Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's plan a 2026 without burnout. I've spent the last three podcasts talking about 2026 planning because I am so convinced that so many of us want to create impact without creating burnout. And I'm going to beat that drum until everyone agrees with me. And I am telling you, I promise you, you're going to see this more and more and more and more and more and more. You know how there's like a pantone color of the year or a word of the year? Well, we're going to start strategy of the year. And in 2026, the strategy of the year is calm confidence.
Now, if you're new here, welcome. My name is Jenv Ev Scor. I'm a former C suite executive of a $350 million brand. I was in charge of. Of all the sales things. I was in charge of a field. I've been in charge of thousands of sales reps and sales leaders. And I've also been in the field as a sales leader and a serial entrepreneur. And I'm here honestly to help you figure out how to bypass all of the burnout and the drama that I did so that you can get where you want to go and not lose your soul or burnout in the process.
So if we look back on 2025, for me, it was the perfect year. Now, at the beginning of 2025, I don't think I thought that. I think I thought 2025 was gonna. Was gonna be easier than it was. But it was honestly an emotional roller coaster. I had ended a relationship with a company that I'd worked for for seven years. It was a company whose product, products I loved. I love doing all the things there. I thought, honestly, I thought I would retire from there. And when we parted ways, I had to really re evaluate what I wanted my next step to be because there were parts of me that at this point in my career that I didn't recognize any more. You know, I was hustling, I was getting things done. I was committed to driving. I was committed to results.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: And one thing became very clear to me. I'd lost. I'd lost my way. And in. It wasn't just that I lost my way. I became super burned out, which is a weird place to be when you still have a passion for what you're doing.
And I know that a lot of people relate to that because I asked. I have talked to hundreds of women over the last year asking them, what, why did you start your own business? Why are you doing what you're doing or when they ask me what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, it's like, same, same.
I just can't put up with things that aren't aligned with my values anymore.
I want to create an impact. I'm not done creating an impact, they would say. But what I am done with is, is like this explosive growth that, that doesn't ever look sustainable. I'm tired of chaos.
And what I'm really seeking is a ton more clarity.
And when you get to my age and you've spent decades with your nervous system being completely misaligned, you get a little addicted to the. It's true. You get a little addicted to, to those fight or flight chemicals. And you have to, like, go through an emotional and mental detox just to reset your nervous system to understand we're going to prioritize safety and we're not going to push 24 7.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: And also what I kept hearing and what resonated with me was this, this, these two words. Aligned momentum. Aligned momentum over frantic hustle. And I remember being a person that was really against this whole movement a while ago called anti hustle. And I'm like, well, how are you going to get anything done? How are you going to get anything done if you're not going to hustle all the time? And the truth is, hustling's okay in a season, it. In a short period of time, it's like a sprint.
It's okay to sprint in business, but your strategy, your whole entire strategy can't be sprinting.
That's. That's not that. That's actually. That's a strategy that's going to lead to burnout. Because here's the truth. And honestly, this is something that we don't talk about enough. And I will beat this drum forever.
That a calm, confident leader, a calm, confident entrepreneur makes far better decisions when they can show up more confident consistently and more calm consistently than doing the whole white knuckle climb to success.
I'm not sure how I'm getting here, but I got this mentality like, I've done that and I can do it. But I'm telling you, you miss out on all parts of your life that you are meant to sit here and enjoy. So there's another way.
There's definitely another way. And we're going to talk about it.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: There are four decisions or four shifts that you're going to want to make.
You talking to you that you're going to want to make in order to ensure that you don't have a 2026 burnout year.
So shift number one, we're going to favor slower decisions and sustainable growth. We're going to actually start to believe that slower decisions actually equals sustainable growth. I, I'm a type A. I like fast, I do. But fast decisions are not as powerful as clear decisions. So make 2026 the year of calm decision making, which will lead to better boundaries, cleaner strategies, less reworking. And I, and this is the best part, more aligned clients and more aligned team teams.
Shift number two, we're going to prioritize nervous system safety and then strategy. So we're going to make sure that our bodies are safe in every part of our strategy and we're going to make sure that nervous system safety comes first and that the body doesn't always feel like it's in fight or flight mode. Because we can inadvertently, speaking from experience here, set up strategies that keep our body in a high cortisol framework and tell ourselves we'll get used to it. But the truth is that's really not great for your nervous system. You want to be slightly outside your nervous system, but you don't want to have to be on medication, if you know what I mean.
So we're going to practice things that allow us to make messages, do messaging to people, have meetings with people, talk to people, relate to people without having these spikes in our cortisol or without feeling like, oh my gosh, I gotta talk my, gotta hike myself into this.
Now the way that I, I talk about this is it's like a habit, it's a work habit, it's actually a success habit that will take you really, really far in if you learn to implement them.
It's kind of like, you know how you wash your hands before you eat dinner.
You want to learn how to cleanse yourself emotionally before you need to show up and create impact. So what do I mean?
I mean like you wake up in the morning and you just go right into work mode. I'm going to ask you to up and to create a set of calming rituals that you can do before meetings, after meetings, and throughout your day.
So strategic breathing. I'm here to tell you breathing does work to reset your nervous system. So instead of picking up the phone, instead of just walking into that meeting.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Give yourself a minute. I mean, do it with me. Now.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Take a deep breath in and exhale.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Just one. Feels good. Take a deep breath again.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Hold it for a second.
Let it out.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Oh yeah, right. Do you feel that? I hope you feel that. Cuz man, it works. And if you were sitting there thinking to yourself, self, we don't, we don't do cleansing breaths because, because I'm in a hurry.
You're the exact person that needs this, you guys. This isn't woo woo. This is operational stability for your brain. This is neuroscience. You absolutely, positively want to always show up as your best self. The most impactful version of you does not live in your fight orf flight brain. So here's a couple things. One, habit, as I mentioned, strategic breathing before your sales calls or your meetings, give yourself five minutes between meetings where you can ground yourself between tasks. One of the things that if I could have changed about my.
One of the, the places that I've worked is this crazy thing of back to back meetings. I mean, I remember meeting with my administrative assistant and she's like, you literally have no free time in the course of your day. And her job was to help me to be more productive. And I looked at her and I'm like, I don't really know what to do about that. And she's like, no, seriously, I have to start telling people no.
She goes, you don't have any time to breathe between each meeting. And she, she wasn't, she wasn't wrong.
We would have meetings from 8 until 9, from 9 until 10, from, from 10 until 1, we'd bring in lunch from 1 until 2. Now let me just tell you, like, physically, you can't end and start a meeting at the same time. Like, are you picking up what I'm laying down?
Imagine going to work knowing that you'll never really be sitting at your desk and you don't have time to check in with the people that you need to check in with and you don't have time to even think through things through. And because you don't have any time during the work day to do your work, you think you're going to do it at nighttime, but then you're stressed because you really should be with your family.
We set this up ourselves, y'. All. We set this up ourselves. So set your meetings up so that there's at least five minutes between meetings to ground yourself between your tasks.
I unload the emotional baggage from the last meeting. Take notes, record any wins that happened in that meeting.
Give yourself five minutes, walk for five minutes, stand for five minutes, sit still and pray or meditate for five minutes. But you really do better when you have five minute grounding tasks between each of your work tasks.
I also want you to have end of the day rituals.
And I listen, I Hear you. And there isn't anyone that laughs harder at herself than me. If you actually talk to people about the new calm genv, people will be like, I'm sorry, who, who this was not me.
I would be happy to work until 6, 7 o', clock, come home, open my computer again. Like, I was so happy to be in hustle mode until you're not, y'. All. So I want to help you understand that you can be productive and calm at the same time. So if you institute like ending day closure rituals, what that does is it tells your nervous system, I made the day work for me, right? I'm going to close down now. It's safe.
It's okay. I'm not running home to eat dinner. I'm not running home to get on my computer. I'm not running through traffic. Like, I'm, I'm going to close down the day. I'm going to measure my wins. I'm going to look for what worked in the course of the day day. I'm going to give thanks for those things. I'm going to give myself a pat on the back. I'm going to let my nervous system know this is safe and we had fun and we were productive today. You're going to create gratitude. At the end of the day, you're going to schedule in these closure rituals for yourself.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: And again, I'm going to remind you this is not woo woo, this is neuroscience and it works. This is what high performers do in sports and business and in politics. So remember, I need to schedule in at the end of the day, my closing rituals. And can I tell you, I'm going to say this again, really big important part of this is measuring the wind you had each day. Because if you're always running to the next thing, right, you're always running toward the next goal. Your brain never measures that you're actually winning. And you have to have that built into your day.
All right, Number three, the shift, the trade in, the thing we need to do and adopt is emotional minimalism. Have you ever heard those words before? Emotional minimalism.
Basically, if I break that down to one sentence, it is this. And say it with me. I do not have to be. I, I do not have to be emotionally involved in every problem in my business.
I do not have to emotionally adopt every problem in my business.
This was news to me.
This was news to me. And this is part of what led to my burnout.
I came from a family where like, oh, what? Oh, a reason to get all excited 100%. We're all in.
I'm here to tell you the. One of the best things I learned, and I did learn this from my husband.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Is he is incredibly calm in 99 of our conversations. The only thing that really triggers him is me. Happy to say.
And he's so calm in so many situations. And what I have learned and what I've been studying is that you can actually observe something and not attach yourself to it. Did you know that?
Did. Did. Like, I literally was, like, today years old when I realized that I don't have to adopt everybody's emotion.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: So team drama.
Yes. Tell me about it. Don't have to live in it with you. Client drama. Definitely need to know about it. Don't have to get all hyped up about it. You guys, what tends to happen to us is we get ignited by other people's drama.
And if you work with a lot of people, there's a lot of people to get ignited by.
What you want to practice is observing things, responding to things, but not reacting to them.
Detachment does not mean that you are disconnecting and you are going to promise to. To protect your piece in 2026.
Like, it's intellectual property, including your own little spirals that you have.
I'm looking at me that I have, like, twice a day asking myself, is this even working?
Like, is this going to work?
We're not doing that in 2026, because it either works or it doesn't. And if you intend to make it work, then guess what? It's actually going to work.
But we got to get out of this spiral mode of is this working?
Am I with the right company?
Are these the right products?
Am I doing the right thing? Does anybody want what I have? All of that done repeatedly, over time will lead to burnout.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: So we done with that? We're done with that. All right. Number four is calm productivity. And I have to tell you, I have loved this the most in 25. I have. I have played more pickleball and gotten more done in the last year than I have in the last five years of my life.
What I have learned is that chaotic productivity means that I'm always behind.
It actually tells my system, it programs my system that I'm behind. That's why I'm hustling.
I'm either behind or I'm not doing enough. I'm performing like that. Chaotic productivity equals feeling like you're always behind.
Now, calm productivity, on the other hand, that feels like control.
That feels like heaven, to be completely honest with you. And when you're being calmly productive.
You want to keep doing that, and that is the point to keep wanting to show up.
So let me share a little rhythm that I've adopted for 2026 for my week that you potentially could adopt to.
Okay, Monday.
Vision and planning day.
Vision and planning day. This is the day that I'm sitting down planning the rest of my week, asking what key things do I need to accomplish this week that move the needle in a calm, productive way? Because if I don't plan for those things, you guys, I still default to chaos. I still default to hustle. So Monday is the day that I reframe the entire week.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my deep work execution productivity days.
Yeah, can you believe it? You could actually just be in execution mode three days a week. If I'm doing my vision planning and I'm doing my other prep on Monday and Friday, then that means I have all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday, all day Thursday to do that meaningful deep and execution work.
Friday for me is administration.
It's future prep. And honestly, it's also podcast recording day.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: It's great. I know what I'm going to do. I'm prepared for it. My nervous system is prepared for it. We're ready to go.
And last but not least, raise your hand and solemnly swear with me that you will take a real lunch break in 2026. And I mean like you were. You are sitting there savoring your meal. Maybe you're having more meals with girlfriends, maybe you're having meals outside if you live somewhere warm in the sun. Maybe you're making your favorite salad. But no more eating on a zoom call.
No more eating while I'm working, even if it's just 30 minutes.
Solemnly swear that you will take a real lunch break even in 2026.
All right, here's the big mind shift for us in 202026 is productivity is not about output. It's about energy optimization. It's about showing up in a way that feels aligned, that feels good, that feels sustainable.
And I'm telling you, this is the strategy for 2026. So we're going to set non negotiable boundaries. We're going to set our day up so that we have clarity. We're going to celebrate micro celebrations every single day with our close down rituals. And last but not least, I didn't mention this before, we are going to set digital quiet hours. Because that also is a problem for some of us.
I'm pointing at myself. I'm pointing at myself. Here's the thing I really want you to take away. Calm isn't about being passive.
It's power, it's leadership, and it's the foundation of sustainable, repeatable growth.
Now, before you go, I have a gift for you in the show notes. I have a GPT for you that will help you plan out your 2026 in a calm, confident way. That link is there as your gift. Sit down with it. Use it as your business therapist. I think you're really going to enjoy it. I look forward to seeing you on our next podcast.
