PERMISSION TO UNPLUG
Why Your Business Grows Faster When You're Not There
Advantage Books · Simon & Schuster · September 8, 2026
Permission To Unplug
Why Your Business Grows Faster When You're Not There
You've been told the answer is more hours, more hustle, more grind. What if the real competitive edge is knowing when to stop? This book makes the counterintuitive case — backed by 30 years of building companies — that stepping away strategically is the single highest-leverage move you can make.
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Tell me if this sounds familiar
You built the business.
Now the business owns you.
Most successful entrepreneurs share the same quiet problem. They just don't say it out loud.
1.
You haven’t truly disconnected in years.
Not a vacation where the laptop stayed home. Not a weekend where you didn't check in. You tell yourself it's temporary. It isn't.
2.
You feel guilty the moment you stop.
Weekends, your kid's game, anniversaries — some part of your brain stays locked in the office. You call it dedication. It's actually a trap.
3.
If you left for 30 days, things would fall apart.
You know this. It scares you. And it means you haven't built a business — you've built a job that depends entirely on you.
4.
Success arrived. The life didn’t.
You hit the revenue targets. You proved everyone wrong. And somewhere in all of that, you forgot to schedule the experiences you were working toward.
THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK
It took a cardiac event
to stop me cold.
I almost missed everything.
I spent 26 days on a Pacific repositioning cruise with my wife. We renewed our vows in Moorea — my son standing witness, the Pacific Ocean behind us. One of the most extraordinary experiences of my life.
Weeks later, I had a fitness-related cardiac event. I’d just completed a Half Ironman. I was in the best shape of my life. I was at the gym after a long day of work when something felt off. I pushed through — because that’s what entrepreneurs do.
”"You don't have to die to create a life of experiences. But you might need permission to start."
Lying in that hospital bed, I didn’t think about the deals I’d closed or the companies I’d built. I thought about Moorea. Three questions hit me one after another: Why did I work so hard to end up here? Why did I build this life, just to end up here? Is this really where my story ends?
Those three questions became a book. The book became a movement. And the movement — Life’s About Experiences — now reaches over 100,000 entrepreneurs who refuse to keep betting their lives on someday.
30+
YEARS BUILDING COMPANIES
15+
COUNTRIES VISITED
3
QUESTIONS FROM A HOSPITAL BED
100K+
COMMUNITY MEMBERS
INSIDE THE BOOK
What changes when you give yourself permission
Six core shifts — practical, honest, hard-won — from someone who built the life, lost the plot, and found his way back.
Pre-Order Exclusive
Order before September 8th.
Get The Experience Playbook — free.
A companion action guide built for the entrepreneur who’s ready to stop reading and start doing. Four practical tools that take everything in the book and make it immediately actionable.
This is not a PDF of tips. It’s a working system. Delivered digitally on launch day, exclusively to pre-order customers.
To claim your copy: after placing your pre-order at any retailer, forward your order confirmation to book@lifesaboutexperiences.com. Your Playbook will be delivered on September 8, 2026.
Included with pre-order
The Experience Playbook
01 – Business Freedom Audit
Diagnose exactly which parts of your business are tethering you to your desk — and a clear action plan for each one.
02 – Experience Design Template
A structured framework for identifying, planning, and protecting the experiences that matter most — starting this year.
03 – Someday Eliminator
Turn your list of “someday” experiences into real plans with dates, accountability, and no more excuses.
04 – Replacement Roadmap
The system for building the team structures that let you step away — without the business missing a beat.
WHAT LEADERS ARE SAYING
From people who've built something real
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher W. Brown
Entrepreneur. Author. Speaker. 30 years in the game.
Christopher W. Brown has spent three decades building companies — and the last several years figuring out how to actually live while doing it. He is the founder and Principal of the NEXT Group of Companies and the founder of Life’s About Experiences, a movement-driven community with over 100,000 entrepreneurs who are done deferring the lives they’ve earned.
He lives outside Sacramento, CA with his wife of 27 years Julie and their son Marcus. He has competed in triathlons, traveled around the world, renewed his wedding vows on a beach in Moorea, and survived a heart attack at the gym. He considers all of it research.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Everything you want to know before you pre-order
What is Permission to Unplug About?
Permission to Unplug: Why Your Business Grows Faster When You’re Not There is for successful entrepreneurs who have built thriving businesses but feel trapped by them. Christopher W. Brown makes the counterintuitive case that stepping away strategically is the highest-leverage move an entrepreneur can make — for both business growth and personal fulfillment.
Does unplugging really make a business grow faster?
Yes — and that’s the central argument of the book. When an entrepreneur builds systems, delegates properly, and creates the conditions for strategic rest, the business becomes less dependent on any single person. That structural independence is what accelerates growth. The owner becomes a strategist, not a bottleneck.
Is this an anti-hustle book?
No. This is not a book that asks you to stop being ambitious. It’s written for serious entrepreneurs who have already proven they can outwork everyone — and are ready to play at a higher level by building a business that grows whether or not they’re in the building.
When does it ship and where can I buy it?
Permission to Unplug publishes September 8, 2026 through Advantage Books (Forbes Books imprint), distributed by Simon & Schuster. Pre-orders are live now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, and Hudson Booksellers.
How do I claim The Experience Playbook?
After pre-ordering at any retailer, forward your order confirmation to book@christopherwbrown.com. The Experience Playbook will be delivered digitally on September 8, 2026. This offer is exclusively for pre-order customers.
Is Christopher available to speak at events?
Yes. Christopher speaks to entrepreneur audiences, executive leadership teams, and company offsites on the themes of this book. Visit the speaking page to inquire about availability or email his team directly.
YOUR MOVE
Stop betting your life on someday.
Pre-order Permission to Unplug today. Get The Experience Playbook free. And start building the business — and the life — you actually want.
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September 8, 2026 · Published by Advantage Books / Forbes Books · Distributed by Simon & Schuster