Going from Burnt Out to Fired Up with 'Changemakers' Cheerleader, Rebecca Hollis
Welcome to another episode of “Dream Job with Danielle Cobo”!
Today, I am blessed to be joined by Rebecca Hollis.
Rebecca Hollis is a speaker, writer and content creator who encourages people to approach their careers, relationships and life with optimism and energy. Rebecca's insightful and relatable thought leadership, coupled by her infectious personality has attracted the attention of thousands of people, all over the world.
Rebecca is a 'Change makers' Cheerleader, the founder of the Growth Tank Method and the head of Customer Success with ScoreApp. Rebecca has such a powerful story all about making pivots in her career and creating the roles that she saw herself in.
“If you want to be in peak performance, you need to keep checking in with yourself" – Rebecca Hollis
Listen on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube https://www.daniellecobo.com/dreamjobwithdaniellecobopodcast
Highlights
💫 2:04 A little about Rebecca's career journey
💫 9:00 How Rebecca pushed past the fear and took a risk in her career
💫 14:28 Rebecca's advice for investing in yourself
💫 25:08 How Rebecca handles being in a funk
💫 29:37 Three ways you can implement balance in your life today
Connect with Featured Guest, Rebecca Hollis
✳️Website: https://www.rebeccahollis.co.uk/
✳️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccahollisme/?hl=en
✳️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccahollis/
Let's Connect!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellecobo/
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Making a Great Leap and Taking Risks in Your Career
Oftentimes, we'll be in certain positions, and we get comfortable, right? When we know how to do our business and we know our job, it starts to become a kind of like the back of our hands. Yeah. And sometimes we don't always feel fulfilled in that position. And it takes a lot of courage to not only step out and say, “Okay, I'm going to look for a new job,” it takes even more to create a new job. And I've been in a similar situation with you where I created a position. And you get to really excel at that position, because you're so passionate about it, and you know exactly what it's going to take to be successful.
And tell us a little bit about some of the insecurities that you had, you know, leaving a company leaving the security of a salary and everything along those lines, and then, you know, some of the insecurities that might have taken place when you said, Okay, I'm gonna take a leap of faith and present this business plan.
It was such a hard one. The hard thing was is I knew I wasn't settled, I knew something was up, and I knew I wasn't happy. And you know, I'm really lucky that I've got a really, really supportive family. So I never kind of feel completely on my own emotions. But you know, when you do have things like a car or a house, you know, all of these things, you live in the center of town, you've got tons of responsibilities. It is hard. And I think what's happened at this point in time is I said to myself, you know, I'm obviously good at my job, and I'm good at what I'm doing right now. But I don't feel passionate about it. You can like something a lot – I think lots of people right now like what they're doing, they like what the security that their job gives them – but I think security is actually a real false sense of self. Because a lot of people say that jobs are secure. This is secure. That's not the truth. Actually, what security is is the investment that you put into yourself because jobs go like that. You're always going to be with you.
And I think I had this real sense of having faith in myself when this move happened because I was like, I'm always going to love cheerleading, there's no one that knows cheerleading in the UK better than me. So if this doesn't work, at least I've tried and I had this real sense. And something came over me I had this real sense of, I need to do this. Otherwise, I'm never really going to know if this was my purpose. Was it my purpose to bring this over here to start this company and invest in something that gave so much to me? That was what drove me. And I think when your insecurities like, “Can I do this? Can I pay my bills? You know, are they going to like me? Can I do this role because this was completely new? I was a startup, essentially, with a big brand. You know, I mean, this is the Adidas of cheerleading. But you know, I was in a startup role there wasn't like loads of money set aside for when Becky decided that she wanted to present a business plan to us, it was kind of like all systems go, and it was a testing ground. So you know, it pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, in a wonderful way.
But it pushed me out of my comfort zones in such a beautiful way at first, that it gave me just this huge sense of confidence. And I think a lot of people even now, it's so scary, to do things new. And to just take yourself over that, that uncomfortableness at the beginning. But when you do when the wheels start to slowly turn, it has this real snowball effect. You know, it has this rule starting turning and this snowball effect, and it affects every single part of of your life, you know, not just your profession, it's your personal life, it's your health, everything starts to have this role, positive snowball effect, but it is something that you need to kind of keep an eye on because you can get really caught up in success and trying to achieve, which is kind of what happened to me.
Achieving Work-Life Balance
Are you feeling overwhelmed trying to balance work and life? Do you feel like you're rushing from one meeting to the next? With the focus on doing, you struggle with the guilt of being away from family, or you deal with lingering work on your mind. The result is negative self-talk and a lack of connection in all areas of your life. Living in a state of chaos can take a toll on physical and emotional well-being.
I think that going through this pandemic, we saw a lot of shift in businesses, as much as we see security in the companies that we work for, the reality is that we're still just a number. The companies aren't loyal necessarily to the people. And you know, all it takes is one ship. And I thought we saw a lot of that. Did the pandemic companies need to go through restructuring resizing? And yes, they try their best to, you know, keep their employees that they value the most. And still, though, we're always going to be just a number. And so what really resonated about what you said is, invest in yourself. Yeah, that is the most valuable thing that you can count on in your life.
It literally doesn't matter what your profession is or what you are into. This is kind of fast-forward to what I'm doing now. And with the growth tank method and the things that I do, everything I do revolves around growth, because whatever I invest time, money, energy, anything that I invest in myself is always going to be there. It's always going to be just for me, and that's going to then perpetuate into my relationships, into my profession, into my health, all of these other things.
And I think this is where I kind of ended up eventually having a burnout with this company because I so I was investing in the wrong place. Because one of the biggest misconceptions that we have, especially as go-getters, especially as people that are like real high achievers, we think if we work harder on the business, on the fingers, with our staff, whatever it might be, if we keep going and going and going and doing and doing more, that it's just going to get better and bigger, and we're going to achieve more. And that isn't the case. Because what we really should be doing is investing in ourselves. Because that's what's going to have this, that's what's going to sustain you going forward.
And I think that was where my mistake happened. And what I talk a lot about now is that I gave, and I gave, and I gave, and I didn't invest and invest, and invest in me. And that's where the kind of the problem when I was in that company and I take full responsibility. It wasn't necessarily the company's fault. But I did end up having burnout from what was essentially my dream job. You know, this was my absolute dream as an 11-year-old little girl who first found cheerleading and flew to the United States when I was 12, to compete, and I've been all over the world and competed for my country. I love this sport. You know, for me, this was my dream job. This was, you know, the Beyonce of cheerleading. And I didn't love it when I was in that role. I had idolized this position and this role and what it could do for cheerleading, and for me, and for the company, and that it was never my purpose. And I realized that while I was in it, and a lot of the time, and that said the reason, I actually hit burnout.
Reasons and Effects of Burnout
Three, just three and a half, four years after I started the company in the UK and Ireland was because when you are pushing, now a lot of people talk about hustle and push as a bad thing. I actually think hustling in the right direction is not a bad thing. You know, I love fitness and health, I get up every day I work damn hard. And I love it. I'm not burnt out, you know, I'm gonna walk a mountain this month, like I'm not burnt out, because it's who I am. I'm not pushing against the tide. I'm not swimming against the tide. What burnout actually is, is pushing in the wrong direction. Hitting burnout is pushing in the wrong direction and not realizing it.
And there's actually a really good image that I've got that I share on with with the growth tank method, which is what I do now. And if you think of burning matches, so a match going burning down and down and down. We're never the full burning flame all the time. Never, that's just that's life. That's the circle of life. That's just how things are; relationships can be good and work can be a bit down here and vice versa. But actually, sometimes what happens with burnout is it starts to burn down slowly that you don't realize it's happening. Everyone's had very slightly different experiences with it, but mine was really slow over time. I never saw it coming. I never saw it coming until it was too late. Someone said to me once it's like putting on weight, all of a sudden one day you wake up and you're like, how did I put on 10 pounds? But it's the same with burnout. It's one of these things that creeps up on you.
And what I've learned now is to check in with myself and to keep checking in because we want to be at peak performance not just for work in our lives. We want to keep growing, we want to be in peak performance. So what happened with this burnout is that the candle started to burn down. And really one of the things that the kind of strategy that you need as a person is to know when this is happening so you can catch the flame before it starts to really burn down to nothingness. Burnout is when it gets to the bottom, and you haven't realized it; you haven't blown out the candle, you've got right to the bottom of where it's burning.
And so for me, I started the small kind of things that was happening to me during this burnout. I was starting to get really bad brain fog, brain fog like someone said to me, Do you want a cup of tea? I was like, I couldn't make a decision if I wanted a cup of tea. I couldn't quite decide anything and I'm a super decisive sharp woman. I could not decide where I wanted to go for dinner, what I wanted to eat, or what I wanted to wear. And it said those types of things were kind of filtering through. And then I started having gut issues really bad gut problems, which I've never had before. I was getting really bloated for no reason, I felt like I was becoming intolerant to everything I ate, and I was having bad stomach cramps. And I couldn't understand why, I like to think I'm a pretty healthy person and I just thought, well, I'm going through a stressful period, it'll be okay. You know, once busy season is over, or it'd be okay, once this project is over, which I think is what a lot of people get to the point where they're like, it'll be fine. In a month, when this project is over, it'll be okay when we get a new member of staff and we have a bit more support. But it never gets to that point, you know, you've got to kind of decide now is the time when you hear about it. So I started also losing my hair, which was probably the last straw for me that I knew something was bad, my hair was snapping. And it was bad. And so I'm, you know, I'm kind of, I feel like I look bloated, I don't look particularly well, I look tired, I looked older than what I was. And I was having these terrible gut issues, because the mind and your gut are really, really well connected. And it all stemmed from stress and burnout.
It's not like one day, you go wipe out necessarily. It's like I can't literally do what I'm doing anymore. And I had to leave the business and kind of close that chapter. And for me, like, honestly, now it really felt like losing my dream job and losing the idea. You know, what if you don't have a backup dream, most people don't go, oh, well, if that dream doesn't work out, I've got another one up my sleeve. It felt like a breakup, it felt like leaving a partner and I was broken. And you know, all that work it took to get there, and you kind of think gosh, like how did it go from this real sense of achievement and excitement and fulfillment to “How did I let it get there?”
And I think how I let it get there was I was too invested in the business, and the success of the business, and the reflection it would have on me, rather than the success of me as a human being. And success is so much greater than the job we have, what we achieve, or the dollars that we bring in. Success is that person that has the balance – that is success. Success is the person that says you know, I probably am going to do a four-day week this week. You know, that's the successful person, not the person that is stressed and working on Sundays. You know, if you want to work on Sundays because you love it, then absolutely.
I can relate to so much of what you're saying. Because also there was a time in my life. My husband, you know, had joined the military, he was gone for the first time; it was for six months. And we were newly married. And I was working all the time. You know, I was on the road all the time, I was sitting in two and a half hours of traffic one way and then another way. And it takes a lot to actually kind of have that awakening moment. And once you have that awakening moment, you're much more aware moving forward of when you're burned out.
I remember at one point I was a passenger and I'm laying down backward on my seat so that the seat warmer could be on my stomach because it was so much pain. And my face was broken out hair was falling out. It was brittle. I had hives on my chest. And you know, sometimes for us when we're high achievers, we're type A personalities. We're go-getters. Sometimes it takes that like for us that rock bottom is that, okay? Something's not working. It's affecting my health. It's affecting my joy to really wake up and say, what's the root cause of this? And I want to make a change. And it was from that moment on that I said, Okay, I'm going to learn how to create balance in my life so that I can then support others to do the same.
Overcoming Burnout Through the Growth Tank Method
And that's awesome. I love that because that's exactly where I went with it; when I'm having what I would call a funk or a bit of a blip horse something – what I always say if it's not flowing and it feels slightly difficult to do, there's a reason for that. And I take a step back, I actually say what's going on here? Like I practice the pause, I talk a lot about practicing the pause and say, what's going on? Like, there's something here? And I kind of reframe it now because when things don't go my way, I'm not great with it usually, like, I love it when you know, I'm a high achiever. I love it when like you're achieving things. But when things aren't going your way, now I know, it's about just about to break through on something else that could go oh, what's gonna happen now? I'm about to go into another stage of my life. And I can actually look at it now as excitement. I don't want to stay the same. Because I've realized that I took a lot of time getting over that burnout. It took way longer than I would ever imagine it did three, three to four years, it took ages.
But I wish what I'm doing now with like the growth tank method, and like being able to help people really find that balance. Really, the growth tank method is a reset. The program is very short, you know, it's a reset for people to go, Okay, I'm here. And, you know, kind of, let's just understand what's going on here. What do I really want? What are my core values? You know, who am I hanging around with? What are the environments that I'm in? What am I concentrating on? I love these things. And this kind of reset just gives you this amazing amount of energy. Like I love really good energy, like I'm a cheerleader at heart. Energy is my thing. I love it. I think, you know, I bounce off of energy. I believe energy creates things.
So the growth tank method is all about this whole hard reset, hard reboot, let's kind of get back on track. Because I feel where I was, is what I felt like I needed someone just to swoop in and help me. I just needed someone to say, Come on, let's just get everything together. And let's start again. That's what I'm doing now, I feel I would have loved somebody to have done for me or to have available that I could have explored. I think that's important because there are a lot of people now feeling stuck, feeling anxious; and I think the whole lockdown thing has made some people go, Is this the role that I really want? Is this the husband I really want? Is this the life that I really want?
And I think we need to be honest with ourselves because we can get into this kind of hamster wheel of comfortable; and comfortable is not good, comfortable is not growth, comfortable is not happiness. Happiness is growth, happiness is honoring who you are, and happiness is knowing your values and sticking to them and not compromising for anybody else or any job. And that then accelerates you as a human being, that accelerates your success, and a successful human amplifies to everybody else around them. Your businesses will be successful, your family will be more successful. And now I can really say I I'm so grateful for that time. I wasn't grateful for the first year or two. Because I wasn't in a good spot, right? I was in a low vibration. And whereas now I'm like, oh my god, I'm so thankful, what would have I done without it? Which is really hard. You know, if you can have forgiveness for tough periods, if you can be grateful and thankful for stuff like that, then it accelerates your growth and accelerates your happiness.
Yeah, sometimes it's a matter of recognizing that when one door closes, another one opens and oftentimes it's for something greater. And you know, sometimes even when we know the things that are going to create balance in our lives, having somebody support us with the accountability aspect or to see it from a different perspective, adds a lot of value. So what are three things that we can implement today to create balance in our lives?
Three Ways to Create Balance in Your Life
Stepping Outside of The Box
Even I forget that I did that and I have that in me to go okay, if things aren't going well or if there's not an opportunity or if I can't find the clients or the leads, there's a way. There is always a way you know, stepping outside the box. It is scary. It will be scary. But the road to achievement is going to be astronomical, it'll be amazing; far greater than if you kind of just sailed through and waited for something to come to you. So probably my first one would be stepping outside of the box and creating something, making something happen.
Catching the Matches When They Start to Burn Down
When you're starting to burn down or when your matches start to burn down, catch it. You know, kind of halfway down, catch it halfway down. So you are not getting all the way to burnout. Because the comeback from burnout can be really great. So the things to watch is like brain fog, being irritable, having gut issues, your hair falling out, really genuinely feeling unwell, and feeling like you are pushing rather than flowing.
Embracing Growth as One of the Key Ingredients to Happiness
Growth is really one of the key ingredients to happiness. If we got everything we ever wanted tomorrow and that was it, we would be unhappy within a week. There are so many studies that say this. So investing in yourself and being able to consistently grow. You know, when something happens, you're like, okay, cool. This is a growth period, this is growth, it's always a growth period. So really having that investment in, it doesn't matter how busy you are, how much of an amazing mom you are, you are not amazing if you are not investing in yourself because you are going to eventually end up in burnout and pushing in the wrong direction. So really focus on investing in yourself, filling up your cup, filling up your tank, and making sure that you are constantly growing in lots of different areas.
Yeah, that's great advice. It's and if you think about it, it's almost like giving your car an oil change and the sense that you're giving an oil change for your car every three months, and what are you doing, to invest in yourself and to fulfill, like you said, fill your cup up. And I know, the minute I stopped growing, is the day I stopped living, right? And, and oftentimes, we could go through an entire workshop, and we'll take a couple of nuggets each step. And we build on those. And then we can even listen to the same workshop and take different things away. But there's so much value in developing yourself and personal development. And that's where, you know, we get to listen to podcasts, we get to listen to workshops, and we have business coaches and life coaches and career coaches. And even we, as coaches have a business coach and leadership coach. And it's because they get to support us, they get to push us they get to encourage they get to challenge us to provide a new perspective, and there's so much value in having somebody that you get to link arms with and go in that direction.
