Beyond the Grind: Rediscovering Yourself After Burnout

Speaker A: I'm excited to have a good friend. Sean Erickson, welcome to the Uncharted podcast.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me. Poia. This is like a full circle moment because like you said, you've known me for many years. I'm just excited for this.

Speaker A: Give the listeners a really quick context on your personal business bio.

Speaker B: Uh, that's a good question to ask because I've been reflecting a lot on my own development over the years and why the hell am I here right now? And I think that's something that we can get into too, is just what is it that makes us tick. But I've been in SaaS for 9ish plus years now and my shtick is sales development. So for me, I'm helping to build out SDR functions for better or worse. For my own sanity, I'm in this space right now where I'm getting my own consultancy off the ground. So my progression is very simply being in the trenches, doing this work, everything from writing copy to pressing buttons in sales, um, rev ops, sales dev, all that fun stuff. And now it's time for me to take the leap and do my own thing. The reinvention is live.

Speaker A: When you say reinvention, I think sometimes people just need a break, right? You just need to take a step back and hit the reset where you don't even want to consider reinventing yourself and you want to go do things that you enjoy. What did you learn about that experience and what worked?

Speaker B: First of all, you touched on something important, which is I. This life that we live is crazy. Sometimes you just have to be okay with whatever moment you're in. And sometimes you just have to keep swimming. And I think what has always been at my core is the sense of, you know, I'm kind of like a shark. I have to keep swimming or else I get in my head. I absolutely get in my head. But you're right, I had this massive reset. I was hardcore sales dev consulting for six and a half years with a mutual friend of ours, the founder of Inside Scale Loop, Petrosi. And it was an incredible experience. But this industry's tough. It's hard. I realized after a while I was on autopilot kind of day to day, doing the same things, pressing the same buttons. And after a while, my inner voice was screaming and saying, now's the time to change something up. You are very freaking exhausted, which is true. And so I found the right space, the right moment for me to take a step back, take a sabbatical. And I will tell you, it was Fascinating. Just kind of removing myself from my own experience for a second, zooming out and trying to think, what is going on with me right now? The day after I left and I realized I had to reprogram myself, I had to take those neurons in my brain that were used to joining a zoom call and putting on the dance and kind of removing, uh, that a little bit. It took six weeks, I kid you not, to feel a sense of normalcy. So six weeks of not doing that work, to feel like I'm now myself again. My advice to anyone who's kind of going through this moment right now is simple. It's find that inner voice. Listen to it. Obviously, easier said than done, right? You got to pay the bills, obviously, if you friends and family, all of these considerations. But at the end of the day, I don't think you can go wrong if you just take a break, take a deep breath, and ask yourself the question, who am I? What is my core? What makes me happy? What makes me fulfilled? And just listen. That's it. Listen.

Speaker A: This is really interesting. I've talked to so many people recently going through what you're going through, and I went through something very similar a couple of times. Most recently a year ago. Sometimes I think you need a break. Whether it's one week or six weeks doesn't matter. You just need a break. And sometimes you just got to move on to the next thing. Uh, the point I'm trying to make, if you're a leader and you have a very talented person, one of my tips now is like, give your best people a month off. They either come back or they don't. But I think the risk of trying to retain them is worth it. Depending again on your business, and if you can afford it on the other side of that, when do you know it's time to go?

Speaker B: Just speaking from my own experience, of course, day to day, this industry is an absolute grind. It's easy to kind of get in a space where that grind becomes a permanent part of yourself in a way that's toxic and not good. I took not long breaks, not six weeks, at least a week here and there. And you get back from that week and you're still exhausted, you're still drained, that inner voice is still screaming at you. I think repeatedly across time, you really have to take the perspective of, again, what is my core? Like, who am I? What makes me feel most content? And. And yes, carve out space to discover that. And so for me, it was going to Europe and being part of that old world. For a while and realizing that maybe I need a reset, maybe I need to chart a new direction. But also, and I think this is important, I've gone through these pivots before. I studied international development in London. I did many things over time, but there's one parallel across all of those things, and that is the network. It is people. Even when I was at school studying international development, I wasn't doing all that reading like I was there to meet people. Also realizing that if I can do my own thing, if I can make a change, if I recognize and respect the fact that creating a community around me makes me feel whole, then I'm going to be in a better place. And that's precisely what I'm going through now. It's reconnecting with folks like you who have been kind of like a rock in terms of my own community for many years, and just riding that wave, just doing it.

Speaker A: If someone's listening to this and they're going through that phase and they're privileged enough to find some things, find some avenues to get to the other side, what advice would you have for that?

Speaker B: This is important because I think it's easy to read books about this, listen to TED talks, whatever you're doing to consume life advice, content. It's easy to get caught up in someone just giving simple advice. But in a way, it's not complicated because at the end of the day, we all know what makes us feel a sense of calm, a sense of contentment. For me, like I said, it's people. So it's yes. Talking to folks like you, talking to my family. And importantly, in this day and age with our algorithmic overlord, social media, et cetera, getting out of the bubble. Getting out of the bubble. In other words, removing yourself from that daily repetitive machine. Because in doing so, I think you can kind of take this 30,000ft view of your life and ask yourself the question, what is that through line? What truly will make me content and happy and follow that advice that you hear from folks again, friends, family, just get outside of the immediate bubble. As uncomfortable as that is, that sense of discomfort, I think can be hugely valuable.

Speaker A: I'm just gonna add some context to this in case it helps. I've talked to a couple of people for the longest time. They weren't doing anything. My biggest thing in terms of advice is to create some momentum. And momentum can mean different things, but it's frankly just getting off your ass. Stop thinking about the like you're, you suck or your world sucks. It's way harder in practice than it is as I'm conveying it. But even in my case, what I did, I volunteered. I became a volunteer coach. I started going to Boys and Girls Club. I started helping people. And what that taught me is when you get outside your tech bubble, you're continuously comparing yourself to the best version of what people want to portray in their life. And it actually, at least for me, it brings me down. And I know it shouldn't, but, like, it just made me a little angry. So what I do, at least in some social Media, outside of LinkedIn, during the week, I actually don't use any other social media. Instagram, M, LinkedIn, Facebook, I don't use it. And two, on LinkedIn, I actually have blocked my feed, so I don't see anything unless I want to. Uh, it's like magic. It makes such a huge difference. The third thing is find out what gives you energy and add more of those things and remove things or outsource things that don't give you energy. So I'll just talk about. In my personal life, what gives me energy is meeting people, reconnecting with people. So I actually have a calendar placeholder on my calendar, and I'm trying to automate this, where I love reconnecting, even if it's for 5, 10, 15 minutes with folks I've known over the years. And literally, there's no agenda. It's just like, hey, I just want to see how you're doing. How are your kids doing? And that gets me pumped up. Like, usually something gets brought up that we experience together. And then the other thing that gets me excited is, like, working out, grabbing a, uh, quick coffee, and the things that used to be, uh, really annoying to me. We've kind of outsourced. So, like, my wife and I used to fight about cleaning the house, cooking food. So we've basically outsourced those things. But anything else you want to add?

Speaker B: My simple advice to kind of add on to what you're saying is find, yes, those tactical changes, but realize, again, what's at the core. What's at the core for me are people. And I am incredibly neurotic if I allow myself to be in my own space without being around other humans. I do get in my head. Just like you, Poir.

Speaker A: You.

Speaker B: You, uh, have this huge moment with me a few months ago when I was here trying to figure out what I wanted to do. You called up. You're like, it's easy to get in your head if you don't just keep moving forward. Do little Things like volunteer, like talk to people. And that has helped me because here I am really making a concerted effort to reconnect with those people who I feel like were a rock in my life. Because. Because I can subtract six years from now, and a lot of those relationships I formed are still here, even if I haven't talked to them for the past three years. Reconnect with those you care about deeply. That can be friends, family, coworkers, et cetera. That's my biggest advice. It's people, people. We are social beings. Make sure you're not starving yourself of that.

Speaker A: I love it. I get this sense that you're very aware of what takes you, who you are, the strengths and weaknesses. And I think we can always learn a little more about ourselves. How did you come up to that conclusion? Is it therapy? Is it just con journaling?

Speaker B: I think it is going out into the world and let me subtract even more years and talk to you about kind of my own upbringing. I grew up in Florida, thankfully, in a pretty nice environment, super supportive family. We would go on the boat to the beach. It's exactly that idyllic life you would imagine. But I was isolated. I was an isolated, uh, little queer kid. And so for me, that isolation and we're talking about, like, I didn't go to my high school promotion. Um, like, I have a lot of friends outside of school. In fact, practically none. I was super, super isolated. But you know what I did? I took this kind of perspective of observing, of looking around and trying to figure out what makes people tick, kind of psychologically, sociologically, that sort of thing. And then my parents, thank goodness, encouraged me to go to college because otherwise I don't know what I would have done. They said, just do it. Just do it. I go to college and I realize that there is a massive queer community for me to be a part of. And I felt like I was able to come into myself. Like that social aspect brought me out of the doldrums. I learned a lot simply by again, removing myself from that isolation. And I think whatever that is for you, it's at least being able to reflect on, like you're saying, those times in which you were happiest, those times in which you felt like the inner voice, washer machine craziness that's telling you you can't do something. When was it most silent and just gravitate towards that. Do more of that. If it's simple as volunteering, if it's walking your dog and meeting people, whatever that is, it can be however small. I think that helps you understand who you are, but it does take time. And be nice to yourself, be kind to yourself, because the easiest thing to do is listen to some of this advice and think, oh, I'm not doing that. Right, I'm not doing that. Now I'm inadequate. Like on LinkedIn, I see all the thought leaders posting about work stuff. I'm like, oh, man, I need to up my game. It's easy to tell yourself you can't do something, but just remember, at your core is a human being who is probably capable extraordinary things. You just have to give yourself the chance. You have to give yourself the permission to do it.

Speaker A: I love it. Very well said. I always think, at least in my case, it helps not being alone. What I mean by that is just by sometimes being vulnerable and sharing that you're going through something, you'll be surprised that someone else is going through that. And I'll just say a lot of folks are confused for a lot of different reasons and sometimes they're unhappy. And, uh, one thing I genuinely want everybody on the other side to know, even at your lowest points, know that you have control over that. And I know at the moment you may not see it, I know it's frustrating, but know that you have influence once you take ownership and responsibility over making your life better. So this has been fantastic. Probably one of my, uh, most vulnerable episodes that we've recorded. The one question we actually love to ask is if Sean could go back to any time. What's one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Speaker B: Get out there and be kind to yourself. I mean, again, if there's anything you're kind of gleaning from this conversation, it's realize, kind of like you're saying you're not alone. Realize there are other people struggling. And turn off, turn off that washer machine in your head and give yourself permission to experience life. Experience new things that could be joining a meetup for something you're passionate about. It could be discovering a new form of art. Whatever that is, do it. Be proactive. Don't sit back and relish in the uncertainty. Just get out there and just experience life. Because at the end of the day, I think about a piece of advice my, my grandmother told me one time. She's like, you're going to regret the things you don't do. When you're 80 years old in the nursing home, you're going to regret the things you didn't do. You're not going to regret sitting there and putting yourself in, uh, a space where you're doing something new, get out there and do it. That's my biggest piece of advice I can give anyone.

Speaker A: I love it. The one commonality every human has is the one asset none of us get back is time. Right. Nice reminder, as always. Well, Sean, thanks so much for coming on. And if you're listening, hopefully we motivated you. Do something nice for someone else. Lend a hand, empower somebody else. And until next time, be well, be safe. And we appreciate you for listening to the Uncharted podcast.