Time for Business with Stephanie Hurlburt
Description
We’ve all heard advice to hustle, work harder, and push push push. And…most of us are exhausted as a result. So this week we’re talking to someone making the opposite choice: Stephanie Hurlburt, an entrepreneur who built a successful business, no nights and weekends required.
Stephanie is the cofounder of Binomial, a company that makes image compression software. But she’s not a startup founder working 100 hours a week and trying to scale as fast as possible. Instead, she’s optimized her business for her mental and physical health—while still sharing her knowledge with industry newbies, closing big deals with companies like Google and Netflix, and healing from the trauma of domestic violence.
The purpose of my job is to give me time in my life. And money can help give me time in some ways—for instance, if I amassed enough money to not need to work at all. But money can also not give me time. For instance, entering into a big contract where I was constantly on the clock. So, having that as a very clear priority really helps guide a lot of decisions.
—Stephanie Hurlburt, cofounder, Binomial
We talk about:
- Why business is always personal—and it’s ok to be yourself. “When I was working in the gaming industry, there was very much a boys club there… It kind of made me realize that I’m never going to get a real seat at that table. And when I’m open about myself, I’m definitely not getting a seat at that table. And maybe that’s okay! Maybe I find tables that actually accept me.”
- How to reframe networking as human by thinking about it as a natural give and take, not a transaction. “I feel like to a lot of people, they dread it because they see it as very transactional. And I don’t really see it that way.”
- Why letting an email sit for a day or two is actually an important part of setting boundaries. “The first conversation you have with someone, you’re setting some very key boundaries about what’s okay and what’s not okay, even if you’re not explicit about it.”
- How mental healthcare can help you break free of burnout cycles. “The number one thing that I wish I did when I was overworked was actually to see a therapist. Because I feel like I have grown so much through therapy and I have learned how to manage my time through therapy. If I had sought a therapist earlier, I could have prevented a lot of pain.”
Plus, what Sara and Katel did on their summer vacation: unplug their laptops, drape themselves in linen, and go cliff diving with tween boys. No, really.
Links:
Sponsor
This episode of Strong Feelings is brought to you by:
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</figure></figure>Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Go to getharvest.com/strongfeelings to get 50% off your first month.
Transcript
SWB Thanks to Harvest for supporting Strong Feelings! Harvest makes awesome, easy-to-use software for tracking time, sending invoices, and generally keeping you and your team happy. If you’re a manager, Harvest can help you see what your team is working on, and whether folks are getting booked up or burnt out—so, you know, you can prevent that. Try it free at GetHarvest.com/StrongFeelings and you’ll see why companies around the world trust Harvest. And, you’ll also get a deal—half off your first paid month. That’s GetHarvest.com/StrongFeelings. [theme music plays for 11 seconds and then fades out]
KL Hey, everyone, I’m Katel.
SWB And I’m Sara!
KL And this is Strong Feelings! A podcast about work, friendship, and feminism—and what happens when you bring them all together.
SWB And on today’s show, we have a conversation with Stephanie Hurlburt—a graphics engineer and the co-founder of Binomial, a company that makes image compression software. But she’s not a startup founder working 100 hours a week and trying to scale as fast as possible. And that’s exactly why I wanted to talk with her. Because Stephanie is spreading a message of rest and balance, and god knows we all need more of that! Speaking of which, Katel, before we talk to Stephanie, this is our first episode recording after vacation.
KL Yes!
SWB Like serious vacation, y’all. We went to Portugal! So, how are you doing?
KL I do not think I even realized how much I needed that time off until I was a few days in! I have to say, a couple things that made that vacation really amazing—one was getting to hang out with a group of very fun, wonderful people for the better part of a week, and the other was the weather. It was basically sunny and gorgeous and perfect the entire time! It was also just a really great mix of doing stuff like sightseeing and also doing nothing—and doing nothing on the beach, which is really ideal in my book. [SWB laughs]
SWB Or jumping off a cliff at the beach! [KL laughs] Which, in my opinion, is extremely not “doing nothing.” [both laugh] So, I’ll tell everybody about this because this is burned into my memory forever.
KL Uhh, yeah.
SWB So, I was actually out at the beach in Portugal a day before Katel got in. And I was telling her that we had seen these people jumping off of these big cliffs, and it was super terrifying [KL laughs] and they were doing all of these backflips, and I was like, “ahh!” And she lit up a little bit [KL laughs] and she’s like, “I want to do that!’ [KL laughs] And I was like, “oh my god, no, you don’t want to do that.” These cliffs were so high! And then the next day, we were out at the beach and we did see that there was another side to the cliff with a much lower spot you could jump off of.
[2:30 ]
KL Yes.
SWB And it was much lower, but it was still for me very high.
KL Me too—still high!
SWB So, Katel decides she wants to do it [KL laughs] and I’m like, “okay, I’m going to do this.” [KL laughs] I don’t usually jump off things. So, we start crawling up these rocks hand over hand to get up to the top of this thing. And up there it’s like us—me and Katel—[KL laughs] and this whole pack of thirteen, fourteen year old boys.
KL Oh my god.
SWB Nothing but thirteen- and fourteen-year-old boys and us.
KL Truly, yeah.
SWB Which is how you know you’re making a good decision in life! [both laugh]
KL I was like, “is this…going to be bad? And end badly?”
SWB I had a whole conversation with them like, “are you 100% sure? How deep is it?” Thinking about like these people are kind of small, [KL laughs] and thinking about my body weight—I’m going to sink deeper than them.
KL Anyway, I love how sure they were. They were like, “don’t worry, you’re not going to hurt yourself. Just go for it, you’re going to be great.” [laughs]
SWB Oh my gosh. Of course they would say that, they have no fear!
KL I know!
SWB I, on the other hand, have a lot of fear. Okay. So, we’re standing up here on this cliff, I’m afraid I’m actually going to have a literal heart attack because I’m a 36-year-old woman. Katel just jumps in and I’m just still standing up there! I’m completely terrified, [KL laughs] I feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest, and she’s down there bobbing in the water and I’m just like, “what am I going to do? I’m going to climb back down now?”
KL No, I know, I even thought about that. [SWB sighs] That climb up was not…it was dicey. [laughs]
SWB So! Finally, I calm myself for a moment, I talk to some tween boys a little bit more. [KL laughs] And I do it! It w
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