In this interview, Ashley Leeds recounts his unconventional career path, highlighting how he moved from a passionate start as a chef—training in catering college, working in London and France—to a sales role that allowed his wife Deb to become a stay‑at‑home mother. Over the years he accumulated around 30 different jobs, each change driven by a desire to protect family time and avoid demanding schedules that would keep him away from his two daughters. When a role required longer hours or weekend work, he left, opting instead for self‑employment to maintain a balance between earning enough to support his family and being present at home. Leeds emphasizes that his success is not an overnight story but the result of deliberate choices prioritizing family over higher income.
As it relates, because similar to me, you've had lots and lots of different jobs. In your case, you've had 30 different jobs and you leapt out of that to become self-employed not that long ago. So I'd love you to share your backstory.
Yeah, so it's incredible when you stop and look back at what you've done. You're just like, ah, okay, that's how I got here. But everybody sees you as an overnight success. They haven't seen the last— I'm older than I look, and they haven't seen the last however many years I've been working.
Yeah.
I started my career as a chef. I wanted to be— I wanted to be a Radio 1 DJ when I was at school. And back in the day, you go to your careers teacher and say you want to do something out of the ordinary, it's like, no, you can't do that.
Yeah.
And so I lived in a seaside town, so I got myself a job as a chef. Went to catering college, did really well, went up to London, worked in France, and then I came back down here to Sidmouth in Devon where I met my wife. Um, we were both working at the same hotel, we're both chefs, and then we moved away and got jobs elsewhere.
Mm.
And then we, we got married and we wanted to start a family. And as a chef, you work silly hours and you don't get paid much at all. You didn't back then. And so I left my passion of cooking and went into sales and actually earned enough in my first sales role for my wife to give up work and be a stay-at-home mum.
Oh,
dear. And so I missed being a chef, but we've got the 2 most delightful daughters, a lovely relationship with them. And that I say is down to Deb's being at home for them and, and me having the support from an amazing wife so that I could, you know, earn the money. And then when I came home, I was home and we, we, we had fun as a family. And the reason I've had 30 jobs is When it got a bit too much and the boss was saying, you need to work harder, you need to stay on later, you need to come in earlier, you need to work weekends. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. So I've never earned loads of money, but I've always been there for my kids.
Yeah.
And, you know, just, they wanted to spend Father's Day with me, um, rather than, you know, a platitude and a card and a phone call. We, you know, we spent the day together. It was beautiful.
