Charlie Hoehn was going down in flames..
“I’d been spending days on my computer, indoors, and drinking tons of coffee,” says Charlie. “And then I secretly ordered these brain pills…what military fighter pilots use to stay awake on multi-day missions, and what doctors give to people with narcolepsy.”
Charlie is the founder of Hoehn Zone Media. He’s “the guy behind the scenes,” which is why you may not have heard of his company.
Charlie’s problem started while he was working on a million-dollar launch. To add to the pressure, he was also acting as the “director of pretty much everything” for Tim Ferriss’ Opening the Kimono event, about how to launch New York Times bestselling books.
“Tim put me in charge of the entire event, all the logistics,” says Charlie.
Even though Tim himself would’ve told Charlie to delegate, Charlie says, “I had this feeling, this Superman superiority complex, which isolated me and made me feel like I was the man.”
In retrospect, Charlie says he was treating himself “like a kamikaze pilot,” driving himself into the ground.
And that’s exactly what happened next…
“Panic attacks feel like you’re having a heart attack,” he says. “Your arm goes numb. I broke out in cold sweats, and you have this loop in your mind that tells you you’re going crazy and that you’re going to die. These thoughts pound through your head. All of a sudden I felt like everybody was judging me or pitying me or trying to manipulate me. I became afraid of interacting with everybody.”
And because he was too embarrassed to talk about it, the situation got worse and worse.
Eventually, Charlie did find his way back from debilitating anxiety and burnout.
And today he teaches others how to do the same, including soldiers transitioning into civilian life.
Step one? Recognize that the first hurdle is your own mindset.
Here are two resources to start using today:
First, Charlie recommends The Five Minute Journal. “Workaholism is ultimately rooted in perfectionism,” he says. “And so rather than all the deficits, how you’re not successful enough, how you don’t have as much money as the other guy, focus on the abundance staring you in the face every single day.”
Second, read the book Play by Stuart Brown. “Some people will tell you the world’s a horrible place,” says Charlie. “It’s a personal delusional belief system, is what psychologists call it, and you can choose to view the world through any lens you’d like. When I started choosing to view it again through play, it…allowed me to return to work without this overwhelming feeling of burnout.”
In his Mixergy course, Charlie lays out his full, step-by-step system for startup founders to overcome and prevent burnout:
You’ll discover: