52 min
#17- Austin Walper- "Work-Health Balance" The 6AM Mindset Podcast
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- Self-Improvement
Today’s guest is Austin Walper. Austin founded a tech company called Player.gg which helps twitch streamers grow their audiences with partnered giveaways. Austin is very open about his rocket-paced entrepreneurship rise eventually blowing up into severe burnout. Austin ended up selling his company in order to re-align and focus on his overall health, which he neglected for years while growing the company. Austin is now focused on growing a platform called “The Human Startup” which is a podcast that discusses the Human element to entrepreneurship. The struggles, the pain, the suffering, and the mental health challenges, not just the success stories. For anyone who assumes they’re 100% willing to sacrifice their health in order to eventually get a big payout, Austin used to think that way too, and his story may just help you be proactive and rearrange how you’re doing things.
1:38 Pre-Entrepreneur Austin
4:44 How Player.gg started
7:42 The Party that Changed Austin’s Life
14:25 When Player.gg started Working
18:00 The Burnout
26:23 Austins Plan For The Future
28:59 Pace of Entrepreneurship
30:51 The Human Startup
36:16 Feeling Misunderstood
39:35 The Process of “Getting Out"
46:15 Advice For Young Entrepreneurs
49:59 Golden Nugget of Wisdom
Golden Nugget of Wisdom:
There was a short phrase Austin mentioned in our interview that I’ve been stuck on since. It’s a simple tweak on an already overused term. I’m sure by now, everybody has heard of, or even wished for more "work-life balance.” I’ve always seen work-life balance as crucial, but also a bit difficult to define, as it kind of insinuates that you don’t enjoy your work and that you need to escape it. "Work-life balance" has been a term I've used in the past as an excuse. Something I tell myself is important so I don't beat myself up when I’m sitting on the couch all day watching Netflix. Work-life balance has to mean something more than just being lazy.
What if you do enjoy your work, and it’s consuming the majority of your time? Is that still work-life balance? As Austin mentions, not if you’re sacrificing your health. Sometimes when you’re growing a company, or working hard to achieve a goal, "work-life balance" is unrealistic, and it may be worth trying to think about it as "WORK-HEALTH balance” instead.
WORK-HEALTH balance can be a much better approach in the long term. It assumes and understands that you’re enjoying what you’re doing, but it also implies that you NEED to carve out time every day to prioritize your health. This way, you’ll be able to sustain the effort and avoid burning out.
It’s okay to get caught up working long and hard in order to bring your dreams into reality. BUT, it’s not okay if in doing so, you lose a grip on your mental and physical health. What would “getting to the top” even mean if you got there without your health?
Music:
FLAWD SOULS: Spotify / Instagram / SoundCloud
Today’s guest is Austin Walper. Austin founded a tech company called Player.gg which helps twitch streamers grow their audiences with partnered giveaways. Austin is very open about his rocket-paced entrepreneurship rise eventually blowing up into severe burnout. Austin ended up selling his company in order to re-align and focus on his overall health, which he neglected for years while growing the company. Austin is now focused on growing a platform called “The Human Startup” which is a podcast that discusses the Human element to entrepreneurship. The struggles, the pain, the suffering, and the mental health challenges, not just the success stories. For anyone who assumes they’re 100% willing to sacrifice their health in order to eventually get a big payout, Austin used to think that way too, and his story may just help you be proactive and rearrange how you’re doing things.
1:38 Pre-Entrepreneur Austin
4:44 How Player.gg started
7:42 The Party that Changed Austin’s Life
14:25 When Player.gg started Working
18:00 The Burnout
26:23 Austins Plan For The Future
28:59 Pace of Entrepreneurship
30:51 The Human Startup
36:16 Feeling Misunderstood
39:35 The Process of “Getting Out"
46:15 Advice For Young Entrepreneurs
49:59 Golden Nugget of Wisdom
Golden Nugget of Wisdom:
There was a short phrase Austin mentioned in our interview that I’ve been stuck on since. It’s a simple tweak on an already overused term. I’m sure by now, everybody has heard of, or even wished for more "work-life balance.” I’ve always seen work-life balance as crucial, but also a bit difficult to define, as it kind of insinuates that you don’t enjoy your work and that you need to escape it. "Work-life balance" has been a term I've used in the past as an excuse. Something I tell myself is important so I don't beat myself up when I’m sitting on the couch all day watching Netflix. Work-life balance has to mean something more than just being lazy.
What if you do enjoy your work, and it’s consuming the majority of your time? Is that still work-life balance? As Austin mentions, not if you’re sacrificing your health. Sometimes when you’re growing a company, or working hard to achieve a goal, "work-life balance" is unrealistic, and it may be worth trying to think about it as "WORK-HEALTH balance” instead.
WORK-HEALTH balance can be a much better approach in the long term. It assumes and understands that you’re enjoying what you’re doing, but it also implies that you NEED to carve out time every day to prioritize your health. This way, you’ll be able to sustain the effort and avoid burning out.
It’s okay to get caught up working long and hard in order to bring your dreams into reality. BUT, it’s not okay if in doing so, you lose a grip on your mental and physical health. What would “getting to the top” even mean if you got there without your health?
Music:
FLAWD SOULS: Spotify / Instagram / SoundCloud
52 min