Ask Us Anything: Wellbeing coach Vesna Hrsto shares the key to self care for business owners

In this month’s Ask Us Anything series, SmartCompany asked renowned naturopath, executive wellbeing coach and mind-body peak performance expert Vesna Hrsto to share her tips on how to protect yourself from business owner burnout.

From how to protect one of your most valuable assets – clarity – to practical strategies to cope with uncertainty and burnout, we hope Hrsto’s advice helps you prioritise your wellbeing.

1. How do you protect time in your week that isn’t about work? 

I remember sitting across from a friend, excited, as she was telling me about a family trip she was taking to Alaska. And I’m sitting there thinking, how? How does she do that? Because I could barely see over the pile of things on my to-do list. She had a business, kids, all of it, and she was booking flights to Alaska. And I was still trying to catch up on last Tuesday.

I genuinely thought she was just better at time management than me.

But what I’ve come to understand is, it wasn’t about time management at all.

Most of us are conditioned to always be productive. Work gives us a sense of purpose and worth, so we naturally prioritise it. Personal time feels a little optional. Even indulgent. And without realising it, we de-prioritise it.

But here’s the thing, we protect what we value. And this is really a values question, not a time management one.

What I see consistently in my work is that the time you take outside of your responsibilities is what gives you clarity. And clarity is one of your most valuable business assets. You can’t manufacture it by doing more or being busier.

Recently I was heading away for a friend’s wedding out of town. We’d planned to leave a day early – just travel slowly, enjoy the drive, ease into it. And when my friend called to confirm, my gut reaction was ‘oh, I really don’t have time for this. I’ve got so much on’.

And I caught myself. And I thought, ‘No. We’re leaving early. We’re doing this’.

It was a great decision. I came back lighter, clearer, with better ideas and less stress than I’d had in months. Not despite taking that extra day – because of it.

When we take that time, problems shrink. The next step becomes obvious. We get more done with less effort. Life feels more enjoyable and satisfying.

And once you can see that this time is valuable, you’ll honour it. 

And once you honour it, you’ll make it happen.

For me, it comes down to a few things that I actually do.

I map out my day on paper. Not in a calendar on my computer — a written page that sits right in front of me. I block my time, task by task, the night before if I can. That way I sit down in the morning and I just start.

And I don’t work late into the evenings. Unless something is genuinely broken, that’s non-negotiable. Because if my work bleeds into my evenings, I lose the time that restores me.

In the mornings I exercise. On weekends I get out in nature. And in the evenings – that’s when I meditate, read, keep learning, catch up with the people I love. The things that make me feel like myself.

Personal time should be protected as it’s restorative. It’s what allows you to show up as your best self.

2. What are your best tips around staying calm during uncertainty?

This is such a relevant question right now because the world is moving fast. There is so much change happening on a global level.

Here’s what I’ve come to understand about uncertainty.

When the brain detects a gap in the future, something unknown, something we don’t have a map for, it does not like it. So it grabs whatever it can to fill that gap. 

It could be something from your past that didn’t work out, or from the news, social media, other people’s fear, and it projects that forward into the future. 

Then it goes about trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist yet.

That’s why old fears resurface and past failures look like they may happen again.

In the early days of my business, if there was a quiet month my mind would try to convince me that ‘this was it’ – the beginning of the end. Those thoughts still arise today, but I’m aware of what’s happening.

Because it’s filling that gap with fear, anxiety, and memories of things that have gone wrong, a part of the brain called the amygdala – which is responsible for detecting threats in our environment – fires up the stress response.

That’s what causes you to feel insecure, anxious, doubtful, worried. And those feelings make it seem even more real and urgent.

But here’s the thing, we don’t perform well in the future. We perform well right now. 

When a real problem appears, your ability to find solutions, think clearly, and take action is available to you in that moment. Not in the imagined version of six months from now.

So what do I do?

I come back to the evidence. I think about every hard thing I’ve already navigated, every uncertain period, every problem that felt catastrophic – and remind myself I’ve done this before.

I do this with my clients too. I’ll ask them to think back to the hardest moment they’ve faced in their business. One client told me about the early days when things were so tight she had to draw money off her credit card to pay her staff. And the situation she was facing now? No comparison. Just by looking back at what she’d already overcome, she felt confident she could handle it.

That’s what I come back to, trust yourself. Back yourself. You have more evidence than you think.

So when uncertainty creeps in, here’s what helps:

Close the tabs. Limit how much news and social media you’re consuming. Close the tabs in your mind too, don’t overthink things. 

Get present. Whatever brings you back to right now: exercise, meditation, time in nature, do that.

Focus only on what you can control. You can’t control the economy, the market, or what your competitors are doing. You can control your next action. Go there.

Come back to the evidence. Think about every uncertain moment you’ve already navigated and remind yourself — you’ve done this before. That’s not small. That’s your proof.

3. How do you regularly check in with yourself about burnout or stress? 

I’ve hit burnout twice in my career, so I pay close attention to where I’m at now. And it’s not a formal ritual, it’s more that I’ve learned to notice the patterns.

When things pile up such as deadlines, problems that need fixing – I start to work later. And that’s when I notice the shifts. I’m more reactive. My head feels full and I can’t decide what to do next. And when I find myself reaching for more coffee than usual – that’s my signal. That’s when I stop and do a stocktake.

It takes 10 minutes. I just sit down and honestly ask myself – where am I at? Am I tired? How am I sleeping? What has my nutrition been like? Am I skipping meals, grabbing snacks because I’m too busy to stop for lunch? It sounds simple, but when you’re deep in the work it’s so easy to lose track of what you’re doing for yourself.

And when I catch myself in that space, here’s what I do. I start meal prepping again. I make sure I’m breaking for lunch instead of working through it. I have breakfast within 20 minutes of waking as it helps with glucose and cortisol levels. I’m eating proper nutrition instead of grabbing snacks. I’m getting to bed earlier. And I’m consistent with my supplements.

Those aren’t fancy fixes. But they work, because how you fuel and care for yourself determines how well you function. It really is that simple.

For others, the signals might look a little different. So here’s what I’d encourage you to notice. How do you feel when you wake up in the morning, do you have energy? Could you go and do a workout right now? Are you hitting a wall at three in the afternoon? Are you struggling to focus, forgetting things, feeling irritable? Or does it feel like you’re just running on adrenaline  – wired but exhausted?

And then there’s the deeper signal, the one that most people miss until it’s gone too far. You start to lose joy in your work. The passion fades. Nothing feels exciting anymore. You fall out of love with what you do.

Women come to me all the time saying they just don’t love their business anymore. And I always say – let’s fix your energy and wellbeing  first, and then let’s see where you land. 

Because every single time, once the burnout is addressed and the energy comes back, so does the passion. Every time.

So your energy isn’t separate from your business. It is your business. Protect it accordingly.