FRIED. The Burnout Podcast

Burnout Recovery, Alignment, and a Thoughtful Transition

Part of burnout recovery is learning when to respond to what your body and life are telling you, even when that response brings some discomfort.In this episode, Cait and Sarah talk openly about a shift in how they work together and what’s ahead for FRIED. As their roles and priorities have evolved, Sarah is stepping back and Cait is focusing her work more fully on leadership, organizational, and systems-level burnout.Cait shares how she came to see that her work is strongest when she is creating change at a broader level, working with leaders, teams, and organizations. Sarah reflects on realizing that supporting others through burnout had taken the place of rebuilding her own life, and what became clear once she chose to redirect her energy back toward herself.The conversation reflects the longer arc of burnout recovery. It speaks to how clarity often comes later than expected, how rebuilding tends to happen in stages, and how fit becomes clearer through experience rather than planning. What Cait and Sarah describe will feel familiar to anyone who has had to respond to a change they did not anticipate but ultimately knew they could not ignore.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Conscious Business Uncoupling and Burnout Recovery Alignment03:29 Why Burn Bold Shifted From Individual Burnout Recovery to Workplace Burnout04:28 The Values Bridge Assessment and How It Exposes Misalignment08:29 Codependency in Helping Roles and Burnout From Borrowed Purpose11:18 Ending a Business Partnership Without Blame or Failure18:59 Why You Cannot Force Alignment Through Planning Alone28:34 Why Transitions Feel So Hard According to Chinese Medicine31:43 Workplace Burnout vs Misalignment and Why Not Everything Is Toxic38:16 Using Your Voice and Finding the Work That Fits42:34 Why Burnout Recovery Still Requires Support and GuidanceLinksBook Cait to Speak at your Event or OrgSchedule a Speaking Inquiry with CaitCait Donovan is a keynote speaker, author, and host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, specializing in burnout, mis/match, and sustainable performance at work. She partners with corporate leaders, teams, and professional associations through keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions that treat burnout as data, not failure, to help organizations reduce burnout without blame or shame and build healthier, high performing cultures.To bring Cait to your organization or event, book an inquiry call here: https://bit.ly/bookcaitPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

#straightfromcait: Burnout Isn’t About Resilience. It’s About Match.

Burnout recovery does not start with fixing yourself. It starts with understanding job fit, burnout at work, and whether there is a true values match between who you are and what your work and life demand.Cait Donovan returns with a #straightfromcait episode that marks a turning point in how she thinks about burnout and in the writing of her next book. After years of explaining burnout as a complex web shaped by childhood, culture, health, personality, and work, she hits a wall. Information alone does not change behavior. What people need is a clearer way to see why burnout keeps showing up and what actually drives it beneath the surface.That insight leads to a powerful reframe. Burnout at work is often the result of poor job fit and ongoing misalignment, not personal weakness or bad leadership. Cait unpacks how mismatches around autonomy, expectations, and success quietly drain energy over time. More freedom does not always help. Promotion does not always equal growth. What happens when your role conflicts with your values or asks for something you cannot sustain? And how often do we accept those mismatches without ever questioning them?This episode also sets the direction for what comes next on the podcast. Cait shares how future conversations will focus on creating better alignment through values match, mattering, hope, and leadership at work. The invitation is simple and challenging. What would change if fit mattered as much as performance? And how much burnout could be prevented if mismatch was addressed before it turned into exhaustion?Episode Breakdown:00:00 Burnout as a Mismatch Problem02:29 Job Fit, Autonomy, and Burnout at Work04:47 Values Match and Redefining Success05:43 How Better Alignment Reduces BurnoutLinksBook Cait to Speak at your Event or OrgSchedule a Speaking Inquiry with CaitPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Re-Release: 7 Stages of Burnout with Mandy Lehto

Burnout is less a breaking point than a slow unravelling of identity and the seven messy phases high achievers cycle through on the way back to themselves.We’re revisiting a conversation with Dr. Mandy Lehto that still holds relevance for anyone who has pushed past their limits and felt the ground shift beneath them. Mandy and Cait talk through burnout as a gradual process shaped by denial, urgency, over-efforting, and grief, rather than a single moment of collapse. Mandy’s “seven-ish” buckets offer language for patterns many high achievers recognize but rarely name. When the strategies that once drove success stop working, how do you begin to make sense of what comes next?Burnout is framed here as an identity reckoning rather than a problem to fix or outwork. It often surfaces when performance quietly replaces self-trust and effort becomes the main source of worth. What happens when pushing harder no longer brings clarity or relief? What does it ask of you when the body stops cooperating with the plan?The episode invites a different relationship with healing. One that allows uncertainty, grief, and slowness to exist without turning them into another project. Wholeness does not arrive as polish or resolution. It shows up through honesty, embodiment, and the growing ability to stop performing for approval. For anyone navigating the space between who they were trained to be and who they are becoming, this episode offers perspective, language, and permission to stay with the process.Episode Breakdown:00:00 The Seven Phases of Burnout Recovery for High Achievers01:35 Denial and the Push-Harder Pattern That Starts the Slide06:38 Triage Mode and Why Your Worth Can Feel Tied to Productivity15:19 Reluctant Surrender and the Grief of Losing Your Old Identity19:10 The Humbling and What Acceptance Actually Looks Like30:31 Achievement Addiction, Dopamine, and the Crash After Big Wins39:02 Chutes and Ladders and Practicing Self-Acceptance in Real Life42:28 Wholeness Equals Whole Mess and Reclaiming Your Energy47:14 When Support Helps Most and Why Recovery Becomes an Inside JobIf today’s episode sparked ideas for your team, Cait is available for keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions. Learn more here: https://caitdonovan.as.me/inquireConnect with Mandy Lehto:Visit Mandy's Website Follow Mandy on InstagramConnect with Mandy on LinkedInBook Cait to Speak: https://bit.ly/bookcaitPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Tess Brigham: Why Millennials Might Be The Most Burned Out of Us All

What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit: https://bit.ly/friedgatewayWhy do millennials seem more exhausted than everyone else, and what does that say about the world they came of age in? Cait Donovan and Tess Brigham challenge the idea that burnout is caused by laziness, entitlement, or bad time management and instead look at the conditions that shaped an entire generation’s relationship to work, money, and ambition.Millennials were taught to chase fulfillment through work while absorbing the expectation of constant availability, rising debt, and shrinking financial stability. That combination created a version of success that looked good on paper but often felt unsustainable in real life. Burnout, in this light, reads less like a personal breakdown and more like a rational response to a system that never powered down.The conversation also reframes generational tension as misunderstanding rather than failure. Gen Z’s boundaries and openness around mental health are not rejections of effort. They are adaptations shaped by watching what relentless grind actually costs. What looks like resistance may be awareness.This episode asks a quieter but harder question: what happens when the path you committed to no longer fits who you are or the life you want? Burnout becomes an invitation to reassess rather than a reason for shame. Less judgment, more curiosity, and the courage to question stories about success that were never designed to hold up under the weight they now carry.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Why Burnout Is a Generational Issue, Not a Personal Failure01:15 Tess Brigham on Her Quarter-Life Crisis and Early Burnout09:25 Why Millennials Experience Burnout Differently Than Other Generations19:26 Student Debt, Financial Pressure, and the Burnout Equation30:11 Mental Health, Boundaries, and What Gen Z Is Doing Differently39:03 When Burnout Signals It’s Time to Reassess Your PathConnect with Tess Brigham:Visit Tess' Website Follow Tess on Instagram Connect with Tess on LinkedInConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (6 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Find out more here: http://bit.ly/unfriedIf this episode resonated and you’re not sure where to go next, the FRIED Episode Finder can guide you to the next right listen: https://bit.ly/friedfinderWhat if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit: https://bit.ly/friedgatewayPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Casey McGuire Davidson: Dry January Advice for Burnt Out High Achievers

What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit https://bit.ly/friedgatewayStress pushes high-achieving women toward alcohol and alcohol quietly erodes sleep emotional stability and clarity.Cait Donovan welcomes back Casey McGuire Davidson, host of the Hello Someday podcast and a trusted voice for sober-curious women, to examine a pattern many women experience without fully naming. Alcohol is often positioned as relief, reward, and sophistication, yet over time it can leave women feeling more anxious, more reactive, and less resilient in their daily lives.Rather than treating drinking as a moral issue or a personal failure, the focus stays on information and awareness. How does alcohol affect sleep and emotional regulation? What shifts when hormones change in midlife? How much of what feels like stress, burnout, or anxiety might be amplified by something we were told would help? Removing alcohol, even briefly, becomes a way to see your real baseline and understand what your body and nervous system are actually asking for.This episode is an invitation to experiment with curiosity instead of judgment. What might you learn about yourself if you stopped numbing for a month? What becomes possible when rest feels deeper, moods feel steadier, and choices feel more conscious? Dry January is framed less as a challenge and more as a chance to gather clarity and decide what truly supports the life you are building.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Meet Casey McGuire Davidson02:00 How Stress and Alcohol Reinforce Each Other06:00 Alcohol’s Impact on Sleep, Anxiety, and Emotional Regulation18:05 Perimenopause, Hormones, and Changing Alcohol Tolerance23:55 A Practical and Sustainable Approach to Dry JanuaryConnect with Casey McGuire Davidson:Casey’s Website Follow Casey on Instagram  Connect with Casey on LinkedIn Get The Free 30-Day Sober Guide To Quitting DrinkingHire Cait to Speak:Initial Call with CaitIf you’re tired and can’t quite name why, this is a good place to start. Cait’s free Core Values guide helps you figure out what’s draining you and what’s worth protecting. Grab it here: https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebieWhat if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit https://bit.ly/friedgatewayPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm