The Grit & Grace Leadership Podcast
What fuels the heart of a leader? Leadership isn't just about guiding—it's about persevering, learning, and growing. On the Grit & Grace Podcast, we shine a spotlight on the stories behind the leader. Leaving listeners with the inspiration and tools to do the same.
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The Grit & Grace Leadership Podcast
Burnout, Recovery, and Reinvention: Roslyn McLarty's Journey to Purpose-Led Success
In this candid conversation, Roslyn McLarty, founder of Within and co-founder of The GIST, shares her journey from startup success to founder burnout and how it shaped her mission to empower entrepreneurs. Alongside her co-founders, Roslyn grew The GIST into a multi-million dollar company, run by a 40-person team—predominantly women and non-binary folks—delivering relatable, inclusive sports coverage to over a million GISTers.
After facing the toll of burnout from her years in the startup world, Roslyn made the bold decision to step back and embark on a healing journey. This experience inspired her to create Within, a personal development platform for purpose-driven founders and startup leaders, blending business success with personal well-being.
In this episode, Roslyn explores how personal development is integral to business success, how to build with integrity to avoid burnout, and the strategies that helped her recover. Tune in for powerful insights on leading and building a successful business while staying true to your values, maintaining well-being, and avoiding burnout along the way.
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Roslyn is an executive coach and the founder of Within, a platform supporting founders at the intersection of entrepreneurship, personal development, and spirituality.
In her bi-weekly newsletter, she shares actionable ideas you can use to build with integrity, live a meaningful life, and achieve unstoppable progress—without burning out.
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Today I'm speaking with Roslyn McLarty who, after five years of being in intense startup building mode at the gist, experienced founder burnout.
Speaker 2:So there definitely were red flags along the way, but I was so disconnected from myself that I think I ignored a lot of them, like I was almost lying to myself, because it would have been so unfathomably hard to accept that I was burning out from this company that I love.
Speaker 1:In this episode we cover the signs of burnout, strategies to overcome it and how we can use these lessons moving forward to build companies and lead from a healthier place. Let's dive in. Welcome to the podcast everyone. I am excited to introduce Roslyn to the show. She is a co-founder and strategic advisor at the Gist, a woman-run sports media brand really making sports more inclusive and accessible for underserved sports fans, and she was the former head of ops, finance and growth and grew Gist, alongside her co-founders, into a multi-million dollar company run by a 40-person team, today predominantly women. We have a lot to talk about as she's sort of hit the five-year mark. We're going to dive deep into what she's learned as a founder dealing with burnout, recognizing those signs and, more importantly, we're excited to talk a little bit about how we move forward today, building companies from a whole new place, empowering an entrepreneur so that we don't have to hit the burnout stride ever again. Roz, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's great to be here.
Speaker 1:Talk to us about this journey of the GIST, how it was founded, some of the challenges and some of the accomplishments that you and your team had along the way.
Speaker 2:The idea for the GIST came from a male-dominated sports landscape and just seeing this real need and white space for more equal sports, coverage of women's and men's sports, of sports that were coming from female voices and other underrepresented voices in the landscape and other underrepresented voices in the landscape and something that's just really for a female audience, an underrepresented audience, just this kind of psychographic of people that I had felt excluded and started as a side hustle, worked on it for about a year, just kind of on the side of our desk while we were all working different corporate jobs and going from this like weekly Canadian sports newsletter expanding into the U? S through different like sports markets. We went through a number of different incubators and accelerators and raised funding along the way and, um, yeah, we're able to grow the audience to a point where brands wanted to be a part of the story.
Speaker 2:It's been a lot like hiring and scaling team, lots of different challenges and things to figure out along the way, but it's been, yeah, a really beautiful journey.
Speaker 1:Let's just kind of fast forward it to five years into the journey as a founder, where you really recognized that there was something not quite right. What was your experience then?
Speaker 2:At that point I was the head of operations, finance and growth, which was a pretty broad scope and that was okay, like earlier on, when it was just like three co founders and a couple of people. But when it was the multimillion dollar company and had so many people, it just was feeling like there was just so much to do. And I'm the kind of person that, like, really puts a lot on myself Definitely a perfectionist, definitely a people pleaser. I was really looking to prove my own value in the ways that I was contributing and the ways that I was getting external validation for the ways that I was contributing. I just kind of hit a point.
Speaker 2:It was in June 2023, where I woke up and I felt like something is really not okay, just feeling really disconnected from myself, almost like a dullness and apathy towards things that, like, had used to bring me a lot of joy and excitement around building my company. I was feeling really heightened anxiety every day, like things that used to bring me like some stress, like public speaking, for instance, were just like almost feeling unbearable. Just this really heightened emotional reactivity, just this feeling of like tasks that would have been doable like a year prior just felt like so overwhelmingly difficult.
Speaker 1:In hindsight, as you look back. Was it a build process?
Speaker 2:Were there red flags along the way, or was it just you know, one day, so there definitely were red flags along the way, but I was so disconnected from myself that I think I ignored a lot of them, like I was almost lying to myself, because it would have been so unfathomably hard to accept that I was burning out from this company that I loved and I had put so much time and invested and sacrificed so much that like I needed to continue to see it through to the end, to see it through to being a success, whatever that meant, to make it worth everything. My own identity was so tied to being a co-founder and an entrepreneur and a leader at this company that the idea of burning out from it was almost too hard to accept.
Speaker 1:When did you go from that thought to no? I really need to confront this Like what was the switch for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just like woke up one morning and I just like had this knowing of like something is really not right, and I think it took all the months of ignoring the signs to like just really feel it on a very deep level and almost like kind of had a mental breakdown, was just like crying on the couch, being being like I don't know what's going on from there, like I just like told my co-founders what I was experiencing and going through and they were really compassionate, of course, and like felt so badly that I was feeling this way.
Speaker 2:But I don't think any of us really comprehended the severity of burnout that I was at and like didn't understand that like thereended the severity of burnout that I was at, and like didn't understand that like there are certain levels of burnout that take like months or even years to recover from. And so, you know, we were all just like okay, like I guess I'll take, you know, a couple long weekends, like a few days off, and like I'll just get through the next couple of months till I'm going on this two week vacation and I'll come back and everything will be fine. And so I worked for another like month and a half of just you know, trying to like reprioritize a little bit, but also recognize that like, okay, maybe I need some more support. So it's also hiring on top of doing all of my like critical tasks. And got to the vacation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one on vacation, um, came back and was like obviously not cured well, and today you speak about this right and you are really kind of on a mission to educate those who are suffering from this, uh, and support those. So let's go through like the recovery and learning, like what have been the major elements that you've learned through your journey and how have you supported yourself through your recovery?
Speaker 2:it's been a long and deep and intense and like still ongoing journey, um, and one that I'm so grateful for.
Speaker 2:That's been one of the best things that's come out of burning out and, by the way, like I eventually decided that we, we decided that I would need to go on leave.
Speaker 2:That's kind of where the recovery began.
Speaker 2:The very beginning days were just about like healing, kind of like my body and my nervous system and my exhaustion, so like literally like sitting on the couch, which was like such a foreign thing to me as someone that had just been going and going lots of like walks in nature, some like yin and restorative yoga, just like these things to like bring my body back to like a state of peace, because when you're burnt out, like you're just in this like chronic dysregulated nervous system state.
Speaker 2:And then, when my body was healthy enough, I think I felt like I was really ready to face myself and like the ways that I had contributed to my own burnout, and so I sought out a burnout coach to understand like why am I such a perfectionist? Like why is it so important for me to feel like I need to be perfect in everything I do from my work and like as an operator and my individual contribution and also as a manager and as a leader and trying to keep everybody happy with me and never have anyone be disappointed in me, and like really feeling like I had to prove my value through that.
Speaker 1:Which I have to say just a couple things to underscore. First of all, understanding how we contribute to our own burnout through our own patterns. This is, this, is that was just like a game changing, like statement that we can all empower ourselves with, because a lot of times people will think it's I'm overworked, I'm, you know, all these things coming at me with what you said is a really empowering thought. And then it makes no wonder, and I a lot of those patterns that you talked about. I hey, I'm putting my hand up too. I can relate to them. As your company goes from four people to 40 people and customers grow and the audience grows. These patterns have no place to live anymore because you just you cannot make that many people happy. Like you can't make that many people happy, like you can't at a certain point, like you have to fundamentally change because you can't operate at that level. How long did it kind of take you to really uncover those things?
Speaker 2:yeah, I would say it's, it's ongoing and I think, like through every healing modality, I find that they all kind of combine in different ways and so, like one of the big practices for me, coming out of burnout too, was like a self compassion practice, because on the other side of taking this accountability for my own burnout, there also was like a lot of shame of like oh, I wasn't good enough, I was incapable, I failed, I let everybody down.
Speaker 2:Shame is not a motivating emotion for healing or improving, and so I developed this like pretty, um, consistent self-compassion practice that also involved kind of speaking to my inner child in a lot of ways, um, a couple of the things that I did that that really helped.
Speaker 2:One of them was just writing down three things that I did well like the day before and what it's evidence of. It's kind of like similar to a grateful gratefulness journal of just like reminding yourself of the good things in your life, but actually like applying it to yourself and saying like this is what it means about me and my character. And then the other one, which took a little bit of time to like get comfortable with, was actually just writing a love note to myself every day, just learning to give myself the validation that I felt like I needed to be okay, you know, from other people, but just, you know, learning to tell her like what she needed to hear earlier on and and even today, was like extremely powerful and like often very like emotional for me thank you for your vulnerability in sharing these exercises.
Speaker 1:My hope is that people can grab real tools as they listen. How has it been for you now? So you've been in this process, would you say.
Speaker 2:This is eight months now this journey you've been in it's going well and they're like there have been like a lot of steps that have gotten me to where I am now.
Speaker 2:I would say like one of kind of the catalysts for like where I find myself now is was just like the intense grief of like eventually coming to the decision of like moving on from the company and having to grieve that loss of like, you know, that future that I would have had with the company and my relationship with my co-founders and being active in building the business with them and this like identity, and that was like really hard. But it was out of that place of like really intense grief where I think, like a lot of the time we creative ideas of like how things could manifest, which was really hopeful After like just feeling like my world had gotten completely rocked. Part of, I think, why I burnt out is because a lot of the work that I was doing I actually like when I get honest with myself like didn't enjoy A lot of times when you grow in your leadership roles, like you're put into, you might start in a creative capacity.
Speaker 1:You might start, you know, dealing more with, like customers and sales, eventually kind of move into a track of analytics and you know, looking at things through operations and finance and budgets and sheets, and there's a pride in thinking you can do that. But sometimes it's like, but am I in the right role? And so this intuitive, creative side, like how have you been tending to this? Because I think sometimes the analytical minds want to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think just starting to get curious about like what are the things that I do that like make me lose track of time, or what are the things that I used to love to do as a kid, like what are the things that like actually I look forward to and like give me energy?
Speaker 2:And so, for me, like some of the things that came up when I was asking those questions were graphic design, which is very opposite from my role, but I always really enjoyed like the branding process and like jumping into Canva and Figma to like work on some growth marketing assets or like whatever. And so I was like I'm just going to take a graphic design course and like and I've been absolutely loving it. It's been, it's brought me so much joy. Another one was writing, which is like kind of ironic because I was in this like content company, just not on the content side, but that has, I think it's really helped me find my voice and it's been something I've always enjoyed too, like even when I was just like writing press releases or investor reports, and it's like so much more fun to write about stuff that's meaningful to me and as a way to find community and like people like yourself and like connect with people that are like interested in the same things.
Speaker 1:What advice would you give someone to be able to introduce those techniques into their everyday living today, even if they know? No, like I. I need time to explore that right now.
Speaker 2:You can start in like really small, like incremental steps and they probably will build if, um, if you are loving them, like, they'll build in the direction that you want them to. I think also like something that was helpful for me was finding expanders in those areas too, and just like seeing what's possible, especially for people like that like had been where you are now, like maybe you're in this career that you're not loving or you're in this position that you're not loving, but just like seeing someone else who's like moved out of what you're doing into something that like you want to be doing or has like found a way to make it work that the culture of hustle grind, burnout we're building from a new place.
Speaker 2:I think that it's it's possible and that people deserve actually to do work that they love and that lights them up and that, um, that's actually the way that you're going to be contributing to the world in like the biggest way.
Speaker 2:I think, like in Western society, we think like we have to, you know, be like like me, be the finance and ops person.
Speaker 2:That's how we're valuable and we need to hustle and work hard and, you know, to be successful, you need to be like working hard on stuff that you don't like, and I think like we kind of need to change that idea and start to believe that it is possible for us to be like not only possible, but like really important for us to be working on the things that light us up and give us energy.
Speaker 2:The entrepreneurial journey is very intertwined with the spiritual journey and that the stuff that you need to work on as a human, like the inner work that you need to do on yourself, like facing your limiting beliefs, healing unhealed trauma, is all reflected in the challenges that are coming up in your business, and so running a business and the things, the blocks that are coming up, the challenges, are all just opportunities for you to heal and starting to like see those as intertwined and starting to incorporate this like personal growth and healing into like a parallel of building a company, I think will I don't know allow people to unlock business success from a different place than this like grind, hard work mentality, like it can be from a more intuitive place.
Speaker 1:As people have been coming forward and sharing their stories with you. Are you seeing any shifts in the culture and trends on kind of this new approach Like? What are you observing?
Speaker 2:I'm seeing a lot more of it online, especially as it's something that I've, like been more interested in, and I'm coming across more people that are wanting to build businesses and, like build lives in this way.
Speaker 2:That's more like conscious and intentional and, um, you know, recognizing the connection between spirituality and personal growth and businesses, and I think it's like it's a it's becoming much. It's more and more possible to do that. As you know, we're working more remotely and there's a lot more flexibility and people see paths that are different than just like you climb the corporate ladder at this one place for your whole career, and you know, people are starting to see that there can be different expressions and different ways of working that you know, express the different parts of what they have to offer, and so that's really exciting to see, because I think that's just going to ultimately work better for people and allow them to have the impact that they want to be having in the world that they maybe wouldn't necessarily have been able to if they were just painted into this like climbing the corporate ladder box.
Speaker 2:So, when you think about your next chapter as an entrepreneur and vision, so when you think about your next chapter as an entrepreneur and vision, you know what. What advice are you giving yourself for how you're going to continue to evolve and bring your gifts out into the world? Building now does combine all the things that I love and learning to like listen to my body and my intuition a lot more, since that was something that was completely cut off before. But yeah, like using kind of my inner wisdom to guide me on like big things and also just like what am I working on today? Like what do I actually feel like we're going today? Things like that.
Speaker 2:I think continuing to bring more um self-compassion is like a big one for me and continuing to kind of level up my worth and being guided by the purpose, instead of like this feeling of having to prove myself, because the prove myself forcing energy just doesn't, doesn't work with like what I'm trying to bring into the world now. And I think just like finding my community, too is one that I'm like really trying to figure out this year. Like finding other entrepreneurs that are building in this new paradigm, because you really do absorb like the energy of the, the people that you surround yourself with. So if you're around people that are like cussing and grasping and like forcing. You can like fall into that too, especially in a city like New York, which is where I am. So I think finding people that are also, you know, on more of like a spiritual entrepreneurial path will serve me going forward.
Speaker 1:One kind of final theme that I wanted to touch on before we wrap how would somebody have recognized the signs and what can people do to support each other?
Speaker 2:If you are starting to feel a dullness, if you are feeling a heightened anxiety, if you're feeling any form of chronic like pain or afflictions like for me, I had a chronic neck pain and shoulder pain um that you know all the physio and chiropractor and stuff like didn't um help.
Speaker 2:It was like a psycho, psychosomatic um affliction, um.
Speaker 2:If you are realizing you're reaching for your coping mechanisms, if you are feeling any of those signs like, I would say, acknowledge them, like get honest with yourself, I think, asking for support, whether that's like business partners or friends, or finding like a coach, if you have the means, or a therapist, so that you don't feel like you're so alone and you can start to foster a bit of a sense of of safety um around you in you know, making the changes that you're gonna need to make.
Speaker 2:I think like, if you're headed for burnout or already burnt out, like you do need to get honest with yourself about some of the changes um that you're gonna need to make, both both external and internal. So like external changes need to make both both external and internal. So like external changes could look like reprioritizing, like just getting really honest about, like what parts of the business you need to be working on seeing, like, where you can eliminate, delegate, minimize tasks or make them more fun. Um, like really ruthlessly, um. And then, on the internal side, like starting to ask yourself, like how am I contributing to my own burnout? And that's something where it's helpful to get support too, because sometimes, like it's all it's like in your subconscious right You're not sure necessarily that, like your perfectionism or your people placing is like really contributing to your own burnout, but that can be really supportive.
Speaker 1:If I were your colleague back then at the time, like how would I have known? Or could I have known? Like what could I have done in those, in those days, to have supported you?
Speaker 2:Sometimes it can be like hard to detect, especially like someone who's burnt out is usually like a bit of a people pleaser.
Speaker 2:So you really do need to like really observe and check in and I would recommend like, if you're, if you're running a company as like co-founders or anything like that, having regular check-ins where you can like really get honest, um with each other about how things are going. That can help and be kind of an invitation to be honest about those things. But yeah, I think if you see someone is kind of like losing their their spark, um, starting to even like struggle with with their performance, even like I don't assume the worst that like you know they don't care or they're lazy, like they could really be struggling from a mental health standpoint, and so giving them the benefit of the doubt, um, and yeah, like I would say really encouraging them to find support, either a coach, a therapist, a burnout course, like free burnout resources that are online, where you kind of learn more and get take it like more seriously, because it is like a very serious thing.
Speaker 1:I know you went through such a hard time, but what a what a gift you're serving all of us through your journey. Roslyn, thank you for being so honest and vulnerable and real on today's show yeah, thank you so much for having me for the opportunity thank you for joining us. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, where we transform the wisdom from our podcast into practical tips, tools and takeaways for your leadership journey. Find us at gritgracepodcast. See you next week.