Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Burnout isn’t a personal failure. Sometimes it’s a sign that the system around you never made space for you to ask what’s actually sustainable.

Kicking off Season 10 of FRIED. The Burnout Podcast, Cait Donovan is joined by Jen Fisher, the founder of The Wellbeing Team and the former Chief Well-being Officer at Deloitte, for a conversation that goes straight to the heart of what burnout really is, and why so many people are still afraid to talk about it honestly. Jen shares why, in her own experience, burnout was harder than cancer, and how the workplace responded to each in very different ways.

Why do so many people feel like burnout is their fault? And what would shift if organizations started treating well-being as a core skill set, not a side conversation? Jen introduces the idea of well-being intelligence, a teachable approach to helping leaders spot the signs of burnout early and change the way teams operate. She and Cait talk about why clear language matters, what modeling healthy behavior actually looks like, and how leaders often fail to support their own well-being while trying to take care of everyone else.

This episode leaves listeners with a strong reminder: hope is more than wishful thinking. It’s a strategy, and one that’s available to anyone willing to take the next right step.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Meet Jen Fisher

02:00 Why Burnout Was Harder Than Cancer

07:00 What Burnout Really Means (And What It Doesn’t)

12:00 How Work Culture Fuels Burnout

17:00 Rethinking Success, Sacrifice, and Leadership

22:00 Building a Well-Being Strategy Inside Big Organizations

28:00 What Is Well-Being Intelligence?

35:00 How Leaders Can Learn to Prevent Burnout

39:00 Hope Isn’t Wishful Thinking but a Tool for Recovery

Links

Connect with Jen Fisher:

https://www.instagram.com/jenfish23/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-fisher-7403868/

https://jenfisher.substack.com/

Connect with Cait:

Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcait

Initial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahv

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Burnout recovery takes more than bubble baths and boundary scripts. It asks you to let yourself receive.

To celebrate 300 episodes of FRIED, Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen are getting real about what it took to get here… emotionally, financially, and logistically. What do you do when your mission is to serve others, but you’re maxed out behind the scenes? How do you keep showing up with integrity when your inbox is full of amazing guest pitches you don’t have the capacity to accept?

Cait opens up about the guilt that still shows up when she says no, and the tension between wanting to help everyone and needing to protect her own energy. She and Sarah talk about money, sustainability, and the shift from giving endlessly to allowing themselves to receive in equal measure.

They also unveil a new tool made just for you: the FRIED Episode Finder, a searchable archive that helps you find exactly what you need without scrolling through 300 titles. Type in a keyword, a name, a question, and it serves up the episodes that match. (Burnout recovery with a little delegation joy? Yes, please!)

This milestone episode is full of gratitude, behind-the-scenes truth, and hard-earned wisdom for anyone working to stay well while helping others do the same.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 300 Episodes of FRIED!

02:14 Behind the Scenes

05:09 Boundaries, Guilt, and Saying No

06:44 The Real Cost of Podcasting

10:00 Learning to Receive

13:05 Using ChatGPT to Set Boundaries

15:09 Pricing Your Work Without Apology

17:00 Burnout Recovery Is a Long Game

19:13 Listener Impact and Gratitude

23:58 Introducing the FRIED Episode Finder

28:32 Delegation Joy Is Real

30:26 Send Us Your Questions

Links

Looking for the right episode? Use the free FRIED Episode Finder to search by keyword and find the support you need, fast: bit.ly/friedfinder

Connect with Cait:

Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcait

Initial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahv

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Stress resilience isn’t a mindset trick. It’s built on your biology, your history, and whether or not you actually use the support available to you.

This week on #straightfromcait, Cait Donovan challenges the idea that self-awareness is where resilience begins. What if your stress response was shaped long before you ever had a chance to influence it? Cait walks through how genetics and early experiences, like trauma or family dynamics, lay the groundwork for how your body handles stress. Some people’s systems are just wired differently, and that wiring matters.

Cait breaks down the difference between reacting to stress and being truly resilient. Real resilience means facing your reality as it is, staying connected to what you care about, and adjusting when things go sideways. Are you living in a way that actually supports your nervous system, or are you just white-knuckling it through your day?

Cait also spotlights two powerful but often overlooked tools: leaning into your natural strengths and asking for help. Not just once, but consistently and without guilt. These choices expand your capacity and give you a better shot at bouncing back when life gets hard.

Self-awareness still plays a role, but it works best when it’s used to build a life that fits you, not a version of you that’s always running on empty.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 What Stress Resilience Really Means

01:20 How Genetics Shape Stress Response

01:55 The Role of Upbringing and Trauma

04:09 Three Core Traits of Resilience

06:01 Skills, Support, and Expanding Resources

07:49 Why Using Resources Matters

09:02 Self-Awareness as a Tool, Not a Starting Point

11:01 Signs Your Resilience Is Holding Up

11:22 Three Ways to Improve Resilience

12:25 Realignment and Radical Honesty

Links

Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcait

Initial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahv

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm