Sometimes an independent insurance agency or financial firm is doing fine, and the owner has still lost interest in it. Many owners still call that feeling burnout. Business owner burnout can mean days packed with everyone else’s requests. It can also describe something quieter: a business that runs well while the owner feels flat, stuck, or alone with it.
Jason Mickool built a national advisory firm before he founded Greatness Lab. He sees three separate problems in that one word: burnout, boredom, and complacency. “Those are all very different things,” he said. The difference matters because each problem responds to a different kind of help.
In this article, you will learn how to tell which of the three you are facing and what tends to help with each one. For overload, you will find the calendar practices that successful owners use to set limits, plan their days, and review their progress. For boredom and complacency, you will find how coaching, community, and a bigger vision for your role can help, along with one way to start this week. If you feel more than one, both sets of ideas apply.
Key Takeaways
- Burnout, boredom, and complacency can feel alike, and each one responds to a different kind of help.
- Business owner burnout from overload usually shows up first in a calendar that has no limits.
- Owners who set their own working hours and decide what each block of time is for tend to feel more in control. A short review each morning helps them stay on plan.
- Boredom and complacency tend to ease when an owner spends regular time with people who have built more, through coaching and community.
- A big jump in a business often begins with one decision and an action taken the same day.
Burnout, Boredom, or Complacency: Why a Business Owner Needs to Know Which
The three feelings have different sources:
- Burnout from overload has to do with how an owner spends their time.
- Boredom and complacency have more to do with the people around the owner and the future they can picture for themselves.
Because business owner burnout, boredom, and complacency can overlap, it may help to find your own situation in one of the rows below and see what kind of help tends to fit.
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If this sounds like you |
What tends to help |
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Your days fill up with other people’s requests, and at the end of the week you cannot say what moved the business forward. |
Deciding which hours and days you will work, and putting your most important work on the calendar before anything else. |
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You have open time in your day, and it goes to busywork that brings in no clients or revenue. |
Planning every hour of your workday ahead of time, so each block has a specific task and a result you expect from it. |
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The business runs well, and the thought of doing the same work next year leaves you flat. |
Coaching, regular time with owners who have built bigger businesses than yours, and a new picture of what your role could be. |
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You work mostly on your own, and what you tell yourself about the business is rarely encouraging. |
Regular time with other business owners who have big goals, through events, networking, or group coaching. |
However, people use these words loosely. For example, an owner who no longer wants to meet with another client may call that feeling burnout. In that case, a new vision for the business would likely help more than a lighter schedule. What your days feel like, and what exactly is wearing you down, are better guides than the label.
Why Business Owner Burnout Often Starts in the Calendar
When business owner burnout comes from overload, you can usually see it first in the owner’s calendar, in two ways:
- No limits. The owner has not decided what they will and will not do, so they try to be all things to all people.
- Hours that produce no revenue. The owner spends much of the week on work that brings in no clients or revenue. As a result, they spend their time instead of investing it.
Many owners start with familiar time management advice: schedule your priorities instead of prioritizing your schedule. When you put the important work on the calendar first, you leave less room for everything else.
How to Run a Calendar That Prevents Business Owner Burnout
Owners who run their calendar this way treat it as a skill that improves with practice. Most of them rely on four habits:
- Setting limits on the working week.
- Deciding what they want from each block of time inside those limits.
- Filling those blocks with the daily activity that their quarterly goal requires.
- Reviewing each morning, and again each week, month, and quarter, whether they did what they planned.
When owners plan the day ahead of time, they spend less energy deciding what to do next. They also feel less of the daily stress that so often leads to business owner burnout. Mastering these insurance agency systems and processes ensures your day ends exactly when you planned.
Setting Your Own Working Hours and Limits
Owners who protect their time usually decide in advance which hours and days they will work, and then schedule everything inside those limits. Jason’s own limits are specific. He does not work past 2 p.m. or on Fridays, and his assistant keeps his calendar within those hours. During the time he does work, he focuses on the activities that lead to the results he wants.
Those limits fit his business because his team now meets with clients, and his role no longer requires it. Your limits will depend on where your business is today. For example, a producer who still runs most client meetings will likely choose different hours than an owner whose team handles them.
Planning Every Hour Inside Your Working Day
Inside those hours, it helps to give every block of time a label: what you will be doing and what you expect to get out of it. In one national advisory firm, each person goes over the day’s calendar with the team at 7:30 a.m. The team’s practice is to plan every hour of the working day.
They plan every hour because people who leave hours open tend to do nothing with them, or to fill them with busywork that does not grow the business.
You plan only the hours you have chosen to work, so your day still ends when you said it would. A fully planned day is also one of the habits of top financial advisors, along with a daily team huddle.
Building the Calendar Backward From Your Quarterly Goal
Owners who plan this way work backward from a goal for the quarter, in three steps:
- Set the goal for the quarter.
- Work out the core activities that goal requires and how many of each to do every day.
- Put those activities on the calendar.
After that, they no longer wonder where the next appointment will come from. They also do not stop in the middle of the day to figure out what to do next, because they already decided that when they planned the week. For a step-by-step version of this planning, including a worksheet, see how to get a business plan back on track in the fourth quarter.
A Morning Review: Checking Yesterday Before Planning Today
Jason recommends starting each morning by looking back at the day before and asking three questions:
- What was I supposed to do?
- Did I do it?
- If not, why not?
After answering them, you plan the day ahead. When you answer “why not,” you see what got in the way and what to change on today’s calendar.
Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly Calendar Reviews
You can ask the same questions over longer stretches of time as well:
- Daily: What was I supposed to do yesterday? Did I do it? If not, why not? What am I doing today?
- Weekly: What was I supposed to do this week? Did I do it? If not, why not? What am I doing next week?
- Monthly: What was I supposed to do this month? Did I do it? If not, why not? What am I doing next month?
- Quarterly: Did I reach the quarterly goal? If not, why not? What goes on next quarter’s calendar?
An Evening Check of Tomorrow's Calendar
Some owners also take a few minutes before the workday ends to look at tomorrow’s calendar with three questions in mind:
- Is everything scheduled inside the hours and days I have chosen to work?
- Do I know what I will do in each block and what I expect to get out of it?
- Have I scheduled the activities that move my quarterly goal forward, or has busywork taken their place?
If you look the evening before, you still have time to fix anything that does not fit.
When Burnout Needs More Than a Calendar Change
What Helps a Business Owner Who Feels Bored or Complacent
For an owner who feels bored or complacent, professional development focused on building a firm that runs beyond you is often the most useful place to start. Engaging with specialized practice management coaching puts you around people who show you what is possible, and that helps in two ways:
- A seat at a bigger table among people who have built more than you have.
- A community, so you are not left alone with your own thoughts as an independent owner.
Both take time. However, owners who keep showing up over a long period often find that they see themselves, and their business, differently.
A Seat at a Bigger Table With Owners Who Have Built More
A seat at a bigger table means spending time with people further along than you are. As Jason put it, “you need to surround yourself with other people who have done things that are bigger and better than you.” He added that it has to happen “consistently over a long period of time.”
It is hard to imagine what you are capable of until you have seen someone do it. Once you have met owners who built more, you can picture more for your own firm. Greatness Lab has written about how the environment around a business owner shapes what gets built.
Join us for a seat at the bigger table. Greatness Lab hosts specialized practice management coaching sessions and live events for financial advisors and independent professionals ready to scale insurance agency owners beyond personal production metrics.
Community for an Independent Business Owner
Owners of independent businesses have a lot of freedom, and many of them also spend a lot of time alone with their thoughts. That can be isolating, especially since most of what people say to themselves in those moments is not particularly encouraging.
Owners in that position usually benefit from a community with like-minded people who have big goals for themselves. They tend to find it through:
- Industry events.
- Networking events.
- Group coaching sessions.
- Working one on one with a coach.
If you already work with a coach, a few questions can help you judge whether that coaching is working.
Repeated Exposure to People With Big Goals
Getting out of a funk takes time as well as effort. One event is a good start, and Jason’s advice is to keep spending time with people who have big goals, again and again, over months and years.
Many people in insurance or financial advice got into the business because a successful person drew them in. That person shaped how they work every day. Often, that person’s success also became the ceiling for what they thought they could do. When you meet owners who have built more, you have someone new to measure yourself against.
A Bigger Vision for Your Role in the Business
Jason often tells his own story to show what a different vision can look like. He could not see himself, 20 years on, sitting at client kitchen tables talking about their grandchildren. “It’s not that I don’t like their grandkids, I just don’t want to do that times a thousand people to make a million bucks.”
So he chose a different model instead. He set out to “create an army of people” who would serve clients. His goal was a bigger impact on clients and on the people who work for him, and along the way he found it a much more enjoyable career.
If that sounds familiar, it may help to picture a different role for yourself. For example, you might picture what you are capable of and what the business could become, with clients still at the center and a team you build serving them. Greatness Lab has written more about how advisors go from top producer to firm leader.
How Success Can Set a Ceiling on Your Business
Complacency can follow real success. Coach Micheal Burt, founder of The Greatness Factory, calls it “the accidental arrogance of success.” Once owners define success at the level they have already reached, they start to believe their own headlines. That level becomes their lid, and when something new comes along, they find reasons why it is not for them.
Overcoming the limiting beliefs that keep business owners from scaling is absolutely important if you want to transform a practice into a business. Often, these hidden blocks hide behind simple personal preferences, such as an owner thinking, “I don’t really want to manage people.”
Still, a bigger business does not have to mean a harder life. As Jason put it, “The bigger you get, the easier it becomes.” The problems do not disappear. They change into problems that, in his words, are “more fun to deal with.” He speaks from his own life today, which includes:
- Working from home.
- No longer meeting with clients.
- A life he describes as balanced.
Other owners have made a similar move. David and Jennifer Globke are one example. David was a top producer who felt trapped in what he calls a golden cage, and today he is building an enterprise on his own terms.
A Quantum Leap Starts With a Decision and an Action
Coach Burt has worked with Dr. Price Pritchett on quantum leaps. In his experience, a quantum leap begins with “a simple decision backed up by an action.” For example, the decision can be as plain as going out to recruit today or choosing to quit playing small.
The decision and the action will look different depending on which problem you face:
- If burnout is the issue, the decision might be to set your limits, and the action might be putting them on next week’s calendar.
- If boredom or complacency is the issue, the decision might be to seek high-level practice management coaching and align with owners who have already built what you want.
Choosing the Right Answer for Burnout, Boredom, or Complacency in Your Business
Burnout, boredom, and complacency can feel alike from the inside, and each one calls for a different response:
- For business owners burnout from overload: limits you set for your week, a purpose for every block of time, and a daily look at whether you followed the plan.
- For boredom and complacency: regular time with owners who have built bigger businesses, a community of people with big goals, and a new picture of your business.
If you are not sure which one you are facing, that question is a good place to start a conversation. Greatness Lab members also get coaching and community in one place.
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Talk Through What Is Draining You Tell us what your weeks look like and where your business is today. We will help you sort out whether you are dealing with burnout, boredom, or complacency, and talk through ways Greatness Lab could help, from coaching to a seat at a bigger table. |
Questions Business Owners Ask About Burnout, Boredom, and Complacency
What is the difference between burnout and boredom for an insurance agent or financial advisor?
For an insurance agent or financial advisor, burnout from overload is usually a calendar problem, and boredom is closer to a coaching problem. Burnout builds when an owner sets no limits on the week and spends many hours on work that does not produce revenue. Boredom and complacency have more to do with the people around the owner and the future they can picture. For those, coaching, community, and steady time around people who have built more tend to help most.
How can a business owner in insurance or financial services avoid burnout?
Many owners avoid business owner burnout by scheduling their priorities inside limits they set themselves. They decide the hours and days they will work and what they want to get out of each block of time. Each morning they check whether they did what they planned and, if not, why not, and they repeat that review each week, month, and quarter. Owners use this approach for burnout that comes from overload and a week without boundaries. Anyone who stays worn down after changing their schedule should talk with a doctor or another professional they trust.
Does a full calendar cause business owner burnout?
A full calendar does not have to cause burnout when the owner sets the limits of the working day. Burnout is more closely tied to a week with no limits, in which the owner tries to be all things to all people and spends many hours on work that produces no revenue. A full calendar feels different when the owner keeps it within the hours they chose and knows what each block of time is for.
What should I do if I feel bored or complacent in my insurance or financial business?
Most owners in that situation benefit from coaching and from regular time with people who have built more than they have. Community helps too, whether it comes from events, networking, or group coaching sessions. Running an independent business can be isolating, and many owners find that repeated time around people with big goals helps them out of that funk.
Why do successful insurance and financial business owners stop growing?
One reason is what Coach Micheal Burt calls the accidental arrogance of success. When owners define success at the level they have already reached, that level becomes their ceiling, and new ideas start to feel like they are meant for someone else. Owners raise that ceiling by spending regular time around people operating at a bigger level and by forming a new picture of what their business could become.
About the Author
Jason Mickool, Founder and CEO of Greatness Lab
Jason Mickool built Florida Financial Advisors from a kitchen table conversation into a national advisor enterprise. It grew to dozens of locations across more than a dozen states, and he completed a nine-figure transaction. Today he brings that operating experience to Greatness Lab, where he coaches insurance and financial business owners who want to build, scale, and exit on their own terms. He is the author of Built to Lead, Built to Scale. Connect with Jason Mickool on LinkedIn or at jasonmickool.com.
Coach Micheal Burt, Founder of The Greatness Factory
Coach Micheal Burt is the founder of The Greatness Factory in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a former championship basketball coach who became a business performance coach. As a best-selling author, he teaches the Prey Drive and Monster mindset frameworks to business owners and advisors. Connect with Coach Micheal Burt on LinkedIn or at coachburt.com.
