Want more of this? On Substack I share longer reflections, practical tools, and honest conversations that don't make it onto the pod. Join the Burnout-Free Me community: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com

Episode Details:

You've done the work. You've built the career. So why does it still feel like you're dragging yourself through every single day? In this milestone 150th episode, Dr. Amy Grimm gets real about the three things she wishes she'd known before becoming a coach — and why every ambitious woman in a high-responsibility role needs to hear them.

This episode isn't just for aspiring coaches. It's for the new grad vet suddenly expected to lead a whole team. The woman who just got promoted and is quietly terrified. The entrepreneur who left stability to chase something that actually lights her up. These are the lessons nobody tells you — and they might change how you see everything.

What You'll Learn:

• Why stepping into something new tends to surface the exact patterns you thought you'd already dealt with (and what that actually means)
• The real reason your burnout followed you into your next chapter — and how to finally stop running from it
• What one early coaching failure taught Amy about the limits of her training — and the humbling moment she realized what was missing
• Why failing more than you succeed isn't a red flag — it's literally the mechanism that creates long-term success
• The surprising reason confidence matters more than having perfect skills — whether you're a coach, a leader, or just trying to show up better
• How perfectionism quietly keeps high-achievers small, stuck, and mentally replaying every conversation they've ever had

Plus — Amy celebrates 150 episodes and reflects on the evolution from The Daring DVM Podcast to Burnout-Free Me, and what it means to finally be building something that feels like her.

Links & Resources:

• Join the Burnout-Free Me community on Substack: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com
• Work with Amy: https://burnoutfreeme.com

About Amy:

Dr. Amy Grimm is a veterinarian, success coach, and wellbeing expert and the host of Burnout-Free Me — the podcast for high-achieving women who are done running on empty. Real talk, practical tools, and honest mindset shifts every week.

If this episode resonated, please take 30 seconds to leave a rating and review — it helps more women find the show. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Want more of this? On Substack I share longer reflections, practical tools, and honest conversations that don't make it onto the pod. Join the Burnout-Free Me community: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com

Episode Details:

You've hit the milestones, built the relationship, chased the goals. So why doesn't anything feel that different? In this episode, Dr. Amy Grimm gets real about what turning 40 actually taught her -- and it's not what she expected.

Amy shares three of the biggest mindset shifts from her 39th year: how she coached herself through the gut-punch of discovering people she cared about held beliefs she finds genuinely harmful, why no single achievement will ever change your life the way you think it will, and how she made high-stakes decisions in the middle of real economic uncertainty without losing her mind. The thread running through all of it? Whether you're willing to tell yourself the truth.

Honest, a little political, deeply personal, and completely relatable. You're going to hear yourself in this one.

What You'll Learn:

• Why your brain dismisses your own growth the moment it happens
• The sneaky belief that makes disagreement feel like a personal attack
• Why the milestone you're chasing won't change your life -- and what actually will
• How to make hard decisions when nobody can give you the certainty you're looking for
• The one practice underneath all three lessons that nobody talks about enough

Links & Resources:

• Subscribe to Burnout-Free Me on Substack: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com
• Work with Amy: https://burnoutfreeme.com

About Amy:

Dr. Amy Grimm is a veterinarian, success coach, and wellbeing expert and the host of Burnout-Free Me -- the podcast for high-achieving women who are done running on empty. Real talk, practical tools, and honest mindset shifts every week.

If this episode resonated, please leave a rating and review—it helps more women find the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Want more of this? On Substack I share longer reflections, practical tools, and honest conversations that don't make it onto the pod. Join the Burnout-Free Me community: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com

Episode Details:

What if your job has been quietly affecting you — and you never knew it had a name?

Secondary traumatic stress is one of the most underrecognized contributors to burnout in high-achieving professionals. It doesn't arrive all at once. It accumulates slowly, invisibly, the way water heats around a frog in a pot. And most people don't realize how far it's gone until they've already crossed their limit.

In Part 2 of this special Mental Health Awareness Month series, Dr. Amy Grimm goes deep on secondary traumatic stress — what it is, what makes you vulnerable to it, how to recognize it in your own body and behavior, and where to start when it comes to taking care of yourself. She walks through the Contributing Factors Venn Diagram developed by Françoise Mathieu and the TEND Academy — a powerful framework for understanding the eight risk factor categories that shape your personal stress threshold.

This is one of the most important conversations in the burnout space. And nobody taught us this.

What You'll Learn

• What secondary traumatic stress actually is — and the neuroscience behind why it happens
• The 8 risk factor categories from Françoise Mathieu's Contributing Factors model
• Moral distress, empathic strain, and systems failure — and why they matter for burnout
• How to recognize secondary traumatic stress in yourself across three symptom categories
• The three warning sign categories to watch for: physical, behavioral, and emotional
• Where to start when it comes to managing and recovering from secondary traumatic stress

Links & Resources

Substack: https://amygrimmburnoutfreeme.substack.com

Coaching & website: https://burnoutfreeme.com

TEND Academy (Françoise Mathieu): https://www.tendacademy.ca

Contributing Factors Venn Diagram: https://www.tendacademy.ca/venn-diagram/

Missed Part 1? Listen to Episode 147: Trauma 101: Understanding the Basics of Traumatic Stress

About Dr. Amy Grimm

Dr. Amy Grimm is a veterinarian, success coach, and wellbeing expert and the host of Burnout-Free Me -- the podcast for high-achieving women who are done running on empty. Real talk, practical tools, and honest mindset shifts every week.

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