Why I'm writing this
Standing in Fort Lauderdale Airport, after months of ignoring every warning sign my body and mind were sending, I finally crashed. Broke down. Couldn’t stop crying. Crumbled.
I was a sitting CEO, supposedly at the peak of my career, and I couldn’t function anymore.
Burnout had won.
But here’s the thing about crashes – if you survive them, they teach you things success never could.
During my recovery, I reflected deeply on how I got there. The irony wasn’t lost on me: I’d started my consulting practice, GEM Consulting Solutions, back in 2017 with a promise to help businesses “accelerate their pace.”
When I became CEO, I applied every tool and technique I knew to drive growth and speed.
What I learned the hard way? When you’re built for speed, you’d better have good brakes and strong guardrails.
That painful lesson sparked something. I realized my story wasn’t unique – it was happening in C-suites everywhere.
Talented executives were burning out because nobody talks about the blind spots that come with senior leadership. The denial. The isolation. The cost of trading business success for family connection. The impossible standards we set for ourselves.
So I started writing. Not academic theory or preachy leadership platitudes, but real talk about what actually happens when ambition meets human limits.
The result is “Crash & [Burn] Learn,” a business fable coming out this winter that shares my burnout story alongside research-backed insights about the executive blind spots that lead to burnout and crashes.
Today, my consulting practice looks different. Yes, I still help leaders accelerate business growth with trusted tools and processes.
But I also focus on building cultures of resilience that protect teams from burnout while maximizing both performance AND wellbeing.
Because I’ve learned that sustainable success requires both the accelerator and the brakes.
In this bi-weekly newsletter, I’ll share what I’ve learned about avoiding the crashes, recovering from them when they happen, and building businesses that thrive without sacrificing the humans who run them.
No corporate speak, no sugar-coating – just honest insights from someone who learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
Welcome to the journey. Let’s make sure your story has a better middle chapter than mine did.
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Coming soon: Crash and [Burn] LEARN, a business fable by Julien Godbarge, the first book in the Executive Survival Series. Available on Amazon in Kindle Unlimited, Kindle Digital, and Paperback formats.