The CEO burnout nobody talks about

Let’s talk about the kind of burnout that doesn’t show up in glossy Instagram reels or leadership books.

It’s not the kind that happens from chasing too many clients or launching too many products.

It’s the slow, creeping, exhausting burnout that comes from running a business while being the only one who knows how anything actually works.

You know what’s harder than hiring your first team member?

Realising you don’t have a single process documented and they’re just staring at you on day one like “...now what?”

Cue the late-night scramble:

• Writing onboarding steps on the back of a receipt

• Remembering they still don’t have logins

• Wondering if it’s too soon to ask them to take over that thing you hate doing

• Deciding it’s easier to do it yourself, yet again

This is what we call delegation panic. And it’s one of the fastest ways to fry your brain as a business owner.

Here’s the thing: most small business owners are stuck in a loop of delegation panic.

You know you need help, but you:

❌Wait too long to hire

❌Don’t prep the backend before they start

❌Hand off too much too fast

❌End up thinking “it’s easier if I just do it myself”

And the cycle continues. Until you burn out.

Why women in business are especially vulnerable to this kind of burnout

Let’s talk about the real CEO burnout, and why women are especially vulnerable to it. 

Because we’re used to holding it all.

At home. At work. In friendships. In life.

We’re conditioned to be the glue.

To be “the reliable one”.

To keep all the mental tabs open so everyone else can get things done.

So when it comes to business, we fall into the exact same patterns.

🧠We keep the processes in our head

📧We answer every question personally

📋We carry the weight of everyone else’s roles on top of our own

🛑And then we wonder why we’re exhausted, over it, and feeling weirdly resentful of the team we wanted to hire

It’s not just long hours.

It’s:

📋Decision fatigue

🧠Being the only one who knows how anything works

📧Answering questions you meant to put in a doc six months ago

😩Delegating, only to have things boomerang back to you because they weren’t clear in the first place

You don’t need to outsource your whole business.

But you do need to stop hiring people into a black hole and calling it onboarding.

Here’s what no one talks about:

Hiring isn’t the relief people expect it to be - not at first.

Because hiring without structure actually makes your workload heavier.

It adds questions.

It adds onboarding.

It adds the pressure of having to lead someone when you’re still figuring things out yourself.

This is the silent burnout that creeps up on so many female founders:

• You finally hire

• But now you’re managing someone

• You’re writing SOPs at midnight

• You’re trying to document the chaos while still doing the work

• You’re juggling leadership with delivery

• You’re spinning in the gap between what your business needs and what you have capacity for

And because we’re women?

We’re often doing all that with a kid at our feet, or a second job, or a calendar that’s already at capacity.

Burnout isn’t always about overwork. Sometimes it’s about under-support.

If you're:

• Constantly firefighting

• Making decisions in the car between daycare and work

• Thinking about your to-do list while you brush your teeth

• Putting your own systems last because client stuff comes first

You’re not just tired - you’re operating without backup.

That’s not sustainable.

That’s not scalable.

And that’s not what being a CEO and the leader of your own business  is supposed to look like.

So what’s the fix?

Let’s be real: there’s no perfect moment to pause and clean everything up.

But there is a moment to stop tolerating the chaos.

And that moment is now.

Here’s what we tell our clients (and what we’re doing ourselves):

You don’t need to outsource your whole business.

But you do need to stop hiring people into a black hole and calling it onboarding.

Start with:

✅ One delegated task that keeps coming back to you

✅ Write down how to do it - clearly, step-by-step

✅ Put it somewhere your team can find it

✅ Ask them: “Is this clear enough for someone to follow without asking me?”

It’s not a full system. But it’s a start.

Because clarity creates capacity.

And capacity is what gives you back your brain, your energy, and your ability to actually lead - not just react.

What stepping into your CEO role really means

It’s not about having a corner office, or making six figures, or hiring 10 people.

It’s about being the kind of leader who:

• Builds a business that doesn’t collapse if she gets sick

• Creates space in her calendar without guilt

• Delegates without spiralling

• Trusts her team because she’s taken the time to set them up properly

• Makes decisions based on strategy - not stress

You can’t do that if you’re still running every process from memory.

You can’t do that if your day is eaten up by Slack messages and ad hoc tasks.

You can’t do that if every new hire feels like a chore instead of a step forward.

You don’t need to be perfectly systemised.

You just need to stop doing it all from scratch, every damn time.

✅Here’s your challenge this week:

Pick one thing you’re currently holding that someone else on your team could take over - if they had the right support.

Write it out. Step-by-step.

Even if it’s messy. Even if it’s not pretty.

Even if it’s just a voice memo you transcribe into a checklist later.

Then hand it over - properly, and ask your team: “Is this clear enough for someone to do without asking me?”

.

That’s the first step toward building a business that doesn’t burn you out.

Because you don’t need more sleep.

You need less chaos.

And you deserve to lead - not just survive.

Ash ✨