When the Hustle Starts Eating You Alive

In partnership with

If you’ve been here a while, you already know this isn’t a hustle newsletter.

Entrepreneurs Gone Wild has always been about the off-script conversations. The ones that happen after the podcast stops recording. The ones about what success costs, not just what it pays.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about that cost.

Out here at Wild Woods, people often ask what there is to do. I usually joke that my hope is they’ll do nothing long enough to get bored. Because boredom is where the nervous system finally downshifts. It’s where creativity reappears. It’s where the body stops bracing.

That idea turned into something tangible.

We’re building a Sit Spot Network at Wild Woods. Forty-two simple benches, placed quietly throughout the woods. Each one made from reclaimed wood. Each one marked with a single word. No instructions. Just a place to pause.

So far, 13 of the 42 benches are already spoken for. Each sponsored by someone who understands that sometimes the most meaningful contribution isn’t louder, faster, or bigger. It’s quieter.

If you’d like to sponsor one, you can do that here:
https://forms.gle/9vTqmCFSGAkgECZg9

Now, that brings me to this week’s feature.

Because if there’s anyone who understands what happens when high performance goes unchecked, it’s Kathy Baldwin.

Kathy has spent decades working with high achievers at the exact moment success starts eating them alive. Not when things fall apart publicly, but when the body starts filing complaints behind the scenes.

Her work is blunt, grounded, and refreshingly unsentimental about grind culture. She doesn’t sell escape. She teaches awareness. And once you see what’s actually running the show internally, you can’t unsee it.

This conversation isn’t about doing less for the sake of it. It’s about understanding what actually creates sustainable momentum, internally and externally.

Here’s Kathy Baldwin.

What If Success Didn’t Hurt?

It usually does not start with a meltdown.

It starts with winning.

Deadlines met. Goals crushed. Calendars full. Praise rolling in. The kind of success that looks great from the outside and quietly wrecks you from the inside.

By the time most people ask for help, the body has already filed a formal complaint.

That is the moment Kathy Baldwin is most often called in. And also the moment she would prefer you did not wait for.

Because burnout is not mysterious. It’s predictable.

And it is optional.

The Problem Is Not Stress. It Is What We Learned to Believe About It.

Kathy has spent decades watching high performers run themselves into the ground using the same recycled script. Push harder. Sleep later. Prove more. Ignore the warning signs.

She knows the script well. She lived it.

Before stepping fully into purpose-driven work, Kathy built and trained high-performing sales teams in corporate environments. The results were impressive. The cost was brutal. Success on paper. Breakdown in the body.

What finally cracked things open was not another productivity system or mindset hack. It was the realization that everything she had been taught about achievement was incomplete.

External results without internal alignment create damage. Period.

So she went deep. Forty years deep. Studying neuroscience, neuroplasticity, behavior, conditioning, and the automatic patterns that quietly run most lives.

The result is her core framework: CRAP.

Yes. CRAP.

It stands for Conditions, Responses, Automatic Programming. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

You Are Not Broken. You Are Conditioned.

Most people think they are failing.

They are not.

They are executing exactly what they were trained to execute.

Automatic responses. Scarcity-based decisions. Fear disguised as ambition. Hustle framed as virtue.

Kathy’s work is not about fixing people. It is about helping them recognize when they are no longer in the driver’s seat.

She explains it simply. You only need a driving instructor until you are licensed. After that, the goal is awareness, not dependence.

Her coaching is designed to be efficient. Humanly possible fast. Not because transformation should be rushed, but because empowerment means not needing a guide forever.

The real skill is learning how to recognize when you are off course and correcting quickly. Like a GPS that calmly says, “At the next available turn, make a U-turn.”

No shame. No drama. Just clarity.

The Lie of the Grind Culture Payoff

If money solved this, wealthy people would not burn out.

If achievement fixed this, successful people would not feel empty.

Kathy is blunt about this. Money is an outcome. Not a purpose. Not a cure. Not a reason.

When people chase external results without addressing internal drivers, they create disease. Physical. Emotional. Relational.

This is not philosophy. It is physiology.

And it is why she is deeply skeptical of manipulative sales tactics, pressure-based funnels, and performative empowerment.

She loves sales. Truly. But only when it is rooted in service.

Real sales sounds like curiosity. Who are you? What do you need? Am I actually the right person to help you?

Sometimes the answer is no. And that is not failure. That is integrity.

Collaboration Beats Control. Every Time.

One of the most compelling metaphors Kathy uses comes from nature.

A dammed lake. Water stagnates. Weeds take over. Life disappears.

Flow restores everything.

She builds her communities the same way forests operate. Shared resources. Open communication. Collaboration instead of competition.

Members are asked two questions immediately.

What is your gift to the world?
What do you need right now?

No posturing. No pretending. No hoarding.

The result is not just support. It is momentum that does not cost people their health.

This philosophy also shapes how she works with clients. One-on-one coaching. Group programs. Community spaces. Books. Podcasts.

Different entry points. Same foundation.

Meet people where they are. Help them remove internal roadblocks. Give them tools they can use without supervision.

Then let them drive.

Purpose Is Not Woo. It Is Practical.

Kathy does not talk about purpose as some abstract spiritual concept. She talks about it as alignment.

When people live out of alignment, life pushes back. Hard.

When they live on purpose, effort still exists, but it feeds them instead of draining them.

Time distortion happens. Flow states appear. Creativity returns. Relationships stabilize.

Work stops feeling like self-betrayal.

This is not about rejecting ambition. It is about redirecting it.

And yes, she is the first to admit this is a cultural shift. One that challenges deeply embedded systems built on exhaustion and replacement.

Those systems are breaking down.

Good.

Where This Goes Next

Kathy is in an expansion phase.

After years of inward work and foundation-building, she is intentionally moving back into community, nature, and in-person connection. Retreats. Live gatherings. Shared energy.

Not instead of digital connection. In addition to it.

Because proximity matters. Presence matters. Unhurried conversations matter.

And entrepreneurs especially need spaces where they are not pitching, proving, or performing.

Just human.

Want to Go Deeper?

You can explore Kathy’s work, books, and coaching options at https://kathybaldwin.me.

Her books Unlearn the CRAP and How I Unlearned My CRAP are available on Amazon and major platforms.

If you are ready to stop letting automatic programming run your life and business, start there.

No hustle required.

Just honesty.

Check our conversation out:

YouTube

Apple

Spotify

The Briefing Leaders Rely On.

In a landscape flooded with hype and surface-level reporting, The Daily Upside delivers what business leaders actually need: clear, concise, and actionable intelligence on markets, strategy, and business innovation.

Founded by former bankers and veteran business journalists, it's built for decision-makers — not spectators. From macroeconomic shifts to sector-specific trends, The Daily Upside helps executives stay ahead of what’s shaping their industries.

That’s why over 1 million readers, including C-suite executives and senior decision-makers, start their day with it.

No noise. No jargon. Just business insight that drives results.

Subscribe free today.