There's No Such Thing as Work Life Balance | Founder Vlog | Week 11

Founder Journey

About this week's journey

Week 11 of the Founder Journey starts after a difficult stretch for Chris and Helen Butler. They have both been unwell, members of the team have been off sick, Thread A Pixel has been busy as winter approaches, and much of the week has felt like constant firefighting. Chris describes the familiar founder experience of working flat out, reaching the end of the week and wondering what has actually been achieved. Nothing dramatic has gone wrong, but the combination of operational pressure, illness and a growing workload has made the week feel particularly heavy.

At the same time, they have been pushing forward with a new Built Not Born project. Across two days they recorded six lessons designed to teach business owners how to start their own podcast. It is an idea they had discussed for months, but a conversation with Tobias Allen at Ideas Fest gave them the extra validation to finally turn it into something practical. The timing has not been ideal. They also had to postpone a podcast recording because they were ill, deciding it was neither fair on the guest nor likely to produce the quality of conversation they wanted while they were feeling rough.

That leads into the bigger theme of the vlog: whether work life balance genuinely exists for business owners. Chris compares a business to another child because of how completely it can demand attention. In their early years of business they worked seven days a week, before eventually becoming much better at protecting weekends. Over the past year, though, those boundaries have started to erode. A little editing here, an order there, filming on a Saturday or Sunday, and suddenly weekends are becoming working days again. Helen points out that working from a laptop at home is one thing, but they are increasingly physically back at the studio at weekends too.

Rather than claiming they have solved it, Chris and Helen are trying to make the overlap between work and life more deliberate. They have an upcoming podcast trip to Wales and are turning it into a long weekend with their son, combining filming with time away together. Even then, Chris questions the idea of a fixed balance. Their view is that business and personal life move in a constant cycle. At times one side needs more attention, then something changes and the balance shifts again. This week's lesson is less about finding a perfect formula and more about recognising when work has started taking over again, then making conscious choices about where to draw the next boundary.