How to answer
Each question tells you how far back to think, so answer for how things actually went rather than your hardest stretch or your ideal week.
Choose what usually happens, not what happens on your best week.
There are no wrong answers. This looks at how your business is set up, not at you as a person.
A business diagnostic, not a medical or clinical test. Treat the result as a baseline and retake it in three months.
Stop playing around with your capacity
You can’t scale your way out of it, because scaling is exactly what makes it heavier.
Scaling and burning out don’t have to be a package deal, but they will become one if you keep growing on top of a business that routes everything through you.
If you’re serious about growing, you need to know how much weight you’re carrying right now, before you add a single thing to it.
Weigh my bags →The burnout cycle nobody explains properly
Burnout comes from load without recovery, repeated for long enough that rest stops doing its job.
You push through a busy season until you hit a wall.
You take a few days off.
You come back to every decision, approval and client question sitting exactly where you left it, waiting on you.
You work double to dig yourself out, and the tank empties faster than before.
A few weeks later you’re back at the same wall, a little more tired than last time and a little less in love with the work. That’s the cycle, and it’s the reason so many people swear they’ve tried resting and it didn’t work.
Find out where I am in the cycle →What you’ll find when we unpack your bags
Once you’ve checked your bags, you get a written report built entirely from your own answers.
Your report shows where your agency still depends on you, what to hand off first, and where to start.
Who this is for
You already have at least one person helping you run the business, whether that’s a project manager, a designer, a VA or a couple of contractors, and everything still somehow comes back to you. It’s for you if your team is sitting in Slack waiting on feedback only you can give, if finished work doesn’t go out until you’ve looked at it, if you’re the creative director, the account manager and the person sending invoices at 11pm, and if you can close the laptop at night but still feel the business sitting on your chest.
You’re working completely solo with nobody helping you manage the work. You need a different kind of support at that stage, and this assessment is built to measure how much a team still depends on you.
How it works
Every question is a real scenario from day-to-day life running a creative business rather than a vague “rate yourself from one to ten.” You’ll answer 15 questions about you and 15 about how your business runs, and your report is ready the moment you finish. It’s completely free, and it’s a business diagnostic rather than a medical or clinical test.
Start my Baggage Check →Questions about the Baggage Check
Is this a medical test?
No. The Baggage Check is a business diagnostic, not a medical or clinical test.
How long does it take?
About 6 minutes. There are 30 questions: 15 about you and 15 about how your business runs.
What’s in the report?
A written report built from your own answers, showing where your agency still depends on you, what to hand off first, and where to start.
How often should I retake it?
Treat your result as a baseline and retake it in three months.