WHY NOT Wednesday! with Hannah Austin

These last few years have made us question everything.

Our relationships.

Our jobs.

What constitutes an office.

And who we are.

In a.

World filled with chaos, confusion and uncertainty. It's time for some clarity. It's time to start understanding one another.

It's time to start understanding ourselves.

We envision a world where everyone knows their why. But even more, we envision a world where everyone knows their why. O s their why, their how and their what. The operating system that drives you, that lets the world know where you stand, what your unique gift is and most importantly, who you are.

Yos.

Are you ready?

Hello everyone and welcome to why Not Wednesday. I am so excited to introduce you guys to our guest. I just finished talking to her in the pre show and I was so excited to talk to her because I've been talking about her all weekend to my daughter who I visited in Chicago and that that song in the background is her, her walk up song and it is a song that she chose. We're going to ask her about it. But let me tell you about Hannah. She is a highly sought after corporate leader and management professionally specializing in the management and prevention of burnout of professionals. We're going to talk a lot about that. She's the CEO founder of she chatters. She draws on her experience consulting and coaching. Corporate leaders provide employees at the mid to high point of their careers with the support they need to burn brightly without burning out. And isn't that what we all want to do? Don't we all want to burn bright? Is beyond burnout. Prior to finally she shatters, Hannah spent 20 years as an executive in the healthcare industry, a role in which she faced immense pressure and witnessed her colleagues suffering the effect of burnout en masse. We're going to talk a lot about that. That's kind of her mission. So let's welcome Hannah Austin. Hannah, welcome.

Hi Hann. Thanks for having me.

Thank you for being on. I love that you shared your walk up song. Tell us a little bit about it and let's turn that down just a little bit so we can hear Hannah.

Well, I chose this song specifically because it speaks to a moment in your life that's your darkest moment and taking that dark moment and turning it into what's next for you, essentially your why, which perfectly aligns with the theme of your show.

Well, you know, it's so fun because most of the time everyone I talk to on the show has discovered their why way before we had. But you've been so busy with your book. You've been, you've been Touring with your book. You've been doing television interviews, you've been doing podcast interviews. So we haven't had a chance to meet, but I do want to give a shout out to Jill o' Boyle for introducing us. Jill is my good friend from Indiana. So thank you so much, Jill, for introducing us to Hannah Austin. You have such a great story, Hannah, and I can't wait to share it with Y nation first thing you know that I do on the show and we just as I said, guys, you know, she's coming right off for yos discovery. So, Hannah, a lot of our audience are coaches and consultants that work with why Institute. They work with the why Discovery and then we have clients who work with us too. So they're familiar with the why, but you weren't familiar with it that much until we did it and then we did your discovery a little while ago. So let's go over that so that people know who we're talking to. So Hannah's why is contribute. She believes that success happens when we contribute to a greater cause, make an impact, make a positive difference in the lives of others. Her how is to make sense of things. She's a person who likes to who's good at solving problems. She has that unique ability to take in lots of information and quickly say, ha, I know what we need to do. So she's often referred to as an expert or somebody who knows what they're doing simply because she's just a great handler of data. And her what is to find a better way. And isn't that a lot of what I see in the theme is I did research for the show. That is the theme that runs really through Hannah's life. There's a better way to do corporate. There's a better way to be a leader. There's a lot of better ways that you have found and now you're sharing them. And now thankfully, you're sharing them through your book.

Yes, it is super exciting and I've always been an empath. But of course there is a razor thin line right between helping others and helping yourself. And that is what hello Head, Meet heart is all about.

Yes. Well, listen, what a great feed in into just this morning I talked about the fact that in my feed I put our job as leaders is to take care of our teams first. And you mentioned in your quote that you weren't doing the same for yourself when you went into that place where you burned out. So tell us about that. What drove you so hard? And as a contributor, you wanted to help Others and be there for everyone. But tell us from your side of it, what led to the burnout?

The burnout, honestly, Dan, started at such a young age. At the age of 21, I was tasked with managing over 100 people. My first job out of college was such a big burn role and I had two cell phones most of my career, my 20 year career in healthcare. And so I was always on. And honestly, I swallowed the lesson of more, better, faster. Don't let them see you sweat, paddle frantically under the scene. And the reality is, Dan, what I was doing was working. So I kept getting promoted and promoted. And I thought to myself, man, this is working. This is exactly what I wanted. This is a great career trajectory. But what I didn't really realize was that there was a cost of being on all the time. And essentially, Dan, 20 years later, right, my body said, you're done, you can't do this any longer. And I didn't listen. I kept moving forward. I showed back up to work, I didn't tell anyone what was happening to me, and I just kept going. And ultimately it led me to almost collapsing in the hospital that I was managing. Right. It was very cathartic moment of my body saying, you can't do this anymore. And then, only then did I decide to stop.

Wow. So, you know, and you know, there's a saying that people talk about all the time. If you don't take care of your health, you'll be forced to take care of your illness, right? And so you kind of had that happen at a very young age. I mean, you, you've been in the industry for 20 years, but it's, it's a, it's a very young age to have some kind of event like that. And you're, you're, you're a young, young person, you're married and you're managing a hospital and you end up in that hospital. How did you, how did you deal with it?

Gosh. Well, you deal with it by often moving forward, right? Just moving forward. I think for me, you know, I had the choice of taking a leave of absence or completely retiring from where I was working. And I made the decision at that point. And I'll be very honest with you, Dan, and hopefully these, the people on the line are, or on watching the show, this, they can resonate with this. I didn't trust myself to, to take a leave of absence and not return back to the old patterns. And I know this is a really impactful discussion because I knew myself enough to know that I needed a Clean break. I needed to take time. Not just a vacation, not just taking people to Disneyland, because let's face it, Disneyland is not a vacation, Dan. It is not a vacation. There's not an opportunity for you to take a break and really reflect on that life. Life that you want to live. And so my body forced me to do that. I resigned from my role and I took three months off. And I tell you, Dan, I was so bored. I only had one cell phone for the first time in 20 years. I felt like I was rudderless. I didn't have direction. I didn't know who I was without my idol. And it really forced me to recognize who I truly was and how I wanted to end up. My last 40 years of my life at the age of one. So I had to do a lot of introspective, you know, coaching on myself and doing a lot of learned behaviors, unwiring those old patterns of negativity of being a workaholic.

Yeah, so. So what about Dream Lamp makes it your song because, hey, you, you're. One of the things you. You guys got to know is Hannah is a speaker, a coach, and a consultant. But what she's really focusing on right now is her speaking because she's so busy with it, probably a lot having to do with the book, which is. Has such a great message. We want to get into that. But why Dreamland?

Well, the title of the song is the time is now. And for me, and I know many of you on the line and watching this and maybe the replay, there's always something in your mind or your heart where you had a dream that you wanted to do. But life gets in the way, right? Life gets in the way, Kids get in the way. Marriage gets in the way. Just life gets in the way in general. And for me, it took life smacking me across the face to say, are you really doing what you're dream to be doing? And the answer was yes for 20 years. But there are phases in our life where the time is now to try something new and different. And I call it our ordinary life. We're living an ordinary life because it's what's expected of us. But I really was yearning, Dan, for an extraordinary life. I was yearning for something, but I didn't know what it was or how to find it. And I was scared to leave my career behind because I was planning for retirement. Like, why would I walk away from a 20 year career? And I really stretched myself, quit my job, actually started being creative and thinking about what's next for Me and I stepped into this extraordinary life never thinking I was going to write a book, never thinking, Dan, that someone was going to read the book, and never imagining that my book would become a Amazon bestseller. Two years ago, I was sitting at my desk in a healthcare arena. I wasn't writing a book or even giving my gifts to the world. I, I've done a complete 180 and I sometimes can't even believe this is my life, to be honest with you.

Well, you know, and it speaks to the courage that it takes because so many people, so many of us will stay in, in that role because it's what's expected, right? It's what you're good at, right? And so, so we go back to that, that icky guy. What are you good at? What do you love to do? What can you get paid for? And what, what, how, how can you help others? Right? But just because you're good at it doesn't mean you love it, right? And you were really good at what you were doing. You kept getting promoted, but it wasn't what, what lit you up and now you're, you're there. I do want to take some time and there's a few comments I want to make sure I get that in here. Sunny Oregon says Jerry Fletcher says hello and Des Ryan says there's a huge cost to being on the whole time. And it sounds like that was where you were and you were managing also you were married. You've had a long, a long marriage to, to your, to your husband. So you're managing home life and being on the whole time. That sounds like a recipe for exactly what ended up happening to you if you weren't dealing with it correctly. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back and say, hey Hannah, slow down a little bit because could you go back? If you could go back and do it differently, what would you do differently?

It's so funny you're asking this question, Dan, because I was actually just went back yesterday to the place that I resigned from and I did a speaking engagement for them yesterday. So it was a kind of a cathartic moment to go back to my old employer and say to them, here's what I would do differently. And my response to that question is give yourself some grace. You know, people like me and you, Dan, who are like giver, givers, empaths, we don't get our cup filled until everybody else at the table has had their cup, drank their cup and is on the second refill. And I think for me it was, what does filling your cup look like? You hear that all the time. But if it was that easy, then people would do it. So how do you actually fill your cup? How do you build in time to your regularly scheduled busy day to do that? And so that's what hello Head, meet heart is. It's actually the hows where I think that's where a lot of people get stuck in their life and don't have accountability, is they don't know how to begin or where to begin.

And there's a fine balance too there, Hannah. And I'm sure you talk about it in the book because I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek's book and TED Talk Leaders Eat Last and you just mentioned it, right? You make sure everyone else is taken care of. I come from a military background. You definitely, you know, you definitely take care of your troops before you take care of yourself. But there's an, there's an important part that even in Leaders Eat Last Time it talks about you got to take care of number one. Because if you don't take care of number one, you can't take care of everyone else. What are your thoughts? Have you read the book, seen the TED Talk? What are your thoughts on that concept?

I think Simon Sinek has a lot of great things to say. I think I've watched several of his TED talks. I think what's missing in a lot of the talks with him and a lot of the book is the how, how do you actually go about the tactics to do that? And one of the things that I'll be completely honest with you, Dan, I almost thought about not publishing the book because I'm like, I don't want to read another self help book. How many of us need another self help book? But the reality is I wanted to write a book that actually helps. And the feedback that I'm getting from readers is, oh my God, this is a book that I can actually translate to my life. I never really thought about it that way. And I will say it's really important that you have. When you're listening to an expert, it's really nice when the expert has been through and walked through the fire that you're walking in. And I think it helps me from a position of strength that I'm being completely honest and saying I burned out. I've actually burned out four times now. I know how to heal myself and heal others. Listen to me. I think it's very easy to sit and just speak about topics, but you actually have to sometimes Go through them yourself. To have come from a position of strength to be honest.

Yeah. And well. And there's nothing like that experience. Right. You felt that you've been in their shoes so you can listen and empathetically and understand what they're going through. I was reading some of your reviews for the book. It's one of one woman said, Amanda said, I got teary eyed reading the last chapter, letter to Myself. When you said that you woke up in the middle of the night and wrote a letter to yourself in your darkest hour. And Amanda said, hey, that was me. That's me. So your book talks to people. What, what are, what are people going to learn? What, what are people going to, what's the thing theme of the book that you, that you, you have, you've been hearing from the feedback.

Yes. So I love Dan that my intended consequence for the book was that this is going to be for people, professionals who are suffering from burnout. The unintended consequences have been 25 year olds reaching out to me who are just starting out in their career, saying, oh my gosh, these are what to watch out for. Here's how I can prevent it. Then there's also the 75, 77 year olds who are reaching out to me saying, all of my kids are gone, I'm just retiring. I'm trying to figure out what's next in my life and I don't want to waste any more time. And so I think, you know, I didn't realize that this book was truly for everyone. I've had to expand my marketing capability. But it's really, really interesting to, you know, understand what is that next meaning for you in your life? What's next for you? And I think the other piece is don't look at a midlife crisis or a career pivot in a negative light. Look at it as a new experience, an opportunity to explore something new. And so that's kind of the overall theme is if you're at a pivotal point in your life, this is the book for you.

Love that Lynn. Lynn had a comment for. He says, I get it hand. I'm an empathic, have some psychic abilities, I'm a supporter in gratitude, training language. And he has a why of contribute. So managing his energy is one of the most important things he can do for himself. You know, one of the challenges that I know those of us with the why of contribute habits saying no, if someone needs help, we say yes. You mentioned it earlier, you're going to fill everyone's cup before you fill Your own. And a lot of times, and I'm sure this probably was a challenge for you. We talk about it in our coaching, our coaches who coach on the why of contribute. We talk about the fact that one of the first things we have to tell contributors is, hey, you've got to learn to say no. And no is a complete sentence. You don't need to explain it. You can say no. You can say, hey, it's not a priority for me right now. Here's someone else. Because we always have to find a nice way to say it. Right. So, no, I can't help you, but here's someone who I think can. Here's. Let me connect you with someone who probably can help you with that problem. But it's not something I can take on right now. What is. What is a way that you've learned, you've managed to be able to say no so you can concentrate on the big things that make a big difference for you.

Yes. So, you know, that's kind of an overused learn how to say no, that type of thing. These are all things that we've heard over the years that frankly, we're tired of hearing. I have a little bit different take on it. And it is.

You know, I. On Sunday before the week ahead, Dan, I actually plan into my schedule. Who am I going to help this week? I've already met with 10 people a day, so I know specifically who's going to be asking me for something. I ask deeper questions. So if you were to come to me and say, I need your help with xyz, I'd ask a couple of clarifying questions. And I actually, a lot of the times the things that you're asked isn't what that person really needs. So I do take the time and suss out what specifically they need and whether that's connecting them with someone else or changing their ask. Right. Pivoting it a little bit or saying no, but. But I can do it in April, I can do it in May. I think, sussing it out. People just want to be heard and they want to be validated. And so giving myself time in my schedule to actually look through those people who are asking for help. And then an extension is looking for those people that aren't asking for help but actually really need it. And I was one of those people, right? Yeah, I was very positive. You know, I have a kind of a strong personality. I'm typically very fun and I was a good faker. And so for anyone watching this right now, I think that you Know, lots of us are good fakers and we don't really show what's underneath the surface. And so I think learning that skill, Dan, and training yourself on kind of sussing out those fakers is really important to know who you're going to spend your time on and who you're not.

You know, Desiree Garcia talked about the fact that, hey, you know, a full and enthusiastic yes or enthusiastic no is better than a half hearted yes, right? Look, it's a no. It's a heck, no, I can't do it versus a half hearted yes. Because how many times do you remember, and I'm going to ask a question, I don't know. This applies to you. Do you ever remember saying yes to something and then kicking yourself for saying yes to it right after? Especially when we're younger, right? Gosh, why did I say yes to that? Now I've got all this work I've got to do to get ready for that event or that charity or that thing that I volunteered for. I don't know if you ever found yourself in that position, especially as you were climbing that corporate ladder and you were being asked so much.

Yes. And I think it's what I alluded to before is learning how to utilize that ask your questions muscle, you know, asking the right questions. And I think that basically, you know, whether you're reframing that or, you know, referring it or whatever you're doing, it's really important that you're understanding what are you actually being asked. And I'm very direct. I say, what is it that you want from me? Right? And what is it that you're trying to accomplish? And what. Why am I the person that you think you know, would be the right. Am I the best fit for this? I mean, asking kind of just those three questions will honestly save you a lot of time. And what I really found, Dan, was a lot of people who ask for things, they don't really know what they want. They. They may just kind of be venting or whatnot. And that will save us as well as you time to be able to figure out what's the right way to handle this situation. And how can I protect my energy?

Man, that is. That is pure gold, Hannah. I hope Joe Ake you caught. You captured that because we got to use that as a clip. Joe Ake also says FOMO posers, fear of missing out, Missing out posers. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna put you on video by yourself because I gotta show Raymond Kemp's comment. It's really good.

So.

Yes.

I think reframe is really the key. I love that, Raymond. Thank you.

We'll hide that because that's such a big comment, but thank you so much. You know that listening is so important, really listening. And I think one of the things you brought. You've said it a couple of times. It.

Listening and then asking deeper questions. Is that really what you're looking for? Am I really the solution you're looking for? One of the things my first coach ever said to me, he said, you know, Dan, the reason you got to learn to say no is because you're making a little difference in a lot of places. And you want to be able to make a big difference in a few places where you're going to feel more fulfilled as a contributor. You feel good when you've made a big difference. You don't feel good when you make a little difference or nobody even notices what you did because you're making such a little difference because your spread's so thin. And that's been something that I've always remembered. And I love Des's. If it's. It's not a no, but a no for now. And you did a great job. Even when we met through Jill, I think we met probably in February, but you had the book. I remember because I wanted to be one of the first ones to buy the book, and then I didn't buy it. And then I felt then I wasn't the first one to buy it on Amazon, but because I don't read the electronic, I think when we met. So you only had the electronic version. So that's been so long. So what a great job of living what you teach, practicing what you preach. Because you literally say, hey, Dan, I can't do this till maybe March sometime. So March 22, we put it on the calendar, and here we are. I want to talk about your mission, your vision and your passion, because they're really cool. And then just get your thoughts on it and tell us what it means. Your mission in life is to help busy women pass the torch, reboot and recharge. Where does that come from and what does it mean?

Well, the mission comes from me not doing it myself, right? I mean, knowing that there was a better way, hence my why, and wanting to save women and men. So this was my mission two years ago when I first started. She shatters. I have to say that, you know, a lot of my clients are men as well, so I'm going to be specific in relation to that. But, you know, pass the torch reboot, recharge. I'm a big proponent, like I just mentioned before, and Raymond underscored that if you can practice these things and preach them as well. I also think in your 40s and your 50s and 60s, kind of that later part of your career, your job to the world is to teach other people to do the same thing. Because if something happens and I'm no longer here on this earth, Dan, or you're no longer here on this earth, what is the legacy that you're leaving for those 20, 20 year olds, those 30 year olds that we think don't want to work? Right. We have to teach them that work at this important. We have to teach them why. You should say no. Not just say no, but why and how. And so my mission is really tapping into the why, but taking that a step further and figuring out how can you translate that to yourself and the rest of your career in your life and then also fostering that for the generations ahead. Because I'm very passionate about teaching others so that they don't have the headache that we do. Right. Why don't we teach them things?

So absolutely, you know, one of your passion. I want to talk about your passion because you have a team, a group of collective women who have been where you are, are right now and carved out a path to find our way back to a life of balance, brilliance and brightness. And I saw the picture, what a great picture. You got a great team. Everybody looks happy. It sounds like you, you're. You're in a great place. So tell me about your team. How do you, how. What's it made up of? It's a collective women who have been where you are right now. But tell us a little bit more about your team, how you built the team and what's, what's the mission for that team.

Yeah. So the Viking picture you're referring to are certainly on my website, I will say that where we are now versus where we were two and a half years ago. Right. It's as an entrepreneur, you're ever evolving. At this point, I have contracted employees to be very, very specific. But the women in the, in the photos are the women that helped me stand up this company. And I want to be very, very clear in that when you are a new entrepreneur starting out, I don't know if we have any entrepreneurs on the line. It is, you might have a few.

It is really important that you collaborate with others and ask people, especially your clientele, what is it that you want me to build? I think often when you're in the corporate world and I know you can get this, Dan, after being told what to do, getting in the policies and procedure, being in a regulated industry, there's not that innovation or creativity or even marketing. Right. You're so disciplined of what you can and can't do, there's not a lot of freedom. And so when I started to build my company, what I really wanted to do was I didn't want to build products or a service that I was just building in an office somewhere. I wanted to build my community in public and I wanted to ask my clients, what do you need? And I think the biggest piece was that we've done really well at. SHE SHATTERS and what I've really tried to do as a CEO is say to women and men, what do you need to get out of burnout? What tools, what partnerships? And that's what's been my North Star. And that's when I decide if I'm going to say yes or no to something that, that I look on my North Star board and say, does this contribute to the mission and does this support my customer? So I know no matter what industry you're in, what entrepreneur you are in each different industry, this is really kind of baseline information that you've got to know what your customer wants. But why. Why build something that you don't know what they want? Right. Don't do it in private, do it in public.

So I'm going to. I'm going to. Perfect answer. Thank you. But as a contributor, I just heard you say your first filter is. Does it contribute to the cause? Right. Does it make a difference? So that's your first filter. I'd add a couple of filters for you, and these are new to you. Does it make sense? Does it solve a problem? Because your how is. Make sense? And is it better than what we're already doing? Because what we find in Raymond Kemp is on here and we've got a few of our other coaches on here. We always talk about, you know, your why OS kind of becomes your filter. And so I love that you subconsciously just spoke about it. Does it contribute to the mission? Hello, Head Meatheart. Great title. I mean, you know, Larry Levine talks about it. I think it's. I. And I can't get the exact measurement. It's 18 inches between your head and her heart. It's a small distance, but, man, it. There's a lot to be covered there. Why, why that title? What's the. What's the message? I mean, I, I can. I Can imagine. But I want to hear it from you, Hannah.

Yeah. So hello had meat heart was it was actually a chapter that I was writing with the title of the chapter. And I will be completely honest, during writing this book I had a setback. I was almost back to burnout again. Right. Going back to those old patterns and I really had just a deep conversation with myself of am I writing this book for informational purposes, educational purposes? Is the reader really going to get how painful burnout is, how painful change is? Am I going to be myself 100% in this book, Dan, or am I going to just put out fluff? I mean that was the true, true conversation I had with myself. And then when I started incorporating Dan my personal journals like my deepest, darkest, most intimate thoughts and put them in the book, that's when things clicked into place. So what I did there was I didn't just use my head to write a book. I enacted and activated my head and heart together. And that is what makes hello head neat heart. I think a lot of people to function in one camp or the other, the analytical folks, the operational folks, the marketing folks and true, true brilliance comes from activating those emotions, activating those parts of yourself and it provides an extraordinary life. And that was the whole goal and plan for the book.

Wow. Thank you so much. Here, you know we can't go get let you go without asking the big question. So tell us about your biggest why not moment a time said why not to something and it's turned out well. And you're so glad you made that decision. But it was a tough decision at the time but you're glad you did it now. Well, what's your been your biggest why not moment so far?

Putting, pushing send on uploading my book to Amazon first of all put you know, putting your 100% vulnerable self for the entire world to see was a really big moment. And then to be honest with you, putting the goal out there that I was going to become Amazon bestseller. I have always done really well in my career, but it was based on hard work and this book was based on heart and hard work. And those are two different things. So for the first time in my life, Dan, you know, pushing submit to Amazon or getting it out into bookstores, that was my moment where I put all the chips out on my table. I bet on myself for the first time in my life and said I'm going to become Amazon bestseller in one month and I did it in 10 days.

That is amazing. And you just said, you know, I love the distinction between hard work and heart work. And Larry Levine is going to just love that you said that because he's going to ask you about that. I know you're going to be on his podcast soon, so. So, Hannah, any parting words for our audience? You're talking to some coaches. You're talking to some CEOs. You're talking to business owners and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs. What's. What's. What's one takeaway you want them to take from today?

Yeah. Great question. So what I would say to all of you listening or listening to the replay is no matter if your coach, entrepreneur or anything, we all are human first and we all have a dream or something that we've always wanted to do our entire life, but that's been weighing on our head and our heart. But we haven't been able to move forward in that. And so my plea to you is take the leap, take the chance, and don't settle for an ordinary life and instead explore an extraordinary one.

That is fantastic. Hannah, what do you say we end the show on that note?

Sounds great. Thank you for having me, Dan.

Thank you so much, Hannah. Have a great rest of the week. Best of luck continued on the book tour. I know you're busy speaking, coaching and consulting. And folks, there's going to be. We're going to post this on LinkedIn. It's going to be on Facebook, and it's going to be on YouTube. We'll have some links in the chat. Please get a hold of Hannah's book. I know there's a reason it's a bestseller. It's resonating with so many people. Hannah, have a great rest of your week. I look forward to talking to you soon.

Thanks so much, everyone. Thanks for.