How Burnout Inspired Alison Campbell to Create unBurnt
Insights from Founders & Empanadas Podcast
You’ve probably heard it before: work harder, sleep less, hustle non-stop. It’s the advice that gets repeated in tech circles and startup culture like gospel. And for a long time, Alison Campbell followed that exact path: rising through high-stress roles at across Finance, Ecommerce and HR Tech.
But here's the truth no one likes to say out loud: the same habits that fuel career growth can also quietly destroy your health, motivation, and sense of purpose.
Alison experienced it firsthand. After two decades of driving results at full speed, she hit a wall. Burnout was her reality.
That breaking point led to something powerful.
Today, she’s the founder of unBurnt™, a company rethinking how businesses define performance. Instead of pushing people to their limits, she’s helping teams find a healthier, more sustainable way to succeed, without losing themselves or their ambition in the process.
In a refreshingly honest episode of the Founders & Empanadas podcast, Alison sat down with Joshua Eidelman (founder of NeoWork) to talk about how unBurnt™ was born—and why companies need to ditch outdated hustle culture if they want to build something that actually lasts.
Key Takeaways
Physical symptoms like chronic exhaustion, headaches, and stomach issues are warning signs of burnout that shouldn't be ignored—they signal your body reaching its limits before crisis strikes
Traditional hustle culture isn't just unsustainable—it actively damages innovation by creating teams too depleted to think creatively or collaborate effectively
Maintaining ambition doesn't require sacrificing wellbeing—in fact, sustainable work practices can enhance your strategic thinking and long-term impact
Organizations need to move beyond "wellness perks" to address structural causes of burnout by redesigning how work gets done, not just where it happens
The entrepreneurial journey requires a toolkit of practices that support your values and personal sustainability, especially for second-generation founders who've inherited intense work ethics
Your Body Drops Warning Signs Before It Drops You
Unfortunately, Alison didn’t slow down until her body forced her to.
“I had just come off a board meeting and wasn’t feeling good,” she shared on the Founders & Empanadas podcast. “It compounded throughout the weekend, and I ended up in the ER being told I needed surgery. It was a tremendous wake-up call—really the catalyst for me to realize: the way I’m working just isn’t working. This is totally unsustainable.”
At the time, she was the Chief of Staff at a billion-dollar company. From the outside, everything looked like success. But inside, her body had been sounding the alarm for months—chronic exhaustion, headaches, stomach issues, brain fog. Still, like many high performers, she kept pushing.
What makes her story even more relatable is how these symptoms are often dismissed, especially for working moms.
Joshua Eidelman, founder of NeoWork, called it out clearly: “The medical system often reinforces this mindset. When driven professionals—especially moms—show up with these symptoms, they’re told, ‘That’s just what being a working mom looks like,’ and sent back to the grind.”
The truth is, burnout doesn’t always arrive with a loud crash. It builds quietly—until it knocks you flat.
And by then, your only option is to stop everything. That’s the moment Alison knew something had to change—not just for herself, but for everyone stuck in the same cycle.
Exhausted Teams Kill Innovation Before It Starts
Burnout doesn’t just affect individuals—it drains entire teams of the energy and creativity they need to grow.
“When everybody's walking around completely burnt out, overwhelmed, cynical—it does not make for a super collaborative culture,” Alison said during the podcast. “You can’t drive innovative thinking or big breakthroughs when no one has anything left to give.”
Alison saw this firsthand while leading a 50-person team at Wayfair during its intense pre-IPO phase. At first, there was energy, momentum, spontaneous hallway brainstorms that led to real product ideas. But under constant pressure, things shifted.
People stopped talking. Collaboration dropped. No one was thinking ahead—everyone was just trying to survive the day.
And here’s the kicker: teams still hit their short-term goals. They shipped features. They showed up to meetings. But those quick wins came at a cost—the team’s ability to spot bold opportunities and pursue smarter, more strategic growth.
“The seven-day workweek is a trap,” Alison warned. “You can look productive while missing the very breakthroughs your company needs to stay competitive.”
Joshua Eidelman echoed the same concern:
“The less obvious impact of hustle culture is how it quietly kills decision-making quality. It shapes a company’s future more than most founders realize.”
If your team is constantly running on fumes, innovation isn’t just delayed—it’s dead on arrival.
The Real Signs Your Team is Running on Empty
Burnout doesn’t always look like someone collapsing at their desk. Most of the time, it’s invisible—until the damage is already done.
During the podcast, Alison Campbell broke down what burnout really looks like inside a company—and why surface-level metrics won’t always catch it.
“We dig into pain points like retention and employee satisfaction,” she explained. “We use surveys and pre/post metrics to see if we’re actually making a difference. Absenteeism is a big red flag. When there’s a culture of chronic stress, even your best people can’t operate at their full potential.”
That’s the hard part: your top performers won’t be the first to complain. They’ll keep delivering. They’ll still hit their targets. But something shifts.
They stop volunteering for stretch projects.
They stop tossing out bold new ideas in meetings.
They start emotionally checking out, long before they ever give notice.
And in fast-moving companies, this kind of slow fade is even harder to spot. These are people who love the mission. They want to be all in. So they push through the exhaustion—until they just can’t anymore.
By the time someone resigns or starts calling in sick, the spark that once drove your team has been fading for months.
If you’re not paying attention to the quiet signals, you’re at risk of losing not just talent, but the energy and creativity that made your team special in the first place.
Sometimes Breaking Down Leads to a Better Path Forward
“The first time I went to a networking event and wrote ‘founder’ on my name tag—it was one of the best moments,” Alison shared. “After 20 years hustling in corporate roles—and I’m deeply grateful for those experiences—this felt like the start of something new. I’m doing this work because it’s personal. And the more I share my story, the more I realize how many others are silently going through the same thing.”
Most leaders are taught to hide their struggles. To keep showing up, stay composed, and never let anyone see the cracks. But something powerful happens when someone who's been at the top finally says, “I burned out too.”
In Boston’s startup scene, Alison watched this unfold firsthand. The moment she opened up, other founders followed. People who always seemed unshakable began to share their own ‘barely holding it together’ moments.
That’s what makes Alison’s perspective so rare—and so needed. She didn’t just walk away from the grind. She studied it.
Those two decades of relentless work weren’t wasted—they were research. Every late-night email, missed family dinner, and stress-induced hospital visit shaped what unBurnt™ is now: a better way to work and lead.
Joshua Eidelman, founder of NeoWork, added a generational lens to the conversation.
“We’ve watched our parents build everything from a place of survival. So when we try to prioritize wellness, we feel guilty—like we’re betraying that work ethic.”
That insight hit home. Rewriting hustle culture doesn’t mean abandoning ambition—it means creating a path where people can thrive, not just survive.
And it starts with leaders who are brave enough to say, “There’s a better way, and I’ve lived the cost of not finding it sooner.”
Taking Care of Yourself Makes You a Better Leader, Not a Weaker One
Let’s get one thing straight: resting doesn’t mean you’ve lost your ambition.
“My ambition hasn’t dampened at all,” Alison said. “If anything, I’m more energized and passionate about what I’m doing now. I’m fully committed to this work—to helping people and continuing the conversation about burnout and what needs to change inside workplaces.”
That’s the shift so many founders and high achievers need to hear. The old startup mindset says if you take your foot off the gas, you’re giving up. But Alison proved the opposite.
After her wake-up call, she made a new kind of non-negotiable: running every other day. Blocking real breaks on her calendar. Structuring her schedule so she still has energy left for her kids. And here’s the surprising part—she’s getting more done, not less.
The difference? She’s no longer burning herself out to stay productive.
That’s the core of unBurnt’s philosophy: your ambition doesn’t have to drain you—it can fuel you when it’s aligned with sustainability.
Alison isn’t just helping teams recover from burnout—she’s showing a new generation of leaders that playing the long game doesn’t mean slowing down. It means making sure the work actually lasts—and so do the people doing it.
A Counterintuitive Approach to Entrepreneurship
When Joshua Eidelman asked Alison what belief she holds that most founders would push back on, she didn’t even pause:
“It feels counterintuitive when you're building something from scratch, when there are 10,000 things pulling at you, to believe you can take breaks. But I'm here to say you can. You absolutely should. And it will make you a better founder, leader, and human being.”
It’s a message most high-achievers don’t hear enough.
Instead of glorifying burnout in the name of hustle, Alison is building her company around longevity, for both the business and herself.
“I want to hit big goals. I want unBurnt to have real, global impact. But I also want to be around 10 years from now to enjoy what I’ve built,” she said. “That means investing in the right tools, people, and practices to make that possible.”
This isn’t about slowing down—it’s about staying in the game. Because what’s the point of building something great if you don’t survive the process?
This article is based on Alison Campbell's appearance on the Founders and Empanadas podcast, hosted by Joshua Eidelman, founder of NeoWork. In this engaging conversation, Alison shared valuable insights on entrepreneurship, sustainable work practices, and turning burnout into a catalyst for positive change. To connect with Alison, visit getunburnt.com or find her on LinkedIn.