The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Episode 614: (Solo) Running on Fumes? Reset Your Mindset Before The Year Ends
Release Date: December 16, 2025

Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Nathan Chan addresses the exhaustion and burnout many founders face at year's end. Drawing from personal experience, he shares practical strategies and mindset shifts for founders to reset, recalibrate, and avoid running on empty. The episode is honest, supportive, and packed with actionable tools to help entrepreneurs protect their mental health and set themselves up for long-term success.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The End-of-Year Exhaustion

• Recognizing Burnout
  Nathan opens by normalizing the feeling of being "on fumes" near the year's end, especially if ambitions haven’t been met or the business isn’t where one hoped.

  • "You're not imagining it. The tank is low, your energy shot... It feels like a grind." [00:52]

• Unique Pressures on Founders
  He acknowledges the extra pressures entrepreneurs face—juggling ongoing responsibilities while others enjoy holiday festivities.

  • "There's this unspoken pressure that founders carry... you don't get a holiday right? Or if you do, it's not much because you got orders coming in, you've still got stuff to do..." [01:31]

Strategies for Resetting Your Mindset

• Break the ‘Just Push Through’ Myth

  • "One of the biggest lies that we tell ourselves as founders is as long as I hit this target, everything's going to be amazing." [02:38]
  • Nathan warns against waiting for milestones to feel good or rested, as this can lead to burnout.

• Recharge Systems & Habits

  • Float Tanks:
    Nathan swears by float tanks as a transformative way to disconnect and rejuvenate.

    • "I find float tanks are an absolute game changer." [03:08]

  • No-Work Weekends:
    Enforces personal boundaries by refraining from weekend work.

    • "I just don't work on weekends." [03:19]

  • Prioritize Family & Friends:
    Makes a conscious effort to reconnect with loved ones when feeling overwhelmed.

  • Book a Real Holiday:
    Stresses the importance of truly unplugging.

    • "When I go on holidays, guys, I don't work. I actually delete Slack, I delete my calendar, I delete my email, I don’t take my laptop... I properly recharge." [03:37]

  • Physical Regrounding:
    Recommends outdoor walks (targeting 10,000 steps/day) and the act of grounding by walking barefoot outdoors.

    • "Getting outside, regrounding yourself is game changing... this stuff actually works." [04:22]

  • Wellness Micro wins:

    • Morning meditation—even if consistency isn’t perfect
    • Saunas as a reset tool [04:31]

• Therapeutic Writing & Reflection

  • Journaling to unpack thoughts, track progress, and process emotions. Recommends looking back over previous entries for perspective.
    • "There's something so incredibly therapeutic about putting pen to paper... Then you go back and look, like a couple of years ago, your entries, and then you just like, oh my God, this is crazy. Look at where I've come from." [04:07]

• Mentorship & Trusted Advisors
  Having a mentor or a sounding board (“Master Shifu”, in Nathan’s case) to help reframe situations and stay grounded.

  • "Mentors are so incredibly powerful. If you don’t have a mentor…join Founder Plus." [04:46]

• Protecting Your Time & The Power of ‘No’

  • Nathan admits he’s a people pleaser but emphasizes the need to say no to protect mental health and energy.
    • "You just have to for yourself… sometimes just doing less is just better." [05:24]

• Batch Planning & Reflection
  Teases a future deep-dive episode on end-of-year review and planning. Mentions using tools like futureme.org for sending notes to your future self. [04:54]

Recognizing Unhealthy Patterns & When to Pause

• Warning Signs of Burnout
  Nathan lists personal red flags indicating it’s time to pause:

  • Trouble sleeping

  • Increased anxiety

  • Frequent illness

  • Calendar dread

  • Not looking forward to Mondays

  • Loss of motivation

  • "I've experienced such deep burnout, guys, that I didn't want to go to work anymore... you can't lead teams, you can't hire people, you can't market, you can't build great products, you can't scale." [06:12]

The Hard-Earned Message

• Founders Give Their All—But Need to Step Back
  • "Us as founders, you know, we work so hard. We give our life to our businesses, and if we let it, it'll take everything, everything from us. Don't let it. Zoom out. Slow down. Get some downtime for the year." [07:04]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You can't build great things when you're on empty. And one of the most dangerous things that a founder can do is run on empty." [06:10]
• "Book in a holiday, take some downtime, even if it’s just a long weekend... I promise you, it’s the best reset." [05:46]
• "It’s also about what you say no to. Something that I personally struggle with... I don’t want to let other people down, but you got to say no, right?" [05:15]
• "Look after yourself. I can't stress this enough... Reinvest in your own mental health. It's so important." [07:15]

Key Timestamps

• 00:48 — Acknowledging end-of-year exhaustion and founder struggles
• 02:38 — Breaking the “just one more push” fallacy and signs of burnout
• 03:08 – 04:43 — Personal reset strategies: float tanks, no-work weekends, true holidays, outdoor movement, journaling, saunas, and the value of mentors
• 05:15 — Saying no and setting boundaries for mental health
• 06:10 — Lived experience with deep burnout, warning signs, the need to pause
• 07:04 — Closing encouragement to invest in yourself and zoom out

Overall Tone

Supportive, understanding, and candid—Nathan Chan speaks as a founder to fellow founders, openly sharing his struggles and emphasizing the importance of rest and boundaries in entrepreneurship. The message is empowering: your business’s future depends on protecting your health and mindset.

Useful For:
Any entrepreneur or founder feeling end-of-year fatigue, questioning their momentum, or struggling to define healthy work boundaries. This episode is a reminder and toolkit for personal maintenance—so you can keep building without burning out.