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Building Something New: A Burnout Recovery Community in the Making
Feb 27
6 min read
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26
The Journey to Launch
Burnout is more than just being tired. It drains your whole body and mind. It changes how you feel about yourself. If you’ve felt this way, you know what I mean.
For me, burnout wasn’t just a bad week or even a bad month—it was a complete system shutdown. My mind and body gave out before I even realized what was happening. And in that moment, I knew one thing: I never want to go through this again.
That thought alone wasn’t enough, though. I had to figure out how to actually prevent it from happening again. That’s when I started doing some serious inner work. What came out of that process surprised me: I didn’t just want to recover, I wanted to help others do the same.
At first, I thought I’d just share my story on YouTube, maybe post a few videos about burnout recovery. But the more I talked to people, the more I realized how isolating burnout can feel. And that’s when the idea took root:
What if I created a space where people could connect, share, and rebuild their lives together?
That’s how Where I’m At began. It didn’t start as a business. It wasn’t a big project ready to launch. It started with a simple thought: we need to talk about burnout and help each other get better.
Taking the First Steps during Burnout recovery
It’s one thing to have an idea, but actually making it happen? That’s another story.
I didn’t know where to begin. I wanted to help people with burnout. I wanted to create a place where we could heal together. But I was new to all of this. I had never made content online. I had never run a podcast or YouTube channel.
So, I started with the basics:
- Research – I started with what I know best: research. I looked at many support groups. I wanted to learn what helped people get better. Then I saw something missing. There were many groups out there, but they each only helped with one thing. I wanted to create something new. A place where people could heal from burnout, find their path, get healthy, and support each other.
- New Skills – I started from zero. I learned how to make podcasts. I figured out how to edit videos. I built a website. I studied how to get found online. I learned about social media.
At this point, I wasn’t even thinking of Where I’m At as a business. It was just an idea I couldn’t ignore. But as I kept researching and building, I realized something important:
🚀 If I wanted this to truly help people, I needed to treat it like a real business—not just a side hobby.
The Biggest Challenges Along the Way
Of course, nothing worth doing is ever easy. Here are some of the biggest roadblocks I hit while bringing Where I’m At to life.
1. Imposter Syndrome Was Loud
I kept asking myself:
Who am I to do this?
What if no one cares?
What if I fail?
We often find reasons to wait before starting something new. We tell ourselves we need to be better prepared. We want everything to be perfect first. We think we need more experience.
But here’s what I learned: you never feel completely ready. The best way forward is to begin now and learn along the way.
2. Avoiding Burnout While Building a Burnout Community
This one’s ironic, right?
The closer I got to launching, the more pressure I put on myself. Starting a business in a foreign language, launching during the holiday season, I was pushing too hard, too fast—until I felt the warning signs creeping back in.
That’s when I had to make a tough call: I postponed the launch by a month.
It wasn’t easy, but it was the right decision. Taking that step back let me rest, refocus, and launch Where I’m At with the energy it deserved. It also reinforced a huge lesson:
🔥 You can’t help others recover from burnout if you’re still running yourself into the ground.
3. Learning Everything From Scratch
When 2024 began, I knew nothing about making videos or podcasts. I didn’t know how to build a community. But I found ways to learn. I watched hundreds of YouTube videos. I took online courses. I hired a voice coach. I tried things out and learned from my mistakes.
Some things I learned:
- Making a podcast takes a lot of work. You need to plan what to say. You need to edit the video and audio. You need to make sure people want to listen. All of this takes time.
- Video editing is a beast. I love it, but it’s incredibly time-consuming. As much as I enjoy creating, I’ll eventually outsource parts of the process.
- SEO and marketing matter. If no one finds your content, it doesn’t matter how good it is. But this one I will continue to need help with.
It was a huge learning curve, but every skill I gained made Where I’m At better.
The Launch Experience
When launch day finally arrived, I felt excited, nervous, and completely exhausted.
Launch day brought many feelings. I was excited to start but also felt nervous and tired. Not everything went as planned. The cookie banner broke down at the last minute. I had to find a new one and integrate it quickly. This cost more time, money and added stress. But when I finally saw Where I’m At live, all the hard work felt worth it.
For the first time, this wasn’t just an idea in my head—it was real.
The best part? Seeing real people engage. People started to reach out. They sent comments and messages. They wrote emails saying “I needed this.” These words reminded me why I began this journey.
Balancing Passion and Real Life
Here’s something people don’t see behind the scenes:
💼 I’m still job hunting.
Passion projects don’t pay the bills (yet), and I need financial stability while growing Where I’m At.
Right after launching, I got a project assignment for a job application. Suddenly, I had to hit pause on my community work to focus on interviews. It was frustrating as I wanted to sit back, rest and admire my hard work, but also a reality check:
🚀 Burnout recovery isn’t about doing everything at once—it’s about balance.
What’s Next for Where I’m At?
Now that it’s live, my focus is on building something meaningful. Here’s what’s coming next:
- Building the waiting list: I want to create a special place. A place where you can share your story. A place where you can learn from others. A place where everyone supports each other.
- Finding founding members – A small group to help shape the future of Where I’m At.
- Refining content – Making better podcast episodes, YouTube videos, and blog posts.
- Balancing work and passion – Finding a job while continuing to build this platform.
This is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
A Message for You
If you take one thing away from my story, let it be this:
🚀 You don’t need to have everything figured out to start.
Many of us wait for the perfect time to start. But that perfect time doesn’t exist. The best way to learn is to try things out. I was shy and knew nothing about making content. But I still started a podcast, a YouTube channel, and the makings of a community. This shows that you can start too. You can take that first step toward what makes you excited.
And if burnout brought you here, know this: You’re not alone. There’s a whole community waiting for you. Let’s build it together.
Join the Where I’m At community
🎙️ Listen to the Share Inspire and Explore podcast
💙 Join the waiting list and be part of the journey from day one! Sign up here! 🚀
Together, let’s redefine burnout recovery—not as an end, but as a new beginning.