Invite Your Muse: when other people's rules burn you out
My old LivePerson colleague Brandon Fluharty traces every burnout he's had to one cause: letting someone else's voice override his own.
Ask Brandon what makes him him and you get one word: intentionality. This is the kid who ate a vegetarian lunch instead of trick-or-treating, on purpose. His burnout theory is just as pointed: it's never been workload. It starts when he lets a manager's, a company's, or society's rules talk louder than his own internal voice.
Full disclosure: Brandon and I worked together at LivePerson, so I got to watch this in real time. The directive was to sell $250K starter packages to new logos. Brandon went out and positioned $25 million transformation deals instead, and the seven- and eight-figure results made the argument for him.
He keeps the connection to his own voice with daily practice, Pressfield's Turning Pro, the whole Resistance thing. And he'll make you rethink the trait everyone calls a liability: introverts win at sales because they listen while the other guy performs.
“When I let other people's voices... overtake my own internal voice, that's always when I veered towards moving towards burnout.”
Notes
- His burnout pattern: it starts when he lets other people's rules override his judgment, never workload alone.
- Told to sell $250K starter packages, he positioned $25M transformation deals and landed seven- and eight-figure results.
- Daily practice (Pressfield's Turning Pro and “Resistance”) keeps him connected to his own voice.
- He treats introversion as his sales advantage: introverts listen.