Jennifer Bassman

When recalling my burnout, I have vivid memories of consistently thinking, “I really don’t give a shit.”

I ate a lot of pizza and even woke up with my face laying on a piece. (I had passed out from extreme exhaustion at the dinner table.)

And, I remember feeling like a total failure.

When I burned out, I owned and managed a luxury dog resort and dog daycare that I had built from scratch. The business ran 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. While the doors closed at 7 p.m., there were still animals in my care overnight, over the weekend, on holidays, when it was 100-degrees outside, pouring down rain, and/or I’m so sick I can barely function.

The dogs still needed to be fed, pottied, walked, and loved.

There were also 20-plus employees to manage – including overnight staff that sometimes didn’t show up, business partners who weren’t very helpful or supportive, and numerous other people sitting on the sidelines hoping I would fail.

Nearly every night, at 3 a.m., I would wake up in a panic. My mind would start racing with all of the things I needed to do, worrying about money, or concerned about a dog in my care.

Everything was so serious and the stakes seemed so high all of the time.

Thanks to my perfectionism and people pleasing tendencies, I felt so much pressure to do and say everything right. Mistakes were not allowed. Ever.

If I ever admitted “I don’t know” or said the word “no,” I thought my credibility would be shot and clients would think I wasn’t capable of owning a business. Even though I ran a great, successful business, I felt like an imposter.

And a failure.

I felt like a failure because I never seemed to have my shit together.

I lived (miserably) in denial for a long time. I thought what was happening to me mentally and physically was more a sign of failure, than unrealistic expectations and standards.

The day that I’d finally had enough – that my give a damn busted – came when I realized I was going to lose my boyfriend (now he’s my husband!) because I had become unbearable. I was mean, selfish, and had become too stressful to be around.

I realized that I had sacrificed nearly everything and become consumed by my business. And, it wasn’t worth it.

I realized I deserved better and that if anything had to change, it had to be me and my unrealistic attitude.

The only way I would be able to describe how I was feeling for some time is that “my give a damn busted.”

At the time, I didn’t know that I was suffering from severe burnout. I didn’t figure that out for a few more months. All I knew, is that I was missing out on my life and I had allowed my business and The Hustle Culture to own my life.

I spent the next 24 hours ignoring everything (but my dogs) and making some lists.

I made a list of everything I wanted to change about myself, my mindset, my business, the things I hated doing, the things I liked doing, and what it was I really wanted in my life.

Jennifer has been a small business owner since 2000. She is the granddaughter, daughter and sister of serial entrepreneurs and small business owners. An Iowa native, now living in Texas, Jennifer has learned to integrate “y’all” and “fixin’ to” into her vernacular so she sounds like a Southerner. (Unfortunately, her vast wardrobe of Iowa Hawkeye t-shirts gives her true heritage away.) Jennifer is a known Dog-aholic who allows her four rescue dogs to run her life.