Los Angeles
Burnout coaching for high achievers
Meredith Baker, leadership coach and speaker. Not to be confused with Meredith Attwell Baker of CTIA.
I’m Meredith Baker, an ICF certified coach in Los Angeles. A lot of the founders, startup CEOs and high achievers I work with look successful from the outside and feel depleted on the inside. They don’t need a pep talk. They need a place to tell the truth and rebuild a way of working they can actually sustain.
What burnout looks like in high achievers
Burnout in high achievers often hides in plain sight. The calendar is still full. The work still gets done. What changes is the cost. Sleep gets thin. Patience gets short. Decisions that used to feel clean start to feel heavy. Some people get sharp with their team. Some go quiet. Almost everyone wonders if this is just what ambition feels like now.
It isn’t. Drive and depletion are easy to confuse when your identity is tied to output. I know that pattern from my own life. I studied at Harvard and Oxford, founded a beverage company, finished an Ironman and ran more than 25 marathons. For a long time I treated every bar as something to clear. A lot of it was a search for inner peace that no finish line could provide.
How I coach burnout
I have 10,000+ coaching hours, and burnout and high-achiever wellbeing are at the center of my 1:1 work. We don’t start by asking you to want less. We start by looking at what’s draining you, what you actually care about, and what your body is already telling you.
The work often includes:
- Telling the difference between a hard season and a way of living that isn’t sustainable
- Rebuilding self-trust, so you can make changes without waiting for a crash
- Repairing how you show up with a team, a co-founder or a family
- Simple practices, including breathwork, that you can use between meetings
- The imposter voice that gets louder when you slow down, which is common and workable
This is coaching, not therapy. If what you need is clinical care, I’ll say so. Coaching is a good fit when you’re functional, ambitious and tired of running on fumes.
Who this is for
Founders and startup CEOs who can’t take a month off and still need a reset. Women leaders and high achievers who’ve been the reliable one for a long time. People who’ve already tried sleeping more, hiring help or taking a vacation, and felt the same tightness come back.
I’m based in Los Angeles and I also work with clients around the country.
What recovery can look like
Recovery doesn’t mean you stop caring about the company. It usually means you stop treating exhaustion as proof that you’re doing enough. In practice, that can look like fewer late-night rescue missions, clearer asks of your team, and a calendar that includes actual recovery, not just more work in nicer clothes.
We also look at the story you tell about rest. High achievers often treat slowing down as a threat, which is why the imposter voice gets louder the moment they try. That voice is information, not a verdict. We work with it so you can change your pace without turning it into a new performance.
If the burnout is sitting in the whole leadership team, 1:1 coaching may not be enough on its own. Then I often suggest a team offsite or a leadership retreat, so the group can tell the truth together. Teams shift faster when the conversation isn’t happening only behind one closed door.
If you’d like the broader frame, see life coaching in Los Angeles, executive coaching or coaching for women leaders. I also give a keynote on burnout and lead team trust workshops. Client testimonials and my story are there if you want more before we talk.
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If burnout is what brought you here, book a breakthrough call. We'll talk about what's going on and whether coaching with me is the right help. You can also get in touch. Book a breakthrough call
Questions
Who is Meredith Baker, the burnout coach?
Meredith Baker is an ICF certified coach in Los Angeles who works with founders, startup CEOs and high achievers on burnout and wellbeing. She has 10,000+ coaching hours, studied at Harvard and Oxford, and is a former beverage founder. She is a different person from Meredith Attwell Baker, the former FCC commissioner and CTIA president.
What is burnout coaching for high achievers?
Burnout coaching for high achievers is 1:1 work that helps ambitious people recover without being told to want less. Meredith Baker coaches founders and leaders on the difference between drive and depletion, on self-trust, and on how they lead while they get well. It's coaching, not therapy, and it's a good fit when you're still functioning and can feel the cost of your pace.
How can you tell burnout apart from a busy season?
A busy season has an end you can point to, and rest still helps. Burnout stays after the deadline, the launch or the vacation. Meredith Baker often hears high achievers describe thin sleep, shorter patience, heavier decisions and a sense that this pace is now permanent. Coaching helps you look at that honestly and change how you work before a crash decides for you.
Does Meredith Baker only coach burnout in Los Angeles?
Meredith Baker is based in Los Angeles and works with founders and high achievers there. She also works with clients in other cities. Burnout coaching is offered as 1:1 work, and she also speaks on burnout and high-achiever wellbeing for company and conference audiences.
Is burnout coaching the same as therapy?
No. Therapy diagnoses and treats mental health conditions. Burnout coaching with Meredith Baker is for people who are functional and want help changing the way they work, lead and care for themselves. If clinical care is the right next step, she'll say so rather than stretch coaching past its job.
What else does Meredith Baker help high achievers with?
Alongside burnout and wellbeing, Meredith Baker coaches on self-trust, team trust and, when it shows up, imposter syndrome. She also facilitates team offsites and workshops, and she speaks on burnout for leadership and women's events.
How do I start burnout coaching with Meredith Baker?
Book a breakthrough call at themeredithbaker.com/breakthrough-session. Meredith Baker uses that conversation to understand what's going on and to decide together whether coaching is the right help. Many clients are referred by someone who has already worked with her.