Stef Pinsley On Burnout, ADHD, Personal Branding and Pivoting To Live Your Best Life
This is a transformative conversation focusing on achieving clarity, understanding oneself, and navigating personal challenges. A great listen for those seeking to overcome challenges and redefine their personal and professional paths.
Stef shares all of the ways that ADHD impacts her life in a negative way. But we also talk about some of the ways to cope with attention deficit.
She tells the story of realizing she was burned out from corporate work at Google. How she knew the symptoms. What other people can look for. And what we can do to prevent burnout.
This was an incredible conversation when it comes to helping people get unstuck and clarity in their life.
Stef is an incredible storyteller, marketer and branding expert. But one of her greatest strengths is helping people with mindset and clarity.
So we also talked about feeling stuck, gaining career clarity and developing your personal brand as a priority.
Recovering From Burnout
We talked about Stef’s journey with burnout. She shares her personal experience with recognizing the signs and symptoms..
She shared how valuable it can be to have early warning signs. One of the tipping points for her was coming to the realization that no amount of mental health days could help.
During this time she was developing physical manifestations like stomach pains, headaches, and insomnia. Being misaligned with her work had an emotional toll.
Another sign was increasing difficulty with handling adversity and constantly digging for reasons to be more grateful.
Transitioning from a corporate job that didn't align with her core values of freedom, autonomy, independence, creativity, and impact changed her life.
And now she helps a lot of others do the same.
Content Creation & Social Media Strategy
There is a lot of bad, or confusing advice when it comes to social media and brand building.
Stef gives concrete, practical and In-depth advice for budding content creators. She reminds us that quantity of posts should exist and over time this will lead to quality.
We should see social media as an incredible, low barrier to entry, safe way to test ideas as we grow our audience. We can really test ideas as we grow our audience.
Steph has a refreshing approach to the debate about niche. She believes we should be humans first. Create content that connects with people. And then, over time shift about 10-20% of our content to serve more specific business audiences.
How To Thrive With ADHD
Stef is incredibly helpful and generous in sharing all of the ways that she manages her own ADHD. These lessons can actually be applied to improving workflow for any of us.
The key thing to remember is that this is always an individual, forever journey. While we can steal tips from each other it will come down to figuring out how you operate best, based on your individual needs.
Here are things you can try if you are struggling with ADHD. When combined, these strategies provide a comprehensive approach for a creative entrepreneur with ADHD to not only manage their symptoms but to thrive in their endeavors.
15 Reminders For "Live" Business Creators
- Harness Hyperfocus: Use the ability to deep-dive into tasks you're passionate about, allowing yourself to be completely immersed in the flow state.
- Capture Creative Moments: Make an ideation journal with a notebook or digital app handy for spontaneous, fleeting ideas typical of the ADHD creative mind.
- Dedicated Workspaces: Assign specific areas in your workspace for various tasks to mentally prepare yourself for each task.
- Visual Cues & Reminders: Use sticky notes, vision boards, or whiteboards to keep tasks organized and at the forefront.
- Time Blocking: Allocate specific blocks of time for dedicated tasks or activities, which can aid in minimizing distractions.
- Brain Dumping: Set aside moments in your day to jot down all your thoughts, ideas, and tasks to clear your mind and organize later.
- Priority Listing: Identify what needs immediate attention, allowing you to address tasks in a sequence that maximizes productivity.
- The One Thing: Focus on accomplishing the most critical task before moving on to others.
- Routines: Establish daily routines to add structure, making it easier to navigate the day.
- Reducing Stress of Big Tasks: Break large activities into smaller, more manageable chunks, allowing them to be tackled systematically.
- Collaborative Projects: Engage in teamwork to instill a sense of accountability.
- Hire an Assistant or Coach: Consider assistance for administrative tasks or an ADHD coach for personalized strategies.
- Body Doubling: Work alongside someone, even if they're working on a different task, to reduce feelings of isolation and maintain focus.
- Mindful Breaks: Incorporate short mindfulness sessions or activities to reset and recharge.
- Reflect on Your Patterns: Regularly analyze your productivity patterns to understand and adapt to your most and least effective periods.
- Improve Wellness Factors: Ensure adequate and quality sleep, exercise and nutrition to boost concentration and productivity.
Memorable Quotes
“It’s not that you have something wrong with you. ADHD is about having a medical issue that you need support with.”
“When I consume other people’s content, it messes with my head and makes me feel like I’m not doing enough, so I try not to do that too much.”
“You can use Chat GPT for acquiring knowledge, as a friend, mentor, business partner, a marketing consultant, creating content, as a productivity coach, literally anything and everything. But, yeah I am obsessed.”
“A lot of people are suffering from burnout and they don’t even realize it.”
Guest Bio
Stef Pinsley, formerly a marketer at Google, transitioned to entrepreneurship in 2021 after facing burnout in her corporate role.
During a leave of absence in 2020, she built a significant following of over 70,000 on platforms like TikTok and Instagram by sharing insights on marketing, branding, and mindset.
Capitalizing on this growth, Stef established herself as an industry leader, launching her coaching business and leaving Google.
She has since empowered thousands with her signature frameworks on personal branding, cementing her belief that a strong personal brand is pivotal for professional growth.
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I'm so happy you found this podcast. I am here to serve you, the creative solopreneur & aspiring content creator to get clarity on how to create content, teaching, build a business and design the life of your dreams without burning out in the online learning, creator economy.
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