Decoding Burnout: Personal Insights, Prevention Strategies, and the Power of Laughter

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello everybody, welcome back to the playful humans podcast. We've got a good one for you here today Dr Sharon Grossman and Heather Tully Bauer joining us to talk about burnout. How can you can decode your burnout and hopefully prevent or turn it around at some point, I think as well. You can find Dr Sharon Grossman at DrSharonGrossmancom made that easy. You can find Heather at hyphenupcom. We'll talk more about that here in a second. And playful humans Subscribe to this podcast wherever you are listening or watching to it right now, and go to playfulhumanscom Playfulness quiz. Here we go. One more woohoo.

Speaker 1: 1:04

All right, we're going to start with the joke of the week here on the playful humans podcast. The joke of the week this week is brought to you by private phone numbers. If you call me from a private phone number, I will respect your privacy by not answering. Now. The official joke of the week is what do you call a woman who's really good at darts? It would be Amy Heather. You're the professional comedian. I think we should go to you next. Do you have a joke? Can you beat that?

Speaker 2: 1:40

I don't know if I can beat that, but I do have a joke. Sometimes these jokes are ripped from the headline. So I went to my personal trainer and I asked her could she teach me how to do the splits? And she asked me well, how flexible are you? And I said I can't come on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Nice, I like that. Sharon, do you have a joke for us?

Speaker 3: 2:04

I'm not the funny one in the duo, but as we're talking, I'm sure I will come up with something.

Speaker 1: 2:12

All right, we'll come back to you, that's all right. No pressure on the jokes. They do not have to be good, as demonstrated by my two earlier.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Clearly.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, clearly Okay. So, sharon, you're the burnout doc. Let's start there. How did you get into dealing with burnout, or studying it yourself? Did you burn out, or did you just see everybody else doing it and you're like maybe I should do something about that?

Speaker 3: 2:39

It was kind of a mix of things. So, on the one hand, when I was a graduate student and I was learning about everything related to what it means to be in private practice because I was trained as a psychologist one of the things that really stuck with me was the session that I attended where the person said how psychologists in private practice very often burn out, and that's because you're seeing patient after patient and you're working by yourself, so you don't really have a team around you. And I remember thinking to myself oh well, you know, that doesn't really affect me, because I'm not going into private practice and I didn't. I actually started in nonprofit but at some point I had to transition out of there and that was the next logical step for me. And it was at that moment, when I had to make that transition, that I remembered that session and I said to myself I'm going to do this smart right, I'm going to prevent burnout from happening. And so that's where I found an office location that was walking this into my gym, and I really scheduled my entire day around myself care, because I knew that as soon as I left the office I was going to have to go run and grab the kids and then go make dinner and it was just going to be all about the family and I wouldn't have time for me.

Speaker 3: 4:04

And I often see that a lot of my clients who are really busy entrepreneurs, for the most part, or professionals they just don't have time for self care, and so they think it's just not possible or they feel guilty about it because they're looking to help everybody else out and I think that there's you've got to start from there and really create your world around that. And that's essentially what I did. And then, as I started practicing, I saw that a lot of my clients were burned out, but they weren't necessarily using the word burnout, and so, as I started looking more and more into the subject, I would listen for certain things and then I would say to them it sounds like you're burning out, and then they would be like oh yeah, that's what. That is right. So sometimes it's like we don't even know what we're experiencing because we don't have the words for it, and so I made it my mission to go out there and educate people on what to look out for, so that they can catch burnout early.

Speaker 1: 5:05

I think that's great and for me, I really noticed that I burnt out. I think the first time officially like with work is in radio, and there were same thing other people saying, oh, you're going to burn out. Radio is not sustainable, you're not making enough money, you're working crazy hours. I had the overnight show for a year and it was just not a sustainable lifestyle at all and I thought like, well, I love this, though I like entertaining, I love the everything else about it that I could somehow like fake my way out of it and because it's a playful career, I wouldn't get burnout. But then it kind of hit me and I was like, ooh, maybe it does, but I'm still doing you know, broadcasting. I'm still doing a podcast and I found other ways to make that work. So I think that's a good transition here to Heather.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Heather, you are a comedian and you do lots of other things, so I feel like you're exactly who we love on this podcast. You're a playful human, you're doing fun things. Did you find burnout as well? And I think I forgot to mention the name of the podcast, which is decode your burnout podcast? Sharon and Heather host this Together. How did you get involved with that and find burnout for yourself so I yeah, I burned out.

Speaker 2: 6:20

I burned out in 2006 when I had a stressful, high-paying corporate job and Was like I have had enough of this, and so I Stopped that job and I actually started my first business, which was a personal concierge business, and I did that for a while. But I was a business communications expert. I was a public relations executive for for a large company. So I left that, did this other thing, became a mom, did something else, and then when we got relocated to To the south I'm in, I'm in the Atlanta area I Didn't really know what I wanted to do with myself and and so I took a stand-up comedy class and I just sort of never left it, and that was almost nine years ago.

Speaker 2: 7:14

So I you know people call it pivoting, I call it a growth spurt. That's what I've, that's what I've been doing. But all along I've created this, this expertise in communications and humor, and Because I am a grown-up, you know Adulting, and I have burned out once or twice. That's why Sharon and I are such a great team, because she has cracked the code on burnout and I bring the comedy relief. We always say I'm gonna say here, sharon, she's the ah ha's and on the ha ha's, and that's.

Speaker 1: 7:55

I love it. That's a great tagline. I feel Really I'm relating to both of you because I like the ah ha's and the ha ha's and I feel like you need, when you go to a bunch of different things and you push yourself really hard, you have somebody burning out and then you have Sharon there to help pull us back together as well. But sometimes I also find myself nerding out too much and I'm like studying and I'm doing deep dives on podcasts like yours and I'm doing other reading books, all these books on on my shelf back here, and I Just like, oh wait, I need to remember to have fun. This is the playful humans project. It should probably be playful and it should be fun.

Speaker 1: 8:40

So I did have to compliment you on your shelf game as well. On the background, I love that. Sharon, sharon, beautiful house there too, sharon. But yes, heather brought the shelf game today. So tell us about Heather, the humor part of this in the workplace, because I think one of the reasons people burn out is they just forget to have fun at the work that they're doing, or they feel like in our PC culture and stuff, they can't make jokes about anything and everything has to be serious. And now we're on zoom calls when there's not even like the five minutes of killing time and laughing with your friends around the water cooler anymore and everybody's just like we need to be super boring and super productive. But how have you found humor in the workplace and and the burnout on that side of things?

Speaker 2: 9:29

Yeah. So you know, you're 100% right. I mean, you know people need to connect with each other and I think that that's one of the biggest problems that we have. I think a big challenge is is that we just don't have the time to connect with each other and even if we do, we don't really know what's appropriate. You know, hashtag canceled is for real, you know, and. And so we're like, oh my gosh, can we say that? Can we not say that? Like, what are the rules anymore? And it's gotten really tricky.

Speaker 2: 9:56

So I do teach, you know, business people how to interject humor into their client conversations and their co-worker conversations without getting, you know, called into the HR department, and but. But the reason why it's so important to add humor is Is is because of the trust and the relatability and the connection that it creates with us, and this isn't just Stress relief, okay, this is trust building. That actually happens because of all the chemicals that are being relate release in our brains when we start to laugh, and and so it is. Humor is such.

Speaker 2: 10:39

There's so many important things about humor and you know, listen, I don't have to originate the science, I just have to believe it and I trust it and I believe it. And so I Get to bring my communications background and my humor background and then, you know, mix it up with what Sharon knows, and and so, really, we are like the dynamic duo of teaching you about burnout and how to prevent it by Laughing at some stuff which, by the way, gives you instant stress relief and it makes the information easier to remember. It's like makes it stickier, right? So so we get to. We get to be playful all the time, don't we?

Speaker 1: 11:23

Sharon, sharon, I wanted to ask you the follow-up question there because I think the number one mistake I see people make with burnout is they think that pausing will help. They think that, like Meditation or a vacation or something, will help, and what I found is that might, like you know, take the cap off the bottle for a second, but as soon as you get back to work on Monday, it puts that you put the cat back on and starts building up Pressure and that really the playfulness or the happiness and the humor is really what relieves the pressure from that it. Am I scientifically based at all here, or is there? I think there's benefits to meditation and other types of things, but I don't feel like it solves the problem necessarily. It for me it feels more like a pause than the rewind. But is that fair?

Speaker 3: 12:12

Well, I think so. There are a couple of things in your question that I want to address. The first is you know about pausing, and pausing can look like a Lot of different things. So for some people it's about taking that two week vacation, and I think that is exactly what you're saying. It's basically like a pause and then you get back to work and nothing has really changed, and so you Are going to experience everything that you experience up until that point, because this situation hasn't changed and you haven't changed.

Speaker 3: 12:41

I Think that meditation is Not necessarily something that's going to be super helpful in the moment. However, there is science that shows that when you do it consistently over time, it does change the way your brain is wired, and so if you are somebody who is maybe Really prone to anxiety or gets really impatient, really quickly it can make you Different, like it just changes how you react to stressful situations around you, but you're not gonna see the relief of that for several months, probably, at at the very least. So I think the idea behind your question is that there are a lot of suggestions out there that Act as a band-aid approach. Right, it's like let's just cover it up, let's just do something like quick just to take the edge off, and I think there's value in that. But when we're talking about burnout, we're really talking about chronic stress, and that's a completely different animal than acute stress that we otherwise experience, and so the Strategies for dealing with each of those has to be very different.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Can you tell me a little bit more about yours? You mentioned designing your life and your business around your self-care routine and really putting your health and your mindset first. Can you tell me a little bit more about the techniques to preventing chronic stress and which ones you've chosen to implement?

Speaker 3: 14:13

Well, I think that when you are creating a self-care routine, it's important to think about what it is that is going to benefit you and how long it takes, and what do you need in order to actually be able to do that consistently. So if it's working out, then you have to figure out like where am I going to do my workout? When am I going to do my workout? How long is it going to take me? What do I do? I need a gym? Am I going to do yoga from my house? Am I going to go for a walk outside?

Speaker 3: 14:41

Whatever it is, you have to just come up with something and then, when you have a plan, you can more easily stick with it. And sometimes we need accountability and other things. But you have to start from some place, from understanding of what you're going after. It's just like goal setting If you don't know how much weight you want to lose on a diet, then how do you know when you've achieved your goal? So we have to be really clear from the get-go. But I think that it's a mindset shift, because so many people are just like I have to get these things done and if I have time afterwards, then I'll workout or meditate or whatever the case may be, and basically what I'm saying is that doesn't work, because I mean, who's ever finished their day and said, oh my God, I have so much more time?

Speaker 2: 15:32

That just never happens.

Speaker 3: 15:33

You're always like, oh, I still have 15 things on my to-do list, so you can't wait until the end of the day to see if there's time left over, that maybe then you'll do something for yourself. You have to kind of start from the premise of this is important Before I have to bake it in and then figure out how to get everything else done. How do I pick up my kids and get my work done and make dinner or whatever you have on your plate? But it's just as important as everything else, if not more important, because it's the thing that's going to sustain you long term.

Speaker 1: 16:05

And I guess it's a very similar kind of concept here in question for you, heather that I found the same thing with humor that we kind of mentioned when you cut it out, it doesn't work. But I think people feel this pressure to be productive or they're like oh well, sure, I would love to connect with my employees or my coworkers and stuff if there's time at the end, and I think what they miss is there's actually an amplification that when you laugh with your employees, that when you have great communication, then you actually get more done. And so it's this weird backwards law of our life that when you take vacation you come back with new ideas and new insights and when you work and communicate well with the team, you prevent problems and you actually speed up the process. So by taking the time to laugh with your coworkers you're actually saving time. Have you found that to be true and why do you think that is?

Speaker 2: 16:55

Yeah, I mean there's a lot of data out there about how laughter and well, laughing together, but I mean people use laughter and humor kind of interchangeably and so, like there's, you know there's a difference, right.

Speaker 2: 17:08

Like, humor is what we are aspiring to, and to make people laugh.

Speaker 2: 17:12

We're not trying to make anybody, you know, kevin Hart or anything, anything like that, right, we're just trying to add levity and humor to to situations, to communications and to workplaces. And there are a lot of reasons why laughter and humor are so effective, and you touched on a few of them, and one of them is is that it builds, it's that trust, like when we start to laugh, when somebody makes us laugh, then the oxytocin starts firing in our bodies and that is our love and our trust receptors in our body, and so we are literally wired to trust the people that make us laugh. And there are all these studies out there about what laughter does and humor does for team building and for productivity, and so, yeah, I mean, like I said, I don't have to originate the science, but I certainly believe it because a lot of smart people out there, who probably are not nearly as funny as I am, but a way, way smarter, have already told me that it works, and so I believe it. I totally believe it.

Speaker 1: 18:17

I'm with you on that one too. But I have a follow up question and this is the the tough one here. Okay, I've been asked this before. After the Will Smith slap incident, I got a free joke. Any ball jokes on this podcast will get you slapped.

Speaker 1: 18:33

But I got asked to speak to a fifth grade class here in Kansas city about appropriate humor. They were already having some kids that were getting offended and they didn't know what to joke about or what they couldn't joke about. And then this happened and it was a good example and I think you mentioned earlier. In our culture some people feel like you can't make fun of anything and you don't want to make fun of somebody, but you want to have fun with people. And the only thing I came up with for the fifth grade class was that if you make jokes about things and not people, it seems to be a lot easier, right? We're like we can all make fun of my jokes a day about private phone numbers or whatever, or a dartboard. We can make jokes about that, a funny sign around the building and stuff, and unless somebody in the you know room made the sign and that was their job to put up silly signs on the fridge or something, then we're probably okay. We're not going to offend somebody, do you?

Speaker 1: 19:28

have any advice for us on how we do comedy, that it doesn't have to be cheesy dad jokes that I do and it doesn't have to be safe, because sometimes comedy is not safe but and it's, or it's just not funny when it is if it's expected. Where do we thread that needle?

Speaker 2: 19:47

Yeah, it's tough and it depends. I mean, I also talked to kids about humor and I tell them that just you know you don't get to say anything that you want to say and then following it up with you know, lol, or I'm just joking, that does not make it a joke. Humor is something that makes people feel good about themselves and they shouldn't be leaving your company feeling bad about themselves, and one of the ways to do that. Now that is true in business relationships and impersonal relationships, right, like there's a whole genre of comedy out there that you know totally negates what I, what I just said.

Speaker 2: 20:25

But that's not the real world, that's not what you and I are operating and on the and the most part so I'm really kind of an easy way to sort of stay out of the hr department or the principal's office Is the thing it's. It's to understand the things that we laugh about, and the things that we laugh about are those shared experiences and those common experiences. So, like you said, that sign, that funny sign, or just something that happened because we were in the same class together and you know the toilet paper that was stuck on our teacher shoes wasn't that hilarious that then you can talk about and call back to later, right, like that's a shared experience, or the fact that we're all this in the fifth grade and we're trying to figure out Fifth grade stuff. That's a shared experience. But yeah, you always want to make sure that when you're using humor in polite society, that you are lifting up and not punching down and focusing on those things that are common experiences and shared experiences usually will keep you in the safe lane.

Speaker 1: 21:34

I think that's fair. The other, only other thing I'd add is that you don't get to decide if it's funny or not. Like I think again, I make ball jokes, I don't care, there's nothing I can do about my hair, and I used to take it personally when I was in high school and had a receiving hairline and people are telling like I wasn't prepared to deal with it then, but I've had a bald head for 14 years now. Like I know that it's there. That's OK. It's OK for me to joke about it. But With that will smith example, like a woman losing her hair because of a medical condition, not the same thing. That same ball joke that would be funny directed towards me is not funny Directed towards her, and so I think we have to get a lot better about reading the room and realizing that not every situation is the same.

Speaker 2: 22:19

Right that yeah, for sure, for sure, and we don't always get it right, and I think that's why people are afraid, you know, are worried about doing it, but except for sales people, sales people think they're hilarious. That's true sales person who is like, shy away from using you know, using humor, but you know it's just like anything else. It's a skill Added to skill that you have to practice and you're not always going to get it right. And you know bombing and comedy build resilience and.

Speaker 2: 22:58

And you also listen. If you're going to be, if you're going to have a good humor game, then you also have to have a good apology game. I mean that sometimes you just not going to get it right.

Speaker 1: 23:10

That's fair too, and I think I'm willing to learn and grow from those things and I think the people sometimes people that are afraid to make jokes it's funny like You're not the one we have to worry about. It's the person who's not afraid of making jokes that we have to worry about. You know, it's like if you're doing it with a kind heart and, like you said, trying to build people up, and you try to make people feel good, then you'll probably be okay. You don't have to worry about going too far. Sharon, I want to circle this back to burnout here and get some final thoughts on decoding your burnout and how we can Fix this for people. Are there any other big tips, tricks, hacks that you feel like we've missed here so far? What's your go to? If somebody was like I barely made it through this podcast without freaking out, I should have been doing my work, and now I just made it worse because I spent 24 minutes not doing my my work instead, what would you tell them?

Speaker 3: 24:05

Well, I think the biggest thing that we need to talk about is the concept of decoding your burnout, and essentially what we're saying is this Remember, we talked about how there's these kind of one size fits all, almost like bandaid type solutions out there, like take that to vacation, but what we are talking about in our presentation is that there is something to be said about what, not just what's going on externally, like yes, there, there's 100%, there's things that are going on In your culture that can contribute to your burnout. There are things that are going on maybe, just like life stressors, right, like we all have things even outside of work, like even if work is fantastic, just the chronic stress from all different angles in your life can accumulate and then affect you. And so what we're talking about in decode your burnout is the fact that there are things that you bring to the table that contribute to burnout, and while we may not have control over a lot of the external factors, we do have control over the ones that are coming from within. However, most people don't even know that they have these things and that those things are contributing, and so we're kind of shining a light on that, and basically what we're saying is that there are three burnout types, or personalities or profiles, however you want to call it, and what we're trying to do is really explain what these three types are so people can identify that within themselves and then figure out, based on that, what they're trying to do. So whether it's changing your thought processes, whether it's changing some of your behavior behavior is your habits, your rituals those are all things that are going to contribute. So I'll give you a quick example.

Speaker 3: 25:45

So one of the three types is the thinker, and those are folks who tend to over analyze everything, so they're very much in their head. They are the ones that are the most important Anxiety and posture syndrome, perfectionism they're going to procrastinate more. So these are people that are just thinking about stuff all the time and that pressure internally is creating that additional stress, and so it's kind of like you have to learn how to get out of your own way. And if you didn't realize that, you're going to be able to do that, so you have to learn how to get out of your own way. And if you didn't realize that being a perfectionist is really leading to your burnout, then that's something that you now realize because you can identify. Oh well, that's kind of what I do, so then that makes me a thinker. Ok, so then what do I need to know about thinkers, so that I don't get so stressed out and burned out. So that's kind of our mission in doing this, and so just really quick.

Speaker 3: 26:46

So we just talked about the thinker, so just to kind of also lay out what the other two types are. For anybody who's wondering, we've got the feeler and those are folks who I call them people pleasers, right, these are the folks who maybe don't have boundaries, they can't say no to other people's requests. And you know what happens they feel a lot of guilt about focusing on themselves. So we talked about self care and how you need that mindset shift. Well, what we see with the feelers is that they're not focusing on themselves because they have this whole inner dialogue that says I should be focusing on other people. I should, you know, if I focus on myself, it's taking time away from something I could do for someone else, and so there's a lot of guilt. But there's, on the other side of it, once I do say yes, and I'm taking care of everyone but myself, then I feel resentful. So I'm kind of stuck in this loop of constantly feeling negative, and that contributes to my burnout Right.

Speaker 3: 27:39

And then finally, we have the doer, and those are folks who are constantly stuck in that hamster wheel of doing more and more and more, never feeling like they've achieved enough, but living with this lie that tells them when you finish this, then you will arrive Right, then you will be able to finally relax, and the truth of the matter is that they maybe feel good about their accomplishments for a minute, but then they're focused on everything else that they need to still do, and Life just doesn't end right.

Speaker 3: 28:13

So we always have another project, another task, and so you're. You're finding yourself that in that hamster wheel continuously, and that just burns people out. And in the real key thing there is that it's those folks are really focusing on how the Productivity or the accomplishment of their work is going to then allow them to get a sense of their worth. So it's like I want to be useful, I want to be helpful, and those are great, but when you tie yourself worth to your productivity, then we have a problem, and so our goal is to really shed a light on these three types have people identify those within themselves and then tell them what the techniques and strategies and Beliefs are that they need to adopt so that they can prevent burnout and, if they're already burned out, figure out exactly what they need to do to recover.

Speaker 1: 29:02

I Love that. That's really helpful. And I think I have a good dose of feeler and doer. I'm kind of one of those split personality people that I love to have fun and do things for other people and then I also Want to be productive. I keep moving all the time. I got to find something to do because if I feel like I, if I stop, I'm gonna get anxious or worried or or something, and so I Come from an interesting family where, like my mother's side was all Women and artists and my great-grandmother was a piano teacher and fashion designers and stuff on that side of family and my dad's side, heather, you mentioned, it are all sales people and like business people and my dad was one of four boys.

Speaker 1: 29:46

His dad was one of four boys and his dad was one of four boys and it's like Lord of the flies over there, like got to be productive, got to go eat which you kill and go keep moving. And so I landed in this weird interesting middle space where, depending on the day, I can pick up any of those Burnouts that you mentioned and I found I got a really paid attention, heather. Final thoughts from you, oh.

Speaker 2: 30:09

My gosh, what Well, just to piggyback on what Sharon said yeah, so she, she puts in a whole lot of information and then I just write the jokes about it and then we just like, it's like, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, now I'm gonna laugh. That's, that's sort of how I fit into the whole, fit into the whole thing. She's the brains and I'm the whatever.

Speaker 1: 30:30

We need that. We need it for sure. Which, which kind of burnout do you feel like? Are you then the, the feeler and people person as well?

Speaker 2: 30:37

No, listen, I don't really care what people think of me. I know I'm like you, mike, I I Straddle that line. I think it's because I'm like a tourist Aries, like I'm right on the cusp of things, and so I'm always like right on the line. I'm probably a thinker. Though I I'm probably a thinker. I think you should ask Sharon what I am. She knows.

Speaker 1: 31:02

Yeah, sharon, tell us what's wrong with Heather and let's start a fight with your co-host before we.

Speaker 2: 31:12

If we're gonna do it, can it be a roast, because I've always wanted to be roasted like.

Speaker 1: 31:18

I Can't decide, because of my like feeler nature, if I would enjoy that or not, but I would really like the feedback to know what actually is you know my thing and what people would make fun of fundraising roast for something, and then let's yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:34

And then my son will be like, oh yeah, I'll sign me up. You know like it would be good.

Speaker 1: 31:38

So one more funny thing about my parents, just because you reminded me and said roast when they all turn 40, they had a roast of like each person in the neighborhood and their friends. And so my dad's older, he turned 40. Everybody makes fun of him. He's like Clark Griswold from the vacation movies, like he's clumsy and he does all kinds of weird things. Big, loud guy. There's plenty of things to pick from there. And then two years later my mom turns 40 and all they did was roast her for marrying Steve. There was no jokes, nobody had anything on her. She's a feeler introverted person. Doesn't ever, like you know, do anything that you could possibly make fun of. So see, you got roasted twice. It really wasn't, it wasn't fair.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Pops got it pretty hard with a bogey on the Steve roast to get it.

Speaker 1: 32:24

All right, are you guys ready to play game? Yes, All right now for you. Since you're trained professionals, I've decided to let you pick the game and showcase a little bit of what you do on the decode your burnout podcast. If you haven't listened or subscribed already, go do that. Wherever you're listening you're watching this one, search for decode your burnout Podcast and hit subscribe. Heather, do you want us to get it started?

Speaker 2: 32:49

Yes, okay, so we do something. We call it rapid fire in our presentation. It is supposed to simulate stress. I feel like in a burnout. You know, workshop top, maybe we shouldn't be calling it rapid fire. That sounds unnecessarily stressful. But anyway, that is what it is. And here we go, mike, I'm gonna ask you a series of questions and I just want you to confirm with the audience that you do not have any prior knowledge Of these questions whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 33:13

I have no prior knowledge.

Speaker 2: 33:14

So this is just gonna just gonna shoot them at you. You don't think you just talk. You don't think you just talk, are you? Are you clear on the rules? Okay, are you ready? Yes, okay, morning person or night owl morning wake up right away or snooze button. Nope, see news.

Speaker 1: 33:30

I had to snooze, only my answer there.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Okay, if you were a spice girl, which one would you be? Sporty, sporty, spice, that's me too. Would you rather be the smartest person in the room or the funniest person in the room?

Speaker 1: 33:44

Funny as person in the room.

Speaker 2: 33:45

Hmm, kansas City Kansas or Kansas City Missouri.

Speaker 1: 33:48

Oh Missouri.

Speaker 2: 33:50

Oh, is that where you are.

Speaker 1: 33:51

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 33:52

I didn't know, so barbecue.

Speaker 1: 33:53

I live on in the Kansas side now. I married a Kansas girl, so I live on the Kansas side.

Speaker 2: 33:58

But that was tough. That was tough. I don't know, you might have some splendid to do when you tonight, I don't know, I don't know fight or flight. Flight coffee or wine, oh, oh, neither stand up or sitcom, sitcom, stress ball or punch a wall.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Stress ball.

Speaker 2: 34:22

Okay, all right. Last question complete the sentence. I am all that and a bag of chips.

Speaker 1: 34:33

That was fun. I really enjoyed that. That was cool. I don't know what I learned about myself other than I played a lot of sports and I have like arthritis in the hands and things, so I'm not punching any walls. I've broken enough fingers. I've broken all except for these two, so the other eight fingers that have lost it. So stress ball Still hurts, but better than punching better than punching a wall.

Speaker 2: 34:56

We don't Any follow-up questions on that.

Speaker 1: 34:58

What did you learn, dr Sharon Grossman?

Speaker 3: 35:01

I quick, you get it, yeah well, I think one of the big kind of ahas is that you said neither to both caffeine and alcohol, which I think tells us a lot about just the way that you're coping and you're doing a good job, and this is where I aim to get a lot of my coaching clients, and when they finally get there, I'm like yes, because you know this, these are the crutches, these are the things that we kind of go to when we're really stressed, and I think that if you want to live a really healthy lifestyle, which is always the the goal, if we can get you there, fantastic, even better. So kudos to you, and that you, even though you're a thinker, you didn't overthink it too much. So that was he did really well.

Speaker 1: 35:45

Yeah, not not too bad there, but I'm glad you highlighted that. I think that's a good takeaway at the end here that I Found so many people create their own stress by, like, drinking too much caffeine, and then they're wired and they're jumping from thing to thing and then they need something at the end of the day to sleep. So they drink alcohol and then they mess up their their sleep and then they start to treadmill all over again, and I just found getting rid of both of them was much, much better for me. All right, I'm gonna give you two awkward questions, because I feel like I played the game this time instead of you, so we didn't cover this either. But let's see, would you? Oh, okay, I got two. Would you rather be turned into a dung beetle or a slug?

Speaker 2: 36:32

I'm sorry, it's a flag Sharon.

Speaker 3: 36:41

These are great options. That's why they're awkward question. Can I say neither Like to the alcohol coffee question.

Speaker 1: 36:48

Sure, what animal would you like to be turned into?

Speaker 3: 36:53

Ooh? Good question how about a puppy dog?

Speaker 1: 36:57

Ooh, I like that Good answer. Um, some body part is going to turn violet colored. Which body part would you prefer?

Speaker 2: 37:11

Did you say violet colored?

Speaker 1: 37:13

Yeah, violet, like a purple. If one of your body parts is going to turn purple, which one would you pick?

Speaker 3: 37:18

Hmm, sharon my big toe.

Speaker 1: 37:23

Purple big toe, All right.

Speaker 2: 37:28

Um, oh, um my lips. Then I never have to wear lipstick ever again.

Speaker 1: 37:34

Oh, there you go. Uh, cover that up too If you had to. But um, I think hair or eyes are a pretty decent uh option on that.

Speaker 2: 37:45

I almost said that.

Speaker 1: 37:45

All right, last one. Uh, would you rather, or who would you rather, resemble in 10 years, the Pillsbury Doughboy or your grandfather?

Speaker 2: 37:56

Oh, my grandfather, all day Nice.

Speaker 3: 38:01

My grandfather.

Speaker 1: 38:02

Uh, awesome Good answers. Nobody uh likes the wants to be poked in the belly. Uh, okay, I see where you're going with that. I don't really know that anybody does. Um, now for playing along, you win a free 30 second commercial for your podcast, the decode, your burnout podcast. Also, uh, the websites drsherrongrosemancom or hyphen upcom for Heather Talley Bauer. Tell us about the podcast.

Speaker 3: 38:28

So so real quick. The podcast is essentially bringing guests on to talk about their burnout story and to decode their burnout so that we can see why they've burned out, really, if they're a thinker, a feeler, a doer. The idea there is that if their version of burnout resonates with the listeners version of burnout, that you can use what's helped them to help you. It's a little bit more personalized in that way and to demystify what it really means to be successful in different industries. So, depending on what they specialize in, I come, they come in and they talk about three things that are myths and they need to demystify. I love it.

Speaker 1: 39:05

It's so good. Check out the uh websites and the podcast. And until next time, whatever you are, uh, be a good one. If you can't be good, uh, be good at it. That's another good quote I like. And uh for playful humans, go to playfulhumanscom. We do custom game shows for companies. I do keynote speeches. Uh, now, with extra ahas and hahas. Uh, I'm stealing that, heather, sorry, we can. You can remote revoke permission after we uh end the podcast, but uh, playfulhumanscom, don't forget to subscribe. Share this episode with somebody that you think needs to hear it. Maybe prevent a little burnout there as well.

Speaker 3: 39:41

See you next time. Thanks, mike Bye.

Speaker 2: 39:47

Bye.