Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Suzanne show with me, Suzanne Proksa, HR and business strategist, former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, landscaper in training, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Here, we talk a little business, personal development, women's health, and a whole lot about things that matter, help people, and give them joy. Grab your coffee or your wine, Break out one of your hundreds of notebooks. Light that soy candle, and let's dive in. Hello, everybody. Today's topic is so, so needed, And that is how to reduce burnout by using days by design with Britney Dixon. Brittany helps entrepreneurs build businesses without burnout by creating minimalist business and productivity systems to do more in less time. She organizes routines, time management, and tech to work better for you.
Suzanne Proksa:
A former event planner and professional home organizer, Britney is now the Marie Hondo for businesses with her consulting, coaching, and podcasting. As the CEO of Britney and company, she uses her organization skills to help business owners simplify, to amplify their income impact and influence. When Britney is not helping business owners, she is raising her twin girls, Kenna and Leila with her husband, Steven Dixon, camping and learning the art of wine and cheese. Britney, I am so glad to have you here. Please feel free to expand on that introduction. If there's anything that I miss.
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for having me and for that lovely intro. So, yeah, my name's Brittney Dixon. Like she said, I'm the CEO of Brittney and Co. And I've been in business for about 7 years, but I am most definitely an accidental entrepreneur. I went from being an event organizer and planner, then kind of jumped in and started my business after I was fired from my corporate job and started home organization. So my business was essentially called clutter control when it started, and I would go into twin moms' houses and help them organize and create systems within their homes to take away a lot of the stress because I'm a mom of twins myself, Kenneth and Leila, like she mentioned in the intro. And I just realized that organization was my superpower.
Brittany Dixon:
That actually came after reading a book called, ordinary superpower. Sorry. And I really just found out, like, I thought organizing was just easy and it just came natural to me because it was my superpower. So, essentially, I started the home organization business. And when I did that, I actually had hired a coach because I had no idea when I was doing running a business because I didn't start a business to run a business. I started a business to help people. And, essentially, when I hired her, she was like, you know that you could totally do this for business owners and teach business owners productivity and organization and basically apply everything you're doing in the home business, but for business owners. And I was like, oh my gosh.
Brittany Dixon:
So it opened up a whole new world for me. That was back in 2017. And I actually had no idea what a funnel was. I had no idea this whole online world existed, and I essentially just dove right in and taught myself everything. So when I started the business, it was a lot of burnout because I was doing a lot of the wrong things. I was doing a lot of things that everyone told me, not tapping into what I wanted to do. I didn't really have a plan. It was kind of just very scattered, and I was throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Brittany Dixon:
But, yeah, that's essentially how it went is I organized events and then organized houses, and now I organized businesses. So I go into businesses and really help them streamline and structure things so that they can work less, so that they can take Fridays off so that they can go on vacation without bringing the laptop. But it wasn't always that way for me. I was also that person that worked until midnight and worked 17 hours a day and had massive mom guilt because I was working so much. And finally, I put some things in place that allowed me to get away from that, and I knew that I had to share that with people. So being an organizer type a person, I've just always been that person that creates frameworks and create structures and systems, and I'm a planner and all of these things. And I just knew that I had to use that superpower to help other people because I just see so many business owners burning out and quitting before they even get to the point that they can help people because they don't have systems and structures and organization in the back end of their business. And they didn't start a business to run a business.
Brittany Dixon:
So there's so many unknowns. And, yeah, I'm just really here to help streamline that so that they are able to do more and work less and still make a big impact.
Suzanne Proksa:
Britney, let's talk about the whole reason we're here today and that is burnout. So I am going to ask you what may sound like a ridiculous question, but what is burnout and why is this something that we want to get under control?
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my goodness. Yes. Such a good question. Exciting it gets everybody on the same page. Right? So the definition of burnout, if you go and Google it, is exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation, usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. Right? So that's the technical definition. I'm gonna give you my definition because it is loving what you do so much that you'll do anything for it. And I feel like, especially as business owners, there are so many of us that we started a business because we love what we do.
Brittany Dixon:
We love helping people, and we knew that we could turn it into something that made us money. Right? But at the same point, we are willing to do so much for it that we give our all, and sometimes you're not getting things in return. And this can happen for numerous different reasons. Right? Starting without having a clear plan or a clear strategy, trying to do too much, saying yes to everything. All of these things are going to lead to burnout, essentially. So, really, I feel like burnout is when you get to that point where you love the things so, so, so much and you want to keep giving, but you physically just cannot. And you get to this point where you're almost, like, numb and just kind of shut things out and have no motivation to do anything, even though you love it so, so much. Right? And I think that comes when we spend years saying yes to too many things, filling our calendar with stuff that's not serving us, people pleasing and saying yes to things because we know it'll make other people happy, doing things that we feel like we should be doing even though it's not getting us a return in our this is like doing things on vacation and working on vacation and not taking time off because you feel like you have to keep moving.
Brittany Dixon:
This is not having boundaries with clients and letting clients take over your schedule and your time. There's so many things when it comes to business that will lead to burnout. And we wanna get this under control because if we are burnt out, we're not able to serve people. We're not able to help people, and we're not able to do the thing that we actually started our businesses for. Right? So if you are so exhausted and so stressed and overwhelmed and frustrated that you've lost motivation, you're going to stop being able to help the people that you started your business for. Right? So I see so many entrepreneurs doing this. They give away their services for free. They say yes to everything.
Brittany Dixon:
They fill their calendar and do stuff that isn't really moving the needle forward because they think that they've gotta put the work in. And once they do, eventually, things will start working. And that's true. You can hustle your way to success, but it is not sustainable. Talking from my experience, I've burned out a couple different times where I almost burnt the whole business down. And that's saying a lot because I actually have a 6 figure business that's really successful, but you still can get to that point of wanting to bring it all down because you're just completely exhausted and have no motivation to move forward. So we wanna get it under control because if you lead yourself to burnout, you're actually not going to be able to help the people that you started your business to help.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much. I think that most people in the world are really no stranger to burnout at one point or another, if not all the time. Right? If there were only one thing that you would encourage people to do above anything else to create more freedom in their day, what would that
Brittany Dixon:
be? Oh, goodness. Only 1. How am I supposed to pick just 1? Okay. So honestly I would tell you, So I work with a lot of clients from solopreneurs up to bigger businesses with, like, 15 people. And I will tell you that across that entire large span of clients that I worked with from a consulting perspective, from a client and student perspective, like, any of that type of stuff, it all comes down to time management every single time. I don't care if I'm building systems and CRMs and automations and that sort of thing for bigger businesses, or if I'm helping you organize your Google Drive. It all comes down to time management. And I feel like the one thing you could do to give yourself more freedom is to go through your calendar day by day and the things that are on there.
Brittany Dixon:
I want you to ask yourself, like, is this something I am so excited about? Is this something that I'm dreading? Is this something that I only said yes to? Because I feel like I had to say yes to it and purge, like purge, purge, purge, get rid of things, delete things. Because I feel like this is how our time gets sucked up so quickly as we say yes to things and we fill the calendar and we do these things and we just get in this rhythm, but so many of the things on our calendar are not exciting us and are not things that we want to do. Now, granted, we all have to do stuff as business owners that we don't want to do, but there there is a difference between that from a business owner perspective and the things you're saying yes to. And if it's not a hell yes, it needs to be a hell no and you need to delete it. And this is not just for business. This is personal stuff too. I am the mom that does not sign up to be volunteers for things. I do not do all of the activities.
Brittany Dixon:
My kids know that they can really only do one activity at a time, and I'm okay with that. I know that there's so many moms that want to be busy and want to be in everything and volunteer for everything, and that's fantastic. If it lights you up, if it's a hell yes, if you're excited about it and if it helps you meet your goals. But if it doesn't and you're just doing it to please other people, you will most definitely lead yourself to brand.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. No pressure, Britney. No pressure at all. But I'm about to ask you a question that could change the world. Okay? How can you wrap up your day without feeling stressed when you shut down your laptop?
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my goodness. Yes. I love this one. Okay. So I'm gonna give you the before and the after. So before me would get to the end of the day and like, I had just been on call after call after call and barely ate lunch. And I was taking notes furiously through all of those calls and I would bounce to my email and I was doing things all day long. I got to the end of the day and there were still so many things that were like open loops.
Brittany Dixon:
Right? Like, all the notes I'd taken, I'd put stars beside them, things I needed to do, things I needed to send people, like, all of that kind of stuff. And I would get to the end of the day and were so exhausted that I just stopped working, left it there, and I was like, it'll be here for me for tomorrow. Right? But because that's the way I operated when I got to the end of my day and I didn't close things out, I had all these open loops in my brain and I had all of this stress and anxiety. And I'm sure many of the listeners here have woken up at 2 or 3 AM and been like, oh my goodness. I forgot to do blank. Right? That's how I operated for probably about a year and a half, 2 years when I first started my business. I would just close down at 5 o'clock and, like, just put my notebooks away. And I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna deal with the truth.
Brittany Dixon:
I don't have time. I've been working for 9 hours today. It is what it is. So I operated that way forever. Then I moved into the system where at the end of my day, I would really process everything that would happen. I would plan out my next day and I would prepare anything I needed for that next day. And because I did that little end of day routine, which I call my 3 P's of productivity, I essentially had everything was in its place. I knew that I still had stuff to do.
Brittany Dixon:
I knew that I had people I need to reach out to. I knew I had to send things. I had action that came from it, but it all went into my task management system. So if I knew that I needed to send somebody a PDF, I created a task that said, send so and so a PDF, and I knew that that task would be there for me tomorrow and didn't get lost in my notes. If I knew that I needed to send a follow-up email, I would either do it immediately at the end of the day super quickly, or I would create a task for myself. So essentially, by processing my notes at the end of the day and making sure that any action items made it into my Asana, where I do all of my task management, I knew the tasks were there waiting on me and I knew they were in a safe place to tell me that I needed to do them by a specific date. That was a much safer place than them being in my notebooks and getting lost. Right? So then plan in that process, process, plan, prepare, planning was me actually laying out the next day before it even came.
Brittany Dixon:
Because what happened was I would then, after I, like, put everything away, closed down at 5 PM and was still thinking about work, I would come into the next day at 9 AM and, like, have to make a plan in the morning when things are already coming at me. Emails were coming at me. People were coming at me. Clients were coming at me. I had calls on my calendar, so it was this vicious cycle. But when I started planning at the end of my day for the next day, I had a road map before I even started at 9 AM. I had a plan for what I was doing before I even started so I could hit the ground running. And the prepare for me, that 3rd p and the 3 p's of productivity, that really meant getting anything ready that I needed to execute the plan.
Brittany Dixon:
So let's say I had a client call that next day, and that was on the plan at 11 AM. I made sure that I had their client notebook ready. I made sure that I had bullet points of what we needed to talk about. I made sure that I was ready for that call before the call came. If I had a podcast I was recording, I made sure that I had the outline. I made sure that I had the link. I made sure I was prepared to be on the podcast. My mic was ready.
Brittany Dixon:
So I prepared things ahead of time. So by doing those 3 p's and that routine at the end of my day, I was really, really able to make sure that I was setting myself for success the next day instead of starting the day in chaos. So that honestly was the biggest thing that shifted my business. And I think that allowed me to close off a lot of that anxiety and that stress that I had and not feel so burnt out.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you for humoring me on that one. Okay. So what's the best way to design your day that balances both business and personal? I mean, sometimes this just seems impossible, impossible, and I'm incredibly busy. And I know people who are even busier. I'm not a mom, so I actually don't have that layer on top of everything else. And I just can't imagine. So again, what's the best way to design your day that balances both business and personal?
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my gosh, Jess. I love this. So I will tell you, it all starts with your goals. It all starts with your big picture, what you want, what you're trying to achieve, and what you're trying to do in the different areas of your life. So if you're not clear on your goals, that could very well be an indicator of why you're feeling burnout and feeling so stressed and overwhelmed with your calendar. Because if you're not clear with your goals, it's really hard to decide what to say yes and no to because you need to have that kind of road back in place. So number 1 is start with your goals, figure out what you want in your business and also in your personal life. That's what's gonna dictate your calendar.
Brittany Dixon:
Number 2, and this is something I see a lot, is that entrepreneurs will say yes to all kinds of meetings and coffee chats and networking events and different things. Right? Podcast interviews, doing a summit, doing a, an event, being a speaker. Like you're saying yes to all of these things and you're filling your calendar. Client calls, all of it. Right? You're filling your calendar. But what people don't put on their calendar, like physically on their calendar, is time for admin time, time for sales time, time for follow-up, time for client blocks, time for taking the kids to school, picking the kids up from school, time for lunch. If you start to build out your calendar with all these things, like physically on your calendar, you are actually going to see how little time you actually have. Right? How little time you have to say yes to things, because if you put that you have to drop the kids off in the morning, they have to take a lunch break and they have to pick them up in the evening, that right there is already taking away time.
Brittany Dixon:
If you then put admin time on that calendar for that specific day and you put sales time on that day, you have even less time. So here's the problem is that you fill your calendar with everything. And as a business owner, you still have to do admin time. You still have to do sales time. So if you fill the calendar for 40 hours and you still have to do all these things as a business owner that weren't on your calendar, that's when you're going to be working 17 hours a day and until midnight. Right? So you've gotta start with your goals. You have to only say yes to things that actually are moving you forward towards those goals. And you also need to put your business owner responsibilities on your calendar physically, like on reoccurrence.
Brittany Dixon:
I have from 8 AM to 9 AM every day, Monday through Thursday, because I take Fridays off. Monday through Thursday from 8 to 9 is sales time, and it is blocked out on my calendar so that no one else can book that. On Mondays, I have a 2 hour block of admin time. On Thursdays, I have a 2 hour block of admin and planning time. And this starts to shrink the amount of white space that I have to design my days. Now from a personal perspective, putting things on there that light you up, that you're excited about, that you wanna do in your personal life. One thing for me is that we actually have family board game night every single Thursday, and we didn't start doing that until it was physically on the calendar every single Thursday on repeat. I was really bad in eating lunch until I put that on the calendar.
Brittany Dixon:
I could physically see it, and it was this intentional reminder. If you are a busy person, you live by your calendar and your to do list. And if you have actual time blocks for sales and admin time and client time, it's gonna allow you to say less, and you're gonna have a lot more buffer time in your calendar, and you're actually gonna be able to start balancing things better.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. So let's face it. Running a business, no matter what kind of business it is, it can really burn you out. It's crazy busy. You're often wearing all of the hats. It is really hard to manage, especially if you don't have the funds to hire a VA to help you. And I know that there are people out there who say you can't afford that too. Sorry.
Suzanne Proksa:
If you don't have $5 to go to Taco Bell, you don't have the money for a VA. I'm standing firm on that one. Okay. Y'all. So while I understand the point that people are trying to make with that, it's not gonna fly over here. How do you create a minimalist business that doesn't cause burnout? You know, how do you manage all of that?
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my gosh. Yes. This is one of my favorite things. Wearing all the hats. As business owners, we have to wear all the hats, but we don't have to try to do everything. And we have to try to listen a little bit less to other people and listen to ourselves and what we feel good about because I see too many business owners saying yes to all these things and and adding things and constantly being in overwhelm where there's so much power in just simplifying and deleting. Every time I've been at a burnout stage, I go through and I delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. I delete physical clutter in my office.
Brittany Dixon:
I delete physical clutter in my house. I go through and delete tasks that I know I don't need to be doing, even though I think that I need to be doing them. I delete emails. I delete files. I delete systems and softwares. And what I have found is every time that I become this like minimalist mindset and start deleting things that I feel so much better. Right? Like, who doesn't feel good after cleaning out a junk drawer? Like, is that just me? Am I crazy? So I will tell people that deleting things and becoming more minimalistic is a mindset. It is this mindset that you have to get into, and it it's this practice that you have to just continually remember.
Brittany Dixon:
But you're also every time you are deleting things and minimizing things, you can feel just less and less pressure and stress. So the second piece to that is how do you create this minimalist business? Right? So from a solopreneur standpoint, as far as systems go, you need a really organized digital workspace, which I actually call my Google Chrome with all of my bookmarks, my extensions, my passwords, all of my apps, you need a really organized digital work space. I actually have a whole video if you wanna go check it out on my website, like, behind the scenes. You then need a task management system of some kind. 1, only one of them. Pick 1, stick with it, but you need somewhere to manage all of your tasks. You need a CRM to keep track of potential leads and clients in a really simple and organized way. I actually have videos for both task management in Asana and my CRM 17 hats in on my website, so if you wanna look at those.
Brittany Dixon:
But then you need an organized calendar. Right? Calendar, task management, CRM, and an organized digital workspace, those are the core components being a solopreneur. The least amount of softwares that you can sign up for, the better. Stop signing up for a software and bouncing from software to software because your friend told you to check it out. The least amount of softwares that you can run your business with will help reduce burnout and overwhelm because you don't need all of that, especially if you've looked at your goals and you know what your goals are. So again, everything go comes back to having really solid handle on what your goals are, like, from a tangible aspect of how many things you need, how many people you need to sign up for programs, all of that. Right? So the least amount of software as possible will allow you to not feel overwhelmed. Now I will be honest with you.
Brittany Dixon:
Running a business online, there's a lot of different pieces of software and a whole lot of different options. The biggest thing I can tell you is that all the task management softwares, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, monday.com, all of them, they're all competing with each other. So just find one that feels like it works for you, go all in, and stop switching. It's not about the tool or the tech. They all have fancy bells and whistles. They all do the same thing. The biggest thing is setting up the system inside the tool and then consistently using it. Because if you're not consistently using it, it doesn't matter if you're using Asana, Monday, ClickUp, whatever, it's not gonna work.
Brittany Dixon:
So the least amount of tools possible is gonna help you to create a business without brand.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much. That is super valuable. So you talk about your days by design framework. Tell us a little more about that. And then also, how do people reach out to you? How do they find out more about what you're doing, how to work with you and all of that good stuff.
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my goodness. Yes. Thank you. So absolutely love this days by design method that I've created. Not to to my own horn, but after my last version of burning out, I essentially reevaluated my entire business. I looked at all the clients I was working with. I looked at what I was doing. I looked at what I loved and what I didn't love.
Brittany Dixon:
I deleted a bunch of things. I cleared things out. I let go of staff, like all the things. Right? And so many of the common threads that I found were these kind of 4 core pillars of my days by design method. So essentially it is purge and detox, processes and systems, planning and strategy, and productivity on purpose. And if you follow this method over and over, every quarter, every month, whatever that looks like, it will help you to be a business so better business owner and actually have days created the way you want them versus letting your business control you. So let me expand on each of those. Purge and detox is just what I was talking about.
Brittany Dixon:
The leading things, clearing up your digital workspace, clearing up paper and clutter with sticky notes and notebooks, clearing up your systems and deleting systems that don't work for you anymore, Removing those expenses, doing a time audit, deleting things from your calendar. Like this is something that has to constantly happen because you're constantly having digital clutter come at you. You're constantly having paper clutter come at you, new systems that you sign up for, new things you're adding to your calendar. So you have to purge and detox as often as possible so that you don't feel overwhelmed. The next piece of that is setting up your processes and systems. So you have to have an organized digital workspace, an organized task management system, an organized CRM, a calendar that's organized, an organized physical workspace. Like you've got to have those processes and systems to allow you to work efficiently. And by setting them up and having them be really organized, it's gonna help you save a lot of time.
Brittany Dixon:
Then all the systems and like purging of clutter is not going to move forward without a plan and a strategy. And this is something you have to continually look at based on your goals. You've gotta continually plan things. You gotta continually create strategy within your business of what's working and what's not working. You've gotta pivot when the plan doesn't work, but you've gotta have a plan. And from that plan, doesn't matter how much you plan. If you don't take action and actually have productivity on purpose where you're doing things that are moving the needle forward, you are not going to make progress. So you've got to take that plan and take action.
Brittany Dixon:
Right? So productivity and productivity on purpose is that last step. And if you go through this cycle of purging, making sure your systems are organized, creating a plan and taking action on that plan and then purging, and then making sure your systems work for that and planning and actually taking action. If you go through this cycle constantly, I promise you that you will be less overwhelmed and you will be able to create the stays by design that you want. You'll be able to take off Fridays. You'll be able to take off a random Wednesday to get a massage at 2 PM. You'll be able to go to your kid's soccer game and you'll be able to take vacation without working. And I know this because I did this. I was you before.
Brittany Dixon:
I was you there that was overwhelmed and said yes to everything. And I had no systems and I was not organized and I had no plan. And then I would rather take an information and take courses than take action. I was you. And now I'm here and I take Fridays off And I take random Wednesdays off, and I have white space, and I get to read for an hour in the morning, and I take weekends off, and I take vacations. And I'm not saying that it's easy because you do have to put this stuff in place, but it's 1000% possible. So if you wanna learn more about all the things that I teach and all the things I do, if you go to bcohq.co, b c o hq.co. You'll find behind the scenes videos.
Brittany Dixon:
You'll find a ton of podcasts that I've been on. We have a lot of resources that you can do and download. I have my own podcast. We have all the things. Right? So bcohq.co is probably the best way to find whatever you're looking for. But, yeah, I would say that's the the best place to go.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. We are at my favorite part of the show. This is where I ask my guests for 2 or 3 things that they want the audience to walk away with. What are the things that you wanna make sure that they write down in that spiral bound notebook that, you know, they've got with all the cute little things on it? There's, ICU. What things do you want them to walk away with today?
Brittany Dixon:
Oh my goodness. Yes. Again, 2 or 3 things. It's so difficult. So I would say delete and get rid of anything that does not bring you joy is number 1. We all have so many options for everything in this world. And if it is not bringing you joy, you have got to delete it from your world as quickly as possible. Whether that is clutter, whether that is something you're doing in your business, whether that is a client that you're working with that absolutely drives you crazy and does not light you up, like, whatever that is that's in your world that's not bringing you joy and it's not a hell yes, you've gotta delete it.
Brittany Dixon:
You've gotta delete it because so many other good things will come when you start taking things away that aren't bringing you joy. So that's number 1. Number 2 is that it did not get overwhelming, and it didn't get like this overnight. Right? Like, if you're at the burnout stage right now and you're so overwhelmed and you're drowning in paperwork and emails and and business things, it didn't get like this overnight. It's a process to clean it up. Right? It's a process to detox things. It's a process to set up systems. It's a process to create that plan.
Brittany Dixon:
It's a process to get into routines, but you've got to enjoy the process. There are so many people that just want to get to success quickly, but you've gotta enjoy those milestones and those steps because they're all teaching you things and they're all going to help you in some way, even though it doesn't feel like it. So it's overwhelming now and you just have to take action and take step by step to get but enjoy the process. That's number 2. And number 3 is that I didn't talk a lot about my background, but I actually grew up in a really poor family. We I was the oldest of 5. We were not well off. Now there was people that had it way worse than I did.
Brittany Dixon:
But at the same time, that was my experience growing up, and I moved out when I was 18, and I was on my own and worked 2 jobs and went to college and then had twins at 22 after we got married and all of these things. Right? No entrepreneurship in my family had no idea that the online world existed in 2017. And if I can do it, you can do it. Anyone can do it. If if I can get to 6 figures and have a successful business, so can you. It takes it takes grit. It takes systems. It takes being organized.
Brittany Dixon:
It takes routines. It takes a lot. But if I can do it, so can you. So those would be my top three things.
Suzanne Proksa:
Britney, thank you so much for being on the show today. I always feel so blessed to be able to do what I'm doing here and bring guests on the show that I know are going to positively impact people's lives. And I just thank you so much for taking the time and for being here and letting me share your genius with my audience. And I hope to talk
Brittany Dixon:
to you soon. Yes. Thank you so, so much for having me. I really hope that could go and walk away with something that is really beneficial to their business. So thank you so much for the opportunity. This was great.
Suzanne Proksa:
I hope that you loved this episode. If you did, give me those shout outs, show me some love on iTunes, give me a rating, and, hey, if you wanna know where to find me, you can find me on pretty much all social media at Suzanne. That's suzanneproxa, and you can also head over to my website suzanneproxa.com. Until then, I'll see you at the next episode and here is the party music for you.
