With a wealth of experience spanning two decades as a full stack digital marketer, Dennis Consorte accomplished the successful sale of his initial ecommerce venture back in 2004. Currently, he holds the position of head at a specialized firm that focuses on publicity, digital marketing, and content strategy. His clientele encompasses a diverse range of micro cap public companies, startups, and online businesses. What distinguishes Consorte in the realm of digital marketing is his unique approach, wherein he perceives every interaction throughout the customer journey as an opportunity to establish meaningful connections reminiscent of in-person communication. Team-building and storytelling lie at the very heart of his methodology.
Outside the realm of his professional pursuits, Consorte finds great joy in cherishing quality moments spent with his wife and relishing precious time shared with friends and family whenever circumstances permit. He diligently strives to make healthier dietary choices, improve sleep patterns, and engage in regular exercise. Moreover, Consorte is fueled by a passion for writing, aspiring to make a global impact through his upcoming book centered on the path to recovery from burnout, aptly titled, Back After Burnout. His ultimate objective is to empower individuals worldwide, enabling them to discover fulfillment and purpose in their own professional lives.
What do you believe sets your book apart from other resources available on the topic of burnout recovery?
Though I am grateful for the incredible contributions of several academics in Back After Burnout, I am not one of them myself. The stories and lessons I share came from the knowledge I accumulated as an entrepreneur who sometimes struggled and learned lessons the hard way. I believe this book will accelerate a reader’s burnout recovery, but it’s much more than that. The goal is to help them to develop an ownership mindset, and to set themselves up for enduring success. For example, towards the end of the book, I help the reader to develop networking habits and skills to make themselves more powerful beyond burnout. And, I end the book with some advice on becoming a better leader, and paying it forward to make other people’s lives better, too.
In your experience, what are some effective strategies or practices individuals can incorporate into their daily lives to prevent burnout in the first place?
If you had to pick just one habit, then try journaling. I like to do it at night, while the day is still fresh in my head. And, I like to follow a simple framework for my journal entries, so that they don’t just become streams of consciousness. For this, I borrow some ideas from the Agile project management framework, Scrum. In this framework, teams have daily “scrums” where each member discusses what went right, what went wrong, and what obstacles they need to overcome to do better the next day. Try answering these three questions in each of your journal entries and see where it takes you. Additionally, ask yourself a question about each element of the MASHPLAY™ framework:
- What is your current mindset and how can you improve upon it?
- What must you accept about your current circumstances?
- What burnout symptoms might you be experiencing right now and how can you work on them?
- What good habits do you need to work on, and what bad habits must you overcome?
- How did your activities at work and at home align with your purpose in life?
- What leadership style did you use today and how are others leading you?
- Where do you need to do a better job of holding yourself and others accountable?
- Are you putting yourself first, so that you can be in a position to help others?
How important is self-reflection in the process of burnout recovery, and how does your book guide readers in exploring their own experiences and emotions?
Self-reflection is critical to succeeding at burnout recovery. One of the first lessons in the book has to do with recognizing yourself and others as flawed human beings. Once you accept this fact, it becomes easier to build good habits to improve yourself. One aspect of self-reflection involves being aware of your purpose in life. I include a number of chapters and exercises in the book to help with this. For example, one self-reflection tool that I love is Ikigai. It’s essentially a Venn diagram of four dimensions of your professional life: what you love to do, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what people will pay you to do. Your “Ikigai” is at the intersection of all four dimensions. This isn’t an easy thing to put together, so I offer the reader several exercises to help them frame their ideas in an organized way, leading up to merging them in the Venn diagram. We also must recognize that a spectrum of thoughts and emotions are integral to the human experience. The actions we take in response to the way we feel will determine our level of success or failure.
Have you received any notable feedback or success stories from readers who have implemented the MASHPLAY™ framework or utilized the workbook lessons?
I have endorsements from several friends and colleagues who read Back After Burnout and found it useful. Some of them include Jeffrey Hayzlett, the Chairman & Founder of the C-Suite Network and former CMO of Kodak; Stephen Blumberg, a marketing director at companies including Gucci and MasterCard; and Max Borders, a fellow author. Right now I’m working with a friend who is using the book to supplement our conversations about his own state of burnout. He was on a great path in a very lucrative career as a marketer until his employer’s company was acquired. Now, the culture has changed, his pay structure isn’t as rewarding, and he’s lost his sense of purpose at work. I hope to be able to tell the rest of his story soon.
We heard through the grapevine that you are working with a potential next presidential candidate. Talk to us about that in more detail and will he be putting out a book this year?
In Back After Burnout, I describe myself as a Libertarian, not because I want to convert others to my way of thinking, but because I want to be authentic about my bias in the lessons and stories I tell. Part of my journey towards overcoming burnout was rediscovering purpose outside of work. In politics, this started with some volunteer work on the Larry Sharpe campaign for Governor of New York in 2018, and then serving as his Campaign Manager in 2022. As a third party member, I set my expectations somewhere between what had been achieved in the past, and what was possible. The reward at the time was to make an impact in my state by showing people that other kinds of solutions to the problems we faced were possible. Now, I am the campaign manager for Mike ter Maat, who I believe is the front-running Libertarian candidate vying for the Presidential nomination. I share many values with him and the other Libertarian candidates, as I would like to see a world where people accept one another’s political differences without judgment, while seeking voluntary solutions to common problems. I think Mike has the best shot at making an impact in this election. Our goals are lofty, and with creativity, guerrilla marketing tactics, and a bit of luck we can achieve them. Like the great stoic, Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I expect that our team will be highly prepared when the time comes. One way we’re preparing is by compiling a book, “The Gold New Deal” which includes some of Mike’s ideas as well as those of other prominent Libertarians. We plan for it to be a powerful tool not just for the campaign, but for spreading the idea that government is not the only way to solve problems. Mike would say that we need a fundamentally different relationship between Americans and the government we will tolerate. I would say that cultural change is more sustainable, and less coercive than legislative change. Of note, there is a strong parallel between burnout and political campaigns. Often, candidates burn out somewhere along the way and their numbers suffer. Part of my job as Mike’s campaign manager is to recognize the signs of burnout, and put him on a path towards recovery before it gets out of control. After surviving my own burnout, writing the book, and helping out a few friends, I believe I am qualified to do this part of my job.
For more information, visit dennisconsorte.com.
