From Burnout to Breakthrough 5 Keys to Building Sustainable Success as a Coach

In this episode of Coach Smarter, Stephen Box sits down with performance coach Rob Tracz to explore how coaches and entrepreneurs can overcome burnout and build a business they love. Rob shares his personal story of hitting rock bottom and reveals his six core principles for resilience, alignment, and success. If you’re feeling stuck or out of balance, this conversation offers practical insights to help you regain control and move forward with clarity.

By the End of This Episode You'll Know:

• The key warning signs of burnout and how to address them.
• Why alignment with your values is critical for long-term success.
• How building resilience through discomfort can transform your mindset and results.
• The importance of setting boundaries and surrounding yourself with positive influences.
• Practical strategies to create sustainable success as a coach.

About Our Guest:
Rob Tracz is a performance coach who helps driven entrepreneurs prevent burnout, build resilience, and optimize their personal and professional lives. With a holistic approach, he provides actionable strategies to break through stagnation, ensuring clients achieve sustainable success while enjoying the journey.

Book a Free Performance Strategy Call with Rob

Transcript

Stephen Box: 0:00

You became a coach to make an impact to help others transform their lives. But what happens when you find yourself stuck juggling endless responsibilities and teetering on the edge of burnout and maybe wondering if you'll ever find the balance between serving others and taking care of yourself. If you've ever felt like you're just spinning your wheels and you can't break free, then today's episode is exactly what you need. Hey, welcome to another episode of Coach Smarter brought to you by Unshakable Habits. I am your host, Stephen Box, and today I am joined by Rob Tracz, a performance coach who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and high achievers just like you break through burnout, build resistance, and find sustainable success. Rob has been where many of us have been, caught in the cycle of overwork and stagnation. But through his journey, he's developed a holistic approach that doesn't just help his clients succeed professionally, But ensures they enjoy the process along the way. In this conversation, Rob shares his own story of hitting burnout, the lessons he learned, and how you can apply them to your coaching practice in life. So with that, Rob, welcome to the show, man. It's great to have you here.

Rob Tracz: 1:18

Hey man, appreciate you having me, This is awesome. super excited to dive in.

Stephen Box: 1:22

Yeah, for sure, man. I know we're going to dive into a lot today, but let's start with this. You're someone who helps entrepreneurs and coaches who feel capable of doing so much more, but they find themselves stuck in this relentless cycle of burnout. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into this work?

Rob Tracz: 1:42

So originally my background is in strength and conditioning. I studied kinesiology undergrad and then exercise science in grad school. I had a concentration in performance enhancement and injury prevention in grad school. Originally it was with the athletes and high performers. I transitioned into personal training, and then after a terrible streak of suffering from burnout, I worked my way through that. And then as I continue to grow and evolve as a human, so too does my coaching. And that's kind of brought me to where I'm at now, helping driven individuals those guys who feel like they deserve more, they're on the break of bigger success, but they They're experiencing that burnout just being held back from something. I help those guys identify what it is that they need to unlock and move to the next level. And, we do that by helping them look good, feel good and do great things.

Stephen Box: 2:39

Where do you feel like the burnout started for you? what do you feel was the big thing that caused you to reach that point of burnout?

Rob Tracz: 2:47

Yeah, I mean, it's difficult because there are a lot of different things. There's burnout comes up and appears in a lot of different ways. But for me, I would have to say that it was really the isolation. I was at a point where I was. Personal training and strength and conditioning with athletes and such point where I was working 12 to 15 hour days, seven days a week for about three years straight. And I was around all these people, clients and such, but what I was doing was I was isolating myself from our friends, from the girl that I was dating at the time, and even my family. I was working holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's. I would never go home to see my friends or family. I just continue to work, work, work, work. And nothing against my clients because they were just doing what they want to be doing. They're trying to get better and better shape and hit some of their goals. And although I was seeing them every day, they weren't pushing me or motivating me to kind of continue and grow. they'd begun to see me starting to suffer with isolation, starting to get out of shape and stuff like that. But they never wanted me to take a day off on their day. So when everyone's like, yeah, you should definitely take some time to yourself, go on vacation, but make sure you're still around for our training session kind of thing. I was stuck in this situation where I was just Focused on the wrong things.

Stephen Box: 4:09

I hear a couple of things there. so one, not setting good boundaries, right? not really having an alignment with what was important to you, you know, kind of maybe feeling like, Hey, you know, I'm having success here. You started to develop that identity as a coach and that success that comes along with working, especially with those higher end clients and that becomes your identity and you lose track of those important other relationships in your life.

Rob Tracz: 4:38

Oh yeah, spot on,

Stephen Box: 4:40

What made you finally realize something had to change?

Rob Tracz: 4:44

Well, so as I was saying, I was losing all those relationships and experiences that I'm, I'll never get back. And the biggest one for me was He ended up getting sick, diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And instead of spending time with him, I would treat clients during the day. I would take a 3 hour drive down to Philadelphia, stay by his side through the night, and I would drive back to work in the morning. And I did that for about a week, when I shouldn't have been spending time with him. And when he had passed, I decided I was going to ignore all my feelings and everything that was going on and I just continued to bury myself in work. And I went back, back to that grind and I continued for about a year and a half until it was a holiday weekend. A lot of my clients were traveling and my friends were all out doing things and I was. Sitting home on Friday night, frantically trying to fill my schedule. I was like, wiping through my phone like it was a dating app, like any client available, I'm trying to book them for that weekend. And I didn't realize because I was continuously setting myself up earlier by having this old schedule. Because the full schedule was a distraction. It was distracting me from what I had lost and what my life had actually became. And when I was denied that distraction and I couldn't fill my schedule, that allowed for a little bit of time of reflection. That allowed for me to take a step back and to look at what's going on with my life. Who am I? That's not who I am. And in that moment there, I realized I need to change something. So I went back to what worked for me when I was a kid, was getting active, getting back in shape, pushing my boundaries, so comfortable with my client, so comfortable with the money I was making. That discomfort became so difficult for me to embrace. So I needed to get serious about my training again. I needed to get intentional with what I was consuming, not just my nutrition, but also my digital nutrition. So the types of podcasts and books and things that I was consuming on a day to day basis. Then I needed to get myself aligned, like you said before, because I was totally out of alignment. And then from there it was, how do I optimize? How do I make my? Life a little more efficient, and then how do I get back around positive people that are going to motivate me and inspire me, push me to level up and become the great person that I know I am.

Stephen Box: 7:12

The thing that stood out for me there, because I think a lot of people can relate to this, especially entrepreneurs. We chase after that success and starting a business is hard. I mean, anyone who tells you that you can start a business and like just do it part time and be successful must already have money, right? Because it is hard work in the beginning and it's easy for you to identify with that hard work and get caught up in this idea of thinking, If I don't continue to work this hard and do these things, I can't be successful and I'm going to lose everything. What was it that allowed you to make this shift and start? Because obviously you had to cut back on some training hours to start hanging out with these people and reading different books and podcasts and leveling yourself up. So what was it that allowed you to overcome that fear?

Rob Tracz: 8:07

Yeah, I think it was just spending some time reflecting on what really is important to me. because when I was first with the grinding, building the clients up. I was working, working, working, making the money in it because I was seeking attention. I was seeking like approval from my parents, from my friends. I was wearing my crazy schedule, like a badge of honor. And that's, it was the wrong thing that I was looking for. So when I spent some time to identify what really meant to me, it helped me identify that I'm not here for more. I need to continue to grow and I needed to start to find ways to start to. Expand my coaching. How do I become a better leader? How do I become a better version of myself? And in that time there, I realized that it wasn't necessarily the money that I was looking to lead a better legacy to connect with more people, help others achieve more, and when I realized that it was more than just. The getting in better shape or just losing a little bit of weight or getting a little bit stronger. I realized that it was bigger than that. Then it was a lot easier for me to make that shift of, okay, maybe I'll lose a hundred bucks from not training this client. But you know what, with that hour, I'll be able to dedicate some more time so then I can help more people down the road.

Stephen Box: 9:26

So really it was about kind of realizing that If you kept trying to exchange your time for dollars, you were going to cap out. There was only so much you could grow versus understanding that if you were to invest that time and money somewhere else, you can level up your skills and essentially uncap your potential.

Rob Tracz: 9:49

Yeah. And also just the aligning myself with, with what I really wanted to be doing. Because I, it was, I was getting stale. I was getting burnt out from teaching squat patterns and inch patterns and in discussing nutrition and part of me, I love that stuff. So like, I'll always be in the gym and teaching, coaching, those kinds of things. But there was more so like having that cessation or that drive, learn about more to help people in different and bigger ways, helped me reprioritize. What I needed to, so in order for me to help people in a bigger way, I needed to spend more time myself growing in those avenues.

Stephen Box: 10:32

So speaking of getting things in the right order and figuring out what's important. I know you have some core principles that you use in your, in your business and in your life. Can you share those?

Rob Tracz: 10:44

So I've got six core principles and I break them into, three steps, which I mentioned earlier look good, feel good and do great things. The first phase of looking good, it's all about building resiliency and intentional consumption for me. once you've expanded your comfort zone and built this new resilience, you can start to handle the stressors that life throws at you. So life's going to be throwing punches at you left and right. And if you're not prepared to handle the ups and downs, then it's going to be a really bumpy ride. And then from there is that intentional consumption, kind of hinted at earlier. we focus on the foods and the types of things that energize us and motivate us, both physically with like food and water and things like that, and also mentally too. So the types of podcasts, the books, the content that we're consuming. Then from there, once we got those down, we're looking good. And then from there, we set to feel good by aligning our actions, defining our goals, figuring out the action steps we needed to get to the next level. So gaining clarity on where we're trying to get to. And from there, optimization is the principle that's all about improving the efficiency for your rules and the routines you live your life, You understand where you're trying to go to, you understand how to get there, and you're moving smoothly and efficiently. Now you can say that you're feeling good. And then we get into that final step, which is doing great things. And in order to do great things, We've got to get around important plus ones that one of my good mentor friends always talks about surrounding yourself with plus ones and how do you surround yourself with plus ones, you've got to work on your social communication skills, build that support system, and from there, you got to figure out the final principle of creating opportunity or what I like to call it some luck and getting around other individuals, figuring out how to open doors.

Stephen Box: 12:39

I love the way you broke those down. The one that really stood out for me there at the end was luck because back when I worked in retail management, I had made a sign in my store that my employees had to look at every day. Cause I put a right on the cash register and it said luck is when opportunity meets persistence.

Rob Tracz: 12:58

Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. and that's exactly what it is. I say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. And if you follow the first five principles, then you're prepared, you're ready to roll. And then now it's just about creating the opportunity. So then you can look like that overnight success. that lucky guy that just seems to have everything always happen for them because no one ever sees what happens behind the scenes or what happens all the other days. But you know, because you're out there working.

Stephen Box: 13:28

I always love having these conversations with people who have a background in health and fitness like myself. Because I think the people who do not have that background or people who haven't been around to exercise their entire life don't really fully grasp Just how beneficial regular exercise is to your health. You kind of hit on it when you were explaining those, but. It just helps you build that resilience, right? you go through tough times in the weight room. You push your limits. you learn what you're capable of. You learn to work through being tired and being fatigued and sore and you learn all those things and it really helps you deal with life in such a different way. And you know, it's a great stress reliever as well.

Rob Tracz: 14:19

Yeah, you know, you said it exactly and that's where I had to revert back to. when I, when I needed to make that change because I went back to what's been true to me for my whole life and that was for me when I was younger is all about sports and being active, but that being physically active teaches you everything that I just went into the principles of being active, which is the comfort zone, like you said. then to continue being an active, you need to learn to fuel yourself appropriately with different things, with being intentional with your consumption. You got to have a goal for what you're doing. Otherwise, if you're in the gym, just kind of endlessly doing anything, you're not going to achieve anything. And then from there, you got to optimize it too, because like, yeah, you could be doing some activity, but if you're doing. Heavy, heavy back squats after you ran a marathon, that's not efficient. You're not going to be able to get very heavy loads. And then also you need to pay attention to the support system because when you are tired and you are beat down and you don't feel like continuing forward, it's good to have that coach, those captains and the crowd cheering you on in the background that keep you motivated, pushing forward. And then that's where that luck comes in at once all the above has been prepared and taken care of, then you just look like the overnight success.

Stephen Box: 15:33

I think the optimization one is a really great point too, because you use the example of squat. If you're just putting like body weight squats or you're just putting just the bar on your shoulders and you're not putting weight on it, you can get away with subpar form, right? But as you load more and more weight, your form has to get better. Otherwise, you're going to end up getting hurt. And I think a lot of times this is an approach that a lot of us miss because we think we need to get everything perfect before we start. We think we need to do everything 100 percent perfect from day one versus understanding that there is a progression of skill. Oh, yeah,

Rob Tracz: 16:13

definitely. And the same thing in like entrepreneurship, too. Like, yeah, you want to be perfect. You want to have everything lined up and you want to have it going. But there's Something that speaks for like going through it. So starting with the progressions, getting through building it, taking the action on it. So if you sit home and you're watching YouTube videos on how to do back squats forever, and you never actually go into the gym and practice your back squats, you're never going to get any better. Same thing with business though, too. So like you just sit strategizing, building, business plans, but you never get out there. You never pick up a phone and call someone. You're never going to have the success that you're trying to get.

Stephen Box: 16:52

Rob, if there's an entrepreneur out there listening to this right now and they're finding themselves in that place where they burn out, they don't even know if they want to continue their business, but they're still kind of showing up every day. They just don't know what to do next. What is the one piece of advice that you would give them on where to start?

Rob Tracz: 17:13

Yeah. and they don't know. What kind of steps that they want to be taken? Or are you asking like, what would I recommend? It's like, you came to me today and you're like, Hey, what should I be doing?

Stephen Box: 17:22

Yeah. Like this is like, say there's somebody just, they started working with you and they don't know what the next step is. What's the very first thing you're going to have them do?

Rob Tracz: 17:32

We have to do some reflection and they have to pay a little bit of attention to what you've got going on. What's worked for us in the past. Where do we want to get to? and just taking the step by step, nice and slow, baby steps first, but figuring out what it is we actually want to do. So then we can pay attention to what works for us individually.

Stephen Box: 17:54

And if someone feels like, hey, you know what, that's something I could use some help with, what's the best way for them to contact you?

Rob Tracz: 18:03

Yeah, the easiest way to just kind of check in, ask me a question or kind of follow along with the different things that I've got going on. Is to, reach out to me on social media, I hang out on Instagram the most, and my handle is just my name, Rob Tracez, T R A C E Z, and, or LinkedIn, LinkedIn's a place where I've been hanging out a lot more often, but yeah, always open DMs, you can always shoot me a message.

Stephen Box: 18:27

All right. Any final, words of advice?

Rob Tracz: 18:31

the piece of advice that like I mentioned before pay attention to what works for you, more times than not, people go out, which try to copy people all the time, which is good because you want to have a mentor or role model to kind of replicate, but there's got to be a time where you need to learn to you. Adopt your own strategies, make it your own unique way of doing what it is that you want to do. And you figure out how to do that by paying attention to what works for you. spend some time to kind of reflect and figure those things out. And you'll see a whole lot better results. And with that, guys, that concludes our interview today with Rob Tracy. I'm going to give you guys a quick recap, some of my big takeaways from the interview here in just a moment, as well as a teaser for our next episode. But I do want to first say thank you very much for everyone who tuned in and listened to today's episode. And a special thanks to Rob for sharing his journey from burnout to breakthrough and providing us really with some practical strategies For creating sustainable success as a coach. So here are my five takeaways that I took from the conversation today. Number one is set boundaries to avoid burnout. Number two is be intentional about your energy. Number three, get clear on alignment. Number four, build resilience through discomfort. And number five, surround yourself with positive influences. So just quickly to run through these. So number one, setting boundaries is going to help you to avoid burnout. It's very important to protect your energy by prioritizing what truly matters in both your coaching practice and your personal life. Number two is be intentional about your energy. So not just protecting your energy, but being intentional about it. Make sure you're choosing the habits. And the routines and the activities and the projects that energize and inspire you. The third one is get clear on alignment. Make sure that the things you're doing every day are actually in alignment with your values and your goals. Make adjustments when needed. It's very easy, probably easier than most people realize to get out of alignment if you're not constantly checking in on it. Number four is build resistance through discomfort. Look, just like being in the gym. You have to get a little uncomfortable for your muscles to grow for the systems in your body to develop and get better. The same thing applies to your business. You have to push your limits outside your comfort zone in order to grow stronger and become more adaptable in both your work and your home life. Really? It's not just work. And then finally surround yourself with positive influences. Connect with a supportive community. Get a mentor. Hire a coach. Do whatever you need to do to get around people who are going to challenge and inspire you to grow. And I believe if you apply these principles, you'll not only elevate your coaching, but you'll also ensure that you're living and working in alignment with your goals and your values, and you will be a much happier, productive person. If you're ready to break free from burnout and build a coaching practice that aligns with your values, you'll I want to encourage you to either sign up using the link below to book a free call with Rob or send me a DM on Instagram. And I'll be happy to also do a free call with you. And if you love today's episode, make sure you share with a fellow coach who could use some inspiration and join us next time as we'll be joined by Mark Stuskowski, AKA Mr. Productivity. to tackle one of the biggest challenges health and wellness coaches face. How to gain clarity on what you should be doing right now to be the most productive version of yourself. Until then, this is Stephen Box reminding you that coaching smarter creates a lasting impact for you and those you serve.