You know that feeling where your career looks successful from the outside but it's quietly running you into the ground? Rebecca Bird was an MD, on anxiety pills and sleeping pills, so deep in the burnout cycle she couldn't see how bad things had got. In this episode she talks about walking away from all of it and starting again at 50 with nothing but a Canva flyer and three months' worth of belief.

Listen if you...

• You've been working until 11pm and telling yourself it's just a busy phase.
• You know you need to make a change but you're waiting until you feel ready.
• You perform confidence at networking events while falling apart on the inside.
• You've built something successful and you're quietly wondering why it doesn't feel like enough.
• You don't know who you are without your job title.

Keywords: business owner burnout, starting over at 50, entrepreneur mental health, burnout recovery, imposter syndrome business owner, work life balance, career change, self-doubt, overcoming anxiety, setting up a business, starting a business after burnout, vulnerable leadership

Five Lessons from This Episode

1. The hamster wheel doesn't announce itself. Rebecca didn't realise how bad things had got until she was on medication and off work. When you're in it, you can't see the wood for the trees.
2. You don't need a plan, savings, or confidence to start. Rebecca's dad told her to "paddle your own canoe." She set up Precision HR in five days, gave herself three months, and assumed she'd end up getting a job.
3. The fear doesn't go away, you just learn to do things scared. Rebecca was so anxious about networking that her counsellor gave her a strategy for what to do if nobody spoke to her. She went anyway.
4. Some things belong in the f*** it bucket. Rebecca's sister bought her an actual bucket. If you can't change it and worrying won't help, it goes in the bucket. She still uses it.
5. Growth and wellbeing don't have to be mutually exclusive. Rebecca's building again, but this time the work-life balance is non-negotiable.

Quotable Moments

"If I don't do it now, I never will. I'm going to be 50."

"I come across as this confident, outgoing person. I wouldn't have my photo taken. I never went networking anywhere."

"Are those emails you're doing till 11 o'clock at night going to make any real difference?"

"The worst thing for me would be sitting there thinking, well I failed and it's because I didn't do those things."

About Rebecca

Rebecca Bird is the founder of Precision HR, based in Cumbria. Find her on LinkedIn.

About Ben

Ben Hickman is an ILM Level 7 qualified business coach based in Carlisle. Reflective Rebels exists to spread joy, the kind that comes from knowing who you are, what you want, and having the courage to go and get it.

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For coaching enquiries visit reflectiverebels.co.uk. Find Ben on Instagram, or LinkedIn.