659 | 5 Big Takeaways from 2025 (And the Mindset We’re Bringing into 2026)

The best leadership lessons of 2025 weren't found in wins. They showed up in the moments that tested your energy, your clarity and your confidence, as well as most likely, your cash flow.

So let's unpack the five that shaped the year and the mindset we're taking into 2026 that is coming up next. Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. Fabulous start to the year wherever you are.

We are taking a look at last year with the Chris LoCurto Show and the issues and the concepts and the struggles and the, the lessons that people have experienced and the things that people have come to us discussing and asking questions on and pushing on.

And, and we're pulling some of the most powerful leadership lessons from 2025, the real world stuff, the kind of insights that came out of pressure and hard seasons and those I totally did not see that coming type of moments.

That's what we're talking about today. These are the lessons that resonated the most this year. So not just because they were popular, but because they actually mattered.

And most likely you experienced some, if not all of these. So if you've been feeling tired, stuck, uncertain, stretched thin, then this one's for you.

So let's talk about what we're leaving behind and the mindset we're choosing to lead with in 2026.

Tired Doesn’t Mean You’re Weak—It Means Something’s Off (00:01:49)

So one of the top lessons is if you are tired, it doesn't mean you're weak. It means something is off.

So say you've been kind of, you know, white knuckling your way through the year, or you, you're pushing through meetings or feeling like you're a professional firefighter, putting out fires and wondering why leading doesn't feel as fulfilling as it used to.

Well, that's not failure. That's a flag.

That's something to pay attention to. It doesn't mean that you, you're doing terrible. It doesn't mean that you're not a good leader. Doesn't mean that at all. In fact, most leaders have been experiencing this level of energy loss. Right?

It doesn't make sense. And we kind of talk about it all the time, about how it's more than just you're running hard or you're feeling burnt out. There's more to it.

Right? So why is your energy constantly drained? Well, let's evaluate it. Or maybe we have to reevaluate it.

Maybe you've done some evaluation on this, but the point is, we need to take a look at why you're feeling drained, not just push harder.

I can tell you this is something that my wife brings to mind to me all the time because I'm somebody who will push through anything.

We got to get it done. We got to make it happen. And then I may be fully exhausted afterwards. And she's like, man, why aren't you taking enough time, right, to settle down and rest and relax?

And we rest every week. I mean, we are somebody who. We recognize God's blessing of resting, and we choose to do that every single week. And it has been a phenomenal blessing.

But that doesn't mean that we don't run hard the rest of the time. But what I've had to learn is, what are the things that drain me the most?

What are the things that absolutely tax me? I will tell you the number one thing, and if you've been listening to me long enough, this isn't going to be a surprise. The number one thing is probably not what you think it is.

It's probably not the stress of the day. It's probably not the stress of, you know, a meeting yesterday or something that you got coming up or tough conversation you have to have.

I'm going to say most likely one of the top things that is draining your energy is what you're putting in your body is the junk and the processed crap.

And these things, even the stuff you think is health food that you're putting in your body absolutely may be one of the number one causes as to why you have no energy or you're feeling depleted or you're feeling depressed.

There is a bajillion studies on this that depression is, is 100% of the time linked to inflammation 100% of the time. So there isn't the, hey, we are 1000% sure it's the causation is this.

But think about how God put the body together. If you're struggling or feeling depressed or feeling emotional, and your body is also telling you that it's struggling with inflammation, well, that's a simple one.

For me, that is a indicator. Your body is saying, do something, change something, shift something. But a lot of times we don't pay attention to that.

We just keep trucking on because things have to get done. If you're putting junk in your body, you have to realize that today's junk is so much more worse than it was 20 years ago.

Crud, 10 years ago. There is so much junk that you might be putting in you, especially if you're doing the fast food stuff, if you're doing the processed foods, if you're doing the high sugar, all that stuff.

And it's funny to me. I'll have people say, man, I have a great diet. I had a guy that worked for me years ago, and he'd talk about how much he was struggling and no energy and all this.

And I'd say, well, can we talk about what you're putting in your body? We have a great diet, man. We eat really well. And then I see him at lunchtime, and he's eating a microwave Asian food deal with MSG and sugar and all kinds of processed crap in it.

And I'm like, how in the world are you looking at that meal thinking, no, I'm doing good. I'm doing good. You're not doing good.

So first thing I think you need to think about if your energy is constantly drained, is how are you taking care of your body when it comes to your nutrition?

Man, I thought this was a business and leadership show. No, it's business, leadership, life, health, it's everything.

The stronger you get with your health, the better you are at leading your business. That should just be obvious, right? That's how it works.

So first thing is evaluate or reevaluate what is the junk you're allowing into your body. We do so little sugar. I mean, we don't do processed sugar.

We do our raw honey from our farm. We do our raw maple syrup from our farm. I don't know if you could call it raw since we have to heat the sap up.

But you get the concept that's coming off of our farm. Those are the things that we use. And it's so interesting to me that I can't eat high sugar stuff like the stuff that we choose to put in our bodies.

If for, you know, one time we try something and it's high sugar, it's an immediate rejection. We don't want it. Right? We can't eat processed foods like most people can, because our body immediately tells us not to do it.

Well, that's good for you, Chris, but, you know, I got to live out here in the real world. We live in the real world as well. We just make different choices.

And because we make different choices, we have different responses. Does that mean that we're not tired, exhausted? No, not at all. This is just one of the top things that's probably exhausting you. Let me tell you another thing.

Where's your rest? I'm talking about complete rest. Are you getting proper sleep at night? Are you closing out your day like we teach you to do?

If you've not checked out our killing the leadership crazy cycle and closing out your day process, that's a must so that you don't carry stuff. My wife, it's so funny.

My wife is like your head hits the pillow and you're out. It frustrates the daylights out of her because I don't go to bed with a struggling conscience of all the things that I've got to do, or did I make the right decisions or, or, or I deal with my stuff in the day.

I get it done. I close it out. At the end of the day, I don't want to be thinking about work all night long. I don't like it because I used to do that decades ago.

That's all I did, man. I carried stuff all the way up until bedtime, sending myself an email to the thing I had to handle tomorrow. And it just drove me nuts until I just changed and created a process where I got rid of that stuff.

So are you going through your day, your night, and not putting an end to work? Listen, I do not mind you busting your butt. If the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch.

Make it happen. But what about the rest of your time? Business is what you do. It's only one aspect of who you are. So if you're not enjoying your night with your family, if you're not enjoying other aspects of your life, burnout is on its way.

You're going to hurt yourself. You're going to affect yourself. You're going to be drained, constantly drained. So start asking yourself, do I have to run as hard as I do? I am not telling you.

Please do not say, oh, Chris is telling you not to work as hard at work. No, no, no. When you're doing your job, bust your butt. You have so many hours in a day to get it done.

Make it happen. But are you stopping to take a halfway decent lunch? You know, I'm somebody who unfortunately can eat and keep rocking on, but I have found that there are times I need to stop. I need to stop.

Just spend a little bit of time enjoying the food that I'm eating, talking with people, go for a walk, do something. The work is going to be there.

I remember back in the early 90s, I worked for a guy who I would just stay and eat lunch and work at my desk and constantly knock things out.

And he goes, get your butt out of Here, Leave. Go somewhere. And I'm like, but I don't want to. He's like, you need to. You spend too much time at the desk. Get out. Go do something else.

Your work is going to be there when you get back. Trust me, it'll be there. He was right. It didn't go away. It was still there. I jumped in. I did the work that I had to do.

So I want you to evaluate. When are you getting rest? Are you getting proper rest at nighttime? Are you getting quality rest at nighttime? Are you eating crap before bed?

Are you on your phone before bed? When you get up, what are you doing? Are you properly taking care of yourself? Don't wake up first thing in the morning and shove caffeine in your body. We actually start with a small cup of decaf.

We give our. Our bodies 60 to 90 minutes for the Adenosine to build up so that we have proper energy. We're not waking up, having to have coffee to get us going.

We don't use alarm clocks. I haven't used an alarm. The only time I ever use an alarm clock is like once or twice a year when I've got to be at the airport super early. And, you know, I don't want to take the chance.

We wake up naturally. We wake up naturally early. We're going to bed at a decent hour. Although my wife says I'm like a little baby, I fight it like crazy, but, you know, we're taking care of those processes.

What are you doing? Are you resting for us? We believe you should be resting on Sabbath, you know, Friday night, sundown to Saturday night, sundown. God put that in place for a reason.

It rebuilds you. Oh, I can't do that. The rest of the world operates on Saturday. Well, have at it. But I will tell you, it is a time that we so look forward to. It is a time that we are so ready for.

By the time we get to Friday midday, we are looking forward to shutting down for the rest of the day for, I mean, you know, for the rest of the night into the next day, and then come Sunday, we're busting it.

We don't have a problem with that. We enjoy that family time together. We enjoy that down time. So evaluate the things that you're doing that are draining you. Then take a look at your business.

So as you've noticed, I didn't start with your business. Take a look at your business and see what's draining you. Check out the things that are the quicker fixes, the things that are most likely draining you more than anything.

And you don't know it because you're not paying attention to it. The things that are hurting you, the things that are affecting you, your health, the food, your sleep, your rest.

You know, rest doesn't just have to be sleep, your downtime. Take a look at those things and ask your Mike Hyatt. I don't know if you guys have ever heard, but Mike Hyatt, every single day. I believe he's still doing this to this day.

And he looks phenome. He takes a nap in the middle of the day. It's something he learned from, like, some of the Southern hemispheres countries that they take a nap in the middle of the day, no problem.

And he's been doing it for years, and I have fomo, so I struggle with that. I don't do it until Saturday. But he looks phenomenal. I mean, he's doing great, and he does it every single day.

I believe he's still doing it. And, you know, just taking that rest and recharging and then running again, you know, that gives that energy. Then he can do whatever he wants to do.

After taking a look at the physical, the mental, all that stuff, then I want you to start taking a look at your business. I want you to sit down and take time, and I want you to list out the things inside of your business that are stressing you.

What are the things inside of your business that are absolutely draining your energy as well? List those things out. And I want you to start asking yourself the question, what needs to change?

What do you need to do differently? What needs to happen? Because if you are allowing things like maybe not having tough conversations or allowing--

Man, I've had this habit of over the years of giving people a role because they couldn't put food on their table.

And they do really well for a while, and then eventually they go back to, you know, bad habits and things like that. That tends to wear me out.

And I remember having a friend of the family that was just wearing me out, and it was like, I've got, this can't happen. I can't allow this to happen. Even though I'm helping this person out, even though this person needs help.

I have to be in a place where things operate the best they possibly can. And you either step up and align with culture and align with what's expected, or you step out.

It's your choice. But it's my choice as a leader to not allow it to continue. If I allow it to continue, whose fault is that?

It is mine, you've got to find out what things are you allowing to stay in your business that you're not doing something about and then fix those things.

The leaders who protect their energy, they're not being selfish, they're being sustainable.

 You Can’t Start Fresh with Yesterday’s Strategy (00:16:25)

So second lesson, things that we need to change going into 2026 is you can't start fresh with yesterday's strategy.

Now, maybe you came into this year full of goals and didn't pause long enough to ask yourself, are your systems, are your mindset, are your team? Are they all ready for it? Right? I want you to have a phenomenal strategy.

I want you to complete a phenomenal strategy. I want you to have great goals. But I also want you to take time and ask yourself, do you need a reset? Do you have the right goals?

Do you have the right strategy? Are you focused on the right things?

If your strategy is to keep doing the same thing you've done over and over and over and expect a different result or expect the same result or consistent result or growth or whatever, I want you to challenge that.

I want you to ask yourself, do we have a phenomenal strategy going forward? Now, keep in mind, for me, a strategy is how we get to the vision.

The vision is what we need first. Do we have a great vision for 2026 and what it's going to look like? Are we taking that vision?

So, first off, do we? If you don't, why not? Who are you working with to get that phenomenal vision in place?

So if you don't have a great vision, why not? First question, right? And then if we do have a great vision, let's say we've worked on it, we've busted it, we've got a great vision.

Do we have the strategy of how we're going to get to that destination in 2026? Do you have a roadmap broken down by quarter, by month, by week, by even possibly daily goals, maybe even hourly, of how you're going to accomplish that vision?

If you do not, why not? If you do not, how do you plan on getting to that destination? What's your plan? You're going to go through 2026 doing the same stuff you did in 2025.

Maybe some of it is fantastic and working, but let's kick this up a notch.

Let's take a look at how we can grow our business, grow our team, grow our culture, take a look at everything in your business and ask what needs to shift and change and then how are we going to do it?

What are the things that need the Most change? What are the things that need the most work on? How are we going to do that? How are we going to get there? How are we going to fix it?

And then how are we going to make sure we get it done in a timely manner? Is it going to have timelines attached to it? Is it going to have measurements attached to it?

What is all of that going to look like? Focus on that. Let's knock that out. Let's get that done. And then you have a fresh strategy. But are your systems ready?

If they are not, that's a great place to start. Do we have the right processes in place? Do we have the right team in place? Do we have the right mindset? Is everybody ready to rock out a new strategy?

Or if we had a great strategy that's not complete, is everybody ready to complete it? Or what's holding back that strategy? All these things have to be figured out.

Otherwise you just keep doing the same thing you did last year. Maybe some of you are like, well, it's worked for me so far. Okay, that's great. What does it look like to take it to another level? That's what we're talking about.

So ask yourself what needs to be evaluated? What needs to be focused on so we could get phenomenal execution?

Correction Doesn’t Crush People—Confusion Does (00:20:27)

Number three, correction doesn't crush people. Confusion does. So imagine you've got a team member who's clearly not performing. You know, kind of like what I was talking about.

But you're. You're hesitating to address it because you don't want to demoralize them. You don't want to maybe demoralize the team.

Whatever. Here's the truth. Avoidance doesn't actually protect people. It erodes trust. If you have somebody who's underperforming, how do you think the rest of the team who are performing, what do you think they think about it?

How do you think they see your leadership in that moment? They're like, dude, dudette, what are you doing?

If you're not going to take care of this culture and protect us in the process, then we're probably just going to slack off too, because you obviously don't care.

Well, hopefully that's not truth. Hopefully you do care. Hopefully you do want a different outcome from your team. Hopefully you do want them to be feeling energized and excited about showing up every day.

Hopefully you want to stop the person who's underperforming and help them to perform better. Help them to step up or help them to step out. Give them the opportunities to step up. And if they can't do it, then help them go be somewhere else.

The thing you have to understand is that one of the most respectful things you can do to your team is to be clear. Help them to understand clearly.

The more you will do that, the better they will perform. The more they feel you protecting them in that environment, the more they will protect that environment, the more they will bust it.

And do you know, bring 110% of themselves to the table every single day because they realize you're doing the same thing.

So make sure you know. When your team knows where they stand, they don't feel attacked, they feel led. When they have clarity, they don't feel confused.

Confusion leads to chaos. Your team doesn't want chaos. There may be some people who do help those people get out. But your team wants clarity.

Decisions Don’t Get Easier—But Clarity Makes Them Faster (00:22:50)

Number four, decisions don't get easier, but clarity makes them faster. So you might have spent, you know, weeks or months last year in kind of a wait and see mode.

Ugh, I get it. I'm a 88 S and I teach this stuff and I have to overcome that. It's not, you know, I don't really live and wait and see, but I have those moments I used to decades ago.

That was definitely something that I dealt with. But what if you make the wrong call? What if you mess something up? What does that mean? Does it mean you're a horrible person?

Should waiting to see if things right size themselves or procrastinating to see if things get better? Do you think those are going to be the best decisions?

What if you mess something up? What if you do make a mistake? So what? Get in there instead of procrastinating, instead of waiting. Get in there and do something about it.

Get in there and make the right decision. The cost of not deciding is usually way higher than a wrong decision.

People just don't think so. They think, oh, if I just, you know, if I just wait, then who knows, maybe everything will be better.

And unfortunately, in that process, 1400 things are piling on top of it that you need to make decisions about because you're procrastinating on those as well.

Guys, don't wait. Leadership... Clarity doesn't mean having all the answers. You don't have to have all of the answers.

It means you have the courage to choose. It means you have the courage to get in the game and make the decisions. So do it. Make it happen.

Tight Times Test True Leadership (00:24:37)

Number five, tight times. Test true leadership. Last year, maybe finances got tight. Maybe you had to make some hard calls. Maybe you had to delay a hire.

Maybe you had to trim back on expenses just to, you know, keep the lights on or keep things operating.

Well, it's understandable. Leading in plenty is one thing, but leading when things are difficult, when things aren't in plenty, maybe financial struggles, maybe, you know, team member struggles, whatever.

When it's lean, that's when it reveals who you really are as a leader, that's a powerful thing. We tend to not want to get to that place. We tend to not want to, you know, experience those lean times for the love.

Let me tell you, I've experienced an incredible number of lean times in my life and they have absolutely impacted and helped create who I am.

The person who's leading you on this information today. This is why I teach the things that I do. This is why I'm not the guy who's teaching you to go spend 20 hours a day on trying to prove yourself to the world and becoming a billionaire.

The whole time you lose your family and forget your kids names because I've been there.

That was a lean time in my life of listening to idiots tell me that the most important thing was to hustle, hustle, hustle and run 20 hours a day, every single day until I'm, you know, made my name and made my mark and made tons of money.

It is a shallow and hollow place. Take advice from somebody who's been there. Take advice from somebody who's made it very successfully not doing it that way.

Take advice from somebody who continues to build businesses and wealth.

Not having to go ruin relationships and ruin my energy and ruin my body and my mindset and all these things because some guy is making money standing on a stage telling everybody that they don't work hard enough.

I want you to work hard. I just want you to have a modicum of balance, right? Some level of balance. And running 20 hours a day, every single day will get old and it will wear you out once again.

When you need to get the ox out of the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch. But recognize your greatest growth is not coming from running ridiculously hard.

Some of your greatest growth is coming from stopping and recognizing the lean times, the difficult times, and evaluating. What have you learned? How have you grown?

What are you doing differently? The truth is, your influence isn't measured by the size of your budget. Well, at least not to me, maybe to other people.

But if it is, then those are people that really just don't matter. If your success is based solely on the amount of money you've been able to create, well, I'm just not impressed.

I've made lots of money. I've been, you know, I grew up poor as can be. I've been on both sides of this. The amount of money that you've made doesn't impress me.

What did you do to people's lives? What are you doing as far as what God's asking you to do? Are you being a blessing? Are you being a curse?

Are you being somebody that people look up to because your phenomenal heart, your generosity, your desire to help and lift up, or people looking up to you because you're driving around in a flashy car?

You, you know, you got the $10,000 watch and whoop dee doo. Everybody thinks you're amazing, huh? If that's the thing that drives you, then have at it.

But at the end of the day, you're going to really realize why you're so lonely. Because the only people that want to be around people like that are people who can gain something from them.

And I'm not talking about wisdom. I'd rather have people around me that want to learn and grow.

And I can be an influence on them being better in their life and how they love God and how they love people and in how they give selflessly, not how selfish and self centered they are.

So folks, your influence isn't measured by how much money you make.

It shouldn't be, at least not to the right people. Instead, it's measured by your leadership, your steadiness of response in situations, how you handle lean times, how you grow from it, how you evolve, evaluate and make changes.

So focus on those things. You will be amazed. The people that follow our message and do this stuff right have great lives. They're tough, they're difficult, but they still know their kids names, they still have relationships, right?

So if you want 2026 to be the year of your absolute amazingness because you've made so much money, go after it. Do your thing.

If you want to grow as a leader and become a better person and become a better influence to your team and better influence to your family, make that decision.

You can still accomplish incredible growth, you can still accomplish incredible wealth. You can do a lot of stuff if those things aren't the most important things in your life.

We do incredible stuff around here. We move things, we make things happen. But understand making money in this business, profitability is our number three motivating factor.

God is number one and helping people is number two. And that makes everyone on our team glad to show up every single day.

If it was about the the bottom line, then we would have people who are only here about the money. Instead we have a team of people who love you and who want to take care of you and who want to help you.

Does it mean we don't have problems? Not at all. Does it mean we don't experience lean times? Not at all. Does it mean that we don't have to shift and change and adjust our thinking on things and get re motivated and reevaluate?

Not at all. But when you have your priorities, what I think are more right then you love getting up every day and doing what you do. Especially when at the end of the day, you know, you affected somebody's life.

So I want you to look back at 2025 as the year that taught us that leadership isn't about having it all together. It's about showing up honestly, consistently, courageously, especially when it matters most.

Action Items (00:32:41)

So here's some action items I want you to do today. Audit. Audit, audit. Right now. What's working? What's wearing you out? What's next? Also schedule a reset conversation with your top leaders and ask them what they need from you.

What do they need to be successful in 2026? Also choose one area. Energy, clarity, feedback, decision making or financial leadership. Any one of these things and set a Q1 growth goal and a strategy of how you're going to get there.

Broken down, reverse engineer it and make it happen. Get one of those things done this quarter. Now these aren't just feel good ideas, they're field tested truths from a community of leaders just like you.

Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event 2026 (00:33:33)

And if you're ready to stop winging it and lead with strategy and support, which is vital, then join me and other leaders at the Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event.

It's three days of focused leadership coaching, real time strategy in the event, and powerful connections with other people who actually understand what you're experiencing and what you're going through.

So get your tickets now at chrislocurto.com/liveevents. That's chrislocurto.com/liveevents and we cannot wait to see you there.

Conclusion (00:34:11)

Well folks, that's all the time I have for today. I hope this helps you face 2026 in such a more positive and energetic and excited way. Looking at what's the most important things for you to focus on.

Put these things in place and absolutely rock it this year. We look forward to seeing you at the event and as always, take this information. Change your leadership, Change your business. Change your life and join us on the next episode.