How To Avoid Burnout As A Photographer

Let’s face it, burnout is something we all face eventually. I had an amazing conversation with Sarah Brumley from Mama Business Podcast all about how to prevent and deal with this concept of burnout. Sarah not only explains what burnout is, but shares some tangible strategies to avoid it.

What Exactly Is Burnout?

Sarah says burnout can be best described as the feeling of complete overwhelm, exhaustion, and/or frustration. You likely have too many things vying for your time, attention, and energy. You may feel detached and no longer have the motivation to keep putting in the work or effort. It’s a feeling of needing to just shut down.

A big mistake we tend to make when feeling burnout is wanting to continue to push through the feeling and not stop to determine the cause.

The First Step to Combatting Burnout

After going through her own season of burnout, Sarah took some forced time off allowing herself to realize that something needed to change. If you’re currently in a state of burnout as you’re reading this, Sarah says the first thing you need to do is take a breath. Recognize that when it comes to your business, there is not a single “life or death” situation. It’s ok to take a moment and get quiet so you can determine your next step.

Solutions On How To Avoid (and climb out of) Burnout

3 things that can create burnout in your life and business are:

1. Having a lack of boundaries. You have no structure in place and do everything at any time. First, sit down and develop boundaries. We often feel that if we aren’t always available then we aren’t serving our clients well. If you have no boundaries within your business then you are not serving yourself or your potential clients which causes you to not give the best version of yourself. Set boundaries for yourself by determining what works best for you. Plan your schedule week by week so you will know when and what time you are going to handle certain things.
   
2. Not having a strategy. We all fall into the habit of having too many marketing strategies at once. By knowing what works best for you and your business you’ll be able to follow a clear strategy for not only right now but long term. Master that one strategy first before adding another.
   
3. You lack consistency. If you have no plan in place then you can’t show up consistently. This causes you to have no clue what to do next. Consistency shows that you’re dependable and you can prove to yourself that you can do this. This solution goes back to having boundaries so you can determine when you can do things consistently.

Let’s Get You Out of Burnout

If you are sitting in the overwhelm yourself and wanting to shut down, I hope you felt comforted and seen throughout this conversation. We are throwing the lifeboat to you with these strategies and want you to grab on. Be sure to check out the entire episode for all of the golden nuggets Sarah dropped.

If you want to learn more about avoiding burnout check out this blog post: Work Less In Your Photography Business

And join my free Facebook community of fellow photographers for great advice on avoiding burnout and overwhelm in your business.