Misaligned or Mismanaged? The Real Reason You’re Burned Out w/Brittany Rogars

Burnout isn’t a sign you’re failing - it’s a sign that something in your business is either misaligned or mismanaged.

In this episode, I’m joined by Brittany Rogars, a coach and consultant, to break down why burnout is often feedback, not a red flag, and how to figure out what the problem really is, before you try to fix it.

We talk about how burnout shows up in the body, why the loss of joy is often the first clue, and how so many women end up burned out not because they can’t handle business, but because they’ve been carrying too much without the right support, systems, or boundaries.

We also discuss:

• How to tell if burnout is coming from misalignment or mismanagement
• What to change when your business no longer fits your values or season of life
• Simple systems, SOPs, and delegation that immediately reduce mental load
• The 24-hour “process day” Brittany recommends when you’re already at the edge

If your business feels heavier than it used to, this conversation will help you identify the smallest shifts that can create the most relief - without burning everything down, starting over, or pushing harder.

Links & References:

• If you're serious about growing your business in 2025, check out the new Powerful Women Rising Connection Network!
• Episode 77:  How to Set Boundaries Without Feeling Like a Bitch
• Learn more about Brittany:  https://brittanyrogars.com/home
• Connect with Brittany on Instagram or LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:00 Serendipity And First Impressions
• 1:46 Brittany’s Work And Niche Focus
• 2:36 Naming Burnout And Why It Hits
• 4:28 Defining Burnout Beyond The Buzzword
• 6:05 Shame, Gender Norms, And Failure Myths
• 8:20 Authenticity Over Instagram Perfection
• 9:49 Burnout As Feedback: Misalignment Or Overload
• 11:35 Realignment Steps Without Burning It Down
• 13:09 Systems, SOPs, And Smart Delegation
• 15:05 Rest First: Scheduling Recharge And Play
• 16:45 One-Day Pause: The Process Day
• 28:48 Finding Brittany And Closing Gratitude

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hello, Brittany. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Melissa. I'm so excited to be here. Yes, I'm so excited to talk to you. Before we dive in, we have to talk first about how you got here. So you did had you already filled out a podcast application, or what?

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

I think I was getting ready to fill out a podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Okay. And you were like checking me out and like looking at my YouTube channel and stuff. Stocking a little, a little. Yeah, no, it was great. And you sent me an email. I think it was about the YouTube channel. It was like in the title of my YouTube channel or something, there was a typo. And you were like, hey girl, just want to let you know there's a typo in your YouTube channel title. I'm like, that YouTube channel has been there for probably three years. No one has ever told me that typo was there. And so I was like, you are such a girl's girl and my new best friend. And thank you. And I think I said, I don't even need to look at your application. Let's just schedule your interview.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00

Yes. Yes. And I always feel like I always feel so bad having to be some the one who like tells you that your fly is down or like you've got something in your teeth. But like I would never just let you walk around like that. So I appreciate you taking it in the positive way that you did because I just I can't spell either. So like I was like, wait, am I wrong here?

SPEAKER_00: 1:20

But no, no, you were totally right. Sometimes I'll come home from work and I'll be like, I can't believe they let me look like this all day. And no one said, like, today, hey, your eyeliner is like halfway down your face, FYI. Shoots on backwards, like thanks, guys. Okay, so let's get into today's interview. But before we start, tell everybody a little bit about you and about what you do.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49

Yeah. So I run an open dental software, which is a dental software uh training company. So I'm essentially a business coach for dentists who want to implement smarter systems so they're able to scale their practice. Um in doing that every single day, I found that my company is already very niche, but I found that we, if we take it a little bit further and we work specifically with female dentists, it gets to be a lot more fun because we get to embrace this femininity and this creative side and all of the things. So I built a business that allows me to help offices do what I love to do most, which is systematize and grow, but also get to explore that playful creative side as well.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

So a lot of fun. I just love it so much. That's really cool. So we're gonna talk today um mostly about burnout and like how to how do we know if we're burnout? How do we prevent burnout? What do we do if we're listening to this podcast and we're like, oh my lord, that's me. I am burnout. Um, I'd imagine that's something that probably happens a lot in the medical field.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

A hundred percent. And especially because, like I said, I do work with women a lot and we always have this tendency of like push harder, push harder, take care of more things, wear all of the hats. And then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, here I am and I'm miserable. What happened? So yeah, I see it all the time in the industry and then even more specifically in the women that I'm working with.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

Yeah, this is perfect timing because I was just on a coaching call before with this with one of the members of um Powerful Women Rising, and we were talking about saying no and how hard it is to say no. And she comes from a corporate background and she was like, I learned so much just from watching the men in corporate because they don't say, I'm really sorry if this hurts your feelings, but no, we're not gonna do that. They don't say, No, we're not gonna do that, and here's why. They don't say, I hope it's okay that we're not gonna do that, or like, let's all take a vote. And that they're just like, no, we're not gonna do that. And like they never think about it again for the rest of the day. And she's like, How do I learn to be like that? And I think that's a huge part of avoiding burnout for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 4:06

A hundred percent. I feel like don't get me wrong, burnout is definitely not gender biased. Everybody can experience it, but I feel like we hear about it a lot more with women specifically because we don't have the ability to make no a whole sentence, or we feel like we don't have the ability to make no a whole sentence. We have to throw in seven smiley face emojis and 13 exclamation points before we can send out the message. And even then, it's like, oh, was that too aggressive? And you know, I can promise you, my husband has never once sent a text or an email and been like, wow, was that too aggressive? And usually it is. Did I added an emoji? Exactly. Yeah, did I put enough exclamation points or did I put too many exclamation points?

SPEAKER_00: 4:50

Like totally, come on. Yes, it's so true. It's so true. Okay, so I know everybody listening to this podcast has heard the word burnout. We all have an idea of what we think it means, but for purposes of today, what are we talking about when we talk about burnout?

SPEAKER_01: 5:08

Yeah, so for me, and I think everybody kind of describes this a little bit different, especially now that it's become such like a trendy word. I think everybody can define it a little bit differently. For me, it is when my body physically starts to suffer because of the mental load that I've put on it, where I'm no longer finding joy in things that used to bring me joy. It's almost as if I'm in like a depressed state where I'm starting to have physical um reactions to the mental stimulus that I'm going through. So that's what burnout looks like for me and how I describe burnout. Um, I don't think that like, oh, I scrolled through reels for six hours today and then I went and got Starbucks. I'm so burnt out. Like, I don't think it should be quite as like as buzzwordy as it is now, because I do think it is actually like a serious problem that people can suffer with, and they suffer with it in silence because they don't know how to classify or quantify what it is that they're going through. But it's just a soul deep exhaustion that starts to have physical effects in your life when you are overstimulated and over overworked.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

Yeah. Yeah. I think what you said about joy is really right on when it comes to burnout. Cause I feel like that's the thing that I notice the most is that joy is missing. And I don't mean joy necessarily like I'm hopping and skipping and jumping and singing a song every day, but like even just, you know, I feel a certain amount of joy when I sit down to my computer to do a call or, you know, something like that. And when that is not present anymore, that is a pretty good sign, I think.

SPEAKER_01: 6:40

Yeah. I can always tell that I'm getting close to that border of burnout when I sit down at work and I'm like, gosh, we really don't want to be here. Like I built this entire business. I I created the job that I have now. And if I don't, if even I don't like it, that's telling me that we've kind of moved away from what we're supposed to be doing here or how we're supposed to be doing it here, because I literally designed this to be my perfect job.

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

Yeah. Yeah. You touched on this a little bit before, like the reasons that we don't acknowledge burnout. Um, I think sometimes we don't recognize it as that. But also I feel like there are like I feel like, especially for women, that we feel like saying we're burnout is like a reflection of us and like our capacity or our worth or how good we are at like pushing ourselves or doing more. And I want to talk about that a little bit in terms of like feeling like if you're burnout, that that's some kind of failure.

SPEAKER_01: 7:42

Yeah. So first, I don't want to go on too much of a side quest here, but I also don't feel like failure should have the negative stigma that it does because every single successful person I've ever met has failed at a thousand things. Um, so first of all, pat yourself on the back if you did go through some sort of failure, because that means you grew and you learned a way to not do that thing and you're closer to where you want to be. So, first of all, we just got to take the stigma away from that. And moving into your actual question, um, when we grow up, we are always told that like we should be good and we should be quiet and we should be these things. And we internalize that so much that it becomes this character. And we kind of get up every day and like put on this persona of the person who can do everything because that's what our moms did, and that's what our grandmas did, and that's what our teachers did, because these are the female role models that we had growing up. So, yes, when we wake up and we're like, whoa, this is hard. It didn't look hard for any of them. We're gonna internalize that and be like, well, what's wrong with me then that I can't work a full-time job and take care of two kids and get the dogs on a walk and book all the appointments and wash the car and remember to get groceries and cook dinner and and and and and we've built this like societal issue where we have to carry all of this burden or we think we have to carry all this burden because that's what we see on Instagram and that's what we saw our grandparents and our moms do before us. And none of that is is real life. And I don't think it makes you a failure, it makes you a human being. And I think at the end of the day, if we actually strip it back and remember that you are a person first, it becomes a little bit easier to accept that, okay, I do have limits. Because if you saw your best friend doing all these things and being tired, like you wouldn't be like, girl, get it together. Not at all.

SPEAKER_00: 9:34

Right. Yeah, that's so true. And I think social media has made it even harder because it looks so easy for everyone else when we're comparing our insides to their outside.

SPEAKER_01: 9:47

A hundred percent. I love posting um like first thing when I wake up in the morning or after a long day, or like when I'm at my, I don't want to say ugliest, but like my ugliest, my my weakest self, my my less put together self, because it is so much more relatable. And I love seeing content that's like that also, because I know full well that you're not in full glam to do the dishes today. Like that did not, that that was not on accident. Yeah, yeah. It makes it so much more relatable to me and it feels so much more authentic, and authenticity is a core value of mine. So anytime that I see other people show up in a way that's like very much themselves, it really speaks to me.

SPEAKER_00: 10:27

Yeah, that's funny you say that because I totally just flash back on your Instagram story yesterday where you're like, Why do the screen grabs get me? Am I absolute ugliest? And you are making I love you, girl, but you are making the most ridiculous face.

SPEAKER_01: 10:41

Uh-huh. I will always share those stories because they're the that's that's the real life behind being a human being. Like, I do not look like this when I wake up. And to be honest, my hair is really frizzy right now. And I was like, you know what? It's gonna be okay because this is real life right now.

SPEAKER_00: 11:00

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that I've heard you say is that burnout isn't failure, it's feedback. So, what is the feedback?

SPEAKER_01: 11:08

Um, so the feedback could be a couple of different things. Um, first and foremost, it could be that you're trying to do too much and you don't have the systems in place to support all of the things that you're trying to do. It could also mean that maybe the thing that we're trying to do right now is not in alignment with our mission, our passion, where we're actually meant to be, the divine plan for our life. So either we're doing too much and don't have the right tools in place, or we're just doing something that isn't right for us in the first place. And then you have to kind of decide which of those it is. How do we figure out the difference? That's a great question. Um, you have to be very, be open to be very honest with yourself. Because, like we were talked about earlier, like our default as women is to just keep pushing and just keep grinding. And when it feels like grinding, when it feels like nails on a chalkboard, that probably means that you're not in alignment. If you're like, oh, but I want to keep doing this because it does, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. It does bring me joy. That might be your cue that, okay, we just need to build stronger systems that support this life that I'm trying to build. And I've tried to put too much on my own plate where I need to delegate. But if it feels not right, it's probably because it's not. And trying to continue to push yourself in that direction is not doing you any favors and it's going to lead you further down that burnout trail.

SPEAKER_00: 12:30

Yeah, absolutely. So if the if that's the one that feels most true for people who are listening today, that they're like, yeah, I I resonate with what she's saying, and I think I'm getting burned out because this isn't where I'm supposed to be. I this is not in alignment with maybe it was at the time that I made the decision, but it's not now. Um, what is the next right first step for them?

SPEAKER_01: 12:55

Love that. Um, so I we didn't talk about this yet, but before I started my company, I had an organic soap business. Um, could not be further left field than where I am now. And I was in that place. I woke up one day and I was like, I really just hate what I've built. I look around, it doesn't bring me joy, it doesn't bring me happiness. I did this for a whole bunch of reasons that weren't aligned with my core values. And I decided that I needed to let that go. And maybe that's one of the reasons why I think failure is so sexy, is because I've done it. I've I created this thing and I talked about it so publicly, and then it went down the tubes. But I had to do a couple of things. And I've seen this work for other people, but I'm not gonna say this is a one size fits all. I had to sit down with myself and be incredibly honest on why I was doing the things that I was doing in the first place. Was I doing this because I wanted what did I build a business because I wanted more free time with my kids? Or did I build my business because I wanted to hit X, Y, or Z financial goal, or because I wanted to retire by the time I was 30, or because I really wanted to go on a trip to Jamaica and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do that and the income that I had before. And then look at how else we can get to those whys, or what small changes I can make. You may not need to burn your whole soap business down and start a consulting company, but what small changes can we make inside the environment that we're living in that can be more in alignment with those things that I want? So, what aligns with my core values and what gets me closer to that why and that mission that I have every day? And maybe it's letting go of a client, maybe it's letting go of a service, maybe it's launching a different service that can still work under that umbrella, or maybe it is saying it's time to sell this business or shut it down and move on to the next chapter of my life. But it all starts with being really honest with yourself, taking some time to meditate, journal if you're into that, on what your actual why is and how you can get to that point.

SPEAKER_00: 14:49

Yeah, that's really good advice. And I love the the uh concept of like, just because you've realized that this might not be the right place doesn't mean you have to burn everything down and start over. There may be less drastic steps that you can take that will get you back in alignment. And sometimes that is the right answer, right? That was a hundred percent me with my dating coaching business. I did that for six years and I really tried to ignore the signs from the universe that were like, this is not where you are anymore. And they just kept coming and coming, and I kept ignoring them and ignoring them. And then one day I woke up and um my whole Facebook account was gone, suspended. I had a Facebook group of single women that had like a thousand people in it. I had another Facebook group that I did a uh really successful book club for single women. I had like almost 3,000 people in that group. And it was all gone just in one day. And I, after I got done crying and feeling sorry for myself for days, I said, obviously, this is the universe saying, like, you're gonna drag your feet on this for another year. So here, let us help you. Let us just burn it all down for you. And sometimes that is the right answer, but not necessarily always. So I think that's a good reminder.

SPEAKER_01: 16:09

A hundred percent. We have like as a as a society and as a whole, we have this kind of all or nothing mindset where it needs to be this or it needs to be this. And I think the magic kind of happens in that middle zone where we get to flow a little bit in between the different things. We don't have to put ourselves into all of these boxes. We can live a little bit on the fringes if we if we want to. We could also burn it all down if we want to.

SPEAKER_00: 16:31

Yes. That's that's the beauty of owning your own business. Um, so okay, what if the other option resonates more with them? What if it's more like it's not that I feel like I'm not in alignment, it's that I don't have the systems or the boundaries or whatever it is in place, and I'm just trying to do too many things myself.

SPEAKER_01: 16:54

So boundaries could be a whole conversation, like we could have a whole chat on that. Um, because that I think is gonna be the most important thing. But if you're maybe a person who has a hard time with boundaries, but you have really strong systems that can support that, it's going to guide, it's gonna naturally set boundaries for you. It's gonna tell you what the rules are if we have the systems in place. So for me, that looks like writing down every single thing that I do in a day. I actually use scribe as a tool to kind of record everything that I do in a day and make SOPs for that. SOPs are boring and training, making a training video is boring. But I can tell you that I take a lot less time having to explain the same thing over and over again when I can just send somebody a link to a thing and they can do it themselves from there. And that automatically decreases my workload so much because I have a tool instead of having to have the same conversation 15 times a week. So building out a system, even if you start with just one thing, the thing that you get asked the most, build out an SOP, uh, a training video, a tutorial for that one thing. So you now have a resource to send instead of your time to send to somebody who needs your assistance. Um, and then from there, it went to making a list of the things that I hated doing in my job. Like I don't like, I don't like doing basic open dental software trainings anymore. I can do them in my sleep. I'm kind of done with that point in my career. So the first thing I hired out for was someone who could do that thing. Um, and I started delegating very strategically. And then I also started looking at where in my home life I felt like I was slacking or dropping the ball and how I could start to outsource those things to make it a little bit easier too. So we have somebody who helps us clean the house once a month. Um, they don't come every day. I wish, I wish they could. Um, but even that once-a-month refresh makes it a lot easier to maintain throughout the day. We have somebody who helps with my kids on certain days a week. So I can I can make sure that I'm present for my team when I need to be and for my kids when I need to be. And I have the opportunity to kind of wear both of those hats a little bit easier because I've kind of created a village. We need they say it takes a village, but we live in a very like isolated state now. So I've built a village of people who can help me on both fronts, both the personal and the business. I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 19:19

Hold on, I'm gonna put my dogs out. I was trying so hard. They're like doing this dinosaur wrestling thing that's very loud, and I was like, Okay. Sorry. Um where was I Okay, so yeah, I totally agree. Boundaries are like we could do a whole other episode on boundaries, probably a whole series on boundaries. Literally. I did an interview a while back called How to Set Boundaries Without Being a Bitch. And it was uh, it's a good one. I'll link it in the show notes if anybody wants to check that out. Cause I think that's a huge part of our struggle when it comes to setting boundaries. But um, yeah, I love what you're saying about figuring out what are the things that are taking up your time. Cause I feel like a lot of times we don't even realize that. Like, I can't tell you how many days I have that I get to the end of the day that I'm like, I feel like I was busy all day. I was working all day, but like, what did I actually accomplish? And I'm not really sure where all that time went. So I think that's really smart of just like doing kind of an audit and taking stock of your time and figuring out what are the things. Cause we're not all in a place where we can delegate, right? We're not all in a place where we're ready to hire a VA or, you know, get help. And I think if there are, like you said, with the videos, right? Just with your clients of like questions that you get asked really frequently or things like that, that you can just say, like, hey, look at this video, as opposed to having to rebuild the wheel every single time you're asked that question. I think that's really, really smart. Um, what do we do? Because I feel like, yes, boundaries are important, and this is a part of boundaries. Systems, yes, definitely save time, save energy, save sanity. I also feel like there is like this component of rest and a break and a pause, and like maybe I need to just go outside and put my feet in grass and breathe some air. Um, but we feel like we can't. Like, God forbid I stop what I'm doing right now and go take a nap, even though I'm so incredibly tired. What do we do about that? Besides knock it off and go take a nap, literally.

SPEAKER_01: 21:52

Um, if I had had the answer to that question five years ago, I'd probably be in a very different place than I am right now. So I'm glad that you asked that question. Um, a friend of mine challenged me to do to do two different things. One was put rest on my calendar first um and do 15 minutes a day of one thing that would make eight-year-old Britney happy. Those two pieces together um changed my entire life, changed my entire career. It changed my company, it changed the people who work inside my company, it changed everything. Because putting rest in my calendar first, like months in advance, 90 days from now, there's blocks in my calendar for rest. Like you cannot schedule in those times. Now, that is also a boundary. You need to make sure you hold yourself accountable to not scheduling over those. But if you schedule it out in advance, it no longer becomes this thing that you can feel that you're gonna feel guilty about or you're gonna feel shameful for because it's literally, I'm just sticking to my calendar. It's literally on there and blacked out for you. And the way that you show up tomorrow because you took that time to rest today is going to be so much better because you're not trying to pour from the empty cup it's cliche, but it's cliche for a reason. So I'm gonna keep using it. Um, and you just have a better energy about yourself when you've given yourself permission to be a human being. And it's very relatable to your clients too, because they're also in that same place where they're like so exhausted, and you're like, girl, we're gonna take a nap and we're gonna, we're gonna take 30 minutes to just sit and read a book or bake cookies or whatever it is that is something that you like to do that is not productive time that nobody's gonna financially benefit from and it's just for joy, and then see how you show up tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00: 23:36

Yeah, that's really good advice. I just recorded, um, I just put out a podcast episode this Monday, and it was the first one I'd done in at least a month. And I said when I was recording the introduction, I was like, listen, I want to say this was like a really strategic, well-planned out break. It wasn't. I just the weeks kept coming and I kept saying I don't want to do this, and then I just kept not doing it. And that is the truth, right? Like, let's just be honest, because that is how it is for everyone in business. And we can tell the truth about that. And I feel like the more there are people like you and I showing up authentically and telling the truth about that, it gives other people permission to do the same thing, right? Like the world didn't come crashing down because I didn't put out a podcast episode in a month. Like everything was fine, everyone was fine. And and the same is true for everyone else's business.

SPEAKER_01: 24:36

And how much better do you feel because you gave yourself the permission, slip to take that time? Like you're gonna show up for your next 10 interviews, 10 episodes, so much more refreshed because you gave yourself that time. And it was at the holiday time, too. Like, that's the perfect time to just give yourself permission to be present and enjoy and live because we only get to do this one time. Yeah, yeah. Nobody's on their deathbed. Like, gosh, I'm really sad that I didn't take that meeting or record that additional podcast or make that other lead magnet. Never.

SPEAKER_00: 25:09

I can't believe I didn't publish a podcast episode on Christmas. How dare I? No. My life is incomplete. Um, yeah, this is really good. Okay, one last question. For people who are listening to this, they know they are burnout, like, no question about that. They don't really know why they're burnout. Maybe it's misalignment, maybe it's systems boundaries, maybe it's a little bit of everything. What is one thing that they can do today to start reclaiming control of their lives and hopefully get out of that survival mode?

SPEAKER_01: 25:45

So I would so I have a method called that I use called the pivot method. We don't need to get into all the different letters and things they stand for, but the first one is process. And that is also your permission slip. So I'm gonna say what I would recommend if you're feeling at a point of burnout, is to give yourself 24 hours of what I call a process day. Now, this is not like systems and processes. This is like internal processing. This is giving yourself 24 hours with your phone on do not disturb if you are blessed enough to be able to do that. If you have kids, I'm sorry. Um, but it this is giving yourself 24 hours to do things like reading books, like making soup, like wearing your comfiest clothes and spending that time being very intentional in what your thoughts are and journaling and thinking about what it is that you could do differently that would remove just a small piece of that. Because if we're really honest with ourselves, we really take the time to make ourselves comfy and cozy and give ourselves a big hug. We have some sort of inkling on if it's misalignment or if it's just mismanagement. And from there, we can then make an informed decision tomorrow. But what I need you to do first is I need you to just pump the brakes. I need you to stop. I need you to process all the emotions that you're feeling, process all of the different things that are bouncing at you all the time, and just take a moment of intentional slowness and wear your comfiest socks because we need to do that. And eat soup out of the cutest bowl you have because we need to do that. And if it makes you feel good to do your hair and makeup, to hang out, then do that. But only do things that are intentionally there for the purpose of bringing you joy and giving yourself a hug in a day and and then from there make the decisions. But if you're trying to make the decision from this place of burnout, you're gonna make a decision that's rash, that maybe isn't in the most aligned way, and you're gonna wind up creating a bigger problem than what you have right now. So step one is just pause and process.

SPEAKER_00: 27:46

Yeah, very smart. I love that. If people want to know more about what you do, if they want to connect with you, uh, what's the best way for them to do that?

SPEAKER_01: 27:56

I'm a millennial, so I am mostly on Instagram. Uh, feel free to find me at Brittany.roguars on Instagram. I'm also on all the other social medias, um, but Instagram is my favorite place to hang out. Um, BritneyRogars.com is the website. If you happen to be listening to this episode and you're in dentistry and you want to learn more about that, you can check out SKF Practice Solutions. But Brittany Rogars on Instagram is the best place to find me.

SPEAKER_00: 28:20

Awesome. Cool. I will put that link in the show notes so everybody can connect with you and they can see the beautiful faces that you make on your screen grabs and then share with us in the stories. It's it's worth a follow, y'all. Uh, thank you so much for first of all pointing out my typo on my YouTube channel. But more importantly, for coming on the podcast and sharing with us your insight. It was really, really good conversation and um would love to have you back sometime. Absolutely. Would love to be here. Thank you so much.