New Horizons: A Metaverse Podcast Experience at the Killer Bee Studios

Combating Burnout: A Deep Dive w/ Dr. Jean-Baptiste

Killer Bee Studios (KBS) Season 3 Episode 2

Text Brian & Shawna (Fan Mail)

In this podcast replay, we welcome Dr. Jean-Baptiste, also known as Dr. JB or "theMetaverseDoc", a board-certified emergency medicine physician and the CEO of Hope4Med. Dr. JB shares her insights on burnout, its misconceptions, and how to combat it. She also discusses her work in the Metaverse and how it can be used for connection and wellness. She introduces the ABCs of treating and preventing burnout: Acknowledge the symptoms, set Boundaries, and practice self-care. The episode concludes with an audience Q&A, where Dr. JB further elaborates on the cyclical nature of burnout and the importance of vigilance in managing it.

Links Mentioned During This Episode:

Support the show

Ways to Join Us LIVE 👇
Live shows are on Thursdays at 8pm EST (unless it's a holiday or fifth Thursday of the month)

Affiliate links are used when possible to help support this podcast.

Speaker 1:

But welcome to today's podcast replay from the Killer Bee Studios. Let's go ahead and dive on in. Hey everybody, thanks for joining us tonight here at Killer Bee Studios. We're so excited. Look at everybody, it's here.

Speaker 3:

This is awesome Hello everybody.

Speaker 1:

This is awesome man, the topic tonight. We have a guest that's joined us. I'm not going to try to pronounce her real name, but we're going to call her Dr JB.

Speaker 2:

I can tell, I can tell her real name.

Speaker 1:

You can tell. Okay, go for it.

Speaker 2:

Dr. Okay, now I'm nervous a little.

Speaker 1:

I shouldn't have said that. Okay, Dr.

Speaker 2:

Jean Baptiste, that's her name, dr Jean.

Speaker 1:

Baptiste. I would never have gotten that. I would never have gotten that. Okay, well, we gave you an applause, but I probably shouldn't have yet, because we don't know if it's right.

Speaker 1:

But we're going to fact, check you in just a second. We can call her Dr JB. Her Oculus name is the Metaverse Doctor. Now, she's going to be joining us tonight. She's the CEO of Hope for Med and she's going to be talking to us about combating burnout. Now I would love to know, with some rain of confetti here, how many of you have ever struggled with burnout before? Yeah, yeah, okay, yep, okay. You guys can relate to this Well.

Speaker 2:

I thought this was good for us. Seems like we should be confetti about that, right.

Speaker 1:

Confetti about burnout Woo. I don't want to wait any longer because I know this is going to be a great topic, but you guys, please know remember, if you guys have questions, come up and click those QA buttons.

Speaker 1:

Right there there's kiosk and we're going to bring you up during a live Q&A time and we'll bring you up and then also we're going to do a contest to give away some points. So with that can we go ahead and cue the guest intro and you guys please welcome her with some confetti. Welcome out, dr JB to the Killer B Studios. Hey doctor, welcome, hi everybody.

Speaker 4:

I just had that song just come my head, dr, dr, you are Giving you the news I got a bad case.

Speaker 5:

Bad case. It doesn't make you. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm glad you're looking at me when you're singing that. You know she is my wife, so it's okay, right, it's all right. Thank you for joining us tonight. Dr JB, tell us a little bit about you and who you are in your background, all right, well, perfect.

Speaker 5:

Well, I again am so excited to be here with you guys and spend some time and talk about a really important topic. So again, my name is Dr Jean-Baptiste. I am a doctor in real life. So, like, by day I'm a doc, you know. By night I'm hanging out with you guys in the metaverse, I'm a board certified emergency medicine doctor and I live here in Florida.

Speaker 1:

At first, I'd like to ask you what is burnout?

Speaker 5:

You know there actually is a definition for burnout, and so you can actually define it and see how many of these boxes you check off. According to the World Health Organization, the ICD-11, they define burnout as an occupational phenomenon, right, and it encompasses three things. One is increased fatigue, so you're just feeling tired and you know, just really, you know, worn out. All the time when you think about work you're like, oh my gosh, you know, I don't know if you guys have ever felt something similar Anybody.

Speaker 2:

Anybody, anybody, yeah right, oh everybody, it turns out.

Speaker 5:

And then another one is you start feeling really cynical about your job right and about the work that you're doing because anybody felt similar, yep, right. And then the third piece of it is. Then you find that you're less efficacious right Things that you know when you first started oops, sorry, something fell. So things when you first started that you're able to do relatively quickly is just taking you longer and longer to do it, and you don't understand why right, dr JB, that word used.

Speaker 1:

That was a big word. I'm not a big word person, so can you explain to me like? What does that mean? Like the ethicist?

Speaker 5:

Effecatist, so you're just not as efficient.

Speaker 7:

I'm not, you know, in doing things right, yes.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, absolutely. That's the third part. And once you are like, okay, yes, I'm tired, I'm getting those you know Monday jitters where you start feeling palpitations and anxious and sweating about oh my gosh, work is tomorrow, you know there's not enough time or hours between now when I have to go back into work. You know, when you start, you know really just griping about your job and you find that you're not as efficient as you used to be. You know those three things, you know, encompass burnout, and so you are experiencing burnout.

Speaker 5:

My company, hope for Med, is focused on healthcare professionals and really creating a peer-to-peer support group for them, using technology right and the possibilities that exist when you combine technology with wellness, and so hence why, you know, I go by the Metaverse stock because I am very much gun hoe on the Metaverse and the possibilities the Metaverse has in terms of, you know, really allowing people to connect regardless of where they are in the world, and the conveniences that the Metaverse offers this seems like your kind of like your first experience in Horizon Worlds really on this platform, correct, that's true?

Speaker 5:

Yes, and the thing that I've been using for my community is another Metaverse platform that's not Horizon Worlds and there I held an event called Wellness in the Metaverse and it was a day long event where I had seven speakers all talking about a different dimension of wellness, and they were from, you know, not all over the US, but all over the world. I had people from Spain, and you know, and Uganda and London, you know, and, of course, all the states all in attendance and that is a possibility of the Metaverse, and I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that is like we've met so many people in here that come to the studio. That's from the UK, you know. They're from all different places in the world Canada, a lot of people from Canada. What is the platform that you've been using in the Metaverse? I'm just curious to know too.

Speaker 5:

So platform I've used is called Vrbella, vrbella, okay.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I've heard of that.

Speaker 5:

And the reason so, with my introduction to the Metaverse, you know, my goal is to really connect with healthcare professionals from throughout the entire world, and when we think about the world, right, we think about you know what are some things that would prevent somebody from engaging. And we think about cost and these Oculus headsets are expensive, yeah. And so when I was looking for a platform to really grow my community in, I wanted one where we didn't have to wear Oculus, you know, where all you needed was a computer, a laptop, a keyboard and a mouse, and so Vrbella really met those requirements for me, so that more people could engage.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1:

And we know that that's coming here right We've seen the articles we know it's coming, so that's going to be really exciting. Yeah, it's going to be super exciting. Well, thank you for sharing that. It gives us a little bit more insight, too, behind you and where your heart is, too. What are some of the misconceptions about burnout?

Speaker 5:

The biggest misconception that I've come across is that, you know, if I dare utter that I might maybe be experiencing symptoms of burnout, then there's something inherently wrong with me, and I think that is one of the biggest misconceptions that I really, really want to make people aware of. Right, yeah, you know it's when you have, you know, stress, uncontrolled stress that's not been well managed. Right, and you know it's an occupational phenomenon, but, honestly, it doesn't stay in your job, right, yeah? So how many people you know have found that they continue experiencing these symptoms at home?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have definitely With their friends and their loved ones right.

Speaker 5:

And so, although the WHO does define it as an occupational phenomenon but it doesn't just stay at your job so miraculously. When you leave, you close those doors. All of a sudden, you're feeling great, like you're your normal self. You have all the energy in the world to do, you know whatever you need to do. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1:

Yeah you carry it with you, right, it doesn't just stay at the job. That's a really important thing to acknowledge. And I guess, like when I think about burnout, I've struggled with burnout and a lot of times I put myself in those situations and I got to ask myself like well, why am I trying to do so much? What's the real purpose behind that? Is it's not healthy for me? And can burnout be kind of like a? Maybe it's like a Almost, like your body is giving you like a warning, like hey, you need to slow down, like something's not right. Yeah, what's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, you know, I I consider it like a roller coaster, right, you have good days, you have bad days, right. But once you know, cuz the roller coaster, you go up and you go down, and you go up and you go down, right.

Speaker 5:

But when you find yourself staying down for a long, period of time, right, that's when you really need to start getting concerned, right? Because when we think about life, life isn't rosy all the time. Oh yeah, right, yeah, and that's just a reality of things, right, we're all gonna have good days, we're all gonna have bad days. We're all gonna be excited, we're all gonna be sad, you know, at some point, yeah, right, yeah. But once we, when we start finding ourselves staying at this low level, then you need to listen to your yourself. It's not all in your mind, it's not all in your brain, you know there's definitely something happening and you need to wake up and try to make some changes.

Speaker 1:

That's good.

Speaker 2:

So is part of what you do Like to help people learn how to deal with their stress and healthy ways.

Speaker 5:

Yes.

Speaker 4:

Yeah what are?

Speaker 1:

some of those ways like if you, if you, you know, if you're helping people, kind of how to how to deal with that. What are some of those, those techniques or things that we should be thinking about? Sydney?

Speaker 5:

so again, I'm an emergency room doctor and we go by acronyms in the ER, and Some of you guys may be familiar with ABCs, right? Remember, we all learned that when we were in elementary school.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Mrs Killer B just said she didn't and I know she was in charge of homeschooling and my son just graduated last year and I'm getting very concerned. Arcane, you know your ABCs? I did not teach him the alphabet?

Speaker 2:

I thought it was you know outdated, you know.

Speaker 3:

We're not doing it?

Speaker 2:

No, I thought I. Did shake my head. No, because I thought she was asking if we knew the acronym that they use in the ER. I was like, oh, I don't, I've never heard it, I don't know. But yes, the classic ABCs, you know, I've heard of those here and there.

Speaker 1:

Everybody, please, let's do some confetti that my son knows his ABCs at 19. So, yes, can you explain to us the acronym?

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So you know, in the medical sense, when we think about ABCs, we think about Erie. I mean airway, breathing and circulation. Those are the three things and those are foundational, right. And so when we think about the foundational steps in terms of Treating and preventing symptoms of burnout, I revert back to the ABCs. And so you know, with my acronym a, a stands for acknowledge, right. And so you know, see how many of those, those boxes that you, you check off in terms of definition of burnout, right, yeah. And you know, if you find that you're checking them all off, or you know parts of them off, or whatnot, what not, you know you're still experiencing, you know symptoms of of burnout, right. So acknowledge that, become aware of that right. Then B which is something that you know I personally have struggled with, is that's our favorite letter to Now you got me all distracted.

Speaker 1:

I'm gonna get the wall wall buttons. That really, really distracted me. Get that this button.

Speaker 2:

Remember it's like this is the couch cushion, so I can't get to it.

Speaker 5:

So we said a awareness, acknowledge you know that you're going through symptoms of burnout. And then B is boundaries. Struggles with setting boundaries yeah.

Speaker 1:

I wish I didn't have to say yes. You definitely need to say yes, you definitely, and I do too, like I think you know, I think that is boundary. Is it hard for us to set boundaries? Because we have a lot of people, have a heart, they want to help. Yeah. I think, that I think that's a big thing for Mrs Killer B, for sure I know. Knowing her personally, I know her heart is to help as many people and so it's harder for her set boundaries, I would say.

Speaker 2:

I do. I have a very hard time with boundaries.

Speaker 5:

I'm trying to do better and then I just, you know fall off the wagon the key was setting boundaries and Learning the art I call it an art of saying no, mm-hmm. Yeah, I know those two letters are some of the most difficult things for us to say yeah. Yeah however, you know, when we're thinking about boundary setting, we're thinking about ourselves right and Self-care for us, because there's only 24 hours in the day. I and when you say no to X, you're saying yes to Y.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've been talking about that so much lately. That is so interesting that you just said that, because that's come up for us lately, where you know you might be saying yes and yes and yes, and you don't realize that what you're actually saying no to is the things that are most important to you.

Speaker 1:

And then we have the C and I know how meta voice has got a question. Let's bring it. Let's bring it before we get to see. Let's bring up some questions. Let's go ahead and bring up meta voice. Come on up. Welcome, meta voice. Thanks for joining us, hi, mr Killer.

Speaker 8:

B the metaverse doc and Mrs Killer B.

Speaker 8:

It's always a pleasure speaking to you. Well, I was just talking to some of those out there and they all had a question and a unanimous about burnout. You know, it seems that no matter. You know, when you have burnout, you recognize you have burnout, but you think about these things you need to accomplish and get organized to stop being so burnt out. But when you then accomplish these things and you find that those weren't the things that were making you burnt out in the first place, you still don't have the energy.

Speaker 8:

How do you get out of that rut? And then, when you have a little bit of energy, it's like you wasted all at once because you're so excited you have any and you're burnout all over again.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, that's so true, that's good.

Speaker 5:

Yes, it's cyclical, and so that's why these ABCs that we're going over will help you recover from burnout, as well as help you prevent burnout, by focusing on these foundational letters.

Speaker 8:

That's good so basically, if I just go back and be quiet and listen to what you have, to say I'll learn about the answer to my question in the most polite of ways Correct.

Speaker 5:

No.

Speaker 2:

I mean you're so perceptive.

Speaker 5:

It's true, I'm married. No, no, that's not what I meant at all, but you know, but it's, it's so rampant, right. Like you know, these symptoms of burnout, they transcend all fields, and you know, and we don't talk about it all that often, and that's why it's really important for us to be able to have settings and situations like this where we can really talk, right and you know, connect with each other and find out, you know what's worked for you, you know and what's worked for me, and try to incorporate different things and see what, what works. But it's definitely something you have to stay really vigilant on because, yes, you will just get burnt out again and again, and again.

Speaker 1:

You know, and I can tell you like one of the things as a business and one of the things that I've tried to that's helped me, and it took me like over over six months to get this with the business. What was our purpose Like? What was our purpose statement as a business? Well so and you can do this with yourself too individually but what is what is? What is my real purpose as the business? And so we came up with a purpose statement and in our so we have that purpose statement.

Speaker 1:

But anything that comes in, a lot of things come in and we want to, we want to take the work and we want to help those people because, like those, we want to help as many people as we can. But then we started realizing like we have to run all these things through our purpose statement because if it doesn't go through our purpose statement and it passed and that that means it's aligned with us, we're going to burn ourselves out doing a lot of work for people that aren't aligned with the same purpose as our purpose statement. So we'd rather work with people that align with that purpose statement and keep our yeses to those that are more in line in our nose to the ones that you know. It's just you can get your stuff caught up doing a lot of busy work and lose focus of that. That's one thing that I've that's helped us. But those three letters, a awareness, correct, yes.

Speaker 8:

B is what was it. Boundaries, boundaries.

Speaker 1:

B that's a big thing, boundaries and C I don't think we've even gotten C yet.

Speaker 2:

We have not gotten C yet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah that's continued.

Speaker 8:

Yeah, let's go ahead and get to C, but before we do, thank you so much again for being here. It's very much appreciated to everyone in the audience and more. I'm going to go back, sit down, shut up and maybe learn my ABC.

Speaker 6:

Thanks, meta voice.

Speaker 1:

We have some more questions, but let's go ahead and get to C and then we'll bring in people for the questions yeah, C and then questions.

Speaker 5:

I think so, and C is what you guys have created here you know the importance of community, Community and be part of a community to really support you through this journey.

Speaker 5:

Because you can't do it alone, and you're not alone in this at all. You know, the surgeon general said that there's an epidemic of loneliness happening currently throughout the US, and you know, I did my residency in New York City. New York City is one of the loneliest places in the world, but you're surrounded by so many people. Yeah, so how is it possible that you can be surrounded by so many people? You know you're on the train and there's, you know, standing room only, but yet you feel so alone.

Speaker 2:

You know, I noticed it before COVID but then really markedly after COVID how little people want to talk to each other. You know, and I'm kind of like the type of person that like wants to talk to people in the grocery store, and I can see fear in people's eyes when I talk to them and you know, I can see how that leads to you leading such an isolated life. You know, if you're not willing to take the chance to talk to somebody, you know yeah.

Speaker 5:

That's absolutely right and you know. But the amazing thing about the metaverse right is it allows you an opportunity to unmask yourself you know, in many ways right and really allow your heart to connect with others right. Because it's not about rubbing elbows, you know, but it's about connecting on a deeper level, yeah, and so finding that community where you are able to do that, and if one doesn't exist, then create one for yourself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, that's good, I like that.

Speaker 1:

Good, I like that a lot. All right, let's go ahead and bring up Oki Oki Troker. Oki Oki.

Speaker 9:

Oki Oki.

Speaker 1:

Oki, oki, oki Oki, is that right Well?

Speaker 9:

the thing is, everyone just calls me Oki. I'm actually that's my, that's my TikTok handle as well and everyone just calls me Oki and one thing one thing you were talking about pre-COVID, during COVID and after COVID. Pre-covid is when I started doing TikTok and everything like that, and I'm also a truck driver and I noticed during the COVID crisis, everyone disappeared. No, mcgrana, that was the greatest moment of my life truck driving, because nobody was on the road.

Speaker 5:

That was great. That was great.

Speaker 9:

But I did notice and I'm glad I came in today and we were talking about burnout, because, as someone who puts myself out there on the internet, where I put my face, my voice, my comedy out there, I do get burned out. I run out of ideas, I run out of just. I do something and it causes my, it causes me to tank views, t-a-n-k. Tank on views. Where I don't get any more is because I take a break. I just step away from the world. I just sit in my truck. Now, grant, I'm home every day and then I've got this. Now I get away and it helps me with burnout.

Speaker 9:

It really does, because one thing I learned and my mom hates it because I've done this since I was 18 is I will just quit talking to people because and this is how me and my wife's relationship works Me we don't see each other until the weekends. She works the night shift, I work day shift and then we see each other on the weekends. It gives us something to talk about. If you go away, just walk away, because you're getting burned out, because you're seeing the same people every day. You're seeing the same person every day. Just go away.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, space.

Speaker 9:

And just no Right. And that's where boundaries come in. B the big one. Boundaries Set you a boundary. Put everyone outside that boundary just for a little bit, not permanently.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 9:

And just go to your own thing for a little bit and come back with stories, come back with experience and share that. I'm so glad I came in here, meta Voice, and, by the way, I was like this is a great topic, yeah. And now I mean what's your opinion? I mean, is that a healthy thing, just to step away?

Speaker 5:

100% it's healthy. So the S, so it's ABCs with an S you don't know your alphabet.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm sitting there and not. Yeah, I just asked.

Speaker 5:

Yes, but the ABCs part, the S part, is about self-care, and that's what you're hitting on right. Because, that's extremely important, right. So we're aware you know we're setting up our boundaries, you know we're finding our community, but we can't, you know, give to everyone else and not focus on ourselves. We have to engage in self-care, and there are some foundational pieces of self-care that you really need to focus on when you're really trying to, you know, kind of get back on your feet, right.

Speaker 9:

Exactly.

Speaker 5:

And when we think about those foundational pieces, you know one is these are the basic, right, Basic things. Sleep.

Speaker 7:

Yes, how much sleep are you?

Speaker 5:

getting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's an S Preach.

Speaker 2:

Just preach, sister, okay.

Speaker 1:

She loves, miss Killer, be loves asleep. Is there any other letters that I don't know about ABCS? I didn't know that.

Speaker 5:

Well, yeah, abcs and C. The S part actually is another acronym, which is S-E-E, so we talked about sleep, oh, there's more the other two things, yeah right. I mean, in the world of medicine there's nothing but acronyms.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, I know.

Speaker 5:

But yeah, the other two are really. Again, these are foundational building blocks. When we think about self care, we talked about sleep. The amount of sleep you should get every night is between seven and nine hours.

Speaker 2:

Or like 10, right or more.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're just a good buddy and thumbs up now.

Speaker 5:

The E is eat right. What are you eating? You know, are you eating a diet, that is, that has a lot of nutritional value and whatnot you? Know, lots of green leafy vegetables et cetera. We could talk about that more later or another date, and then the last E is exercise. So those are the foundational factors in terms of really helping you to really combat symptoms of burnout. That's it. No more normal letters.

Speaker 1:

I've got to learn my whole alphabet all over again. Lady Hawk, come on up. Come on up, Lady Hawk.

Speaker 8:

Hello, how are you doing?

Speaker 6:

I was going to go back to where you said, that we had to learn to say no. I remember you guys probably don't believe it, but many years ago I used to be shy and I couldn't say no to anybody what. And so I had a good friend yeah, I did. I had a good friend that noticed this and they confronted me and they took me aside and they said need learn to say no. And so I whispered it and they said no, that's enough. Well, within the hour they had me scream and know the top of my lungs and they said now you know how to say it, use it. Well, apparently I use it too much because I don't get intimidated very easily, but it had someone pull me aside and let me know, because I didn't really know I could say no.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly I felt obligated.

Speaker 6:

I had to please people. I was scared of everybody, and so I'm glad that one person pulled me aside and said I was allowed to, and so I'm glad you bring that up, saying that we're allowed to say no, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

That's powerful really. Yeah, because as much trouble as I have now about setting boundaries.

Speaker 2:

I used to be way worse and to the point where I was neglecting my family and I was doing things and doing things and, you know, one day it was Brian actually who said to me. He said you know, you're never even home to make dinner anymore. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't even realize that I had gotten to the point where I was saying yes to all these other people and saying no to my family. And so, yeah, that's a really what a blessing that that person pulled you aside and was willing to say that to you. You know they saw where it was taking you and that it wasn't a healthy place. So God bless that person, yeah.

Speaker 5:

Yes, you know, and along those lines, like what I really, really love and, you know, would strongly encourage everyone here. If you have struggled the past in terms of creating boundaries like we all have me too that's one of my, you know, biggest areas of struggle is remembering that by saying no, you're saying yes to something, and so what I recommend people do is make a list of what are all the things you could possibly, you know, say no to and what are the things you could be saying yes to instead. We mentioned time with your family, right, you know. Time off right, like a day off vacation, staycation, right. There's so many things that you could be saying yes to. And do you really need to say yes to, you know, more work at your job, and if you don't say yes to something that really helps you and your loved ones and your self care?

Speaker 1:

That's good, good, good. Thank you, lady Hawk. All right, let's bring up. I think I got three more people on the Q and A. Let's go and bring up Cils. Cils, come on up and then next I'll let you guys know who we're going to bring up. Next we're going to bring up Epic, and actually we have Epic, godman and Meta voice again. So go ahead, zils, go right ahead. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3:

Good to be here, thank you. Thank you for coming. It was very interesting. Like Dean or, I have been in my profession for 32 years and experienced burnout numerous times. But I was just wondering do you have any stats of what occupations are the ones that experience burnout the most? Who?

Speaker 5:

Healthcare? Of course, yes, I would think so high stress careers or high stress occupations are the ones that experience burnout the most, because burnout really consists of uncontrolled stress. So if you're able to control your stress, then that limits you developing burnout. But in terms of like, listen number one, two, three, I don't have that answer right now for you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, that does make sense. I would think, like police, you know, those kind of things would probably be ranked.

Speaker 5:

But thank you. Yeah, the police have huge levels of burnout.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you, zils.

Speaker 2:

Also one thing.

Speaker 2:

I just want to say this super fast, just as a you know, most of my life have been a stay at home mom and not a career woman, and even though some people might look at it like, being a stay at home mom is not an occupation exactly.

Speaker 2:

There are very high levels of burnout in that world as well, because you never, ever get a break. You know, and it's really important, if you are a stay at home mom or stay at home dad, to find ways to set aside time for yourself so that you can be the best that you can for your family, because if you don't, then you just start going on autopilot and not being the best for anybody you know in your life, and so I just want to throw that out there. I know a lot of times during these kinds of conversations I would really start feeling kind of like ashamed of myself or something that I didn't work outside the home and I just wanted to put that out there. If anyone else is feeling that way, you know I see you because it's a super hard job and you know whether you work outside the home or whether you don't, you have a whole set of your own things to deal with, and so, yeah, I just want to say that, yeah, that's good Epic.

Speaker 1:

thank you for joining us tonight.

Speaker 7:

Hi, hi, okay, it's my first time here. Oh, awesome we're welcome.

Speaker 5:

Thanks for coming, thank you.

Speaker 7:

In your opinion, is burnout the result of procrastination or is procrastination the result of burnout? Because I too, myself, have been in a 15 year long career and, yes, I'm experiencing burnout and I'm finding that I'm procrastinating more now than I used to, as metaverse doc said earlier. So I'm just wondering in your opinion, is one a result of the other?

Speaker 5:

So I would say that they are related. But I would say that symptoms of burnout worsen your procrastination, and so you know, if you're already, you know, having checking off the boxes of I'm so tired, why do I want to do this, like I'd rather go, you know, do something else. I'm tired, or, you know, I don't. I'm feeling cynical, I don't want to be at this job, or you know what I mean.

Speaker 7:

I'm cynical lately, oh my God, yes, like I don't. I can't even stand myself right now, and it's hard right.

Speaker 5:

But going back to the a right, it's becoming aware of how you're feeling and you know that you are experiencing these symptoms, right. Once we are aware, once we acknowledge that we can do something about it, we have a name for it, like aha, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm experiencing, and then we can start taking the next steps to really get out of this.

Speaker 2:

Do you have an acronym for the next steps? Like for once, you realize, ok, like I'm experiencing burnout what you should do next, that's the BCS.

Speaker 5:

OK, so yes.

Speaker 7:

I'm a supervisor and told them I'm overworked, I'm too overwhelmed, so I'm starting that ball rolling yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm just good.

Speaker 7:

I did also want to piggyback on what you said, because I was a single mother. My kids are in their 20s now, so success story right here, the way I would do my time out, because, yes, I would go from job to kids, job to kids. Oh, my goodness, never stopped Sleepover parties.

Speaker 3:

What else?

Speaker 7:

Scheduling sleepover parties so that I would at least have an evening just to myself, whether it meant sitting on the couch eating a pint of ice or watching a scary movie or going out with my friends, that's how I got my time out, so, yes, good Advice to parents.

Speaker 4:

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's bring up Batman, and then we have Meta voice and then we're going to wrap up the show. So make sure you guys stay. We'll play the outro music and then, as soon as the outro music starts playing, you guys can all jump up here and we'll grab a selfie together. So, batman, come on up. Thanks for joining us tonight.

Speaker 4:

But yeah, you're talking about burnout and whatnot. Like me personally, I'm a gamer type of girl, so I don't like, as of late, I haven't been wanting to play Fortnite as much, so it's like I do it all the time. But then it's like I did it for YouTube and it was like my personal hobby and I just don't want to upload as much, but I have forced myself to because I feel like I have to.

Speaker 2:

Can I say one quick thing before you go on to your expert opinion? It's something I've been thinking this whole time while we've been talking is that we put so much pressure on ourselves and the expectations of what we think we have to do. And something someone said before made me think about how, like, for instance, like when we're sick, you know, so many people feel like you just have to pass. You just have to like get up and do your thing and like go to work and just power through it. And what you're saying is reminding me of that is that you have to take care of yourself in the way that you know this thing, that you're doing, that you're gaming on Fortnite and you feel like you have to do it, even if you want to. You know, I think you need to just take a little time, take a little step back and ask yourself, like why do I feel like I have to do this, even though I really need a break? You know like you're pushing yourself too hard. It sounds like maybe, but anyway, I want to say that because I was thinking about how we let the expectations of what we think we have to do push ourselves too hard to where we like hurt ourselves really in the long run or we make ourselves unhealthy or mentally or physically. And I just want to put that out there, because the reason why I use the example of being sick is because, for whatever reason, I don't know why.

Speaker 2:

So my mom, my whole family, is in the medical field, but my mom, specifically, was a paramedic for 30 years. So if anyone's ever grown up around a paramedic, you never go to the doctor because she knew how to handle everything. She's like they're just going to tell you to drink water and go to sleep, so just do that. And so we never went to the doctor. But I just somehow always knew if I was sick, I just need to rest, take care of myself, I'm not going to push myself. I've always been like that, right, brian? Like he would be the type where he'd be like no, I've got to work, I'm going to push through this, and I would go to bed for two days and be better.

Speaker 2:

So like totally for two days yeah really I really would, I would knock it out of bed for two days. But I say all that to say somehow, innately I knew that in the long run I would be better off if I just took care of this now and then move on. And I've tried to incorporate that into other parts of my life. And I wanted to bring it up because especially American culture really tells us just hustle, just push through it, Just don't be a baby, just white knuckle it. And I don't think it's served us well.

Speaker 5:

It's so true there's no reason for us to just suck it up and push through it. I had a question for you, Batman, and pinging back off of what Oki Trucker said when was the last time you took a vacation?

Speaker 4:

Oh God, I mean like a month ago, it was like three days, I mean not even close to family, but it was for my grandpa's birthday. So I went on vacation, but trying to make something work.

Speaker 5:

Okay. So when was the last time you took a vacation? Yeah, like a year ago, maybe. So I think it's absolutely essential, when we think about you know, self-care and taking care of our mental wellness, that we schedule time for vacations, time to step away, right, and that allows us to rejuvenate, right, to reconnect with our why and to see if our why has shifted right. And so you know why are you a gamer? You know why are you doing this. This is still something that you're very passionate about, that you still really, really want to do, and the only way for you to really have that space and that time to really focus on that is if you step away and take a vacation.

Speaker 4:

That's good. So you're not going to do some of the staycation, but just step away Sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. Thank you for asking that, because I think you're really tapped into something that a lot of people feel, which is, like we talked about a minute ago, like you feel like you have no choice, you have to keep going, and you know, it's really a it's a scary place to be when you feel like you're trapped, and so I'm glad you brought that up so we could talk about that, like, yeah, really good question.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, bad man, thank you bad man, all right, all right, let's bring up our last question for the night. Meta voice, come on up. Meta voice, welcome back.

Speaker 8:

Hi again. Hello, meta, voice I deeply want to apologize. I didn't know. I was see. I said I was going to go out there and shut up and sit down, and I did the complete opposite. I went out there, ran around, started talking to everybody, but I used to be that they used to be like in Europe, I'm out there, so you couldn't hear someone was talking to someone anymore. Apparently that could have been terribly embarrassing.

Speaker 2:

Well, we couldn't hear you.

Speaker 8:

Yeah, I'm so glad you couldn't because that's the only ones that matter, I mean the community matters. Anyways, my question being well, see, I know I needed to take a vacation from a lot of that. I did I nonstop to work on to become a voice actor. I did it by myself, I didn't have a team and I couldn't really. I was like, if I do this, I just got to keep going and I was like, well, now I got to take a vacation, but I got scared.

Speaker 8:

I'm scared to take a vacation because what happens if that turns into a stay vacation and I didn't mean it to, but it will because of my procrastination, the anxiety of taking a vacation and not knowing if you can get back in that groove, Even if things will be the same if you did. It's scary, it really is, you know, because you never know what the inevitable is. If it's a job you've been at for, say, 15 years and you burnt out by it, well, you take the risk to find another one that you might be happy about. There's a lot of risks involved. It's scary.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of risks. Yeah, I think that one of the things that I think about Meta-voices when it comes to business. I've been there. I'm going to miss out an opportunity, right, if I slow down, if I don't do this. But what I've also learned is the most important things in my life If I don't know what my life is going to be like tomorrow, I might not even be here. If I do all this hustle and grind and I'm focused, focused, trying to drive this and make this happen, but I don't spend time with the people I love and slow down.

Speaker 1:

If today was my last day, would I want that time to be spent like knowing I slowed down and spent some time with my family, or that I was trying to push to get to that next level, which doesn't even matter now.

Speaker 1:

So that's something that I've tried to look at in regards to that, because, when it comes down to it, I think the fear of missed opportunity is real, but the truth is we don't know. Even during my times of breaks that I've done, because I share here Metaverse, doc but I do reflection time every week. So tomorrow I'll be going out for two to four hours just spending time reflecting and praying and kind of good and just processing things that's going on in life, business, health. But during that time I actually even meet people that actually end up becoming other opportunities that I didn't. It wasn't even chasing, trying to do Like those people are all around us, but I would have missed that opportunity if I wouldn't have been just taking that time to unplug. So I think it's like the unknown. It's the unknowns, the things that we don't know. We don't know what happens tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

You know Metaverse, what you're saying is making me think of something too. So our son, you know, he like, follows certain people on YouTube and things like that, and he, he's in the booth somewhere, arcane, if you hear me telling this story and you want to add, something, please come tell us.

Speaker 1:

I see the heart, I see the heart came out of the wall.

Speaker 2:

Oh he's our little bee.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So he told me about a YouTuber who was not willing to follow the algorithm that YouTube was like putting out there like posts I forget what they used to say on YouTube like post every day or like three times a week, I don't remember Well this creator in particular. He would not do it, but because his content was so good, he still ended up being very successful. And I say that because you need that time away creatively to put out your best content, and for you in particular. You know, if you were able to take a little time away, you would be even stronger when you came back.

Speaker 2:

And I know it's scary, I know I mean, brian and I have dealt with this before and it's scary to think about taking that time away, but you need it. You know it's what's best for you and then when you come back, you'll be even stronger. And so I just thought about that and I wanted to share that with you. I always thought that was such an amazing story and you know our son he's like a little bit of a rebel, so he loved that story about. You know, I'm not going to follow the algorithm, I'm going to do what's right for me, and so you know, I think it, I think we all could use a little bit of that in our lives, you know definitely, definitely understand.

Speaker 8:

Well, thank you so much. Did you have anything to say? Metaverse doc to the cover it up.

Speaker 5:

I think they did a fantastic job covering it all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean license us as doctors.

Speaker 5:

We have to go through a couple more acronyms.

Speaker 1:

first that's all we need.

Speaker 5:

That's it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

No, we want that, that's easier.

Speaker 8:

Michigan too. I got people yeah that's right, yeah, michigan.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, yes.

Speaker 1:

Michigan. Thank you. Thank you, metaverse, I would love to know. Dr JB, I just want to say thank you so much for joining us Like. This is great. This is your first experience at Horizon World, so what do you think? What do you think about it?

Speaker 5:

Oh man, I love that. Thank you guys so much. It was so wonderful meeting all of you guys. You guys had such amazing questions. You guys are so engaged. I absolutely love that. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, we really appreciate you coming out. I always ask all of our guests as we wrap up, if there's one thing that you hope people take away from today's event, today's show, what would it be?

Speaker 5:

I think the biggest thing is you can always start now, right Like. You don't forget about yesterday. You don't have any control over yesterday. You don't have control over tomorrow, but you do have control over the present.

Speaker 1:

That's good.

Speaker 5:

And realizing your power in right, now. Right, and if you decide that I want to make a change in my life, then there's no better time than now to start.

Speaker 1:

Hey, thanks for tuning in to today's podcast episode, if you liked today's episode.

Speaker 5:

Go ahead and hit the subscribe button or leave us a review.

People on this episode