2022 was a big year for Chris Watson. He led his company to win People’s Choice Business of the Year in the Tamworth Quality Business Awards. And he was also crowned 2022’s Tamworth Young Business Person of the Year. But despite the accolades, the pandemic had well and truly taken (and is still taking) its toll. Karryon chats to Chris about prioritising mental health, setting boundaries and the practical measures leaders can take to foster wellbeing.
When we were all struggling through the pandemic, Chris Watson of Chris Watson Travel was pretty candid about his own wellbeing journey. His story of the stress and fear and overwork and then no work, but still work and no pay was not uncommon. You remember.
Because, just as Chris says, the pandemic was unlike the other hits our industry has been thrown. Travel stopped.
Because we’re not Chumbawamba
The prolonged border closures and uncertainty were wearing down those left in the industry. We’d always been like that old Chumbawamba song. We get knocked down and we get back up again. But the pandemic held us down for a long, long time.
“It changed our coping mechanisms,” Chris tells Karryon. We couldn’t all just keep soldiering through.
“It made those circles around us really valuable.”
And while Chris talks about the importance of the friendships forged during the pandemic, he also sought the help of mental health professionals and mental health practitioner Peter Annis-Brown.
“We’re travel professionals, and we want people to come and get advice and help from us. I did the same thing. And it was the right thing for me. For my family.
“I needed to get that help and find a way through it. I needed to put some strategies in place to make sure I could be there for the family and be there for the staff and the business.”
On the road again (with some extra baggage)
“The shortage of agents and staff is a real issue,” Chris says now that we’re out of lockdowns and travel is booming.
“It’s gotten to the point where there’s some business we have to say no to now. And things that we’ve done the same way for the last 15 years are no longer done that way.
“We have to make changes in our business. And that brings a whole new different level of stress and adds to your mental health burden again.”
Chris worries about the hidden burnout of agents. That after the struggle to survive, agents are working themselves too hard to live their passion.
“So I think that we should be stressing that you need to keep that self care up now.”
“It’s great to grow, but we may have to curb that growth so that we can keep up with the demand and keep offering the great level of service that agents do. And that way people will have confidence in coming to an agent.”
Can’t keep a good man down
Chris is still dealing with his own mental health “and I think the impact of many things means I will be for a long while”, he tells Karryon.
“COVID added to it, heightened and continued to increase my anxiety and depression.”
So where to from here? Chris is trying to not be so hard on himself, to not take on as much and let go of things that don’t add value to his life.
“I’m taking time to try and listen more to others and be aware of their feelings and emotions more,” he says.
And importantly, he’s trying to set stronger boundaries and ask his team to do the same.
“The boundaries include less work outside of hours, aiming to have a knock off time rather then working until the wee hours (or until you can’t any more) and creating expectations with our clients from the start so that the team and I don’t add more pressure to ourselves.”
He is also giving his team a day a week without clients sitting with them for them to be able to catch up and breathe a little.
“Working smarter and not harder is another thing we are trying to embrace to help our stress and anxiety levels. We’re implementing a few extra procedures and changes to actually save time. Things like employing a PA to help our consultants so they can consult more. Someone who can schedule our clients, schedule an hour after each client leaves to start working on that file straight away, to remind clients of their appointments, to send and put together docs for the team, and organise welcome home postcards, calls and follow ups…”
I hope you dance
Mid-lockdown, the line dancing Chris was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Crystal Boot Awards. It was his line dancing that got him into the travel industry. We ask what keeps him in the game.
“The biggest thing, if I’m honest, is hearing about people’s trips when they come back. I missed that. And I didn’t realise just how much that alone can have a mental impact. Hearing them talk about the trip, talk about the experience, makes you feel like everything’s worthwhile and the fight’s worthwhile.
“That’s why we do it. And I’m loving that feeling again.”
The pandemic has been a hard slog, but Chris is loving the community that has grown out of the bad times.
“I’m loving hearing more agents talk to other agents about what’s working, what’s not working. There’s a real sense of community. It’s less of a competitor mentality, and more of how do we all survive? Hey, has anyone got a tip on this? Can anyone tell me what requirements I need here?
“I think we’ll come out of it stronger than ever, and with a better community.“
