“The ‘Burn It Down’ phase is real—the kind of exhaustion where you genuinely consider selling everything and disappearing.”
Let me ask you something. Have you ever sat down to write a social post you’ve written a hundred times before, and suddenly… nothing? Or found yourself questioning a business decision that, twelve months ago, you would have made without blinking?
If you’re a woman over 40 in business, there’s a chance that what you’re calling a strategy problem, a confidence problem, or a marketing problem is actually a biology problem.
This week on The Business Huddle, health coach Kate Martin — founder of the Healthy Hormones Club — said the thing out loud that so many of us have been too polite to say: your hormones are affecting your business. And almost nobody is talking about it.
The “Burn It Down” phase is real and it has a name
Kate described a specific kind of exhaustion that hits women in business in their 40s. Not the tired-that-sleep-fixes kind, but a bone-deep, what’s-even-the-point kind. The kind where you genuinely consider selling everything and disappearing. Kate, for the record, almost did exactly that. She’s back. Her hormones are happy.
What she helped me understand is that this isn’t a personal failing or a business crisis. It’s perimenopause. Estrogen begins to decline, the adrenal glands pick up the slack, and suddenly your body becomes acutely sensitive to stress. The cortisol response that used to be manageable is now the thing keeping you awake, clouding your thinking, and making you want to blow up everything you’ve built.
What it actually looks like
Here’s what hormonal imbalance can look like inside a business:
You stop showing up on social media and tell yourself you’ve run out of ideas. You second-guess every email you send. You convince yourself the problem is your pricing or your team, when the real issue is six months of broken sleep. You become sharper, blunter, less tolerant of nonsense, which can actually be a superpower, once you understand what’s driving it.
The decision fatigue isn’t weakness. The visibility retreat isn’t laziness. And the urge to start over probably isn’t the strategic pivot you think it is.
Where to start
Kate’s approach isn’t complicated. A few things she mentioned that I keep coming back to:
Eat breakfast — something real, not from a box. It stabilises blood sugar, reduces cortisol, and after two weeks you’ll actually be hungry for it. Kate says this alone changes lives.
Move to sweat. Not to perform, but because sweating is one of the primary ways your body processes excess cortisol. Think of it as maintenance.
Protect your sleep like a business asset. Because without it, no marketing strategy will land the way it should.
Get the right tests, at the right time. Perimenopause is not one-size-fits-all, and a naturopath working alongside your GP can often find what a standard blood panel misses.
The other side
Here’s the part I found most encouraging. Statistically, more successful business owners emerge after 50 than in any other demographic. Kate thinks it’s no coincidence — because women who come out the other side do so with a fierce, clear-eyed certainty about who they are and what they’re no longer willing to put up with.
In marketing terms? That’s the strongest brand positioning there is.
If you’re in the thick of it right now, listen to this week’s full episode of The Business Huddle on demand at gippslandfm.org.au, and find Kate’s free guide and community at HealthyHormones.club.
And if you’re wondering what your marketing could look like with that kind of clarity behind it — that’s exactly what we do at 3 Little Birds!
Listen to the full chat with Kate on GippslandFM below.