How To Avoid Self-Care Burnout When Trying to Become a Wellness Influencer
Self-care is a hot topic online. 79% of consumers say that they care about wellness and 42% consider it a top priority in their lives.
As a wellness influencer, you can take advantage of this trend by creating high-quality, informative content for folks who want to improve their physical health and mental well-being.
You’ll quickly gain appreciative followers by testing products, recommending recipes, and writing wellness programs for the folks who flock to your blog.
However, staying up to date with health trends and wellness-related research can be taxing. It’s all too easy to fall into a habit of overworking and under-resting when you’re serving folks who authentically want to improve their wellness.
Overworking can lead to burnout – something which even remote and independent workers experience — and undermine your ability to care for your own health and well-being. Instead, lead by example by learning to recognize the signs of burnout and putting your own well-being first.
Creator Burnout
Content creation should be a fun way to earn a living. You get to research your interests and produce informative, engaging videos and blog posts for a community of engaged, receptive followers. However, constantly coming up with new content ideas can be challenging. As a wellness influencer, you’re seen as a trustworthy source and will lose followers if you let your standards slip.
Avoid content creation burnout by taking some time off. Try to schedule a series of evergreen posts well in advance and turn off your notifications for at least a week. This may slow the short-term growth of your social pages, but you’ll come back feeling refreshed and re-energized.
If you find that time away from work isn’t reducing your burnout, consider focusing your attention on one platform at a time, instead. Content fatigue can easily set in when you’re trying to manage a blog, YouTube page, TikTok account, and Instagram profile at the same time. Instead, focus your attention on one side and let the other accounts take a back seat for a while.
As a wellness influencer, you likely partner with a series of brands and wellness businesses. Usually, these partnerships are mutually beneficial and give you the freedom to enjoy a self-employed lifestyle. However, you may find that some partnerships cause undue strain and stress. If this is the case, consider adjusting your expectations and communicating with brand partners. If they aren’t willing to make concessions to suit your commitment to self-care, it may be time to move on.
Making More Money
Working in the personal care industry should improve your health and help you lead a more balanced lifestyle. Becoming a wellness influencer can be lucrative, too. Self-care influencers like Ingrid Macher and Joe Wicks earn millions of dollars every year thanks to their web presence.
However, you may find that financial worries cause you anxiety and undue stress in the early years of your career as a wellness influencer. Fortunately, with some careful planning and strategic marketing, you can increase your income and alleviate some financial fears.
Focus your efforts on one platform at a time. Choose your highest-performing page and turn that profile into your personal “cash cow”. For example, if you have a large Instagram following, focus your efforts on digital content that will perform well on Instagram’s “Discover” page. This will help you build a reliable following and lead to cross-channel growth over time.
Once you’ve built a following, you can make money from Instagram by monetizing your account. Usually, this means you’ll use sponsored posts to drive traffic toward affiliate pages and brands. You can usually find high-paying partners through sites like Amazon Associates and Rakuten Marketing.
Alleviating your financial fears without overworking yourself is the best way to soothe the first signs of burnout. However, you may still need to address your behavioral approach to self-care if your site is performing well but you’re still experiencing work stress and fatigue.
Overdoing Self-Care
Self-care is designed to improve your mental well-being and promote your physical health. However, it is possible to overdo self-care — particularly as someone who works in the industry. Common signs of overdoing self-care include:
- You’re constantly fretting about your wellness;
- You always push yourself to the limit when exercising;
- You’re constantly comparing yourself to others.
If this sounds familiar, remember the basis of self-care is about building healthy and sustainable habits. Rather than stressing about your eye masks and incense sticks, focus on getting enough sleep and drinking enough water. Even small lifestyle changes like practicing daily mindfulness or taking up a hobby can dramatically improve your well-being and help you overcome burnout.
Conclusion
Self-care is all about prioritizing your long-term health and overall well-being. However, as a wellness influencer, it’s easy to get burnout while creating content and engaging with followers. Follow your own advice by going back to the basics of self-care. Take time off when you need it and focus on the parts of your work that bring you the most joy. Make sure you get enough sleep and reassess any business relationships that bring you excessive amounts of stress.
