Burnout, Bravery, and the Business of Becoming

Reflections from my Escape Velocity conversation with Traci Barrett

🎙 Episode Link: Listen now to the full podcast episode →

What happens when someone walks away from a rocket-ship career — not because they failed, but because they outgrew it?

That’s the kind of question I got to explore in this episode of Escape Velocity with Traci Barrett. Traci was part of the founding team at HGTV. She was promoted to VP at just 29. And then? She chose to walk away from it all. What followed is a story about burnout, reinvention, and redefining success on your own terms.

Traci went back to school for a master’s in psychology. She started a business helping leadership teams operate with more clarity and humanity. She wrote a best-selling book. And through all of it, she stayed fiercely grounded in the belief that ambition isn’t enough — it has to be pointed at the right mission.

Here are a few of the takeaways from our conversation that still have me thinking.

“If you don’t define success, someone else will.”

Traci on rocket-ship growth, imposter syndrome, and taking back your compass

Traci told me, “I was promoted to VP at 29, and I had no business being there.”

Not as self-deprecation, but as truth.

Because even when your title is impressive, you can feel totally lost. Traci shared what it was like to grow up professionally inside HGTV — riding the chaos of startup energy as it turned into a billion-dollar brand — and the personal cost of moving that fast.

She talked about how “success” can become a trap if you don’t stop to ask whether it still belongs to you.

Burnout isn’t about hours. It’s about emotional load.

Why rest won’t fix what clarity can

One of the most powerful parts of our conversation was Traci’s reframing of burnout. She said burnout doesn’t come from working too hard — it comes from carrying too much pressure. The pressure to perform. To hold it all together. To say yes when you want to say no.

That hit hard. It reminded me of Gallup’s research showing that the top causes of burnout are how people are managed — unclear expectations, unfair treatment, unmanageable workload, lack of support, and time pressure.

Traci’s take? The antidote isn’t Bali. It’s clarity. It’s purpose. It’s boundaries that reflect your values.

“Business is messy. And it is personal.”

The myth of emotional distance — and the power of real leadership

Traci challenges the idea that leadership can be clean or clinical. As she put it: “It’s personal. Especially if you’re doing it right.”

The best leaders don’t hide behind professionalism. They step into the hard conversations with honesty and empathy. They let themselves be human — and make space for their teams to do the same.

Traci helps teams build cultures where real conversations happen. Where feedback isn’t avoided. Where trust is earned. That’s not soft — it’s strong.

“What you give energy to grows.”

Starving fear and feeding purpose

We also talked about fear — how sneaky it is, how easily it disguises itself as logic, and how quickly it can take the wheel if we’re not careful.

Traci has a deceptively simple framework for dealing with fear: name it, examine it, and decide whether you’re going to feed it or starve it.

That’s not just poetic. It’s backed by neuroscience. Hebbian theory tells us that neurons that fire together wire together — meaning the more we fixate on fear, the stronger its grip becomes. But the same goes for possibility.

We have a choice about what we energize. Traci reminds us to choose wisely.

“Success is a feeling. Not a checklist.”

How to stop moving the goalposts on yourself

Traci left me with this gem:

“Success isn’t a list that you check off. It’s a feeling. If you feel successful, you are successful.”

It’s so easy to stay trapped in the chase — the next milestone, the next title, the next win. But if you never feel it, what’s the point?

Traci is building a life that reflects who she really is. And she’s helping others do the same.

🎧 Want more?

We went deep in this conversation — into the identity traps of ambition, what it takes to lead with emotional intelligence, and why redefining success is one of the bravest things you can do.

→ Listen to the full episode of Escape Velocity with Traci Barrett now

Be ambitious for the right mission.

That’s how you escape burnout.

That’s how you grow.

That’s how you become.