We were lucky to catch up with Ricky Fernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ricky , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I believe deciding in Physical Therapy school that you don’t want to be a full-time physical therapist is always a risk. When I started graduate school, my dream was to work as a physical therapist with high-level athletes or those suffering from chronic low back pain. As a former athlete and physical therapy research enthusiast, I felt called to serve those populations. However, during one of my clinical rotations—which are essentially internships—I quickly realized that full-time physical therapy didn’t align with my expectations. The long hours, lengthy commutes, high patient volumes, and somewhat repetitive nature of the job led to my first experience with burnout. I pulled back from my self-care routines, stopped investing in my professional growth, and started to view patients as numbers rather than people. This was not how I had envisioned my career. In the process of recognizing my burnout and making changes to my work-life balance, I realized I wanted to shift my mission from helping patients to helping healthcare workers who felt as lost and burned out as I did. That’s when my coaching business began. Since then, I’ve been coaching for over three years, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. At the time, I knew I was taking a risk—being a business owner doesn’t guarantee a steady income, and becoming a physical therapist comes with student debt. But I also knew I wanted to be present for my first child, who wasn’t far off in the future. I couldn’t imagine working full-time as a therapist, risking burnout, and missing out on those precious early moments with my son. For my family and I, the choice was clear: I needed to find a great business mentor, build my offering, and start helping people as soon as possible. With no prior business experience, I was fortunate to connect with an incredible business incubator, The Honeybadger Project. They guided me through building a mission-driven business that would support the lifestyle I wanted. I’ve been working with them since the beginning, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without their mentorship, strategies, and mindset coaching. They’ve been instrumental in helping me navigate the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My journey to becoming a coach has been a long one. I earned my undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago and my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis. At the time, all signs pointed to a career in physical therapy or healthcare. However, today, my full-time job is being a coach. As a coach, my role is relatively straightforward: I work with professionals who feel “stuck.” These are people who, on paper, have all the good things in life—stable jobs, homes, partners—but still don’t feel confident or happy with the direction their lives are heading. Most of my clients struggle with work bleeding into their home life, and they feel like they’re somewhere between burnout and running on autopilot. Much like I once did, these individuals have “done all the right things,” yet they still lose sleep over stressful work thoughts, wake up dreading the day ahead, and go through the motions at work, forcing themselves to be productive. They come home emotionally and physically drained, miss out on time with friends or family due to sheer exhaustion, skip workouts or hobbies that once brought them joy, and find themselves doomscrolling or binge-watching TV because that’s all they have the energy for. My job is to help them understand the root cause of this unfulfilling routine and guide them toward the changes they need to feel content, fulfilled, and confident in their life’s direction. In my program, clients typically focus on setting boundaries—with work, family, and even themselves—to reclaim time for self-care and to selectively choose where and how they spend their energy. We create systems to make habits automatic, reducing the need for willpower to do the things that make them feel human—whether that’s exercising, practicing photography, gardening, dancing, or something else that brings joy. The most important work we do, though, is uncovering their core values—such as open-mindedness, humor, flexibility, or professional growth—and aligning their lives with those values. I believe that one’s life purpose is to discover their authentic self and bring that version to as many areas of life as possible. When clients feel stuck or unhappy, it’s often because they’re either unaware of their values or not living them out consistently. Throughout this process, we also examine unhelpful beliefs and habits—like perfectionism, people-pleasing, or overworking—and work to replace these with healthier, more balanced ways of engaging with the world.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The two biggest lessons I’ve had to unlearn as a business owner are that progress is not linear, and growth truly begins when you align your authentic self with your vision and mission. First, progress isn’t linear. In the early days of building a business, it feels like you’re checking off milestones that indicate forward momentum. You create a business name, get a tax ID, set up digital accounts, maybe hire a registered agent, start your social media, build out your product, and keep moving. But at some point, you realize that just because you’ve built something doesn’t mean people will automatically come. A huge part of business is communicating as clearly and simply as possible what you do and how you help, and mastering that skill is far from linear. As someone with a science and clinician background, I was trained to articulate concepts in complex, technical ways, but consumers don’t respond to that. They have limited time and attention, and they want to know quickly why your product or service is worth their energy. Learning how to market in a way that resonates with people is where progress starts to feel less straightforward. I’m constantly experimenting with new ways to describe coaching, the problems I help solve, and the goals I help clients achieve so that the message is clear. Even three years in, I feel like there’s still so much more progress I can make in nailing that message. The second lesson is about aligning your authentic self with your business. When you first start out, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to present yourself as a certain “character” or image of what you think people want. But in today’s world, people see right through inauthenticity, and it breeds distrust. The real superpower—especially on social media—is showing up as your true self. Letting people see, “Hey, this is who I am as a human, a coach, a dad, etc. Does this vibe resonate with you? Is my core personality someone you can trust?” That kind of vulnerable authenticity helps build a community of people who genuinely connect with and support your mission and vision.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m in the middle of a pivot right now. In the earlier days of my business, I was focused exclusively on serving the burnout population because I strongly resonated with their struggles. However, I’ve since gone through tremendous personal growth. I’ve been a dad for a few years now, and I’m more patient and flexible than ever. I’ve also been working with a mental health professional for several years, giving me a much better handle on my anxiety and tendencies toward overworking and perfectionism. I’m somewhat obsessed with staying true to my values and investing my time and energy in the people, places, and activities that make me feel fulfilled. In short, I’m in my life optimization phase, and my coaching has evolved to reflect this shift. While many clients initially come to me for help overcoming burnout, our work often goes much deeper. We explore the roots of their perfectionism and people-pleasing by identifying the internal saboteurs holding them back. We don’t just set boundaries to protect their time from work; we also create space for the hobbies and activities they love. We get crystal clear on what their ideal life looks like and take big personal and professional steps to get them there. So, my current pivot is shifting my focus from clients who are burned out to those who are ready to optimize their lives. These are people who already have a “good” life but want more—more fulfilling relationships, deeper personal connections, and more engagement at work. They don’t just want to be okay with how things are; they want to feel energized and aligned as often as possible. They also want consistency in their physical and mental health so that each day feels better than the last. It’s a subtle pivot, but to sum it up, I’m now looking to work with people who share a similar life philosophy—never settle, never feel stuck, and pour your energy into the areas that bring you joy and fulfillment.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricky_theburnoutcoach/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/8dZBkcqwducVH4eJ/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bouncebackfromburnout/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rickytheburnoutcoach