Burnout, Boundaries, and Building Connection: How Sarah Livingstone Is Teaching People the Skills No One Ever Taught Them
Sarah Livingstone knows what it looks like when people are running on empty. As the founder of ARE U Motivated, she has spent years working alongside youth, families, employees, and small groups, and what she found was a consistent thread beneath every struggle: most people are expected to manage stress, conflict, relationships, and their own emotional lives without ever being shown how.
What started as a graduate school project rooted in encouragement and opportunity has grown into a focused mission around practical human skills. In 2022, Sarah shifted the company's attention toward burnout prevention, and that work eventually gave rise to The Connection Hour, a discussion-based experience designed to help people build healthier communication, stronger relationships, and real emotional awareness. Her approach is simple but rare: meet people where they are, and give them tools they can actually use.
We sat down with Sarah to hear more about what drives her work, the gap she's working to close, and what she's building next.
This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org
What inspired you to start your company?
I started ARE U Motivated while in graduate school as a way to support people through encouragement, visibility, and connection to opportunities. In 2022, after noticing growing patterns related to stress, burnout, communication challenges, and emotional wellbeing, the company focused on leading discussions about burnout prevention with employees and small groups.
Through my work with youth, families, employees, and small groups, I began to see that our common struggle is being deeply connected to communication, relationships, boundaries, emotional awareness, and coping skills. This led to the recent development of The Connection Hour — a discussion-based experience designed to help people build healthier communication, stronger relationships, emotional awareness, and practical life skills through approachable, human-centered conversations.
What problem are you solving?
ARE U Motivated addresses the growing disconnect many people experience in communication, relationships, emotional wellbeing, and everyday life skills. Many individuals are expected to navigate stress, conflict, self-awareness, boundaries, and emotional challenges without ever being taught practical ways to do so. As a result, many experience burnout and overwhelm. “When people learn practical skills and healthier patterns, they can find relief and build community.”
What’s next for you?
The next phase of ARE U Motivated will be developing curriculum, discussion guides, and training materials that companies, organizations, schools, and groups can implement within their own spaces. I am newly serving as an expert columnist for a parenting magazine and as an interviewee and contributor for organizations and companies seeking conversations surrounding emotional wellness, communication, relationships, and practical life skills. The goal is to create resources that feel approachable, relatable, and actionable for everyday people.
This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org
