401: NACAC CEO Angel Pérez—Self-care for counselors, leaders, and professionals in helping roles

The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions

On this episode I chat with Angel Perez to discuss his personal journey with burnout, self-care, and therapy, and I even share some of my own personal journey — and we connect on what it might mean to find more ease, purpose, and joy in our own lives.

This is part 1 of a series I’ll be doing on self-care this year. You’ll notice Angel mentions a morning routine — in part 2 you’ll meet wellness coach Sage Simpson, who will get into the practical specifics of how to create a morning routine for yourself.

On the episode you’ll hear Angel and I discuss:

• Angel’s personal experience with burnout
• How did he address it in writing an article on self-care in college admissions
• Why self-care is especially important for caretakers and professionals in helping roles
• Strategies and techniques Angel (and Ethan) use for self care
• Ways to address shame, and why therapy has been important for Angel
• What to look forward to at NACAC 2023

Why these episodes?

• Self-care has become a bigger theme at CEG in the past couple of years, particularly coming out of the pandemic—and in my own life.
• Anxiety and depression are at an all-time high in students, while counselors, leaders, and educators are burning out and switching jobs (Chronicle of Higher Ed reported on a study by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, or CUPA-HR” noting that 71 percent of coordinators and counselors in the college admissions field have been in their jobs for just three years or less.

Resources:

• Blog post Angel wrote: One CEO's Story of Executive Burnout

Play-by-play:

• [00:00] Intro
• [2:34] Who is Angel Perez? (Spoiler: he’s awesome)
• [4:44] What led Angel back towards self-care in recent years?
• [8:10] How did Angel’s childhood affect his work life today?
• [10:15] What inspired Angel’s article on burnout?
• [12:30] What are Ethan’s boundaries and personal habits with work?
• [13:30] How do you recognize when you need self-care, or have behaviors that signal it’s time to step back?
• [15:36] What is Angel’s morning routine?
• [19:00] How to deal with the shame that comes with self-care
• [21:39] What have Angel (and Ethan) learned in therapy?
• [26:40] Finding balance vs. coming into balance
• [28:50] What are some of Angel’s & Ethan’s other self-care and health practices?
• [32:45] What helps Angel and Ethan get into flow?
• [39:35] What is NACAC and the college admission field doing well, and what could we do better (in regards to self-care, rest, work culture, etc.)?
• [43:45] What is NACAC committed to? What should we look forward to at this year’s conference?
• [46:35] What are we committed to (in regards to increasing access to self-care in our personal/work lives)?