We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Bassman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The first business I started, a petsitting business, did not have much thought behind it. I was a recent college graduate looking for extra cash to supplement my income from my full-time job.

After burning out 10 years later, I began to research burnout because I couldn’t find resources that addressed the specific issues and challenges I was facing as a female entrepreneur. A lot of the solutions offered were surface and incomplete.

Once I worked through my own burnout, I began working with other female business owners to help them recover from burnout and find stress management tools that actually worked.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What sets my burnout recovery and stress management coaching business apart from others is that I have been the shoes of my clients and I can relate to how miserable and out-of-control they feel. I understand their isolation and fear.

I struggled with self-doubt, mistakes I had made, things I had failed at – all of these things set up camp in your brain when you are burned out. They contribute to the cycles of negative thinking, that cause stress levels to rise and stay high.

Talking about burnout openly in beginning was difficult. I felt that people looked at me as though I had failed and couldn’t handle running a business. At that time, I tried to hide my the pain that my burnout was causing, rather than share it.

As a few more women shared they could relate and were struggling with similar issues, I began to take my burnout and stress management research more seriously and look at developing a path for more than just me.

I feel it is so important for women’s stress and obstacles to be acknowledged separately from men. While the genders share many similarities, there are unique challenges in the workforce that women face that cause us to a lot of stress, strain, and doubt.

What I am most proud of now, is that I have helped support and inspire women to take charge of their stress and create boundaries so they can focus on their personal priorities – not the priorities that society dictates to women.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love this question because I am not a native Texan (I’m from Iowa!). So, I’ve had lots of visitors over the years.

Eat: I swear you could eat at a different restaurant every day and still not visit all of them in DFW. My two favorites are Angry in Deep Ellum for burgers and Gabriela and Sofia’s for Tex-Mex. (Both are local only and small businesses.)

Hangout: I love live music. Deep Ellum and Downtown Dallas still have an assortment of small venues where I can catch new music and up-and-coming artists. I don’t have a specific spot because it depends on who is playing where.

Visit: White Rock Lake is my favorite get out of the city while still being in the city area. I like to be around water because it calms me and it is also a great place to meet friends to walk and catch up.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom, Sari Bassman. She was a business owner and mom at a time when women weren’t given much support or credit for working outside the home. Especially, as an entrepreneur and/or leader. With no business background, she taught herself how to run a business, create a sound operational plan, manage the financials and money – all while raising four children.

The biggest lesson from my mom is to educate myself and always ask questions.

Website: www.JenniferBassman.com

Instagram: @jennifer_bassman

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbassman/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSSzuU2FkawivgOxE6ZagMQ

Other: TikTok: @jenniferbassman Pinterest: @jennifer_bassman

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