Burnout is not a diary problem, it’s a support gap.

For a long time, I told myself I was just in a busy season. The kind you push through, because that’s what business owners do. But looking back, it wasn’t the workload that was wearing me down, it was the fact that too much of the business relied on me to hold it together.

I run Digital 24 with an office in Belfast. We’re a data-first performance agency, and I genuinely love the work. I love strategising campaigns and I love the creative problem-solving, I love working with ambitious teams who want to do marketing properly. But I’ve learnt something that I wish I’d understood sooner – when you’re close to burnout, it’s rarely because you ran out of time. It’s because you ran out of support.

Not support in a fluffy, motivational way. Proper, practical support. The kind that catches work before it becomes stress. The kind that shares responsibility instead of concentrating it. The kind that makes the business stronger, not just busier.

Burnout is often described as exhaustion, but in my experience it shows up long before you fully crash.

How it looked like for me:

• feeling irritated by small requests, even from people you care about
• carrying a constant mental to do list, even when you’re meant to be off
• re-reading emails three times because your brain does not get it
• struggling to make decisions you normally make easily
• waking up already tired
• losing the part of you that feels excited, creative, optimistic

From the outside though, everything can still look absolutely fine. Clients are getting results. Work is being delivered. The team is active. The business is growing. You might even be doing “better than ever” on paper.

That’s the tricky bit. The numbers can go up while your personal capacity goes down.

So what can you do? Things I heard and advice I received over and over again:

• plan your week better
• get up earlier
• batch your tasks
• be more disciplined
• delegate more
• create boundaries

None of that is wrong, but when you’re already stretched, it can land like blame. As if the problem is your planning, rather than the reality that you’re carrying too much responsibility with too little backup.

Because the truth is, plenty of business owners are organised. They have calendars, systems, lists, tools, colour coding, the lot. They are not falling apart because they cannot manage their time.

They are falling apart because they are managing everything.

There’s a stage many founders hit, especially in service businesses and agencies, where you become the default answer to everything.

You are:

• the decision maker
• the quality control
• the client reassurance
• the problem solver
• the person who notices the gap before anyone else sees it
• the person who picks up the pieces when something slips

Sometimes you’ve created that dynamic without meaning to. Sometimes you’re protecting your standards. Sometimes it started as “I’ll just handle this one”. Sometimes you’re doing it because you’re capable, and because you care.

But over time, it becomes the norm.

And when you are the norm, you are also the bottleneck.

Not because you’re controlling. Because you’re responsible, and because the business has not yet built enough structure around you to share the load properly.

This is what I mean when I say burnout is a support problem.

Burnout often turns up during growth.

• More clients.
• More deliverables.
• More team members.
• More admin.
• More decisions.
• More responsibility.

But if the support underneath the growth does not rise at the same pace, you end up with a gap. A gap between what the business demands and what you can sustainably carry.

That gap is where burnout lives.

It’s also where quality starts to wobble, confidence starts to dip, and your work starts to feel heavy, even if you’re good at it.

When people say “you need support”, it can sound vague. So here’s what I think support looks like in real life, the kind that genuinely protects your energy and makes the business more stable.

1. Operational support, systems that hold the work

This is not about having more tools. It’s about having clearer ways of working so everything does not route back to you.

Examples:

• documented processes for repeat tasks, even simple checklists
• defined ownership, so tasks do not float around waiting for you to pick them up
• clear standards, so quality is not dependent on your personal review
• a consistent client comms rhythm, so you’re not reacting all day
• briefing templates, so work starts properly and does not require constant fixing
• a single source of truth for decisions, so you’re not re-deciding things weekly

In agency life, this matters so much. When operational support is weak, you end up “holding it all” in your head. That is exhausting.

2. Delivery support, the right people in the right seats

This is not just headcount. It’s capability and ownership.

Support looks like:

• people who can run with outcomes, not just complete tasks
• clear roles that match strengths, so you are not constantly reshuffling work
• trusted specialists where it matters, for example ads, analytics, creative, strategy
• someone who can lead delivery day to day without escalating everything to you
• a culture where problem-solving is normal, not something that always needs your input

One of the biggest shifts for any founder is moving from “I do” to “we do”, without the fear that standards will drop. That shift only works when you have the right structure and the right people.

3. Leadership support, support for the supporter

This is the one that gets ignored most, and it’s often the most important.

If you are the person everyone relies on, you need somewhere to put your own pressure down.

That might be:

• a mentor who tells you the truth, kindly
• peer support with other business owners who get it
• coaching that helps you make decisions faster and with less self-doubt
• space to talk honestly, without performing “I’m fine”

You cannot pour from an empty cup is a cliché, but it’s also accurate.

If you’ve been feeling close to the edge, try this that my mentor recently asked me to do. No judgement, just information.

Answer these five questions:

1. What am I currently doing that only I can do, and what have I just taken on by default?
2. What tasks come back to me repeatedly because the process is unclear or inconsistent?
3. Where am I the bottleneck, and what would need to change for that not to be true?
4. What am I holding in my head that should live in a system?
5. If I stepped away for two weeks, what would break first?

Your answers will point directly to the support gaps.

So …. how do you start fixing it, without turning your world upside down.  Here are some practical moves I recommend, and I have started to use these in D24 too.

Move 1, write a “not me” list

List everything you do in a normal week. Then mark:

• tasks that genuinely require your authority or expertise
• tasks that someone else could do with the right guidance
• tasks that should be systemised

The “not me” list is your roadmap. It becomes the basis for delegation, training, recruiting, or process building.

Move 2, systemise one recurring pain point

Pick one thing that keeps landing back on your plate, for me it is proposals and for you it might be reporting, onboarding, briefing, approvals.

Create a simple version of the process:

• what happens first
• what “done” looks like
• who owns it
• what template or checklist supports it

You do not need a perfect system, you need a usable one.

Move 3, set one capacity-protecting rule that sticks

Boundaries are hard when they rely on willpower, especially when you care about clients and your team.

Choose one rule that makes your business healthier, for example:

• no new work without a clear brief
• no “quick favours” that bypass process
• a specific response time policy, so you are not always on call

Small rules, consistently held, change the shape of your weeks.

If you’re exhausted, it doesn’t mean you’re weak, disorganised, or not cut out for leadership.

It often means you’ve been carrying too much, for too long, with not enough structure around you.

Time is not the only resource that matters. Capacity matters. Support matters. Sustainability matters.

And if you’re building something meaningful, you deserve to build it in a way that does not quietly drain the person at the centre of it.