Marketers talk banishing burnout and being better in new Slow The F*ck Down podcast

For Harris, this is deeply personal. In 2022, she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. “Since then, I’ve been committed to sharing the perspective I’m now blessed with – that many of us are wasting the precious time we have on this planet with an unsustainable pace and stress in a world that’s only getting faster.” That urgency sits at the heart of the Slow The F*ck Down movement – a rallying cry for marketers to reframe performance not around output, but around impact.

How did we get here?

In the launch episode, Sophie Devonshire, chief executive at The Marketing Society, and Victoria Fox, chief executive of AAR Group, explore how leaders can thrive amid what Devonshire calls “the great acceleration” – a 15-year whirlwind where technology, capitalism and ambition have collided to create a “velocity vortex” that’s drawn everyone in.

“Tech has built on tech, platform on platform,” says Devonshire. “We’ve had compound interest in everything moving super fast. There’s personal pressure, global uncertainty and people caught in this vortex. It’s the perfect time to stop and think about what’s next.”

Fox adds that Covid rewired the way we live and work, but few leaders have stopped to understand what that rewiring has done emotionally or operationally. “We never really adapted after it,” she says. “Then you layer on the tech changes, the economic challenges and the fear – fear of losing your job, fear of not keeping up. That’s the perfect storm that’s driving today’s burnout.”

Slowing down to speed up

For both guests, the solution isn’t about stepping off the treadmill entirely – it’s about regaining control of pace. Devonshire reframes the conversation around velocity, not speed.

“Velocity is speed in a given direction,” she explains. “Rushing around like a headless chicken is exhausting. But having that sense of direction – knowing where you’re heading – gives energy, not drains it.”

Fox applies the same principle inside AAR, where she has been transforming the business from pitch intermediary to marketing consultancy. “Sometimes I’ve had to slow down to bring people with me,” she says. “Once everyone’s aligned on the North Star, that’s when you can really accelerate together.”

It’s a simple truth, but one easily lost in the constant cycle of restructures, rebrands and “urgent” change. “You see leaders looking behind them and their teams are miles behind,” says Fox. “They haven’t created the clarity. If you don’t know where north is, you’ve just got people running in different directions.”

Reframing leadership for the age of acceleration

Devonshire argues that modern leadership is less about certainty and more about curiosity. “What’s positive right now is that no one is an expert – and acknowledging that is powerful,” she says. “Fear is the opposite of innovation. You can’t make great things happen if you’re scared all the time.”

That means building psychological safety for teams to ask questions, slowing down enough to clarify purpose, and resisting the seduction of constant motion. “Great leaders are editors,” Devonshire adds. “They condense everything down to the few things that really matter – the direction of travel and the curiosity to learn along the way.”

For Fox, the lesson is personal. “I’ve learned to be more patient – not my natural state,” she admits. “Transformation takes time. Culture takes time. And sometimes you need to pause to let people catch up before you can move faster again.”

Perhaps the most resonant part of the conversation comes when Devonshire introduces the concept of Max Q – a term borrowed from rocket science describing the point where dynamic pressure risks breaking the spacecraft.

“Every team and every leader has their own Max Q,” she says. “You have to watch for the moment when pressure starts causing damage – and build in pauses before you hit it.”

Energy, she insists, is not an optional extra; it’s the foundation of sustainable performance. “Exercise is sanity, not vanity,” she laughs. “If I don’t do it, I’m miserable, grumpy and uncreative. Energy management is leadership.”

Fox agrees. “I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t look after yourself, everything stops. Sometimes you have to ask, ‘If I don’t go to that event, what’s really going to happen?’ You realize the world doesn’t end when you slow down.”

Building tribes, not silos

Both women return repeatedly to the power of connection. “Find your tribe and stick with it,” says Fox. “Most people in your life take energy from you. The trick is knowing who gives it back – the radiators, not the drains.”

Devonshire calls it “energy literacy”: the discipline of knowing what fuels you, celebrating small wins, and keeping perspective. “I do a ‘ta-da’ list every week,” she says. “Instead of what’s left to do, we ask, what have we achieved? It gives everyone a lift.”

Conscious leadership

If there’s one takeaway from Slow The F**k Down, it’s that slowing isn’t stopping – it’s a strategy for survival and success. As Devonshire puts it: “Acceleration is addictive, but you can’t operate at constant peak. Athletes don’t. Businesses can’t. Leadership now is about pace-setting – knowing when to push, when to pause and how to protect your people’s energy.”

Or, as Harris sums up in her own words: “Slowing the fuck down is not about doing nothing. It’s about not doing the stuff you don’t need to do – so you can show up as the best version of yourself.”

The Slow The F**k Down podcast is available every Wednesday on The Drum TV, The Drum Podcasts, Spotify and Apple.