Media Encoder 2022 taking forever to render a 30 minute video

In Media Encoder 2022 (the latest version) on Mac Mini running macOS Monterey, I am trying to render a 30 minute video exporting to H.264 format. The rendering has taken 76 hours, and says there is an estimated 43 hours left. The amount of estimated time left to render keeps going UP, not down. It was saying it would only take 10 hours a few days ago.

PLEASE HELP! I need to render this video. I hate that I'm paying for software that doesn't even work.