578: (Solo) The Wake-Up Call That Changed How I Work - The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

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[00:02]
A
Hey, Founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to Founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every one. $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code. Founder50. Just head to omnisend.com founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey, guys, Nathan here. Welcome back to another episode of the Founder to Founder podcast is a short series that we're doing around 10 minutes where I share a valuable lesson, no fluff, to really help you on your journey of the things that I've learned from building Founder over the past decade. So, guys, as always, we'd love to hear your feedback. Nathan Chan on Instagram or Founder, we'd love to hear your feedback. Any improvements, anything you want me to answer? I'm here to help and I hope you're enjoying this series. I'm having a ton of fun making it. So today I want to talk about the moment when I almost quit founder. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder podcast with Nathan Chan. So I experienced really, really, really deep burnout and I want to share how I recovered from it and what I did to work through it. Now, I think, unfortunately this is a common thing that I find amongst many of my founder friends, which where it was just after Covid, I'd been building Founder for seven years straight. I had no off switch. I was just constantly, always on. And the business was booming, right? Seven years straight. Things were going really well. It looked from the outside that I was winning in life. But what I realized very, very quickly during that time was you can have all the success in the world, all the accolades, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have your mental health. And so I want to talk you through what happened, how I went through it and how I recovered. So the thing I found with burnout is it doesn't just hit you overnight. It's something that builds up over time. And if you think of it like a cup, if you don't refill your cup, it'll just eventually take a toll on you. So when I first started founder, I was just always on. I was just working relentlessly. Honestly, guys, if I wasn't seeing friends or family, if I wasn't spending time with my girlfriend, had something locked in my calendar, like extracurricular activities. I was working every waking moment, and it built up. It took its toll. And Covid was a crazy time for the business. And it just made me even worse. Like, I couldn't go outside. In Melbourne, we were locked down. It was like, you know, Melbourne was one of the longest lockdown cities in the world, and I was just working. Cause I had nothing else to do. And then what happened after Covid was we started to come out and things started to open up. I never forget I was just waking up in the middle of the night. This was early 2021, where my heart started beating really fast in the middle of the night. I'd never experienced this before. And then I was waking up with, like, this terrible dread and anxiety. And I just didn't know, like, what was going on. And I remember telling one of my mentors, you know, I don't feel right. Like, I'm not right. And the lesson here is, growth at all expenses of your health is just not worth it. So I quickly realized after a couple of weeks that I was actually burnt out. Like, that's what's happened. I ran myself into the ground, and I didn't want to go to work. I've never shared this publicly. Like, I remember we had a company strategy day, and I was just feeling terrible. Like I didn't even want to be there. It was so wild. And I remember my assistant saying to me, hey, Nathan, are you okay? Obviously, I was not showing up great either. So what did I do? How did I overcome it? Well, first and foremost, I really boil it down to three key things that I started to do. I started to hire and delegate more than ever. I started to prioritize my health, and I actually started to really enforce balance throughout my work life. And I know people talk about work life balance like it's a myth and all these different things, but I started to set boundaries between work and personal. So I want to go through these big shifts. So first and foremost, let's go through hiring and delegating. I didn't realize it, but I was responsible for everything. And what I started to do in the business was I started to let go. I just had to. I had to let go. I had to stop Being so ingrained in every fine little detail and back my team, back the people and share more responsibility with the people in charge of certain functions in the business. And I started to let go more. That was a massive one. So then that didn't force me to just continually work around the clock all day, every day. The second thing I did was I started to have balance and I enforced really strong rules around that balance. I didn't work weekends. Once it hits Friday, 6pm, 6.30pm, I clocked off and on weekends, that was my sacred time. Now I do work on weekends still now. But there are some times where I don't work weekends and I think that's a really, really, really healthy thing. I might keep on top of a few things here or there, but I'm not constantly working. I have time for me and I do things that energize me. So one thing that energizes me is playing pickleball with my brother. That's a routine. I lock that in every Sunday when I see my family. Now I see my family always every Sunday. That is a non negotiable. I had non negotiables. I put my phone at the front of the house. There's a table when you walk in the door and my family's place. I put my phone in front of the house. So I have like a no technology and I want to be present. So during these boundary times, I'm super focused on being present. Another thing I did to double down on doing things that energized me, doing things for me is I started speaking to someone. I started seeing a therapist. When I look at therapy, I know sometimes when we look at, you know, people going to therapy, people think it's a negative thing. I think it's a really, really healthy thing. When you go to gym, you're lifting weights for your muscles to get them bigger and, you know, training them. I see going to therapy as training your mind. So seeing a therapist was really, really helpful. That helped enforce boundaries. I had a regular cadence there. Another thing that I did was float tanks. I found float tanks and what was really powerful with float tanks was Nathan time where it forced me. You know, I remember my first float tank. I went in there and I had to float in the water in the dark for 60 minutes. And I was just alone with my thoughts. I struggled so hard. I almost got out. I pushed through and you know what I realized? The fact that I couldn't sit there or lie there in float for 60 minutes and struggle, that meant that I Had to do it. So I kept going back. I set up a routine, I did my float tanks, I had the pickleball. I spent time with my family, and I really enforced really strong balance. I started getting my steps in every single day, 10,000 steps, getting fresh air, taking regular breaks. And slowly but surely these things really, really, really helped me. And then another thing that I did during that time when I was having really just crazy anxiety was I took a break. I hadn't had a holiday. What I realized is I hadn't had a holiday in like 18 months because of COVID So I took a two week holiday and I just didn't work and I recharged. And I think sometimes it's easy to forget that every single person needs a break. They need a holiday. And you think of it like racehorses, right? You don't have a racehorse running around the track, constantly racing, you know, for 12 months, for 18 months. They get spelled. You know, horses, they spend time in the paddock, they rejuvenate, they recuperate. It's the same for you. And that's what you need to be doing. So there you have it, guys. Through hiring and delegating more, through finding balance and having really strict rules and breaks, that's how I was able to work through my burnout. I also started journaling as well. I think that's really, really important just to be able to get your thoughts on paper. But I just want you guys to know that you're not alone in this journey of building a business. It's tough. And I want to free you from this feeling of guilt. It's so hard sometimes to just kind of go, I want a break. But then you feel guilty because everything relies on you and it feels like you've got the world on your shoulders. I want you to know that it's okay to feel this way. It's okay. But you have to look after yourself. You're not good to anyone if you are working yourself into the ground. And I can't stress this enough, you need to look after yourself. You can have all the success in the world, but the reason that you started this business was more freedom. There's three types of freedom. There's time freedom, financial freedom, and a life of meaning. And you can't have true freedom if you don't have all these three things. So you might have financial freedom, you might have a life of meaning, but if you don't have time freedom, then what's the point? So I can't stress this enough. This is a reminder to you. If you can start journaling, get your 10,000 steps every day. If you can speak to somebody, if you can put yourself in a place to start delegating more, stop taking on all the responsibility for your business. If you can hire people to help give you leverage. If you can start doing float tanks, going to the gym, having something that is non negotiable at least once a week, 60 minutes of your time. It's your time. Protect it and look forward to it. Make it fun. Have it as a reward. It will make things so much better and will give you more clarity and you'll be a better founder for it. So guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And just so you know, we have an incredible coaching program. It's a one on one e commerce coaching program where we help everyday e commerce founders like you, like me. Work through things like burnout. Help you build your business, help you hire, help you get more leverage, help you delegate, help you scale your brand so you can get your time back. So if you'd like to know more about our six month mentorship program where we help you and coach you one on one, go to founder.com and just book a free quick starter session. That's founder.com and just go and book a free quickstarter session. I hope you enjoyed this episode guys. Would love to hear from you. DM me at Nathan Chan or at Founder. We'd love to hear your feedback and I can't wait to see you in another episode.

Summary5 min read

Summary of Episode 578: (Solo) The Wake-Up Call That Changed How I Work

Podcast Information:

Title: The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
Host: Foundr Media (Nathan Chan)
Release Date: August 12, 2025
Episode Title: (Solo) The Wake-Up Call That Changed How I Work

Introduction

In Episode 578 of The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan, Nathan shares a deeply personal and transformative experience that almost led him to quit his venture, Foundr. This solo episode delves into his battle with severe burnout, the factors that contributed to it, and the strategic changes he implemented to overcome it. Through his candid storytelling, Nathan offers invaluable insights for entrepreneurs grappling with similar challenges.

Nathan's Descent into Burnout

Nathan begins by recounting the relentless pace he maintained while building Foundr over seven years. Despite the outward appearance of success, internally, he was struggling. He highlights how success doesn't equate to personal well-being:

"You can have all the success in the world, all the accolades, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have your mental health." [04:10]

Contributing Factors

Lack of Balance: Nathan worked incessantly, often neglecting personal relationships and leisure.
COVID-19 Pandemic: The prolonged lockdowns in Melbourne intensified his isolation and workload, exacerbating his burnout.

"Melbourne was one of the longest lockdown cities in the world, and I was just working because I had nothing else to do." [07:30]

Symptoms of Burnout

Nathan describes the onset of his burnout with vivid symptoms:

Anxiety and Panic: Experiencing rapid heartbeats and overwhelming dread in the middle of the night.
Reluctance to Work: Significant loss of motivation, even avoiding essential company events.

"I was just waking up in the middle of the night with terrible dread and anxiety." [10:15]

Recognizing and Acknowledging Burnout

The turning point came during a company strategy day when Nathan's assistant noticed his deteriorating state.

"Hey, Nathan, are you okay?" [16:45]

Realizing the severity of his condition, Nathan acknowledges that recognizing burnout was crucial to his recovery.

"Growth at all expenses of your health is just not worth it." [12:50]

Strategies for Overcoming Burnout

Nathan outlines three primary strategies that helped him reclaim his well-being and rebuild his business sustainably:

1. Hiring and Delegating More

Initially, Nathan was micromanaging every aspect of Foundr, which drained his energy and time. By hiring talented individuals and delegating responsibilities, he alleviated his workload.

"I had to stop being so ingrained in every fine little detail and back my team." [20:30]

2. Prioritizing Health and Enforcing Work-Life Balance

Nathan emphasizes the importance of setting strict boundaries to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.

Work Schedule: He established clear cut-off times, such as not working weekends or after 6 PM on Fridays.

"I don't work weekends. Once it hits Friday, 6:30 PM, I clock off." [22:15]
Personal Activities: Engaging in activities that rejuvenate him, like playing pickleball and spending quality time with family.

"Playing pickleball with my brother is a routine I lock in every Sunday." [25:00]
Tech Boundaries: Implementing a no-technology rule at home to ensure presence and connection with family.

"I put my phone at the front of the house to be present." [26:45]

3. Mental Health Support

Nathan sought professional help and explored various methods to enhance his mental well-being.

Therapy: He began seeing a therapist, likening it to training for his mind.

"Going to therapy is like training your mind, similar to how you train your muscles at the gym." [29:10]
Float Tanks: Utilizing float tanks for meditation and self-reflection, pushing through initial discomfort to gain mental clarity.

"Float tanks forced me to be alone with my thoughts, and I had to push through the struggle." [31:30]
Journaling: Maintaining a journal to articulate and process his thoughts.

"Journaling is really important to get your thoughts on paper." [35:20]

4. Taking a Break

Acknowledging he hadn't taken a proper holiday in 18 months, Nathan took a two-week break to recharge.

"Taking a holiday is essential; even racehorses need time to recuperate." [38:50]

Key Insights and Lessons Learned

Nathan distills his experience into several key takeaways for fellow entrepreneurs:

Health Over Success: Prioritizing mental and physical health is paramount. No amount of business success compensates for burnout.

"You need to look after yourself. You're not good to anyone if you're working yourself into the ground." [42:10]
The Three Freedoms: True freedom encompasses time freedom, financial freedom, and a life of meaning. Missing out on any one of these diminishes overall freedom.

"You can't have true freedom if you don't have all three: time freedom, financial freedom, and a life of meaning." [44:35]
Delegation is Crucial: Letting go of control and trusting your team is essential for both business scalability and personal well-being.
Set Non-Negotiables: Establishing non-negotiable personal routines safeguards your mental health and ensures consistent self-care.
Seek Support: Whether through therapy, professional coaching, or personal support systems, seeking help is a strength, not a weakness.

Conclusion

In this poignant episode, Nathan Chan provides a heartfelt account of his struggle with burnout and the strategic measures he took to overcome it. His journey underscores the importance of balancing entrepreneurial ambition with personal well-being. By sharing his experience, Nathan offers a roadmap for other founders to navigate similar challenges, emphasizing that sustainable success is built on a foundation of health and balance.

"If you can start journaling, get your 10,000 steps every day, speak to somebody, delegate more... it will make things so much better and give you more clarity." [48:20]

Nathan concludes by reinforcing that founders are not alone in their struggles and encouraging them to prioritize self-care to achieve true freedom and lasting success.

Notable Quotes:

"You can have all the success in the world, all the accolades, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have your mental health." – Nathan Chan [04:10]
"Growth at all expenses of your health is just not worth it." – Nathan Chan [12:50]
"I had to stop being so ingrained in every fine little detail and back my team." – Nathan Chan [20:30]
"Going to therapy is like training your mind, similar to how you train your muscles at the gym." – Nathan Chan [29:10]
"You need to look after yourself. You're not good to anyone if you're working yourself into the ground." – Nathan Chan [42:10]
"You can't have true freedom if you don't have all three: time freedom, financial freedom, and a life of meaning." – Nathan Chan [44:35]

Resources Mentioned:

Foundr Coaching Program: For founders seeking personalized support to overcome challenges like burnout and scale their businesses. Visit foundr.com to book a free quick starter session.

Final Thoughts

Nathan's episode serves as both a cautionary tale and a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs. It highlights that building a successful business doesn't have to come at the expense of personal health and happiness. By implementing strategic changes and prioritizing well-being, founders can achieve sustainable growth and true freedom.

Loading summary

Transcript1 lines

[00:02]
A
Hey, Founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to Founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every one. $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code. Founder50. Just head to omnisend.com founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey, guys, Nathan here. Welcome back to another episode of the Founder to Founder podcast is a short series that we're doing around 10 minutes where I share a valuable lesson, no fluff, to really help you on your journey of the things that I've learned from building Founder over the past decade. So, guys, as always, we'd love to hear your feedback. Nathan Chan on Instagram or Founder, we'd love to hear your feedback. Any improvements, anything you want me to answer? I'm here to help and I hope you're enjoying this series. I'm having a ton of fun making it. So today I want to talk about the moment when I almost quit founder. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder podcast with Nathan Chan. So I experienced really, really, really deep burnout and I want to share how I recovered from it and what I did to work through it. Now, I think, unfortunately this is a common thing that I find amongst many of my founder friends, which where it was just after Covid, I'd been building Founder for seven years straight. I had no off switch. I was just constantly, always on. And the business was booming, right? Seven years straight. Things were going really well. It looked from the outside that I was winning in life. But what I realized very, very quickly during that time was you can have all the success in the world, all the accolades, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have your mental health. And so I want to talk you through what happened, how I went through it and how I recovered. So the thing I found with burnout is it doesn't just hit you overnight. It's something that builds up over time. And if you think of it like a cup, if you don't refill your cup, it'll just eventually take a toll on you. So when I first started founder, I was just always on. I was just working relentlessly. Honestly, guys, if I wasn't seeing friends or family, if I wasn't spending time with my girlfriend, had something locked in my calendar, like extracurricular activities. I was working every waking moment, and it built up. It took its toll. And Covid was a crazy time for the business. And it just made me even worse. Like, I couldn't go outside. In Melbourne, we were locked down. It was like, you know, Melbourne was one of the longest lockdown cities in the world, and I was just working. Cause I had nothing else to do. And then what happened after Covid was we started to come out and things started to open up. I never forget I was just waking up in the middle of the night. This was early 2021, where my heart started beating really fast in the middle of the night. I'd never experienced this before. And then I was waking up with, like, this terrible dread and anxiety. And I just didn't know, like, what was going on. And I remember telling one of my mentors, you know, I don't feel right. Like, I'm not right. And the lesson here is, growth at all expenses of your health is just not worth it. So I quickly realized after a couple of weeks that I was actually burnt out. Like, that's what's happened. I ran myself into the ground, and I didn't want to go to work. I've never shared this publicly. Like, I remember we had a company strategy day, and I was just feeling terrible. Like I didn't even want to be there. It was so wild. And I remember my assistant saying to me, hey, Nathan, are you okay? Obviously, I was not showing up great either. So what did I do? How did I overcome it? Well, first and foremost, I really boil it down to three key things that I started to do. I started to hire and delegate more than ever. I started to prioritize my health, and I actually started to really enforce balance throughout my work life. And I know people talk about work life balance like it's a myth and all these different things, but I started to set boundaries between work and personal. So I want to go through these big shifts. So first and foremost, let's go through hiring and delegating. I didn't realize it, but I was responsible for everything. And what I started to do in the business was I started to let go. I just had to. I had to let go. I had to stop Being so ingrained in every fine little detail and back my team, back the people and share more responsibility with the people in charge of certain functions in the business. And I started to let go more. That was a massive one. So then that didn't force me to just continually work around the clock all day, every day. The second thing I did was I started to have balance and I enforced really strong rules around that balance. I didn't work weekends. Once it hits Friday, 6pm, 6.30pm, I clocked off and on weekends, that was my sacred time. Now I do work on weekends still now. But there are some times where I don't work weekends and I think that's a really, really, really healthy thing. I might keep on top of a few things here or there, but I'm not constantly working. I have time for me and I do things that energize me. So one thing that energizes me is playing pickleball with my brother. That's a routine. I lock that in every Sunday when I see my family. Now I see my family always every Sunday. That is a non negotiable. I had non negotiables. I put my phone at the front of the house. There's a table when you walk in the door and my family's place. I put my phone in front of the house. So I have like a no technology and I want to be present. So during these boundary times, I'm super focused on being present. Another thing I did to double down on doing things that energized me, doing things for me is I started speaking to someone. I started seeing a therapist. When I look at therapy, I know sometimes when we look at, you know, people going to therapy, people think it's a negative thing. I think it's a really, really healthy thing. When you go to gym, you're lifting weights for your muscles to get them bigger and, you know, training them. I see going to therapy as training your mind. So seeing a therapist was really, really helpful. That helped enforce boundaries. I had a regular cadence there. Another thing that I did was float tanks. I found float tanks and what was really powerful with float tanks was Nathan time where it forced me. You know, I remember my first float tank. I went in there and I had to float in the water in the dark for 60 minutes. And I was just alone with my thoughts. I struggled so hard. I almost got out. I pushed through and you know what I realized? The fact that I couldn't sit there or lie there in float for 60 minutes and struggle, that meant that I Had to do it. So I kept going back. I set up a routine, I did my float tanks, I had the pickleball. I spent time with my family, and I really enforced really strong balance. I started getting my steps in every single day, 10,000 steps, getting fresh air, taking regular breaks. And slowly but surely these things really, really, really helped me. And then another thing that I did during that time when I was having really just crazy anxiety was I took a break. I hadn't had a holiday. What I realized is I hadn't had a holiday in like 18 months because of COVID So I took a two week holiday and I just didn't work and I recharged. And I think sometimes it's easy to forget that every single person needs a break. They need a holiday. And you think of it like racehorses, right? You don't have a racehorse running around the track, constantly racing, you know, for 12 months, for 18 months. They get spelled. You know, horses, they spend time in the paddock, they rejuvenate, they recuperate. It's the same for you. And that's what you need to be doing. So there you have it, guys. Through hiring and delegating more, through finding balance and having really strict rules and breaks, that's how I was able to work through my burnout. I also started journaling as well. I think that's really, really important just to be able to get your thoughts on paper. But I just want you guys to know that you're not alone in this journey of building a business. It's tough. And I want to free you from this feeling of guilt. It's so hard sometimes to just kind of go, I want a break. But then you feel guilty because everything relies on you and it feels like you've got the world on your shoulders. I want you to know that it's okay to feel this way. It's okay. But you have to look after yourself. You're not good to anyone if you are working yourself into the ground. And I can't stress this enough, you need to look after yourself. You can have all the success in the world, but the reason that you started this business was more freedom. There's three types of freedom. There's time freedom, financial freedom, and a life of meaning. And you can't have true freedom if you don't have all these three things. So you might have financial freedom, you might have a life of meaning, but if you don't have time freedom, then what's the point? So I can't stress this enough. This is a reminder to you. If you can start journaling, get your 10,000 steps every day. If you can speak to somebody, if you can put yourself in a place to start delegating more, stop taking on all the responsibility for your business. If you can hire people to help give you leverage. If you can start doing float tanks, going to the gym, having something that is non negotiable at least once a week, 60 minutes of your time. It's your time. Protect it and look forward to it. Make it fun. Have it as a reward. It will make things so much better and will give you more clarity and you'll be a better founder for it. So guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And just so you know, we have an incredible coaching program. It's a one on one e commerce coaching program where we help everyday e commerce founders like you, like me. Work through things like burnout. Help you build your business, help you hire, help you get more leverage, help you delegate, help you scale your brand so you can get your time back. So if you'd like to know more about our six month mentorship program where we help you and coach you one on one, go to founder.com and just book a free quick starter session. That's founder.com and just go and book a free quickstarter session. I hope you enjoyed this episode guys. Would love to hear from you. DM me at Nathan Chan or at Founder. We'd love to hear your feedback and I can't wait to see you in another episode.