The Honest Reality of Building a Business in Capital Markets with Chris Watts (CEO of Tonic)

Meet Chris Watts - Co- Founder & CEO of @Tonic Consultancy. In 2018, Chris and his co-founder Craig Pearson sat down and decided to bet on themselves. No brand. No client book. No safety net. Just years of watching the old consultancy model from the inside - at J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, Rule Financial and Deutsche Bank and a shared conviction that the industry was ready for a different approach. So they built the alternative. They called it the "anti-consultancy consultancy." Anti-generalists. Anti-inaction. Anti-routine. An expertise-led firm that would show up with genuine practitioners, for the biggest names in banking. Eight years on, Tonic Consultancy has become one of the most respected specialist consultancies in capital markets and Chris is one of the sharpest voices on where the industry goes next. We got into all of it: 🔹 The honest reality of walking away from the safety of a big-firm career 🔹 Building a business without diluting the expertise you're selling 🔹 Why silos and legacy infrastructure remain finance's most stubborn problem 🔹 Tokenised collateral, digital cash and what's actually real versus slide-deck hype 🔹 24/7 derivatives markets and whether the plumbing can keep up when trading never stops 🔹 Where AI genuinely adds value in capital markets and where firms are about to make expensive mistakes Whether you're inside a big institution weighing up the leap, already building your own thing, or simply trying to make sense of where capital markets are heading next - this is a conversation packed with the kind of hard-won honesty you rarely hear on the record. If this conversation resonated and you'd like to reach Chris directly, or explore what Tonic Consultancy is building, you'll find them here: Chris: / chris-watts-39242229 Tonic Consultancy: https://www.thetonicconsultancy.com/ ⏱ Episode Chapters 00:00 – Introduction: Success, Burnout & Starting Over 01:28 – Why Chris Walked Away from Deutsche Bank 04:03 – Clarity Instead of Burnout 06:02 – The Numbers That Changed Everything 07:14 – Losing His Grandfather & Rethinking Life 09:19 – The Reality of High-Performance Careers 12:08 – Protecting Health in a Demanding Job 14:11 – Winning the Mental Battle Against Excuses 17:39 – The False Urgency Trap 19:20 – Meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger 26:51 – The Push to Start Coaching 28:08 – Can You Thrive Without Leaving the Industry? 32:03 – What High Performers Get Wrong About Health 37:12 – Why Most Fitness Advice Fails Lawyers 40:05 – Escaping External Validation 44:30 – Entrepreneurship & Self-Mastery 47:54 – Handling Pressure, Conflict & Difficult People 50:27 – Building Resilience from the Inside Out 52:04 – Chris's Workshops & Final Advice 53:22 – Closing Thoughts