Building a Business Without Burnout

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
I used to think the laptop lifestyle was so cool, working from the beach, but what I now realize is that is a lie. Laptop lifestyle means you are working on the beach. And I strongly believe now that if I'm at the beach, I ain't working. And so today in this episode, I want to talk about how boundaries work in your marketing, in your business, and how we can, yes, both care deeply about our clients and customers and also not have our notifications turned on or work really hard and also not respond to DMs at midnight today. We're going to dive into this conversation in this episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio and the video.

Andréa Jones [00:00:53]:
It is like Chef's Kiss magical, making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their Magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through into it myself. Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go.

Andréa Jones [00:01:25]:
Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today. The links in the show notes and make sure to use my code, DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. All right, I gotta start this episode with a story time because if you're new to this podcast, I have to provide some context. So I have been working in this business for 11 years, y' all. I hit my 11th business anniversary in March of this year, and it's just wild to me. This is like the thing I've done the longest in my life. But I followed Gary V in the beginning.

Andréa Jones [00:02:02]:
And if y' all don't know who Gary V. Gary Vaynerchuk is, he is a marketer who talks a lot about marketing. I love some of his concepts, but the things I don't like are how much effort, time and energy he puts into marketing. And honestly, it's because he likes it and I love that journey for him. Me, on the other hand, I'm very introverted. I need to protect my energy and so I cannot follow the Gary Vee model of, like, wake up at 6am, spend three hours responding to comments and messages, document your entire day, and spend every waking minute responding to comments. I can't do that. I will be so depleted.

Andréa Jones [00:02:39]:
Just even saying it out loud, I'm like, I'm exhausted. Okay, So a lot of my boundaries came from deep reflection in a personal place because I had to. I literally could not do my job without setting boundaries in place. So rewind. The year's 2017. I've been in my business for three years. At that point, I had 40 clients. I had my team bumping.

Andréa Jones [00:03:03]:
We were doing great, and I was miserable. I was miserable because I was starting to get these, like, anxiety, ish panic attacks over the notifications on my phone emails. I was logged into all my clients accounts and on Facebook, y' all, you get all of the notifications. Instagram, I could only log into five. I think that's still the case. And even then, I was inundated with requests from my team, from my clients, from just social media. Nothing bad, but my brain went, oh, my gosh, they hate you. You know, if you're anxious, you'll know what I'm saying.

Andréa Jones [00:03:38]:
Oh, my gosh, everything's terrible. That was me. And so I put myself in therapy, got coaching, and what I realized through my process was one, I needed a break. So I took two weeks off, completely disconnected for the first time ever in my business, because prior to that, I was working on the beach. I was answering stuff on weekends. So I took a break. And when I came back, that's when I started meditating. I meditated for something like 250 days in a row or something wild like that.

Andréa Jones [00:04:09]:
Just five minutes a day using the Headspace app, which I love. And then I turned off all my notifications, and I set one notification in my asana for various things I need to do. And then I do have things in my Google calendar that notify me. And I turned off everything else. And I was very happy in that space for a long time, y' all. That boundary of turning off my notifications and. And really recognizing when anxiety was happening, because that was my big problem is, like, I would get anxious. Then I would, like, judge myself about being anxious and, like, the feelings would just pile up.

Andréa Jones [00:04:45]:
Meditation helped me acknowledge the anxiety without all the other emotions bogging me down. And I was able to move forward with my life and with my business. Okay. Boundaries made me feel safe enough to build my business. And from there, y' all, like, my biggest year in business, we had almost $900,000 in revenue. Okay, that was 2022. And that's possible in my mind due to the boundaries and creative energy I was able to put into my business. All right, now, boundaries are not walls.

Andréa Jones [00:05:22]:
I think boundaries are more like social agreements, if you will. There are some that we just assume from other people, and those are the ones that once they're pushed, we have to set the boundaries. So for me, it's how I respond to my Instagram DMs and messages. People who know me know not to expect an immediate response. I'm just not that type of person. If I happen to be on Instagram and you message me, sure, maybe if I feel like it, I'll message you back. Maybe not. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:05:51]:
That is a social agreement that I'm choosing to break. And it's not just in social media. It's the same for my text messages. When people text me, I may take my time texting back. It's just how I am, unless I'm already available and then I will text back. It's. It helps me remain calm throughout my day instead of, like, having to switch between all of these things all the time. I usually batch respond to stuff, batch respond to messages and things.

Andréa Jones [00:06:16]:
It just works for my brain. Okay, I know I'm breaking a social agreement with that, and I'm able to survive in this world because of it. Okay? I set the tone with that. I don't let other people set the tone. I set the tone. And there have been a few people who've been frustrated with me and we are no longer friends. If you send me a text and I don't respond right away, and then you send me 50 texts, I'm going to call you out on it and be like, listen, I can't be available all the time. Okay? This to me is defining what works for me as a human in this world.

Andréa Jones [00:06:47]:
And I think those of us who are people pleasers, we have a really hard time with that now. The second layer to this is the social media context of it all. There's like a social understanding collectively, society and community, that as a personal brand, it's your face on social media. People see you posting, they feel like they know you. And there's this assumption that because you're putting yourself out there, that you are open and available to receive whatever it is they want to give you. We see this happening a lot in the Internet, especially if we take it to the extreme, people being Internet bullies essentially, and saying whatever they want. I can't tell you how Many times my YouTube channel is the worst for this, where people will tell me that whatever they comment about anything, usually it's my voice. People don't either love it or hate it.

Andréa Jones [00:07:42]:
And they'll comment or I should go unalive myself. Okay? People will literally say things like that on my YouTube channel. This is called parasocial relationship because it's my face. Because I have so much content out there, they feel like they have an entitled access to me. My response, I delete the comments. I block them, I move on. Okay, this is me setting my boundary. You as a personal brand, have to think about where your boundaries are and not be afraid of it.

Andréa Jones [00:08:18]:
Feeling like you're not being friendly. And this is where scripts come into play with me and help me. This is where ChatGPT has like saved my butt. Because sometimes I'll be like, listen, I want to say no to this person and I need to help saying no in a way that will let them know that I'm serious. Because I tend to smile, y' all, even when I'm talking to people. Like, my daughter does not take me seriously. Because I'll be like, don't do that. Like, it's just how I am.

Andréa Jones [00:08:46]:
And then the flip side is when I'm texting, it's like, no. No capitalization, no punctuation. And people are like, are you mad? And I was like, no, I just was going quick, right? And so I use tools to help me communicate effectively and efficiently so that people understand that. And I will say because of this, I built the boundaries Bundle. It's a $9 template, bu you can find it on my website online, drag.com and it is the scripts. It's the scripts for this. I have social media posts for this. If you want to maintain boundaries, but how you answer dms, what your hours of operation are, all of those things, how to say no, how to say yes.

Andréa Jones [00:09:28]:
And not just social media. I think there is a boundary setting requirement for business owners in both your public facing marketing and your private marketing. I like to call this internal marketing and external marketing. So external marketing is everything everyone else sees. Internal marketing is marketing to your current clients and customers. And this is often the biggest missing piece. I talked about this a couple months ago. Biggest missing piece in a lot of marketing is internal marketing.

Andréa Jones [00:09:55]:
You've got to remarket to your current people. Part of that is setting clear boundaries without alienating them. And so I have the templates for that too. Okay, that was like an unexpected little ad in the middle of the episode. You're welcome. Okay, so let's talk about parasocial pressure, because this comes from people feeling like they know you. But then also we Put the pressure on ourselves because we feel obligated because, well, we put ourselves out there. And so it is important for you to set those boundaries so that you don't lose yourself in this process, that you don't get burnt out on this process.

Andréa Jones [00:10:31]:
Okay? All right. Next thing I gotta talk about hard work versus hustle. Hard work versus hustle, okay? I am a believer that there is space between the soft life, laptop, lifestyle and hustle. Every day, wake up at 4am, sleep for four hours lifestyle, okay? This space in the middle is where I explore because I believe that we do need to work hard. I'm not a fan of, like, being unavailable, completely unavailable, okay. I'm not a fan of, like, you've heard of these, like, coaching programs where, you know, you sign up and then you join the program and like, the person's face who's on the sales page is nowhere to be found. Like, I'm not a huge fan of that, okay? For me, I like to be involved, heavily involved. It's my face on the business.

Andréa Jones [00:11:22]:
I'm gonna have my hands in everything. Okay? So for me personally, this has been an exploration of me. Like, how far do I go with the boundaries? And you may have noticed over the years, those of you who've been tracking with me for a couple of years, you may noticed where some years I am less available, some years I'm more available. I really feel like I found the sweet spot between Jimmy, my amazing assistant who helps me keep me on track. But it's still my face, my voice that you see in the videos inside of the program. I'm the one teaching the majority of the classes. I'm responding to the comments and questions in the community. I'm the one responding to my inbox on social media and my comments.

Andréa Jones [00:12:00]:
I've tried outsourcing it in the past. Doesn't work for me. Okay. And so for me, I found that space between hustle and hard work. And yeah, it is hard work. It requires intense focus. Especially, again, I'm introverted, so like to go in and respond to comments and questions. I had to be in a mental space for it.

Andréa Jones [00:12:21]:
But I'm not always available, okay? I am available consistently at a frequency that I set. And I'm also giving myself grace if there are moments in time. Again, recently I had to step away for a few days for a funeral. I'm not available, okay? There's someone who messaged me, I'll get back to you in a few days. I have life lifing, and that is the challenge. Of being a personal brand in business. And we just have to acknowledge that. Okay, another, another point that I want to make in this boundaries episode of the podcast is that you have to know yourself.

Andréa Jones [00:12:58]:
And I don't mean this in like a woo woo way, like, be in touch with your inner goddess. Okay, do that if that's for you. But your preferences are a strategy. And I think oftentimes where we start feeling burnt out and like lines are being crossed is that we're trying to do all of the things and then we feel resentful with the feedback that we're getting. Okay, so I'll give an example. If you hate video, you hate being on video, you don't want to do lights, camera, action, put yourself in front of the camera, talk to nobody in an empty room, like I'm doing right now. If you don't like it, then you're going to feel like that's a boundary being crossed when you do it. So you have to understand your preferences.

Andréa Jones [00:13:44]:
Okay? So for me, for example, I recently talked about this, my email newsletter. I felt like I was getting a lot of back and forth emails about something in particular and it was making me feel frustrated. And so I, after talking with Chat GPT, I was like, help. Why am I not writing this email? Realized that two boundaries being crossed. One, I'm not a writer. Like, like that. I like to write fun things, okay? Like when I write, I don't like it to be serious with serious writing to me, drags me down. I also, I have so many typos and spelling errors, y' all, that for years I thought I wasn't a writer.

Andréa Jones [00:14:26]:
And you've heard me say it on this podcast. I almost said it again. I'm not a writer. I am a writer. I just have to also be an editor. And like editing something that I don't like writing in the first place drags me down. I realized this recently when I wrote my first romance novel. I actually like writing.

Andréa Jones [00:14:43]:
I like editing when it's something that is fun. Writing and editing when it's for work drags me down. So instead I recorded a video. Boom, done. And then I took the transcript of that, I put IT in the ChatGPT and said, can you write an email to go with this? Boom, done. I removed the resistance. And that's why preferences are a strategy. I felt like a boundary is being crossed the back and forth, when in reality it was just not my preference, my preferred way to communicate.

Andréa Jones [00:15:10]:
Okay, so find your preferences and that will make things smoother. I also Want to say with boundaries, that this is where values come into play. Like they're so important. Especially here, now, 2025, the year of Beyonce. We need to have our boundaries and our values very clear in our business. On my about page of my website, when I talk on the podcast, when I talk in my social media videos, I'm talking a lot about my boundaries and my values. One of my values is that I like to be diverse and inclusive. Okay? I have an instant diversity marker.

Andréa Jones [00:15:46]:
If you didn't know I'm black, a black woman, this. There's an intersectionality there that I can't fight. People just look at me and they make assumptions. Okay? So I lead with my values because that is something I'm very proud of. Whatever other people assume, there are lots of other intersectionality moments in the way that I show up in my diversity. And I'm a millennial, too, so millennials and down, I would say Gen Z, even more, are looking for businesses that aren't just aesthetic, that aren't just the most popular one. They're looking for the ones that have the same values as them. And this is why we values led marketing happening a lot.

Andréa Jones [00:16:28]:
This video, for instance, is releasing during Pride Month. There are a lot of companies, I'm looking at you, Target, where they try to have some value marker that doesn't feel sincere, and then they get canceled for it or they get social backlash for it. Target's not canceled. We're all still starting shopping at Target. But they got called out publicly on social media for their missteps. That it is because consumers are not only more values led, but they're more vocal about what their values are. Because if they believe the same things you do, there's an inherent trust in that. So, yes, I put my pronouns everywhere.

Andréa Jones [00:17:11]:
I put them in my email signature because I want to signal out subtly. If you don't believe that I should have my pronouns in my bio and in my signature, you and I are not going to get along at all. So. So we're going to just start there, and then away we go. All right, now let's get practical about this boundaries conversation. There's a few things that I want you to think about right here, now, today, as you're listening to this. I want you to make a decision about this. I don't want you to get caught up in whatever social media platforms or marketing tools automatically want you to do.

Andréa Jones [00:17:47]:
Okay, first step, do you want your email on your phone? And do you want those notifications? Okay, I will say this, too. At this part. Your boundaries can change over time. Try it out and see what works for you. At this season in my life, I turned my notifications back on because I was missing things I said. I mentioned. Recently I went to a funeral and I found that when I was coming back the week after, I was missing some things because I was grieving and stuck in my head and caught up in a lot of things. And so right now I need my notifications to like, remind me of the things that I need to do.

Andréa Jones [00:18:22]:
And even then, I still missed my dog groomer's appointment because I missed the calendar notification even though the groomer texted me the day before. So I'm just at a season of my life where I need reminders constantly about what I'm supposed to be doing because mom brain plus grief equals, I don't know, my head's at the clouds. Okay, so you can change your boundaries at any time. Okay, let me go back to this one. Email, do you want this on your phone and do you want notifications? Social media. Do you want this on your phone and do you want notifications? These are important questions to ask you because their assumption, the social construct, is that they're on your phone and you have the notifications on. But you, my friend, can make that decision. Okay, next thing, how frequently do you want those notifications and how do you want to respond to them? Okay, so for example, I know someone who has an email on their phone.

Andréa Jones [00:19:15]:
They like to look at the emails on their phone and they'll only respond to those that are emergency based. Everything else, they respond on their desktop at set times. That is a very specific choice that person has made. You can decide how you want to do this for you. Okay. I know someone else who doesn't have any social media on their phone, like on their mobile device. They only have it on their computer and they respond to things on their computer. They actually came to me because they were like, I can't post a stories on my computer.

Andréa Jones [00:19:46]:
And I was like, yeah, that's a tough one. It's going to be tough. And we found some workarounds for them. But the main thing is you get to decide. Okay, so your, your response time, let's decide on that now. Let's set clear boundaries. I want you to think about how do you want your values to show up and give signals to people about what your boundaries are. For me, I have kids, I have other responsibilities.

Andréa Jones [00:20:16]:
I'm starting a second business. So for me, I have to be very clear. And if you email me Jimmy's going to respond, most likely. Okay. My assistant is here. She helps me. Second, boundary value. I use AI in my work.

Andréa Jones [00:20:33]:
Very clear about that. Made a whole email lead magnet funnel about AI. Okay. And if you need help with this again, I have the boundaries bundle that will guide you through this. In fact, one of my favorite things in this bundle is I built a business GPT and I actually did a walkthrough on my YouTube channel. I'll link it in the show notes of how you can build your business value. So business value custom built GPT using my framework to help you get values for your business. So, you know, you don't just come up with like, we're, you know, we're authentic, we have integrity.

Andréa Jones [00:21:07]:
Like, let's go a little bit deeper. And so that business values GPT will help you with that. All right. I also want you to go to your website and your email and clearly think about. You can either put this on your website or just know what are your business hours of operation? Okay. I think it's unreasonable expectation for solo small business owners to be available 24 7. Okay. There are some exceptions.

Andréa Jones [00:21:33]:
There are some exceptions, but I personally think it's unreasonable. And you get to set what those parameters are for you, what reasonable looks like for you. You get to decide. I will say this. There are some industries that is harder. Uh, my husband works in real estate, for instance. And it's harder to set boundaries in that industry because it is a lot of evening and weekend work. But if, you know, if you go into it knowing it's a lot of evening and weekend work, you can still set boundaries around that and make that decision for you.

Andréa Jones [00:22:04]:
Listen, boundaries do not have to be something that's scary. They do not have to feel like you're putting up walls. They do not have to feel like you're shutting people out. I want you to think about boundaries as an invitation. You're inviting people in. I want you to think of them as a signal so that you find the right clients and customers that align with you. And I don't want you to think this is an excuse not to work hard or that you're lazy. You're not lazy.

Andréa Jones [00:22:27]:
You're just trying to be a human in this very digital world. And you're trying to survive. Okay? So do what you need to do to survive and know that you're still working hard, my friend. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. I'll be back soon with another episode. In the meantime, can you give us a five star rating on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps keep us in the top 100 marketing podcasts. And I love to see some melanin in the top.

Andréa Jones [00:22:55]:
And that's all thanks to your support. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.