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the diver ceo live my live show my live
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reincarnation of this podcast is coming
00:00:04
on tour and it's coming to a city near
00:00:07
you there's a link in the description
00:00:08
below put your email address in and i
00:00:10
will email you when tickets go on sale
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can't wait to see
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[Music]
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everything that people said well you're
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lucky to work with dr varna
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and i can say that wasn't luck it was
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strategy
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what's that imposter voice saying is
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going to be found out good question i
00:00:26
suppose do you have insecurities yeah of
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course i do has that ever had a impact
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on you
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i never believed my own hype it's very
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easy once you see yourself in articles
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and winning awards and everyone's
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telling you how amazing you are but i i
00:00:40
suppose i never really did
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i didn't fit in particularly well and
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i've seen the extremities of mental
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health me myself going to dark periods
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where nothing would nothing to fight
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nothing would cheer you up if you
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haven't got a thick skin you shouldn't
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be in this game
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david gandy at one point he was one of
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the highest paid male models in the
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entire world
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a beautiful beautiful man and so hearing
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that and seeing how beautiful he is
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would understandably make you assume a
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lot of things about him
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but what you're going to hear today is
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that those things are wrong and that you
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should never judge a book by its cover
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how is it possible
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that someone that looks like david gandy
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can describe themselves as having
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imposter syndrome being low in
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confidence
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and waiting to be found out
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he's now become an entrepreneur he's
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focused on launching his brand new brand
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david gandy well where and he's taking
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on a completely different industry
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it's crazy because when you open
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people's diaries
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you never know what you'll find and what
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i found in david's today
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was truly fascinating
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unexpected
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vulnerable and extremely
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surprisingly relatable
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so without further ado i'm stephen
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bartlett
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and this is the diary of a ceo
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i hope nobody's listening but if you are
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then please keep this to yourself
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there's a lot of
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very beautiful people in the world right
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um but they don't manage to achieve what
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you've achieved across multiple
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disciplines whether it's within your
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modeling career which is incredibly
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competitive
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space to play and one with shrouded with
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huge amounts of uncertainty or whether
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it's now in business with what you're
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doing with your brands there and your
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investments
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so my question is what is it about you
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in your sort of self-diagnosis that has
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made
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you
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rise to the top in those
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pursuits
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that's a
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good question and also where did it come
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from
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the easiest one to say is probably the
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modeling one to to start off with and
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that was
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um
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i
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questioned why
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men weren't in the same position as the
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female supermodels and you had
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the equivalent of the the male super
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models at the time and you always have
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that but they were never to the you know
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to that level
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um
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of fame of you know sort of financial
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rewards of
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uh as as the female supermodels and i
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questioned that that was all and thought
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is there a possibility is there almost i
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suppose a gap in the market
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the first five years no one actually
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realizes that i really didn't do that
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much for the first five or six years it
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was you know
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of course we didn't struggle and it was
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a lot of
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um
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you know sort of catalog work earning
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really good money wasn't what i wanted
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to do but i got to work
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with you know like sir chrissy turns and
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naomi campbell and those people and i
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literally just observed them and asked
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them questions
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and
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sort of got the answers i wanted and i
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all realized that it was a business for
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them
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they had great teams they had great
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agencies they had prs and pas it was run
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as a business and then you had the guys
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you know who were the top of the fashion
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that at the time it wasn't a business
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for them it was
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a lovely way of making a living and they
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were felt very fortunate to be there
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some of the time not even admitting that
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they were
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models they were in advertising or
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marketing as a lot of people used to say
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and i just used the female platform and
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i went to head of my agency tandy
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anderson
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and said
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i i don't want to do this commercial
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work anymore
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it doesn't satisfy me it's not when she
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said what do you want to do i said if
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i'm going to do this i want to be the
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best at it and she said right literally
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from tomorrow i've said this a million
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times you have to stop all that
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commercial work because we have to you
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have to be perceived then in a total
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different light to
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to get to where you want to be so every
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bit of that working i said wearing very
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good money i
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just quit everything we just we said no
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to all the campaign no to all the
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catalogues and she said to me like in a
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position you've got that's what most
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models are dreaming of earning what not
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dreaming of but that's you know they see
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you yours is an enviable position i said
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tan it's just not what i want to do i'm
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not happy doing it so to me i had
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nothing to lose because i would have
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carried on so we then started building
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up this other perception of me within
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the fashion industry not the catalog
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model not the commercial model but
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editorial a bit more sort of fashion
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based and that's when we
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instigated a meeting with dolce gabbana
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and that's how i did their campaign the
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campaign led to
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light blue and
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light blue was a to me a tick in the box
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for them to achieve what i wanted to
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achieve
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and it was
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phenomenal success and it still is
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but that was that was what i needed that
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was the platform pretty much from there
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and then we could put the team together
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to say
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where do you want to be in three years
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what and where's the next three years
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after that where do you want to achieve
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and i'm a big believer in having goals
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not always having to achieve them things
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change but i'm big believing having
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goals so you know
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roughly where you're where you want to
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end up at something and then game is a i
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always say sorry
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life is like a game of chess and you're
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moving pieces to get to that checkmate
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to where you want to be and often it
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diverts and you have to have different
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tactics but you you have to have that
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ambition to know
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the exact point to where you want to be
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of course when you get there and
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being a
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maybe an entrepreneur or typical person
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i am then i'm on to the next thing
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you're not particularly satisfied and
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you know i've achieved that so
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what's the next achievement where do you
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go from there what role do you think
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luck has played
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as you view your journey in hindsight
00:06:44
what role and you know everyone you know
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especially very successful people will
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always have a kind of different
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relationship with luck what role do you
00:06:50
think luck has played in
00:06:52
your
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journey and however you would define
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luck
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it annoys me if someone says or you're
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very lucky
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and i feel like i have to go on this
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statement go hang on let me just tell
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you about
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you haven't seen the hard work that's
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gone in there and i realize that it sort
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of gets you nowhere um so
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listen i
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was fortunate to be born like i am six
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foot two in the frame i have with
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the way i look and people perceive that
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as
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they the way they do and it's
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you can make money from that
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hugely fortunate
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but as you said before there are a lot
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of good looking people there are a lot
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of beautiful people i've admitted myself
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i go into my agency there are
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25 better looking guys on that board
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there are 50 better models i've just
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cast 10 of them for my brand they're my
00:07:45
they're better models than me they're
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better spokespeople than me i was
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fortunate to be in that position but
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then you
00:07:50
and say you make your own like you maybe
00:07:52
you do
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so every
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sort of
00:07:56
everything that people said well you're
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lucky to work with dolce gabbana and i
00:07:59
can say well let me tell you how this
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the story of how we went to meet dolce
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gabbana how we instigated that yeah that
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wasn't luck yeah it was strategy
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and
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it was
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not my i think at the time everyone's
00:08:12
going you are armani you are raffler in
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your mind you're afraid it was tandy
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anderson who said you are dolce gabbana
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you're adult shigebang i don't listen to
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anyone else you are deutsche it was her
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genius
00:08:22
that said and then sort of instigated
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this meeting with them
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and then
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through that and working with tandem
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working with select everything we've
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achieved
00:08:32
is strategy you know it's gone out it's
00:08:34
like think what do you want to achieve
00:08:35
what do you want to
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what's your goal
00:08:39
and it just it doesn't just happen yes
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there's certain opportunities that come
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around that people approach you
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but we approach a lot of people with
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ideas and we approach from people would
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love to do this yeah you know m s
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it was
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us who wanted
00:08:52
to do that collaboration
00:08:54
and i wanted to do it with one of the
00:08:57
biggest
00:08:58
british institutions everyone knows and
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everyone has a great thing i wanted to
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do with m s we had lots of different
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brands approach us
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we didn't do that we wanted to do it
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with m s
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and that again looked at we didn't start
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off by just doing a collaboration and
00:09:11
you know a huge deal it was i had to
00:09:14
model for two years with them prove that
00:09:16
i could still prove that i could work
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with m s
00:09:19
then we talk about collaboration then we
00:09:21
would move on and
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you know then they trusted me it didn't
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it's not a finger click you know it's
00:09:25
yeah it's it's it's because the way that
00:09:28
look um those moments the amazing
00:09:30
collaboration that amazing email that
00:09:32
comes out of nowhere in hindsight
00:09:34
because it appears to have come out of
00:09:36
nowhere um it always appears in
00:09:38
hindsight like look and i've got my own
00:09:40
story you know examples from my story
00:09:41
where when i was 18 19 years old i went
00:09:44
on linkedin and typed an investor the
00:09:45
first person that came up i emailed him
00:09:46
he invested in my company
00:09:48
people think you know they say you got
00:09:50
lucky right and i'm like well you know
00:09:52
again it's what to what you said about
00:09:53
the story well look at the email it was
00:09:55
sent at 3am and i shot on stage i'm like
00:09:57
and i then removed the timestamp and i'm
00:09:59
like i was up at 3am
00:10:01
thinking about emailing people so for me
00:10:03
action and what you describe there is
00:10:05
like that smart strategic work is just
00:10:06
increasing probability
00:10:08
that you know you might get what people
00:10:10
call luck and um
00:10:12
in that moment with dolce and kabana and
00:10:14
when when you form that partnership with
00:10:17
them how pivotal was that for you
00:10:20
and the trajectory of your career
00:10:23
in like real terms
00:10:25
light blue is the reason i'm here and i
00:10:28
you know the famous commercial
00:10:30
but again you could look back to that
00:10:31
when i came into modeling
00:10:34
the circle of the fashion world at that
00:10:36
stage of what was perceived as
00:10:38
fashionable was the small androgynous
00:10:41
skinny guy
00:10:43
now i'm
00:10:45
over six foot two i was quite skinny
00:10:47
when i came in but i built up and i just
00:10:48
got bigger and everyone else said
00:10:51
you need to get smaller you need to fit
00:10:53
in you need to you're too big you're
00:10:55
getting too big
00:10:58
but that's where i was happiest i wasn't
00:11:00
doing it for reading you i was always
00:11:02
playing sport i want to continue i
00:11:03
couldn't play sporting while so i was in
00:11:04
the gym and it was you know to have a
00:11:06
good physique and be healthy was the way
00:11:08
i was
00:11:09
happiest in my head in my well-being so
00:11:13
that's what i did and in a way i just
00:11:16
looked at the models and tyson becquers
00:11:18
and titan baloo and paul scoffer and all
00:11:20
these different people that were you
00:11:22
know the levi's guys
00:11:24
the famous levi's ads that we used to
00:11:26
used to look at and the raffler ring
00:11:27
guys i was like
00:11:28
they're all
00:11:29
big muscular classically handsome guys
00:11:32
and they were the biggest in the
00:11:33
industry so i just thought this has got
00:11:35
to come around at one point so when it
00:11:37
actually came around to that creative
00:11:39
for light blue
00:11:40
of course
00:11:41
there was a smaller pop because everyone
00:11:43
had followed each other yeah yeah yeah
00:11:45
and then there was me and we'd just done
00:11:47
the campaign with the auction gabbana
00:11:48
and then we went to and do light blue
00:11:50
but that the day it came out um it just
00:11:53
changed everything i mean literally
00:11:55
changed everything i hate when people
00:11:56
say that but it was went from that
00:11:58
campaign going out in the afternoon
00:12:01
phone not stopping
00:12:03
and i think i went to new york and
00:12:06
my agencies called up and just said
00:12:08
we've got telegraph the times the mirror
00:12:10
they all want to speak to they all want
00:12:12
to have an interview with you
00:12:14
and we didn't have pr's at that point
00:12:15
you know this was i was like okay
00:12:18
how does this work
00:12:20
um
00:12:21
very green about it all but exciting you
00:12:23
know so that that's that change
00:12:25
um so you're talking about lifestyle how
00:12:28
did your lifestyle change and i want to
00:12:30
know about like
00:12:31
how people treated you and friends and
00:12:33
you know romantic potential partners
00:12:36
when that that blows up for you the
00:12:37
phone doesn't stop ringing how does your
00:12:39
world shift from a like a very personal
00:12:41
perspective
00:12:43
friends have never changed
00:12:44
great
00:12:45
and we're still you know on all on
00:12:47
whatsapp groups and see each other i
00:12:49
don't see them as much they all live
00:12:50
closer together and
00:12:52
that's a shame really but it's just
00:12:53
never changed i get the absolute
00:12:56
roasting
00:12:57
roasting all the time i'm just an easy
00:12:59
target
00:13:00
yeah so you can just google my name on
00:13:03
so many pictures that get putting online
00:13:06
so and that's it you know it keeps you
00:13:08
and i love that no one takes themselves
00:13:10
too seriously and i think hopefully
00:13:12
that's what i didn't do too much as i
00:13:14
always said to people if models ever
00:13:16
come up to me now so what made you
00:13:18
different or how did what did you learn
00:13:19
i said i never believed my own hype it's
00:13:22
very easy once you see yourself in
00:13:24
articles and winning awards and
00:13:26
everyone's telling you how amazing you
00:13:27
are to to believe that but i i suppose i
00:13:30
never really did
00:13:31
do you have imposter syndrome yes yeah
00:13:34
yeah of course absolutely and what does
00:13:36
that mean in practical terms in your
00:13:37
mind and your thoughts
00:13:40
you're always waiting to be found out
00:13:42
i think there's the end of the day
00:13:44
you're always waiting for you know you
00:13:45
sort of go
00:13:46
okay all right come on if you've had a
00:13:48
really good inning
00:13:49
you've been 15 years in yeah you're
00:13:50
still thinking well 20 20 years later
00:13:52
we've had a good angst you know i'm
00:13:54
still thinking that today to be found up
00:13:56
you do that by putting yourself at risk
00:13:58
of something it's like
00:14:00
i suppose there's there is the risk and
00:14:02
reward so
00:14:04
everything i do there has to be a slight
00:14:06
risk
00:14:07
otherwise it's not sort of worth
00:14:09
i suppose me doing it so there's always
00:14:11
got to be that risk of failure
00:14:14
in many ways and i don't mind failure
00:14:16
i've learned more from failure than i
00:14:18
have from success to be honest and
00:14:20
that
00:14:21
risk element of
00:14:22
you know
00:14:23
vanity fair asking me to write an
00:14:25
article i mean i'm not a writer
00:14:28
to do that is scary but i won't have
00:14:30
anyone write it for me i have to do it
00:14:32
we're going back to the integrity thing
00:14:33
i have to do it
00:14:34
that goes for sort of the fashion game
00:14:36
to collaborating with brands to
00:14:38
investing
00:14:39
you know as you know it's you know it's
00:14:41
a risk there's an element of risk i take
00:14:44
into i suppose everything and i suppose
00:14:46
it makes life exciting what do you think
00:14:48
when you say be found out what's going
00:14:50
to be found out
00:14:53
what's that imposter voice saying is
00:14:54
going to be found out good question i
00:14:56
suppose
00:14:59
have you bitten off too much then you
00:15:01
can chew but no one can be as
00:15:03
as uh harsh a critic to me as i am
00:15:06
myself
00:15:07
i will beat myself up in something fail
00:15:09
as i will beat myself up if i don't do
00:15:12
the best job
00:15:13
um
00:15:14
so no one can affect me like that by
00:15:16
actually saying anything because i'm my
00:15:18
worst critic
00:15:19
so yeah that's a good point of what
00:15:21
someone you know what that voice is
00:15:22
going to say to me just a whisper of
00:15:24
doubt i guess
00:15:25
that may be
00:15:26
well the way that i typically think
00:15:28
about imposter syndrome or at least i've
00:15:29
seen it in my business and there's a
00:15:30
couple of like top level execs in my
00:15:32
business that talk about imposter
00:15:33
syndrome a lot and it sounds like um
00:15:37
yeah exactly what you described there
00:15:38
like biting off more than you can chew
00:15:40
and
00:15:40
are you really capable and experienced
00:15:43
enough to be at this level doing this
00:15:44
thing do you really have the skills yeah
00:15:47
there's other people that are smarter
00:15:48
and better and that have you know you
00:15:50
know won more awards or more you know
00:15:52
experienced something like that
00:15:55
there's also the side that and it's not
00:15:57
about money it's about success there's a
00:15:59
lot of people that actually don't
00:16:01
particularly want other people to do
00:16:03
well
00:16:04
and
00:16:05
most people
00:16:08
they will try to bring you down in many
00:16:11
ways and put doubts in your mind you
00:16:13
know it's like the sort of the
00:16:15
backhanded commentizer as i always sort
00:16:17
of call it it's it's hard for someone
00:16:19
and i
00:16:21
i've learned you know sort of that from
00:16:23
other people's comments and what they've
00:16:24
said to me and i'd make sure i never
00:16:26
ever do that and i always just encourage
00:16:29
people and if i can help i will help
00:16:30
them and that's probably where my
00:16:32
investments have come from in many ways
00:16:35
is i have had this opportunity and i
00:16:37
haven't borrowed a penny in my life to
00:16:39
get to where i was
00:16:41
you know i when i first went to new york
00:16:43
modeling i used to go around and
00:16:44
couldn't afford
00:16:46
to eating nice places so every time i'd
00:16:48
go on like castings i was walking around
00:16:49
all day and going to shoot i would then
00:16:51
go past a uh like a diner and they would
00:16:53
have a special deal on so it'd be like a
00:16:55
burger fry and something else for 5.95
00:16:57
and i'd write it down go i've got to
00:16:58
remember to come back here because it's
00:17:00
5.95 plus taxes like i suppose i can
00:17:02
have a beer and it might be ten dollars
00:17:04
that's where i used to have to think
00:17:05
because i just didn't didn't have
00:17:06
anything then
00:17:08
i've always wanted to then i think i'd
00:17:10
never really had any help but i would
00:17:11
like to help people talking about
00:17:13
helping them helping people and then
00:17:14
other people tearing people down with
00:17:16
female models i think we can all quite
00:17:19
easily believe how nasty comments would
00:17:21
affect them but there's something in in
00:17:23
i think the public perception or within
00:17:26
society where we think ah if you slag
00:17:29
off a male model if you criticize them
00:17:31
say nasty things about them well they'll
00:17:32
be fine if you go on twitter for example
00:17:34
it's totally okay just uh people will
00:17:36
tweet at pierce morgan all day saying
00:17:39
but the people would never do that to
00:17:41
well they would but it would be much it
00:17:43
would be considered much differently if
00:17:45
they were saying that to a woman i
00:17:47
believe that to be true so i guess my
00:17:49
ultimate question here ultimately is
00:17:50
like
00:17:51
have
00:17:53
strangers criticizing saying nasty
00:17:55
things on the internet about you how you
00:17:58
look or whatever has that
00:18:00
ever had a impact on you
00:18:04
in this business anyway if you haven't
00:18:06
got a thick skin
00:18:07
you shouldn't be in this game you've got
00:18:08
to have a thick skin and it's
00:18:10
what i understood and i've
00:18:13
probably only actually understood this
00:18:14
from having to cast myself for people to
00:18:17
represent my brand is that
00:18:20
you're not being horrible to someone
00:18:22
someone doesn't fit
00:18:24
what you have perceived in your head and
00:18:26
that could be for any reason whatsoever
00:18:29
um the attitude you bring into it the
00:18:31
charisma you come into that day on that
00:18:33
casting the way you look and it could be
00:18:35
anything that person is too skinny that
00:18:37
person's too tall that person is not big
00:18:39
you know anything
00:18:41
and you have to realize that when you
00:18:42
were
00:18:43
casting is they weren't it wasn't
00:18:45
personal it was almost business no you
00:18:48
just don't fit the creator that we want
00:18:50
at the moment that changes when you have
00:18:51
a name that change when you have a brand
00:18:52
because they're buying into your brand
00:18:53
they're buying into your engagement with
00:18:55
your fans that's different but when they
00:18:56
first look at you at face value
00:18:59
and there's different people you know
00:19:00
there's been castings where they're on
00:19:02
the phone they don't say anything to you
00:19:03
you put the book down they go through
00:19:05
two pages and they hand it back to you
00:19:08
now that is a bit demoralizing but hey
00:19:10
you know like i have always made sure i
00:19:12
might probably overcompensate that
00:19:13
because i've been on the other side of
00:19:15
you know casting casting other people
00:19:17
was i'd probably get there for too long
00:19:18
and just chatted and everything else
00:19:21
internet trolls though like someone on
00:19:23
instagram or in the edm's just
00:19:25
you post something and they just
00:19:28
no i'm very full i'm very fortunate that
00:19:30
my fan base which is a very organic fan
00:19:32
base actually on on social
00:19:35
are
00:19:37
massively kind
00:19:39
and positive and that's the way i've
00:19:41
always put social i'm not a big lover of
00:19:43
social media
00:19:44
i've stated it before i see the use of i
00:19:46
see the brilliance of it i also see the
00:19:48
negativity from especially for young
00:19:50
children i've spoken out about that
00:19:52
um
00:19:53
yes does that do things affect yeah of
00:19:56
course you'll probably know this is a
00:19:58
you might see a hundred comments
00:20:00
all positive
00:20:02
and then
00:20:03
101 comment 102 comment is negative and
00:20:06
you'll remember it you'll remember those
00:20:07
two comments so you can't remember the
00:20:09
other hundred that are positive and it's
00:20:11
a really weird thing
00:20:12
so
00:20:13
it's like dealing with people you deal
00:20:15
with the nice ones you don't deal with
00:20:16
the negativity
00:20:18
and
00:20:18
that's what we've tried to do really and
00:20:21
again another sort of social i guess um
00:20:24
not maybe stereotype but sort of
00:20:25
misunderstanding would be that someone
00:20:27
that is you know makes their career out
00:20:28
of modeling someone that's very you know
00:20:31
um attractive um like yourself um surely
00:20:35
they can't have
00:20:36
insecurities surely they realize that
00:20:38
they are you know
00:20:39
surely they can't have self doubts like
00:20:41
us muggles who had gq are yet to call
00:20:46
doesn't everyone have insecurities i
00:20:48
can't believe that you told me there's
00:20:49
not a person that doesn't have
00:20:50
insecurities do you have insecurities
00:20:52
yeah of course i do absolutely
00:20:55
physical insecurities of course they do
00:20:59
had you said something about your if
00:21:00
your nose and your your nose i know my
00:21:02
eyes got any bigger my nose my eyes got
00:21:04
any bigger which they do the only things
00:21:05
that came with like i just look like the
00:21:06
bfg
00:21:08
also i think
00:21:09
something that going back to the sort of
00:21:12
trolling
00:21:13
and
00:21:14
instagram there is this thing about age
00:21:17
now
00:21:18
age is used as a weapon you are so old
00:21:20
look at all your wrinkles it actually
00:21:22
sort of makes me laugh when people say
00:21:23
my god you like
00:21:25
that most people have positive comments
00:21:26
but they can say oh you're getting older
00:21:29
yeah everyone is i've been in this game
00:21:31
for 20 years if you're comparing an
00:21:33
image from 20 years ago i'm not going to
00:21:34
look the same but it's almost like
00:21:37
it's a negative thing
00:21:39
you know it's and that that's
00:21:41
i've noticed that increasing over the
00:21:43
last couple of years is this aged thing
00:21:45
is used as a weapon as if it's a bad
00:21:47
thing does that bother you
00:21:49
no
00:21:50
i always feel i've always been quite an
00:21:52
old man in a young young man's body
00:21:53
anyway
00:21:54
so
00:21:56
should i say mature but um
00:21:59
no you grow old
00:22:01
at the end of the day you grow a little
00:22:02
bit wiser you get a little bit you you
00:22:05
calm down a little bit more
00:22:06
and you you accept
00:22:08
yourself for who you are a little bit
00:22:10
more as well
00:22:11
20s and 30s 30s less but 20s can be
00:22:14
quite tricky for everyone i don't quite
00:22:16
know who you are you're trying to be
00:22:18
trying to find out where you are in the
00:22:20
world you then i think you get a bit
00:22:22
more confidence in your 30 and i that's
00:22:23
where my 30s sort of came from to why
00:22:26
are you trying to be something else or
00:22:27
trying to fit in
00:22:30
and i never fit in i've never fitted in
00:22:32
ever anywhere really particularly well
00:22:36
or felt i haven't particularly fitted in
00:22:38
you're in the fashion industry i've
00:22:40
never felt i fitted in i was telling um
00:22:43
a model the other day actually we were
00:22:44
working with
00:22:46
and we all used to go off to
00:22:49
new york
00:22:50
for this big
00:22:51
casting two weeks try and get the jobs
00:22:53
be with all the big agencies and you
00:22:55
would go and go in a group of probably
00:22:56
about 10 guys and you'd have a list back
00:22:59
in those days you would have a fax
00:23:00
believe it or not you didn't have mobile
00:23:01
phones it was a fact
00:23:03
so you got your fax in the morning you
00:23:04
had all your appointments 9 o'clock 10
00:23:06
o'clock 11 o'clock 12 o'clock all the
00:23:08
way through
00:23:09
everyone used to go down to the subway
00:23:12
or walk and we'll go together and
00:23:13
there's this very pack mentality
00:23:16
and i was never into that pacman tells
00:23:17
you it was quite always a
00:23:19
i'd say a much more sort of individual
00:23:20
sort of loner so i used to look at the
00:23:23
facts and i used to let them go around
00:23:24
the corner and i would vegetate upside
00:23:27
down and do the opposite way so those
00:23:30
nine guys would go to the nine o'clock
00:23:32
and i would go to the six o'clock and i
00:23:33
would just turn up the office and go hi
00:23:35
i'm i know i supposed to be here at nine
00:23:36
o'clock but is
00:23:38
john someone then because yeah yeah he's
00:23:39
here like can i see him
00:23:41
you take the opportunity where you got
00:23:42
imagine going through seeing nine guys
00:23:44
speaking to nine guys looking but by the
00:23:46
third person you're like
00:23:47
they're gonna be bored and you take the
00:23:50
opportunity so i did that all the way
00:23:51
around and that's why i did kind of all
00:23:53
the time it was thinking constantly of
00:23:55
like outside the box of doing something
00:23:57
different
00:23:58
yeah it's amazing how these small things
00:24:00
can create such significant like it's
00:24:01
such a marginal thing can create such a
00:24:04
big gain and most people are obviously
00:24:06
they don't even try and think outside of
00:24:08
the
00:24:09
script and so they end up you know
00:24:11
competing
00:24:13
in a very saturated way for a limited
00:24:15
amount of rewards but one slight
00:24:17
innovation in the process i think can
00:24:19
deliver such an exponential return you
00:24:21
know i hate i hate
00:24:23
powder i hate mixing powder with water i
00:24:26
hate protein powders that you have to
00:24:28
mix with water
00:24:29
up until now and um obviously he'll
00:24:32
sponsor this podcast so i'm tremendously
00:24:33
biased but that's a that's a true story
00:24:36
i've never been able to use the like my
00:24:37
protein powders that you mix with water
00:24:39
because i always think they taste
00:24:40
absolutely awful
00:24:41
up until huel released their brand new
00:24:43
protein flavor the amazing thing about
00:24:45
all of these proteins is there's 20
00:24:47
grams of protein you get all of your
00:24:48
vitamins and nutrients 26 of those and
00:24:52
as huel always is it's nutritionally
00:24:54
complete
00:24:55
and if you are someone that's trying to
00:24:57
go a little bit lower on the calories
00:24:58
it's only 105 calories so when i wake up
00:25:01
in the morning especially i've been
00:25:02
working out a lot lately come downstairs
00:25:04
quickly blend it together in my
00:25:06
nutribullet
00:25:07
drink it's 100 calories and then my next
00:25:09
sort of main meal because i'm a
00:25:11
breakfast skipper will be
00:25:12
at lunchtime highly recommend it um and
00:25:15
i shouldn't say this because i don't
00:25:16
have any
00:25:17
approval to say this but there's some
00:25:19
amazing amazing flavors coming in the
00:25:21
ready to drink range that i've been
00:25:22
lucky enough to try
00:25:23
um and one of those is my new favorite
00:25:26
flavor so stay tuned
00:25:28
in the industry of modeling one thing
00:25:30
that
00:25:32
i think is probably i don't have any
00:25:34
data to support this claim but i think
00:25:36
it's probably rife because of the nature
00:25:38
of the business and what i know about
00:25:40
the subject of mental health and mental
00:25:41
well-being is anxiety
00:25:44
and i i just i've just seen amongst my
00:25:47
friends um
00:25:49
the women that i know that model
00:25:51
high levels of anxiety um for a variety
00:25:54
of reasons um have you ever suffered
00:25:56
with anxiety yourself
00:25:58
at any point in your career
00:26:03
i'm naturally a shy person
00:26:05
but shyness is not anxiety
00:26:07
so i can't say i mean if i probably gave
00:26:09
someone symptoms of stuff i've had or
00:26:11
things that have happened they might say
00:26:12
well that's anxiety
00:26:14
my anxiety
00:26:16
if i still think of
00:26:18
now there's there's a weird thing of
00:26:20
when i hear
00:26:22
the music to the antiques roadshow on a
00:26:24
sunday night i still have anxiety that i
00:26:26
haven't done my homework
00:26:28
and i have to go to school the next day
00:26:30
that's how much i hated
00:26:33
didn't hate i hated school to a certain
00:26:35
point the sixth one was great with my
00:26:36
friends that i still have but that was
00:26:38
the point of
00:26:40
i still have that today when i hear that
00:26:42
music i literally stop and i'm like oh
00:26:44
you know
00:26:45
oh i don't have to go to school tomorrow
00:26:46
what was that about school i mean i was
00:26:48
i didn't fit in at school that was
00:26:50
basically it it wasn't
00:26:53
you know all good friends from that
00:26:54
school but it was just a certain time
00:26:56
before i kind of met those people
00:26:58
um the group of guys cycle and and girls
00:27:01
i used to you know
00:27:03
hang around with and there was bullying
00:27:04
and there was i just didn't fit in that
00:27:06
was all it was but you said you were
00:27:07
bullied in school primary school well
00:27:09
secondary school secondary school yeah
00:27:11
primary was primary was quite fun
00:27:13
enjoyed primary school secondary school
00:27:15
was just something different maybe went
00:27:16
to the wrong school maybe you made the
00:27:18
wrong choices it was me it wasn't i'm
00:27:19
not blaming anyone not blaming anything
00:27:21
it was just
00:27:23
and i was
00:27:25
quite steadfast i'm not fitting in i
00:27:26
didn't fit in particularly well
00:27:29
and i wasn't going to change my way of
00:27:30
fitting into everyone else in what way
00:27:32
didn't you fit in i just i just
00:27:36
a bit like the same night i i'm still
00:27:37
like it so i'm still in the fashion that
00:27:40
example of not being in that group not
00:27:43
not being that pack not doing the same
00:27:46
thing everyone does
00:27:47
exactly the same thing i didn't want to
00:27:49
be in but i saw things differently and
00:27:50
wanted to
00:27:52
do things my way
00:27:53
maybe that's it i mean
00:27:55
maybe it was doing something my way and
00:27:58
and i've always looked at that that goes
00:28:00
on for
00:28:01
that that can go into if you look and go
00:28:03
into styling it's like well no one's
00:28:04
wearing suits oh i'm going to wear suits
00:28:06
and
00:28:07
no one's
00:28:08
you know why don't you do this
00:28:10
it's like you know people still take me
00:28:11
at me because i do not own a pair of
00:28:13
sneakers or trainers
00:28:14
and the people like now everyone that's
00:28:17
all they're wearing
00:28:18
i
00:28:19
have one pair and i go to the gym with
00:28:20
them and i have a running pad but and
00:28:22
everyone sort of looks at you as if but
00:28:24
i love that fact you know it's just me
00:28:26
being a little bit different
00:28:28
but it it can also lead to you know
00:28:31
being a little bit stubborn that you
00:28:32
take that to a little bit far of not
00:28:34
ever relinquishing that you want to be
00:28:36
sort of different like all the time you
00:28:38
want to i don't know why you do it was
00:28:41
that physical but was that bullying
00:28:43
because of physical things they were
00:28:44
they were saying that you were
00:28:46
physically different what was physically
00:28:48
different no the way you know you
00:28:49
thought
00:28:51
maybe it was the way i thought if you
00:28:52
think about that now yeah it's just
00:28:54
because
00:28:56
in
00:28:57
i do find this
00:28:58
still now in the world that everyone
00:29:00
likes to pigeonhole everyone likes to
00:29:03
you are put in a certain category person
00:29:05
and if you don't fit in
00:29:08
then you're strange you're a strange
00:29:10
person why don't you like the same stuff
00:29:11
why don't you wear the same stuff as us
00:29:13
why don't you
00:29:14
think the same way that we think
00:29:16
of course it's now got to say very
00:29:17
polarized when we have different
00:29:20
opinions as they attack each other now
00:29:22
it's like it's either left or right
00:29:23
there's nowhere in the middle and
00:29:26
it was it was i think that element that
00:29:28
i've always just i suppose i've been got
00:29:30
an individual thinker in some ways which
00:29:32
kind of and that might put me in good
00:29:34
stead for the business we're in
00:29:36
um
00:29:37
but yeah the anxiety thing like maybe
00:29:39
it's
00:29:41
a confidence again when i was confident
00:29:44
into going something
00:29:45
i was absolutely fine i just wanted an
00:29:47
opportunity that was always what i want
00:29:49
to be able to
00:29:50
um you know people say why have you not
00:29:52
gone into acting why are you not i'm not
00:29:55
confident if there's anxiety give me a
00:29:57
script to learn and try and put me
00:29:59
in front of a camera and you'll see
00:30:01
that's where i'll probably be anxiety
00:30:03
although i've done that and i achieved
00:30:05
and i quite loved it so it was a scary
00:30:07
side of it but it's not something i'm
00:30:09
naturally
00:30:10
good at isn't that you know people would
00:30:12
people again talking about naivety right
00:30:15
people would never guess that
00:30:17
you would say you weren't confident
00:30:20
and it's almost like because you know
00:30:21
what the conversation had with ben fogle
00:30:22
you were just it was just not what you
00:30:24
would expect based on like stereotypes
00:30:26
one would expect you to be an extrovert
00:30:29
yeah you know super confident some kind
00:30:32
of you know very loud you know
00:30:34
braggadocious boisterous guy but you
00:30:37
appear to be the opposite of that and
00:30:39
especially the point of confidence
00:30:41
yeah i mean
00:30:43
i wouldn't say i've got a lack of
00:30:44
confidence there's a lack of confidence
00:30:46
where i think i know my limitations
00:30:47
maybe i want to but i also like pushing
00:30:50
those limitations to see where i can get
00:30:51
to and seeing what i can achieve and
00:30:53
learn
00:30:54
um
00:30:55
but the confidence i mean
00:30:58
gq awards
00:30:59
we went to two weeks ago
00:31:02
and
00:31:03
you sign up you're
00:31:05
i didn't get an invite but i got the red
00:31:07
i have to sort this out with gq
00:31:09
um
00:31:11
you're on the red carpet i've done it a
00:31:13
million times before there's still dread
00:31:16
filled like i'm filled with dread to
00:31:17
getting on that red carpet and having
00:31:20
the pictures taken it's just not a
00:31:22
natural environment for me and i was
00:31:24
thrilled that there was a
00:31:26
you know a huge long queue because
00:31:28
everyone wanted to be on the red carpet
00:31:29
everyone wanted their picture taken
00:31:30
everyone wanted to be in the papers and
00:31:32
put it on their instagrams and i went
00:31:34
too long i'm not you know i'm going to
00:31:36
swerve that one
00:31:37
so i swerved it and went upstairs and
00:31:40
went into environment where i was much
00:31:41
happier where actually i needed to speak
00:31:43
to a few certain people for a few
00:31:45
certain reasons and went to go and
00:31:47
hunt them down and go and speak to them
00:31:48
what was it about what was the sort of
00:31:50
psychological discomfort you you
00:31:52
feel when you think about going on the
00:31:54
red carpet and doing that because you
00:31:56
described going upstairs to a place
00:31:58
where you were happier so what's the
00:31:59
unhappiness of the red carpet for you
00:32:04
it's just an unnatural environment for
00:32:06
me to be
00:32:07
when you're on set
00:32:09
when you're employed by a brand
00:32:12
to create what is in who is their vision
00:32:15
you're playing a role
00:32:17
like blue i'm a mediterranean guy in
00:32:19
italy and small white speedos it's not
00:32:21
me
00:32:22
it is me but it's it's there's a role
00:32:24
you're playing i know there's actors as
00:32:26
well i've spoken to them about they love
00:32:28
being in character but after those
00:32:30
characters they don't want the limelight
00:32:32
they don't want fame they don't want to
00:32:33
speak to anyone they don't want to do
00:32:34
press junkies they hate the red carpet
00:32:37
exactly the same so when you're on set
00:32:39
you're almost playing someone else
00:32:41
and there's an element as well of
00:32:45
there is
00:32:46
this david gandy and i talk about in a
00:32:48
third person because that's the brand
00:32:49
sometimes i have to talk about that's
00:32:51
the name
00:32:52
so you you
00:32:53
yes you are walking onto a set almost
00:32:55
being something else
00:32:57
not i'm acting any different
00:33:01
but and then there is and and the red
00:33:03
carpet is just not that environment i
00:33:05
can probably
00:33:07
hide behind
00:33:09
a character or hide behind a role or
00:33:11
something when i'm playing on that date
00:33:12
that's me
00:33:13
it's just not something it's strangely
00:33:15
weird training
00:33:18
yeah
00:33:19
my other half steph loves to go out and
00:33:21
love to go to events she gets
00:33:24
you know such a you know a buzz such
00:33:27
gets enthusiasm for it actually like you
00:33:29
know she didn't
00:33:30
and she honestly probably thought that
00:33:32
was me when we first met
00:33:34
i go to an event i'm drained from people
00:33:36
i'm i'm actually naturally a loner i
00:33:39
could you know
00:33:40
we sort of joked with steph when he
00:33:41
first met she would give me a silent
00:33:43
treatment and i was just like steph i'm
00:33:44
going to tell you know i'll win at this
00:33:46
game because
00:33:47
[Music]
00:33:48
i can go off i can go for days not
00:33:50
talking i'm used to it you know i prefer
00:33:53
it yeah i've traveled the you know i
00:33:55
travel the world don't speak to people
00:33:56
for days so um it was always kind of a
00:33:58
joke between us
00:33:59
so um
00:34:01
yeah i'm and then when you're naturally
00:34:03
the complete opposite of being
00:34:05
alone you know i love taking dogs to
00:34:07
work i love walking for hours and then
00:34:09
if i ever ever get sort of proper time
00:34:11
to do it
00:34:12
um with no one around me the exact
00:34:14
opposite of that
00:34:15
is the red carpet
00:34:17
to me
00:34:18
and your life has put you there because
00:34:20
of your success right
00:34:21
and you must get asked to go to red
00:34:23
carpets all the time and events like
00:34:26
that all the time yeah
00:34:28
and there's nothing
00:34:29
[Music]
00:34:30
the actual event
00:34:32
um
00:34:33
i mean again like presenting presenting
00:34:35
an award reading off an auto cue to
00:34:37
present it i mean i it's an honor to do
00:34:40
it i know it's not i know i have to do
00:34:42
it but the whole night
00:34:44
whenever you're presenting is me on that
00:34:46
table
00:34:47
not enjoying that evening because i know
00:34:48
there was one point i've got to go up
00:34:50
there and be in front of everyone and
00:34:52
i've done it a million times now and it
00:34:53
still doesn't get any easier it's very
00:34:55
very strange
00:34:57
but um
00:34:58
you know there you go it's easy to
00:34:59
accept award of course
00:35:01
that's very interesting
00:35:03
again again it's just a real i think for
00:35:04
most people it'd be a real surprise that
00:35:07
um someone who is very out there
00:35:11
visually
00:35:12
yeah no absolutely it makes no sense i
00:35:14
understand that myself i tell people it
00:35:16
makes no sense have you ever spoken to
00:35:17
like a therapist about that or anybody
00:35:19
about probably should do yeah
00:35:21
but no it'd probably be quite
00:35:22
interesting to know why i was and and
00:35:24
actually might help me
00:35:26
overcome some fears when it comes to my
00:35:28
anxiety and it does sound very strange
00:35:30
even when i say it makes no sense
00:35:33
um
00:35:34
and it's probably why
00:35:36
maybe i've
00:35:37
you know there's there's been sort of
00:35:39
striving for
00:35:41
not to be in front of the camera
00:35:42
especially with my own stuff is to be
00:35:43
being ob behind it you know i've been
00:35:45
creative director to quite a few brands
00:35:47
now on advisor and
00:35:49
i've gone and helped just been on so
00:35:52
many shoots so i just said i'll come on
00:35:53
as creative director i don't need to be
00:35:54
paid i just wanna i just love being that
00:35:56
creative element to it
00:35:58
gentleman's journal asked me in the raf
00:36:00
and braylon asked me to direct her raf
00:36:02
film loved it absolutely loved not i
00:36:05
wasn't in front and it was they were
00:36:06
like no no we want you to be in front of
00:36:08
me i was like absolutely not i'll direct
00:36:10
it not cast someone else for it who i
00:36:12
think is perfect for it because i'm not
00:36:14
perfect i'm not good enough for that you
00:36:15
know not good enough but i just don't
00:36:17
suit that role so i need someone else in
00:36:19
it again people look at me and go why
00:36:20
would you not want to put yourself in
00:36:22
that because i wasn't i'm not the right
00:36:24
part for it why
00:36:26
just because the concept i've come up
00:36:28
with in my head is not me
00:36:30
for that role i see someone else
00:36:32
it's it's casting you know it's it's
00:36:34
because you think of the greatest role
00:36:36
you know if you think top gun you think
00:36:38
tom cruise what if they had put someone
00:36:39
else in that would that been the success
00:36:42
it would be probably argue no you got
00:36:44
asked to do 50 shades of grey right i
00:36:46
got
00:36:47
it's a kind of a rumor i got i met the
00:36:50
uh met the author and she said we would
00:36:52
love to send you the script because
00:36:53
everything
00:36:54
and i think it might have got got sent
00:36:56
and i i i admit i'd never read the books
00:37:00
and
00:37:02
yeah
00:37:03
i mean they had they had i mean jamie
00:37:04
didn't you know jamie dornan
00:37:07
an awesome actor you know he was a model
00:37:09
i mean he was one you know he was one of
00:37:11
the biggest models
00:37:12
but he wanted to go into acting and he's
00:37:14
a great actor you know he's a very very
00:37:16
star and i there you know if i ever went
00:37:18
you know i won't go into acting but
00:37:20
looking at that i was like i'm not i
00:37:22
couldn't beat jamie
00:37:23
i couldn't be as good as that
00:37:25
he's very very good and then you look at
00:37:27
the other levels of
00:37:28
sort of uh of other actors and you just
00:37:30
think it's not something i was i could i
00:37:33
could learn i could you know sort of
00:37:35
learn to be quite getting it
00:37:37
but i but i could never even you know
00:37:39
be the best at it i also heard about
00:37:41
hercules 300 you were you're on yeah i
00:37:44
mean it's crosstalk i mean you're always
00:37:45
going to be
00:37:46
asked to do stuff like that just from
00:37:47
the physical element of
00:37:49
the way i look and
00:37:51
you know i'm going to be a part in it
00:37:53
but it wasn't anything i was
00:37:55
i've been you know and that i got my
00:37:58
being bonnet about the instagram in and
00:38:00
where what i wanted to achieve in this
00:38:02
so
00:38:04
there's there's always i said there's a
00:38:06
couple of roles that i would play and i
00:38:07
would drop everything to go and play it
00:38:10
and there's just a couple of stories
00:38:11
that i love i've even which ones
00:38:15
one of them is about winston churchill's
00:38:16
bodyguard
00:38:18
uh walter thompson i even found out who
00:38:21
owns the riots to the to it all
00:38:24
and just the most incredible story and
00:38:26
he was originally from epping in
00:38:28
essex
00:38:30
and
00:38:31
yeah winston churchill asked him to come
00:38:32
back in the second world war he used to
00:38:34
be his bodyguard then he stopped and he
00:38:35
came back
00:38:36
and just the most incredible diary you
00:38:39
mentioned the diaries of being winston
00:38:40
churchill's bodyguard wasn't easy yeah
00:38:42
of course fascinating because of course
00:38:45
winston churchill
00:38:46
that uh i can't whether they called his
00:38:49
episodes the black something or other
00:38:51
which we now probably know as bipolar
00:38:54
yeah you know and walter thompson was
00:38:56
the person that protected everyone or
00:38:58
protected him from everyone seeing that
00:39:00
wow so uh yeah just kept everyone away
00:39:03
from seeing
00:39:04
seeing those episodes that no one would
00:39:06
have realized
00:39:07
speaking of um mental health disorders
00:39:09
then um you've you know you're an
00:39:11
ambassador of a men's mental health
00:39:13
charity
00:39:14
we're working with yeah and we're also
00:39:15
working with calm and um
00:39:17
others for the new brand yeah oh amazing
00:39:19
and um your new brand has a
00:39:22
big sort of theme
00:39:24
around men's wellness
00:39:26
and um what does it what i guess the
00:39:28
question is why why did that matter to
00:39:30
you
00:39:30
and this is also why i asked the
00:39:32
question around anxiety because
00:39:34
for you to make it a kind of mental
00:39:36
well-being let's say a central part and
00:39:38
mental wellness are essential part of
00:39:40
your brand
00:39:41
and your mission
00:39:42
one would assume that you've had an
00:39:45
experience with it close to home because
00:39:47
i think
00:39:48
that's one way that people typically
00:39:50
generate a ton of empathy towards the
00:39:52
subject matter is feeling it feeling the
00:39:54
pain of it whether within themselves
00:39:56
within loved ones so what was it for you
00:39:57
that made you care so much about that
00:40:01
i've never suffered from depression
00:40:03
as when i'm very fortunate from as badly
00:40:06
as other people
00:40:07
have and i've witnessed it because i've
00:40:09
dated people
00:40:11
that were then diagnosed with bipolar
00:40:14
and i've seen the extremities of
00:40:18
mental
00:40:19
you know
00:40:20
mental health um
00:40:23
me myself
00:40:24
and i admit it's it's not happened for a
00:40:26
while would go into dark periods
00:40:30
knowing i would snap out of it
00:40:31
eventually
00:40:34
but they were dark but nothing would
00:40:36
nothing would suffice nothing would
00:40:38
cheer you up just
00:40:40
quite in a dark place wanting to be on
00:40:42
my own just not around anyone
00:40:46
wasn't triggered by anything
00:40:48
but just one day i just knew i'd wake up
00:40:49
and it was gone
00:40:51
just a chemical a chemical reaction in
00:40:52
your brains basically
00:40:54
what what it is
00:40:55
and yeah so i've i do understand and i
00:40:58
can spot it in other people as well what
00:41:00
were the symptoms of it for you those
00:41:02
dark periods
00:41:05
the symptoms as a as i said was was just
00:41:07
nothing would make you
00:41:09
you you couldn't snap out of it was
00:41:11
nothing could make you happy or cheerful
00:41:14
you
00:41:15
know you didn't like anyone you didn't
00:41:16
want to be around anyone
00:41:19
um
00:41:21
it's hard to
00:41:23
the feelings are hard to explain
00:41:25
and it was it never got to any point of
00:41:28
seriousness i mean i've seen people
00:41:29
bipolar that will be in a room
00:41:32
for hours on end for days on end
00:41:35
watching the same tv series because that
00:41:37
their safety is watching that tv series
00:41:39
and makes them a little bit happy you
00:41:41
know because of just that safety for
00:41:43
some reason so i've seen i've seen
00:41:46
the real dark side of it and
00:41:49
i've also
00:41:50
from me
00:41:52
dating someone like that
00:41:53
of how hard it is to deal with it
00:41:56
because you always want to try and make
00:41:57
that person better
00:42:00
and you can't in in many many ways
00:42:04
it's you can talk and you have to be you
00:42:07
know it's about just being patient
00:42:09
and listening to people
00:42:11
and trying to get them you know help
00:42:14
professional help there is an element we
00:42:15
you know
00:42:16
i i can only talk about certain around
00:42:18
the point and then it comes to an expert
00:42:20
help that that they have to talk and
00:42:22
that's what calm does you know it's it's
00:42:24
it's allowing people to talk to people
00:42:26
um and there are people that are far
00:42:28
better
00:42:29
people need to listen to people that's
00:42:30
that's the point of it i think there's a
00:42:32
lot of people who
00:42:34
even if
00:42:36
they are talking to people they're not
00:42:38
listening
00:42:39
fortunately
00:42:40
it's never been that bad but i do
00:42:42
understand it do you sleep well no i
00:42:45
heard you hadn't slept well for almost
00:42:47
two decades no never slept well i didn't
00:42:49
sleep when i was a child
00:42:51
but i did was the other way around went
00:42:52
to bed early got ups you know went to
00:42:54
bed you go to bed early and then my
00:42:56
parents just left me being the end i
00:42:57
think they were just so sick of trying
00:42:59
to get me to go to bed because i just
00:43:00
didn't sleep
00:43:02
and i would be doing my homework at
00:43:04
midnight one o'clock in the morning
00:43:06
i still work now i was up till two
00:43:08
o'clock in the morning working last
00:43:09
night and that's another thing when
00:43:11
people go it's grafting or hard work
00:43:13
most people seem a lot of people are
00:43:15
sitting down that half past eight nine
00:43:17
o'clock in front of a tv race go to bed
00:43:20
half past eight i'm going to the gym get
00:43:22
back up online do the shopping on the
00:43:23
way home cook myself some dinner go it
00:43:25
doesn't stop in between is
00:43:27
working on the phone
00:43:30
carrying on you know they'll you know
00:43:32
pop us 10 or open the laptop and get
00:43:33
them with some more work
00:43:35
if you're always grafting as you call it
00:43:37
and it's and you said it doesn't stop
00:43:40
how does one
00:43:41
become happy if they're always striving
00:43:43
if they're always in the future or
00:43:44
did stop jim pandemic
00:43:46
you so you sorry it did stop during the
00:43:48
power during lockdown right yeah you
00:43:50
couldn't my my
00:43:52
behalf the business is my business the
00:43:54
modelling is traveling pretty much at
00:43:56
the end of the day you have to be in
00:43:57
locations
00:43:59
yeah it made you happy when it all
00:44:00
stopped
00:44:01
to financial
00:44:03
you know it affected me financially yeah
00:44:05
and we'd already been infected quite
00:44:07
heavily in this industry by
00:44:09
um you know say the brexit isn't it
00:44:13
the blame of brexit now
00:44:16
it was the uncertainty of brexit so a
00:44:18
lot of brands were not spending money
00:44:20
not marketing money not having not
00:44:22
having budgets
00:44:24
not working with the uk all this stuff
00:44:25
different things also on certain brands
00:44:28
with social media
00:44:29
now of
00:44:30
old school campaigns versus digital
00:44:32
which still hasn't quite fizzled out yet
00:44:34
they don't brands don't quite know where
00:44:36
they are within the marketing world on
00:44:38
how to how to market to people how to
00:44:40
target people so
00:44:42
it's been affected by it
00:44:43
and
00:44:45
you know that all kind of brexit
00:44:48
got signed january whole different world
00:44:50
it was sort of that december january of
00:44:53
what 2020. i was off to milan i was then
00:44:56
going to spain i was then going to
00:44:58
greece i was then going to new york i
00:44:59
was saying back to well i had the
00:45:01
schedule like it used to be going off
00:45:03
out to russia and i've been to russia
00:45:04
was really excited about going to russia
00:45:05
for the first time
00:45:07
in the pandemic yet
00:45:08
everything got cancelled
00:45:10
and you're saying you were happier
00:45:11
during the pandemic probably shouldn't
00:45:13
have been it's not unfortunate i'm very
00:45:15
very fortunate and the fact is that yes
00:45:18
it affected
00:45:20
me financially
00:45:22
but it slowed you down i've invested
00:45:23
well and i've you know it
00:45:27
there's reserves to yeah yeah point this
00:45:29
out but um nice card collection yeah
00:45:33
exactly that's an expensive thing to be
00:45:34
honest um
00:45:36
there's a time probably the only time i
00:45:38
actually probably truly switch off and
00:45:39
there's a week between christmas and new
00:45:40
year
00:45:41
and that's when everyone i mean everyone
00:45:43
virtually everyone
00:45:44
is
00:45:45
not doing anything during that week yeah
00:45:47
and that's a week where
00:45:48
i probably switch off the most
00:45:51
and we always sort of go away a week
00:45:52
later after that because because it
00:45:54
takes time for people to get back and
00:45:57
i suppose there's it's not fear of
00:45:58
missing out it's fear of other people
00:46:00
working and i'm not working i should
00:46:01
always be working and during the
00:46:03
pandemic no one was working how can you
00:46:06
how can how can one be happy with with
00:46:09
their brain saying those things that
00:46:11
that kind of constant nagging to be
00:46:13
doing something or doing more or to be
00:46:15
striving how can that sounds like the
00:46:18
the thief of happiness to me the thief
00:46:20
of happiness that's a good i should be a
00:46:21
book
00:46:22
um probably is
00:46:24
listen i haven't got the answers to that
00:46:27
would you consider yourself to be a
00:46:28
happy person
00:46:31
a positive person
00:46:33
why did you avoid the word happiness i
00:46:34
don't know
00:46:36
completely honest that's something you'd
00:46:37
probably have to ask her
00:46:39
ask a psychologist i don't know happy
00:46:41
person
00:46:42
i'm a positive person and i suppose i am
00:46:45
a happy person in many ways
00:46:47
yes that's right but i so it's just a
00:46:48
definition of what's positive what's
00:46:50
happening is it all the same thing
00:46:51
so in many ways in what ways do you
00:46:54
think you might not be a happy person
00:47:00
again good question i i mean
00:47:02
i am
00:47:04
i'm happy
00:47:04
[Music]
00:47:06
i put myself listen when
00:47:08
i'm in control of what i do now
00:47:11
that's why i always wanted it
00:47:13
anybody my control fair i don't know
00:47:16
the hard work that's
00:47:18
where we've got to has allowed me now to
00:47:21
to be in complete control of what my
00:47:23
destiny of what i want to do
00:47:25
if i want to renovating interiors huge
00:47:28
passion love doing it looks like a
00:47:30
nightmare hard work for other people but
00:47:32
i strive on it
00:47:34
renovating classic cars the same thing
00:47:36
as i said to you earlier
00:47:38
you're halfway through you think why am
00:47:39
i doing this why didn't i just buy a new
00:47:41
car or you know a new
00:47:44
bui the
00:47:46
accomplishment is worth it to me
00:47:49
you know that sense of achievement
00:47:50
that's what i'm striving for
00:47:52
does it ever feel as good when you get
00:47:53
there
00:47:55
yeah it does not for that long but it
00:47:56
does
00:47:57
i can take this
00:47:59
couple of days
00:48:05
yeah it's it's the same feeling as
00:48:09
you know when we if we're going to shoot
00:48:10
light blue or something else and
00:48:12
you have to work hard
00:48:14
you know in the gym to get i'm always in
00:48:17
pretty decent shape but that's
00:48:19
hard work to get in that shape and it's
00:48:21
getting harder the older i get
00:48:24
and
00:48:25
you dedicate a lot and you sacrifice a
00:48:28
lot to
00:48:29
look like that
00:48:30
and then there is that point of we've
00:48:32
shot it we've seen through the pitch it
00:48:34
looks incredible you've achieved it and
00:48:37
there is this
00:48:39
evening
00:48:40
of enjoying that
00:48:42
it's then on to the next thing you know
00:48:43
it's what are we working on not next but
00:48:45
you know one of the other projects that
00:48:47
i'm working on at the time
00:48:49
do you have you found that in your
00:48:50
career
00:48:52
dark episodes where you're where you
00:48:54
feel down sometimes follow high episodes
00:48:58
because there's this really fascinating
00:48:59
thing that i was reading about about
00:49:00
gold medal depression where up to 80 of
00:49:03
um olympians regardless of outcome
00:49:05
regardless of whether they win or they
00:49:06
don't come back from the olympics after
00:49:08
training all of that excruciating effort
00:49:10
and they come back and 80 percent of
00:49:12
them report sort of depressive symptoms
00:49:14
i've read that i don't know where i was
00:49:17
i don't know where i've read that i've
00:49:18
read the same thing and i could actually
00:49:20
resonate with that in in many ways
00:49:23
sometimes actually achieving what what
00:49:25
you want is
00:49:27
a bit it's sometimes the journey is the
00:49:29
exciting bit
00:49:31
which is a weird thing to say
00:49:33
it's we are on this journey of well
00:49:35
where david ghani the brand at the
00:49:37
moment and it is
00:49:39
so much hard work
00:49:41
um tell me about that
00:49:44
that whole inspiration the journey why
00:49:48
why the brand yeah
00:49:51
because it was what i've wanted to
00:49:53
achieve for so long
00:49:55
is have that to me to have your own
00:49:58
brand and i didn't know what it was
00:50:00
going to be
00:50:01
i am a brand you know that's i say that
00:50:03
and it makes me sound like a bit of a
00:50:04
dick no but you are but it is a brand
00:50:06
and that's where people have to realize
00:50:08
you know when i say only sometimes
00:50:10
that that's and then
00:50:13
i would probably say it's 10 years i've
00:50:15
thought yes that's where one day i'd
00:50:18
like to not saying i'm always going to
00:50:19
achieve it but yes from the creative
00:50:21
side to being in control of that brand
00:50:23
i'm always in control from
00:50:25
by other brands even if i'm
00:50:26
collaborating with a brand there is
00:50:29
still an element of control that
00:50:31
that brand has
00:50:33
and
00:50:34
i always thought yeah to be in complete
00:50:36
control complete creative control and
00:50:38
that's a risk i never wanted people to
00:50:40
think because i have a name because i've
00:50:42
been in the fashion industry for so long
00:50:43
i could start a brand now people do now
00:50:46
you know they use social media
00:50:48
one of the one of those elements is you
00:50:50
can start something you can sell it
00:50:51
immediately you've got
00:50:52
fans followers buyers
00:50:54
it's made the marketplace a very
00:50:56
different place so i went back to really
00:50:59
what i did for modeling observation
00:51:01
putting myself in
00:51:03
the situation where i could learn and
00:51:04
that was m s
00:51:06
the collaboration with m s we saw the
00:51:08
david gandy loungewear no one was doing
00:51:10
loungewear this was
00:51:12
what are we talking about the concept
00:51:14
it was about six seven seven and a half
00:51:16
years ago seven years ago lounge lounge
00:51:18
where it wasn't a big concept it wasn't
00:51:20
it wasn't something that people thought
00:51:21
about um and of course we did sleepwear
00:51:24
and t-shirts and everything else but it
00:51:25
was loungewear that really took off and
00:51:27
became the third biggest lounge in the
00:51:28
country and was successful
00:51:31
and it had
00:51:32
you know
00:51:34
60 to me in that brand as in what i
00:51:37
wanted to achieve on that brand but of
00:51:39
course you couldn't get that last 40
00:51:40
because that was mns and i knew where i
00:51:42
wanted to go i knew what needed to be
00:51:44
done
00:51:45
but i couldn't
00:51:47
push it any further than i sort of could
00:51:48
so that ended and then the pandemic
00:51:52
hit and and locked down
00:51:54
and one of my greatest friends charlie t
00:51:56
who has listened to me
00:51:59
talk far too long about wanting to start
00:52:01
my own thing and
00:52:02
he started his own branding
00:52:05
agency
00:52:07
to do exactly what i wanted
00:52:09
and he said well listen i've started
00:52:11
this now you can be our first client but
00:52:14
we're not talking about this anymore
00:52:16
we've got the time i've you know as my
00:52:19
best friend who knows i'm never really
00:52:20
around it's i've got you here
00:52:22
we work together i've gone i've got you
00:52:23
in the country we've got time let's
00:52:25
start it what's your long-term vision
00:52:27
then for
00:52:28
well where
00:52:30
what's that what's the term what's it
00:52:31
gonna become five ten years from now
00:52:34
i'd never really tell people where i've
00:52:36
got in my head where something is going
00:52:37
hopefully going to be and there are
00:52:39
small steps just you know to where we
00:52:41
haven't even you know properly launched
00:52:42
yeah yeah the first ship and goes out on
00:52:45
22nd of october um
00:52:49
but we wanted to do something different
00:52:50
with well where we wanted to
00:52:52
to the essence of me it was
00:52:55
understanding and we're calling it sort
00:52:58
of well we're well-being
00:53:00
why clothing why does some clothing make
00:53:03
you feel positive and confident
00:53:06
why do some not
00:53:07
and we looked at
00:53:09
we the studies done by amsterdam
00:53:12
university and i think it was a
00:53:13
scientific you know element of
00:53:16
if we put
00:53:17
students in comfortable confident
00:53:19
clothing they're confident that's
00:53:21
comfortable and soft their results are
00:53:23
better than other people who are in
00:53:25
uncomfortable clothing and they don't
00:53:27
feel as confident at all that's going in
00:53:29
the same with business
00:53:30
it was now why the banks the big banks
00:53:32
are saying you don't have to wear suits
00:53:34
anymore because actually a lot of people
00:53:35
are more positive they're a lot more
00:53:37
open to work with they're a lot calmer
00:53:40
it's oxytonin it's the same thing as
00:53:42
feeling
00:53:43
the ridiculously you know soft pillow or
00:53:45
puppy that softness that soft jumper
00:53:48
can't you know that that thing you hold
00:53:50
on to is oxitone it's released into your
00:53:52
brain it's a positive positive move and
00:53:54
that's what we wanted to do with and we
00:53:56
looked into this and
00:53:58
you know there was a side to me that was
00:53:59
fascinated by the element of it but i've
00:54:02
always wondered why do i
00:54:04
why do i hold on to that pair of jeans
00:54:06
until
00:54:07
my ass is falling out the end of it and
00:54:09
i would try and find that pair again
00:54:11
when i can't find that pair
00:54:13
and
00:54:14
why am i wearing those sweatshirts
00:54:16
because
00:54:16
well it was
00:54:18
one for comfort and that is an element
00:54:20
of lots of things in the materials
00:54:22
the breathability the style you still
00:54:26
gotta look stylish in it it makes you
00:54:27
feel confident the fit
00:54:30
that's why at the end of the day
00:54:32
that's why it was never to me about
00:54:34
being trendy it was being confident and
00:54:37
so many guys said to me
00:54:39
what do i do what do i wear here what
00:54:40
are you confident in
00:54:42
and then we've thought about every
00:54:44
element
00:54:45
of the sweatshirts and the hoodies and
00:54:47
the t-shirts of comfort level of style
00:54:50
of fit of quality of well-wear breathe
00:54:53
well wear care we've
00:54:56
put these elements into um
00:54:58
they're washed into the clothing that is
00:55:00
aloe vera so pyjamas are moisturizing
00:55:02
you whilst your sleep anti-inflammatory
00:55:04
we've got well-wear breathe and you know
00:55:06
sort of anti-bacterial elements of it
00:55:08
which is
00:55:09
another element of
00:55:12
we're looking at fast fashion
00:55:14
fast fashion can be an addiction and
00:55:17
people don't realize this addiction
00:55:19
that you get a buzz from shopping but
00:55:22
actually you can be
00:55:23
hugely affected knowing the impact of
00:55:25
fast fashion on the environment actually
00:55:28
when that clothing lasts a week
00:55:30
two weeks i was exaggerating it last you
00:55:32
know but it can do some some people wear
00:55:34
it once and chuck it away yeah it's
00:55:36
actually it can negatively impact you
00:55:40
okay so there's a new
00:55:41
segment to this podcast we do
00:55:44
what we do is we ask our previous guest
00:55:46
to leave a question for our next guest
00:55:49
and um i've not read this question yet
00:55:51
but i've just read it then as i said
00:55:52
this um so i'm going to ask you this
00:55:54
question asked by someone that was sat
00:55:55
in this the chair before you okay
00:55:58
they told me to ask you
00:56:00
what do you promise to do
00:56:02
to make our world a better place
00:56:05
okay can i have an easier question
00:56:08
let me hit this right yeah yeah two
00:56:10
weeks before yeah
00:56:12
just uh yeah let's let's take it back to
00:56:15
hopefully
00:56:16
promise to do um
00:56:18
there's a number of things i do for
00:56:19
number charities but we won't talk about
00:56:21
that and they're not promises but i
00:56:22
suppose the promises from well where to
00:56:24
make people smile yeah
00:56:26
to bring to bring back some
00:56:28
the positivity that i think is needed
00:56:31
somewhere and i think we're with in this
00:56:34
polarized world that we are in
00:56:36
is just to
00:56:37
say [ __ ] it we're just going to make
00:56:39
people smile
00:56:40
and and and have a laugh with everything
00:56:42
that we do and and i think you uh you
00:56:45
can't put a magic value on that so
00:56:46
that's what i promised to try and do
00:56:48
over the years of well we're perfect
00:56:50
amazing thank you so much and you're
00:56:52
gonna have to write in the book now as
00:56:53
well okay a question for someone else
00:56:54
but listen david thank you so much for
00:56:56
your time it's such an incredibly
00:56:58
inspiring and twisting story of yours
00:57:00
and to see where you are now and taking
00:57:02
on this this next adventure in business
00:57:04
i find incredibly exciting the
00:57:05
entrepreneur me is fascinated by by that
00:57:08
and i understand the challenge of that
00:57:10
so
00:57:10
yeah well thank you for having me
00:57:13
i wish i could have yeah you put out
00:57:14
some good some good questions i probably
00:57:16
might need to no i could answer that's
00:57:18
what i think i want to do i just always
00:57:19
want to pry but i pry because i'm
00:57:21
curious and because i'm like fascinated
00:57:22
by those topics myself it's like there's
00:57:24
nothing written down here that's telling
00:57:25
me to speak on those terms but yeah it's
00:57:28
so fascinating and you also your level
00:57:30
of self-awareness i think is just really
00:57:31
inspiring for a lot of people
00:57:33
i i think it's something it's just
00:57:35
there's a therapeutic thing to
00:57:37
talking of course i mean men don't do it
00:57:38
we're useless um
00:57:41
that's mental health they wanted to know
00:57:42
is people asking you talking yeah that's
00:57:44
what i'm saying a lot of people don't
00:57:45
actually listen yeah um a lot of talking
00:57:48
about yourself a lot of people talking
00:57:49
about themselves at the moment so
00:57:51
there's a therapeutic side to this yeah
00:57:53
exactly for me as well you know that's
00:57:55
what that's actually how it started it
00:57:56
was like it was like therapy for me
00:57:57
because i was doing on my own going
00:57:58
through my diary and just you know but
00:58:00
um it's it's honestly amazing and thank
00:58:02
you so much for giving us that story
00:58:03
because it's um such an inspiring one
00:58:05
thank you thank you
00:58:07
quick one as you probably know by now
00:58:09
i'm trying to make my life a little bit
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more sustainable and i consider myself
00:58:11
to be on a bit of a sustainability
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journey in the same way that i'm on a
00:58:14
health journey and it's a privilege to
00:58:16
be able to share that with all of you
00:58:17
and you you'll know if you've listened
00:58:19
to the last podcast that i traded in my
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range over sport in for an electric
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00:58:24
next year hopefully i'll have my
00:58:26
electric car too if tesla hurry up with
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you
