Inner Work With MaryAnn Walker: Stop People Pleasing and Start Honoring You!

190: Burned Out? How to Feel 10% Better Today

• MaryAnn Walker • Episode 190

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If you’ve ever felt like you had to keep it all together, even when you were running on empty, this episode will feel like a deep exhale. Together, we explore how letting go of perfection and focusing on feeling just 10% better can become a gentle, sustainable path toward healing and self-connection.

In this episode, I’m joined by my friend, author, and public speaker, Marissa Campbell, for a heartfelt conversation about burnout, emotional exhaustion, and learning how to come back home to yourself.


What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Why burnout often hides behind busyness and people-pleasing
  • The power of checking in with your emotional battery before you hit empty
  • How to let go of thinking healing takes time and shift to  feeling “10% better” today.
  • Simple, somatic ways to reconnect with your body and emotions
  • How to identify your early warning signs of emotional depletion
  • What it really means to lead — and live — from the heart

Challenge for the Week

Pause once today to ask yourself:
🩵 "How full is my battery and what emotion am I experiencing right now?”

Then give yourself permission to honor whatever answer arises with no expectations.

*Bonus* Ask yourself what might help to charge your battery, and give it to yourself. Small steps count. They build momentum. And they remind you that you are worthy of care, even in the smallest of ways.

Work With Me

If you’re ready to stop running on empty and start rebuilding from a place of peace and self-trust, I’d love to help.
You can book a free clarity call to explore how coaching can support you at calendly.com/maryannwalkerlife/freeconsult

Don’t Forget to Subscribe

If this episode resonated with you, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Links Mentioned in This Episode

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Well, hello and welcome back. I am your host, MaryAnn Walker, and I help highly sensitive women break free from burnout, and that is exactly why I am so excited for today's guest. Marissa Campbell is here with us today. Hello Marissa. Hi.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for having me. I'm like super excited.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Oh, me too. Yeah. So Marissa is a public speaker. She's the host of the Art of Heart podcast and the author of Lead With Heart, the New Blueprint for a Noisy, burned Out World. And as you may remember, Marissa and I recently reconnected when I was a guest on her podcast, so go and check that out. I'll link that in the show notes. But as she and I were catching up. Then I learned about her new book that is now officially out, which is super exciting. Um, but it is all about burnout. And so yeah. Marissa, thank you so much for being here

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

This is so exciting and it's, it's so cool because we had such a great time on my podcast and when you were like, Hey, do you wanna be on mine? I'm like, that would be so incredible.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, I think our audiences are very aligned and so it's really fun to just, uh, I just loved how much we were vibing and very similar experiences and different things, so, yeah. So before we dive in, would you tell us a little bit more about your lived experience and how you got to where you are today?

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah, absolutely. So I am just really learning how to navigate this crazy human experience in a way that, is kind of new to me. I spent many years in corporate America climbing the ladder, and, I have a startup, which is super fun. And if you would've asked me six months ago. Probably eight months ago, what the most important thing in my life was I would've set a successful exit. And for those of you who aren't familiar with startup land, it's when there is some type of financial exchange for your company and makes you as a human in the business world. And I'm doing air quote, super valuable.'cause then you can go and fundraise and do anything your heart desires. And so it's like the ultimate goal in startup land. Um, then through a series of events, I realized. I didn't actually care about those things anymore. And it's not that I don't wanna work hard, but that I, I don't, that isn't what brings me joy. And it led me to build,, lead with heart and then, art of heart in parallel because we are this and that. And so I, am Super lucky to have traveled most of the country. My last, state is Hawaii and um, I get to be an aunt, which is amazing, and I'm just really excited to begin this new chapter as the version of me who looks like this, but is super different on the inside.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, so just to give a little plug for your podcast. Tell us a little bit about what you do over there.'cause I think that my audience will be very intrigued.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Absolutely. So Art of Heart is really like, so when I went through this journey about five months ago, I had a somatic release, which basically just means I released a whole bunch of trauma and I was in the throes of burnout and I was really unhappy and I was like unhappy to my core, in a way that everybody kind of didn't get. And so through this process, I did a couple things. Number one, I reconnected with a, a train of thought that I learned many years ago in counseling, which is what does your heart look like? And so I'm sitting in a hotel room in Sacramento, California, and I had just gone through this somatic release and I was like. What does my heart look like? And so I started journaling and I, I call them way points. So the way points are like the big things that if you were like getting to know somebody or your family or friends were sitting around, they would talk about big moments, right? These are way points. And so I started. Thinking about what my heart looked like in those points. And so I literally, and we talk, like on the podcast, people show their hearts and they're these beautiful, vivid images. But the idea is that we create common language that puts color to those feelings, right? Because if I just say I'm sad. That's if you, like, they messed up your coffee order and like you bummed for the day versus the one year anniversary of your dad dying and you just don't feel put together and there's pieces that are still uncertain. So the, the language that we have, I think is super limiting. So I started making way like drawings on my way points and putting words together. And I realized, number one, all the things I thought brought me joy did not, which was like a big shocking moment. And the more I started asking people about, you know, their lives and how the people were like, oh, I'm having a hard day. And I'd be like, well, tell me more what you know, what does your heart look like? And all of a sudden I was getting these really shocking answers people who I thought were okay, were absolutely not okay. And people who were... they seem to be not okay. We're really just, somebody had messed up their coffee order and so I was like, Hey, listen, these, as I was having these conversations, these stories were helping me to unravel what was inside me by talking to other people and asking, what does your heart look like? And I'm like, there's so many stories that need to be told. And with every story and every time I was bringing this up to people, I'd get text messages at three o'clock in the morning. I don't like you. I stop thinking about what my heart looks like. I realize I don't have any joy, I can't, I can't find any good moments. Everything is hard. And I'm like, wow, there's something here. So that's why I started Art of Heart. And every week people share the good, the hard and the aha moments of their life and what their heart looked like. And hopefully somebody on the other side will be able to say, oh, they got through that really hard, hard chapter. I can too, or to see commonalities and start to reflect on their own heart.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

That is so beautiful and tying that together with your somatic experience, I, me as a guest on your show, it was very interesting. Because you let me know, Hey, I'm gonna be asking you these questions and, and trying to help me to narrow it down. And even just the process of thinking through what does my heart look like was, for me, a somatic experience. It, it compels you to actually feel and process the emotion. Which is such an interesting thing.'cause so much of life, I think that we're kind of resisting it or pretending it doesn't exist, putting on that fake smile, but to really sit with it and be like, Hmm, like this is something deeper and, and yeah, this is heavier than getting a mixed up coffee order. Right? So I think it's really beautiful what it is that you're doing. And I was unaware that you started the podcast and writing this book at the same time. So tell me how those two are connected.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

So I'm this and that, and we all are right? Like we are not just one thing. And I've always been super driven in business. I'm an excellent problem solver. I am the go-to person. Like if things have gone sideways, whether I work in, in a company, or whether I used to work there, I still get phone calls from companies who are like, how do I fix this? Right? I'm an excellent problem solver and I build amazing relationships. And that business, that analytical part of my mind, that thing that I do that solves the problem, right, or makes the thing or grows the thing is also attached to this human who has feelings. And like today I was driving in the car listening to Brene Brown's new book. And um, she is telling the story about mission, like making sure everybody understands the mission and she tells the story, by the way, if you haven't read the book, everybody should. It's amazing. I love her. But this book specifically like really spoke to me. Um, so she's tells a story. She's at St. Jude's hospital for children and she goes into the elevator and um, there's a woman and there's like a double decker dessert cart. And she says, hi, how are you today? And she's like, hi. And she says, the lady, what do you do here? And the lady says, I cure cancer. I. And the idea that everyone on that team, whether you're the one who's feeding the people, doing the research and the patients, or you're the doctor who's curing cancer, everyone's mission is to cure cancer. And so when you think about you as a person, right? Like you're a mom, you're a wife, you are a friend. You're a leader, you are a mentor, you're a like, you're all of these things, you are this and that. And so as I was working through, I was doing all of this through the throes of the most horrific burnout I could ever imagine. And I realized that there was two pillars to me. One was my art of heart: what does my heart look like? How do I find joy? And two, how do I heal from burnout? And I needed to do them at once because we are this and that.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, that's really powerful. And I know that you're aware that I work with the highly sensitive people. Um, so can you tell us a little bit more about, you are a highly sensitive person. What did your burnout look like and where was this place that you were in when, you felt like you really needed to create these two pillars for yourself and for others?

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

absolutely. So I had been traveling a lot and I mean like 98% of the time and working hard wasn't the problem. And honestly, I didn't know things were so bad. I went to this, uh, lady, I do go to see who does biofeedback and um, it was on a Friday and she says to me, your adrenals are shot. Like your body is, is screaming for help. You should probably quit your job and like move to an island. And I kind of chuckled. I'm like, yeah, I can't do that. That's not, it's not, I have a five year plan and a 10 year plan and that's not in either one of those. Um, right. Like I have a plan and so. Saturday comes along and I really felt bad because I've always prioritized my mind to me. Like my mind is my bright, shining star. And spiritually I was like, I felt like on a good track, but I never valued my body. And my body was like, Hey, hi, we're here and we need help. And like, what are you doing? Like we're tired. Stop pushing through. And so. Through the series of events. I had the somatic release on Sunday and then Monday I'd go to be a new person. Right? Like literally, like only the on the outside, but on the inside I was processing things differently. I wasn't coming to things through fear anymore. I wasn't, I understood that I wasn't what I could produce or provide, right? And so. I was like, I still feel really bad though. Why do I feel so bad? Like, I've had this cool experience. I had this huge spiritual awakening. My mind like super hot and fast. I feel terrible. What's happening? So I Google burnout and I took a burnout quiz and I'm like, oh, I have every single symptom.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

And, and then I stopped. And I was like, I, there's a Houston, there's a problem. Right? And for me, it wasn't just, um, that I felt so terribly it, it's that I was doing things at work that I normally wouldn't do. Um, I was trying to protect people in a way I thought would protect them. That actually didn't protect them, right? Because I was trying to make sure everybody wasn't experiencing what I was experiencing. And in startup land, it's crazy. That's just how it is. That's you're doing, so we're doing something that's never been done, right? And so I realized that things were just really not good, and I needed to figure out how to make things better. And when I say not good, um, I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't like, I would listen to music and I wouldn't normally, like I will break out song in the middle of a grocery store if there's a song overhead. Like I wasn't doing that. I was so cold to people and not cold, like, um, not cold, like not caring, just like very mechanical,

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

which is not me. Like I'm just like. Like super vibrant human. And I and I hadn't been for a really long time. And so the more I looked at burnout and I looked at like, not just from a company statistic, but like how many people are burned out in the United States and in the whole world, and what they're burned out from. And the fact that like there's no like magic potion for burnout. It's not like if you have high cholesterol, you can take something and it gets better. It's not like that for burnout.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Right. Hmm. Well, there's so many interesting things that you said. Like it was interesting that you said, first of all, that you didn't know that you were in burnout because you were just going through the motions. And I, I think that my audience will especially resonate with you were using all of your energy to protect other people from experiencing burnout, which was contributing to your own burnout.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Mm-hmm.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

That is so true for so many people. We're, we're so highly aware of. The impact on other people that we don't slow down and realize, oh my gosh, it's me. I should be mindful of my own burnout because we're so concerned with everybody else. Right? It's that pleasing coming in saying, Nope, everybody else's needs are more important. I can power through. I must be different.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

I can just do it like I can. I can take that on. And you know, as a leader, and I've been a leader for a really long time. I worked for a large Fortune 500 company, managing half a billion dollars worth of revenue. Like I've been a leader. I understand big responsibility and I could always delegate. That was never, I could always, Hey, can you do this? Hey, can you do that? But when the burnout got really bad, I didn't wanna delegate because I was like, everyone else must feel this overwhelmed. Right. E everyone else must feel this way because you were small. I'm, I'm, you know, we're part of a small team and so I thought, okay, I'll just take that on. I can do that too. I can, and it wasn't a matter of the work, again, the work was not the problem. It was the fact that I was running at such a diminished state. Right? Like, and I, this is one of the things I learned through my process of healing and wrote about in the book, but like. We show up every day and we put ourselves into whatever day we have planned. Most people don't wake up in the morning and say, how am I showing up today? What, what can I, how can I insert myself into the day? Or how do I insert the day into myself, not insert myself into the day? Very different things.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm. That's so interesting. And when you said that, well, everybody else must be feeling this way. It's so interesting.'cause I think that there's two kinds of people in the world. There's people that have learned to use burnout as a cue that they need to ask for help. And then there's those of us and I fall into the same camp where it's, no, when I am burned out, it's my cue to do more. Because probably everybody else is just as burned out, and so I have to take on more, and it's such an interesting contrast between those two.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah. And, and there's no, there's no room for error, right? Like when, when you have so much on your plate. I knew, I kept saying, I know that I'm the holdup. I knew it. I kept and I kept saying, I know that I'm the problem, but I didn't realize what the problem was. I just knew like everything was getting stuck with me, and it was, not only did I do a disservice to myself, but I did a disservice to my team and my business partners and everybody else. What's funny though is if you were to ask the folks around me, I was as high performing as ever.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm. So they were also unaware of your burnout. Interesting,

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Mm-hmm.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

huh. Well, and I'm really excited. I know that everybody right now is like, but how did you get out? And so we're gonna get into that. So Marissa did send me like three big things. Is there anything you wanna say before start jumping into those?'cause I know everybody's like, oh my gosh, I've been there. Help.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

The, the only thing I wanna start with is remove the idea that something is going to take a preconceived amount of time because I healed so fast and I'm healing so fast, and I'm having other people who are reaching out and saying, I'm seeing such a big impact from this so quickly. So like, if you're sitting there and you're like, Ugh, I don't have 10 hours to read a book, and I don't have, I don't have six months to feel better. I need to feel better now. Like we can get you 10% better by time you're done with this podcast. And so take away the idea that this has to be hard or that you don't have time or that it's gonna take a long time.'cause none of those things are true.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah. Boy, that's an amazing promise. You are going to feel 10% better just by listening to the end of this podcast. That's Them. And, and I love that encouragement that it could happen faster than you think.'cause when we're in that burnout, we know that, uh, more than likely you've been in that state for a long time, right? And so the brain wants to say, well, it's gonna take forever to get out because I've been here for so long. So how encouraging to discover that it actually happened. The change was created faster than you thought. Oh faster

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Way faster.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Oh, fun. Okay, we're gonna jump in because this is just so juicy. Okay, so tip number one is learn to check in, not check out. Tell us about that.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

So the first thing that I, I noticed is that I would just, whatever I had calendared for that day. So like I had mentioned to MaryAnn before, we jumped on, like, I'm still running my startup, right? So I started, I did my first site visit at 7:00 AM I'm in Florida right now, traveling at in Naples. And now I'm in Orlando, so like I've had a full life today. And what would happen is I would just have a full life, but I would never check in on myself. And so the first thing I I realized is that we carry a phone around with us everywhere we go, right? And if you at your phone and the battery is red and you're gonna leave the house, what do you do?

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

You plug that thing in, right?

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Right? You plug it in, you make sure you have a car charger, you take a battery pack, you do something. You assess the state of your battery before you walk out the door.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

The first thing I started doing was assessing the state of my battery, and so I started thinking about myself as a giant battery, right. So I'm like, okay, where am I at today? And for the first three weeks I was in between single digits to like 10%. So hundred being a full battery and zero being, I was in this, this zero to 10 range every day. And the, the shock that I felt when I was like, okay. How does my battery feel today? And the very first day, it was like 5%, and I'm like 5%. I have six one hour conference calls. I've got 14 deliverables and I got, I didn't have time for that.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

But instead of pushing through. I thought, okay, because the battery is an indicator of like how much power you have and it's not a science. My 10% is gonna be different from your 10%. My 70% will look different from your 70%, so you don't get caught up in that. Just think about yourself, where's your batteries? The next really important thing is to thi is to pick an emotion word because 40% scared is different from 40% excited. Is different from 40% worried.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

those are different things, right? Like, so picking that emotion word really helps for you to tap in to say, how am I feeling today?

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

So that practice alone, that was like how all this started and I'm like, okay, where's my battery? Okay. It's getting a little better. It's getting a little better. I will tell you a few weeks ago when I hit 80%, I have a friend who I've been going back and forth with this as I've been going process. And I called her and I'm like, I'm at 80%. She's like, you're at 80%. And I was like, I'm at 80%. And I was like, I could, I could take us to the moon, like I could build us a rocket ship and we could get to the moon. I'm at 80%, I can take over the world.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

And it was just such a, like, it was such a moment for her to be number one, excited for me and watch the healing. But number two, she's like, only at 10%. And I'm like, okay. And then I'm like, how can I help you today? So the, the entire, the entire concept of the book, which I'm very excited, everybody can see the cover, um, thank you, the entire premise, and I, I'll flip to the page, is that you start your every day with a heart check-in. And so H-E-A-R-T. So it's how is your battery? What's your emotion word alignment. So I talked about like showing up in your day, like how are you showing up today? What are things you move based upon how your battery is? If your battery's super low, there's things you can shift and move to make it easier on yourself to be a good version of yourself, like to be your own best friend. We talked about that when, when you and I did the podcast, like, how can better align things? Um, the next is relationships. So what relationships need a touch base?'cause inevitably when things start to shift. There are relationships that need to be touched. And the last is tether. And the tether is how you really get the battery increase very quickly. So like for example, if you were to wake up this morning and you're like, I'm at 25%, um, and you think about your emotion where you're like, I'm at 25% uncertain. first thing you should brush your teeth. Okay? But then the very first thing you should do is you should tether and tethering is an activity that brings you back to yourself.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

tethers are different, and the more I ask people like what do they do to help themselves? It, it's, it ranges from like going for a walk. Um, some people will just wanna sit on the bench. Some people wanna listen to music and like have a dance party in the kitchen and like just move their, you know, body. Everybody tethers different, and in the book I help you figure out what your tethers are and to track'em. But you can literally see a 10% boost by tethering in the moment you don't feel okay. what you're doing is you're prioritizing yourself and you're telling your brain, Hey, I recognize something's wrong. I'm going to contribute. And that quickly you'll start to see an increase and you just do it every day. Or if things start to feel off.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

um, I had a really hard call yesterday at work and I had, my battery was really high and some things had happened and I was like. I don't feel okay. I feel super, super, super anxious, but I couldn't figure out where the anxiety was coming from. And by the way, anxiety isn't necessarily like, uh, it's like an alarm bell, like Like what do you need to look into? And I was like, okay, let me stop and let me do a heart check. And I realized I was feeling anxious because I wasn't prepared for my meeting

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

I had been on the road and in the car and I couldn't do what I normally do to prepare. And I was feeling anxious. I fixed the thing, but I would never have known that had I not worked on myself versus in my life.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah. Okay, so give us another example. us back to the days when Marissa's realizing she's at 5% in her battery. She has six one hour calls waiting for her. What did that process look like for you to go through that heart check?

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Absolutely. So, um, a few months into this journey, I was, um, just really struggling. Like I was, I was doing so much better in so many ways, but it wasn't fast enough, right? Like, and, and, and I was in the throes of writing a book and launching a podcast and running a startup and basically cleaning up all this gunk had side my brain and my body that had been there for years and. I had through a long series of work events, um, I had on a Thursday afternoon. I'm like, I need to go to the beach now. I travel a lot, so I have a ton of points, right? Like that's perks of traveling all the time. So literally booked a flight for the next day and I went to the beach. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna feel better'cause I'm at the beach. Monday comes around, I have six hours worth of calls. trying, I've got deadlines for the book, and I'm feeling super overwhelmed and for me overwhelmed, looks like snappy. I'm not like a paralyzed overwhelm or I'm like a, we need to get this done. We've got 14 things on the to-do list. I need everybody to stop what they're doing and get this thing done, whatever that thing is, right? And so I getting really snappy and it was on like hour three and I was like, oh, I need to run a heart check. My battery's really low. And so I told my team, I'm gonna, I'm gonna step away for 15 minutes, and I literally turned off my teams and I stepped away for 15 minutes and I went outside and I did box breathing. As I walked, I did box breathing as I walked, and I just reconnected to myself and I. And in those moments, that 15 minutes made the whole rest of the day more productive because I wasn't in this loop of not okay. In those 15 minutes, I just did box breathing. While I walked. I was walking in a parking lot. It wasn't like I was in a magical land. Okay? And I was able to realize that I was feeling completely out of control because of things that I couldn't control. So in that. But it gave me space to think, how do you feel? Where's your battery? What is your emotion? it? Like who needs to touch base as a relationship? And I realized there were things I could control.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

So instead of being overwhelmed about all the things I couldn't control because I stopped long enough to check on myself and to tether, I could think more clearly. What would've happened four months ago is I would've gone into this entire shame spiral of. Why isn't this working? Why can't we get it done? Why isn't it Why are we failing? We weren't failing at all.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

needed to control the things I could control, but I couldn't see it because I was, my battery was so low.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, I really appreciate that example because in a perfect world it is like we're checking our phone right before we start on the day, right? And but. Through that example, we can see, just like with our phones, that our energy is going to waver throughout the day. And so continuously checking in, recognizing, and sometimes we might not even recognize that our battery's low, like you said, until we find ourselves being a little more irritable or trying harder to control things that in our control. And we, we might notice the symptoms of it first, but taking some time to just check in and see, okay, where's my battery at? How's it going? And I also really love. That you were so intentional about, first of all, recognizing what it was that you needed, but being very intentional with that time. Doing the box breathing, knowing, okay, what's going to give me that charge a little bit faster? Right? Because just like how there's different chargers, like everybody has their favorite charger that they know is gonna do the best job for'em, recognizing what's going to actually fill me up. Taking the time for it. And, and now that makes so much more sense when you say that the recovery was a lot faster than you

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Oh yeah.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

I can totally see it's because you were so intentional about it. You, you plugged into the supercharger.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Every day. And you know, the thing is like I tried some things that I thought would work for me and they don't. The biggest thing for me when I need to tether is I have to stop the pull of communication out of me. So like. Like teams, right? Like our, my teams, my work D ding dings all the time, and I'm to help and I want it to ding and I want people to come to me. But when I'm in that moment where I'm super depleted, I turn my phone on silent. I don't want it to make any noise. I don't want to know that anybody needs anything from me. I just need to concentrate on myself. I usually start with breathing and just like reconnecting into my body, and then sometimes I need to do something fun and silly, and sometimes I need to go for a walk. Sometimes I just go put my feet in the grass barefoot, and I'm like with my face in the sun. I just a

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yep.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

I just need a moment. need a moment.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, I love that. Okay, so that was the first one was learn to check in and Not out. The second one is, and you kind of touched on this a bit, but name what you feel so it doesn't name you.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Man, it is so important. So, um, uh, gonna share a quick story as I go into this one. So, I was with my family this weekend and my, um. We had gone to dinner and my niece, um, had missed dinner. She was working and she was, her feelings were hurt and she was upset and she was like, oh, I really wanted to go. But I had, you know, she was working and um, and she seemed a little off. And so we were standing there talking and, and I could tell that she was depleted,

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

but it wasn't the time to necessarily talk about it. So the next morning we're sitting at the breakfast table and. She's working on her computer. She's so hard, such a hard worker. And I look at her and I'm like, oh, she's really not okay. And so I was like, Hey, do you wanna run a battery? You wanna run a heart check? I wanna know what your battery is. She's like, I'd really love that. And she closes her computer and she's like, I'm at 10%.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

okay. She's 23. Beautiful. Brilliant. The whole world ahead of her, right? Doesn't seem like an ideal candidate for burnout. And, uh, I was like, okay, what's your emotion word? And she sat for a minute and she's like, uncertain. And her boyfriend was sitting there at the table

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

he's like, I'm 60%. And I'm like, okay. So if she's, you know, 10% uncertain and he was 60% annoyed'cause he had to go to work. But there wasn't, there wasn't an actual real problem. He was just didn't wanna have to work that day. He wanted hang out. Right. Totally fine. Um. All of a sudden he realized that she was not okay and she was uncertain. And I'm like, okay, well what are you uncertain about? And she was like, well, I'm uncertain about, you know, the future and all these things that are out of our control and you know how we get in our head and it just spirals. And I was like, I think that you guys should go tether. Would be like, where do you feel most disconnected? She's like, I don't feel connected to my body and I don't really feel connected to my mind. I said, okay. So I was like, what if you go for just a 10 minute walk and play? I spy? And she was like, okay. Right after I finish this thing, I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. That's not how it works. I was you, if you feel uncertain and you're depleted and you're 10% close your computer, the world is not gonna catch on fire in 10 minutes and go. She felt so much better afterwards. The reason why the emotion word is so important is because if she had said 10%, whatever, mad, or 10%, I don't, whatever word it was, it's different than uncertain. Uncertain, cued to me that she feels like things are out of control and she feels like she doesn't know what's gonna happen next.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Right. And so you're able to handle things differently. Like if you called me and you're like, Hey, I'm like 25%. I'll like, okay, tell me 25% isn't ideal, right? It's not great, but tell me more. And then you tell me a whole long story about your day and you're like, well, I went to the grocery store and they didn't have what I needed. And then I was on my way home and I was late and I forgot to pick somebody like you. not the same as one word, which is maybe in that situation you felt less than,

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

right? Less than can be an emotion, right? Like you felt you weren't able to get it all done. That is more impactful than because we get lost in the story, right? I'm like, oh, all those, all those things happen. I'm so sorry, but if you're like, I feel less than I can then say. I mean, like I appreciate your feelings and they're valid, but look at all the amazing things you did, because sometimes we don't see it from the perspective. Right. And that's where. It's built for teams. This, this entire premise is built for teams because we need a team to support ourselves at a burnout, but it absolutely be used as an individual person. And so, but to create common language and for you to be able to say to me, like, let's say you see a post and I'm like, Hey, everything's awesome. And you're like, I just noticed there was something a little off. And I'm like, I'm actually at like 30%, um, trepidatious or whatever, right? So. Those, those, those words matter because sometimes we get caught up in all the story and or we don't assess at all. So being able to assign a single word really helps us hone in on, on how we feel.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Just the naming it to tame it and seeing like, okay, what's actually coming up? Because I think you're spot on that sometimes we do get too caught up in our story to just slow it down enough to go, oh, okay. Huh, I'm feeling anxious. That's interesting. And then we can be more curious about it. Like, well, okay, so why am I feeling anxious? Is that actually the word I'm looking for? And then it gives you information.'cause once you know what the emotion is, then you can actually steps too. To course correct. Right. That, oh, okay. Well, I'm feeling anxious, but really, I don't have to be scared,

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Right, right. And I, I together a. I put together a word bank because like I found that I was going to the same, like five words all the time. And so, um, there's a word bank that's part of, you know, a tool and it's like two pages of words you can pick out. What I caution is that if you always are having the same word, like I had a few days where I was just mad, I was mad about everything. And what I realized is I wasn't actually mad. Um, I was. Not taking the time to really understand what I was feeling, and I was assigning it mad. I'm just mad, you know, but Was I mad?

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

I just, I was like, well, I just, you know, I've got a lot of the, the truth is I felt a lot of big, complex feelings. They weren't necessarily mad, but I put it as mad. So finding those words, and again, it's not about being perfect.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yep. So true. Yep. I think that the bulk of people, they know three emotions. They know sad, mad, and glad, to really sit with it, like you said, okay, am I feeling angry? Am I feeling mad, or am I feeling like things are out of control? Am I feeling inadequate? Am I feeling, you know, it's, there's so many different things that are underneath anger, but we don't usually take the time to really sit with it and notice those small differences. But also when you're able to name it, you're able to recognize, oh, that's how that feels in my body. Oh, I know that emotion.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah, and then you can do something, right, but you have to take the time to pause and name it and then, oh, what are you gonna do next?

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, I love it. Okay. And then tip number three is protect your energy like it's your livelihood because it is. Tell us more about that.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Um, I am the first person to want to help. I really have a servant's heart. I've always been this way. Um, and when we, um, were together last on my podcast, you talked about mowing the grass. And by the way, I've been talking about that nonstop and, um, to everybody, I'm like, listen, like, are you being a good, best friend to yourself, right? Like, what, what are, what are you doing? So. the oxygen mass theory, which we've all heard. You go on a plane, I fly all the time, and they're like, Hey, you have a child next to you. Do you know you're supposed to take care of yourself first? we don't realize that when we don't take care of ourselves and protect our energy above all things, we're not a good partner. We're not a good spouse. We're not as good of a parent, we're not as good of a friend. We're not as good at our job, we're not as good at anything because we're coming from a depleted resource.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

It's like if you, if someone would've asked to borrow eggs and you brought them over empty eggshells, it's not the same. It's just not. And I didn't realize for how many years I had been doing such a disservice, not only to myself, but everybody I interacted with, because I was always just a shell of the person that I was. The moment that I made the decision to protect me, my mind, my body, and my spirit equally. It just started shifting things so quickly. It's like once I prioritized myself, I got way more done at work. I am more efficient than I have been in years. I'm happier to be around. There was a situation, um, this weekend with my family. They're always chronically late. I love them, but like time is just not, time is not linear for them. um, it was my best friend's birthday and we had plans to be somewhere at four o'clock. I know that there was no way we were gonna be there four o'clock, but old Marissa would've been ate up that we were not on time. There was people waiting for us. I would've been like, come on you guys, we gotta go. I would've been like yelling at people to get in the car. And instead what I did was I thought to myself before the event, I know we're gonna be late. I know that it's not a personal attack on me, this is just how we operate as a unit. There's a lot of us. So what I can do is, number one, I made dinner for afterwards that would hold in a crockpot. So we weren't trying to do all this cooking. So I prepared for the situation, and then as everything was unfolding exactly as I thought it would, and exactly as it always does,

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

I was able to protect my energy because I wasn't setting an expectation improperly, number one and number two, it's okay. I didn't let myself get anxious. I didn't get myself get mad. I wasn't like trying to move them. I wasn't trying to control the situation or any of those things. I was able to be present because my battery wasn't depleted. My battery was full. I mean, I was probably at 75%, which in this journey is excellent for me. And it was all okay. I was able to handle everything better. And in fact, we got in the car and one of my friends looked at me. She goes, who are you? She was like the old, you would've been like yelling at everybody to get in the car we're late and you would've left. I was like, probably. She's like, why are you so calm? And I was like, it's okay. And she's like, but why is it okay? I said, because I'm not depleted. And when we come to things depleted, we're never the best version of ourselves. That's why you have your energy at all costs.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

I love that so much. I love how that ties in with they check your battery, right? Because it also begs the question, okay, what do I want to spend my energy on? Do I want to spend my energy on trying to control people so that they show up on time? Do I want to use my energy to rage in traffic or do I just wanna save it and just be like, okay, I'm just gonna pause. I'm gonna invest my energy where I want to intentionally invest it, but then you can actually invest into the things light you up and bring you joy

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah. And it was okay

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

you're showing up depleted. Yeah. Yeah.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

was okay, right? And we went to the escape room and we saved Igor and it was super fun was great and it was all fine. But the old Marissa would've been so upset that we were late that would not have enjoyed the event I would had, I just would've handled everything differently. And it all comes back to like the root causes. I wasn't depleted.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

I, I love that. I'm gonna be thinking on that a lot. Like, okay, what do I need to say yes to? And what do I need to say no to, to protect my energy? what would that look like? What would that do for me?

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah. And if things start to go sideways and you start to notice your energy's depleted, how can you do these small tethers to come back to yourself? Like, I don't care if people think that I'm crazy, that in the middle of the rain a few weeks ago, I ran out and put my feet in the dirt and just stood there in the rain. I didn't care that I was getting wet. needed to go stand with just myself without any noise with my feet in the ground and feel water hit my face.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Mm-hmm.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

helps. So whatever your tether is, do it.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Hmm. I love that. Well, I am already feeling 10% less burned out.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

That's amazing. That's amazing. And

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

to promise.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

thanks. It's really cool too. The book is, it's not just a read book, um, it's more like a workbook and there's prompts. So as you go through it, there's questions and you'll start to like, answer these questions about yourself. There's a really cool burnout checklist, so you can see is burnout affecting you, and then there's a, a way to try to figure out what your tethers are and to figure out what tethers work for you. So it's a really quick read. It's, it's really intended to be like a C one, do one, teach one type of thing. Um, so you're not spending, you know, the next seven days in a book that you may take one little nugget from.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah, I love that. And speaking of nuggets, yeah, I'm just gonna review the nuggets that you shared and then I wanna hear if you feel like there's like one main takeaway that you'd like to share with the audience. But, so the three tips were learn to check in, not check out. And Marissa talked about using the the heart check. So I'm gonna put, she left me a description. I'll put all of that in the show. And name what you feel so it doesn't name you and protecting your energy like it's your livelihood because it is. I just love it. So, yeah. So as we're wrapping up here, if you did have one main takeaway that you'd like for the audience to really take to heart, what would it be? I.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Um, you're not broken. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing to fix. Um. I felt so broken and I felt so alone, and I felt like the worst version of myself for a really long time. And what I realized is that if I just come back to self and I come home and I figure out what brings me joy and I figure out. Where my battery is and how much energy I'm bringing to things that I came back to life, but I, I didn't, it was, there wasn't like this, there wasn't anything wrong with me. I just had gotten lost along the way and all the crazy loud noise and all the things I should be doing. And when I just remembered that I needed to come back to myself, it all worked so well and so fast. And so please don't ever think you're broken. There's nothing wrong with you. You just have to remember.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

I absolutely love that. Yeah. Yep. Wholeheartedly agree. I think it's really easy to beat ourselves up'cause we're always comparing our worst to somebody else's best and thinking, well I must be broken'cause I'm the only one burned out, or I'm the only one having a hard time right now. Or assuming everybody else is having a harder time, so I should take on their load, which then perpetuates our own burnout. But yeah, I think we all need those reminders that you shared with us today that, no, you're not broken.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

so.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

This is just a reminder to check back in with self, to check your battery to do something that lights you up and and gives you that charge and that boost that you need.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Yeah, work your way back.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Yeah. Well, Marissa, this has just been such a lovely conversation. Thank you so much for coming on

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Thank you so much for having me.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

yeah, and if people would like to find you or like to purchase their book, of course I'll put all of the contact information in the show notes, but tell them where they can find you.

marissa-campbell_1_10-29-2025_200110:

Absolutely. So if you wanna listen to the podcast, we're everywhere where you can listen to podcasts. It's Art of Heart by Marissa Campbell. The book is on Amazon Lead With Heart. If you just put in Lead With Heart, Marissa Campbell, it'll show up. It's on Kindle and available for print. And um, you know, check me out on um, uh, Instagram and I'm on LinkedIn and um, please say hi and send me a note. I would love to hear from everybody.

maryann-walker--she-her-_1_10-29-2025_180110:

Awesome. Well, thank you so much and as a reminder, everybody, you're not broken. You just might be experiencing a little bit of burnout, and hopefully these tips will help you to feel at least 10% better. So I hope you have a great week, everybody, and let's talk soon. Bye now.