When Success Becomes the Problem: A CEO’s Press Pause Story

Entrepreneur Shane Barker built a fast-growing company with 130 employees and a $25M valuation in just two years. 

But behind the success was a dangerous reality. 

He was working 18-20 hour days, living on coffee and energy drinks, missing his son’s baseball games, and slowly pushing his health to the edge. 

Then came the realization that changed everything. 

In this episode of Time to Press Pause, Shane shares the moment he understood that success without boundaries can cost you everything, your health, your relationships, and your presence in the moments that matter most. 

Today, Shane leads a smaller team, protects his energy, and lives by a different philosophy of leadership. 

A powerful conversation about ambition, burnout, delegation, and redefining what success actually means.

We talked about:

• The hidden cost of entrepreneurial hustle culture
• Why working 18–20 hours a day nearly broke him
• The moment Shane realized he was on track for a heart attack
• Why delegation is one of the most important leadership skills
• The difference between work-life balance and life harmony
• Why most entrepreneurs ignore the signals their body sends
• How COVID reinforced the importance of being present
• Building a lean company without sacrificing personal life

This conversation is a powerful reminder for entrepreneurs, leaders, and founders chasing growth at any cost. 

🌐 Shane Barker
 https://tracefuse.ai


📘 Ellen Williams
https://thesalientstrategist.com


📖 Ellen’s Book – Creating Time: The Key to Productivity and Peace
Available on major online bookstores.
 

Transcript

Time To Press Pause - S3 E13 Shane Barker
 
 

Transcript

 
00:00:00 Speaker 1
 
I was the road bump.
 
00:00:01 Speaker 1
 
I was the problem because I gave full accessibility to that.
 
00:00:04 Speaker 1
 
And that was when I said, hey, listen, I've got to, I can't do this anymore.
 
00:00:08 Speaker 1
 
I'm not going to continue to do this.
 
00:00:09 Speaker 1
 
And when I stop that, I will tell you, the conversation that I had with my mom and love my mom to death, my mom actually told me, she goes, I think you were on the way probably in the next year or so.
 
00:00:19 Speaker 1
 
You're probably going to have a heart attack or something.
 
00:00:23 Speaker 2
 
Welcome to Time to Press Pause, real life stories from the C-suite.
 
00:00:28 Speaker 2
 
I'm your host, Ellen Williams, CEO of The Salient Strategist and author of Creating Time, the Key to Productivity and Peace.
 
00:00:38 Speaker 2
 
And today I'm discussing the importance of listening to your body and knowing that as an entrepreneur, you don't have to work 18-hour days to be successful.
 
00:00:50 Speaker 2
 
My guest today is Shane Barker, CEO and founder of Trace Fuse, the first Amazon
 
00:00:58 Speaker 2
 
TOS compliant negative review removal system.
 
00:01:02 Speaker 2
 
With over 25 years of marketing experience supporting Fortune 500 brands, Shane has been recognized as a leading influencer.
 
00:01:12 Speaker 2
 
His recent focus is on helping Amazon sellers combat negative views through TraceViews' innovative white hat solution.
 
00:01:22 Speaker 2
 
Hi Shane, and welcome to Time to Press Pause.
 
00:01:26 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, thank you so much for having me today.
 
00:01:28 Speaker 1
 
This is going to be awesome.
 
00:01:29 Speaker 1
 
I was excited when we got the invite.
 
00:01:31 Speaker 2
 
I am sure it's going to be awesome.
 
00:01:33 Speaker 2
 
And as usual, I don't know your press pause story, so I'm excited to hear it.
 
00:01:38 Speaker 2
 
Please share.
 
00:01:39 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, absolutely.
 
00:01:40 Speaker 1
 
So it's funny, I've been an entrepreneur for a long time.
 
00:01:43 Speaker 1
 
You can see the grayness in the beard.
 
00:01:44 Speaker 1
 
So I don't know if that brings knowledge or what that might bring, but I am older.
 
00:01:48 Speaker 1
 
And what I mean by that is that we talk about time to press pause.
 
00:01:52 Speaker 1
 
Quite a few stories that I think we could jump into on times when I had to say, okay, wait, we assess the situation here, right?
 
00:01:58 Speaker 1
 
Where you're going to wait for the dust to settle and say, hey, is this the right direction?
 
00:02:01 Speaker 1
 
What am I doing here?
 
00:02:02 Speaker 1
 
I think probably the best one that for me, it was a company I had about 130 employees and it was an awesome company.
 
00:02:09 Speaker 1
 
It might be a little biased because I'm the owner, right?
 
00:02:11 Speaker 1
 
But we were helping people that were put in really bad loans.
 
00:02:14 Speaker 1
 
And so we had a company that we created, what we're doing is like forensic audits for people that were put in bad loans.
 
00:02:19 Speaker 1
 
And our goal really was to help people that were looking at a situation, somebody was put into a loan that maybe they didn't get the proper documentation or they needed a translator or something there.
 
00:02:29 Speaker 1
 
So our goal was to be able to help those people.
 
00:02:32 Speaker 1
 
This was awesome.
 
00:02:32 Speaker 1
 
But what happened for me was, and the reason why I needed to press pause on that business,
 
00:02:37 Speaker 1
 
We were going crazy, in a good way.
 
00:02:39 Speaker 1
 
I think our evaluation was right around 25 million within two years.
 
00:02:43 Speaker 1
 
We were doing some really big things.
 
00:02:45 Speaker 1
 
But the aha moment for me, or the time when I needed to press pause, was at the end of that business because I was working 18 to 20 hours a day, and that included weekends.
 
00:02:55 Speaker 1
 
So there was a certain time when you felt like you're in the rat race and there's no...
 
00:03:01 Speaker 1
 
getting out of it.
 
00:03:02 Speaker 1
 
You're in the middle of this thing.
 
00:03:03 Speaker 1
 
And I was missing all kinds of events, like my son's events and missing time with my wife.
 
00:03:08 Speaker 1
 
And in business, there's always a reason that you need to get something done.
 
00:03:12 Speaker 1
 
And shout out to my wife for putting up with my shenanigans.
 
00:03:16 Speaker 1
 
It's nice when you bring in money and good things are happening, which is all great and awesome.
 
00:03:20 Speaker 1
 
But that doesn't always keep relationships going.
 
00:03:22 Speaker 1
 
That doesn't keep your, you can, at that time, I couldn't Photoshop myself into any of my son's baseball games, which is not really the goal.
 
00:03:28 Speaker 1
 
The goal is really to be there, right?
 
00:03:29 Speaker 1
 
You want to be present.
 
00:03:30 Speaker 1
 
So that's the goal.
 
00:03:31 Speaker 1
 
So yeah, I learned a lot and I realized at that time, hey, I need to reassess what I've got going on here.
 
00:03:37 Speaker 1
 
When there was
 
00:03:38 Speaker 1
 
Some things actually happened with that business, which is a whole nother podcast, another conversation.
 
00:03:43 Speaker 1
 
But what was interesting to me is my press pause was me starting to evaluate things and then realizing, hey, like this is I'm going to probably have a heart attack or something.
 
00:03:54 Speaker 1
 
I was working way too many hours.
 
00:03:56 Speaker 1
 
I was subsidizing it with energy drinks and coffee in the morning and this and that and not eating healthy.
 
00:04:01 Speaker 1
 
I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now.
 
00:04:03 Speaker 1
 
I was probably 240 pounds.
 
00:04:05 Speaker 1
 
So I was just gaining weight and just sitting in my chair.
 
00:04:08 Speaker 1
 
There was people that were saying stuff online about my business, good and bad, and so I was responding to everybody.
 
00:04:13 Speaker 1
 
I was not really good at this thing called delegation.
 
00:04:16 Speaker 1
 
If that's a new word to you as an entrepreneur, you might want to go Google that and implement that into your strategy and your business, because there's only so much time in the day, and you got to figure out how you want to spend that time.
 
00:04:27 Speaker 1
 
I hate to come in cliche and say, Oh, it's important to have a work-life balance, but it is.
 
00:04:33 Speaker 1
 
It absolutely is because I did not have a life balance.
 
00:04:37 Speaker 1
 
I had to work.
 
00:04:38 Speaker 1
 
There was no balance in my work.
 
00:04:39 Speaker 1
 
I was working.
 
00:04:41 Speaker 1
 
What I did realize through that whole process and the pausing of that, there was a lot of things that I realized.
 
00:04:46 Speaker 1
 
First of all, A, I need to get myself back in the gym, right?
 
00:04:48 Speaker 1
 
I needed to be able to start working out again and lose some weight just for myself, just to build up that self-esteem back where I needed to be.
 
00:04:55 Speaker 1
 
Also spending more time with my friends and my family.
 
00:04:57 Speaker 1
 
The other thing that I realized that sounds really stupid to say it out loud on a podcast, but I'm going to go ahead and just throw this out there, is that guess what we do?
 
00:05:06 Speaker 1
 
is important, but it's not, I'm not a brain surgeon.
 
00:05:09 Speaker 1
 
What I mean by that is that, hey, guess what?
 
00:05:11 Speaker 1
 
If a brain surgeon doesn't show up to work and you're having brain surgery and you could die one day later, please go to work.
 
00:05:17 Speaker 1
 
We want to save people the idea.
 
00:05:18 Speaker 1
 
They have a different level of commitment.
 
00:05:20 Speaker 1
 
Me as a marketer, as a consultant, if I don't work 18 hours, guess what?
 
00:05:25 Speaker 1
 
Nobody dies.
 
00:05:26 Speaker 1
 
I'm pretty sure of it because of my work.
 
00:05:28 Speaker 1
 
I would like to say that I make such an impact that it affects lives.
 
00:05:32 Speaker 1
 
It does affect lives, but not in a sense that we couldn't talk about it tomorrow.
 
00:05:36 Speaker 1
 
So my problem was I was absolutely accessible to everything.
 
00:05:39 Speaker 1
 
Anybody wanted to get a hold of me, we had thousands of clients at that time.
 
00:05:43 Speaker 1
 
Anybody here's my personal cell.
 
00:05:45 Speaker 1
 
That's awesome until they start using your personal cell.
 
00:05:48 Speaker 1
 
So I had to set up some boundaries there.
 
00:05:50 Speaker 1
 
And at first it was like, my selling point was that, hey, you'll have access to me at any time.
 
00:05:55 Speaker 1
 
I started to block my time and say, hey, this is what time I'm going to start, and I'm going to start at 9, I'm going to end at 4, whatever that is.
 
00:06:02 Speaker 1
 
You can have 24-hour service, that's not a problem, but it shouldn't be the CEO, it shouldn't be the founder.
 
00:06:07 Speaker 1
 
And I have 130 employees and 1,000, over 1,000 people that are customers.
 
00:06:13 Speaker 1
 
You got to be kidding me.
 
00:06:13 Speaker 1
 
So I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread because full access, but guess what?
 
00:06:18 Speaker 1
 
It should be the opposite of that.
 
00:06:19 Speaker 1
 
You need to be able to protect, A, yourself, but also protect your energy.
 
00:06:24 Speaker 1
 
And that's a big thing that I think a lot of people don't realize is that if you start hating getting up for work, if your energy's really low, and that could be just getting older.
 
00:06:32 Speaker 1
 
We're not quite as festive as I was when I was 20 years old.
 
00:06:35 Speaker 1
 
But I definitely want to protect my energy.
 
00:06:37 Speaker 1
 
And so that also talks about not having 10,000 people have access to you because you're never going to be able to get off that stage.
 
00:06:44 Speaker 1
 
I was the road bump.
 
00:06:45 Speaker 1
 
I was the problem because I gave full accessibility to that.
 
00:06:48 Speaker 1
 
And that was when I said, hey, listen, I can't do this anymore.
 
00:06:52 Speaker 1
 
I'm not going to continue to do this.
 
00:06:53 Speaker 1
 
And when I stop that, I will tell you, the conversation that I had with my mom and love my mom to death, my mom actually told me, she goes, I think you were on the way probably in the next year or so, you're probably going to have a heart attack or something.
 
00:07:05 Speaker 1
 
because we have hard attacks in our family.
 
00:07:07 Speaker 1
 
I was really worried because you were grinding really hard.
 
00:07:10 Speaker 1
 
It's one thing to work 9 hours or 10 hours.
 
00:07:12 Speaker 1
 
I'm going 18 to 20.
 
00:07:14 Speaker 1
 
And I did that for years.
 
00:07:15 Speaker 1
 
My sleep would be 3 A.m.
 
00:07:17 Speaker 1
 
till 5.30, get up, have a coffee, and now I'm going again.
 
00:07:20 Speaker 1
 
And it's people are like, I don't even know how that's possible.
 
00:07:22 Speaker 1
 
They're like, how are you everywhere and all this?
 
00:07:24 Speaker 1
 
And that's awesome until you get up to 18 to 20 hours.
 
00:07:26 Speaker 1
 
Now what are you going to give up?
 
00:07:28 Speaker 1
 
Oh, so I want to stay up another half an hour.
 
00:07:30 Speaker 1
 
So I drink an energy drink.
 
00:07:31 Speaker 1
 
Studies aren't too great on heavy consumption of energy drinks.
 
00:07:33 Speaker 1
 
So
 
00:07:34 Speaker 1
 
Great.
 
00:07:34 Speaker 1
 
So now I'm going to die and my son and my wife are going to have all this money and I'm going to just have a heart attack at age 40 something.
 
00:07:40 Speaker 1
 
Like that doesn't sound great.
 
00:07:41 Speaker 1
 
In fact, that sounds terrible.
 
00:07:43 Speaker 1
 
We say it out loud.
 
00:07:44 Speaker 1
 
And it'd be nice to be present and to be around.
 
00:07:46 Speaker 1
 
So that was my aha moment.
 
00:07:47 Speaker 1
 
And I've had a lot of those.
 
00:07:48 Speaker 1
 
The team I have now, like Trace Shoes, the company that I have, where we help Amazon sellers remove critical reviews.
 
00:07:54 Speaker 1
 
I have a 10 person team.
 
00:07:56 Speaker 1
 
And I like it that way.
 
00:07:57 Speaker 1
 
I'm committed to not having 100 employees and also protecting the time that I spend with people, friends and family.
 
00:08:03 Speaker 1
 
And that's been amazing.
 
00:08:05 Speaker 1
 
We originally lived in Sacramento, California, moved to Reno, which is high desert.
 
00:08:09 Speaker 1
 
So I'm hiking.
 
00:08:09 Speaker 1
 
I'm going along the Truckee River.
 
00:08:11 Speaker 1
 
I'm doing all the things that I wanted to do.
 
00:08:13 Speaker 1
 
And guess what?
 
00:08:14 Speaker 1
 
When I go on my walk and I come back and I check my emails, nobody died.
 
00:08:18 Speaker 1
 
Not that people don't miss me, but guess what?
 
00:08:20 Speaker 1
 
If I answer that e-mail tomorrow, same effect.
 
00:08:23 Speaker 1
 
Same effect, right?
 
00:08:24 Speaker 1
 
And what we got going on.
 
00:08:25 Speaker 1
 
So now I have a very, I have a leaner schedule.
 
00:08:28 Speaker 1
 
I block things out.
 
00:08:29 Speaker 1
 
I have an amazing team that I can delegate stuff to.
 
00:08:31 Speaker 1
 
I learn to protect myself and protect my energy.
 
00:08:34 Speaker 1
 
So when I do come the next day, I'm going to be fully present, energized, ready to go, great breakfast, already walked the dogs, already got all my stuff in.
 
00:08:41 Speaker 1
 
And then guess what?
 
00:08:42 Speaker 1
 
Now I'm just ready to hit the ground running and I have a hard stop, usually about 4 P.m.
 
00:08:48 Speaker 3
 
All right.
 
00:08:50 Speaker 3
 
Let's really unpack all of that.
 
00:08:53 Speaker 3
 
Love that you have so much energy now and congratulations on getting over that.
 
00:09:00 Speaker 3
 
and obviously healthier and happier.
 
00:09:02 Speaker 2
 
So you said a few things that I think resonate with most entrepreneurs, CEOs, founders.
 
00:09:11 Speaker 2
 
First, you said there's always a reason to do something, right?
 
00:09:14 Speaker 2
 
There's like, oh, I have to do this now, or the client's waiting for it.
 
00:09:18 Speaker 2
 
So the flip side of that is, right, no one's going to die.
 
00:09:22 Speaker 2
 
So there's always a reason, you think there's always a reason.
 
00:09:25 Speaker 2
 
If you take that step back, the difference between 5 P.m.
 
00:09:29 Speaker 2
 
and 9 A.m., not a big difference.
 
00:09:33 Speaker 1
 
No.
 
00:09:33 Speaker 1
 
They probably won't even see the e-mail when you send it at 9 a.m.
 
00:09:35 Speaker 1
 
They're not going to see it until the morning time anyway.
 
00:09:37 Speaker 1
 
What's the downside?
 
00:09:38 Speaker 1
 
Now, I'm not saying don't wake up an hour early and maybe answer emails early.
 
00:09:41 Speaker 1
 
That makes sense, but you don't need to wake up at 2 a.m.
 
00:09:44 Speaker 1
 
to be able to answer that e-mail.
 
00:09:46 Speaker 1
 
Some people might be impressed with that.
 
00:09:47 Speaker 1
 
I think I was more impressed with that than any of the people that they would tell me a little bit here and there, but I'm crushing my soul to make thousands of people happy.
 
00:09:56 Speaker 1
 
There's other ways to keep people happy, and they don't have to reach out to me, right?
 
00:10:00 Speaker 1
 
That accessibility doesn't always need to be there, and that's what I
 
00:10:03 Speaker 1
 
I realized was like, man, I still have the same phone number that I've had for 20 years.
 
00:10:06 Speaker 1
 
So I never even changed my phone number.
 
00:10:08 Speaker 1
 
I probably should have.
 
00:10:08 Speaker 1
 
I probably said, okay, hey, I'm changing my phone number.
 
00:10:10 Speaker 1
 
Nobody's getting the new one, but it is what it is.
 
00:10:13 Speaker 3
 
Yeah, so that weaves right into that fancy word you said, delegation.
 
00:10:18 Speaker 1
 
Oh, I heard about that one.
 
00:10:19 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, that's a good one.
 
00:10:20 Speaker 3
 
So all of this is right in alignment with my book, Creating Time.
 
00:10:25 Speaker 3
 
So I was really excited to hear all this.
 
00:10:28 Speaker 3
 
Delegation is a huge tactic.
 
00:10:30 Speaker 3
 
for saving time so that you can create time for the things that you want.
 
00:10:36 Speaker 3
 
So I'm happy you touched on that.
 
00:10:38 Speaker 3
 
I also, on work-life balance.
 
00:10:40 Speaker 3
 
So that's one term that I understand, but I don't like.
 
00:10:44 Speaker 3
 
Because when you think about balance, you think about two things being equal and there's just no way to do that, right?
 
00:10:52 Speaker 3
 
So I really talk about harmony, having life harmony and all the facets of your life.
 
00:10:59 Speaker 3
 
getting the attention that they require when they require it.
 
00:11:04 Speaker 3
 
So today you focus on A and B, C, D, and E are there, but not so much.
 
00:11:11 Speaker 3
 
And then tomorrow you focus on D.
 
00:11:13 Speaker 3
 
So it enables you over time, because you can't measure that in a day.
 
00:11:18 Speaker 3
 
So you have to at least
 
00:11:20 Speaker 3
 
at the very least a week, over the course of a week, have I really had harmony in all the aspects of my life?
 
00:11:25 Speaker 3
 
And you definitely sound when you're spending more time with your family, you're out hiking and healthy.
 
00:11:29 Speaker 3
 
And so I love that you are finding harmony.
 
00:11:34 Speaker 3
 
And the last thing I'd like you to talk more about, which I talk a lot in my book, Creating Time, the goal is to be present.
 
00:11:43 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely it.
 
00:11:46 Speaker 1
 
I think that's...
 
00:11:47 Speaker 1
 
One of the other times that I realized being present was very important is not only with my business, but during COVID as well.
 
00:11:52 Speaker 1
 
What I mean by that is it made me realize COVID and that situation, obviously seemed like it was out of a movie or a book or whatever it was, it seemed very surreal.
 
00:12:01 Speaker 1
 
What I realized was you don't want to realize that you should have been present when something happens and somebody's gone.
 
00:12:08 Speaker 1
 
We hear that a lot, where people are like, Oh, I wish I would've spent more time with my grandma before she passed, or, I wish this would've happened.
 
00:12:15 Speaker 1
 
I realized A, because of better harmony in my life, being able to say, hey, I want to make sure that I'm taking care of both sides.
 
00:12:22 Speaker 1
 
And then COVID really even slapped me in the face again, where I was like, wait a second, I need to start spending more time and really valuable time and being present.
 
00:12:31 Speaker 1
 
So that would be, I missed out on some of these events, some of these baseball games, some of these things.
 
00:12:35 Speaker 1
 
But now my mindset is,
 
00:12:37 Speaker 1
 
I don't know when our time's up.
 
00:12:39 Speaker 1
 
And I don't mean that in a dark way, but I'm like, I could have a week left, I could have 10 years left.
 
00:12:44 Speaker 1
 
I could have 50 years left.
 
00:12:45 Speaker 1
 
I don't know.
 
00:12:46 Speaker 1
 
And I don't know the same with my wife.
 
00:12:47 Speaker 1
 
Same with anybody.
 
00:12:48 Speaker 1
 
My crystal ball does not work when it comes to what are we looking at when somebody's going to pass.
 
00:12:52 Speaker 1
 
So I thought, I don't ever want to be that person that says, Oh, man, I wish I could have spent more time with that person.
 
00:13:00 Speaker 1
 
Obviously, that doesn't mean that if I see my grandma once a year, I'm going to see her 30 times a year.
 
00:13:04 Speaker 1
 
But guess what?
 
00:13:05 Speaker 1
 
You could see her two times a year or three times a year or four times a year.
 
00:13:08 Speaker 1
 
Figure out who are the people that you really enjoy spending time with, and you should do it.
 
00:13:12 Speaker 1
 
And it's usually not, you can make time.
 
00:13:14 Speaker 1
 
It's like going to the gym.
 
00:13:15 Speaker 1
 
Like people say, oh, I don't have time to go to the gym.
 
00:13:17 Speaker 1
 
You can go walk for 10 minutes.
 
00:13:19 Speaker 1
 
You can walk for 15 minutes.
 
00:13:20 Speaker 1
 
It doesn't need to be this big thing.
 
00:13:22 Speaker 1
 
And guess what?
 
00:13:22 Speaker 1
 
A phone call to grandma.
 
00:13:24 Speaker 1
 
or three times a month or once a month, it's not that difficult.
 
00:13:27 Speaker 1
 
You have time.
 
00:13:28 Speaker 1
 
You can be on your walk and be like, hey, grandma, that's when I do all my calls, calling relatives and calling people just to check in.
 
00:13:33 Speaker 1
 
And so I looked at it and said, okay, what are the people that I want to stay in contact with that if something was to happen, I would say, you know what, I don't regret that we didn't do this, right?
 
00:13:43 Speaker 1
 
I don't regret that we didn't do that.
 
00:13:45 Speaker 3
 
I love that my question prompted a second pause story.
 
00:13:50 Speaker 3
 
We all have more than one.
 
00:13:51 Speaker 3
 
We all have more than two.
 
00:13:53 Speaker 3
 
If you really think hard, there's a lot of pauses and they're important.
 
00:13:57 Speaker 3
 
They're definitely important.
 
00:13:58 Speaker 3
 
And I really like that you said being present helps limit or reduce regret.
 
00:14:06 Speaker 3
 
And that's, that was an eye opener for me.
 
00:14:10 Speaker 3
 
So thank you for sharing that.
 
00:14:12 Speaker 3
 
Shane, this has been a really fun conversation.
 
00:14:16 Speaker 3
 
So I have one last question for you.
 
00:14:18 Speaker 3
 
What advice do you have for other leaders?
 
00:14:20 Speaker 3
 
as to when they would identify, it's time to press pause.
 
00:14:25 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, as I touched on earlier, there's definitely points.
 
00:14:28 Speaker 1
 
If you're taking things, drugs, alcohol, food, things to supplement, happiness and things like that.
 
00:14:34 Speaker 1
 
I think also if your friends and family are treating you differently in the sense that you're not around, you're not present, I think we know that.
 
00:14:40 Speaker 1
 
I knew when I was missing baseball games that it wasn't the best thing, but I was like, oh, there's no other way, but I have to be focused on my business.
 
00:14:47 Speaker 1
 
You don't as much.
 
00:14:48 Speaker 1
 
There's indicators that you're just ignoring really what you probably should be doing.
 
00:14:53 Speaker 1
 
The problem is how do we get out of that hole?
 
00:14:55 Speaker 1
 
How do we get it so that we're not that main person?
 
00:14:58 Speaker 1
 
And that's the delegation and the other things, the trust that comes into that.
 
00:15:01 Speaker 1
 
And so I think if you're doing things that atypically you don't do, when you're trying to subsidize by doing things that probably aren't the right thing, then that's really what you have to look at, in my opinion.
 
00:15:13 Speaker 1
 
And I think most of the time, you know when you've hit rock bottom
 
00:15:17 Speaker 1
 
when there's, when too much is going on, right?
 
00:15:19 Speaker 1
 
When you just can't sleep at night and you're waking up stressed and you have anxiety, your body tells you, sometimes your body will press pause for you.
 
00:15:28 Speaker 1
 
And that's, that happened to me.
 
00:15:29 Speaker 1
 
I would get sick and I'm like, I don't know why I'm sick and I'm still trying to work through it.
 
00:15:32 Speaker 1
 
And I'm like,
 
00:15:33 Speaker 1
 
Okay, I'm getting a very clear message when historically I didn't get sick when I was working fine, not crazy hours.
 
00:15:39 Speaker 1
 
And now all of a sudden I'm getting sick three or four times a year.
 
00:15:41 Speaker 1
 
I'm like, what is going on?
 
00:15:42 Speaker 1
 
I don't have time to be sick.
 
00:15:44 Speaker 1
 
You don't obviously don't have time to be healthy either, right?
 
00:15:46 Speaker 1
 
So that's the problem is that sometimes you get kicked in the ****.
 
00:15:51 Speaker 1
 
You know, that could your little mother nature, whoever comes over and says, Hey, you got to rest for a few days.
 
00:15:55 Speaker 1
 
At the end of the day, if you start to diminish and you're looking at things,
 
00:15:59 Speaker 1
 
you got to do something different.
 
00:16:00 Speaker 1
 
In your heart, if you can do a true evaluation and say, Hey, do I feel like I'm heading in the right direction?
 
00:16:05 Speaker 1
 
And is this good for me, for my business, for my family, financially?
 
00:16:08 Speaker 1
 
Then great.
 
00:16:09 Speaker 1
 
But sometimes you got to make some sacrifices.
 
00:16:12 Speaker 3
 
Love it.
 
00:16:12 Speaker 3
 
So, it's, comes down to really your body telling you when it's time to press pause.
 
00:16:19 Speaker 3
 
And I really like what you said, that I don't have time to get sick.
 
00:16:24 Speaker 3
 
I haven't, you haven't made time to be healthy.
 
00:16:27 Speaker 1
 
Yeah.
 
00:16:28 Speaker 3
 
And I think that's very astute.
 
00:16:31 Speaker 3
 
The juxtaposition of those two is in one way really mind-blowing and in the other way should be obvious.
 
00:16:41 Speaker 1
 
Yeah, it's like you're getting a message, but the problem is you have to be ready to receive that message.
 
00:16:46 Speaker 3
 
Your advice is twofold.
 
00:16:48 Speaker 3
 
It's listen to your body.
 
00:16:51 Speaker 3
 
but be ready.
 
00:16:52 Speaker 3
 
You have to be ready.
 
00:16:54 Speaker 3
 
Because I can listen all day long and put it off.
 
00:16:57 Speaker 3
 
There's always some reason to do something.
 
00:16:59 Speaker 3
 
To understand when it's time to press pause is when you're ready, or the pause will come when you're not.
 
00:17:06 Speaker 3
 
Thank you so much, Shane, for being here today.
 
00:17:09 Speaker 3
 
We are so in sync with my thoughts, my book, and your life.
 
00:17:15 Speaker 3
 
I appreciate it, and thank you for being here today on Time to Press Pause.
 
00:17:19 Speaker 1
 
Absolutely.
 
00:17:20 Speaker 1
 
Thank you for letting me tell my story.
 
00:17:21 Speaker 1
 
I absolutely appreciate it.
 
00:17:22 Speaker 1
 
Hopefully it makes an impact for anybody that's listening.
 
00:17:25 Speaker 1
 
It's time to press pause.
 
00:17:26 Speaker 1
 
Now's the time.
 
00:17:27 Speaker 2
 
Thank you for listening to this episode of Time to Press Pause.
 
00:17:31 Speaker 2
 
If you're interested in learning more about shame, please visit tracefuse.ai.
 
00:17:38 Speaker 2
 
If you're interested in learning more about me, please visit The Salient Strategist.
 
00:17:44 Speaker 2
 
You can find my book, Creating Time, The Key to Productivity and Peace.
 
00:17:49 Speaker 2
 
on all online bookstores.
 
00:17:51 Speaker 2
 
And please listen again wherever you listen to your podcasts.