11-05-2025
'I had twins and my body just gave up - yet there's one thing I couldn't admit'
To those around her, Bianca Best seemed to have it all: a picture-perfect marriage, four healthy and bright children, and a flourishing business. But something terrifying was lurking under the surface.
At one of the peaks of Bianca Best's success, the entrepreneur experienced severe burnout, leaving her emotionally depleted and physically worn out. 'One of the lowest points for me was when I was hospitalised with total immune collapse,' the 50-year-old shares with us. 'I was told my whole body was starting to shut down. And at that point, my hair had all fallen out. I had tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, bronchiolitis – every-itis.'
She battled with major burnout for around 10 years, between 2004 and 2015, confessing, 'I was so ashamed, and I was embarrassed – I thought I was a failure because I was getting ill.'
The businesswoman, who now divides her time between Surrey and Amsterdam, where her fiancé Ruud, 53, lives, dedicated decades to building a career and raising a family.
By her late twenties, Bianca was mum to son Ashley, born in 2002, and daughter Scarlett, who arrived two years later while running the Bespoke Gift Company, which she set up in 2004. But behind the scenes, it was becoming too much.
'For those first few years of running the business and having children, I didn't have childcare because I thought that would make me a bad mother. I would try to put the kids to bed and run the business through the night,' she admits. 'I was literally trying to do that as well and keep house.'
Bianca attempted to balance everything while her business was 'exploding' online, and before long, she was on ITV 's This Morning, showcasing her products and selling 'thousands' of items annually.
'I soon had gift manufacturers working for me and a retail outlet,' she reminisces.
'I had concessions in Debenhams – it just grew and grew all while I was mummying the kids. It was an incredible, exhilarating ride. The business went on for many years, growing to the point where I was about to launch a franchise model. I had a vision for a boutique on every high street in the UK.'
A real wake-up call
However, her life changed drastically when she discovered she was expecting twin boys, Sebastian and Beau, who were born in 2009. 'When I got pregnant with twins, I decided to focus on family as the priority,' she explains.
Bianca decided to sell her business in 2013 and ascend the corporate ladder when the children were all in school, reaching the prestigious heights of global Chief Growth Officer for Publicis Groupe most recently.
However, none of the seeming successes came without a price as with each career win, Bianca's health deteriorated further.
She reveals, 'I used to burn out and just recover, hop back on the life treadmill and keep pushing and grinding and go on and on again. And eventually, I started to realise I couldn't do this any more because my burnouts were getting worse and worse.
'Everyone in the house would get a cold, and I would get full-on catastrophic flu and be in bed for two weeks.
'But then it started to become pneumonia, and then I'd be hospitalised. One of the lowest points for me was when I was hospitalised with total immune collapse.
'That was a massive wake-up call. Things needed to change.'
She confessed to feeling overwhelmed with shame and guilt, adding, 'I saw burnout as an illness, as a failure. I saw illness as a failure. I had so many warped belief systems.'
Things only got worse for Bianca. She explains, 'My doctor told me I was having a total immune shutdown. My body was literally in such a cortisol state, everything was shutting down, which is why my hair was falling out. But I was in denial.
'I was like, 'I'm not stressed, I'm living the dream. Everything's fantastic. I've got all these kids and this house and this business.' I felt like I couldn't even admit that I was exhausted from stress.'
As her health worsened, she slowly began to realise she needed to make significant life changes.
'Initially, I started physically looking at how I could moderate myself and my physical wellbeing,' she explains. 'So, I needed more sleep, to eat well, and do all the usual exercise-type stuff. But that wasn't enough.'
The busy mum, who was by now on a quest to beat burnout, increased the time she spent journaling, in meditation, and conscientiously managing stress by actively soothing her nervous system.
But the real epiphany came when she finally leaned into emotional stressors and faced the bravest decision of her life – to end her marriage.
New beginnings
Bianca and her ex had been together since she was 18 and tied the knot when she was 26. But at the age of 44, they both agreed divorce was the best way forward, viewing it as 'evolution not failure', and they compassionately 'managed it with integrity'.
She says, 'There was a lot of pain and sorrow, but it was the right thing to do. I started to live in harmony, in physical, mental, spiritual and emotional balance, and then I stopped burning out.'
She even started leading workshops for those struggling to juggle life's demands. Once, she was taken aback when, after advertising in her local community, 25 women turned up at her doorstep one Saturday morning seeking advice.
Bianca recalls, 'I just talked for two hours, and I said, 'Look, this is what I'm doing. This is what works for me. Is that useful?' At the end of the morning, people were like, 'Yes, that is very useful. Can you do more? Can you do this again? Can you do a whole day?' So I started really turning it into a business.'
A bold decision
In 2019, Bianca penned her first book on burnout, called Flourish: Redefine Success & Create More Time, Energy, Impact And Happiness, and began working as a career coach for big names like Google and Amazon, all while maintaining her corporate role.
Following the launch of her latest instant best-selling book, Big Impact Without Burnout, she decided to leave her lucrative career to help others.
Bianca declares, 'I've hung up the golden handcuffs, and I'm now running my business, The Burnout Clinic.
'I'm 100% devoted to inspiring the world that there is a way to soar, work joyfully, and achieve success with grace.'
Thankfully, Bianca's last encounter with burnout was back in 2015, and she now shares how she's survived and thrived with others struggling in their own lives.
She reflects, 'I've learnt that a bit of healthy stress can be beneficial. But when it's continuous, you just crash. And I was crashing dangerously down all the time.'
