5 Strategies to Avoid Burnout

John Harcar (00:01.198)
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host here, John Harcar.

I am here today with Brittany Blackman and what we’re going to talk about is avoiding the burnout. We all know what it’s like. We all might’ve been there before, but we’re going to share some things that might help you not get there. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and really all real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their business. And we do that by providing tools and resources to build the business you want to build and to the life you want to live. So Brittany, welcome to our show.

Brittany Blackman (00:33.374)
Happy to be here. Thank you.

John Harcar (00:35.052)
Yeah, I’m super excited about avoiding to talk about avoiding the burnout. I know there’s been lot of times in my life and if you’re in real estate, then sure a lot of us experienced it. But before we get into the weeds, let’s really talk about that. Tell our audience a little bit about you, kind of how you got here, how you got into real estate, what you’re doing now, et cetera.

Brittany Blackman (00:55.134)
Absolutely. So ever since I was a wee tot, I was always in hospitality. So worked in restaurants, went to retail. Then I found and stumbled across the vacation rental industry shortly after I moved from Georgia to Florida. I had no idea what they were, but I was like, all right, well, this is cool. Let’s let’s try it and fell into that bunny hole. And so for the next nine years, I think I got into it about 2011.

John Harcar (01:10.702)
Okay.

Brittany Blackman (01:24.114)
so for the next nine years learned a lot about trial and error, became the operations manager for a vacation rental company. When I exited, we had a little over a hundred properties that were under our care. So we were full service and, decided I had this huge passion, that I really wanted to own a company myself. I tried to purchase that business, but it was just not the right time. And so 2020, I don’t know about you, it was a little bit of a shakeup.

John Harcar (01:36.244)
Wow.

John Harcar (01:52.078)
A little bit, huh? Just a little bit. Still recovering a little bit. Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (01:56.398)
I think we all are. And I don’t know, like, stuff just started changing and I was like, what am I doing with my life? I had these real deep questions and decided at that point that the right opportunity for me was to go out on my own and start my own vacation rental company. So I did that. I founded Breathe Easy Rentals in the Florida Panhandle.

John Harcar (02:06.286)
Mmm.

Brittany Blackman (02:19.645)
grew and scaled that business and that team over four years and then successfully sold that company in August. Not the original intention to sell that quickly, but burnout happened and my life shifted a little bit and so the next step then was hopping into coaching. So learning executive life business coaching skill sets.

John Harcar (02:31.096)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (02:42.755)
Okay.

Brittany Blackman (02:47.293)
And hopefully now, you know, turning back to the same industry that gave me 13 years of awesome memories and serving the great people of that industry to hopefully avoid some of the hard conversations that don’t get discussed often.

John Harcar (03:02.574)
All right. Now let’s go back a little bit, right? So you’re in the hospitality, you’re working in restaurants, doing all that stuff. And then you said you stumbled upon real estate. How did you stumble upon it? I mean, did you read Rich Dad Poor Dad like everybody else I talked to?

Brittany Blackman (03:18.087)
So I, what was I doing? I was, so I moved to Destin, Florida, huge fishing community. I was taking photos of the charter boats that would come in and I just wanted something a little bit more in life than selling pictures to fishermen for the next like 40 years. And I can’t even remember how I found it, but I’m sure it was on a website job listing and.

John Harcar (03:42.114)
Job board.

Brittany Blackman (03:43.321)
Right. And so I just found this reservationist position at a vacation rental company. And so was like, again, didn’t really know what they were. So I’m like, well, let’s just go in and try this. So when I came into the industry, I was a reservationist, so booking, helping book vacations for properties and people that wanted to come to the beach.

John Harcar (04:01.218)
Mm.

John Harcar (04:05.388)
Hmm, okay. What did you like about it? What did you like about that vacation rental industry?

Brittany Blackman (04:13.239)
Every day is completely different. I remember at that time, it’s just so funny. I was applying at different banks and things like that. I just wanted a different job and I was like, they’re just so boring. Like you go in and you do the same thing every day. You stand in the same position. You have to have a mat because your feet have to be comfortable. Like that sounds awful. And so was like, let’s try this vacation rental thing. And it was, it was.

John Harcar (04:32.12)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (04:41.059)
Every day is something completely different. You’re solving so many problems. I love a good challenge. I love solving them. And then at the core, this is really probably something I didn’t learn until years later, but I think they’re the unsung heroes of the world. You’re providing memories for people where they can go on vacation. It’s the first child. It’s the grandmother’s last beach trip. It’s the honeymoon. It like so many impactful things.

John Harcar (04:44.974)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (04:59.138)
Yes.

Brittany Blackman (05:10.255)
And you get to play a tiny role in that when you’re in the vacation rental industry. And it’s just, that’s like at the deepest core why I just, I love what this industry does.

John Harcar (05:15.842)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (05:21.422)
That is so awesome. you’re contributing to someone’s core memories. mean, that’s really important things potentially in their life. So you were working for this company, and how long were you at this company?

Brittany Blackman (05:33.671)
I was with the first company for about nine years.

John Harcar (05:36.108)
Okay, and then after that is when you went and started your own thing. Okay. What were some of the challenges when you transitioned from employee to employee or or business owner?

Brittany Blackman (05:39.111)
Yes.

Brittany Blackman (05:47.517)
it’s very lonely when you are your only employee. So it’s, I think everything has a high and a low to it. And so it was really nice because I didn’t have to ask anybody else what they thought. If I wanted to do it, I just did it. And that’s great. that also, sometimes that’s lonely because you want to be able to ask somebody and you don’t know if your ideas are crazy.

John Harcar (05:52.623)
Hahaha

John Harcar (05:58.883)
Yeah.

John Harcar (06:06.413)
Yeah.

John Harcar (06:14.818)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (06:14.961)
You just kind of want like a sounding board, right? And so that was probably one of the biggest things was just that loneliness and the decision making and in the process. And then I’m sure I could think of some others, but that really was the one I think that at its core stood out to me the most.

John Harcar (06:17.453)
Yep.

John Harcar (06:32.674)
Okay, and then how did your business develop? I mean, you mentioned you were a solo, right? Did you bring on people? Did you bring on other folks to do some of this other work and delegate to?

Brittany Blackman (06:43.451)
Overtime, yes. So I started, you know, I had built the team at the prior company. So some of this was learned habit, you know, all right, let’s bring in basically the things I don’t like to do or I’m not good at. So let’s start piecemealing that off. You know, originally the idea was just kind of build the team out, obviously, so I can get more owners and we can scale it. And then I would say a few years in is when I started really reflecting.

John Harcar (06:48.43)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (06:56.472)
right?

Brittany Blackman (07:13.009)
trying to decide what I would do. I had listened to other podcasts and consumed information about selling your business. And the number one thing that I heard was, as the founder, get as far out of the business as you can before you sell it. And so that really shifted things the last two years where it really was a focus on building the right team. I didn’t need to work 80 hours a week anymore either. And so I needed to get some of it off my plate, but then that also wound up

John Harcar (07:25.282)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (07:41.341)
going into how do I build the team so that way this is actually now a sellable product to an investor or buyer.

John Harcar (07:49.15)
Right. Is that why you had mentioned get out, get as far away from it is because you’re make it that sellable business? And I’m sorry, go ahead.

Brittany Blackman (07:58.333)
Absolutely.

sorry. I was just going to say like, you know, I can’t speak about most other industries, obviously just from my experience in vacation rentals, but it’s relationship based. and so when you’re the only tie and all of the relationships are tied to you, you know, can you sell a business without getting out from the day to day? Yes. But then you probably need to be part of it longer. during that transition and ultimately I think buyers, you know, there’s number one, there’s all sorts of buyers out there.

John Harcar (08:23.202)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (08:31.729)
But number two, most buyers want to purchase a product or a business that can run and operate on its own. They can make their tweaks and make it, customize it to them, but they don’t want it attached to someone else.

John Harcar (08:42.221)
Right.

Sure. Yeah, they don’t want to step in and have to build everything from scratch. They want to go and take over something that works. What’s one of the craziest bookings that you’ve had? Obviously, it’s maybe if it’s a birthday or anniversary or just what’s the craziest one and then what’s the most difficult one that you’ve had?

Brittany Blackman (09:12.093)
the craziest ones, I don’t know. To me, I’ll think about this as I talk it out to you, but one of the ones that stands out the most to me was, we were actually on our way back from Orlando. had a quick family trip and I get the phone call, that it was a couple who was staying in one of the properties, and they were alcoholics. He was a raging alcoholic and,

John Harcar (09:20.994)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

John Harcar (09:39.437)
Hmm.

Brittany Blackman (09:42.001)
beat his girlfriend up and just go with caused a scene caused a lot of damage in the property. And that was really hard. It was a very emotional thing for me because I’ve been through domestic violence myself. And so, man, like it hit that nerve. And that’s the hard part, right? Because you still have to stay professional.

John Harcar (09:48.886)
Cheers.

John Harcar (09:57.187)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah.

Brittany Blackman (10:06.493)
can’t mix your emotion and I had to continue communicating with this man because he owed us so much money so it turned into lawyers got involved. was bad. So that was definitely the hardest one and to me the craziest one. You know that stands out but there’s so many other good memories that you know I mean again like I think one of the most touching ones probably in the last couple years before I sold was that someone had just gotten diagnosed with cancer.

John Harcar (10:12.002)
Right?

John Harcar (10:25.973)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Blackman (10:35.845)
They were, you know, about to begin their treatments and they just wanted a quick getaway. Like you hear like those heartfelt things and you’re just like, melt.

John Harcar (10:35.875)
Hmm.

John Harcar (10:44.456)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that kind of reminds me a lot of times when I’d go in and talk with a seller and it’s, they have the true real like, you know, real motivation that that stuff that rocks you to your core type of stuff. And yeah, it definitely gives you perspective. That’s for sure. Okay, so do you own any rentals now or like any, or did you ever own the vacation rentals yourself or were you just managing them?

Brittany Blackman (11:10.09)
So I did not own any. I was always managing them for other families.

John Harcar (11:14.328)
Got it, OK. And having that time in vacation rentals or in real estate, did you ever have thoughts of maybe getting into things like fix and flip or buying or holding rentals or doing any of type of stuff on your own?

Brittany Blackman (11:28.551)
So it’s a dream of my husband and mine to purchase a couple of good ultimately like to have some in different destinations where we could be able to call that, you know, another home and be able to travel back and forth. The biggest thing for me is just, you know, especially in the landscape that we’re in now is you really have to understand regulation and what does that look like? You know, you can’t just go buy a home and say, I want to rent it and just assume you’re safe. Like you could probably do that five, 10 years ago.

John Harcar (11:35.48)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (11:48.45)
Yes.

John Harcar (11:57.528)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Blackman (11:57.725)
And so that’s probably the biggest thing right now is letting us get our ducks in the row. And then the next step is to really investigate the area that we would go to, not only for what the reason is we want, but is this a good investment opportunity? Like are people actually going to go there? What’s the regulation look like? You know, and what does management look like there too? Because I don’t want to self-manage and I also don’t want to be in a market where I only have one option.

John Harcar (12:14.797)
Right.

John Harcar (12:25.58)
Yeah. And you kind of touched on it there for a quick second. But what kind of trends, because I know you mentioned the regulations and all that other stuff, like what other trends are you seeing in that short-term market right now? Right? Like where do you think we’re going? Because I know there’s a lot more regulation popping up all over the place. You know, I tried to do some in Vegas and that didn’t work. So where are you seeing the trend of this whole short-term rental thing going?

Brittany Blackman (12:53.725)
That’s a million dollar question, loaded one.

John Harcar (12:56.876)
Okay, well, are your thoughts?

Brittany Blackman (13:01.201)
think that, I’m gonna give you my most honest answer here. I think for the longest time, the industry was based on mom and pop operation and family on business. And then Airbnb came about and then it became investment opportunities. And so now you have this weird mixture of mom and pop family, you have these investors, and now you have this push because everybody knows about vacation rentals now of professionalism.

John Harcar (13:04.76)
Please.

John Harcar (13:31.267)
Right.

Brittany Blackman (13:31.325)
And so what this means is now the government hears you and sees you. They see the tax dollars, but they also see the implications that come with tourism. And are you respectful? Are you giving back to your communities? Are you creating structure around, you know, the type of people that you bring in and how you run your business? So I think over the next couple of years, I think regulation is going to continue to increase because as much as I wish the industry would self-

John Harcar (13:40.152)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Blackman (14:00.669)
police. I’m not sure that that’s really where it is. So I do see a lot more regulation coming in. The good side of that though is things become standardized. They become safer. You know, it really, if think about any other business, like if you want to run an upscale business, you can’t do it the podunk way anymore. you know.

John Harcar (14:01.624)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (14:12.75)
Yeah.

John Harcar (14:21.898)
No, no, no, can’t. You can’t. Well, and plus with all that, mean, like, you know, besides the regulations, but with all the complaints nowadays that people get from their Airbnb next door that’s got, you know, partiers that are up all night in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. Yeah, I mean, it’s about having a respectful business too.

Brittany Blackman (14:41.213)
Absolutely. I’ll throw in there one thing the industry is missing so, so badly is good PR. I know a ton of great hosts, property managers and owners. They do amazing things for their communities. They support the local soccer team and baseball teams and go to the food pantries. my gosh, I hear some of the most incredible stories.

John Harcar (14:49.058)
Mmm.

John Harcar (14:52.801)
Yeah, me too.

Brittany Blackman (15:06.833)
But that’s a side conversation. There is no good publicized positive PR for the industry. I think that’s a huge thing that’s missing and could help, I don’t want to say combat regulation, but at least help it be a fair advocacy towards it. So we’ll see. But I think more people should share their stories about why they got into it what they do and how they actually give back.

John Harcar (15:09.474)
Yep.

John Harcar (15:24.995)
Yeah.

John Harcar (15:32.322)
Well, let the public see the other side of the story, not just the one that we see on the news where, you know, all these regulations goes loud, whatever, right? Let us see the good stuff. And I definitely agree with you that before we start talking about our topic, avoid the burnout. If someone was wanting to get into short term real estate or short term investing, vacation rentals, what’s some advice you would give them today to say, hey, maybe start doing this or go down this path?

Brittany Blackman (15:59.453)
think the first thing is really understand what kind of brand. When I think of a brand, it can be one property, it can be 20, 50, obviously bigger, but you really wanna know why you’re doing it and who you are because that just makes every other decision after this so much easier. You can better communicate who to sell to. Another thing that a lot of property managers or people who wanna

John Harcar (16:20.866)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (16:28.697)
help manage other properties, co-hosts, different things like that. They’ll just start saying yes to everything. And then all of a sudden you lead to burnout and you learn to, you know, lean into chaos and everything. And so if you really know like who it is you want to be and how you want to grow things and how you, how do you want people to talk about you when the doors close?

John Harcar (16:34.793)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (16:40.227)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (16:50.939)
You know, then I just think that business decisions get so much easier, but not enough people really think about their brand. It’s just that, I want to do this, and I’ll just say yes. Well, not every owner is who you want to work with, and not every property is what you want to represent.

John Harcar (17:07.074)
I think that goes back to not really setting core values, right, for your business. know, operate upon those and I love how you said that. Know who you are, know what you want to do. Truly know yourself and run a business accordingly. But that’s awesome. Now coach, I’m getting burnt out, help me here. Let’s avoid the burnout, let’s talk about that.

Brittany Blackman (17:22.588)
Love that.

Brittany Blackman (17:32.541)
Whew, it requires some inner work. And…

John Harcar (17:36.066)
Mm-hmm. Well, let’s go back real fast. How did you decide that after the short-term or vacation rentals, coaching, the mindset stuff, how did you decide this is your route?

Brittany Blackman (17:49.341)
Well, let me say that when people would tell me when I was selling the business and people would tell me, you’re burned out. I used to get so angry. I was like, I am not burned out. Like, no, because like the definition of burnout, I think is a little messed up because when people hear burnout, they think it means giving up. And I remember saying that over and over. I’m not giving up. I’m just exhausted. I’m overwhelmed. Like I just.

John Harcar (18:02.302)
I’d take offense.

John Harcar (18:12.279)
Bye.

Brittany Blackman (18:19.429)
just like depleted, I’m empty. And so I do think that the definition of burnout in society could use a little tweaking. With that said, to answer your question, when I sold the business, obviously what’s next? I love serving people, I love giving back, I have a servant’s heart. It’s just ingrained in me and…

John Harcar (18:30.606)
Okay.

John Harcar (18:43.384)
awesome.

Brittany Blackman (18:46.589)
I’ve only shared this story like once or twice before, but my reality was that I lost my father several years ago due to a heart attack and my grandfather, thank you, my grandfather had had a heart attack. He is still alive. But what I noticed was that if I stayed in this rat wheel race, I was going to get, yeah, that’s where I was headed. That’s where I was headed. And so,

John Harcar (18:56.11)
condolences

John Harcar (19:09.902)
You’re going have a heart attack.

Brittany Blackman (19:15.653)
When I saw the business, was like, can I help other people not go through this? Because what is life worth if you have a heart attack, if you get a divorce because you’re never home, you know, like, or you get so just, well, that you’re selling your business. Like, was all of that worth it then? And I just cannot help but believe like, no, these are all things that can be.

John Harcar (19:29.378)
Yep.

Brittany Blackman (19:40.903)
prevented, they can be avoided. It takes that inner work like I referenced earlier. Like it takes it. You have to invest in yourself. You’re gonna invest in your business and your home and your car. You can make all these investments, but nobody ever talks about like the investment you need to make in yourself. And if you, you know, what do they say on the airplane? You put your oxygen mask on first before you give it to other people and we use that so loosely. Like, I don’t know, I want to make that a reality. Like you gotta take care of yourself because

John Harcar (19:45.494)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (19:57.421)
Yep.

Brittany Blackman (20:10.683)
I don’t want people to be in hospitals, to die, to get divorces, or to sell their businesses.

John Harcar (20:15.438)
I love that analogy. That really is, know, make sure we have our basically stuff together before we start trying to give advice to other people. what are some of the signs? Like, what are the signs of burnout? Right? How, can you, you know, if I’m talking to me and I’m telling you about my business, like what are the signs of someone who’s getting close to burning out?

Brittany Blackman (20:37.981)
There’s a big feeling of exhaustion and overwhelm. It’s the rat on the wheel that can never stop but feels that exhaustion and overwhelm. Typically another pretty big symptom is you start reacting emotionally. So you’ll kind of go off on people when you’re like, that’s not me. Like that’s not, that’s not who I am. Well, that’s what it is is like you basically have

John Harcar (20:57.294)
Hmm.

John Harcar (21:03.054)
Right?

Brittany Blackman (21:07.421)
chronic stress like it’s insane. You know, and I think the other thing is that I see quite a bit is you go home and you don’t even want to talk to your family because it’s exhausting. It’s not necessarily that they exhaust you. It’s just you got so much going on and the kids want your time and

John Harcar (21:29.134)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Blackman (21:32.349)
Like, the spouse wants your time and just, ugh, you know, like, can I just go in the room and retreat? Like, I don’t want to say depression, because depression is very serious and is handled by a therapist, but that’s really what it looks like. It’s like, all of that starts building up and then when you stop and you notice all those things and it’s just like, are you happy?

John Harcar (21:37.614)
Hahaha

John Harcar (21:54.604)
Yeah.

And that’s so true. I’ve been there, right? It’s to the point to where, I I remember back in the day when I was just full heavy in phone sales and I talked all day and I did it. I did it forever and ever ever I come home. I’m like, I don’t want to talk. I’m just a burden. Let me just sit here and do my thing. Right. So that’s very, that’s very true. So your business now, how do you help folks overcome that, avoid that, or what tools or tips or tricks do you help them to not have to be burned out or get burned out?

Brittany Blackman (22:25.413)
Absolutely. So we hop right in through coaching. And so what that looks like is I’m your thought partner. I’m your confidant. People tell me things that they don’t tell anybody else in the world. Yeah, like maybe their diary gets it. That’s about it. So a high level of confidentiality. I do take that very seriously. But it’s partnering with someone and you know, normally we kind of set an overall goal.

John Harcar (22:35.982)
Ooh, juicy secrets!

Mmm, great.

Brittany Blackman (22:53.181)
And then we just start meeting and we just start diving into things like what’s getting in your way? What are the obstacles? Why aren’t you delegating things like you talk about that you have to keep all these plates spinning? I mean do you like and so that’s kind of what the fun part that I get to play is I get to come in and kind of challenge those beliefs and the things that you’re saying and really dig in like is that really how it has to be or is that just the pattern you’ve created?

John Harcar (23:02.35)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (23:22.513)
for yourself. And so, you know, we start, sometimes we go backwards and we connect the dots from things that happened at a prior job and a prior relationship from childhood. And then there’s other times where we move forward and it’s like, you know what, I want to set some healthy habits for myself. Like there’s one person that I coach with where she’s like, I don’t do anything for myself. I just want 15 minutes of yoga a day. And I was like, okay, well, let’s do it. You know, but that’s

John Harcar (23:22.658)
You

John Harcar (23:50.755)
Yeah.

Brittany Blackman (23:51.589)
really challenging for people who touch my heart are the servant-hearted, ambitious, high achievers because we all give ourselves to everybody else. And those are the people that need the coaching the most because somewhere in there you forgot how to take care of yourself. And that’s where as an adult, I get to come in and

John Harcar (23:55.319)
Ahem.

John Harcar (24:01.421)
Hmm.

John Harcar (24:05.536)
yeah.

John Harcar (24:15.694)
you

Brittany Blackman (24:20.315)
and we work through that stuff. the reason I say that is because it sounds so simple. Just go do yoga 15 minutes or this or that, but because you’re giving time to yourself. so it’s, I don’t know. It’s, yeah, I’ll stop there. It’s been really amazing. I think the biggest thing for me is like, we start with the tiniest of subjects and you realize how much it affects their life. They don’t.

John Harcar (24:28.12)
But it’s not. Yeah.

John Harcar (24:49.23)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Blackman (24:50.095)
They don’t have a social life. They don’t have a love life. They don’t have all these things. And by the end of it, they’re a better leader. They’re lifting other people to be better leaders, which is awesome. You know, they’re an engaged mom again, or dad. They are engaged with their spouse and actually want to talk to them and have a life with them. And it’s just it when you see it over the journey and you just see how much that

John Harcar (25:01.069)
I love it.

Brittany Blackman (25:17.905)
that flower blooms and like it’s just so holistic and full approach like, nothing gets me more excited.

John Harcar (25:19.406)
Mmm.

John Harcar (25:24.334)
That’s awesome. I love it. God bless your servant heart, man. I mean, that really is awesome. And I think the world needs more people like you to help us get through the stuff that we deal with or the everyday grinds. And I wish we had longer time. We could probably spend another half hour talking. If anybody want to get a hold of you and they’re looking for a coach, they are feeling burnt out. They just need to talk, man. How do they get in touch with you?

Brittany Blackman (25:51.081)
The best way is on LinkedIn. I’m on there as Brittany Blackman. I also of course have my own business, Discover Freedom. My website is discoverfreedom.life, L-I-F-E for the southern twang. But all my contact information is on the website or like I said I’m on LinkedIn all the time so you can definitely find me on there as well.

John Harcar (26:15.598)
Perfect and then what we’ll do guys we’ll put all the show notes or put our all her contact into the show notes so that way if you want to reach out and get in touch through Talk to her do whatever you’ll have that ability Brittany thank you again, know that a lot of great information I think that burnout is a real thing nowadays, especially you know when this economy does what it does and you try harder and it just Starts burning you and wearing you down. So good stuff guys I hope you guys took some good notes picked up some good nuggets and hope you enjoyed the show and we’ll see you guys in the next one Cheers

John Harcar (26:48.462)
Yeah, that’s perfect. 26 minutes.