FRIED. The Burnout Podcast

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

Sometimes the next step is simply asking for help. Sarah Vosen is here to guide you through it: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingWinter fear can feel like burnout recovery slipping away but this episode reframes fear and depletion as a natural part of winter rather than a sign of winter burnout or failure. In this #sarahshares episode, Sarah Vosen speaks directly to the quiet panic that surfaces when low energy and fear return during the darkest part of the year. When light fades and energy pulls inward, burnout recovery can feel fragile. Fear often replaces simple exhaustion, especially when the nervous system is already depleted. Sarah offers a grounding reframe. That fear is not proof you are backsliding. It is information. Winter exposes depletion more clearly, which can feel unsettling, but it also invites a different response.Instead of pushing through or overriding low energy, the conversation centers on safety, rest, and conservation. What does safety actually feel like in your body? What helps you settle when fear is loud and rest feels out of reach? Winter is not asking for progress or productivity. It is asking for care, containment, and trust that restoration often begins when you stop fighting the dark.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Embracing Winter's Wisdom05:06 Understanding Fear in Winter09:47 Seeking Safety and Self-Care17:10 Navigating Hibernation and RestorationRelated episodes you might want to listen to next:Irrational Fears are a Sign of DepletionBurnout and SleepIf you’re ready to take the next step toward healing, you can explore 1:1 coaching with Sarah Vosen at bit.ly/unfriedcoachConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahSometimes the next step is simply asking for help. Sarah Vosen is here to guide you through it: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The Best Burnout Coaching starts here - (this is a great way to ask for help!): https://caitdonovan.com/coachingBurnout recovery starts when you stop treating self-sufficiency as strength and learn how to ask for help without shame.In this Coaching session, Sarah Vosen sits down with Samira, a longtime listener facing burnout rooted in over-responsibility, financial stress, and a habit of doing everything alone. Rest has started to bring back some energy, yet doubt remains. What if it is still not enough? What if needing support means something is wrong?At the heart of this conversation is the realization that self-reliance often begins as protection. When early attempts to ask for help led to disappointment, independence became the safest path. Over time, that strategy can quietly turn into isolation and exhaustion. Sarah reframes resilience as something built through receiving rather than pushing harder and invites Samira to see that she can learn how to ask for help and build it as a skill.They also explore how support works best when expectations are clear and realistic. Not everyone in our lives can meet every emotional need. Some people bring calm. Others bring practical relief. Releasing unmet expectations can soften resentment and make space for real support to land.This episode invites reflection on long-held beliefs about strength and worth. What changes when asking for help feels neutral rather than shameful? What becomes possible when support is treated as nourishment rather than failure? Burnout recovery begins at the roots, and sometimes the bravest step is allowing yourself to receive.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Burnout Recovery and the Cost of Self-Reliance03:09 Why Asking for Help Feels Unsafe08:58 Letting Go of Unmet Expectations in Relationships11:54 Asking for Help as a Skill That Builds Resilience14:47 Restoring Emotional Roots to Heal BurnoutLinksIf you’re ready to take the next step toward healing, you can explore 1:1 coaching with Sarah Vosen at bit.ly/unfriedcoachPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

AD: What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible join us January 13 – 15. Visit https://bit.ly/friedgatewayAD: The right support changes everything. Our Director of Coaching, Sarah Vosen, combines expertise and compassion to walk beside you: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingAre you burned out and lonely? That stops today! We know that burnout takes a different shape when the life you worked hard to build no longer feels like it belongs to you and you’re pushed to rebuild meaning from the inside out.Cait welcomes back author and coach Hailey Paige Magee, whose work has supported thousands of burned out and lonely folks who are recovering people-pleasers and high achievers as they redefine their relationship with success. Their conversation focuses on the moment burnout stops looking like exhaustion and starts revealing a deeper misalignment. Hailey speaks candidly about the quiet collapse that happens when your identity no longer fits the life around you and the grief that rises when you can no longer pretend everything is fine.The heart of the episode centers on stopping you feeling burned out and lonely by finding reconnection with community. How do you return to community after a long stretch of self-protection? How do you stay rooted in yourself without slipping into performance or old habits? And what becomes possible when belonging has nothing to do with achievement? Cait and Hailey explore these questions and offer a grounded reminder that meaning grows through honest relationships, not algorithms or accolades.#communitywellbeing, #burntoutandalone, #lonelienessEpisode Breakdown:00:00 Burnout, Misalignment, and Identity Collapse06:02 Social Media, Success, and Loss of Purpose12:02 Grief as a Turning Point in Burnout Recovery14:56 Rebuilding Connection and Community37:08 Evolving Identity and Rediscovering Meaning42:06 From Me to We in the Next Phase of RecoveryLinksPrevious episode with Hailey: https://redcircle.com/shows/e4c0db0a-98a4-47e6-a2b0-6a291469e1d6/ep/d8fec203-3b47-4c8a-9a30-edaf876d1316Burnout CoachingThe right support changes everything. Our Director of Coaching, Sarah Vosen, combines expertise and compassion to walk beside you: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Many people mistake burnout for personal failure, but the real issue is the quiet mismatch between the energy you actually have and the expectations you keep pushing yourself to meet.Sarah Vosen gets to the core of why so many burned-out high achievers feel defeated: the math of your life stopped working long before you noticed it. When your energy drops but your expectations stay at their old setting, even simple days feel impossible. The conversation challenges listeners to ask what they believe they “should” be able to do and where those beliefs came from in the first place. How often are you measuring yourself against a past version of you? And what changes once you base your plans on your real capacity instead of the fantasy of unlimited output?This episode is an invitation to rebuild self-trust by telling the truth about what you can actually give right now. Burnout recovery begins when you stop assuming your worth hinges on productivity and start giving yourself permission to operate from reality. Sarah offers encouragement, clarity, and accessible next steps for anyone ready to release the shame of falling short and move toward days that feel doable again.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Understanding Burnout and Its Real Impact on High Achievers02:55 How to Adjust Expectations for Better Burnout Recovery05:45 Realistic Ways to Assess Your Energy, Time, and Capacity09:13 Why Consistent Self-Care Supports Burnout Healing11:54 How to Find the Right Support for Burnout RecoveryLinksYour team's energy and well-being are worth investing in. Hire Cait to speak at your company, association, or event: https://caitdonovan.com/speakingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm