The Wake-Up Call That Changed One Coaches Business Forever | Business Sustainability | Coach Smarter

Imagine grinding your way to a seven-figure business—only to have it nearly kill you. That’s exactly what happened to today’s guest, Colby Wegter. After pushing himself to the brink and experiencing not one but two major burnouts, Colby was forced to rethink everything about how he worked and ran his business.

In this conversation, we dive deep into the hidden dangers of burnout, why taking a break isn’t enough, and the mindset shift that helped Colby finally build a sustainable business. If you’ve ever felt like you’re running on empty but don’t know how to stop, this episode is for you.

By the End of This Episode, You’ll Discover:

• Why burnout happens even when everything looks successful on the outside.
• The mistake Colby made after his first burnout that led to an even bigger crash.
• How setting boundaries changed everything—and how to start doing it yourself.
• The one decision that instantly freed up hours of his week.
• How to shift from overworking to focusing on what actually moves your business forward.

About Colby Wegter:

Colby Wegter is a top 1% globally recognized digital marketer and the creator of Autonomy Agency, a community that teaches agency owners how to solve their lead problems for good by keeping their clients for years. He excels at teaching others how to 2X, 3X, or 4X client retention and increase their lifetime value.

Connect with Colby:

• Website: AutonomyAgency.com

Next Episode Teaser:

Next time on Coach Smarter—what happens when you do everything right but still feel unfulfilled? My guest, Elona Lopari, had the corporate success, the promotions, and the security. But after reaching the top, she realized something was missing. In this conversation, we unpack why so many coaches end up treating their business like just another job and how to break free from the habits keeping you stuck. Don’t miss it—hit follow now!

Chapters

• 1:00 Colby’s story: from scaling a 7-figure business to total burnout.
• 3:30 The moment Colby realized something had to change.
• 6:00 Why working harder wasn’t the answer—and what he did instead.
• 14:10 How he rebuilt his business with sustainability in mind.
• 22:00 The biggest mistake coaches make when trying to ‘do it all.’

Transcript

Stephen Box: 0:00

Imagine grinding your way to a seven figure business, only to have it nearly kill you. That's exactly where today's guest, Colby Wegter found himself. He was burnt out, ended up stepping away from his business and told him himself that things would change, but nothing did. And by the end of that same year, he was right back where he was burned out again. But this time with no choice but to rethink everything in our conversation, Colby shares what really drives burnout, why most people don't change until they have to, and the mindset shift that finally set him free. By the end of this episode, you'll know how to recognize burnout before it takes over. Set boundaries that actually stick and make changes before you're forced to make them. Hey guys, if you are new around here, welcome to another episode of Coach Smarter, where we help health and wellness coaches coach with confidence, market with clarity, and build a business that lasts. I'm your host Stephen Box, and today I'm sitting down with Colby to talk about the real cost of burnout and how to escape the cycle for good. Colby, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for being here.

Colby Wegter: 1:17

Yeah, I appreciate you having me on.

Stephen Box: 1:19

So the main reason I really wanted to have you on is you have this great story about burning out, not once, but twice. And really that experience taught you not just how to build and create a business, but to actually build something that's sustainable. So tell us a little bit about that story how do you burn out twice, man? Like how does that even happen?

Colby Wegter: 1:46

Yeah, I mean in really short terms, I would say the biggest contributor is just saying yes to everything which people tend to do. And so for me, it was that combination of saying yes to everything. And we were a lean team. I was in, the marketing agency world and one of the partners at the agency. But I subsequently had the most skills in terms of actual marketing skills, client management skills, admin operations and all that sort of stuff. And so when your team is small, All of those things need to get done. And so I just raised my hand pretty much every time, instead of being like, Oh, I need to delegate. But I was also the youngest partner by 20 years. And so there was probably an element of proving myself a bit. to try and hey, I am a very deserving partner. I can be the leader of this business in the future. Although all those like egotistical, items that you're like, I don't have an ego, but then you look at the data and you're like, absolutely I do. and that sort of stuff. But, yeah, the first burnout was definitely saying yes to so many things. We had just hit a million, right. And we only had a team of four. So it was two other partners, me and then an employee. and so I was like managing 40, 40 clients at the time and doing all this admin and doing all this marketing and all that sort of stuff. and on the outside, it looked like I was holding it together, right? But, I burnt out so bad that I had to, take a week off, right? My wife looked me in the face and she's you have to do something because it was like angry every day and, super, exhausted. And yeah, took a week off. The kind of the shock climax of that story is my heart stopped beating on takeoff on the way to go to chill out. Obviously, I didn't die. But yeah, by December of that same year, because that was in April, then I burnt out again. So I basically journaled a bunch on that week off, saying all the things I was going to change, but it's easier to say you're going to change than actually change. And so I kept doing those things and then, it was December 26, 2022, where I burnt out the second time.

Stephen Box: 3:37

I think a lot of the coaches who listen to the show probably can relate to this a little bit because you mentioned how you felt like you needed to prove yourself. And obviously it's a little different situation, right? You already had a lot of the skills in these areas. You're saying yes to things because you are like, Hey, I can do them. And you're maybe trying to prove to the older people that you're working with. That just because you're younger doesn't mean you don't belong. For a lot of coaches, they're probably by themselves. So they're not trying to prove themselves to another person in that way. But they are trying to prove themselves to their clients. And unfortunately for a lot of coaches, they don't have all those skills, right? They don't even have the skills that you already had. But those things still need to get done. They can't afford to hire somebody to do it maybe yet. So they're now trying to figure out how to do the marketing, how to do the social media, how to do all that stuff. And they're trying to take on clients and take care of those clients all at the same time. So I can definitely see a lot of parallels between those situations.

Colby Wegter: 4:42

Yeah. And I think, if I were to give any advice on that front, something, somebody who's helped me, one thing that helped me get out of burnout was like getting mentors and that sort of stuff, and I never expected to be a coach. but it just became an unignorable call, right? So basically the people I coach are the exact same person I was 2. 5 years ago, right? 2 years ago, essentially. the only reason for that is because, again, I, once I was able to over, get over that hump, I had, a really good setup. I was able to get down to, 8 hours a week for the agency. We doubled in revenue, like, all the systems were doing their thing. And I said goodbye to all that to start over again, because it's I have to do this. it's not up to me. But in terms of what you said there, there are a million things to do, right? Entrepreneurship and coaching, especially if you're just running your own thing is like you could do a million things. So something, one of my mentors really opened my eyes on it. He's even younger than me. He's 10 years younger than me. he said. I'm more concerned with focusing on what is the right thing? What is the most important thing and then expecting i'm going to make a mess and all the other stuff, right? But I can only clean up one mess at a time And so for a lot of people they're so focused on I need to do social and I need to have the proper llc And I need to make sure that I have a business bank account So it doesn't flow through my personal and all and you do need all those things But you don't need them all on day one, right? And so you should actually be creating messes by saying how can I help clients the best? How can I get results for people before I care about any of that other stuff? Because any moment you're not helping someone in the beginning is just it's vanity. it's wantrepreneurship than actual entrepreneurship.

Stephen Box: 6:18

Reminds me of a piece of advice that I got from one of my mentors, which was don't make your first hire until it hurts.

Colby Wegter: 6:30

And you shouldn't hire anybody before you've mastered it yourself, right? a really good one, especially when you're starting out, you might do cold outreach or DMing people. Everybody hates that. I don't really know anybody who likes to send cold outreach messages, but you should master it. Like you should be able to get to a point where you're like, okay, I can even just, if it's as simple as sending a five minute loom video on exactly the system on how you do it. So someone just replicates it. You need to have that level of mastery, even if it's like the most baseline before you hire somebody. And in my space, agency owners are, they're so maxed out. They think I need to hire to just ease the workload. My opinion is you should never hire to solve your problem. You should always hire with a future focus. And so if you're like, I'm working 80 hours a week, I'm capped. I need to hire somebody. hiring somebody is inherently one of the most expensive things you can do to solve that problem. And it might not work. And that's also why I coach agency owners because I come from that space. Like I literally have hired people thinking that they would solve my problem. it actually added workload and then I'd had to fire one or two of those people cause it didn't work out. So you start back at zero. So hiring is. Yeah, that's a whole other topic, but it's, you should exhaust every other option in my opinion before you, you go the hiring route.

Stephen Box: 7:45

It's interesting. I think a lot of people don't realize, and I only know this because I did come from a management background before I decided to go into business for myself, that. Managing other people, which even if you're hiring a completely independent person, you are still technically managing that person is a lot of times, especially in the beginning, more time consuming than actually doing the task yourself. And so almost

Colby Wegter: 8:17

always. Yeah. Yeah. So if

Stephen Box: 8:20

you don't know what you're doing, and now you're trying to get this person to do what you want them to do, but you don't even know what it is yourself. It's going to be a train wreck every time,

Colby Wegter: 8:33

every step. And that's, yeah, it's like this, what I would just call trickle down leadership. And it's why my program, and I'm sure, any coaching program, no matter what niche you're in, I think this is a good place to start, but my, the model I use is what I just call the autonomy agency model. And that's basically what I personally implemented. And then I've had a handful of clients and they implement it. But the start of that is what I call self scale. If you're not good, you can't be good for others. If you tell everybody they should have a proper work life balance, but you're crushing the 80 hour weeks, they're gonna pay more attention to what you do than what you say. And you really need to, it's like elements of people pleasing, it's elements of what should I do and all that sort of stuff. It's like it's your business. And we were talking about that right before recording, right? It's your business. You should run it the way you want. And everything works. You just have to be willing to, maybe fail a little bit or look foolish or have other people not understand you, it's your way, right? And so there's nothing wrong, in fact, it is paramount that you invest in what you need to be able to grow, right? Unless you're trying to do a full court press and say, I need to get to seven figures in 12 months and I don't care if I burn out because then I'm going to cash out. That's a different story. But if you're looking for a career or something that is sustainable and impactful, the more selfish you can be, so long as you're a good person, the better off you will be because everyone benefits from that. Cause it trickles down.

Stephen Box: 10:07

What do you feel when you were going through your burnout? What do you feel is like the biggest change that happened between those two instances? Man, I know you, you took the week off and then you just jumped back into things. So what was it that actually did change during that time for you?

Colby Wegter: 10:27

You mean between the first one and the second one?

Stephen Box: 10:29

Were there any things that you actually did change that ended up being Something you're able to go back to after the second burnout.

Colby Wegter: 10:39

Yeah, the first burnout to the second burnout, I would say that was probably like the pregame or, the prologue to it in terms of just then I started asking a lot more questions. It was for seven years leading up to the first burnout, it was just the whole work harder to get more. Which is categorically false. and so I did that, and that's what contributed to the first burnout. In between burnouts one and two, I think what was really happening there was I was just asking myself a lot more questions, right? Or I was at least looking at the foundation and saying, maybe this isn't that great. maybe there's some holes in this thing. maybe we're leaking here. of course that didn't stop me from burning out a second time, because I did, but then, what really sparked after the second burnout and why did I make all these drastic changes? I think it was because the first burnout was like the prologue to what was actually a burnout, where it was like, hey, this is as close to rock bottom as I think I've ever been. And, so to me, Because it happened a second time in the same year, I almost adopted this F it mentality and whereas everything I was journaling about between one and two, I was like, Oh, that's a really nice idea. But I was like too afraid to pull the trigger. Whereas, one example was meetings. I was just on too many meetings. And I told myself after the first burnout, I was because I was averaging like 20 hours a week just in meetings. And I was like, I need to, take no more than like 10 hours a week in meetings and in the subsequent like 20 weeks after that first burnout to the second one, I broke that rule like 15 times, right? I was taking over 10 hours. Most of the time back to 20. And so after the second burnout, what I do, I emailed everybody. It's like January 4 2023. And I was like, I'm only taking meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoons. If you send me an invite, okay. For anything outside of those times, I will say no, which sounds incredibly like, Whoa, what's up with this guy? Everyone applauded. Like anyone who did respond was like, good for you. Then they followed the instruction. And in one email, I eliminated like 18 meetings a week. And I think I had to hit that rock bottom to be like, F it, pull the trigger. And then you pull the trigger and you realize, wow, this wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. In fact, this is amazing. I wish I would've done this five years ago. And that's basically why, Everything I do, especially when coaching clients, none of it is invented, in my opinion, none of it is made up. It's come from somewhere else. It's almost like the primary function of a coach in almost any industry is okay, you now have permission to do that stuff you want to do. I'm over here as an accountability buddy and an advocate in your corner saying, pull the trigger, watch what happens. I didn't have that. When I did, when I made that move, but then I started finding mentors later and it was oh, okay, how far can I go this? how far up the ladder can I stretch and try and reach that potential?

Stephen Box: 13:43

So really, if we were to paraphrase that it goes back to actually what you said earlier, which is you made a mess, then you selected on that mess, and then ultimately it took the second burnout for you to finally do something about it. But ultimately you actually made changes based on those reflections.

Colby Wegter: 14:05

Yeah, and clean it up one one mess at a time, right? So if that's the takeaway from this episode, it would just be like You're going to make messes all over and you can't predict anything or can't predict it all and you can't control it all. And so the first mess I cleaned up was my personal time, right? Whatever is closest to the circle, my calendar, like my time, what I say yes to, right? Got that under control. Then it was, okay, I need to replicate as much of me as possible, knowing that I had only entry level employees who had a, we had four employees by that time. And they had a combined less experience than I did total. And so it was like, okay, so I need to not only delegate to pretty green people, but I need to make sure that those systems are like reliable. And so I, it was really like forcing me to, I don't want to say dumb down, but make incredibly straightforward. What we needed to do to fulfill for clients and all those sorts of things. And so it would be like one page, Google docs, or a simple two or three minute loom video, all that sort of stuff and combine all those things and then stress test to see how they would do. So we use Slack. We had a tickets channel that I created just to be like, basically, instead of, you'd get a support ticket to a company for a product you buy, we would do internal support tickets. Hey. You don't know this thing. Tell me what you're struggling with and I'll create a resource for you. And then we'll organize it, categorize it, all that stuff. So I had to fix my personal time mess to have time to create employee systems, which was the next mess. Once the employees were fulfilling for our current clients, then the next mess was how do we build a pipeline that is like. Really predictable. And how can we increase client value and all that sort of stuff? So it's always one mess at a time. there's would have been zero point in trying to fix the client value mess. If I was still working 80 hour weeks, burden out.

Stephen Box: 15:56

I see a lot of that in the coaching aspect of what a lot of my listeners probably do also, because that's how you would take care of a client. If somebody comes in and they come to you and they're like, Hey, I want to lose 80 pounds. You're not just going to say, Okay, here's some macros for you. Good luck, right? you're gonna figure out like, what are the roadblocks? Why is this person struggling to lose weight in the first place? And then you're going to go after those things one at a time, and you're going to build habits for them. Over time so that when they do lose the 80 pounds, it's not just a, I made a bunch of drastic changes that I couldn't maintain, right? it's learning along the way. And while they're doing it, there's going to be times where they're going to have slip ups, they're going to have setbacks, they're going to have plateaus. And then you got to make changes to it. And it sounds like a similar process where you had an idea based on what you had done. You said, okay. Being, I got to teach this to other people. I got to simplify it. Then once it was simplified, you put it out there, you stress test it, then you make changes to it based on what the feedback was you got from those people and how things are working in the real world.

Colby Wegter: 17:08

Yeah, and that's I love the way you put that. I basically call that the off ramp essentially where it's like, Hey, just a picture of timeline, on a piece of notebook paper. If it's lose 80 on the far right, then you're just working backwards from there, right? So maybe it's okay. Then you need to. Workout five times a week. Okay, then what's before working out five times a week? You need to either find a gym or you need to set space in your house And then it needs to be I need to block time for that five times It's gonna be 20 minutes 10 minutes 50 minutes, whatever and you just keep working backwards. Maybe diets a part of it from the diet point You need to work backwards and say, what meals am I going to have? From what meals are you going to have? What budget do I need? What budget do I need? Where am I going to shop so I can achieve said budget? And you just work backwards until you have the smallest possible step. Accomplish it one step at a time. It's the whole, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? Losing 80 pounds. That's a fricking elephant, man. Like it's not easy to do. And so don't even think about the 80 pounds. Think about what is the, it's minimum viable product, minimum viable step. To work towards 80 pounds and something like losing weight, for instance, you're not going to see that result for weeks, man, like not even 10 pounds potentially. So it is, it's one of the easiest ways to quit is if you just have the goal and you don't work backwards.

Stephen Box: 18:31

Absolutely. If you try to do everything, I always talk about what I call the 10 80, 10 principle. Which is the first 10 percent of developing any new skill or learning any new thing is the hardest 10%. But all you're really trying to do is get to a baseline ability with that first 10%. And a lot of people where they end up quitting is they're trying to do everything. They're trying to learn all the stuff, do all the stuff. But there's an 80 percent growth period in the middle that you have for that. And the last 10 percent is mastery. And if you try to fit the first 90% Within the first 10 percent is literally impossible to do.

Colby Wegter: 19:11

Yeah, and what's between those two tens longer than you want it to take? Like, it's just, there's, I'm reading this book, Essentialism, right now, and it's like the actual, it's like with Stoicism earlier in the year, right? I'd heard it, but I hadn't really read anything about it. I'm like, oh, I've been saying stuff like this for years. Now I have an actual, Bible to pull it from. But Essentialism is the same thing, right? It's just If you get so focused on trying to do everything, instead of just focusing on that 10 percent at that time, you're gonna fail. it's just, you have to, there has to be so much discipline involved. and especially speaking to your audience with coaching, right? as an example, my coaching business is two months old. I'm already thinking, first of all, I would have never done it. Unless I was like, I can do this for at least 10 years because that's just a metric for me. I don't do anything anymore, especially post burnout, unless I'm like, I want to do this for 10 years. So I'm already thinking, what does it look like 10 years from now, right? But I'm working backwards. And so one of the things I want is I want to get to 30 clients. Before I change anything about the business. And the reason for that is it's highly one on one and I truly want to learn what people want by experiencing it one on one, right? So I'm not trying to get to max scale and I'm not trying to have customer success managers and all that sort of stuff. None of that's on my radar at all, right? The only thing I'm working on is 30 clients, but I have questions about that with like your 10 80, 10 principle is Okay, how many could I manage simultaneously, right? Because when it's on your own, could I do 10 simultaneously? Okay, what does that look like? Am I giving them an hour meeting every single week? Hell no, I don't want 10 hours a week in meetings, right? So I need to build my business by design and not by default. And that's one of the key elements in, in essentialism that just. I've been literally been saying that phrase for a long time and it's in the book. So somebody must've told me who read the book and now it's like full circle moment, but so many people are so focused on. the scale or even appearing successful, whether it's coaching or anything else that they are building something by default, they're not asking the questions that say, build it by design. So to me, every single time I get a new client, I'm going to be asking myself the question, how does this feel? Is this sustainable? Is this manageable? Cause maybe it's only five people at a time. In which case, if I have a monetary goal, then maybe I need to charge more after I've gone through that first five as an example. So it's like expectations are. Are a disease, right? So you just need to take it that one step at a time. So expectations don't completely derail what you're meant to do. I know that was I'm a little bit sick right now. So in my head, I'm like, wow, that sounded like all over the place, but hopefully it makes sense.

Stephen Box: 22:00

Yeah, it makes good sense. At least to me anyways. I think, if we're to maybe sum it up for people, I have a favorite phrase I always say, which is don't shit all over yourself.

Colby Wegter: 22:12

Yeah, that's a good one.

Stephen Box: 22:13

And the idea here is. If you start having expectations for yourself that are really only relevant in your head, you're going to find yourself doing a lot of things that you don't need to do. And I know a lot of coaches get their self in trouble by thinking, Oh, I have to look super professional and I have to do all these certain things and I have to maintain this certain image for my clients and give them this absolutely flawless experience. And the reality is, I don't care how many questions you ask, I don't care how much research you do, I don't care how elaborate the plans that you make are, you're never going to be able to deliver that level without breaking a whole bunch of eggs. Like you're going to make mistakes. You're going to mess stuff up. You're going to learn from it. You're, you might even upset a couple of clients along the way, right? you apologize, you offer them some free sessions, you do whatever you need to do to smooth it over and you keep moving and you learn from those mistakes because you're going to make them. You can't possibly out plan those things. It's just, it's impossible to do.

Colby Wegter: 23:26

Yeah. it's one of my favorite quotes is like the best way to get 10 years of experience is 10 years. And so it's like you just need to, you need to accept that going in, right? Especially if you're going to have your own business, just in any regard, coaching being one of them, like you need to be really upfront with yourself and say, if I'm coaching and there's an element of one on one, that is a person to person business and person to person is going to change. The landscape is always moving and you could have a client who is a perfect fit, but then they show up on a bad day and demand a refund and it has nothing to do with you at all. And so you need to be like a really good, almost stoic in a way, like data analysts, right? It's just say, okay, if you've had clients for over a year, are you serving them better this year than you were last year? Or if you're just starting out, if a client asks for a refund, or you feel like, something didn't go right, did you at least respond in a way you're proud of yourself with, right? When I'd have clients in the marketing agency, I, At first I had no clue what I was doing. And so stuff would go wrong. And then I would just promise the world and fix it. But then I got smarter. And so I would tell clients before they even had their first, proper meeting with me, I would say, Hey, I just want you to know why you think you bought this like grand system, really what you bought our brains and fingers, like you bought humans and talent. And so I can't guarantee anything won't go wrong. In fact, I promise something will, what I can guarantee is how we respond. And just by having that sort of statement. On the way front end, I nixed any improper expectations that would have come from, they trusted me right away because they could hear in my voice. I'm not trying to mess with you. I'm trying to tell you, I'm gonna work my tail off for you, but something will break. Something will go wrong. And I think that's just a really valuable statement. If you are coaching people, it's Hey, I don't have all the answers, right? We're here to solve a specific problem. I'll let you know if I can't help. I think just by saying that, You'll get more respect from them.

Stephen Box: 25:33

I love so much that you brought this up because I feel like so many coaches feel like they can't say things like that. Because it's going to make them look bad. And I think one of the things I learned from another mentor of mine that just helped me so much with this was she did a lot of public speaking stuff for like corporate speaking events, things like that. And when I started doing more speaking, she started mentoring me. And one of the things that she told me was when you get up in front of the room, the first thing that you want to tell people. Some of you are going to be brand new to all of this, and you're going to just learn so much today. Some of you are going to know some of this stuff, and you're going to learn a few things. And some of you are going to feel like you already know this stuff, but that's just going to confirm to you that you're on the right track. It's just, everybody in the room is now bought in. no one is going to go, oh, this is a waste of my time.

Colby Wegter: 26:38

Yeah, there's this perception right is it's outside perception inside reality. We're all just human beings. it's all over the place. It's like I don't have all the answers. if you want to level yourself up and reach out to somebody who's like way further ahead, but you're too afraid because they're way further ahead. Like you've missed the crucial elements that's just another human being just trying their best. Like it's, it is the whole kind of take the shot, ask the girl out, blah, blah, blah, failure is a part of the game. So if you can flex your failure muscle to the point where it's just no, it's just, another no on your way to a yes, then it's okay, if you don't do well coaching for your clients or they have, you didn't set the proper expectation, which is like 90 percent of it anyway, and all that sort of stuff that is just, it's a data point. It's not. All encompassing, like you're a terrible human. It doesn't mean you're not worth what you're trying to do. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep coaching anymore. People make mistakes all the time. Like I would tell my staff, I've never yelled at an employee and I have a high standard and that sort of stuff, but I would always make it like a teachable moment and that sort of stuff and hopefully steer them to arrive. At the answer instead of me just outright telling them because while it sucks in the short term It's worth it in the long term because they'll have more autonomy and agency to make future proper decisions, but I would tell them Yeah, it's I mean it's not easy but you got to be patient in the management game that's what I learned just by doing it. But but I would tell them almost daily I'd be like, hey, just so you know, I make way more mistakes than you guys every single day The difference is you're not as curious as I am to catch them, right? The reason I see things is because I am looking at all of these things as how do we get better? So if you think I'm perfect over here, I make more mistakes than you every day, but it's because I'm going for it. It's because I'm trying to get better. It's because a single day where I'm not improving by that 1%. I feel like not only am I stagnant, I feel like I'm dying. I feel like that's two steps back, right? And so if you have that mentality with whatever business you run, especially in coaching, it's like getting better, doesn't feel good. Be addicted to solutions and improving, not how you feel.

Stephen Box: 28:57

I would really sum this up. Then I'm going to, I want you to share with us. Actually, you know what, let's do this. I'm going to have you actually share with us who you help and what you help them with and how people can get in contact with you. And I'm going to put like a nice little, summary bow on this for prayer and when listening so they can really just walk away with the takeaways here.

Colby Wegter: 29:17

Yeah, I can't wait to hear your final word. This excites me already. Okay. So who I help, I help six figure marketing agency owners who are trying to get to seven figures. And so that population, not in every case, but most often is working well over 40 hours a week, or they've been doing it for a while and they hit a revenue wall. So that's just evidence that, doing it yourself, isn't going to get you to where you want to go. So with my experience, through personal experience, getting to 2. 5 million with a staff of six and having burnt out and gotten on the other side of that and now coaching other six figure agency owners, seven figures. If you are a six figure marketing agency owner trying to get to seven, give me a shout. And then the website for that would be autonomyagency. com is my main offer.

Stephen Box: 29:59

And of course, if someone knows, anyone who does fit that mold, feel free to send them this episode or, refer them over Colby's way. And we'll also have the links for all that in the show notes. So here would be my takeaways, right? This is my quick summary. And if you want to add something to this feel free, but what I've taken from the conversation is three main points. Number one is don't be afraid to make mistakes. It isn't as a matter of fact, look for them. look for the opportunities to improve, which means having to look for those mistakes and view them as like a scientist would, right? They're just information. You don't have to like taking you don't have to be like overly dramatic about them, right? They're just they exist. What can you learn from them? The second thing is. Only try to solve one problem at a time. So don't try to go fix everything at once. Just focus on what is the one thing I can control right now. And then the third thing is ties into that second one, which is figure out what things are going to Or figure out what things you have the most control over, because like you had mentioned when you went through your burnout, you focused on what were the things closest to you that you had the most control over versus trying to change things that you had minimal control. And so really, those would be the three takeaways that I would get to somebody walking away from today.

Colby Wegter: 31:27

Yeah, my only addition, say number three A would be if you feel like you can't do those things, then there is someone who has been where you want to go. And chances are, if you invest in yourself with that person, you will speed it up and feel a lot better in a matter of days, weeks, right? It's just, that was a huge contributor to me getting on the other side of burnout, is I just stopped being alone. Yes, I was saying yes to everything, and I started saying no. Which successful people do. I also had another perspective than just my own, right? When you're sitting in the room by yourself thinking you're doing the right thing, but not really sure it's completely understated. How much of that mental warfare just slows you down, right? Just go out there and get a short feedback loop from an authority figure, not someone who's just, selling you a course. That's going to change your life unless they've been where you want to go. Don't pay them. But if they have. It's been my experience that it's worth the investment.

Stephen Box: 32:22

Awesome. Great advice. Appreciate the, the added point there. And I appreciate you joining us today, man.

Colby Wegter: 32:28

Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on.

Stephen Box: 32:30

All right. That wraps up my conversation with Colby today. If today's conversation with Colby got you thinking, make sure you check out his links down in the show notes and connect with him there. That's where you're gonna find everything you need. All right, that wraps up my conversation with Colby today. If this episode got you thinking and you want to connect with Kobe, you can find all his links down in the show notes and connect with him there. And if you wanna make sure that you never miss an episode of the Coach Murder podcast, make sure you join my weekly newsletter every week. I'll send out the latest episode plus insights to help you coach smarter and grow your business. And that link is also available in the show notes. Before we go today, I want to give you a couple of quick takeaways that I got from today's episode. Number one, burnout doesn't happen overnight. It's something that sneaks up on you when you ignore the signs and keep trying to push through. Number two, taking a break won't fix burnout if you go right back to the same habits. Real change takes, rethinking how you work. And guys, this is very similar to what we teach our coaching clients in the health and wellness space. That a quick diet fix isn't going to solve anything if you just go right back to eating the way you were before. And the same thing applies to burnout. And number three, you don't have to wait until burnout forces you to change. The sooner you take control, the easier it's gonna be to build a sustainable business. On our next episode of Coach Smarter, we're gonna ask the simple question, what happens when you do everything right, but you still feel unfulfilled? My guest, Elona Lopari had it all. The corporate job, the promotions, the success, but after climbing to the top, she realized something was missing. So she walked away and built something of her own. And in our conversation we unpack what really holds coaches back from making that leap. Why so many end up treating their business like just another job. And how to break free from the habits, keeping you stuck. Make sure you hit the follow button so you don't miss it. And that's it for today. This is Stephen Box reminding you that coaching smarter creates a lasting impact for you and those you serve.