090 Transforming Burnout into Balance: Teresa Vozza on Sustainable Leadership and Resilience

Hello, beautiful people! I'm Juliette Karaman, and I’m delighted to welcome you to another episode of The Scrumptious Woman. Today, we have the incredible Tereza Vozza with us. Tereza's journey from corporate burnout to founding her own company, Crucible Incorporated, is truly inspiring. She now helps executives and organisations build resilient, sustainable careers and work environments. Get ready for an enlightening conversation on overcoming stress, anxiety, and burnout to achieve a balanced, fulfilling life.

Episode Summary:

In this episode, Teresa Vozza shares her powerful story of experiencing severe burnout while serving as a vice president of HR. Her journey led her to establish Crucible Incorporated, where she now helps professionals prevent and recover from burnout. Teresa explains the symptoms of burnout, such as anxiety, strained relationships, and unhealthy lifestyles. She provides insights into recognising and addressing these issues before they escalate. We also discuss the importance of self-care, creating healthy boundaries, and fostering resilience in the workplace.

Key Takeaways:

1. Recognising Burnout Symptoms: Learn about common signs of burnout, including anxiety, unhealthy lifestyles, and strained relationships.
2. Importance of Self-Care: Understand how prioritising self-care can prevent burnout and promote a balanced, healthy life.
3. Creating Healthy Boundaries: Discover the significance of setting personal standards and boundaries to maintain well-being.
4. The Role of Resilience: Teresa emphasises building resilience through self-awareness, trauma-informed practices, and sustainable work habits.
5. Psychoeducation and Cognitive Distortions: Gain insights into how understanding cognitive distortions and using tools like the window of tolerance can help manage stress and anxiety.
6. Practical Steps to Prevent Burnout: Teresa shares actionable strategies for reducing stress and preventing burnout, such as specific goal-setting and time management.
7. Yes, And Mindset: Learn how adopting a "yes, and" mindset can help you acknowledge challenges while exploring solutions and possibilities.
8. Transformational Leadership: Explore how leaders can create supportive, resilient work environments that prevent burnout and promote overall well-being.
9. Repair and Communication: Understand the importance of repair in relationships and fostering a culture of open communication and mutual support.
10. Building Self-Trust: Teresa highlights the importance of building self-trust through consistent, small actions that reinforce your confidence and agency.

Connect with Teresa Vozza:

• Website: Teresa Vozza
• Email: Te

Find out more about Juliette Karaman here:
https://feelfullyyou.com/free-resources/
https://www.instagram.com/juliettekaraman/
https://www.facebook.com/juliette.karamanvanschaardenburg
https://feelfullyyou.com/products/7-days-of-scrumptiousness/

Don't forget to Rate and leave a review so more people can tune in and the ripple effect spreads further.

Take a screenshot of your review and send it to me on https://www.instagram.com/juliettekaraman/ and you will be given access to a free group Spinal Attunement session. These have been life-changing for my clients!

Transcript

The Scrumptious Woman EP90

[00:00:00] Juliette Karaman: Welcome to another episode of the scrumptious woman and scrumptious she is Teresa Vozza. Welcome to the scrumptious woman podcast. I'm so happy to have you here. Oh, thank you, Juliette. I'm so pleased to be here. I love it. And you know what, we are just talking about this. I'm actually not gonna introduce you, but you're gonna introduce yourself because there's a whole story to you.

[00:00:24] Juliette Karaman: So give our listeners some juice. 

[00:00:27] Teresa Vozza: Okay. I love that. I love that. All right the best way to introduce myself is probably to start with a, just a very quick story. In 2015, I was carried out. I'm not carried. I was wheeled out of my office. I was the vice president of HR at the time and I was wheeled out in a stretcher.

[00:00:47] Teresa Vozza: Oh, yeah. I had suffered from, at the time I thought, It was a heart problem and through a series of tests and conversations with the doctor, it came back that no, in fact, what I had was severe burnout. And at the time, I did not really resonate with that word. I did not think I did not think that was at all the situation that was going on with me.

[00:01:16] Teresa Vozza: I just thought I was just working a lot. And that became what I call now my crucible moment, which is the name of my company, Crucible Incorporated. And that crucible moment is what transformed both me Myself as an executive leader at the time, but also what transformed my way of working and eventually leading to running my own business in 2020, where I work with men and women who were on the brink of stress, overwhelm, and burnout, and helping them enjoy a career that is much more sustainable so that they don't have to quit in order to escape that type of turmoil.

[00:01:59] Teresa Vozza: But in fact, they can learn better ways of being a leader in a much more sustainable way. So that is, is my business. And so I work with executives, teams, organizations, and help them build resilient frameworks, resilient teams, resilient workforces, and resilient ways of doing business. 

[00:02:21] Juliette Karaman: And a breath. 

[00:02:21] Juliette Karaman: Because I, some people are like, oh, what happened? I know. Have a heart attack. Yeah. And it's so true when you set that burnout that we don't associate that with where we get to. Adrenal fatigue, the whole body just shutting down. Yeah. We're like, oh, that, that doesn't happen to me. That only works.

[00:02:38] Juliette Karaman: Works for other people. Yeah. Until it actually is you, so I applaud you for doing this and really. Taking control of that again, right? And being honest, I'm saying yeah, that happened. And for that to happen, life, yeah, happened for me because look at what I'm helping others with now.

[00:02:59] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. And I think that's so important. Juliette, one thing I'll say too, is that it was normalized. And I think that's really the key word for a lot of people listening is that burnout doesn't have to look like being wheeled out on a stretcher by the paramedics. It can be micro, it can be micro stresses.

[00:03:20] Teresa Vozza: And I think the key takeaway is that left unattended. And for me that attending to required, some trauma work, some understanding of my patterns my conditioned tendencies, those shaping forces that we. We all have had in our lives, and I think the most important piece here is that it, it becomes a new way of being in the world where we are just overworking and ignoring our body's signal, signals, even when they're screaming at us to slow down.

[00:03:55] Juliette Karaman: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. A lot of us have stories like that, that we had to, that our bodies actually forces. Same me. I spent nine months in and out of hospital. Same time. It's oh, when are you going to wake up? And sometimes people do need to get to that stage where it's we have no other way out.

[00:04:14] Juliette Karaman: But. That's right. And to inquire in the words. And I think both you and I try to help people not get to that point, but catch it before. So it's Ooh, you don't have to hit rock bottom. Yeah. 

[00:04:26] Teresa Vozza: That's often the case. Most of my clients that come to me, unfortunately, they're already in the throws.

[00:04:33] Teresa Vozza: Stress and overwhelm. And so that's why a big part of my focus is on educating workplaces and CEOs and organizations to understand what are the precursors and then how to mitigate against those types of things. And I think that yeah, that's our mission is to help those who are suffering right now, but to prevent those who feel that may be they're on the road to that and catch it before it becomes a much bigger problem.

[00:05:04] Juliette Karaman: Beautiful. So the people that are listening and they're like, Oh, this might be me. What are three of those precursor? What are three symptoms, signs that are going on? 

[00:05:16] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. Yeah. There's so many, but I'll tell you the three that present themselves the most in my clients. So number one is anxiety. I have a lot of clients that come to me with symptoms of heart rate is high their body is very tense and clenched, they are feeling very nervous about presentations or about working with their boss or their CEO, or expectations at work that they're afraid they cannot meet, or more often Conflict.

[00:05:47] Teresa Vozza: Conflict with colleagues or internal politics. The what doesn't necessarily matter. It's the actual symptom of high anxiety that leads to working longer hours and feeling increased stress. So anxiety is a big one. I would say the second one is somewhat of an unhealthy or even I'd call an ad hoc lifestyle.

[00:06:09] Teresa Vozza: So they may go out for a walk once in a while when they remember. They might be have some type of movement practice or physical exercise that happens sporadically, but more often than not, those start to become ignored or they happen very sporadically and that is weighing on them. Their physical exercise or movement is low.

[00:06:30] Teresa Vozza: And the third that I often see is strained relationships. So another symptom I often hear from my clients is, they don't have time with their kids or they're really short and irritable, or they don't have a lot of time with their spouse or their partner. And there creates that familial anxiety as well.

[00:06:51] Teresa Vozza: So I would say those are the three big ones that present, but just to give your listeners a, another taste of other things that they could be experiencing. It's not only stress and anxiety, it could be apathy. Apathy is when, you're at work and you're like, what's the point? This is not going to go anywhere.

[00:07:08] Teresa Vozza: My work is not going to get recognized. So you start to feel this sense of like malaise. Or ennui, where it's just oh, why bother? Another symptom that I sometimes see with clients is like anger and so anger to the point where they're unable to be introspective and instead they place the blame of for their entire situation on others, whether it's the organization or the CEO and look we both know that toxic workplaces do exist, but oftentimes there are strategies in place.

[00:07:43] Teresa Vozza: And things that we can do to help have more constructive conversations, to extend deadlines, to create some healthy boundaries that don't get talked about when we're too mired in anger or blame and shifting that responsibility to the organization, which it has a part to play, but I'm here to help the client.

[00:08:06] Teresa Vozza: And so what we want to do is find them relief right away. 

[00:08:10] Juliette Karaman: Beautiful. And it's so true that when you're stressed, anxiety, when all the things that you talked about, it leaks out into every aspect of your life, right? You're saying you're not very aware, ad hoc lifestyle, spouses, children that feel that they're not being put first.

[00:08:30] Juliette Karaman: And then it's just the homayas like, yeah, that's the point of it. So it just and let's talk about it, but there is quite a big rate of suicide, right? And I know it's probably the younger age that I see it in a lot. People that have just started working, up to their 30s and then again in their 50s.

[00:08:52] Juliette Karaman: And I'm like, whoa, let's just nip this in the bud. And how can we actually teach universities, companies, others to really start. Taking care of their employees, taking care of their future employees. Yeah. I 

[00:09:09] Teresa Vozza: love that you asked that question. And I would agree. I think we're seeing mental health rates skyrocket.

[00:09:15] Teresa Vozza: So I, I'm in Canada and, the mental health rates have increased over the last several years.

[00:09:21] Teresa Vozza: Burnout is still at a rampant all time high, especially with the executive population, which is the population that I mostly serve. I think, we're at 40% of burnout rates and more and more C level executives quitting, opting out, deciding, that they're not going to do this anymore So you're right. So that's the first point I just want to accentuate, is that You're bang on that burnout and anxiety and suicide and depression rates are on the rise.

[00:09:48] Teresa Vozza: I think I'm a big proponent of education. I think that Universities, school systems, and I know this is a big lofty goal, but if I had my way, we would be building in self efficacy and resilience and trauma informed language principles into school systems, university systems, college systems, and organizations just to give people the very first message that I think is important, which is it's not your fault.

[00:10:25] Teresa Vozza: I think what happens When one becomes anxious or depressed or contemplates, suicide, is that there's this predominant thinking pattern that somehow they are to blame. And I think that we need a better understanding of how. trauma manifests as, in childhood and into adulthood.

[00:10:48] Teresa Vozza: And once we do that, we can remove one of the biggest barriers, I think, plaguing many of those who suffer today, which is blame. That it's somehow my fault. So I think one of the first things I often do with my clients is I provide psychoeducation and I start to bring in tools like the window of tolerance, which is, Dan Siegel's tool for understanding when you're in the red zone and about to lose it.

[00:11:13] Teresa Vozza: And when you're in the green zone and you're calm and able to respond appropriately. And so that type of psychoeducation, I mean, it helps my executive clients who are 60 years old. Can you imagine if we were to start introducing that, in grades five and six and all the way through older grades, it would be, I think, life altering.

[00:11:37] Juliette Karaman: Completely. I love when you talk about the window of tolerance. I teach that to a lot of my clients, a lot of my students as well, and also to a lot of therapists. A lot of therapists know about it, but some of the coaches and therapists I teach aren't very specialized in that. And we're just like, okay, a little reminder here.

[00:11:55] Juliette Karaman: This is when you go into that zone and just start to recognize your patterns your triggers. But can you imagine, I've got four kids and I've been teaching them this stuff. And I'm like, Hey awareness is the first step towards self love and really knowing yourself. And they're like, Oh, yeah.

[00:12:12] Juliette Karaman: Mommy, once you said that, that really triggered me and my 22 year old twins. Using my language. But it's so beautiful how they then teach each other as well. 

[00:12:23] Teresa Vozza: It is. And I think what also I love too is there's this whole concept of repair, which I'm sure Julia, you're very well aware of. And, I first learned about it.

[00:12:32] Teresa Vozza: Through Dr. Becky, who's like the famous therapist working with kids. And I think that same concept can be implied in all areas of our life, including our work lives. And so I think it's about starting to provide this culture where people can talk about, what is ailing them, but also then how to repair for it.

[00:12:52] Teresa Vozza: So if it's a colleague who said something out of turn, how to repair for that. So how do we. How do we create that culture? It's not going to happen overnight. I think corporate landscapes are, they still suffer quite greatly. And again, that's more my world. But I think the world in general suffers from a preponderance of logic and methodical, cognitive based thinking.

[00:13:16] Teresa Vozza: And those of us who have come from either recover from burnout or recover from trauma of any kind, which I believe almost everyone has to some degree. That language can be really helpful, if we move it into the workplace as well as in the home. 

[00:13:33] Juliette Karaman: Beautiful. I love how you've reinvented yourself.

[00:13:39] Juliette Karaman: And you were saying earlier that a lot of your clients get to that stage. You're like, okay, that's it. I'm leaving.

[00:13:45] Juliette Karaman: What would be your advice to people that are like, Whoa, I am so overwhelmed. I don't know what how to go on here. 

[00:13:53] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. The first question I would ask, which is the first question I almost always ask when we're setting goals with a client is what would need to happen for you to stay? And alternately, what would need to happen for you to go?

[00:14:12] Teresa Vozza: Does it have to get worse? And that's usually where people are like, Oh, I can't even imagine that. Okay, then what would need to happen if you were going to stay? At least for the time being. And that's usually when we start seeing more possibilities come out in the conversation. What would need to happen is I would need to start, having my mornings back.

[00:14:29] Teresa Vozza: And having time to, either get my kids out the door or to, go for a run or go for a walk or something like that. I would need to feel as though, my contribution in that work is being valued and there's conversations happening around progression. I would need to see potentially a financial raise and what that would mean for me and my family.

[00:14:52] Teresa Vozza: So once I asked that question, we're able to start getting out of the story, which is all of the circumstances that give rise to the problem, but instead start moving into possibilities and solutions, or maybe not solutions, but possibilities first, which then lead to solutions. So I would encourage anyone that's listening that if they find themselves in that position where they're like, you know what, I'm at my wits end, I don't know how much more of this I can take.

[00:15:20] Teresa Vozza: I'm either going to quit or I'm going to find a new job. Whether you do or you don't is almost irrelevant. Just ask yourself the question, what would need to happen for me to stay? And what you'll often find is that the answer to that is what needs to happen in your life, period. 

[00:15:39] Juliette Karaman: So true, right? And because it really opens up that realm of possibilities and it creates I don't like the word boundary so much, but it creates standards, like your own standards.

[00:15:51] Juliette Karaman: It's oh, so I have a standard that, maybe you don't want to work before nine o'clock or you don't look at your phone before eight o'clock or not, whatever the time is. It's those are my standards. It's, boundaries, you hear so much about. Yes. I have to laugh at it, but yeah, it's listen, these are actually my standards.

[00:16:09] Juliette Karaman: If you buy a program from me and it has a certain expiry date, don't come back three months later and say, Oh, can I get an extension? It's you can ask, but you're also going to get no, unless it's, unless. 

[00:16:21] Teresa Vozza: Oh, so good. I'm laughing so hard right now in my head, but also on the camera because you're the first person I've spoken to in so long that has the same stance that I do, which is the word boundaries.

[00:16:39] Teresa Vozza: It drives me around the bend. I know I used it earlier. And oftentimes I use it because I think it's a universal. People get it. But the problem with boundaries is that how does one exert a boundary if they don't have the self trust or agency in which to use their voice to speak it? You have to know what you're saying.

[00:17:01] Teresa Vozza: Non negotiables are your personal limits the things that start to bleed the edge of your of your values in order to create any kind of statement or assert any kind of request. So boundaries alone, they're really catchy. But so often I have clients say to me, I know I should have more boundaries, but they don't even have the voice or the confidence yet to do it because they don't know what they're creating a boundary for.

[00:17:30] Teresa Vozza: And what's it all going for anyway? So I'm just, I just want to, I just had to interject and say that I'm so glad to hear someone else say that. Stayed that same sentiment. 

[00:17:41] Juliette Karaman: We've been seeing it so much. Everyone talks about boundaries and boundaries. And it just feels like very inflexible.

[00:17:46] Juliette Karaman: And it's no. The question that you ask, what needs to happen for me to stay? It's the question I ask my people that come to me at the brink of a divorce. And to happen that's 23 years. I'm like, okay, what needs to happen for this to change? And they're like, yes. Oh this, that. And I'm like, okay, so now can we take the blame and the shaming each other out of this?

[00:18:09] Juliette Karaman: And then it just becomes a list. It's oh, I'd like this. I'd like that. And like that. And I remember one of my first coaching programs One of the phrases that they use is underneath every complaint, the desire. And if we look at that, really it's pretty true. It's something that we want to change.

[00:18:26] Juliette Karaman: It's so easy to complain, to fall into that victim or into that trap of complaining about, or going into story, as you said. And instead it's Oh, my life is not quite working how I want. What? 

[00:18:40] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. 

[00:18:41] Juliette Karaman: What are the five steps that I want to change? 

[00:18:44] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. What I love about what you said too is the best way to get out of this locked in view, which is what, when I hear clients going on too long about a story, and I'm sure you see this too, Juliet, or a narrative or a circumstance, there's a locked in feeling to their story.

[00:19:01] Teresa Vozza: They're locked in. And so the goal of a coach or a therapist or anyone that's, that we're working with is to. Slowly, I always like to use my fingers, like to start to unshackle, like start to I'm, untangle the lock and allow some room to come in to start asking my other favorite question is what specifically?

[00:19:25] Teresa Vozza: Because we can speak in generalities, we can speak in theoreticals. to happen, but then the next logical question for any coach worth his or her salt is to say what specifically needs to happen in order for you to accomplish that? What does that look like? What does that feel like? What is that action?

[00:19:46] Teresa Vozza: Take what can you do today, tomorrow, next week, like it's that specificity that really gets someone from, all up here in the head thinking about how it would be so nice if, and then move them to the doing, which is where the real, transformation occurs. It's in the doing, not in the thinking, right?

[00:20:09] Teresa Vozza: The thinking is where it starts, but then the doing is where it really starts to come together. 

[00:20:15] Juliette Karaman: I love that. So yesterday I had a client who had been afraid of water for over 50 years. So yeah, he was going to go into the story. I'm like, no, just want to feel what's coming up now. When you think about that, whatever, that incident that, how do you feel this way?

[00:20:36] Juliette Karaman: She's it's like still fear. I'm like, great. Let's work on that. So we worked for 40 minutes and saw all the different points of view, everything. And then I was like, okay, it's it's gone. 10 out of 10, it's gone. I'm like, great, but what's your action step now? Feel that more. He's I'm going to get swimming lessons.

[00:20:55] Juliette Karaman: So he texted me late last night, send me the confirmation email, right from removing the charge. I call it emotional charge. That's what keeps it. 

[00:21:07] Teresa Vozza: That's great. 

[00:21:08] Juliette Karaman: So once you remove that emotional charge, once you duplicate it and get rid of it, and you're out of that world of polarity, like for or against, all of a sudden it's oh, we've got this choice.

[00:21:18] Juliette Karaman: So now what are you going to do to actually bring it towards you? Like, how are if you want to talk quantum stuff, how are you going to magnetize it to you? How are you going to put it? And that's really where the action step comes in and it doesn't have to be perfect every time you can just be the next thing but it's so important.

[00:21:39] Teresa Vozza: Yeah, it's breaking the cycle too right like I think it's helping them practice what it feels like to break the cycle of, addictive or entrenched or locked in thinking. And in, in my work as an executive coach, we talk a lot about, cognitive distortions, those thinking patterns that really lock us in.

[00:21:58] Teresa Vozza: And again, this is why I think it's so important to provide psychoeducation is to say, Hey, look, these are the different things that come up for us. Where do you see yourself on this chart? And I'll have clients be like, Oh my God, I'm a catastrophizer. That's totally me. Or I'm a black and white thinker.

[00:22:14] Teresa Vozza: That's where I tend to reside. And so once you identify the trigger and you have a name for it, all of a sudden it exists out there. It's not in here. It's Oh, what I do has a name and it's a distortion. And Oh, cool. There's things I can actually do to transcend that. And the doing is again, I like to be super practical and be okay.

[00:22:41] Teresa Vozza: So in your next meeting, What will you do differently? And I've had such cool responses. I will remember that the CEO across from me is a person just like me and not like this higher up, big dog authority figure, which can be very stress inducing, or, I will end my day at five 30 today, as opposed to seven, like I've been doing every other night.

[00:23:05] Teresa Vozza: Okay, cool. Do that. Tell me how it went. And it's that constant iteration that I think. Leads to all these tiny, powerful moves towards agency and self trust. And ultimately, again, confidence is another one of those words I'm not a big fan of. I like, I prefer self trust, but it's it's a sense of I gave myself a command.

[00:23:28] Teresa Vozza: And I did it. And that builds such a feeling of, you have your own back. And to me, that is well worth the work. And it's much more, I think, enduring than confidence. It's, you have your own back and you prove it to yourself. Very powerful. 

[00:23:48] Juliette Karaman: Completely. And I love the way you say that. People find language for the patterns that they're in, for the things that they do.

[00:23:56] Juliette Karaman: And I got into this work because I was a special educational needs coordinator. So I worked with kids on the spectrum. And one thing I do see is that people, when they get diagnosed with ADHD or whatever it is later in life, they're like, Oh, that's why I do things. 

[00:24:13] Teresa Vozza: Yeah. 

[00:24:14] Juliette Karaman: And I also do see. But for some of it's Oh yeah, but that's because my ADHD.

[00:24:19] Juliette Karaman: And I'm like, No, you found a name for the patterns and the things that you do. Now, de identify as the person that has that. It's just a pattern. You can get out of things. You can understand the reasoning behind it, but now you can break that pattern. Yeah. 

[00:24:38] Teresa Vozza: It reminds me of the the whole concept of yes and.

[00:24:42] Teresa Vozza: It's like. yes, you have ADD and, and you can do X, Y, Z, or yes, we're suffering from burnout or I'm suffering from burnout and I've just hired a coach to start working on, different strategies. Yeah. So yes, and, Allows you to be with something, but also allows you to do something about it.

[00:25:03] Teresa Vozza: Yes, but is very different because that's the defensive stance, but yes, and allows you, allows it to coexist. Okay, you want to hold on to that story. That's fine. And while you're holding on to that story, Let's talk about different things that you can try, and then we'll start to see if the story starts to detangle a little bit.

[00:25:21] Juliette Karaman: Love it. I think my children were just like, Mommy, you're always an and person. Yes, and. It was never yes, but. I know. We tried to but, you're like, nope, no buts in my house. Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. I love this, Teresa. It's been absolutely wonderful. Tell me a little bit, what are you up to?

[00:25:41] Juliette Karaman: How can people connect with you? How can they work with you? There's so much gold in what you are. Thank you. Yeah, very 

[00:25:48] Teresa Vozza: easy. I would say I like to provide my, most of my value through my emails. So joining my email list is, I always say the first place for people to go. And that's just Teresa at TeresaVoza.

[00:25:59] Teresa Vozza: ca. And you can join my email list there, but I also have a ton of free offerings. So I, I have a course on how to move away from the hustle type of culture and move into more harmony at work. I have a stop doing list. So like real tactical pointed direction around what will you stop doing in order to get more of what you want to be doing?

[00:26:22] Teresa Vozza: So I would direct people just to my website. I think there's a whole bunch of free stuff there and I'm very active on LinkedIn. It's my website. Only platform. I gave up Instagram just a little while ago. And yeah, I think that's a good place to start. 

[00:26:35] Juliette Karaman: Excellent. Excellent. Everything will be in the show notes.

[00:26:39] Juliette Karaman: And again, thank you so much for coming on. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks, Juliet. It was so much fun.