Unbreakable Mind & Body

54. Back From Burnout

• Tiana Gonzalez • Episode 54

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We trace the arc from an all-consuming content grind to a calmer, more focused creative life, and share a simple framework to return from burnout without losing yourself. One daily action, a realistic cadence, and honest check-ins become the path back to joy and results.

• the decade-long build in fitness and online coaching
• why high-volume content creation led to burnout
• experiments with offline work and what each revealed
• the return to in-person 1:1 training for depth and presence
• a three-part plan to reenter work without relapse
• pacing, cadence, and redefining “good enough”
• how storytelling replaced constant selling
• practical ways to check in with what feels good

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Website: unbreakablemb.com

Email: info@unbreakablemb.com

Disclaimer: This show is for education and entertainment purposes only. This is not intended as a replacement for therapy. Please seek out the help of a professional to assist you with your specific situation.


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Unbreakable Mind and Body Podcast. I am your host, Tiana Gonzalez, a multi-passionate creative, storyteller, and entrepreneur with a fierce love for movement. This is our space for powerful stories and actionable strategies to help you build mental resilience and elevate your self-care practice. Together, we will unlock the tools that you need to create an unbreakable mind and body. Welcome back to the show. I am your host, Tiana, and on this episode, we're going to talk about how to get yourself back in action after burnout. A couple weeks ago, I went out to dinner with my brothers, and the owner of the restaurant said to me, who's a friend of ours? Said to me, Hey, you know, I miss seeing you online. You used to post workout videos, and those motivated me, and I really enjoyed them. And I said, Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm not really focused only on that anymore. I'm doing a lot of other things. And over the course of time, I have kind of evolved as we all do. And at one point, yeah, I was posting a ton of content, mostly workout videos and how-to instructional stuff, but also a ton of talking to camera, you know, just like my head only talking head camera, um, videos giving information, education, and a little bit of storytelling, but certainly not as much storytelling as I do now on this show. But it made me think about, you know, what do I post? What do I want to post? What do I want to share with the world? And so what's really happened is I burned myself out. I burned myself out with content creation after being completely immersed in it. And really what I feel mastering it, because if somebody said to like, oh, can you make a post about X, Y, and Z, I could do it in minutes. All types of posts, whether it was a piece of video content or a photo, or maybe just something with words on it that I wrote, it was easy for me. Because content creation is similar to going to the gym. It's kind of like a muscle. The more you do it, the easier it is, the quicker you can get it done. But I burned myself out big time. And now where I'm at is certainly not the same place I was about three, four years ago, but I would say in a healthier place. In order for me to get you to understand the type of burnout I'm talking about, let's take a look back, shall we? So 2011, I get the idea to become an online trainer. And from 2011 up until I would say 2021, I worked a couple of different roles all at the same time. So I did in-person training or coaching, and I had my online business. So it would look different constantly, but I had some type of employment at a big gym. I also worked at a CrossFit gym at one point. I also worked at a boutique studio. I trained one or two people in their house on the weekends, and it varied, meaning like the ratio of hours per week that I was dedicated to these various roles. But I always had my online business, the online fitness, health, wellness, and coaching. Some of my clients were competition prep clients, and a lot of them were lifestyle clients, which is what I call people who are not necessarily getting on stage, but they want to improve their health long term. And in 2020, I was really gifted the opportunity to go all in on my online business, which is what I had always wanted. So yeah, it was kind of a crazy time because we were all stuck at home. But for me, I was taking full advantage of it because I was able to pour into my business and learn how to level up, how to market myself properly, how to do lead generation, how to post in a way that would get people to engage with me. And just from 2020 up until about the middle of 2023, I would say I was focused on social media and content creation for a good portion of the day, every day. And it looked different, meaning, like sometimes I would work on an offer and how to market it. Other times I was engaging with people on various platforms. And a lot of the time I was just giving information and education away for free. So here's what really burned me out was showing up consistently doing live QA's. I also hosted live workouts every Tuesday. We we called it Techno Tuesdays at 6 p.m. Eastern on Instagram. I hosted a live workout for several weeks. They're all contained on my feed still, if you ever wanted to explore. We had a good time. I also hosted workshops. I did a five-day seminar, freebies, workbooks people could download. I created, launched, and offered a mini course. I worked on a six-month mentorship for women. I also taught dance classes out of my studio apartment. And in the spring of 2022, I went completely online. I did not coach anything in person or train anyone in person any longer. And after about six or seven months, I realized that I needed some in-person work and I went back to a CrossFit Gym, a different one, but I went back to a CrossFit Gym and gave that a try again and realized that I just needed something new. The content creation machine had completely burned me out. At one point in time, I was probably posting anywhere from five to 10, maybe 15 different pieces of content per day. Now that's not all 15 exclusive individual pieces of content, but I would probably record a longer video of some sort, whether it was a recipe, a workout, or something educational. And then I would cut it into sections and post a few short pieces on various platforms. So maybe one video that's 30 seconds or a minute long would get posted on four or five different platforms. So there's five pieces of content right there. And why do I count it separately? Well, because I would post it and then also engage with the comments and look at the analytics to see how it performed to refine my craft. So, yes, as you can imagine, after doing this for years, I was completely burned out. Now in 2023, in the spring, I went back to in-person work, had nothing to do with fitness, and I downsized my online coaching. I kept my clients that I had, my existing clients, going. And as each one wrapped up their contract, I just said goodbye and slowly did away with my online business. I realized that what I was doing and the way that I was doing it was no longer serving me. And so we said bye-bye to posting as much as I once did. And it was a really good break for me. But as you would suspect, I didn't last very long in construction, which was the in-person work that I first started doing in 2023 and into early 2024. I was still going to the gym every day and taking care of myself. And I was still on occasion posting some workout videos, but certainly not at the same speed and certainly not at the same volume as I had once prior. I was posting because I felt like it, or I was posting because I thought something would be funny. But I certainly wasn't looking to make sales on anything. In fact, that was the last thing I wanted to do because I was completely turned off. And as you can imagine, if you've been here for a while, you already know this story. I wound up leaving construction also. It lasted a little over a year before I realized, okay, the writing is on the wall. This is not the right industry for me either. And so the summer of 2024, I gave myself a break. I was able to figure out my life and sort of figure out what direction I wanted to go next. And I was a bartender at my friend's restaurant, and I also did some consulting work for another friend's business. And while I was doing that, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to go back to in-person one-on-one training. Very specific, one thing and one thing only. One place of employment and one place only. And no pressure that I was going to put on myself to post content anywhere near the same intensity and volume as I once had in the past. I will never do that again. Posting 15 pieces of content a day? Absolutely not. So in the fall of 2024, I went back to in-person training one-on-one only, and I love it. And in spring of this year, 2025, March 2025, I launched this show. So now I have something that I want to talk about online, and I've focused most of my content creation and the things that I choose to share online around my experiences with my clients and the things that I touch upon on this show. Now, my advice for you if you have been feeling burnt out about something and you want to get yourself out of it, but you're not really sure what to do because you're afraid of feeling burnt out again or getting wrapped up and caught up in something and then losing control, maybe decide what it is you want to do. And then number one, pick one thing to do per day that moves the needle forward just a little bit, but maybe is not going to completely exhaust you. Right. So if you're concerned about getting really caught up in something, what if you paced yourself? So there's that. Secondly, if it involves posting online in any sort of fashion, maybe map out a cadence for yourself and stick to it. So for somebody like me, I have no interest in posting multiple pieces of content per day, let alone per week. So I try to stick to something that works for me. Maybe once or twice a week. That's it. I'm not obligated to anyone. First of all, I'm not selling anything, at least not right now, online. So it's about storytelling and connecting. And between the podcast and the things I'm choosing to share online on occasion, that's enough for me. If people want more, they can reach out. And now the third thing, which I think is the most important part of this, besides picking one thing to do per day, and besides choosing a cadence for yourself, meaning how often are you gonna do the thing, check in with yourself and ask what feels good? What feels good right now, today? And think about that. Maybe today you're a little tired, so it's not the day that you're gonna do the big part or that you're gonna post the thing. Maybe today is just about brainstorming. Maybe today is about opening your phone, going to the notes, and doing talk to text with some ideas and leaving it there and being okay with it. We have a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves to be perfect. We want everything to be just right. And the truth is you can't make everyone happy. And the truth is that more often than not, good enough is good enough. You gotta relinquish that perfectionist, this idea of making it just right. Because if you let that hover and hold have a hold on you, you'll never get anything done. So think about what it is you want to do. And if you're afraid of feeling burnt out again or getting caught up in it, find a way to do maybe one little piece per day. That's it. Think about the cadence you want to do it at and consistently check in for what feels good. Now, for me, I post a couple times a week and it's related to this podcast, The Unbreakable Mind and Body. Nine times out of ten, I occasionally share a little bit of personal stuff, and I do it in a way that feels good for me. Not because I have to, not because I'm trying to pull people into my little sphere or my corner of the universe. The door's open. If you want to be a part of my world, follow this show or find me on social media and join my broadcast channel so we can stay in touch with each other. But other than that, I'm good with my life the way that it is. And my hope for you is that you will be good with yours. Burnout is a very real thing. And we are experiencing it at a faster rate. Every time we start something new, we get burnt out with it quick. Why? Because we're in front of screens a lot. We're consuming a lot, we're doing a lot, we're doing a lot more in a day than our parents, and definitely more than our grandparents ever did. So be gentle with yourself and remember that if you're tired or if you feel like you need to slow down just a little bit, it is absolutely okay. Giving you a big hug, sending you a little love. I hope this episode helped you out. And if you'd like to get in touch with me to ask me a question, I'd be happy to answer you on an upcoming episode. You'll stay anonymous. You can send me a text, check the show notes for how to do that. All right? I appreciate you being here. I appreciate your time and attention as always, each and every week. Thank you so much for showing up to be a part of this conversation. And as always, I'll catch you on the next one.