is a replacement for therapy. I'm a huge fan of therapy. This is one of those things. If you're in therapy and you want to do this kind of coaching, it's in addition to, not a replacement of. I just want to make that super clear. But she still hadn't resolved her dread, she hadn't found her path forward.
Daniela SM:Yeah, how interesting. Because it's true, people can read a lot and they still don't apply it. It is not that easy. You have to have that capability of whatever you read, you applied. So you were working, you got promoted, you feel that you were having a better relationship within your family.
Hannah Tackett :And then what happened? Right? So what happened was I kept following this path right, and so one of the keys that I think is surprising to ending burnout is authenticity and stepping into alignment with your own values. And so, on this journey, I was becoming more and more clear about what my values were Obvious to me and even initially, was like it's valuable to me to be able to spend time with my children.
Hannah Tackett :Another value that I had ignored for years, years, was my love of nature. So I'd been working in tech, I'd been sitting in a car doing 90-minute commutes, I'd been sitting in office buildings a lot of sitting, so a lot of sitting. I was not able to get out in nature because I worked so much, and when I wasn't working, I was taking care of my children and I lived in a city. It was like really hard to get any kind of nature in my life, and so I made the decision like I need to be in trees, I need to be able to go walking in the forest often, like multiple times a week. This matters, whereas before, before, I realized like being true to my own values being authentic, I didn't think it was that important, right. I thought making my husband happy, making my kids happy, making my boss happy, making a lot of money. Those were the things that were important. But when I burned out and I got on this path of healing, I realized actually honoring my true self and honoring what inspires and matters to me is what's important and nature matters to me, right, it doesn't have to matter to everyone. What's important and nature matters to me, right. It doesn't have to matter to everyone, but it matters to me.
Hannah Tackett :So I started the process of moving across the state. So I moved from an urban center to a forest, essentially, and I made that happen by negotiating with my job and I was like I would like to move here in the middle of a forest and I'd like to work remote, full-time. And they said okay, and what's crazy was I wanted to do that for eight months before I asked. It took me eight months to get the courage to ask and I asked and it was an immediate yes. Why did I wait so long? So my family and I moved. We are now close to nature. You could hear it. Family and I moved. We are now close to nature. You could hear it.
Hannah Tackett :And so now I am able to have that aspect of life, things that are valuable to me, where I'm able to move every single day. I'm able to go out and get into a forest and go hiking four minutes from my house, and that fills my cup. And there's a really important concept here where when you're doing things that matter to you, you're filling your cup with energy. You're like recharging the battery. So imagine you're a battery. Doing those things refills your battery. And when you show up for other activities, when I go to work or take care of my kids, I actually have something to give. I have a lot to give. I'm empowered, I'm alive, I feel great.
Hannah Tackett :And for me it was nature and one of my clients it was knitting. She wanted to knit, but she stopped knitting because she felt bad about the time right, it was a waste of time and she had to spend all of her time either working or cleaning her house. That's what she got on her head. And so when she started prioritizing knitting and adding craft back into her life like even while she's on calls, doing a little bit of knitting in between calls, just a little bit of here and there she noticed a dramatic difference in how she felt and how much energy she had and how much clarity she had for what she wanted to do next or where she wanted her career to go.
Hannah Tackett :So I think that a lot of us lose pieces of ourselves along the way because we pick up expectations like all the shoulds. I should behave this way at work. I need to act like that person at work to be successful. I need to succeed like that person over there, because we get an idea like I want this.
Hannah Tackett :In my case, I wanted to make a certain amount of money so that I could afford a certain lifestyle for my family and I thought I had to do it a certain way. I had to do a certain way. I had to do it like I saw other people doing it, and that wasn't necessarily the case. I could do it my own way, and when I embraced that, I started making even more money and I was much happier. I think they trickle over into my personal life too being able to delegate matters at work, matters at home, being able to train someone else to support your vision in the office you can do that at home too. So I feel like these skills are universal, even if the way you do it like the way you're going to train a five-year-old to clean up their room is going to be different than the way you train your employee to do their job, but the principles behind them are the same.
Daniela SM:Yes, but how did you manage to move? Just, your husband was okay, working from home or something, he had no issues.
Hannah Tackett :Oh, yeah, yeah. No, he thought he was on board because he was also not getting out as much as he wanted. He wants to be able to go mountain biking every day and he wasn't able to do it from where we lived. So we were aligned like completely aligned on moving and did a lot of research, a lot of looking at different communities, before picking the right one for us, for our family, because it was more than just nature, right, we also wanted a little bit more of a smallish town community feel for the kids and good schools and you know, the normal stuff people are looking for.
Daniela SM:Yes. And then your husband. Did he notice that you were burnt out? What was the support that he offered you?
Hannah Tackett :I think it freaked him out. I mean we had babies, right, little little little ones. So I think it frightened him and I think he felt like he has to do more. I turned it around so I mean it worked out. But yeah, he was concerned and he did step up quite a bit and help with the kids.
Daniela SM:You said there were babies who could have had the blues as well.
Hannah Tackett :The baby blues. It could have been. It could have been, except for I had had postpartum depression when I was a first child, and did not prevent like being treated for that did not prevent burnout. I still ended up burning out. I don't necessarily think that depression and burnout are the same thing. I think they can be correlated. I think you can have them both at the same time. But burning out is a response to cumulative stress.
Daniela SM:Yes, interesting Wow you moved to another city.
Hannah Tackett :What happened next? Well, next, within a few months of moving, I got an offer from what is essentially a dream job. So I switched companies. The new company is amazing, like the best culture ever. It was like a magic, magical occurrence. Not only was I able to stand up for myself, but now I'm in a company that supports that and encourages work-life balance. It all ended up working out just beautifully, beautifully. So I ended up you know this new company doing great in the new city.
Hannah Tackett :It was during COVID, so I have to say that was hard moving during the shutdowns because people were super weird and no one was friendly. Like it was the most unfriendly start in a new city you could imagine. So it took years for us to like get to know people. But I think that that's common, Like if anyone moved during that time period. I'm sure that there's some relatability there. It was not a good time but in spite of that, I had other good things going on in my life with a new job and just being able to go hiking was beautiful. And then I started helping people. But I realized like I got this new job.
Hannah Tackett :I started going to conferences when things started opening up again and talking to a lot of women and realizing this isn't just a me problem, Like there are so many women and I was thinking just in tech, right, Because that's the world I was in so many women are struggling, struggling deeply with burnout, and I think the COVID situation accelerated that for a lot of people because of the isolation which is a stress causing situation.
Hannah Tackett :And so I met so many women who were struggling on their path to burnout, women who burnt out, women who were trying to recover from burning out. I talked to women who had quit their jobs, like walked away from you know a half a million dollars a year, left all of their RSUs behind and were in the process of recovering. And this particular individual, like she, was in her third year of living off of savings, trying to get better. That's expensive, and I was like this is wrong. This is wrong. I mean, it's hard enough for women to be in the workplace to begin with, but then to have women dropping off like this and exiting the workplace because of because they're fried and they don't have the tools and the support that they need to recover and come back stronger, is a crime. So I started working with women individually and now in a group program where I walk everyone through the steps to ending burnout and making sure that does not happen again.
Daniela SM:Wow, that's incredible, because you said also that you took a course about coaching.
Hannah Tackett :Yeah, yeah, so I did. I did get certified to be a health and life coach, like in on my journey.
Daniela SM:Yes, During on this journey. Okay, okay, and so you knew that this is something that you were interested in, in doing.
Hannah Tackett :Yes, I've always been interested in in helping others. I've always been passionate about health and this was just kind of like another aspect to it. And I do love to help others, even in my professional world, like, yes, I'm a software designer, but ultimately I'm there to help my team. It plays to my passions for sure.
Daniela SM:Well, you seem like a beautiful person that is calm, that you know always think that you care about other people's anyway, so it sounds like the coaching suits you really well.
Hannah Tackett :Yeah, it's been very fulfilling, very fun and just beautiful to watch others who've been struggling with these things turn it around.
Daniela SM:And are you helping people from your office or is just always people from the outside?
Hannah Tackett :Like people I've known on my career path, but also people that I'm meeting online or from podcasting or you know wherever they're coming in, or referrals, so it's a variety of women from all over.
Daniela SM:You know we always need help in talking to somebody who could understand and relate to what's happening. So that's very important that you took this path, because I think it's helping a lot of people and your story is somehow relatable. Even though I didn't get to stage three I think I've been to one and two. Knowing this, I think that I've learned about me and so I know exactly that. Okay, like this week, for example, I have a lot of appointments and I'm like okay, I can do this, and so I'm prepared. It's going to be a busy weekend. In high school and even in college, one of the subjects should be learn about yourself, not only personality tests, but what are the values, and you know those values will change. If I don't know a better world, we will all be stronger.
Hannah Tackett :Absolutely Like knowing yourself and listening to, like people call it intuition, or like your gut wisdom is so important to feeling satisfied. Like we can be successful, like on paper, and feel miserable if we are successful in a way that we're fulfilling someone else's definition right, but when we are fulfilling our own definition of success in the way that we want to, that is in alignment with our values, like that is fulfilling. There's this myth that human productivity is linear and that more is more, whereas human productivity is really more like a tide, so there's like an ebb and a flow to it. And so when we lean in, you know we're pushing, we're on, we're going, we're striving, and that's wonderful, but at the same time we need to be able to lean out with just as much intention.
Daniela SM:You know I had this lady that I actually post in her episode soon. She also got burnt out. She had numerous kids and she was in. She called it in the corporate America successful. She says that she's teaching her kids what do you want to be when you grow up? Like you know, what kind of career is the most important thing versus what kind of person do you want to be when you grow up? And so she's constantly asking that to their kids and I feel that that's a bit of the work that we can start focusing as parents for our kids, to help them focus on the right thing versus on the career, on the titles and more of a, what kind of person is it that you know you want to be when you grow up?
Hannah Tackett :Exactly, and you can have both if that is in alignment with your values. I love that because I feel, like so many, especially like the women that I work with and myself in my past, like such an overachiever, like there was always a thing to do. I was always achieving, always checking the next box, always doing something, with no time in my life to be to exist. You know so that that white space in life where you're just being a human and we don't prioritize that, we don't think it's important culturally, like if you're living in a world where hustle culture is kind of on a pedestal, but that time where you're just being, where you're just existing as a human is so critical and it's just as important as achieving. Yes, that's true. How old are your kids? I have a six-year-old and a nine-year-old.
Daniela SM:How old are your kids? I have a six-year-old and a nine-year-old, okay, so are you working with them about teaching them this that you learned?
Hannah Tackett :already Sort of they're not workaholics. So I'm hoping that by example, they learn not to be workaholics, who we are and how we treat others, like being kind not just to others, but being kind to ourselves, being loving towards others and loving ourselves. So I always like reflected back to them like you're not supposed to sacrifice your soul on behalf of others. Honor who you are, get to know who you are and what you love, and express that. Be able to ask for what you want, be able to receive what you need. So so, yeah, so those things are definitely ingrained in how I'm raising them and how I'm teaching them so they know to pursue what they love, they know to ask for what they want, they know to respect others but also respect themselves as, like, the baseline, and are you teaching them how to say no?
Daniela SM:No, they know already how to say no, they don't need to be taught how to say no.
Hannah Tackett :They don't even know how to say no Exactly.
Daniela SM:Especially when they're four. They're actually very good at saying no to everything Wonderful and, besides being a coach, do a blog or have you? You have something else that you share with people.
Hannah Tackett :So yeah. So I put together a kind of a cheat sheet on how to become less busy. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you feel like you're busy all the time, if you feel like I don't have time to do this work, to find my values, like that sounds all nice and fluffy, but I'm busy, there's too many things to do I put together a cheat sheet to basically carve out the time to find two to 10 hours a week and take them back for yourself. So it's called you know, slash your hours by 20% without while still being perceived as a top performer. And it goes into the principles that I use myself and use with my clients to end burnout with very actionable tactical tips and applications that they can follow to get their time back.
Daniela SM:Wow, that sounds super interesting. So how do you come up with that?
Hannah Tackett :Well, I was looking for something that would give people like if they hear the story, if they hear the message around that you can end burnout, you don't have to burn out, you can prevent burnout Like just something simple and tangible and practical that they can take and then apply in their own life. That is free, they don't have to do anything to get, other than click on a link.
Daniela SM:You have seen success out of that sheet. Have you gotten any comments?
Hannah Tackett :Yeah, I explained it like okay, you only need to do one or two of these things to see a difference. Don't do all of them, but here's the seven things. Pick what stands out to you and try it, and then let me know how it goes. And people are letting me know how it's going and it is working, and I love seeing that there's a way to like help people without you know having to actually like you know, bring them into the program. But sometimes, though, there there's a need to like get rid of like self-sabotage, because you know, I'm sure you've experienced like, especially as adults, when we try to change anything in our lives, like that critter brain flares up and there's a lot of reasons why we can't excuses and things come up. Other people like there's so much sabotage when it comes to change. So there is an option to like get on the call with me and like deal with that as well.
Daniela SM:Yes, I feel that micro doses of changes who will increase new habits is always a good thing. Yes, you're right. For me is well, why should I keep doing it? I don't see any changes. But it's because I like to see changes. I like you know, if I'm doing something, just ticking the box, it's like okay, I'm done, next, right. For example, it's like okay, I'm done, next right. For example, for me going to the gym. I've been going to the gym for a long time. I do all the exercises about lifting to grow muscles. Then I have to kind of accept that maybe my DNA is not of an athlete, so I won't be seen. You know, showing those muscles, like I know my husband can, and so that. But you know, like that always is like oh well, where should I go then if, uh, if I cannot see the results, and that's always difficult. So then I have to um scanning and then you can see, oh, you have increased your muscles, but I need more visuals true, there's this, there's this concept of compounding interest, right?
Hannah Tackett :so people use it financially where you put a dollar in and over 10 years, it's a hundred dollars. But if you put more in in and over 10 years, it's a hundred dollars. But if you put more in, it like turns into millions and it's like this, it's like a flat line for so long and then suddenly it spikes up. And that's how I think. True, change works in our lives in so many ways, like you'd put a little bit of effort, a little bit of effort, a little bit of effort, you're not seeing anything. You're not seeing anything. But those 1% changes over time means that you're going to end up in a completely different place in five years, in 10 years, than if you hadn't done that work.
Daniela SM:No, I agree completely with you and you know, I'm one of the persons that I'm always learning, always want to grow, always want to be like what is the next thing I can learn? I was talking to someone that says, well, and how many of your friends or people that you know around are working on themselves? And then I stop and I realized, yes, not too many really. Maybe I'm in the wrong village or something like that, but it's true that we talk a lot you hear in social media, coaches, everywhere, and I don't think that there is enough people working on themselves. I don't know.
Hannah Tackett :I think that people get caught up in the busyness trap, feel like they don't have the time or that it's not important. A lot of people are caught in the same trap. I was where. I was like well, I need to work, I need to make money, I need to do all these things all day long and I don't have time to work on myself, which is not true. We all have the time. It's just a matter of carving it out and getting it back.
Daniela SM:Yes, that's true, you have no kids and your time is busy. You have the kids and you feed it. And then you know, things change and you keep feeding it. And then sometimes you know now our kids are older. Yes, and so then you know, now our kids are older and somehow it is because you know time is an illusion. Right, like we created it, it doesn't exist. The days are not going to get any bigger, but you can fit it in if you are productive. Right, it is about prioritization.
Hannah Tackett :Yeah.
Daniela SM:Yeah, and, and, and it's. I mean it's. It's true that time doesn't exist right, Like some people say, oh it fast, it passes so fast, and some people say fast, so slow, so it just depends. So I don't know. It's true, we can do it, and I don't know if it's a matter of being organized, if it's a matter of having discipline. Do you think these things are necessary?
Hannah Tackett :I love to be organized, but you don't have to be organized. I think that having a clear understanding of what matters to you and being able to say no to things that are not going to move that needle is really kind of the pivotal understanding.
Daniela SM:Yes, yes, that's true. So, hannah, anything else that you want to add that it can serve you here I think if I leave a last word, it's that you are the linchpin of your life.
Hannah Tackett :Making time for yourself, investing in yourself, doing the work will get you exponential results in your home, in your business, in your career. So it's worth understanding that and knowing that. Don't put yourself last on the list.
Daniela SM:Yes, investing in yourself is vital and, again, we didn't grow up thinking that way. That's why we're here in this world. I keep saying that we're here to know who we are, to figure it out who we are, to make ourselves happy, and not necessarily with the material stuff but just getting to know who we are Exactly.
Daniela SM:Yes, so we are going to put all the information about how to reach you and also if you share that list of seven things that you can do on the show notes. Thank you so much for being here. I really enjoy our conversation.
Hannah Tackett :Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It was such an honor.
Daniela SM:Yes, thank you, thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I am Daniela and you are listening to, because Everyone has a Story. Please take five seconds right now and think of somebody in your life that may enjoy it what you just heard, or someone that has a story to be shared and preserved. When you think of that person, shoot them a text with the link of this podcast. This will allow the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening, hasta pronto.
