She was advising Parliament and working UN global health policy. Then burnout made her stop and rebuild from scratch.
Annabelle Botea studied political science and law at Sciences Po, advised in the Romanian Parliament, and worked global health policy for an NGO at the UN level. On paper, it looked perfect. Underneath it, she was running on four coffees a day and popping medicine like candy just to keep going. Then burnout forced the stop she couldn’t give herself.
In this conversation, Dan and Annabelle get into:
The exact moment burnout stopped being abstract and became physical
Why she treats intuition and emotional intelligence as a competitive advantage, not a soft skill
“Brenda”: the name she gave her inner critic, and how she sends her for a walk
Why she doesn’t allow “party poopers” in her Substack comments, and the boundary behind that rule
Building Pitaya and rejecting the “10k a month in three months” myth of online business
What she wants to give future employees that she never had: emotional safety
Annabelle now writes Outside the System on Substack and is building Pitaya, helping first-time founders simplify selling digital products and services online.
If you’ve ever mistaken burnout for a personality trait, this one’s for you.
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