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I just read a founder's burnout confession on LinkedIn.
700 days of 18-hour workdays. Revenue up 166%. Hiring a President to scale.
Everyone's analyzing her business problem and burnout signs.
I see something deeper.
Her post is a textbook example of what Carl Jung meant when he said: "Until you make the subconscious conscious, it will run your life. You will call it fate."
This isn't a business problem. This is a shadow work problem.
And I know because I spent 20 years in addiction recovery learning to spot the patterns.
Plus, I'm a certified brand strategist trained to use Myers-Briggs with executives and boards for shadow diagnosis, not team dynamics.
Let me show you what she's really saying—the parts even she doesn't see yet.
In recovery, we have an exercise: Write about what's bothering you NOW.
It reveals parts of the subconscious hidden from you.
This founder's post is that exercise happening in public.
Let me decode what her subconscious is screaming through the business language.
"I'm in a full-fledged burnout. And this could've been the end of my story."
You did that to yourself.
Question worth asking: Would a person who loves themselves do that to themselves?
Burnout isn't something that happens TO you. It's something you create.
When I was 7, I'd visit my grandparents in Mississippi. My granddad would take me fishing 6 days a week. 4am to 12 noon. He'd sell the catch.
I didn't think I was working. It was fun.
I learned: When you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
She's working 18-hour days and calling it burnout.
That means she's not doing what she loves. She's doing what she thinks she should be doing.
That's the first shadow: Living someone else's dream.
This is one of the burnout signs everyone misses because it looks like ambition, not shadow.
"The truth: I have a pattern. I hire people I want to save. People who 'just need a chance.'"
Stop playing the martyr. The problem starts and ends with you.
African-American saying: "When you point your finger at someone, there are 3 fingers pointing back at you."
She thinks her problem is: "I hire the wrong people."
Her actual problem: "I need to save people to feel valuable."
That's not hiring strategy. That's codependency.
The shadow pattern:
This is addiction behavior without the substance.
And it's one of the 6 shadow patterns that destroy founders if left unconscious.
Buddhism teaches: Karma is a seed planted in you that you DON'T know it's there.
Question worth asking: Is that your dream or someone else's?
She says: "I'm building the legal + venture backbone of the creator economy. This is a $100M+ company."
But whose dream is that?
Is she building what she loves? Or what she thinks she should build to prove she's valuable?
Recovery wisdom: When you're living someone else's dream, you call the exhaustion "burnout."
When you're living your dream, you call the exhaustion "temporary sacrifice."
She's using the first language. That tells you everything.
"Business is almost too good right now. I'm turning away creators I would've killed to work with a year ago. Revenue is up 166%. That's nearly 3X."
WRONG.
Clients see that you don't know your value. You're not charging enough.
Raise your prices.
If revenue is up 166% and you're in burnout, you're underpricing and overdelivering.
That's the codependent pattern again:
Give more than you charge → Prove your value → Exhaust yourself → Feel resentful → Blame "burnout"
The shadow truth: You don't believe you're valuable enough to charge what you're worth.
So you overdeliver to justify your existence.
That's not business strategy. That's self-worth deficit.
"People call me a machine. They're right. I am precise. I am intense. I am a scalpel."
What are you chasing?
The shadow answer: "I'm not good enough."
She's not a machine because she's precise. She's a machine because she's running from something.
When you work 18-hour days for 700 days straight, you're not being productive.
You're avoiding.
Avoiding what?
The question: "Am I valuable if I'm not producing?"
That's not productivity. That's adrenaline-based survival.
This is the INTJ Ghost In The Darkness—the shadow pitfall that destroys if you can't see it.
"That's not leadership. That's adrenaline-based survival. And I'm out of stamina."
No. It's fear.
And here's the self-deception: "That's why I have a support team that understands."
DENIAL = Don't Even kNow I Am Lying.
She thinks she needs a support team that "understands."
What she actually needs: A support team that tells her the truth.
"You're running from fear. You're playing martyr. You're living someone else's dream. You don't value yourself. And hiring a President won't fix any of it."
But nobody's saying that. Because she hired people who "need her" instead of people who challenge her.
That's the codependent loop.
"I've worked 18-hour days for over 700 days. My nervous system is done carrying a multi-million-dollar company on its back. No one teaches you this part of being a founder."
First honest answer: "I don't know what I'm doing."
That's the truth under all the business language.
"No one teaches you this part" = "I don't know how to build this and I'm afraid to admit it."
The shadow pattern:
When you don't know what you're doing, you work harder to hide it.
The harder you work, the more you burn out.
The more you burn out, the more you blame external factors ("no one teaches this").
But the real problem is internal: You won't admit you need help because that would confirm your core belief that you're not good enough.
"No one teaches you this part of being a founder. Steven Bartlett talks about it, so I'm saying it out loud too."
Young people asking other young people who are trying to figure shit out just like you.
She is not Steve.
Steven Bartlett has his own shadows to work through. Quoting him doesn't make your burnout valid—it makes you part of the echo chamber.
Recovery wisdom: Stop asking people who are lost for directions.
You need someone who's navigated this path. Someone who's survived 25 years of corporate collapses, built executive systems, and came out the other side with pattern recognition.
Not another burned-out founder who "talks about it."
"I am done believing I 'can't afford high-level talent.' The truth is: I can't afford not to."
BINGO. Jackpot.
"Can't afford high-level talent." That's the truth.
The Freudian slip revealed: Remember the recovery exercise? Write down what's bothering you NOW.
She wrote: "I can't afford high-level talent."
That's not about money. That's about self-worth.
Translation: "I don't believe I'm WORTHY of high-level talent."
So instead, she:
This is the cycle.
And hiring a President won't break it.
This is where someone who's worked with Fortune 500s building brands and creating executive systems could point this out:
You don't have a talent problem. You have a shadow problem.
Your business language is revealing psychological patterns you haven't made conscious yet.
Here's what I see:
Pattern 1: Codependency You hire people you want to "save" because rescuing others makes you feel valuable. When they fail, you blame yourself, confirming your core belief that you're "not good enough."
Pattern 2: Hand-Me-Down Dreams Are you building a $100M creator economy company because YOU want it? Or because that's what success is supposed to look like?
Pattern 3: Self-Worth Deficit Revenue up 166% but you're in burnout? You're undercharging and overdelivering to prove your value. That's codependency, not strategy.
Pattern 4: Adrenaline Addiction18-hour days for 700 days isn't leadership. It's running from the question: "Am I valuable if I'm not producing?"
Pattern 5: Denial"No one teaches you this part" = "I don't know what I'm doing and I'm afraid to admit it." That's not a knowledge gap. That's fear.
Pattern 6: External Solutions For Internal Problems Hiring a President won't fix self-worth. You'll just burn out at higher payroll.
All 6 of these are shadow patterns that show up as business decisions.
What everyone's telling her: "Hire better talent. Build better systems. Scale smarter."
What she actually needs:
Would a person who loves themselves work 18-hour days for 700 days straight?
If no, why are you doing it?
When you point your finger at your team ("they quit after feedback"), what are the 3 fingers pointing back at you?
What are you not seeing about your role in creating this pattern?
Are you living a hand-me-down life?
Is building a $100M creator economy company YOUR dream? Or someone else's idea of success that you internalized?
What are you chasing when you work like a machine?
The shadow answer: "I'm not good enough."
When did you decide that? And why are you still running from it?
What does "I can't afford high-level talent" really mean?
Not money. Self-worth.
Translation: "I don't believe I'm valuable enough to attract people at that level."
Fix the self-worth. The talent problem fixes itself.
If you didn't have to prove your value through rescue, overwork, or achievement, who would you be?
That's the person under the burnout.
That's who you need to meet.
I survived 20 years of drug addiction. Same patterns. Different substance.
Here's what recovery taught me:
You can't fix what you can't see.
This founder's post reveals:
First step: See the patterns. Name them. Own them.
"I hire people I want to save."
That's codependency.
Recovery wisdom: The problem starts and ends with you.
When you point your finger at your team, there are 3 fingers pointing back at you.
What are they pointing at?
Karma is a seed planted in you that you DON'T know it's there.
What seed was planted in you that makes you believe:
Find the seed. Pull it out. Plant new ones.
If you're building a $100M company and burning out, ask:
Is this YOUR dream? Or a hand-me-down?
When I was 7, fishing with my granddad 6 days a week, 4am to noon, I didn't call it work. I called it fun.
When you're living your dream, exhaustion is temporary sacrifice.
When you're living someone else's dream, exhaustion is burnout.
Which language are you using?
"Steven Bartlett talks about it, so I'm saying it out loud too."
She is not Steve. And Steve is figuring it out like everyone else.
Stop asking young people who are lost for directions.
Find someone who's navigated this path. Someone who survived 25 years of corporate collapses. Built executive systems. Came out with pattern recognition.
Not another burned-out founder validating your burnout.
"I can't afford high-level talent."
That's not about money. That's about self-worth.
You don't believe you're valuable enough to attract high-level talent.
So you hire "potential" people you can rescue (proves your value).
Fix the self-worth deficit. The talent problem disappears.
Everyone else is analyzing her business problem:
I'm analyzing her shadow problem:
Why can I see this?
20 years of drug addiction recovery taught me:
25 years of Fortune 500 corporate survival taught me:
Carl Jung integration taught me:
Nobody else has all three:
That's why I can diagnose what others miss.
Hiring a President won't fix this.
Because this isn't a business problem.
It's a shadow problem masquerading as a business problem.
All the patterns in her post—codependency, hand-me-down dreams, self-worth deficit, adrenaline addiction, denial—are psychological patterns.
You can't fix psychological problems with business solutions.
Hiring a President will:
She'll be burned out again in 18 months. With higher expenses.
Not a President. A Hybrid Fractional CMO/CTO.
A professional who can assess across four layers:
Layer 1: Psychological (Shadow Work)
Layer 2: Identity (Brand Strategy)
Layer 3: Strategic (Market Positioning)
Layer 4: Technical (Executive Systems)
Traditional consulting: Four different professionals, no coordination
Hybrid Fractional CMO/CTO: One assessment across all four layers, integrated solution
This is why business strategy without shadow work fails. You're optimizing tactics on a broken foundation.
Business symptoms → Psychological causes:
This is pattern recognition across business and psychology.
Most consultants see the business symptoms.
I see the psychological causes.
That's the advantage of 20 years recovery + 25 years Fortune 500 survival + Carl Jung integration.
Not to attack this founder. To show her what she can't see yet.
Carl Jung: "Until you make the subconscious conscious, it will run your life. You will call it fate."
She's calling it:
It's not fate. It's patterns.
And patterns can be changed once you see them.
This analysis is the recovery exercise:
Write about what's bothering you NOW. It reveals parts of the subconscious hidden from you.
I'm holding up a mirror.
What she does with it is her choice.
Business Strategy + Jungian Psychology + Recovery Wisdom
Most consultants offer one:
I offer integration:
The business symptoms ARE psychological symptoms at scale.
You can't separate them.
Her hiring problem IS her codependency problem.
Her burnout problem IS her self-worth problem.
Her "can't afford talent" problem IS her "don't believe I'm valuable" problem.
Fix the psychology. The business fixes itself.
That's what 20 years recovery + 25 years Fortune 500 + Carl Jung gives you:
Pattern recognition across all three dimensions.
Every Myers-Briggs type has a Ghost In The Darkness—a shadow pitfall that destroys you if you can't see it.
Her likely type: ENFJ or INFJ
ENFJ Ghost: "I need to save people to be valuable"
INFJ Ghost: "If I charge full value, people won't like me"
If you don't know you have harbored resentments, you will lash out.
The team member gives feedback. You explode. You wonder why they quit.
The ghost jumped.
That's why shadow work comes before strategy.
The complete framework of Ghosts by type is here.
If you're a burned-out founder reading this and recognizing yourself:
You don't have a business problem. You have a shadow problem.
The good news: Shadow work is faster than trying 10 different business solutions that don't work.
The bad news: It requires looking at parts of yourself you've been avoiding.
Recovery exercise: Write about what's bothering you NOW.
Don't edit. Don't filter. Don't perform.
Just write.
It will reveal the subconscious patterns running your business.
Then find someone who can help you see what you wrote.
Not a business coach who optimizes tactics.
Someone who integrates business strategy + psychology + recovery wisdom.
That's the work this founder needs.
That's the work most burned-out founders need.
But nobody's offering it. Until now.
What this founder actually needs:
Month 1: Shadow Work Assessment
Month 2-3: Brand Strategy (On Clean Foundation)
Month 4-6: Executive Systems
Ongoing: Integration Advisory
Result: Sustainable scaling because foundation is clean.
Not a President. A Hybrid Fractional CMO/CTO.
— Charles K Davis
Certified Brand Strategist | Hybrid Fractional CMO/CTO | Cebu, Philippines
Trained To Use Myers-Briggs With Executives And Boards
20 Years Recovery Wisdom | 25 Years Fortune 500 Survival | Carl Jung Integration
I diagnose shadow problems, not just business problems
P.S. If this made you uncomfortable, good. Shadow work should. If it made you defensive, even better—that's the shadow resisting visibility. If it made you curious about your own patterns, learn more about the integration framework. Not for everyone. Only for founders ready to see what they've been avoiding.
P.P.S. I created Executive Information Systems at Navistar for C-Suite executives. Now I advise boards. But before I talk systems with any burned-out founder, I ask shadow work questions first. Because if you don't fix the psychology, the business solutions won't work. That's not opinion. That's 45 years of lived proof.
Fractional CMO & CTO | Empowering $1M-$10M manufacturers, logistics, service, and retail leaders to transform brand crisis into revenue engines. While others panic, my clients thrive.
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