Ep 220: What Burnout-Proof Leadership Really Looks Like (and How to Get There) with Dr Victoria Mensch

“You can’t out-hustle burnout. Trust me, I tried.”

That’s the hard-earned insight from Dr. Victoria Mensch, who went from clinical psychologist to Silicon Valley high-achiever — and burned out in both. Now she teaches leaders how to create burnout-proof lives by mastering energy, not just calendars. In this episode, Victoria breaks down why traditional success so often leads to emotional exhaustion, and how you can build a life and business that leaves room for joy, not just productivity.

With a PhD in psychology and an MBA from UC Berkeley, Victoria brings both brain science and boardroom experience to the conversation. Her approach to self-leadership, energy management, and redefining control will have you rethinking the way you work — and why.

We Also Talked About:

• Why burnout isn’t always obvious — and how to spot the subtle signs
  
• The myth of “success = happiness” (and what actually creates fulfillment)
  
• How self-awareness is the first step in becoming a resilient leader
  
• The surprising power of intentionally scheduling joy
  
• How to relinquish control — and why it’s essential for avoiding burnout
  
• Moving from corporate life to entrepreneurship: the real risks and rewards
  
• What “languishing” looks like — and how to shift into a state of flourishing
  
• A practical framework for balancing time, energy, and values
  
• Why leadership always starts with self-leadership

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Silicon Valley Executive Academy – Victoria’s corporate consulting hub
• Victoria Mensch on LinkedIn – connect with her for insights and support

Want regular access to tips, techniques, and advice from experts about growing your business? Sign up here.

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Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 220:  What Burnout-Proof Leadership Really Looks Like (and How to Get There) with Dr Victoria Mensch

[00:00:00] Do you ever feel like you’re running on empty even when everything looks successful on the outside? Well, burnout doesn’t just knock politely. It barges in. It’ll drain your joy and it’ll leave you questioning everything. So how do you go from constant fatigue and overwhelm to flourishing in your business and life? In today’s episode, I’m talking with Dr. Victoria Mensch, who’s a powerhouse with both a PhD in psychology and an MBA from UC Berkeley, about what it truly takes to build burnout-proof leadership.

We take a look at why traditional success often comes at the cost of personal wellbeing, how to tell if you’re slipping into burnout, even when you’re still functioning, and some practical tools for taking back control. And Victoria shares how joy, self-awareness, and a willingness to relinquish unnecessary control can lead to a more fulfilling, resilient way of working and living and Victoria’s journey from burning out as a psychologist to thriving in [00:01:00] Silicon Valley, to founding her own consulting practice gives her a unique insight into the emotional and mental load that high achievers carry. So whether you’re still in corporate, building your own business, or juggling both her approach to self-leadership and energy management will leave you thinking, this is what I’ve been needing to hear.

Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad podcast. I’m Trudy Rankin and I bring you stories, tips, and practical advice from online entrepreneurs and experts who have overcome problems and challenges to get to success. Because if they’ve done it, so can you. My mission is simple. I want to help you solve the challenges you face as an online business owner so that you can have more time and money for the people you love and more choices in how you live your life.  

Trudy Rankin: Today I’ve got Victoria Mensch joining me. Now Victoria has [00:02:00] a PhD in psychology and she also has an MBA, Master’s of Business Administration from UC Berkeley, and she helps high performing people in teams master the art of burnout proof leadership.

and sustainable growth. And I think that’s something that every business owner should be thinking about looking at and trying to learn more because burnout is not a fun thing to go through. So thank you so much for being on the podcast, Victoria, and welcome. 

Victoria Mensch: Thank you very much, Trudy. I’m very happy to be here.

Trudy Rankin: So let’s go ahead as we usually do and get started and just get people to know you just a little bit better. Can you just tell us a little bit about your background? What led you into the world of psychology and just that whole Burnout Proof Leadership side of things. 

Victoria Mensch: Yes, so thank you. I’m happy to do that.

As everyone else out of high school, I was searching for what I want to do in the world. And I decided that I wanted to be a psychologist. So that’s [00:03:00] actually my first profession. I went to college, I got my bachelor and master and a PhD in psychology. And then I started counseling people, and that lasted for about a year, and by the end of that year, I said, no more, I made a mistake, I followed my passion, to the T I’ve done everything I was supposed to do with a passion with perseverance, and then I started actually working as a psychologist, and by the end of the year, what I know now, I experienced my first burnout So I took it, as most of us take it, and I said, for sure, it’s because I made the wrong choice.

The psychology is not mine. I did this and I made a mistake. So I changed my profession. I pivoted and I went to corporate world. Where I experienced a few more burnouts down the road. I tried this side of this, the other side of it. I built a great career in the corporate world. So for 25 years, I worked in the silicon Valley and high [00:04:00] tech industry and all sorts of companies, large companies, small companies boutique consulting company. I opened my own company only to experience this burnout over and over again until I realized that the the problem is not really in external circumstances.

Yes, they contribute, but until I change my own attitude until I practice and until I learn the tools to deal with that state internally, I’m going to go through that. So that’s what led me to another passion project of mine, now really to help other people to go through this journey and live a burnout proof life.

Trudy Rankin: It sounds lovely because nobody really wants to go through burnout. Nobody wants to lose the joy of what they do and the feeling of satisfaction that you get, but which typically does happen. You lose that sense of joy when you go through burnout. So I’m just a little bit curious for you.

What made you decide to [00:05:00] Move away from the corporate world that you were part of, and then once again, have another crack at setting up your own business.

Victoria Mensch: Yes, I said there was a series of burnouts, the same way. I had a lot of responsibilities, so the corporate career is a, highest trust career, and one of the red threads, and I see that in my clients now as well, is that the sense of losing control. I’m not in control of my life. I’m not in control of my career.

I’m always at the mercy of something else and somebody else and other stakeholders that are ruling that. So that was a big motivating factor for me to start thinking about entrepreneurial career. And yes, entrepreneurship provides that to the experience . At the same time, now you’re at the mercy of other circumstances, right?

So that’s why when I talk about burnout which you think that you’re in control, yes, but that control comes with the greater [00:06:00] responsibility. Now you’re like way too much in control of things that you really don’t have any control over. So that’s where this burnout kind of prevention comes.

So when I’m talking about this burnout. Burnout proofs, strategies, and the leadership, and a lot of it is really self leadership. So for a lot of people who are in burnout, switching from corporate world to entrepreneurship could be an answer. For a lot of people, it’s it’s a surface answer and escape some sort, so until you actually make a right state of mind, knowing what it is that you’re looking for when you’re looking to start a company I think it’s better to to weigh these options, whether to stay in the corporate career.

Or to switch into entrepreneurship , or actually combine these two, that’s an option as well. If you do have, again, tools and strategies and practices to deal with the stress and with the content disruption, and have this, um, practice of [00:07:00] keeping the art of resilience, right?

Trudy Rankin: So I just want to dig just a little bit more deeply. And I know that you’re saying that the reason that you started your own business was because you become burnt out with all of the different roles that you had in, with the different sized organizations as you go through, but I’m thinking about it from the lens of somebody who’s listening and who’s maybe they’re still deep in corporate and they’ve been through a number of jobs.

And maybe they’ve had that realization that they’re not in control but in terms of the trigger point, that thing that made you go, I’m not in control, I’m burnt out, I’m not going to do this anymore, I want to do something else. Was that like a build up of gradual understanding, or was it like a sudden bolt of lightning where you went, I can’t take this anymore?

Victoria Mensch: It was both, right? So it was it was at some point it was like, I cannot take this [00:08:00] anymore. So I really don’t want to stay in this career. It’s not like I don’t want to, I really can’t, right? So it was that I really can’t be in this company. I really can’t be, in this culture with this manager.

So that actually contributed. At some point I had people who I worked with were not very experienced managers so that, could contribute as well. And then I had, for me, the transition was gradual because I found the consulting role first. at a small boutique consulting company.

So I was consulting with them on and off. And then that company started to grow, which allowed me to join them full time, which was semi entrepreneurial. So I wasn’t, it wasn’t my company but I was a partner in that company. So that helped me to make this transition a little bit. More gradual.

And then from there I actually decided to open my own practice [00:09:00] that was related to this consulting company, but in a kind of different niche in a different direction. Does that make sense, Trudy? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, that makes sense. And it brings me to my next question. So if somebody’s listening and they’re going this burnout thing, do I have it?

Am I burnt out or am I just feeling, who knows? Maybe this is temporary, whatever. What kind of signs should people be looking for if they’re actually reaching the stage where they are burnt out? And as you said, even if they want to, they can’t continue. 

Victoria Mensch: So there are so many different definitions and so many symptoms as well.

So what helps usually when I explain it this way, so what burnout is from the physiological point of view, it’s a chronic stress reaction. So if you feel stressed, right? So sometimes Oh, I feel stressed today, a little bit, tomorrow a little bit, but when it is a constant buildup of that stress that [00:10:00] doesn’t get released, that’s when we start talking about the burnout.

And then in terms of the symptoms so one of the red threats again is this state of fatigue. I’m tired, I’m so tired. I cannot take enough rest, right? So no matter how long I sleep, I still feel tired. So that one is probably constant. There is other, there are other symptoms that are very personalized because each of us experience stress differently.

So what’s your reaction to stress? Some people lose appetite. Some people start craving things. Some people lose sleep. Some people sleep a lot, right? So what’s your reaction to stress? In burnout, you can expect to experience more of that. And on a psychological level, and I think you touched on it a little bit earlier, yes, fatigue is one of those, but there are also other, um, symptoms like lack of motivation negativity, complaining.

So those things, they tend [00:11:00] to, Come as a cluster, right? . So it’s not, I’m tired and now I really don’t want to do that anymore. I can’t see these people, I can’t see those people. I cannot be with this partner. I cannot take that job anymore. So we start assign those two external circumstances again.

But at the end, the core of it, from a physiological point of view, is a chronic stress reaction that doesn’t get released. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, that’s interesting. And I’m just curious because a lot of people, I know a lot of people who are very driven and you get to the point where you’re starting to feel these things.

And because of the drivenness of the nature of the personality, they feel like they have to keep going anyway. What kind of damage does that do to you if you just keep trying to work your way through burnout? Does it work?

Victoria Mensch: We tend to cope, right? So we are very strong. People, all of us are very strong. This is the this is the [00:12:00] state that’s very hard to experience for a long time because it’s so draining. So each of us will come up with either coping mechanisms or defense mechanisms. We will be looking for ways to get out of the situation.

So normally, again, what happens easiest no matter how hard it looks, the easiest way to do this is really change one circumstance, right? So like in my experience, like for sure, psychology is a problem, right? So I. Spent all those years to study psychology. I followed my passion and then I said, I made a mistake, so I changed that, right?

It was hard, it was difficult, but in the in the hindsight, it was probably the easiest thing to do. A little bit harder is really to master your own practices and tools and take responsibility. for your own states, because self leadership, right? So the reason why I’m talking about burnout leadership strategies, [00:13:00] because leadership really starts with self leadership and really understanding, getting awareness, why am I reacting this way?

Why am I in this state? In this sense, there is a lot of awareness about burnout, but a lot of us, it almost doesn’t matter how you label this. A lot of people, many more people are in this state what’s called languishing, right? So you’re not extremely unhappy, but you’re not really happy. You’re in between.

And to me, it’s really the hardest because you’re not in enough pain. To make any changes. You’re just languishing, right? So you’re just accepting this as a status quo. You accept this as a normalcy. So I just go through my day. I’m in a rut, right? So I’m just going through the circles, picking up, dropping off, picking up, dropping off checking the boxes.

But I’m not really flourishing, so we we lowered the [00:14:00] bar in a sense, right? So we’re not even striving for that sense of flourishing and vitality and vibrancy and happiness. And we’re just settling for somewhere in between. Yes, we can talk about burnout, how to prevent this and, how to, if you’re in that, situation, how to get out of it.

And it’s very painful. So people actually look for a solution. For a lot of us, we’re just neither here nor there, and we’re not even looking for solutions anywhere. 

Trudy Rankin: It’s interesting because I was speaking to somebody else just really recently and talking about the difference between success and fulfillment.

And from what you’ve just said it sounds like for the group of people and maybe I’m there, maybe you’re there maybe people are there and they don’t realize it, but for whoever’s in that kind of languishing situation or context, how, what does it take to break, if the pain’s not there, if the pain of burnout’s not there, but you’re still, maybe you’re just not fulfilled, you’re not [00:15:00] happy, what does it take to break out of that situation and, as you say, with some self leadership?

Move yourself to a place where you are flourishing

Victoria Mensch: Awareness. Awareness is one of those, like I, all of a sudden, and a lot of high achievers, people who were told that once you check all the boxes, you become happy. So that’s the greatest meet, right? So we’re chasing the success because. Um, we’re just assuming that once the success comes, that happiness comes by default.

So we’re chasing that. Just awareness that, yes, I have a success, but I’m not happy, right? That’s one of those. And the second one is I think almost like education. Yeah, it’s almost education because more and more we learn about what being happy is and how to become happy. Yeah. What we learn now is that so that moment when you achieve something and you feel happy, that’s a fleeting moment.

So the next step, we [00:16:00] immediately come out of balance and want to pursue the next goal, whatever that goal is, right? So happiness is really in the process, so learning to enjoy the process and the journey and not just chase the destination. Because that destinations will not actually bring that, sustainable level of happiness.

Yeah, being aware of that, being aware of your state and, um, raising that bar for yourself is one side of it. And the second side of it is really understanding that, um, enjoying the journey is what life is. 

Trudy Rankin: It’s an interesting thing to say.

And I have to confess for myself that it’s taken me a number of years to get to the place where instead of living for that destination, focusing on that destination, dreaming about that destination, which of course is part of that whole, if you dream it, you can make it happen a thing, to moving to the whole let’s get to the place where you’re just enjoying the steps along the way so that, Every [00:17:00] minute, maybe not every minute of every day, but for the majority of the time that you’re spending, you’re actually quite enjoying what you’re doing.

I’m just, I know, I can say for myself that I didn’t have a framework to use to help me move from one state to the other state. Do you have a framework that you use when you work with people to help them move from destination focused to journey focused?

Victoria Mensch: Yes. So again, speaking of a burnout, I usually talk about two levels.

The first level is really stress management. You don’t need to be in a burnout. You just need to be a modern person in the modern world to understand that we’re always the subject of stress, right? Everything, there’s so many disruptions, everything, technological disruptions, climate disruptions, I don’t know, traffic disruptions, political disruptions, everything, uncertainty is the only certain thing, right?

So for us to deal with stress is really manage those stress management techniques, just being able to talk to. [00:18:00] Different parts of our nervous system and switch between, fight or flight mode into a rest and digest mode, basically learning a new language. So that’s one, to stress management tool.

But when we start talking about those sustainable changes and how basically just learning how to enjoy your life. And then there are a few tools and the practices that I start talking about. So one of those practices, and it actually it’s ironic that I’m seriously talking about this because I’m seriously talking about inserting joy, intentionally bringing joy into your life.

This is a mandate, right? So this is a requirement. Nick requirement because we forget in that rut, just chasing success, chasing that, next next step and next achievement and, fulfill, you’re feeling all those boxes and going through all the steps and serving everyone else around us and responding to everyone else’s requests.

We actually put the priority of joy in [00:19:00] our own pleasure to, to sense really somewhere on the back burner, really down the priority list. So one of the practices is bring it up. This is to honor yourself, your desires, who you really are. And I tell this story because it was such a powerful story for me.

I was asked to do this exercise to put together a list of 20 things that I like to do. Not because somebody asked me, not because they’re useful or healthy, not because they would bring return on investment. No, the only reason for those things to be on that list to exist is because they bring me joy.

They make me happy. And as the head chief where I am, I said, of course, I’ll do it right now. And I stopped at number three. So all I could do at one take is put, to put three three things, and they were really artificial, very shallow things as well, and I stopped and I said, huh, what is it that I [00:20:00] like to do?

I forgot. So you put yourself in this and it’s not my choice of career, really. It’s not my choice of a partner. It’s not my choice of a place to live. It’s not, how expensive it is to live there. It’s not it’s really about me, about what I like, what I want. That I shut down.

That part of me, I forgot about this. So that’s why intentionally putting this back into your life intentionally, it brings a lot of power because you are actually learning again about yourself. You’re giving your yourself permission to be yourself, and you literally start carving out. The time on your calendar to do more and more of that.

And that’s how you replenish your energy. It’s not just outgoing, serving everyone and everything around you. You’re actually serving you. You replenish your energy. These things that you do for the joy of it. It gives you this boost of energy. It’s Oh, there is happiness out there. So you were talking [00:21:00] how how to move from languishing to flourishing.

That’s part of it. It’s what is it to experience flourishing? A lot of us really forget about that. So that’s one practice. The second practice is very powerful as well is learning and practicing and Teaching yourself again to pay attention to things that you like versus things that you don’t like.

And you hear this a lot as a practice of gratitude. But when we say, when I say a practice of gratitude then it’s like, Oh, this is the woo stuff. No, it’s not. This is really these things that. Improve the quality of your life, and you are entirely in control of that. Nobody else is. This is the beauty of these practices, that you are entirely in control.

You notice things that you like, instead of things you don’t like. And there’s always something to like. In a corporate environment, for example, an entrepreneurial environment as well, like two entrepreneurs, two founders [00:22:00] meet, what are you going to talk about? Yes, they’ll talk about their business first, and then they start complaining.

I’m so busy, there’s so many things that are happening, this is so overwhelming. It is over, it’s not an easy journey. The entrepreneurial journey is not an easy journey. There’s a lot of things to be complaining about, but there’s a lot of things to really see. Celebrate and finding these ways to celebrate and be grateful for them for the opportunity to do that.

It really lifts your spirit and it gives you that, you know that energy and it ref focuses your attention. So you’re actually looking at the world and your business and the people in that business. Through different lenses. So what you’re going to see, you’re going to see your reflection back.

There will be so much gratitude. People are going to be grateful back. You’re going to appreciate your employees. And once you have that culture of appreciation, you’re going to have a very loyal employees as well. And you’re going to have [00:23:00] people who really want to give back the best of them. to you and to your business.

And the same with our relationships and family. So that’s the second one. The third one that’s very important is really about that control and fear, right? Relinquishing unnecessary control, really understanding that it is coming from fear and how much of those fears are justified. How much of those fears are not justified and just to preview, just to save you time, 99.

9 percent of the fears are really not justified they’re not going to happen, this is really us going just scaring ourselves, this is our fight or flight mode, our survival system. that keeps us on our toes. So learning that, how to deal with that and your sense of boundaries is really coming from that as well.

How will you set those found, boundaries once you realize how much of that is really driven by fear. [00:24:00] So things like that, this is really your self leadership, right? So this is how you lead your life. This is how you lead, how you present yourself. To yourself and to people around you, to your community, to your business, and so on and so forth.

Great leadership really starts with self leadership.

Trudy Rankin: That’s really interesting to me because we started out talking about the need to take responsibility for finding joy again in our own lives. And then we’re finishing with saying, but you’ve got to give up control, stop trying to control everything. I find that an interesting juxtaposition in terms of, Where’s the balance and how do you do that?

And let me just explain a little bit why I find that fascinating because I work with a lot of mostly women who are carers or caregivers in the formal sense of the word. They have somebody in their family who’s either really sick or really disabled and their lives basically become consumed [00:25:00] by the role that they have to play, and they want to play, but they basically, it takes over their lives.

And they don’t have room or they don’t have time in their lives to do massive, big actions to say, Hey, I’m taking back my life or whatever. So in terms of The the factors that people can control. I like the fact that a lot of what you’re talking about is a Something you can do while you’re doing something else and you’re thinking, and you’re doing the thinking.

What do you do when you get to the point where it’s time to take action and you’re still, maybe you’re still in this context where you really, you don’t have a choice about it. If you actually stop doing kind of some of what you’re doing, this other person’s going to suffer because of it. How do you manage that?

Victoria Mensch: It’s absolutely you have to understand, right? So what you can let go, what you cannot let go. So when I’m talking about the control, I’m really talking about relinquishing unnecessary control. So things like and this [00:26:00] could be very little things that you brought up situations in families, for example, right?

So how or in, let’s say in the work situation so there is a there tens of different ways to perform a task, right? And you as a manager, as a leader, as a founder of this company you need to have that help, right? So a lot of people want, let’s start with this. You want to do everything yourself because nobody else can do it better, right?

So that’s the most typical situation for founders and entrepreneurs. Nobody can do better than I, right? So nobody can get the same results. And it might be true, you cannot do all, right? So where is what is it that only you can do? Where is it that you bring that value, right? So once you start measuring your contribution in that way, Like, where is the greatest value that I can bring, so only I can do, and everything else you start to let go, right?

So you get it to a [00:27:00] virtual assistant, for example. Yes, it’s not going to be the same spreadsheet. It might not have five columns. It will have four columns. Maybe not even columns, but rows. But the result will be the same. The calculation will be the same. And guess what? You’re not going to.

Spend a second of your time on this, a second of your energy on that. So shedding that. And understanding that the reason you wanted to control this was because of that fear that the result will not be the same. So you wanted to control the process so that it will get to the better result. But, realizing that you don’t have to control the process and maybe someone can actually come up with a better process.

So these are small things that we’re talking about. Like in families, for example I was the same way. I know a lot of women the dishes need to be put in the dishwasher in this way and nobody else can do it differently. Really, the question to ask in these circumstances, six months from now, [00:28:00] one year from now, is it going to matter?

And if the answer is no, don’t spend your energy on that. It is a skill. It is a skill to let go of that unnecessary control. And then to your situation, right? So if there’s something that you have to do, that’s the question to ask. Am I the only one who can do this? So is this important? Is this life threatening?

Is it important? Am I the only one who can do that? Let me give you another situation with families when we, a lot of women are juggling a family and work, right? So you go to work and you’re constantly guilty that you’re not with your kids. And you’re with your kids and you’re constantly guilty that you’re not doing your work and you’re not taking care of your business.

This is an impossible situation. That’s when you have to start to deconstruct. What is it that’s important when I’m with my kids? What is the most important? It’s not when I’m, it’s not when I’m [00:29:00] making breakfast for them. It’s not when I’m cleaning their room and so on and so forth. Maybe it is for you.

Maybe it really brings you joy. Clean the kids rooms. Most of the time the answer would be it’s really a quality time that only I can give them, read the book, be there when they’re put to bed, right? So read the book for them. Have one activity a week that’s really quality activity, so and so forth, and everything else you let go.

So this is the thing that I’m talking about, and it’s really intentional, right? So you look at your values, at what you can bring, and what you want to get out of this, what brings you the most satisfaction, and you see what I can actually let go, and how I can perform all those other activities with help from others.

Does that answer your question, Trudy? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, no, it definitely does, and it brings me to, just to a very brief question that I think follows on nicely from that. And that is, when you’re thinking about a situation like this, where, you’re torn between [00:30:00] your two sets of roles and responsibilities, what’s the best way, or is there a best way?

What are some things that you can do in terms of thinking about this, in terms of, Separating out in your own mind the time versus energy, because you can spend time doing things that actually drain you and you can spend time doing things that bring you joy. How do you kind of shape your world so that you can actually do the things that give you energy and not drain you?

Victoria Mensch: Yeah, it’s interesting because I, at some point I realized that time is really elastic, right? So you would think that there’s 24 hours a day and this is it. But it’s really elastic. It is what you make out of it. And I know I keep pounding on the same thing, like you’re in power, you’re in charge, you take responsibility.

But that’s what it is. That’s really the only way to take a power back is to say, I am responsible. So how do you construct that time? I think value is very important as well. Just measuring that in terms of value. So another [00:31:00] example from a corporate world I can give you. So I had a lot of those as well, like 6am meetings, 5am meetings, and you show up just to show up, right?

And you sit there as part of that, I don’t know, 30 people have you just to see your list, your name on the list of, participants in Because you just, you’re anxious. To let it go. There’s no value for you to be there, only to to have your name written on the side from that zoom meeting.

So looking at the value that you contribute, right? On one side, the value that you can contribute that nobody else can. And on the other side, what you enjoy in that. So I think that’s where you will find, that’s where you will find the secret sauce, right? So in the in your running your business or being in your corporate role, right?

Really look at that value and measure in terms of value. And what you’ll see is that, yes, sometimes [00:32:00] those things that the value that you contribute, that you’re the best of, sometimes. So you don’t enjoy them that much, but there are some things that you contribute value and you enjoy them, right?

So the the secret here is to, first of all, understand these things and then start shifting, right? So some of the things that you know you’re really good at, but you don’t want to do them anymore. So you gradually shut them out if you’re scheduled. And then going back to intentionally schedule things on your calendar.

That bring you joy that don’t really have Oh, this is the greatest value I contribute. And this is the greatest joy I get from that, just the joy of it. That’s probably, you’re going to shed a little bit. You’re going to cut a little bit of time from your, it’s binging, things like that.

We all have this empty pockets in our time that just goes by. I’m not saying now schedule each and every minute of your day. For some people it works, for people like [00:33:00] me it doesn’t. It really needs to be fluid and flexible and so on and so forth. Again, learning yourself and understanding that, those breaks.

This is the value I contribute. This is how I like it or I don’t like it. This is the value I want to contribute, right? So that will be your area of growth, right? And you intentionally build this brick by brick, and you enjoy the process.

Trudy Rankin: I like it. I like it. It makes so much sense to me. And as you were speaking, I was mentally imagining somebody walking on a tight rope across Niagara Falls or something, and you’re balancing, and you’ve got to keep that balance between both of those things. Victoria, that’s been really interesting, and I know that listeners will find it really helpful.

If they would like to reach out to you, or maybe they’d like to have your help, where’s the best place for them to go? 

Victoria Mensch: Yeah, so the best place is my LinkedIn just to reach out and connect with me personally. I’m on there a lot every day and there are ways to really reach out. Victoria mentioned it, look me up.

If you are interested [00:34:00] in more of a kind of corporate programs you can still reach me out on LinkedIn, but there is a Silicon Valley Securities Academy. You can look up what we do there and how we help on the company and the corporate level. To bring more of that harmony into our lives, into our work lives, and into our personal lives, so that we are happier and more productive.

Trudy Rankin: No, that’s fantastic. And I’ll put those in the show notes. I am going to get you to just repeat the name of your website, just because you broke up just a little bit there. 

Victoria Mensch: Oh, okay. svexecutive.academy. That stands for Silicon Valley Executive academy. 

Trudy Rankin: Okay. No, thank you for that. I will put that in the show notes.

So yeah. So thank you so much for being on the podcast. 

Victoria Mensch: Thank you so much, Trudy. It was really a joy to be here.

Trudy Rankin: If this conversation with Victoria has you rethinking how you manage your energy, your time, and even your joy, you’re not alone.

Her insights are a wake up call for anyone who’s been pushing too hard for too [00:35:00] long. So, if you found today’s episode helpful, do me a quick favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and leave a review while you’re at it. Your feedback helps more people discover these conversations and start their own journey to a healthier, happier business life.

So until next time, keep taking those steps, big or small, toward building the business and the life that you want.