We loved our conversation about preventing burnout with Lisa Bobyak! Lisa Bobyak, founder of Living Fully Balanced™, has been challenging the current hustle culture and preventing burnout in high-achieving women for over a decade.
Steeped in perfectionism and people-pleasing, Lisa once ran her well-organized life at a clip. It all worked well until it didn’t. The reckoning came only after repeatedly burning out when she lost her health and marriage.
Now, her mission as a Life Balance and Leadership Coach, is to heal burnout as quickly as possible. She teaches go-getters a new way to live and lead… with an approach that is more effective and powerful and, most importantly, highly sustainable.
Through her Living Fully Balanced™ process, she shows ambitious women with full lives, how to regain their energy and increase their capacity so that they can make their mark on the world…without losing themselves in the process.
Lisa is the creator of the Beyond Burnout Kick Start, the Living Fully Balanced Life Planner© and the semi-annual Pause Retreats. During our conversation, she referred to The Owners Meeting.
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Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:00
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon,
John Simon Sr. 00:16
and our guest today is Lisa bobbiac. Lisa is a life balance personal leadership and burnout recovery. Coach, so if you are tired of running on empty, Lisa, should be your next call. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.
Lisa Bobyak 00:30
Hey, thank you for having me. John, good to see you. Dina,
Dina Simon 00:34
we're excited to have you. So
John Simon Sr. 00:37
Lisa, why don't you take a few seconds and tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe a little bit about your family and what you do in your spare time,
Lisa Bobyak 00:47
spare time. So I just love the life I've got now, I will tell you that I consider myself on, I guess, another chapter. I don't know if it's my second, my third, my fourth chapter, so many different iterations of life, but right now, My children are grown. They're they're on their own life themselves. They're in their 30s and married, and they're loving their lives. And I get to focus a lot on the work I do with with the high achieving women and men I work with. I say I'm in a different chapter because an earlier chapter of mine was when I was a young mom, working, working, working, and yet, Dina, unlike you, I didn't work outside of the home. I chose to stay, quote, at home with my girls. And yet I still burnt out. And so I find it fascinating. Here we are in this era where we're being told burnout is a workplace phenomenon, and I so believe that it's a phenomenon based upon how we approach life. Yes, no matter what we do or right, if we're getting paid or not, right?
Dina Simon 01:58
Yes, absolutely. One of the hardest jobs is being a stay at home mother and House Maker and in charge of everything that surrounds around a family. I mean, that is a super hard job. Yes,
Lisa Bobyak 02:11
sure, sure. You know, I think for me, and I don't know if all women felt this, but when I chose to quote, give up my career to stay home. I really took it seriously, probably too seriously, you know, I thought, all right. I thought I was going to be a teacher. I thought I was going to be a working mom. And now that doesn't feel right as I look at this infant. And so if I'm going to quote be and I'm saying this in air quotes, just stay at home mom, because I felt like it was just that, like I was sacrificing something and giving up something. So I thought, well, I better do it right, and I better not waste this time. And so I volunteered a lot. I used a lot of my skills in teaching elsewhere. So I was rarely at home, right? I was running on empty as the stay at home mom and so my approach was still, give it all. You got work hard, put people first, and it caused me, well, a lot of pain. You know? I thought life was fine until the third time, and truly the third time, life had to hit me upside the head to say, Lisa, something's got to give, and right now it's your health. I was at an eye doctor's appointment. He found a spot on an MRI that he did not like, So Keith snag the first available call with a neurosurgeon. Got me in that afternoon, and he was happy to tell me, while I was still in his office, hey, good news, bad news. Bad news, I see something on here, but good news, we're getting you right to the neurosurgeon. My response, Dina, was so and I'm now embarrassed by it, but I looked at my watch, and I'm like, Thanks, but no thanks. I gotta get home, you know? Yeah, I'm already running late to get was off the bus. He said, Yeah, you still need to go. So I get to the neurosurgeons office. She tells me that I had a stroke. Oh my gosh, still not catching it. John, right. I'm like, oh, like a TIA. And she said, No, Lisa, a stroke. And I said, oh, like a mini stroke. And honestly, by the look of her eyes, I thought she must think I'm flipping, because she took my chin, pulled my face into her, and she said, Lisa, if you don't get this right, your girls won't have you to come home to. So, yeah, who? What did incentives.
John Simon Sr. 04:53
And that's really when you started changing. That
Lisa Bobyak 04:56
is the only time I started changing. I had. And and I'm so thankful for it. I am so for it. But I had these sin signals symptom for years, but I would push them under the rug because I was busy and, you know, my blood pressure was going up. But, you know, doesn't everybody get a little anxious and nervous at the doctors. Their blood pressure goes up so, so we'd, you know, brush it off, right? Every year I'd gain a little bit more weight at the doctor's office. But what newly married woman doesn't put on a few extra so there was always a reason, until that particular one, John, you're right. It might come to Jesus moment. It was my wake up moment.
John Simon Sr. 05:44
And that happens to people that have heart condition, you know, they say, Well, the reason my chest hurts because I lifted a little weight today, or I did, you know, I reached for something in the cupboard that I may have pulled my muscle in my arm. And meanwhile, they're having a heart attack, and they're finding reasons why not to have one, right,
Dina Simon 06:02
right? So the eye doctor like, Thank God you went to the eye doctor that day, right, right, right, yes. And it's really interesting. So I actually just even from a young girl like my eye doctor, saw something in my eyes and said, hey, you need to go to a specialist. It was certainly nothing as severe as what you had going on, but that's also John, my husband rich, has an autoimmune disease, and that's how they found it through his eye doctor originally was like so eye doctors are extremely important, based on this message that I'm hearing. And so you're in the eye doctor, and you go through this process. Can you tell us? Because you said you saw some of the signs, maybe so, and you mentioned a few of them. Was there anything else from a stroke perspective that you once you found that out, you're like, oh, so I don't know what.
Lisa Bobyak 06:52
I don't know enough medical background for strokes, except high blood pressure, high stress, elevated weight, I can tell you, from a burnout perspective, I had many symptoms, and one of the mean, we now talk about burnout a lot, and yet, at the end of burnout, physical things happen, like strokes, like like heart attacks. So I was having wound tight feelings. That's how I would describe myself. I was just wound tight. I felt my body moving. I felt like I was always in motion, even if I was trying to take a nap, or even if I was standing still. I was revved my mind. My thoughts were pinging around like a pinball machine, and I thought that was normal. And I figured that's just, you know
Dina Simon 07:50
how you were wired, right? If that's what you knew, right? Yes, yes.
Lisa Bobyak 07:55
And I figured that's probably price of admission to a busy life. Two kids have a lot of activities. Husband has a lot of activities. I was quote, the glue that just held it together. And so this is the price I have to pay for the next 18 years. Is what I thought. Yes,
John Simon Sr. 08:13
boy, that all falls into what I was reading in your bio. The symptoms burned out. You're exhausted with no amount of sleep makes you feel rested, no matter how much you get you just you can't keep going sometimes,
Lisa Bobyak 08:28
yeah, and doesn't that tick us off? I mean, because so many of us, and I'm guessing near listeners, are high achievers and they're go getters and
John Simon Sr. 08:40
type A personalities, I
Lisa Bobyak 08:43
know, right? And you set your bar, and then when you make it, you just reset it just a little higher, and you make that, and you keep resetting. And when I wasn't able to reset, I honestly it's kind of embarrassing, but I was, I was more ticked off and a little peeved, like, like, what the heck I follow the rules here? You know I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. This is how I got through school and got A's. I'm a good student, I'm a nice person. And yet, I felt frustrated for a little bit.
Dina Simon 09:21
Yeah. So Lisa, working with people from a burnout perspective now, living this great life that you have where you're coaching, you're taking your experiences, you're helping others get through it. Talk to us a little bit about that. So what does that look like in your business today? Sure.
Lisa Bobyak 09:38
So today, on the other side of burnout, I realize how invisible being in burnout is. It is very much like the frog, the proverbial frog in that boiling pot of water doesn't really know it's boiling to death, you know. So people usually contact me because they are. Overwhelmed. They may be getting edgy and resentful, and they're starting to feel like what they do in life, what they're really good at, what they're passionate about, doesn't feel as exciting anymore. They're kind of feeling like meh, even though it's kind of their calling, and so they're not catching that. This is early signs of burnout, but they tend to come to me wanting time management strategies or productivity strategies.
Dina Simon 10:31
When you say that, when you say time management or productivity, that means that they want to do more,
Lisa Bobyak 10:36
right? Because there is some people right well, so many of us have brilliant visions and we have passions, and the sad truth is we only have 24 hours in a day. And another hard truth is that we're not machines, so we can't run our body like we could a machine. And I truly think part of our issue, and I'd be curious, Dina, if you think this, I think part of our issue stemmed from the industrial age where there was this cult of efficiency and productivity and machine driven. And so as Americans, we learned we can operate, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And now here we are in the knowledge era. We're not running machines to run the country. We're running our brains and our bodies. And I think I personally expected my body to operate like a machine. If I put this in, I get this out. If this, then this. And it does work that way with humans.
John Simon Sr. 11:42
You know, one thing I was thinking about, as you were saying, talking about the burnout and everything, as Americans, you have to sit there and say, compared to the Europeans, you know, do we work to live, or lives to work? Yeah. And, you know, I my grandson, and I were over in Germany last year, and I was amazed at people that are out with families at 910, 11 o'clock at night. And you know, here I live in Dallas, and you know, you can go through downtown Dallas and shoot a cannon off at 10 o'clock at night, and you won't hit anybody because they're home. And where the European countries, they're out enjoying the time they have outdoors and so work's important, but not as important, I think, as it is to a lot of Americans. Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 12:27
so I wish we were more like that. That's like all your balance when you were there, John, could you see what they do differently than we do? One
John Simon Sr. 12:39
of the things we did notice is that they're not driving everywhere. They're on bicycles, they're they're out walking, and at 10 o'clock at night, there's people out in strollers with with little ones, and they're stopping to get gelato, and they're in a park, and it's very safe, and they're, they're enjoying the family life also, where by that time. You know, I was always in bed by 10 o'clock at night because I wanted to get up at 6am so I could be the first one in the office and, you know, start my day. Yeah, and
Dina Simon 13:09
so think of the quality time they're having with family, like you just said that. So they're out, they're doing experiences. They're not in front of the TV, they're together. They're out in fresh air. I mean, there's just so much. There's so much there. As you said, they're walking or biking and just out and about.
John Simon Sr. 13:25
So Lisa, can you talk a little bit about the MBI, the inventory? The is it Milosh burnout inventory? I was interested in hearing a little bit about that.
Lisa Bobyak 13:38
So the MBI stands for maze lock, burnout inventory. So So Dr Christina maslop is a burnout researcher. So the cool thing about her, I consider her the grandmother of burnout. So she's talked about corporate and industrial burnout since the 60s and started studying it, and honestly, she and her colleagues have been on a mission since then to improve the workplace situation so that we don't have burnt out employees. Clearly, it hasn't worked, and it's not I'm not blaming her. I'm saying our culture is so that she could not change the culture. So the MBI is an assessment that we can take to indicate whether we have burnout or not. Like I said, I think we talk a lot about burnout. Many of us don't recognize that we're in it. There is a definitive assessment that could be taken. Not everybody offers it. I am able to offer that to my clients so people who work with me will fill that inventory out. It's a super simple 10 minute online assessment. It basically spits out like a 35 page personalized workbook of. Sorts to start addressing burnout, and then we can identify which of those six particular areas of burnout we can start with. First, because most burnout people have so many places we could shore up that it's hard to decide where to start, right and allows us to start. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 15:20
and I'm assuming, when you start, you start with one or two, and then you build on it from there, one period, just one, okay, 111,
Lisa Bobyak 15:29
and we, we collectively. So. So my clients and I, I should say healing burnout is very different than preventing burnout, and healing burnout will look differently in each one of us. Identifying burnout, we can come at it at a general approach, but once that's done, my client and I individualize everything, and so the two of us will decide, which one of these places do you think you're going to get the most bang for your buck? So for example, which is the easiest when and which do you think will help you the most? And we focus on that for as long as it takes. It might be three days, it might be three months, but we focus on one thing till it starts becoming either a new habit or just a part of who they are. And that typically buys them a little more time, buys them a little bit more energy than we can bring in the second but never more than one at a time.
John Simon Sr. 16:26
That's fantastic. How rewarding is it to you? Maybe two weeks or two months later, when they come back and say, Lisa, I have this under control now, and I'm much better at it. And maybe we need to step into number two now. And yeah, help me with, you know, with my organizational skills, or whatever it may be, that that has to be rewarding for you.
Lisa Bobyak 16:48
Super rewarding, John. But let me tell you something, nobody has ever come back to me and said, Lisa, I'm ready for the next one. Now. Here's what happens so they work and work, and they start feeling better, but they're not recognizing that this is life that's content and peaceful. So I'll give you an example. I had a call. This is relatively recent. Client says Lisa. I was thinking about her upcoming coaching call. I don't have anything really like pressing to talk about, like, things are going pretty well. And so I said, Help me understand, describe a little more, and she's like, trying to come up with something to work on. Like, clearly there's got to be something that she's missing. And I said, Could it be that this is what you've been looking for all along, like, like working at life. And she went, I think I'm feeling like a sense of ease and peace. I love it.
Dina Simon 17:53
And so, oh my gosh. So Lisa, I love this conversation and individualized. Is there one key theme that you see the most of, like one area that you do start with most of your clients? Is there one common theme?
Lisa Bobyak 18:09
Yes, and it might be the hardest. So I've noticed that those clients who are the most successful have chosen to take time for themselves and do it consistently every day. And it starts with just five minutes of reflection every day, and then in time, it builds to maybe five minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. I call those owners meetings because we've got to own our life. As a matter of fact, we do, and if we don't take agency, things are just going to happen to us. But we've got a lot of responsibility. And so I would say the one thing that most bulk with because we don't have five minutes for ourselves, my clients come to me and they're like Lisa asking me for 10 minutes for myself is I need to tell you how busy I am. I need to tell you I don't have time to pee during the day, right? Yep. Oh, so I would say that's the hardest thing. And yet the most important thing is to find time to have moments of clarity and reflection with yourself.
John Simon Sr. 19:22
You know what I was always proponent of, when I wake up in the morning, I get out of bed right away. Do not lay there, because I've always thought that when you lay there, I called it stinking thinking, because you never think about anything that's good when you're laying there, every thought that you have is negative. And I says, You know what, if I get up, I'm not going to have those negative thoughts.
Lisa Bobyak 19:42
I'm just going to get up. Get her done right get up and
John Simon Sr. 19:46
get get my day started right now, and I'm knocking away here and think about things that could be or should be,
Lisa Bobyak 19:53
no stinking thinking for John, yeah.
Dina Simon 19:57
So I use that stinking thinking and training. Stuff. So that is, like, assumed constraints, and how do you get you know out of your head? But Lisa, you might know some of this, so I know John. I'm actually the opposite. As I've gotten older as I so that, like meditation in the morning, I actively, like when my alarm goes off, I actively, like, get into that kind of active dream state and but I can say, solve this problem, and I'll wake up and I'll actually have new ideas on how I can move forward with something. So I've tried to use that time in I wish I could jump out of bed. I don't, but I've actually tried to program how I use that time on the whole reflecting and if there's something that is bothering me or something that I have to approach that day, I can somewhat solve those problems during that time in the morning as well, when I'm literally in and out of sleep. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 20:50
it's funny. I used to tell some of the people that I worked with I did my best thinking in the shower, yeah, as I was getting ready to go to work, I'm thinking of all these things. And I said, well, we need to do this, and we really need to improve this here, but the shower for me was a great place to think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 21:09
So Lisa, tell us about your two girls. So you mentioned, I want to go back to your family. So tell us about your family. And what do you do, kind of for fun. John asked, you know, kind of your personal life, so outside of just business and coaching. Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 21:22
yeah. So my two daughters, Lindsay, lives in Colorado. She is a musician. She's married to musician. They are outdoor fanatics, so they absolutely love the Colorado lifestyle, and
John Simon Sr. 21:36
they're in the right place.
Lisa Bobyak 21:38
They are, yeah, I don't think they're moving.
John Simon Sr. 21:42
And to get them out of there. My daughter lives there, also in Durango, and you couldn't pry her out of there. Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Bobyak 21:50
Lindsay and Kyle live near Glenwood Springs and Aspen. They absolutely love Durango. They just were there for the honeymoon. Nice, yeah, and Alexa and her husband live in Minneapolis. They love the city life. She's a realtor. They have two cats and a dog, and they are very busy with life of their own. There for fun. You know, I live in East Bethel, Minnesota, so I'm a little out of the suburbs. We like to go to wineries. I like to take walks and hikes and bike ride and and kayak. We absolutely adore the St Croix River Valley. We're up and down that valley a lot on a motorcycle or on a bike. Nice.
John Simon Sr. 22:38
How has the house shrunk with this girl. Scribe,
Lisa Bobyak 22:41
how is the house shrunk? Yeah, well, well, the house just feels so much bigger now. And I gotta say, it's been empty. We used to have three pets and children, and now the pets have aged and gone, and they're all gone the last three years, we just adopted a pet just a month ago, so I'm back in love again. What kind of pet did you adopt? We got a cat, and I call him my comfort cat. He's very ugly and just a sweetheart. His name's Benny. Benny. I love
John Simon Sr. 23:17
that. DITA Richard going through the same thing. Vandy is a third year at University of Nebraska. So they still have the puppy, though, uh, posh has been there. So that kind of keeps them going, you know, with some someone else to cheer for. Anyhow,
Lisa Bobyak 23:31
you need that. Oh my gosh, my my mom heart was like sad for a little while, until I got this guy. Now I get to, you know, be all weird with him, and it's funny, yeah,
Dina Simon 23:44
Shannon and Jonathan's dog's name is Benny, isn't it?
John Simon Sr. 23:46
Yes, the new chairman Shepherd, if they adopted, yeah, is Benny? Yeah,
Dina Simon 23:51
yeah. So we, we've got a Benny, and my grandmother's nickname was Benny. So we've got a few Benny connections there for you. Lisa, that's neat.
John Simon Sr. 23:59
So you, you talked about the St Croix River down there. We were just there a few weeks ago, down in Stillwater. What a beautiful area that is right, yeah, right by the bridge. We had lunch, Dina and rich took genie and I got there, and it was just a great day. Good,
Lisa Bobyak 24:15
good. I'm so glad you had good weather, yeah, yeah. Stillwater is just a lovely town. I love the history, and I think Minnesota started with Stillwater, didn't it? And a lumber,
Dina Simon 24:26
yeah? Actually, I was just there and I was reading something, and I didn't even know the history of that, but yeah, there. That's kind of where Minnesota all got started. Yep. Lisa, talk to us about your business, your coaching. Do you work mainly with individuals, with corporations, like, what's your ideal client? Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 24:44
so I speak to corporations. I speak to groups. I work mostly with individuals. I come in to do trainings on courageous conversations, on creating a healthy, balanced life that that still allows. Allows you to have an inch, but so that you don't, you know, end up in a neurosurgeons office like I did, but my real sweet spot is working one on one with clients. I do that via zoom or telephone and retreats. I host retreats for women once a year,
Dina Simon 25:20
nice, I know you have a mastermind that you kicked off, right? Do you have one going on right now?
Lisa Bobyak 25:25
I don't. Next mastermind may start again in the winter. In the winter, some of those dates, some thought, Yes, awesome. Sounds good.
John Simon Sr. 25:34
Don't share with me what a mastermind is.
Lisa Bobyak 25:37
Well, a mastermind is probably what you have done naturally, John, that's just my guess. You so, so. So I consider a mastermind, a small group of people I trust who have my back and can offer me some personal support, but also professional support. So when I lead a mastermind, I've got a group of women. It might be six, it might be seven, but not much more than that, and we connect throughout the month and keep each other inspired and motivated and on track. They're people who you can call at a moment's notice and just say, hey, I need to run something
John Simon Sr. 26:17
by you. And I mean, whenever the program ends, everyone, pretty much remains friends who and you continue to utilize the people that you met.
Lisa Bobyak 26:28
That's the thing. Yeah, even if the formality of a mastermind doesn't fit and you don't continue with that particular mastermind, you do continue the friendship and the relationship, that's for sure. It's a it's way deeper, and to me, so much more rich than networking, right? It's like, but much more elevated,
Dina Simon 26:54
yeah, much more elevated and deep, because you get to know each other and really how you can impact and help. And as you said, have somebody who's got your back, and if you're going down a crazy path, they can say, hey, like, let's take a pause. Are you sure you really want to do that? Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 27:09
yeah. Well, and to have a small group of six or seven makes it a whole lot easier. If you're trying to do with 20 people, it probably isn't going to work as well. But if you have that small group, people enjoy, I think, being involved in much smaller groups.
Dina Simon 27:24
Yeah, yeah. So, Lisa, before we got on the podcast, we were chatting a little bit about people about recruiting and corporations struggling to have the right people in the right seats. And you know, that was an issue prior to covid and now post pandemic. But what are some of your thoughts on that? Right? People write seats and just that challenge.
Lisa Bobyak 27:44
I don't know if I have an answer for it. You know, it is such a challenge. Like you had said, it was present prior to the pandemic, and yet, perhaps the pandemic has shined light on it even more. I felt during the pandemic, and I may have been odd man out, but during the pandemic, I felt like, well, maybe this is the reset we didn't know we needed. You know, maybe we're all just like freaking, running on empty and running amok, but the pandemic, because it pretty much stripped everything away from us. Maybe the pandemic taught us what's most important? Maybe the pandemic caught us all to reshuffle and reprioritize and use our time and our energy on the people and the things that were most important to us. And yet, I'm now at this side of the pandemic and the people coming to me with challenges that's the same challenges. Yeah, you know, sadly, I'm not sure the pandemic helped us reprioritize and keep our lives in line with our values, and that was so what I was hoping for right something good could come out of the pandemic. I was thinking, well, at least everybody's gonna reassess, and we're all going to know that what we do with our time is what we're meant to do with our time. And I think a few people certainly did that, but I don't know if we did as a culture. Yeah,
Dina Simon 29:12
I would agree. And I was actually similar. I was hopeful that we would take some of those, you know, those things, the good stuff that did come out of it, and we'd figure out how to take that forward. Some maybe have done better than others. But John, I was looking through photos, just like random photos come up on, you know, your phone, and I was looking at like the Zoom calls we did, even as a family, like we were doing, you know, consistently, and even that, like some of the connectivity, like, certainly, we want to see each other in person, but we communicated more, I think, with their extended family on a more regular basis, because we wanted to be there for each other through the pandemic, and we kind of lost some of that. What I will say that John and our family has done really well is there's a group that has done the fantasy football. Fall, and you guys are now doing whatever the hockey fantasy, whatever is, but they're really doing that be like the grandkids want to be a part of it, because they want that was something that, I think is a positive that has come from that connectivity out of the pandemic. But I agree with you, Lisa, like we just some of those best practices that maybe we were learning once we got out of things, we just went back to a lot of our old normal. And then what I'm seeing is that people still didn't deal with maybe the trauma of we were in a pandemic like we people lost people. They knew jobs shifted. There was loneliness, there was, you know, just a lot of things that happened during that time. And I think some we didn't even, we haven't even really addressed what happened during that time, and I think we'll be talking about it for years to come. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 30:51
I couldn't agree with you more, yeah. I, you know, during the pandemic, when people, yeah, or companies decided to, people are going to work from home. I think productivity went up quite a bit because people were excited that they could work, that they could work from home, and they were probably working fairly long hours. And then as time went on, I think now the companies want them to go back to work, to the office more and more, because I think they've lost the edge on the productivity from home.
Lisa Bobyak 31:21
Maybe that's the case. Yeah, I was thinking they wanted us to come back to the office because they have a building
John Simon Sr. 31:29
well, and they're paying rent. There's rent being paid on that building. And a lot of companies today are saying, well, you know, we went to the end at least two days a week anyhow, and and then during those two days, you could have some meetings with people in the office. And I mean, Zoom meetings are great, but there's also some value to sitting down in front of someone and chatting with them a little bit,
Lisa Bobyak 31:52
hands down. Yeah, I that to me, that would be an ideal work day for me personally. Wouldn't it be great if we could all create our own ideal work scenario, whatever that is, right? Each of us work differently. I work fine by myself, and I work by myself all day long, and yet, you know, a day or two with people might be nice, right?
John Simon Sr. 32:15
Yes, yeah, well, if nothing to socialize with them a little bit. You go to lunch, or you sit there in the morning and you have coffee with them for a few minutes and you talk about what's going on. Yeah. You lose that through everyone working from home.
Dina Simon 32:32
It's true. You do, you do and just that. Yeah. So that day to day connection, on knowing what's going on in people's lives and all of that, yeah. So Lisa, as far as we've learned a little bit about your life, about your business, and, you know, working with leaders and helping them helping individuals break through burnout, what are some other messages or topics that you'd like our podcast listeners to hear from you?
Lisa Bobyak 32:55
You know, I think what I want them to hear from me is that they if they are feeling like those symptoms I was talking about, amped up, revved up, always on, not having time to pee. If those things are happening, I want them to know that there can be a better way, and there is a better way, and that different approach to life does not mean that they'll lose their edge. I will say so many people come to me wanting help and yet concerned that help is going to tell them, Well, you're going to have to slow down, you're going to have to reduce the stress, you're going to have to meditate. And while I believe all of those things are helpful. There's definitely ways we can adjust the approach to life so that the edge is still there, the speed and the quickness is still there, and yet the health and your relationships can be salvaged. I want people to know that truly time to think. I believe Trump's time to work. We value work, and I think work is important, and yet I think we do our best work when we take time to reflect and think. And I want people to be able to put that thinking time, that pause in their day, habitually
Dina Simon 34:21
sighing me, up. Lisa, oh my gosh, I can't I. I'm just so excited that we have you on the podcast, and we'll make sure in the show notes that people know how to get in touch with you for that, like one on one, but then certainly keep us updated when you do either a mastermind or if you have a retreat that you're planning, and I think we should chat. I'd love to collaborate with you. Maybe we could do something together, but that just everything that you just said totally resonates, and I know that for me, you know when you're moving fast and just fast and fast, that's also when mistakes happen, and so that time to actually step back and think and allow yourself to do so it can be so hard, but. It so powerful. It is so
Lisa Bobyak 35:01
powerful. Yeah, and there are times in our day, even when we feel like we have no margin in our day, I promise you, I can show how we can have time to pause for 30 seconds, and it can make a world of difference. I think I talked to you about the owners meeting, and I have exact steps how to bring that up. And so if your listeners are interested in that, I'll absolutely get you a link, Dina, and we can put it on there for them.
Dina Simon 35:32
Nice. I love it.
Lisa Bobyak 35:33
What I love it, know what?
John Simon Sr. 35:36
I'll take better care of yourself than you. You just need to step up and step up and do what
Lisa Bobyak 35:41
you got it, John, isn't that the case? You're right, yeah,
Dina Simon 35:46
yeah, so hard for us to do for some reason, because we want to take care of everybody else.
Lisa Bobyak 35:51
Yeah, yeah. It felt very selfish to take care of myself. I was taught to put others first and then it if I put myself even in the list, it felt selfish. It doesn't anymore, you know, I was able to untrain myself. It feels very nourishing that I am on the list and then I can take care of others as well. But it was really hard initially, yeah,
Dina Simon 36:19
well, thank God, you got the message when you did, and you were able to, you know, redirect your course, because you have now been here for your beautiful girls and their lives that they have ahead of them, and just love that you're this. So our legacy conversation about, you know, living out legacy is what a legacy that you're providing to them, but all that you're teaching others to take from your experience and what they can then do for themselves is just amazing. So excited to know who you are.
Lisa Bobyak 36:49
Thank you so much. I really appreciate getting to know both of you better and sharing this time together
John Simon Sr. 36:56
well. And if you want something to help you slow down a little bit, get a kitty chat, right? Yeah,
Dina Simon 37:05
I want to thank Lisa bobbiac, the founder of living fully balanced, for joining us on the podcast. I am so excited to know more about her and what she's doing in working with people to address preventing burnout, and so excited just to know her. We'll show in the show notes, we'll make sure that you know how to get connected with her and follow her, so that if you're able to join a retreat or work with her one on one, you know how to find her. And as always, I think my father in law, John Simon, for partnering with me in this podcast, and until we talk again, you
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon,
John Simon Sr. 00:16
and our guest today is Lisa bobbiac. Lisa is a life balance personal leadership and burnout recovery. Coach, so if you are tired of running on empty, Lisa, should be your next call. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.
Lisa Bobyak 00:30
Hey, thank you for having me. John, good to see you. Dina,
Dina Simon 00:34
we're excited to have you. So
John Simon Sr. 00:37
Lisa, why don't you take a few seconds and tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe a little bit about your family and what you do in your spare time,
Lisa Bobyak 00:47
spare time. So I just love the life I've got now, I will tell you that I consider myself on, I guess, another chapter. I don't know if it's my second, my third, my fourth chapter, so many different iterations of life, but right now, My children are grown. They're they're on their own life themselves. They're in their 30s and married, and they're loving their lives. And I get to focus a lot on the work I do with with the high achieving women and men I work with. I say I'm in a different chapter because an earlier chapter of mine was when I was a young mom, working, working, working, and yet, Dina, unlike you, I didn't work outside of the home. I chose to stay, quote, at home with my girls. And yet I still burnt out. And so I find it fascinating. Here we are in this era where we're being told burnout is a workplace phenomenon, and I so believe that it's a phenomenon based upon how we approach life. Yes, no matter what we do or right, if we're getting paid or not, right?
Dina Simon 01:58
Yes, absolutely. One of the hardest jobs is being a stay at home mother and House Maker and in charge of everything that surrounds around a family. I mean, that is a super hard job. Yes,
Lisa Bobyak 02:11
sure, sure. You know, I think for me, and I don't know if all women felt this, but when I chose to quote, give up my career to stay home. I really took it seriously, probably too seriously, you know, I thought, all right. I thought I was going to be a teacher. I thought I was going to be a working mom. And now that doesn't feel right as I look at this infant. And so if I'm going to quote be and I'm saying this in air quotes, just stay at home mom, because I felt like it was just that, like I was sacrificing something and giving up something. So I thought, well, I better do it right, and I better not waste this time. And so I volunteered a lot. I used a lot of my skills in teaching elsewhere. So I was rarely at home, right? I was running on empty as the stay at home mom and so my approach was still, give it all. You got work hard, put people first, and it caused me, well, a lot of pain. You know? I thought life was fine until the third time, and truly the third time, life had to hit me upside the head to say, Lisa, something's got to give, and right now it's your health. I was at an eye doctor's appointment. He found a spot on an MRI that he did not like, So Keith snag the first available call with a neurosurgeon. Got me in that afternoon, and he was happy to tell me, while I was still in his office, hey, good news, bad news. Bad news, I see something on here, but good news, we're getting you right to the neurosurgeon. My response, Dina, was so and I'm now embarrassed by it, but I looked at my watch, and I'm like, Thanks, but no thanks. I gotta get home, you know? Yeah, I'm already running late to get was off the bus. He said, Yeah, you still need to go. So I get to the neurosurgeons office. She tells me that I had a stroke. Oh my gosh, still not catching it. John, right. I'm like, oh, like a TIA. And she said, No, Lisa, a stroke. And I said, oh, like a mini stroke. And honestly, by the look of her eyes, I thought she must think I'm flipping, because she took my chin, pulled my face into her, and she said, Lisa, if you don't get this right, your girls won't have you to come home to. So, yeah, who? What did incentives.
John Simon Sr. 04:53
And that's really when you started changing. That
Lisa Bobyak 04:56
is the only time I started changing. I had. And and I'm so thankful for it. I am so for it. But I had these sin signals symptom for years, but I would push them under the rug because I was busy and, you know, my blood pressure was going up. But, you know, doesn't everybody get a little anxious and nervous at the doctors. Their blood pressure goes up so, so we'd, you know, brush it off, right? Every year I'd gain a little bit more weight at the doctor's office. But what newly married woman doesn't put on a few extra so there was always a reason, until that particular one, John, you're right. It might come to Jesus moment. It was my wake up moment.
John Simon Sr. 05:44
And that happens to people that have heart condition, you know, they say, Well, the reason my chest hurts because I lifted a little weight today, or I did, you know, I reached for something in the cupboard that I may have pulled my muscle in my arm. And meanwhile, they're having a heart attack, and they're finding reasons why not to have one, right,
Dina Simon 06:02
right? So the eye doctor like, Thank God you went to the eye doctor that day, right, right, right, yes. And it's really interesting. So I actually just even from a young girl like my eye doctor, saw something in my eyes and said, hey, you need to go to a specialist. It was certainly nothing as severe as what you had going on, but that's also John, my husband rich, has an autoimmune disease, and that's how they found it through his eye doctor originally was like so eye doctors are extremely important, based on this message that I'm hearing. And so you're in the eye doctor, and you go through this process. Can you tell us? Because you said you saw some of the signs, maybe so, and you mentioned a few of them. Was there anything else from a stroke perspective that you once you found that out, you're like, oh, so I don't know what.
Lisa Bobyak 06:52
I don't know enough medical background for strokes, except high blood pressure, high stress, elevated weight, I can tell you, from a burnout perspective, I had many symptoms, and one of the mean, we now talk about burnout a lot, and yet, at the end of burnout, physical things happen, like strokes, like like heart attacks. So I was having wound tight feelings. That's how I would describe myself. I was just wound tight. I felt my body moving. I felt like I was always in motion, even if I was trying to take a nap, or even if I was standing still. I was revved my mind. My thoughts were pinging around like a pinball machine, and I thought that was normal. And I figured that's just, you know
Dina Simon 07:50
how you were wired, right? If that's what you knew, right? Yes, yes.
Lisa Bobyak 07:55
And I figured that's probably price of admission to a busy life. Two kids have a lot of activities. Husband has a lot of activities. I was quote, the glue that just held it together. And so this is the price I have to pay for the next 18 years. Is what I thought. Yes,
John Simon Sr. 08:13
boy, that all falls into what I was reading in your bio. The symptoms burned out. You're exhausted with no amount of sleep makes you feel rested, no matter how much you get you just you can't keep going sometimes,
Lisa Bobyak 08:28
yeah, and doesn't that tick us off? I mean, because so many of us, and I'm guessing near listeners, are high achievers and they're go getters and
John Simon Sr. 08:40
type A personalities, I
Lisa Bobyak 08:43
know, right? And you set your bar, and then when you make it, you just reset it just a little higher, and you make that, and you keep resetting. And when I wasn't able to reset, I honestly it's kind of embarrassing, but I was, I was more ticked off and a little peeved, like, like, what the heck I follow the rules here? You know I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. This is how I got through school and got A's. I'm a good student, I'm a nice person. And yet, I felt frustrated for a little bit.
Dina Simon 09:21
Yeah. So Lisa, working with people from a burnout perspective now, living this great life that you have where you're coaching, you're taking your experiences, you're helping others get through it. Talk to us a little bit about that. So what does that look like in your business today? Sure.
Lisa Bobyak 09:38
So today, on the other side of burnout, I realize how invisible being in burnout is. It is very much like the frog, the proverbial frog in that boiling pot of water doesn't really know it's boiling to death, you know. So people usually contact me because they are. Overwhelmed. They may be getting edgy and resentful, and they're starting to feel like what they do in life, what they're really good at, what they're passionate about, doesn't feel as exciting anymore. They're kind of feeling like meh, even though it's kind of their calling, and so they're not catching that. This is early signs of burnout, but they tend to come to me wanting time management strategies or productivity strategies.
Dina Simon 10:31
When you say that, when you say time management or productivity, that means that they want to do more,
Lisa Bobyak 10:36
right? Because there is some people right well, so many of us have brilliant visions and we have passions, and the sad truth is we only have 24 hours in a day. And another hard truth is that we're not machines, so we can't run our body like we could a machine. And I truly think part of our issue, and I'd be curious, Dina, if you think this, I think part of our issue stemmed from the industrial age where there was this cult of efficiency and productivity and machine driven. And so as Americans, we learned we can operate, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And now here we are in the knowledge era. We're not running machines to run the country. We're running our brains and our bodies. And I think I personally expected my body to operate like a machine. If I put this in, I get this out. If this, then this. And it does work that way with humans.
John Simon Sr. 11:42
You know, one thing I was thinking about, as you were saying, talking about the burnout and everything, as Americans, you have to sit there and say, compared to the Europeans, you know, do we work to live, or lives to work? Yeah. And, you know, I my grandson, and I were over in Germany last year, and I was amazed at people that are out with families at 910, 11 o'clock at night. And you know, here I live in Dallas, and you know, you can go through downtown Dallas and shoot a cannon off at 10 o'clock at night, and you won't hit anybody because they're home. And where the European countries, they're out enjoying the time they have outdoors and so work's important, but not as important, I think, as it is to a lot of Americans. Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 12:27
so I wish we were more like that. That's like all your balance when you were there, John, could you see what they do differently than we do? One
John Simon Sr. 12:39
of the things we did notice is that they're not driving everywhere. They're on bicycles, they're they're out walking, and at 10 o'clock at night, there's people out in strollers with with little ones, and they're stopping to get gelato, and they're in a park, and it's very safe, and they're, they're enjoying the family life also, where by that time. You know, I was always in bed by 10 o'clock at night because I wanted to get up at 6am so I could be the first one in the office and, you know, start my day. Yeah, and
Dina Simon 13:09
so think of the quality time they're having with family, like you just said that. So they're out, they're doing experiences. They're not in front of the TV, they're together. They're out in fresh air. I mean, there's just so much. There's so much there. As you said, they're walking or biking and just out and about.
John Simon Sr. 13:25
So Lisa, can you talk a little bit about the MBI, the inventory? The is it Milosh burnout inventory? I was interested in hearing a little bit about that.
Lisa Bobyak 13:38
So the MBI stands for maze lock, burnout inventory. So So Dr Christina maslop is a burnout researcher. So the cool thing about her, I consider her the grandmother of burnout. So she's talked about corporate and industrial burnout since the 60s and started studying it, and honestly, she and her colleagues have been on a mission since then to improve the workplace situation so that we don't have burnt out employees. Clearly, it hasn't worked, and it's not I'm not blaming her. I'm saying our culture is so that she could not change the culture. So the MBI is an assessment that we can take to indicate whether we have burnout or not. Like I said, I think we talk a lot about burnout. Many of us don't recognize that we're in it. There is a definitive assessment that could be taken. Not everybody offers it. I am able to offer that to my clients so people who work with me will fill that inventory out. It's a super simple 10 minute online assessment. It basically spits out like a 35 page personalized workbook of. Sorts to start addressing burnout, and then we can identify which of those six particular areas of burnout we can start with. First, because most burnout people have so many places we could shore up that it's hard to decide where to start, right and allows us to start. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 15:20
and I'm assuming, when you start, you start with one or two, and then you build on it from there, one period, just one, okay, 111,
Lisa Bobyak 15:29
and we, we collectively. So. So my clients and I, I should say healing burnout is very different than preventing burnout, and healing burnout will look differently in each one of us. Identifying burnout, we can come at it at a general approach, but once that's done, my client and I individualize everything, and so the two of us will decide, which one of these places do you think you're going to get the most bang for your buck? So for example, which is the easiest when and which do you think will help you the most? And we focus on that for as long as it takes. It might be three days, it might be three months, but we focus on one thing till it starts becoming either a new habit or just a part of who they are. And that typically buys them a little more time, buys them a little bit more energy than we can bring in the second but never more than one at a time.
John Simon Sr. 16:26
That's fantastic. How rewarding is it to you? Maybe two weeks or two months later, when they come back and say, Lisa, I have this under control now, and I'm much better at it. And maybe we need to step into number two now. And yeah, help me with, you know, with my organizational skills, or whatever it may be, that that has to be rewarding for you.
Lisa Bobyak 16:48
Super rewarding, John. But let me tell you something, nobody has ever come back to me and said, Lisa, I'm ready for the next one. Now. Here's what happens so they work and work, and they start feeling better, but they're not recognizing that this is life that's content and peaceful. So I'll give you an example. I had a call. This is relatively recent. Client says Lisa. I was thinking about her upcoming coaching call. I don't have anything really like pressing to talk about, like, things are going pretty well. And so I said, Help me understand, describe a little more, and she's like, trying to come up with something to work on. Like, clearly there's got to be something that she's missing. And I said, Could it be that this is what you've been looking for all along, like, like working at life. And she went, I think I'm feeling like a sense of ease and peace. I love it.
Dina Simon 17:53
And so, oh my gosh. So Lisa, I love this conversation and individualized. Is there one key theme that you see the most of, like one area that you do start with most of your clients? Is there one common theme?
Lisa Bobyak 18:09
Yes, and it might be the hardest. So I've noticed that those clients who are the most successful have chosen to take time for themselves and do it consistently every day. And it starts with just five minutes of reflection every day, and then in time, it builds to maybe five minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. I call those owners meetings because we've got to own our life. As a matter of fact, we do, and if we don't take agency, things are just going to happen to us. But we've got a lot of responsibility. And so I would say the one thing that most bulk with because we don't have five minutes for ourselves, my clients come to me and they're like Lisa asking me for 10 minutes for myself is I need to tell you how busy I am. I need to tell you I don't have time to pee during the day, right? Yep. Oh, so I would say that's the hardest thing. And yet the most important thing is to find time to have moments of clarity and reflection with yourself.
John Simon Sr. 19:22
You know what I was always proponent of, when I wake up in the morning, I get out of bed right away. Do not lay there, because I've always thought that when you lay there, I called it stinking thinking, because you never think about anything that's good when you're laying there, every thought that you have is negative. And I says, You know what, if I get up, I'm not going to have those negative thoughts.
Lisa Bobyak 19:42
I'm just going to get up. Get her done right get up and
John Simon Sr. 19:46
get get my day started right now, and I'm knocking away here and think about things that could be or should be,
Lisa Bobyak 19:53
no stinking thinking for John, yeah.
Dina Simon 19:57
So I use that stinking thinking and training. Stuff. So that is, like, assumed constraints, and how do you get you know out of your head? But Lisa, you might know some of this, so I know John. I'm actually the opposite. As I've gotten older as I so that, like meditation in the morning, I actively, like when my alarm goes off, I actively, like, get into that kind of active dream state and but I can say, solve this problem, and I'll wake up and I'll actually have new ideas on how I can move forward with something. So I've tried to use that time in I wish I could jump out of bed. I don't, but I've actually tried to program how I use that time on the whole reflecting and if there's something that is bothering me or something that I have to approach that day, I can somewhat solve those problems during that time in the morning as well, when I'm literally in and out of sleep. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 20:50
it's funny. I used to tell some of the people that I worked with I did my best thinking in the shower, yeah, as I was getting ready to go to work, I'm thinking of all these things. And I said, well, we need to do this, and we really need to improve this here, but the shower for me was a great place to think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 21:09
So Lisa, tell us about your two girls. So you mentioned, I want to go back to your family. So tell us about your family. And what do you do, kind of for fun. John asked, you know, kind of your personal life, so outside of just business and coaching. Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 21:22
yeah. So my two daughters, Lindsay, lives in Colorado. She is a musician. She's married to musician. They are outdoor fanatics, so they absolutely love the Colorado lifestyle, and
John Simon Sr. 21:36
they're in the right place.
Lisa Bobyak 21:38
They are, yeah, I don't think they're moving.
John Simon Sr. 21:42
And to get them out of there. My daughter lives there, also in Durango, and you couldn't pry her out of there. Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Bobyak 21:50
Lindsay and Kyle live near Glenwood Springs and Aspen. They absolutely love Durango. They just were there for the honeymoon. Nice, yeah, and Alexa and her husband live in Minneapolis. They love the city life. She's a realtor. They have two cats and a dog, and they are very busy with life of their own. There for fun. You know, I live in East Bethel, Minnesota, so I'm a little out of the suburbs. We like to go to wineries. I like to take walks and hikes and bike ride and and kayak. We absolutely adore the St Croix River Valley. We're up and down that valley a lot on a motorcycle or on a bike. Nice.
John Simon Sr. 22:38
How has the house shrunk with this girl. Scribe,
Lisa Bobyak 22:41
how is the house shrunk? Yeah, well, well, the house just feels so much bigger now. And I gotta say, it's been empty. We used to have three pets and children, and now the pets have aged and gone, and they're all gone the last three years, we just adopted a pet just a month ago, so I'm back in love again. What kind of pet did you adopt? We got a cat, and I call him my comfort cat. He's very ugly and just a sweetheart. His name's Benny. Benny. I love
John Simon Sr. 23:17
that. DITA Richard going through the same thing. Vandy is a third year at University of Nebraska. So they still have the puppy, though, uh, posh has been there. So that kind of keeps them going, you know, with some someone else to cheer for. Anyhow,
Lisa Bobyak 23:31
you need that. Oh my gosh, my my mom heart was like sad for a little while, until I got this guy. Now I get to, you know, be all weird with him, and it's funny, yeah,
Dina Simon 23:44
Shannon and Jonathan's dog's name is Benny, isn't it?
John Simon Sr. 23:46
Yes, the new chairman Shepherd, if they adopted, yeah, is Benny? Yeah,
Dina Simon 23:51
yeah. So we, we've got a Benny, and my grandmother's nickname was Benny. So we've got a few Benny connections there for you. Lisa, that's neat.
John Simon Sr. 23:59
So you, you talked about the St Croix River down there. We were just there a few weeks ago, down in Stillwater. What a beautiful area that is right, yeah, right by the bridge. We had lunch, Dina and rich took genie and I got there, and it was just a great day. Good,
Lisa Bobyak 24:15
good. I'm so glad you had good weather, yeah, yeah. Stillwater is just a lovely town. I love the history, and I think Minnesota started with Stillwater, didn't it? And a lumber,
Dina Simon 24:26
yeah? Actually, I was just there and I was reading something, and I didn't even know the history of that, but yeah, there. That's kind of where Minnesota all got started. Yep. Lisa, talk to us about your business, your coaching. Do you work mainly with individuals, with corporations, like, what's your ideal client? Yeah,
Lisa Bobyak 24:44
so I speak to corporations. I speak to groups. I work mostly with individuals. I come in to do trainings on courageous conversations, on creating a healthy, balanced life that that still allows. Allows you to have an inch, but so that you don't, you know, end up in a neurosurgeons office like I did, but my real sweet spot is working one on one with clients. I do that via zoom or telephone and retreats. I host retreats for women once a year,
Dina Simon 25:20
nice, I know you have a mastermind that you kicked off, right? Do you have one going on right now?
Lisa Bobyak 25:25
I don't. Next mastermind may start again in the winter. In the winter, some of those dates, some thought, Yes, awesome. Sounds good.
John Simon Sr. 25:34
Don't share with me what a mastermind is.
Lisa Bobyak 25:37
Well, a mastermind is probably what you have done naturally, John, that's just my guess. You so, so. So I consider a mastermind, a small group of people I trust who have my back and can offer me some personal support, but also professional support. So when I lead a mastermind, I've got a group of women. It might be six, it might be seven, but not much more than that, and we connect throughout the month and keep each other inspired and motivated and on track. They're people who you can call at a moment's notice and just say, hey, I need to run something
John Simon Sr. 26:17
by you. And I mean, whenever the program ends, everyone, pretty much remains friends who and you continue to utilize the people that you met.
Lisa Bobyak 26:28
That's the thing. Yeah, even if the formality of a mastermind doesn't fit and you don't continue with that particular mastermind, you do continue the friendship and the relationship, that's for sure. It's a it's way deeper, and to me, so much more rich than networking, right? It's like, but much more elevated,
Dina Simon 26:54
yeah, much more elevated and deep, because you get to know each other and really how you can impact and help. And as you said, have somebody who's got your back, and if you're going down a crazy path, they can say, hey, like, let's take a pause. Are you sure you really want to do that? Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 27:09
yeah. Well, and to have a small group of six or seven makes it a whole lot easier. If you're trying to do with 20 people, it probably isn't going to work as well. But if you have that small group, people enjoy, I think, being involved in much smaller groups.
Dina Simon 27:24
Yeah, yeah. So, Lisa, before we got on the podcast, we were chatting a little bit about people about recruiting and corporations struggling to have the right people in the right seats. And you know, that was an issue prior to covid and now post pandemic. But what are some of your thoughts on that? Right? People write seats and just that challenge.
Lisa Bobyak 27:44
I don't know if I have an answer for it. You know, it is such a challenge. Like you had said, it was present prior to the pandemic, and yet, perhaps the pandemic has shined light on it even more. I felt during the pandemic, and I may have been odd man out, but during the pandemic, I felt like, well, maybe this is the reset we didn't know we needed. You know, maybe we're all just like freaking, running on empty and running amok, but the pandemic, because it pretty much stripped everything away from us. Maybe the pandemic taught us what's most important? Maybe the pandemic caught us all to reshuffle and reprioritize and use our time and our energy on the people and the things that were most important to us. And yet, I'm now at this side of the pandemic and the people coming to me with challenges that's the same challenges. Yeah, you know, sadly, I'm not sure the pandemic helped us reprioritize and keep our lives in line with our values, and that was so what I was hoping for right something good could come out of the pandemic. I was thinking, well, at least everybody's gonna reassess, and we're all going to know that what we do with our time is what we're meant to do with our time. And I think a few people certainly did that, but I don't know if we did as a culture. Yeah,
Dina Simon 29:12
I would agree. And I was actually similar. I was hopeful that we would take some of those, you know, those things, the good stuff that did come out of it, and we'd figure out how to take that forward. Some maybe have done better than others. But John, I was looking through photos, just like random photos come up on, you know, your phone, and I was looking at like the Zoom calls we did, even as a family, like we were doing, you know, consistently, and even that, like some of the connectivity, like, certainly, we want to see each other in person, but we communicated more, I think, with their extended family on a more regular basis, because we wanted to be there for each other through the pandemic, and we kind of lost some of that. What I will say that John and our family has done really well is there's a group that has done the fantasy football. Fall, and you guys are now doing whatever the hockey fantasy, whatever is, but they're really doing that be like the grandkids want to be a part of it, because they want that was something that, I think is a positive that has come from that connectivity out of the pandemic. But I agree with you, Lisa, like we just some of those best practices that maybe we were learning once we got out of things, we just went back to a lot of our old normal. And then what I'm seeing is that people still didn't deal with maybe the trauma of we were in a pandemic like we people lost people. They knew jobs shifted. There was loneliness, there was, you know, just a lot of things that happened during that time. And I think some we didn't even, we haven't even really addressed what happened during that time, and I think we'll be talking about it for years to come. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 30:51
I couldn't agree with you more, yeah. I, you know, during the pandemic, when people, yeah, or companies decided to, people are going to work from home. I think productivity went up quite a bit because people were excited that they could work, that they could work from home, and they were probably working fairly long hours. And then as time went on, I think now the companies want them to go back to work, to the office more and more, because I think they've lost the edge on the productivity from home.
Lisa Bobyak 31:21
Maybe that's the case. Yeah, I was thinking they wanted us to come back to the office because they have a building
John Simon Sr. 31:29
well, and they're paying rent. There's rent being paid on that building. And a lot of companies today are saying, well, you know, we went to the end at least two days a week anyhow, and and then during those two days, you could have some meetings with people in the office. And I mean, Zoom meetings are great, but there's also some value to sitting down in front of someone and chatting with them a little bit,
Lisa Bobyak 31:52
hands down. Yeah, I that to me, that would be an ideal work day for me personally. Wouldn't it be great if we could all create our own ideal work scenario, whatever that is, right? Each of us work differently. I work fine by myself, and I work by myself all day long, and yet, you know, a day or two with people might be nice, right?
John Simon Sr. 32:15
Yes, yeah, well, if nothing to socialize with them a little bit. You go to lunch, or you sit there in the morning and you have coffee with them for a few minutes and you talk about what's going on. Yeah. You lose that through everyone working from home.
Dina Simon 32:32
It's true. You do, you do and just that. Yeah. So that day to day connection, on knowing what's going on in people's lives and all of that, yeah. So Lisa, as far as we've learned a little bit about your life, about your business, and, you know, working with leaders and helping them helping individuals break through burnout, what are some other messages or topics that you'd like our podcast listeners to hear from you?
Lisa Bobyak 32:55
You know, I think what I want them to hear from me is that they if they are feeling like those symptoms I was talking about, amped up, revved up, always on, not having time to pee. If those things are happening, I want them to know that there can be a better way, and there is a better way, and that different approach to life does not mean that they'll lose their edge. I will say so many people come to me wanting help and yet concerned that help is going to tell them, Well, you're going to have to slow down, you're going to have to reduce the stress, you're going to have to meditate. And while I believe all of those things are helpful. There's definitely ways we can adjust the approach to life so that the edge is still there, the speed and the quickness is still there, and yet the health and your relationships can be salvaged. I want people to know that truly time to think. I believe Trump's time to work. We value work, and I think work is important, and yet I think we do our best work when we take time to reflect and think. And I want people to be able to put that thinking time, that pause in their day, habitually
Dina Simon 34:21
sighing me, up. Lisa, oh my gosh, I can't I. I'm just so excited that we have you on the podcast, and we'll make sure in the show notes that people know how to get in touch with you for that, like one on one, but then certainly keep us updated when you do either a mastermind or if you have a retreat that you're planning, and I think we should chat. I'd love to collaborate with you. Maybe we could do something together, but that just everything that you just said totally resonates, and I know that for me, you know when you're moving fast and just fast and fast, that's also when mistakes happen, and so that time to actually step back and think and allow yourself to do so it can be so hard, but. It so powerful. It is so
Lisa Bobyak 35:01
powerful. Yeah, and there are times in our day, even when we feel like we have no margin in our day, I promise you, I can show how we can have time to pause for 30 seconds, and it can make a world of difference. I think I talked to you about the owners meeting, and I have exact steps how to bring that up. And so if your listeners are interested in that, I'll absolutely get you a link, Dina, and we can put it on there for them.
Dina Simon 35:32
Nice. I love it.
Lisa Bobyak 35:33
What I love it, know what?
John Simon Sr. 35:36
I'll take better care of yourself than you. You just need to step up and step up and do what
Lisa Bobyak 35:41
you got it, John, isn't that the case? You're right, yeah,
Dina Simon 35:46
yeah, so hard for us to do for some reason, because we want to take care of everybody else.
Lisa Bobyak 35:51
Yeah, yeah. It felt very selfish to take care of myself. I was taught to put others first and then it if I put myself even in the list, it felt selfish. It doesn't anymore, you know, I was able to untrain myself. It feels very nourishing that I am on the list and then I can take care of others as well. But it was really hard initially, yeah,
Dina Simon 36:19
well, thank God, you got the message when you did, and you were able to, you know, redirect your course, because you have now been here for your beautiful girls and their lives that they have ahead of them, and just love that you're this. So our legacy conversation about, you know, living out legacy is what a legacy that you're providing to them, but all that you're teaching others to take from your experience and what they can then do for themselves is just amazing. So excited to know who you are.
Lisa Bobyak 36:49
Thank you so much. I really appreciate getting to know both of you better and sharing this time together
John Simon Sr. 36:56
well. And if you want something to help you slow down a little bit, get a kitty chat, right? Yeah,
Dina Simon 37:05
I want to thank Lisa bobbiac, the founder of living fully balanced, for joining us on the podcast. I am so excited to know more about her and what she's doing in working with people to address preventing burnout, and so excited just to know her. We'll show in the show notes, we'll make sure that you know how to get connected with her and follow her, so that if you're able to join a retreat or work with her one on one, you know how to find her. And as always, I think my father in law, John Simon, for partnering with me in this podcast, and until we talk again, you