Burn out in the wedding industry is real - but it shouldn't be a badge of honour. We see people come and go in this industry, but you shouldn't be at the point of breaking before you take a break.

Today on the podcast I am joined by one of my own personal business mentors - Chris Ducker. He shares his own journey of building a business that led to burn out - and what it has taught him about lasting the long haul. This message is for all of us - are you putting in the steps you need to become a Long Haul Leader.

Buy Chris' book on Amazon today

Follow Chris on Instagram

Follow Becca on Instagram

*Don't forget to tag us in a post or story before the end of September for the chance to win a copy of Chris' book!*

Time Stamps:

00:00 - The Importance of Taking Breaks

00:18 - Understanding Burnout: A Personal Journey

12:13 - The Importance of Hobbies in Recovery

14:28 - The Importance of Hobbies and Work-Life Balance

20:47 - Realigning Business and Life for Long-Term Success

25:52 - The Importance of Focus and Avoiding Distractions

Mentioned in this episode:

Wed Pros Live 2026

Get your tickets to Wed Pros Live now and join me for a day you won't forget! Ireland: Monday 23rd March 2026 London: Wednesday 25th March 2026

Wed Pros Live

You don't need to break in order to justify taking a break, right? Let me say that again. You don't need to break in order to justify taking a break.

If you want to go and you want to take your girl to go see the lionesses, go take the girl to go see the lionesses, please do it. It's important to you. And that's a core memory right there.

I'm Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strateg and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode.

Burnout is a massive issue in our industry with a recent report by Deloitte showing that the burnout rate in hospitality and events is 80% second only to the military. It's a massive problem. From high stress levels to long working hours, it can be a tricky combination.

He's founded three multi seven figure businesses and he's been my own personal mentor. This month he's releasing his brand new book, the Long Haul Leader and his aim is to help you stop the hustle spiral and build a business that lasts.

Nobody needs to hear this message more than our industry. Chris, welcome to the podcast.

Oh, it's so good to be with you. Thank you very much.

Well, I want to start with a few thank yous of my own before we get started because I do know you have been on part of this tour on a lot of podcasts with some huge business leaders. But we are so thankful that you've come to speak to the small but mighty wedding industry because as you heard from that intro, we really need it.

Well, I think you're a pretty big leader myself. I don't know about you, but I think you are.

And I think, you know, it doesn't surprise me you're at that 80% number, Beckett, because we've actually done a lot of research on this particular topic for the book, obviously.

And actually across the board, C suite executives, CEOs, CFO, COOs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, soloprene, all these people kind of combined Whatever you want to label yourself is an average of actually 87% burnout.

So it's not a matter of like if you're going to potentially burn out if you're running your own business very specifically, regardless of the size, it's a matter of when you're going to burn out.

So if there's anything we can do to avoid that or at the, at the absolute worst case scenario to make the burnout when it hits as less destructive as it possibly can be to your health, to your, you know, your, your mental health, your business and everything, if there's something we can do for that, it's a good thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, we were at, we had just had our first million dollar, and we were at about a hundred, I think about 160, 170 employees, something like that at the time. And from the outside looking in, everything was amazing, right? Like I just, just had my Entrepreneur magazine photo shoot and all this kind of stuff.

Like it was great. But from the inside looking out, I was a complete wreck. I was doing 16 hour days, pretty much six days a week.

I was, you know, living on coffee, wasn't working out, wasn't eating well, wasn't sleeping well, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And that obviously spiraled over the course of a few years and burnout was inevitable. It hit me and that was that.

We actually had pro, one of the best business years we'd had in a long time. Because as an education business, we, you know, we took a lot of what we were doing in person, and we brought it online, right?

I was diagnosed with phase three adrenal failure, which meant that my adrenal glands were creating zero cortisol. It was completely flatlined. Cortisol, as we know, is our stress hormone. So I wasn't. I wasn't able to kind of manage any stress at all.

Again, from the outside looking in, badge of honor, wearing it on my sleeve, that burnout badge of honor. Nobody knew what was going on except my wife. And I was on antidepressants for a year. I went to therapy for a short period of time.

Then I kind of turned it all around. I started biohacking pretty hard. And now I'm in the best shape of my life.

I feel stronger, happier, and more connected to what I'm doing day to day than I ever have been in my entire career. But like a lot of people when they're battling burnout and mental health, and, you know, that combo is pretty brutal, I kept it all to myself.

Plus, I'm a man, and we're kind of inherently stupid. So, you know, I didn't. I didn't sort of talk to anybody about it other than my wife and my doctor, that was kind of it.

And so when I eventually told friends, you know, kind of when I was recovered, 23, early 24, this book had already. We were already halfway through writing the book, and they were like, what? No way. I wouldn't have seen it. I wouldn't have guessed it.

And also, why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you kind of thing.

So when we were kind of halfway through writing the book, I said, well, I might as well just tell the whole story. I'm not going to hold anything back. So this is a very personal book.

I tell way, way, way more personal stories in this book than I've ever told in my other two books combined times 10. And so it's. It's a kind of part. It felt like therapy writing it.

But, you know, it's an incredibly important read, and I hope people who are struggling with burnout or feel like it's maybe something that is going to be potentially on the horizon for them, picks it up because it could be a game changer and maybe even a lifesaver.

You know, that has really shocked me hearing that, because obviously I was working with you at that time and I had absolutely no idea that that was going on.

And what's interesting about that is it shows how easy it is for us as business owners to cover this stuff up, even when we've got huge stuff going on.

And it makes me realize there'll people listening to this that probably have got this going on and are keeping it hidden or are keeping it and letting it build up.

Do you think in your experience with both times when you burn out, was it a slow buildup of this stuff happening and you just kept pushing it down and then it came to a head, or was it kind of a sudden thing?

You know, I wasn't sleeping good. I wasn't. I knew I was in bad shape, at least physically. And so, you know, I think it was kind of inevitable.

Like, I felt it coming to a certain degree. The second one, I didn't. Becca. And it was way worse than the first one. I didn't feel it coming at all.

Like, I'm feeling kind of tired, like we've had one of those kind of monster years. I'm feeling tired, like I need this time off.

And then when I came back, I walked into this office first week of September, turned my computer on, stared at the screen for 10 minutes, turned it off, walked back out the doors, didn't come back into the office for another three weeks because I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. And that's when went to the doctor, got the tests done, and, you know, all that sort of stuff.

So, yeah, I think the first time I kind of knew it was going to happen. But the second time, it was a. It was a big shock. It kind of hit me all at once.

But obviously, retrospectively, we're not as stupid as we think we are.

I'd moved not even house, I'd moved entire continents from Asia back to the UK with my family that, you know, that's schools and visas and passports and all this other stuff. And not to mention the fact that we bought a 300 year old grade 2 listed property that we then decided to completely gotten and kind of rebuild.

So that was a whole bunch of stress. So it was just stress upon stress upon stress upon stress. For a few years I thought I was weathering the storm well, but I wasn't, clearly.

And also I think it's interesting to see that it's happened twice because I think sometimes we go through something and we talk about it and we think, right, we've got this nailed now, we don't need to worry about this anymore. And actually for you, having them go through it a second time shows that actually we're all susceptible to it.

Even if we think we've got it together, things can creep up on us and these things can happen. Are there things that you've changed after both instances practically.

What, what does it look like now to try and help yourself get out of these scenarios?

I mean, the first time around the big thing was, was, was building the team, like, like fundamentally replacing me in the office day to day, which we did. But then, you know, I had all that extra time and energy, so what did I do?

I started another business and I was like, yeah, let's do it all over again. But this time around there were several things that really did make sense and really did work. And that's what I talk about in the book.

And by the way, I just want to clarify, like this isn't kind of like a burnout, like an anti burnout guide or like recover from burnout.

No, this is about like being a true long haul leader, somebody who's going to be seen in the industry as a go to source consistently over a long period of time. This isn't about setting that fire up and like letting the flames burn out.

No, this is about making sure we throw wood onto that fire on a regular basis to stay relevant and consistent in the industry.

Right.

So regardless of what industry you're in. Wedding industry. Exactly. As you very clearly pointed out, it's got an issue with burnout. But this isn't an anti burnout book.

This is a handbook to ultimately help you do business and life better. That's what it comes down to. But there were four big bits of this focus that we kind of, and there's a real technical term bits.

There were four really big kind of focuses that we ended up developing into a framework which we called our Life OS or a life operating system. Because your computer's got an os, your phone's got an os, why don't you have an os?

Right?

So the four main sections of that first up is personal mastery. So all the things that you do to make yourself as good as you are. Right?

So managing your energy, consistently upgrading your learning, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Right.

Then there was love and relationships because they play a major part in our happiness and our productivity and things like that as well. So that had to be in there. That was always going to be in there from day one. You yourself know the premium I put on relationships.

I know you've seen me talk about it on a number of occasions. And then there was the impactful work that we do.

So the clients that we work with, the offers that we create and put out into the world, ultimately the solutions to the problems in our industry that we're solving.

Right?

That's our work that we do.

And actually that was where I stopped with the framework until I started talking with colleagues and peers and other business owners and high level executives.

And we came across one thing over and over and over again that we just had to add into this three step framework to turn it into a four step framework. And that was hobbies and pastimes. And this, this one kind of came a little bit out of left field for me. I didn't expect it at all.

But actually if you look at all of the most successful people on the, the people who are uber productive and get a lot done and make all the money and serve all the people and all that good stuff, they all have really important hobbies or pastimes in their life, which they prioritize like it's on the calendar kind of stuff. And I realized that as part of my recovery from that burnout, I'd actually started a couple of hobbies as well.

One of them was watercolors and sketching and watercolors. I used to do it a lot when I was younger. Didn't do it for like 25 years. Went back to it.

And then the other one was being out in nature and wildlife and wildlife photography. I didn't see that coming at all. So now, but now I'm the guy walking around with a huge 600 millimeter lens, you know, in forests and whatnot.

Right.

So I started going into this kind of rabbit hole for hobbies and pastimes. And there's one. I won't go on about it for too long, but there was one particular case study which I think is really important for everybody to hear.

And that is there's one particular man under the name of David Solomon, who is otherwise known as DJ D Sol. Now, David Solomon is one of the most booked dance and party DJs in the kind of socialite scene in the United States.

He gets all the money from the gigs and he kind of gives it all to charity and all the rest of it. And the reason why is because he doesn't need the money. Because David Solomon is the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

So if the CEO of Goldman Sachs can be a DJ for a few hours each week, there's no reason why you, me, or anyone else for that matter, can jump on top of a hobby that we love, that lights us up, that helps us recover and ultimately recharge our energy and things like that.

And again, going into the research even more, we discovered, and this was from a Forbes survey, I believe we discovered that if entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, do no more than, or rather no less than, two hours a week on their hobby, dedicated two hours a week on their hobby, they have the ability of boosting their productivity at work by up to 30%, which is just insane.

Just crazy, right?

So go out, take some photos of birds, and then come back and be even more productive. Yes, I'm in. Let's go.

Right.

So incredibly important. So that ended up being the four step framework of that life os. And there's just one image in the entire book, which is that image. It's on page 38.

And I think if nothing else, you know, you should rip the page out of the book and super glue it to your forehead or something so you see it every time you look in the mirror.

It's interesting because I've learned so much from you over the years.

But one of the things that really stands out to me is I know you've now turned it into an official framework in a book, but even when you used to just talk was the importance of having this balance. And I've really taken that on board.

I spend a lot of time doing my hobbies and singing and dancing and all that kind of thing, as well as putting family first. I talk about it to my clients all the time. My family come first.

You know, actually we scheduled this podcast interview for a different time because I came to you guys and said, I know we've got A podcast interview scheduled, but I actually need to take Alice to go and see the lionesses because they've just won the euros. And you're like, yeah, sure. Because for me, that's, that's how I live. Family first.

But preaching that message, I've come across some people, it's a bit countercultural.

And I see it specifically in our industry where people say that if you're doing less, you're doing less business, you're hustling less, your business isn't going to be as successful. I'll give you an example.

We were talking about a framework for the wedding industry as a whole, whereby someone stated, and I disagreed, that if you were a part time business owner, as in you're bringing up family, doing everything else, then you weren't as good a business owner as someone who was doing it full time. So how do we live this way? How do you respond to that when the culture around us is telling us, do more, do more, do more?

Yeah. Well, I think there's a couple of things to point out here. Like, first of all, burnout is not a badge of honor.

It's a warning sign that something's broken and that something needs to be fixed. I think that's really important. The fact is that you actually, you, you don't need to break in order to justify taking a break.

Right?

Let me say that again. You don't need to break in order to justify taking a break. If you want to go and let.

You want to take your girl to go see the lionesses, go take the girl to go see the lionesses, please do it. It's important to you. And that's a core memory right there.

Right.

Those situations don't come around every day. So, you know, couple that together.

Flip side of that coin is that I think what's happened is society has led us to believe that working harder, you know, being so busy, I'm so busy right now, people say, I'm so busy, don't have a minute to myself, I'm so busy. Busy's a trap. Any bloody idiot can put a load of stuff on the calendar. It doesn't mean that you're going to build momentum from it, right?

So I think what's important is to understand that, you know, our job, I believe, and I really believe this wholeheartedly, our job is to feel zero guilt, not less guilty, but zero guilt about the time that we spend away from building our business. Because if, if we are focusing on, on us, and by the way, we should be, we're the Engine, we're the spark, we're the difference maker.

Right.

But engines need maintenance as well. That's why you take your car into the mechanic every year for a service. Right. Or you should do so.

You know, I think what's really important is that, like, it's okay to take time away. And being part time makes you no less of a business owner than somebody who does it full time. You're still running a business.

You're still owning a business. So whether this is something that you do a couple days a week or a few days a month or whatever it is, like you're still running your own thing.

You're still a business owner, and that's something you should be proud of and something you should stand next to.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I used to have a really great manager when I worked at the radio station, and all of my colleagues used to go and stay late in the office and I always took my lunch break and I always left on time. And people used to bemoan that and grumble about the fact I did that.

And I remember meeting with my manager one day and saying that this is what's going on in the office.

And my manager said to me, becca, I actually think you're better than them because it shows you're using your time wisely and you're still getting your work done in the allocated hours. There's no badge of honor for staying late or working through your lunch.

100. And I think, you know, the whole work life balance thing, I. I think, you know, I've.

I've been quoted by saying that work, work, life balance is a myth, and I think it's a myth now. I think it was a real thing back in the good old days of like nine to five work and whatnot. Like, you know, before blackberries.

I think that's a moment. No, I'm serious. I think that's like a catalyst moment right there. Before our boss could email us, because our boss is a workaholic, right?

So before our boss could email us at 8 o' clock at night, knowing full well that we're going to get a notification on our smartphone, our BlackBerry that's next to us on the table as we're watching a film with our loved one before we go to bed, like, knowing that that wasn't possible at one point, and you went home at 5pm and you weren't contactable until 9am the next morning, like, blackberries kill work, life balance. That was the beginning of it right there. I was on a train.

No more than four weeks ago, going down to London to do some studio interviews and right there in front of me there was a lady working on a full blown PowerPoint presentation at 7:30 in the morning on her laptop. And I'm just like, you know, this is mad. This, the world's gone mad. It really has.

You know, the world has gone mad. But you are trying to change that, especially amongst us business owners with your book the Long Haul Leader.

They don't earn enough money, they do hit burnout and then they quit.

And so they come into our industry looking for freedom, looking for that time to spend with family and it just ends up taking over their life and they hate it and they quit.

So how do you think we do realign as business owners so that we don't have that all or nothing and that we can stay in our industry, whatever our industry is, for the long haul?

Well, I think, you know, there's a few factors to it, right?

Like, and I'm not here to kind of like go into preacher mode or anything like that, because what worked for me might not work for you or anybody else and vice versa.

Right.

But what I.

There was two or three things that really kind of stood out to me as I was recovering from this burnout and kind of like really getting super balanced again, you know, in terms of everything that I was doing.

The first thing was really just accepting the fact that success that ultimately costs me my health because it was all your family, all your joy or your fun. That's not real success, that's actually sacrifice.

Right?

Like, that was the first thing is like taking that on board and saying, you know what, it's actually not so much for me now about how much money I make, but more importantly how I make the money. Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Right.

So that was the first thing.

The second thing was that, you know, that kind of like, and we know this anyway, particularly when you're a business owner, but like, we know that our business should support our life, not swallow it up, up. If your business feels like a, you know, a black hole, then it's time to kind of realign, right?

So our job, particularly as entrepreneurs of Any stature. Our job is to, to design your business around the lifestyle that you want, not the other way around.

Your business should be not dictating how you live. It should be the other way around.

Right?

Because otherwise what have you got? You've only got another 9 to 5 job. It's just that, you know, you have to pay the taxes as well.

Right.

So I think that's like super important. And then the last thing was that, you know, it wasn't necessarily about doing less.

I think a lot of people sort of think that, oh well, if you're, you know, if you're one of these guys that is kind of preaching slowing down all this kind of stuff. It wasn't about that at all for me. It wasn't about doing less. It was about doing what only I can do and what I do really well.

So staying in that zone of genius that I've been harking on about for years as well.

Right.

So you know, we, we look at, you know, first step in our business.

We always look at what can we automate first of all, because automation, although it might cost a little bit to set up, it generally doesn't cost that much to kind of run, right? So like what can we automate that goes on the list? First of all, the second thing that we do is we delegate.

So if, if there's stuff that's on my plate that either I don't particularly enjoy doing or I'm not particularly great at, or maybe I do enjoy it and I am not that bad. But like, the question is like, is it really what you should be doing?

Chris, like the CEO, you're the founder, should you really be messing around with Facebook ads or should somebody else be doing that for you? Right. So we try and delegate that out as much as we possibly can. As much as we possibly can. But that's kind of like the more businessy sort of stuff.

But for me, the really big focus for me from a health perspective and getting stronger and all the rest of it was understand the importance of sleep. Like sleep health was just. Or sleep hygiene was huge for me. Like, I never really, really thought much about it.

Never really had any major issues falling asleep or staying asleep or anything like that. But it's like, was I getting enough? No, I wasn't. I was a bit of a night owl, like watching my movies, you know, and that kind of stuff.

So understanding that sleep hygiene became kind of like a complete non negotiable for me, as did saunas, chiropractic adjustments, cold plunges, red Light therapy, red light therapy. Huge for me. Me personally, huge. So huge. I bought a full panel and put it into my home gym because so I can do it every day.

Like, that's how much I bought into that. And so, you know, just, like, getting healthy again, like quitting caffeine, I completely cut coffee. I cut gluten.

I realized actually within a week of being off gluten that my brain fog almost completely disappeared. So that was a. That was a big one. So, yeah, I think it's about just kind of looking at what you're doing and how you're doing it and just.

Just trying to do better. You know, none of us are perfect.

Right.

But if we can make what I call these little micro moves. I've been using this term a lot recently.

These little 1% changes or tweaks that we can make, like those compound up over a period of time, and that can only be a good thing.

Yeah.

And remembering to make those 1% changes in our own lives and not just to the business, because I think as business owners, we think, oh, how can I make my business 1% better, 1% better? But we don't think, how can I make my sleep 1% better? How can I make my health 1% better?

And actually remembering that, that often the business is us, especially when we're solopreneurs. And if we don't look after the number one part of the business, there will be no business anymore because we won't have.

We won't have done the wrong, right things. I think the other thing that we're seeing a lot right now in all industries, and particularly since COVID is that the world is noisy.

I'm talking about this on stage a lot. I'm talking about how the world feels like in business, like a theme park. There's so many noises and flashing lights, and there's so much going on.

And that another big problem for business owners right now is distraction. Like, we go for the shiny object project. We're here, we're focusing on this, then we're over there.

And that doesn't help us stay in it for the long haul either. What do you think we need to be doing to stay focused?

Well, first of all, your phone is the biggest culprit here. You know, and again, I'm not here on a soapbox moment, but I have erased all but one social media app on my phone, which is Instagram.

It's the only app I've got on my phone. So there goes all those notifications immediately.

I also, and by the way having the apps on your phone and the notifications turned off, that doesn't count because it's still there, man. It's like crack cocaine. You're an addict, you're going to go for it. Plain simple, right? So you've got to remove all the apps off your phone.

I also completely eradicated email on my phone as well, and this was a tough one for me.

The only time I turn it back on or download the app again is when I travel because obviously when I'm on the move, I need that, that convenience of being able to check email. But this was a big one for me and I think a lot of people be like, whoa, wait a minute, Chris. I could never take my email off my phone.

But honestly, I was kind of scared about it at first. Like, would I, would it mess with my productivity and things like that? But no, not at all. Not at all.

I, I just put it on my schedule to do 30 minutes of email in the morning, 30 minutes of email in the afternoon. It's on the schedule. I'm at my desk. I'm going to be doing it right here and now.

And so, you know, there was little things like that, but the phone was brutal. Absolutely brutal. But I got into, I got into really kind of like batching again.

Like, I used to batch a lot of my work and for whatever reason, I kind of just stopped doing it. And so I got back into it at the beginning of this year time. Batching, right. And so what I noticed was I also started theming my days as well.

So like Wednesday would be like a sales and marketing day, for example. Monday would be a content creation and publishing day, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Tuesday would be like coaching call day.

Right.

And so that really helped as well because I wasn't kind of switch tasking, right? The whole multitasking thing, I think that's a bit of a myth as well. But like, we switch tasks, we do. You know, like you say it's, it's.

It's shiny object or squirrel syndrome, as I call it.

It's like, you know, oh, look, there's a squirrel kind of thing, you know, and, and so I just stopped myself from, from doing those things and sort of just getting quiet, quite, you know, quite stringent on, on what I was working on and on where I was working on it and so on and so on.

My mentor, Michael Hyatt said to me, probably about a decade ago now, and I'll never forget it, he said to me, if it doesn't get scheduled, it doesn't get done, and it's so good.

Another one of my buddies, Greg, Greg Hickman, who's speaking at our summit in November, actually, he said to me years ago, show me your calendar and I'll show you your priorities. And I was like, oh, that's a good one, too. So you got these things right here in regards to your schedule, your calendar, take them on board.

Life will get a little easier.

So true. And the email thing is massive.

I've been talking about it to people on my podcast because when I went to Florida in April, I took my work email off my phone and it still hasn't gone back on, and I have not missed anything. Nothing has changed. Nothing changed other than I feel free. And so I've been preaching to people, take your email off your phone.

So thank you for backing up that message, because it does.

It makes a huge difference to the way that you're thinking, because even if I said, even if you don't read the email, just knowing that it's there and seeing someone sent consumes so much of your mind, so much of your day, and actually takes you away from the thing that you want to be doing. Now, your book, we've got to talk more about the book before I let you go, is out today. We scheduled this podcast perfectly.

So your book is out today on Amazon in the uk. Why do you think it's needed right now? Why is it going to be a good read? I can't wait to read it, by the way.

I mean, I think it's gonna be a good read because I wrote it. No, I'm just, No, I, I, I don't, I. It is going to be a good read, but I think more than that, it's an important read.

Like, it's a really important read.

I sent a few copies to some friends before it came out in the US A couple of weeks ago, and one of my buddies, Hal Elrod, who wrote a book called the Miracle Morning, which is sold like, I don't know, 5 million copies or something now in about a thousand different languages. You know, a little slight, Slight, slight, quite, you know, change in numbers there.

But I, I sent it to him and I said to him, let me know what you think when you start reading. And he said, he texted me about, I don't know, two, three days later, and he said, I'm on chapter four. I feel like you're kicking me in the face.

This is exactly what I need right now. And this is a guy who makes Millions of dollars a year, very successful business owner. If he feels like that, then all of us will feel like that.

Right.

And I think, you know, the, the overarching message for this book, really, and what I really want people to take away from it is that you can have both, you can have success at work and then you can have success in your personal life as well. And, and that I think is important. You can go the distance in your business and in your life.

It's just a matter of priorities and it's a matter of making sure that you know, you do the right things for the right reasons at the right time with the right people. And I think that's hopefully that's going to be kind of like the big takeaway. Is it?

Like, if anything, this is a permission slip for you to go ahead and start doing the things that you kind of probably know you should be doing, but for one reason or another, you're just not doing them now. Please start now. It's important. It's an epidemic. Burnout's an epidemic. People are dying. Like entrepreneurs are having heart attacks at like 35.

This is not right. This is not what we should be doing. We're the leaders of the world. Fundamentally, us entrepreneurs, we make.

It wasn't politicians that got us back, it wasn't the government that got us back. It was entrepreneurs that fueled the economy, that created jobs, that hired people, that imported and exported and all that good stuff.

So if we're not taking care of ourselves, there's a problem.

It's down to us to change that hustle, culture, mindset and to start changing the narrative. And I think your book couldn't come at a better time when people need it.

Not only entrepreneurs, actually, I think a lot of people who I see in the playground juggling full time jobs, kids, they all need it. They all need to hear this message that you don't need to be everything to all people. You need to.

Somebody said to me, somebody said to me, like, you know, they, they feel like the title could be changed slightly and resold into like 50 different verticals.

Like the long haul leader for mums, the long haul leader for parents, the long haul leaders for, you know, accountants, and so on and so on and so on. So, so whether that happens, we don't know at this point, but I think you might be onto something, Becca.

Yeah, I think everyone needs to hear it.

Now, the good news is for you who are listening is that not only is the book out today on Amazon, and I'll talk about that in a second, but I also have a couple of copies of the book to give away because I think it's important for you guys to read this. So if you want to get one of those copies of Chris's book, the Long Haul Leader, all you need to do is tag us on social media.

Tag me on social media before the end of September, and I'm going to pick a couple of you at random and send you a copy of that book. It doesn't matter where in the world that you are based, we will get that book out to you. And I know that you need to read it.

So don't let cost be an object to you.

Every single one of you can grab a screenshot, say you're listening to our chat today, tag myself, tag Chris in it, and I will pick a couple of you at random to get a copy of that book. But also, Chris has just announced a very special thing that's going to be going on on the very day this podcast is released.

So if you're a super keen Becca Pountney podcast listener and you are listening on release day, which is the 21st 5th of September, if you go ahead and buy a copy of that book today on Amazon, take a screenshot, send it over to Chloe, who works for Chris, chloerisducker.com I'll put the link in the show notes. Then you are going to get a special reward yet to be revealed. Is that right, Chris?

Oh, it's a very special reward, an extremely exclusive and exciting reward.

I know it sounds really kind of cloak and dagger, but trust me, like, like, buy the book, send us the receipt, you'll be in for a chance to win something very, very special.

Fantastic. And I know that Chris does great giveaways, so absolutely, he isn't. He's not pulling the wool over your eyes. He does not have.

Have something great for you. So if you do think, yeah, I need to hear this message. I need to get that book.

Don't wait, get it today on Amazon, send them the screenshot, and you can also, yeah, it must be done today.

Let's clarify that. It's got to be done September 25th in order to be a chance to win.

And if you're listening in the future, which I love you too, then just go buy it on Amazon because you need to hear the message. Chris, I love having having had you on the podcast. I've loved chatting with you. I always end my podcast with the same question.

So I'm going to pose that to you now, which is what's one thing you personally wish you'd known sooner in your own business?

Oh, good question. What I wanted to know sooner in my own business. I mean, I probably could have avoided that first burnout if I'd have started delegating a lot sooner.

So I think probably the importance of delegate or, you know, really mastering the art of delegation and team building, I think probably would have been the big one. Would have saved myself a little money, a little anguish, a few sleepless nights in the process.

Yeah, that's a perfect example. Chris, thank you so much for your time and best of luck with the book launch. I know it's going to be phenomenal.

It's great to be with you.

What a fantastic conversation with Chris. I really enjoyed going in depth with him and hearing all about his book launch.

As I said at the beginning, this is a message our industry needs to hear. So many of you are trying to wear being busy and being burnt out as a badge of honor, and it's not going to lead to success.

It's just going to lead to you ending up quitting your business. So if that resonated with you, go ahead, grab Chris's book, look at his podcast episodes, to the long haul leader, and I'll see you all next time.