The Rebalancing Act: How to Redefine Success Without Burning Out Part 2

Summary: In Part 2, Katie continues her conversation with Carol Enneking, diving deeper into the realities of entrepreneurship, resilience, and redefining success in a way that actually supports your life.

Carol opens up about the pivotal life moments that shaped her journey, moving between corporate and entrepreneurship, navigating unexpected personal challenges, and ultimately finding her way back to building a business on her own terms. Together, they unpack the hidden pressure entrepreneurs carry, the scarcity mindset that keeps people stuck doing everything themselves, and the importance of creating space before burnout forces you to.

They explore practical ways to set boundaries, evaluate what’s truly working, and step out of the “do it all now” mindset. Carol brings her framework, think, give up, let go, to life with real examples, while emphasizing the importance of values, legacy, and intentional living.

This episode is a powerful reminder that success isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what matters most, sustainably.

Key Takeaways

→ Your journey doesn’t have to be linear. Growth often comes through unexpected life shifts, not perfectly planned paths.

→ Fear and scarcity can keep you stuck doing everything yourself. Investing in support is often what allows your business to grow.

→ Being “busy” is not the same as being effective. Without reflection, you may be spending time on the wrong things.

→ Create space before you need it. Margin in your schedule allows you to handle life’s unexpected moments without everything falling apart.

→ Think, give up, let go.

→ Just because something isn’t working today doesn’t mean it won’t. Give strategies enough time before pivoting.

→ Boundaries are essential. If your business relies on you 24/7, it’s a sign you need systems or support, not more effort.

→ Rest is productive. Stepping away creates space for better ideas, creativity, and clearer decision-making.

→ Define your own version of success. If you don’t, you’ll end up chasing someone else’s and paying the price for it.

→ Legacy matters. How you make people feel and how you show up will outlast any achievement.

Where to find Carol

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Carol Enneking's LinkedIn

Book: The Rebalancing Act available on Amazon and other major retailers

Resources

• Website
• Free Mini Cogno Mondays
• Learn more about Cognomovement
• Try Cognomovement for yourself!
• Book a call with Katie

Credit: Tom Giovingo, Intro & Outro, Random Voice Guy, Professional ‘Cat‘ Herder

Mixed & Managed: JohnRavenscraft.com

Disclaimer: Katie is not a medical professional and she is not qualified to diagnose any conditions. The advice and information she gives is based on her own experience and research. It does not take the place of medical advice. Always consult a medical professional first before you try anything new.

Transcript

Carol Ennekinng (01:09)
What do you want to be known for? What do you want people to say about you? Because we wear busyness like it's a badge of honor. It's really not. mean, at the end of the day, like somebody 20 years ago probably would have described me as busy, frazzled, overwhelmed, gets things done, gets lots of things done. But they wouldn't have necessarily said that I could really stay focused and present and be patient in a tough situation or that I

showed up to be a difference maker and cared a great deal about the softer side of life. You because sometimes I was just so busy. I never had time to slow down for those things. And you know what? I realized I didn't want to be known for that. So when you think about what you want to be known for, then it enables you to work backwards to say, how is what I'm doing right now lining up with that? And where do I need to make changes?

And so it's a simple exercise through this blueprint workbook, but it helps you clarify priorities and where you want to go in this world so that you can start living in alignment with that. And when you have that clarity, it's easier to know what to give up, what to let go, what needs to change.

Katie Wrigley (02:24)
Yeah, I love that. That's so powerful. I'm thinking of an example. It's not necessarily in the entrepreneurial world, but the way that we come across, the way people perceive us, if that's part of what you're working on, like whatever legacy you want to leave behind, a lot of times it's, know, how did we make people feel? know, and I'm forgetting the old quote that, you know, it's people don't remember what we say, but they remember how we made them feel.

Carol Ennekinng (02:52)
Right. I was thinking of the same one as you started thinking that.

Katie Wrigley (02:53)
And I

know someone who has dementia and they've got a very advanced stage with it now and there's a few people in this person's life. And so the person working with them who was relaying this to me was saying, know, they asked like, what did they like about me? And she's like, well, she always tries to make my life easier and she tries to help and she never makes me wrong.

And like that meant I was totally like overcome with tears like, ⁓ that makes me like so happy because like that's that's how I want to be perceived. I want to be helpful. I want her to have whatever reality she's going to have in any given day, whether it's way out there or not. Like this is dementia. Like arguing with them like you're not going to get anywhere. Like their reality is whatever their reality is in any given day. And then this person who is working with

Carol Ennekinng (03:21)
Fantastic.

All right.

Katie Wrigley (03:45)
the dementia person said, you know, what do you think about or, you know, what do you like about this person? And the other person she was mentioning, that person works really hard and they're doing really well in life. And it's like, awesome that that's what's going on. But like, for me, like, I don't, I don't want to be known as the person who works hard. Like, I want to be known as the person who made you feel seen and heard, who helped make your life easier.

who really just wanted to help you. Like that's how I wanna be perceived. So having that reflected back through the very blunt honesty that is dementia at times was just like, good, it's working, yay.

Carol Ennekinng (04:23)
Yeah.

And you know, for the person who does want to be known as a hard worker, if that's what you want to be known for.

Great, be the hardest worker there is and own it and wear that badge proudly, but at least you'll know that that's what you want to be known for. Make sure that's what you want to be known for, regardless of what it is. Well, yeah, but I mean, and you know, I didn't want to be known that way either. Not that I don't want to be known as a slacker, but I guess I feel like my life's purpose is more than just how I work.

Katie Wrigley (04:33)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yep. Exactly. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. Thank you for mentioning that.

Right.

Yeah, like I want the work ethic acknowledged, but not as the first thing you know about me. Well, she works her ass off, like, but you know, is there anything else higher? So that's up for me to change. ⁓ So I'm wondering like, what are some ways, like we talked about boundaries. And so when we talk about the entrepreneurial journey, like it's not just boundaries with clients.

Carol Ennekinng (05:05)
Yeah,

Right, yes. So.

Katie Wrigley (05:27)
it's boundaries that we need to have around our time. So what do you suggest for people who may be trying to be everything or not be everything, but they're trying to do everything all the time. They aren't really able to turn off at night. They're answering emails on the weekend. They're answering texts on the weekend. They're basically on 24 seven. So how can that person start to find the boundaries that they need to start to get back?

little bit of space for themselves and then what will that space, I already know the answer, what will that space give them when they have it back?

Carol Ennekinng (06:00)
Yeah, I think analyzing your time is really important and and I think

It's always possible to say this is a 24 hour, seven day a week business, but all of us need time out. You sleep, right? At some point you sleep, other people sleep. So hopefully they don't need your service when they're trying to sleep. If you really feel like you can't ever take time off, that to me is a big signal that you need to get help. And I don't mean, I don't, I mean, you may need professional help, like therapy help, but I'm talking help like.

hire an assistant, hire an office manager, hire someone who could, you could mentor, who could learn from you and learn the business because you want to be able to take some time off. It's important. And I know, I mean, yes, there are businesses that are open 24 seven, but it doesn't mean the same person is running them 24 seven. And so I think it's important to step away from the details and kind of zoom back out to that 40,000 foot level and say,

Katie Wrigley (06:45)
Yes.

Carol Ennekinng (07:03)
Okay, what's the bigger picture here? When are my customers needing me most? When does it make sense to step away? How can I still meet their needs in a way without myself being the one to do it? How can I start to replicate this? People think it's job security to be indispensable, but there are very few things where the world will just stop turning if you go take a day off. ⁓

but it's easy to feel that sense of urgency. So I think it's important to really check in with our thought process and think, what am I telling myself is true right now that maybe isn't true? ⁓ What can I control? What can I not control? So I think it's important that you can step back and get that objective analysis in. And if you can't do that alone, enlist someone to help you to get that perspective. If you can't get that perspective,

Katie Wrigley (07:41)
Mm-hmm.

Carol Ennekinng (08:00)
and you feel like you're really, really stuck, that's probably a good sign that you need to reach out to someone else and talk to somebody else about it. And it can feel really isolating to be in business for yourself. So find your network, find people who can help you and help you get that perspective. There are networking groups, there are professional associations, there are all kinds of places you can reach out to try to find support for your entrepreneurial business.

So there's that. But in terms of your question about what benefits, why does it matter? I think we all know the answer intuitively. We just don't always want to admit that we would do better if we would turn it off a little bit. our body can only process so much stress. We need to rest. We need to rejuvenate. I believe it was the late great Stephen Covey who used the sharpen the saw analogy.

It's a great one. It's if you keep trying to cut that tree down and use the same axe over and over and over and you don't take time to go sharpen the axe, it's going to take you so much more effort to continue trying to chop that tree down because your axe blade is going to get more dull. And it's the same with us. And so you don't want to wait until you start having these cognitive signals that your brain's on overload, your body's

rebelling in every way it knows how. And believe you me, I'm somebody who's had my body rebel and give me those signals. So I'm not trying to preach from a place where I haven't been. I do know that when I found my rebalancing act and found a way to try to focus on what matters most, try to let the other stuff go and try to stay true to my purpose in life and the things that I'm uniquely gifted to do while getting help.

with the other things, that's when I started to feel much more calm, much more hope, much more fulfillment. Everything fell into place and it started to sink. And I mean, sink like S-Y-N-C, synchronize. It's sinking down low. So ⁓ I just think it's really important because...

Katie Wrigley (10:05)
Yeah. ⁓

Carol Ennekinng (10:13)
Now I can say on the other side of this that my life is so much better than it ever has been, but it's because I intentionally let some things go and started doing things differently. And don't wait for a crisis like a health scare to make you make that change. Take care of yourself before you have to take care of yourself as a want and it will pay dividends.

Katie Wrigley (10:25)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, please heed that message. And it's so hard to understand that how that breaking point feels when we hit it until we've hit it. Like my, that breaking point for me was in 2018 when the stress levels got so high that I was disabled. And this was before I was a full-time entrepreneur. I had started to do a little bit of coaching on the side to practice and feel more comfortable with it before I stepped out of corporate, which didn't happen until 2021, but it was,

That was a big learning lesson for me. And because I had such a long chronic stress pattern, it took a while to undo all of that out of my system. And I remember, I think it was in 2023, so then three years ago, my parents and I share my dog. at that point, she hadn't fully, early 2023, she was still living with my parents, mostly full-time. But then later that year, about halfway through the summer, she decided she wanted to come live with me full-time again.

And what that did was it, air quote, forced me to have breaks during the day because now I have this high energy German shepherd that as much as she wants to be around me, she's bored if she's just sitting by my feet all day while I'm working. So it forced me to go outside. It forced me to take breaks. It forced me to rest more. And as much as I still remember going, this is so counterintuitive, but I knew that this is what was going to happen.

Carol Ennekinng (11:47)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (12:04)
I was more productive. I started having more success because

Carol Ennekinng (12:05)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (12:08)
I was resting and I had to not, I was forced to divert my attention, which was the healthiest thing I could have done from the business, which started to open up more ideas. Like when we're out there playing and it's quiet, the brain starts to work in different ways. We're getting different feedback. We're getting different input. Like

Carol Ennekinng (12:16)
Yeah.

Yep. Okay. ⁓

Katie Wrigley (12:30)
your unconscious mind is still running the whole time and all the things that you need to get done for the business, but you're going to get new ideas and new perspectives and you're going to get a boost in your creativity when you're you're giving yourself that chance to actually like have a cycle like humans are

meant to do. Like we're not meant to be 24 7 like we yes, we're alive. Yeah, we're live 24 7 but eight hours should be for sleep eight ish for work, which

Carol Ennekinng (12:51)
Staring at a screen. Right.

Katie Wrigley (12:59)
tends to spill over in a lot of people, myself included, like 10 hours are usually the day, although I'm getting more into the eight hours now that have a VA to help. So it's like, ⁓ she's wonderful. And

Carol Ennekinng (13:01)
That's good.

Katie Wrigley (13:11)
I'm getting more creative and better results again, every time I give myself that added space in there to be able to stretch into. But I still remember so clearly, and I was watching my biometrics with my aura ring too, and I was noticing how much lower.

Carol Ennekinng (13:28)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (13:29)
the rest got when I started to take those breaks and how much better I was sleeping. like, okay, like, yeah, I, my logical mind really needed to see that because my nervous system needed to feel it. My mind kept going, we need to push, need to push. And that's, that's what, that's what the nervous system and logical mind a lot of times are telling you. And that's when the nervous

system is pushing, that's where everything has to happen today. But then when you can pause and

Carol Ennekinng (13:53)
Right.

Katie Wrigley (13:57)
unwind the nervous system and start to sequence it over time, you do not

have to do all of those things today. You can put it onto a scale. You can put it onto a schedule. You can look at it over time and okay, this is the thing that needs to happen. And when you start to look at all the tasks that you're looking at, you're going to have this natural order of things that starts to come out. Like let's say you want to do a keynote speak. I know you're a speaker as part of what you do, Carol. So

you aren't gonna just jump into that keynote speak, you're gonna wanna have time to think about what your topic is, who is the audience, how are you gonna wanna speak to them? Those are all things that happen before you actually give the keynote speech. And it's the same with anything, like we're working towards, let's say we're working towards $25,000 a month as our goal with revenue, and we're at 10,000 right now.

Carol Ennekinng (14:31)
Right.

Katie Wrigley (14:50)
Maybe we have a $25,000 month, but it's more logical that we look at what's working, what's not working, and give ourselves time to more than double our monthly revenue.

Then we can start to sequence, okay, here's what's working the best. These are the things that aren't working the best. What happens if I double down here and let this go, much to your point, what happens then? How much faster do I start to get up to that new monetary goal I have set for myself?

Carol Ennekinng (15:17)
That's right.

Katie Wrigley (15:20)
Awesome. Anything you want to expand in there as far as like how people can help themselves start to like stretch

that out and find that next little step.

Carol Ennekinng (15:30)
Yeah, I mean, there's

just, there's so many ideas there. There's so many resources to help you. I was thinking about the things that you, when you were saying this is, this is working, this is not working, just taking the time to do that. think sometimes entrepreneurs feel like they need to do it all and they're not checking to see what's working and not working. And unfortunately, sometimes the things that aren't working are things we're still throwing a lot of money at. You know, things like

Katie Wrigley (15:55)
Mm-hmm.

Carol Ennekinng (15:57)
Are you customizing ads online? Are you taking time to look at those? Are you taking time to really target those? The money you can spend to get a virtual assistant, a social media manager, someone to help you in that space, it can start to pay for itself when it generates quality leads, when it reduces unnecessary spend. mean, there's just a lot to that. so I think the biggest...

Well, I keep saying the biggest mistake, the biggest mistake, there are a lot of big mistakes we make as entrepreneurs. But I think trying to do it all yourself and it's that scarcity mentality. There's not enough money and therefore I don't think I can pay somebody else to do this for me. And you are going to make investments in your business. You need to make investments in your business. And by doing so, you open up the door to start scaling your business.

Katie Wrigley (16:49)
Mm-hmm.

Carol Ennekinng (16:49)
It's

very hard to do all the things by yourself and see your business thrive. And it's not because you can't do them. We all can do them. We can do all the things and we can certainly try. But we aren't probably going to do them nearly as productively as somebody else could. And it is truly amazing. mean, I'm just getting into more nervous system work myself.

And it is amazing the restorative power that comes when we can get ourselves out of that stress mode and just routine, try to get a routine and whether that routine is a 10 hour day, an eight hour day, four hours and then three hours off and then four more hours in the evening, whatever it looks like is fine. That's why you're an entrepreneur, but it shouldn't be 16 hours a day, every day, all the time for very long.

Katie Wrigley (17:48)
Yeah.

Carol Ennekinng (17:48)
And

I think that when we can start figuring out our own circadian rhythms, I mean, you mentioned your aura ring, I love to know when my most productive time is, when my energy wanes. I love to see the effect on my vital statistics when I take my dog for a walk in the afternoon. And isn't it amazing the thinking that you do when you're out like that? It's just you and the dog.

and nature and maybe some good tunes. And I do some of my best thinking then. And so I think when we start to recognize things in a more holistic manner, instead of being so, like you said, that tunnel vision kicks in, instead of being so singularly focused on the thing we're trying to get to.

And the other thing I want to mention, and this just kind of goes back to what we've been talking about, I think a few minutes ago, but when you're in the tough times or those times of reckoning, being patient enough, being patient enough to truly know whether something works or not is important. I how many times have you thought something wasn't going to work?

Katie Wrigley (18:52)
Yes.

Carol Ennekinng (19:06)
but then maybe you can't get to it today, you can't make a change, and then all of a sudden you're like, hey wait, now it's working. Now that thing is okay. Sometimes things just take longer than we want them to, but we have to exercise some patience in this journey as well. And I find, I mean that's just such a thing for me. When I had children 28 years ago, my mom told me that God would grant me some patience, and I'm still waiting.

Katie Wrigley (19:18)
to exercise some patience.

I love that.

Carol Ennekinng (19:34)
You speak of I have a person and and so you know sometimes it does take time when there's a conflict situation when there's something that's not going right there's a reason that they say count to ten get away from the situation come back to it later let some of the emotion die down you know but it's so easy to be like I think as entrepreneurs especially we have such a do it now

Katie Wrigley (19:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Carol Ennekinng (20:01)
mentality that everything in our life becomes do it now and and sometimes you got to just step out into the sunshine go take a break go walk your dog go take a shower whatever it is i mean just get away from your screen your problem whatever it is that's staring you in the face right now step away from it for a little while take some deep calming breaths and then step back in and that perspective changes everything

Katie Wrigley (20:05)
Yep.

I love that, you know, and just to add to what you're saying, sometimes the thing we need to do right now is absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Carol Ennekinng (20:37)
Nothing. And you

you mentioned knowing someone with dementia. My father passed away last year after a long battle with Alzheimer's. And thank you. And my mother, she's healthy, but she fell and she had a really terrible injury and couldn't move her leg for four months. So last year, 2025,

Katie Wrigley (20:41)
I'm sorry.

It's a safety. It's a safety. It's a safety.

Aw.

Carol Ennekinng (20:58)
That was a year of actively putting my own rebalancing advice to work because it was like, you know what? Today, I can't work. Today, I'm taking my mom to the doctor. Today, I'm helping plan my father's funeral. We all have those things come up. But the biggest difference for me in 2025 and the reason that I was able to keep my sanity through those highs and lows during the year, mostly lows, if I'm being honest.

Katie Wrigley (21:07)
Yep.

Carol Ennekinng (21:27)
The reason I kept my sanity is that I had created some margin in my life, some space, some blank space, some times of just not having anything on the calendar so that I could pivot when life needed me to do so. And when we spend our lives so filled with things to do, there's no room for that. And then it comes crashing down around us we're like, what am I going to do?

Katie Wrigley (21:42)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Carol Ennekinng (21:57)
If you can anticipate that, and maybe, I don't know, maybe it's my age, maybe it's knowing that caregiver is kind of part of the role that I need to play at this point in my life, but making some space. And by the way, make space for what you enjoy. I make space for mahjong every week because I'm obsessed with it. So I'm not sorry, you know, I don't know if my husband truly understands why I play mahjong, but it's something I enjoy and I use my brain and I'm going to make time for that. And you know what?

Katie Wrigley (22:16)
⁓ nice.

Carol Ennekinng (22:26)
When you're an entrepreneur, could do that. Go play golf. Go play pickleball. Do whatever it is that's a good outlet for you. That's a full life. And that stuff matters too. And you shouldn't feel guilty. And like you said, that's how, you know, if you are, it's a time question. So how are you making more time and more space so that you can spend some time with the people you love and on the things you enjoy?

Katie Wrigley (22:40)
Yes.

I love that. And it's, that's so important to have that balance. And, know, the thing that I tell for people, cause I'm similar place, like need to have time for life to happen in a negative way. But it's like, well, even if nothing bad happens, let's here's hoping that I get to have a nice streak of nothing bad happening. Cause 25 really kicked my butt. It was a rough year for me in different ways, but it was, it was still pretty rough, but you have joy.

Carol Ennekinng (23:10)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. maybe maybe you'll

read a good book or pick up an old hobby that you've gotten away from if you have the luxury of time. Wouldn't that be nice?

Katie Wrigley (23:29)
Right. And

yeah, do we like this even more now that we're revisiting it later in life? Like, or even if you're earlier in life, like picking up something like, I've always wanted to learn and make musical instrument, or maybe you've always wanted to learn a language like that, the unstructured time, that white space as you referred to, that's, that's a space you can do whatever the hell you want with it. Like you can fill it with work if you want to, but see what happens when you don't.

Carol Ennekinng (23:36)
Yeah. Yep.

Katie Wrigley (23:58)
see what you actually get when you're giving your nervous system, your brain different inputs than you usually do in a day.

Carol Ennekinng (24:07)
Yeah, and I would just add to that this starts to get controversial people love their screens, but getting some time away from the screen You may want to check out by playing video games or something like that But go outside and breathe in some fresh air and play a game of basketball or something

Katie Wrigley (24:16)
yeah.

Yes.

Carol Ennekinng (24:25)
You

know, there's a need for that too. Fresh air, real people, connection, you all those things.

Katie Wrigley (24:29)
Yes. Yeah.

100 % all of those are so needed. ⁓ Gosh, I could keep talking to you all day, Carol. I've still enjoyed it. But I'd love for people to know, where can they find you? And I know you also have a book and we'll make sure that we have all the, all of your links are going to be in the show notes. But if you can tell people where they can find you, your website, favorite social handle, and also the title of your book and where they can find that as well,

Carol Ennekinng (24:39)
I know I'm enjoying our conversation, but I'm flying. Sure.

Sure, thank you. It is carolynneking.com. It's just my first and last name. That's my website.

You can find links to all the social media and join my community, get your free legacy planning workbook there if you so desire. ⁓ So you can find me in most of the obvious social places. And my book is called The Rebalancing Act, Wisdom from Working Women for Success That Matters. It's not just a book for women though. And even though it says working women, it's a book for life. And ⁓ as I said before, it's my memoir, but it's also interviews from

many women and men about the things they've found on this journey that have helped them find success that matters. It's available anywhere you buy your books. So Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and we have an Audible version, a Kindle version, all the things. So you can find it anywhere, the Rebalancing Act.

Katie Wrigley (25:54)
Fantastic. That is going to be my next purchase on Audible because I definitely want to your book after this conversation or listen to it. love that's one of the things I love doing as an entrepreneur is and I mix between like self-help business, productive productivity books, and then absolutely ludicrous fiction. ⁓ I like to listen to the absolutely ludicrous fiction as I'm going to bed at night and I'll like fall asleep.

Carol Ennekinng (25:56)
⁓ thank you. Thank you so much. Me too. Me too.

Nice.

Katie Wrigley (26:19)
minutes into it and I like the timer so I only have to like go back 10 minutes to figure out where I fell asleep in the audible but then when I listen in the morning as part of my morning routine I'm listening to Dale Carnegie or I'm listening to Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan like I don't know if you're I'm guessing you may be aware of their books who not how and the art of yeah they're so good yeah love their books ⁓

Carol Ennekinng (26:21)
Yep. That works. Yep. Yeah. All good. All good. Great way to start the day.

Katie Wrigley (26:46)
It is, it is. And thank you so much for this conversation, Carol. Is there any last words you want to leave with that entrepreneur that's struggling right now, that's trying to put the whole world on their shoulders and take everything yesterday? What would you like to say to that person?

Carol Ennekinng (27:02)
I would say take time out to think and redefine what success looks like for you before you allow it to redefine you.

Katie Wrigley (27:10)
Yes, I love that. Thank you. Fantastic note. Thank you so much for being here today, Carol.

Carol Ennekinng (27:16)
Thanks for having me.

Katie Wrigley (27:16)
And thank you for listening. I know you have your choice of a lot of different things to listen to on the internet today, and I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode. And I trust that Carol has given you some fantastic advice for your business, and I will see you on the next episode. And until then, please be well.