From Burnout to Better Systems: Biggest Business Lessons (Mixtape Edition)

In this final mixtape edition of Here’s What I Learned, three entrepreneurs share the biggest business lessons they’ve learned since their last visit—covering how to redefine success, simplify operations, and build sustainable systems that actually fit real life. 

You’ll hear practical insights on shifting from default offers to energy-aligned work, using experiments to “fail faster” and learn smarter, and embracing the natural seasons of business so you can let go of what no longer serves. We dig into ADHD-friendly time management, fractional executive strategy for small businesses, and creative decision-making frameworks that reduce overwhelm, protect capacity, and improve profitability. 

Topics:

• Redefining success in real time (and updating your metrics to match)
• Simpler operations for more capacity and less stress
• Seasons of business: what to pause, end, or double-down on
• Confidence by doing: experiments, “fail faster,” and learning loops
• Energy-aligned work: choosing roles and projects that actually fit

 Frenchie Ferenczi is a small business strategist, fractional executive, and growth advisor. 

 You can find Frenchie at:

Website: frenchieferenczi.com

Instagram: frenchie.ferenczi

Patricia Sung is an ADHD Coach for Moms who have ADHD. She supports mamas world-wide through her Top 5 Parenting Podcast with 1M+ downloads, Motherhood in ADHD.

 You can find Patricia at:

Website: patriciasung.com

Instagram: motherhoodinadhd

Rachel Lee is an Artist, Designer & Co-Founder of Neo Genesis, a personal branding agency for creatives & misfit entrepreneurs who are ready to own their weird, and (finally) rock it online.

You can find Rachel at:

Website: racheltylee.com

Instagram: @racheltylee

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Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

Music promoted byhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

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Transcript

Jacki Hayes

Hey there, welcome to Here's What I Learned. I'm Jacki Hayes, a system strategist, unapologetic, smutty romantasy lover, Dungeons and Dragons geek, and your no-BS guide to building a business that works for you. This is the place where we swap stories, share lessons, and get real about the highs and lows of creating a life and business that actually feels good.

No cookie cutter advice here, just honest conversations about what's working, what's not, and how to rewrite the rules to fit your version of success. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfy, and let's dive in. Hey friends, Jacki here.

Welcome to the final mixtape episode as we celebrate a big milestone, 99 episodes of Here's What I Learned on November 4th. This show started as a tiny experiment, and you've been through the pivots, pauses, and wins. Thank you for listening, sharing, and building this nerdy little corner of the internet with me.

Season 10 kicks off in January with a brand new format, and I can't wait to share what's next. For this mixtape, I invited past guests to answer one question. Since the last time you were on Here's What I Learned, what's the biggest business lesson you have learned? Today you'll hear from three brilliant voices who've built, rebuilt, and redefined their work in real time.

First up is Frenchie Ferenzci, small business strategist, fractional executive, and growth advisor. Frenchie's lesson is about giving yourself permission to redefine success in real time and letting that definition guide your next move. Here's Frenchie.

Frenchie Ferenzci

The biggest and most important business lesson I've learned recently is that you need to be open to evolving and redefining what success means to you. A lot of us are assuming that success is about money, or freedom, or time, or some combination of those things. And that's often true, but we don't get specific enough about what that actually means and looks like for ourselves.

I, for example, for a long time was building a business that was all about courses and group programs and all the traditional online business pathways to growth, which I loved and was great. And then I hit a roadblock and I really had to reflect and think, if things were just going my way, would this really be the path that I wanted to continue down for the next 30 years? And my answer to that really evolved and changed. And that's when I realized that I needed to stop, pause, and rewrite success for myself.

And so now I have a regular practice of asking myself, what does success look like and mean to me right now? And then I use that as an anchor and a guidepost to inform where I spend my time and energy, how I build my business strategies, and how I think about where I spend my time day to day. For example, after realizing that courses and programs weren't the only thing for me, I remembered that or I thought about going back into startups. And with that, I discovered fractional work within startups, which has brought me enormous joy and has brought me truly a whole new perspective on running a consulting business.

I had to redefine success in order to even allow myself to explore that option. And I can also see myself in a year deciding that I'm done with that and I want to go back to something else or I want to try a pathway. But we need to give ourselves time to explore and redefine that meaning of success so that we can expand, so that we can get creative, and so that we can really, really find our purpose, have the impact that we're meant to have and that we want to have, and find joy in the work that we do.

While I've recognized this lesson recently, I feel like it's been a long time coming. But as you listen to this, or after you listen to this, my recommendation for you is to stop and pause and ask yourself, what does success look like for me right now? And what does success in the next five years look like for me right now and in the next 10 years and beyond? Those definitions can always evolve. Give yourself that space, but also give yourself the opportunity to meet those milestones.

Jacki Hayes

Next up is Patricia Sung of Motherhood in ADHD. Patricia's biggest lesson is learning to let go, loosening the white knuckle grip on plans so life and business can unfold in better than expected ways. Let's take a listen.

Patricia Sung 

Hey there, this is Patricia Sung of Motherhood in ADHD, and here is the biggest business lesson that I've learned over the last couple of years, and that is how to let go. I often get a plan in my head. I've crossed all my Ts and dotted all my Is.

I know where I'm going, and the older that I get, the more I realize that I don't actually know where I'm going, how I'm going to get there. And being able to hold all of my plans with open hands and being okay with letting go when things don't go the way that I thought or expected or even imagined them going has been such a valuable skill because when I was holding on so tightly, I was really miserable. I was so frustrated.

I didn't understand why things weren't going the way that I wanted them to be, and my expectations were not meeting the realities at hand. And now that I have let go, there is so much more space for life to unfold in ways that are even better than I imagined. And it's not an issue of not trying towards something or working towards a goal.

It's just knowing that I don't know the future. I don't have a magic crystal ball. I am not the creator of the universe.

There is nothing that I can do to plan for every occurrence, and all it does is make me really anxious. And when I've accepted, like, hey, I don't have control over a lot of things. And the more that I seek control, it's just driving up my anxiety instead of letting things unfold how they may.

It's just really changed my outlook and my happiness overall. One way that I see this is understanding that seasons aren't forever. And especially when you have ADHD, our sense of time is a little wonky.

And I really don't have a good sense of time, not in the short term and not in the long term. So if you ask me, like, okay, Patricia, I'm just a mental timer. Tell me when it's been five minutes.

I don't think I would be anywhere close. And if you got to 30 minutes or an hour, I would have absolutely no idea how long I had been sitting there in order to tell you if it's been five minutes or an hour or two hours. I don't have a sense of time.

But this also is like, I don't have a sense of time in the grand scheme of things. And I feel like whatever I'm dealing with right now feels like it's going to be forever. And it's not.

And like constantly reminding myself that, like, even though I'm in a hard season, it doesn't mean things are gonna be hard forever. And even though I can't see how something is gonna come together now, that doesn't mean it's not gonna come together ever. I have to physically remind myself that whatever I'm dealing with right now is not necessarily what I'm gonna be dealing with in two months or five years.

And I need that constant reminder to know that, like, whatever this situation is, it's not forever. Secondly, I have to let go of ideas. I am someone who will always have more ideas.

And when I accepted, like, I will have plenty of good ideas. I didn't feel like I had to hold on to every good idea or that I needed to enact on every good idea because there will always be more good ideas. And I trust myself that I am going to have 57 more brilliant ideas probably by the end of the day.

So I don't have to worry about, like, other people stealing my ideas. I don't have to worry about, like, well, if I don't jump on this, like, someone else is gonna make millions of dollars off this idea. No, like, there's always gonna be more ideas.

And I will always have another one, so I don't have to hold on to them, like, white knuckle. And I don't have to act on every good idea. There's also, like, the whole idea of, like, I don't have to do all the good ideas right now.

Like, I can do one good idea right now, and then I can always add more ideas later. But I don't have to do them all in this very moment. And that links to understanding, like, simplicity is much easier on my mental load.

And keeping my life as simple as possible is such a blessing for my capacity. And again, I can always add in more things later. But in creating that ease and that simplicity, what it allows me to do is be okay with letting go of good ideas in order to have space for great ideas.

I am only one person. I only have so much capacity. I have young kids.

Like, there's only so much that I can accomplish in a day. And knowing that I am letting go of really good ideas so that I can use that finite amount of capacity that I have for something that's really great allows me to be okay with letting go of the good ideas. Like, for example, I closed my membership at the end of last year.

And I was heartbroken about it because I loved the membership so much. I loved this community of women that I was walking with literally every day. And yet I knew I had to let go of that good idea to make space for a great idea that was coming forward.

And I would never have been able to execute the great idea had I been holding on to all my good ideas because I only have so much capacity. And that was a really hard lesson to learn. And yet I'm really grateful that I chose to let go of the membership.

And I chose to eliminate several pieces of my business over the last six to eight months. And that's what's given me the space to enjoy this summer with my kids and also work on my book that's coming out in 2027, which feels, again, really far away. My sense of time is like, that's basically never.

But it'll be here before I know it. And letting go of all the things that I was handling is what allowed me to have space to write the book. And I never would have said yes to writing the book had I been carrying around all those other responsibilities that I had.

So this has been a tough lesson to learn. But letting go of good things, of creating space for flexibility and movement has allowed my happiness to skyrocket. My stress is much lower.

And I am spending my limited capacity that I have to spend towards my business on things that I really love, like one-on-one clients and writing this book. So my encouragement to you is when you have to let go of something that's good and you really don't understand why, knowing that you are creating space for something really great to be able to take root and grow in your life. 

Jacki Hayes

Closing us out is designer and creative Rachel Lee. Rachel talks about seasons, how hitting long-time goals can change what you want next, and why it's okay to let your vision evolve as you do. Here's Rachel. This is Rachel Lee, and I'm recording my answer to the question.

Rachel Lee

Since the last time you were on, here's what I learned. What is the biggest business lesson you've learned? Since the last time I've been on this show, I've come to understand that it's important to be flexible with your business goals as your personal goals evolve. And I say this now six years into my journey as a business owner and reflecting back on just the crazy ride that it's been where I'm definitely not where I've started.

And it's weird to say that I've gotten my business to the point where when I was at the starting line, I remember looking at this point and being like, I wish that I can get there. And the main thing literally was one, being able to sustain a living doing this, not needing to hustle and grind every second of every day to just eke by a living, to be able to stand behind my work and be like, I am actually proud of this, especially as a creative. I feel like when I first started my business, honestly, I definitely had something to prove, even just to myself.

I felt like I really wanted to feel like I could stand on my own two feet in the world of business. And this is me coming in as an art kid to prove to myself that my work is good enough that people would be more than happy and willing to invest in it. And I would be able to personally look at my work and be like, I'm damn proud of it.

Like I feel good with this. My skill level has gotten to a certain point and I feel happy with it. And so it's weird for me to say now that six years in, I've gotten to that point in my business and mentally and emotionally, I've started to get excited about another thing, which is to build my own personal brand as an artist.

And it's weird. It's like this full circle moment. I started off as the art kid, I ventured into the world of business to do my own thing.

And then now I guess I've set out, I've accomplished what I've set out to accomplish. And then I'm coming back to this point where I want to work on my own stuff again. And so this is all a very recent thing that has come to the surface where in the past few weeks, I've just been sitting and reflecting on my goals.

Of course, we're basically at the half halfway point of the year. And I'm just looking ahead and thinking and asking myself like, okay, Rachel, what do you really want? And I was surprised with the answer that even though I love my business, it's my baby and I I'm so happy and so proud of it. I've started to get excited about doing something different.

And I didn't anticipate that this is how I would feel or what I would do when I get to this point. It was a weird moment where I needed to acknowledge to myself that this business for me has been it's it's a stepping stone for a lot of people. The business is the end goal, you work your whole life to build up this thing that is able to support you and your family and you can leave a legacy for people behind you like a lot of people see business that way.

And it's weird for me to say that the business was actually it turns out now I'm finding out even in hindsight, the business was a vehicle for me to discover parts of myself to prove to myself that I can do what I say that I set out to do. And it taught me a lot of amazing skills. It taught me a lot of things about myself that I didn't even know.

And so I'm by nature, I'm a pretty stubborn person. I think most entrepreneurs are where you just got to be pig headedly, stubborn with sticking to your goals. And like at all costs, I'm going to make this happen.

And it's Yeah, it's just I'm at a weird stage in my journey where I'm coming to realize that goals change. The vision for what you want changes as you evolve as a person. And that's okay.

Like we don't have to stick to this rigid idea of like, I set out to do this thing. And then I did the thing. And then, well, now I'm faced with the big now what, and I'm coming to realize that it's okay for me to get my business to the point where I could say, I'm happy with it.

But it's time for me to move on to the next thing. So what's very exciting is that I'm looking to make a transition with the business where it's not that I'm gonna like put it to sleep or anything, it's still gonna be here. But it's gonna be like a vehicle that I'm gonna use to help me bridge the gap to where I want to be going.

And then I'm eventually going to be slowly transitioning the business in a different direction. But yeah, biggest learning lesson was just me fighting, me standing up against my own ego and being like, Oh, well, I guess this is where we're at right now. And I guess this is where we're gonna be going moving forward and to be okay with the fact that it's changed.

And I think the craziest thing is, we're often so fixated on the end goal, where like, we have to be there at all costs, like, like, go hard, go go harder, go home, let's put everything in and then you get there and then it's okay for that to change. So I'm excited for the next chapter. It's cool that I get to share this on on this show.

I'm excited to see looking back, I'm probably going to listen back to this episode in even a few months, half a year and be like, Oh, yeah, I remember that moment. That was before I decided to make any big changes. But yeah, very happy to share this big business lesson that I've learned.

And I hope that it's a value to all of you who are listening. with a fresh format and more experiments you can steal for your own business. Thanks for listening to here's what I learned.

I'm Jacki, I'll see you in season 10. Thanks for hanging out with me on here's what I learned. If today's episode gave you an aha moment, a laugh or something to think about, make sure you're subscribed to my email list.

That's where I share even more tips, stories and behind the scenes insights to help you simplify and thrive. And remember, you get to do business and life your way. Until next time, keep experimenting, keep simplifying and keep learning.

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