Life comes hard and fast in a moment. And sometimes, that single moment can be life-changing. In Julie Bee's moment, buried in between a flurry of days and nights that kept her mind spinning uncontrollably, she broke. Sweating. Nausea. Shortness of breath. Fear. They were all there. And then, when each of them hit seemingly at once, Bee woke up in a panic.

While what Bee felt showed all the signs and symptoms of what women experience during a heart attack, she was diagnosed as having a panic attack. And that changed her.

It was Aug. 21. In a time when the summers were admittedly slow for Bee and the agency she ran at the time, BeeSmart Social Media, this was no ordinary summer. In the throes of a global pandemic that changed how everyone—her clients included—were conducting business, Bee felt trapped under the pressure. On one side, many of her clients were asking for advice on ways to use the pandemic to their advantage. While Bee understood their intentions, she had a hard time sorting through the questions. And there was so much going on. COVID. George Floyd’s murder. The unrest and political upheaval in DC. A Facebook whistleblower.

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On the other side, as chairperson for an annual street festival, Bee was in charge of making a decision on whether or not to hold the event amid the presence of a Delta variant of COVID that was wreaking havoc everywhere. "We had already cancelled 2020’s event when the pandemic hit. It was a $500,000 street festival, and I had everyone calling me asking what we were going to do. The executive director. The town manager. The mayor."

Bee remembers waking up with a 130 pulse, a blood pressure reading of 156/110, and she couldn't breathe.

"It was easy to say,

'Hey, I'm under a lot of stress right now.'

But this felt different."

After going to the hospital and coming to grips with what happened and what could have been, Bee knew she needed a change. She was burned out and there was nobody or nothing that could convince her otherwise. As she implemented her exit strategy to sell her business, she began writing a book that would not only serve as a therapeutic outlet, but also become a blueprint for every small business owner who had felt the crushing waves of burnout. The goal, she hoped, was that the book would save them from the moment that seized her.

Burned: How Business Owners Can Overcome Burnout and Fuel Success" has become a bible for today's small business owners. The Amazon best-selling blueprint offers a first-hand grip of what it is like to run past the clock that says stop and take a breath. It is a culmination of advice and action steps Bee has learned through her 15 years as a business owner and leader. Among the many nuggets of wisdom is that not every opportunity is the right opportunity, something she wishes she would have practiced earlier."

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The book is a business owners guide to burnout and Bee is the poster child. "I really didn't have any way to manage my feelings or my emotions through COVID. And when you are a small business owner, there is a world on your shoulders. It is not just you. I had my business, my team, my clients, and my family. I felt responsible for everyone."

Through Bee's comprehensive guide, she helps readers understand the three types and two cycles of burnout, especially how to identify signs of each in themselves. It also recommends ways to make space for addressing burnout, particularly when taking a break isn't an option. The blueprint, while not always easy to follow, requires fixing any problems your burnout caused, recovering from burnout and preventing it from happening again. "The book is a guide, but it is also my story, what happened to me. I have been there."

Today, the consultant, speaker and highly sought after thought leader runs TJB Media, which she started after the crash in 2021. A featured writer in publications like FastCompany, Forbes, Thrive Global, and others, she has been rewarded for her work, including being a finalist for prestigious business awards like the "Stevie® Awards for Women in Business" (Best Young Entrepreneur and Best New Company), NAWBO Charlotte’s "Rising Star" award and NAWBO’s "Woman Business Owner of the Year" award. In addition, she is a regular speaker and advocate on behalf of small businesses, speaking and involved in community colleges in and around the Charlotte area in support and mentor locally-owned, minority business owners.

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