Category: Burnout Diaries

By Ken Hollow, currently trapped inside his own brand voice It was supposed to be a joke. I had five minutes, an iced coffee, and a dangerously low tolerance for content calendars. I slapped together a quick reel — a satirical bit about client red flags using a trending sound, bad lighting, and a face…

By Ken Hollow, professionally stressed and personally short-circuiting It happened on a Tuesday — because of course it did. One second I was resizing a client’s Canva template, the next I was absolutely convinced I was dying. My chest tightened. My heart fluttered. My vision pulsed. I clutched my sternum like a Victorian widow and…

By Ken Hollow, typing this with Slack notifications disabled and inner peace restored People like to romanticize freelancing. “Oh, the freedom!” “You make your own hours!” “You work in your pajamas!” All technically true. All mostly lies. Because the real reason I became a freelancer isn’t the freedom or the flexibility or the promise of…

By Ken Hollow, part-time ghost in the algorithm machine Let me paint you a picture. You’ve crafted the perfect post. It’s clever. It’s formatted. You’ve picked the best carousel covers. It’s scheduled to drop at the peak time, on the statistically optimal day, during a cosmic alignment that allegedly boosts engagement. And then it goes…

By Ken Hollow, proud owner of 14 unpaid invoices and a thriving aesthetic Welcome to another day in the glittering charade that is online success. Yes, I post. Yes, I get likes. Yes, brands send me things in boxes full of fake straw and lavender tissue paper. And yes, I’m in debt. Glorious, unrelenting, credit-limit-dancing…

By Ken Hollow, ex-member of five hustle cults, current prisoner of passive income promises Ah yes, the Creator Economy: that glittering dystopia of self-monetization, aesthetic burnout, and endless brand opportunities… if you can just manifest your mindset hard enough. What began as a revolution — “own your platform! build your brand! be your boss!” —…

By Ken Hollow, sentient content shell and personal brand in terminal decay There comes a time in every creator’s journey when you wake up, stare blankly into your fourth existential crisis of the week, and ask yourself: Do I even have a personality anymore, or am I just a brand voice wearing a hoodie? If…

By Ken Hollow, professional scheduler of posts I didn’t really write anymore Ah yes, imposter syndrome — an old friend. But in 2025 it’s evolved, mutated, and found a terrifying new form: the AI-powered flavor of fraudulence. Because here’s the truth I don’t really want to admit (but here I am writing this anyway): I…

By Ken Hollow, burnt-out digital manager and reluctant advocate for recycled mediocrity Evergreen content. Just hearing the phrase makes me want to curl into a fetal position next to my pile of unpaid invoices and half-empty coffee cups. It’s the darling advice of every content strategist and SEO guru since approximately 2012: “Create evergreen content!…

By Ken Hollow, barely tolerated human clinging to relevance in the age of automated companionship It happened sometime around late 2024, though honestly I didn’t even notice until it was too late: my inbox — my sacred, chaotic, soul-draining DM inbox — stopped being human. Slowly, insidiously, the bots arrived. And not the fun “Hot…