Bulli author to share sweet recipe to beat burnout at IWIB Networking Lunch

Burnout is a growing concern for many small business owners, particularly women, but Bulli author and integrative life coach Danielle Colley believes finding balance doesn’t have to be a bitter struggle.

Speaking at the Illawarra Women in Business (IWIB) Networking Lunch on 7 February, Danielle will introduce her “Chocolate Bar Life” philosophy, a fresh approach to managing work, rest, and play to prevent burnout and lead a more sustainable life.

She said the philosophy particularly helped busy professionals and entrepreneurs who felt stuck, overwhelmed and dissatisfied with their life reach their full potential while finding balance.

“If we’re looking at women in small business with small children, we know that time is finite, sleep is precious, nervous systems are already frazzled,” Danielle said.

“So you can imagine that what we’re looking at there is a hot bed of possible issues that can create that perfect storm.

“It’s helping people to really recognise what the early signs are, what are the red flags, and then knowing what you can do about it.”

Danielle said 2024 reports, including one from Mercer, had revealed more than 80 per cent of people were experiencing burnout symptoms, highlighting the widespread nature of the problem.

She said this was being attributed to many factors, including the cost of living prompting people to push harder.

A former health and wellbeing journalist for top Australian publications, she discovered her passion for positive psychology coaching after “I burnt out quite spectacularly”.

“I was a solo mum of two kids and the pressure, not just from the industry, but also my internal pressure was significant,” Danielle said.

“I ended up quitting writing and needed to take time to work out what would be next and heal from some of the stuff that had gone down.

“I discovered positive psychology coaching and neurolinguistic programming and all of these really fascinating modalities that work wonders on the brain and really help people to have meaningful and lasting change in their life. And I was hooked.”

Danielle also developed her “The Chocolate Bar Life” philosophy after working with people in leadership, which led to her latest book of the same name released last July.

“I was seeing so many similar issues to what I was experiencing, which is success on paper, financially stable, but a deep sense of dissatisfaction, a huge sense of yearning and push and striving.

“Therefore people are frying their nervous systems and burning out, working too hard, working too long, no boundaries.

“Basically, having these super successful lives that just don’t feel how you imagined they would.”

Danielle encourages people to prioritise having a balance of work, rest, and play in their lives, even if the proportions aren’t equal.

To illustrate the concept, she uses the analogy of a Mars Bar, with its different elements present in varying ratios but together being a “symphony in your mouth”.

“It’s not about your work, your rest and your play being in equal measure,” she said.

“It’s just that when we prioritise having all of them there, we can actually live these busy lives in a more sustainable way that feels better.”

Danielle said her talk at the IWIB event was entitled “The Fairy Godmother Effect”, which would focus on helping the audience to understand that nobody was coming to save them, but that they already had all the tools needed to create beautiful lives.

Book tickets for the IWIB Networking Lunch on 7 February from noon – 2:15 pm at The Vue Room, Wollongong Golf Club, 151-161 Corrimal Street, Wollongong. Ticket sales close Wednesday, 5 February at 5 pm.