The extraordinary story of Johann Ilgenfritz CEO & Founder of UK HEALTH RADIO NETWORK LIMITED, 13 years on from surviving a terminal cancer diagnosis, with the power to #reframe his health diagnosis as a 'Health Opportunity' now informing absolutely everything that he does in helping others in all aspects of health, at the helm of the "World's Number 1 Talk Health Radio Station".
It is my absolute privilege to be a fellow Presenter on his network.
When life throws you curveballs, how do you swing back? Join me, Chris Grimes, as I sit down with the indomitable Johann Ilgenfritz, a man whose conquest over heartache and illness is just as captivating as his rise to the helm of UK Health Radio. Tune in to our heart-to-heart as we navigate through Johann's remarkable tale of resilience, from his martial arts discipline and art school creativity to his steadfast approach in battling cancer and prioritizing well-being.
Embark on a sensory-rich excursion through the corners of Johann's mind, where a cactus garden in Ibiza offers him solace, and solitary runs foster a meditative state crucial for his inner peace. Our conversation meanders through life's unexpected joys and the quirky disruptions that keep our perspectives fresh. We laugh over playful nuances and take a whimsical detour through his past 'quirky fact' that he was a Yo-Yo Champion – an odd skill rooted in the adaptability and ambidexterity of youth – and we emerge with renewed appreciation for the unscripted moments that colour our existence.
As the episode unfolds, we delve into the essence of legacy and the profound impact of storytelling. Johann reflects on the artful journey that is "The Good Listening To Show", from its meticulously structured flow to the resonant experiences it evokes for listeners. With a nod to the golden baton of life's theatre, we leave you pondering: How will you act on the stage set before you, and what legacy will you craft from the role you play?
You can also Watch/Listen to Johann's wonderful episode here:
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/915532615
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
The extraordinary story of Johann Ilgenfritz CEO & Founder of UK HEALTH RADIO NETWORK LIMITED, 13 years on from surviving a terminal cancer diagnosis, with the power to #reframe his health diagnosis as a 'Health Opportunity' now informing absolutely everything that he does in helping others in all aspects of health, at the helm of the "World's Number 1 Talk Health Radio Station".
It is my absolute privilege to be a fellow Presenter on his network.
When life throws you curveballs, how do you swing back? Join me, Chris Grimes, as I sit down with the indomitable Johann Ilgenfritz, a man whose conquest over heartache and illness is just as captivating as his rise to the helm of UK Health Radio. Tune in to our heart-to-heart as we navigate through Johann's remarkable tale of resilience, from his martial arts discipline and art school creativity to his steadfast approach in battling cancer and prioritizing well-being.
Embark on a sensory-rich excursion through the corners of Johann's mind, where a cactus garden in Ibiza offers him solace, and solitary runs foster a meditative state crucial for his inner peace. Our conversation meanders through life's unexpected joys and the quirky disruptions that keep our perspectives fresh. We laugh over playful nuances and take a whimsical detour through his past 'quirky fact' that he was a Yo-Yo Champion – an odd skill rooted in the adaptability and ambidexterity of youth – and we emerge with renewed appreciation for the unscripted moments that colour our existence.
As the episode unfolds, we delve into the essence of legacy and the profound impact of storytelling. Johann reflects on the artful journey that is "The Good Listening To Show", from its meticulously structured flow to the resonant experiences it evokes for listeners. With a nod to the golden baton of life's theatre, we leave you pondering: How will you act on the stage set before you, and what legacy will you craft from the role you play?
You can also Watch/Listen to Johann's wonderful episode here:
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/915532615
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5-4-3-2-1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably here? Then we shall begin here we have it. Good morning LinkedIn. An auspicious red letter day here in the Good Listening To Show clearing.
Chris Grimes:I'm delighted to welcome back, for his second pass through the clearing, johann Ilgenfritz, a man to whom I am incredibly grateful because the story we're about to tell is he is the founder and CEO of UK Health Radio, which has, with its humble beginnings, now become the world's number one talk health radio. It started about 12, 13 years ago after a very critical incident or two that Johann had circa 2011. It started very humbly, with one presenter, one show two listeners to now having. I think it's close to 50 listeners now. It was 42 a few months ago, but I think you've extended the stable even more. But you've got 1.3 million listeners and growing 1.4 million listeners.
Chris Grimes:I said it was growing across 54 countries. Maybe there's more. This is your second pass through the clearing. We spoke to each other three years ago during the zombie apocalypse, as I like to call it, but we spoke in the January and then in June you very kindly took me on board as one of the new presenters on the show, so I'm incredibly grateful to you because it's now given me and this show its global platform and arena. I'm delighted to have you here. I'm Johann Ilgenpritz.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Thank you so much, Chris. A pleasure and an honor to be here with you again today.
Chris Grimes:Wonderful and, just to blow a bit of extra context at you, you can tell the story of this, but you had a heart attack in February 2011 on a tennis court. Luckily, you were playing a doctor, so is there a doctor? On the court? And then, before you could recover, long story short, in June of the same year, you then got a pretty catastrophic cancer diagnosis but that was 2011. And well, looking at you, how fantastic that you're the right way up and you've had an extraordinary journey. We'll get on to all of that, but it's a delight to have you here. So how's morale and what's your story of the day, johann Ilgenpritz?
Johann Ilgenfritz:Moral is excellent story of the day, but went for a wonderful run this morning in the rain. It was typical London rain beautiful, soft, cold rain and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Chris Grimes:Yes, and I know that you literally say about yourself. At 4am in the morning you bounce out of bed and normally you're scampering around the streets of London. You've also very, very recently done some wonderful charity work for a homeless and rough sleeping charity which you're raising money for, which I hope you'll also speak about. You'd slap-draft yourself to directly experience it. So rather than just empathizing, you can now directly sympathize.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yes, tremendous experience. Especially on my very early morning runs, as you've just mentioned, I see many, many people male, female and even very young people sleeping rough, and this has really given me an experience of actually what it feels like to really sleep rough. The only difference, of course, is it was one night and I had a very warm, very welcome home to go to back to, which made it easier. It wasn't easy. It's not an easy thing to do, I promise you. Even with all the feather, sleeping bags and preparation, we had to keep it real. We couldn't go there with blow-up mattresses and something like that, so we could take a sleeping bag, cardboard, plastic for covering. And it did rain as well, so luckily I had that there. But still it gave at least gave me an insight into the life of somebody that sleeps rough, that lives on the street, and it's catastrophic.
Chris Grimes:If I could, for lack of any other word. You are kindness personified, johan, in everything you're up to. I know that and feel incredibly warm towards you because of that. Also, in what you were just saying, you said we couldn't take X, we couldn't take Y. Were you doing it as a sort of group? So you even had the? You didn't have the extra dynamic, which I'm not wanting you to experience, but the sort of acute loneliness that goes with the isolation of sleeping rough, absolutely.
Johann Ilgenfritz:It was together with a charity that we did this. It's CEOs from companies that do this and that then, privately or through their company or both, raise as much money as possible to go to charities that help people that are homeless. I did it exactly because of that, because they talk you through it, they show you the charities that you will be supporting. You can even choose in which charity you want your money to go if I could put it that way or the money you had raised to go. And yeah it just a lot of charities, a lot of money gets lost along the way, but not in this one. In this one, really, it lands where it's needed.
Chris Grimes:And it's next level, corporate social responsibility, because it requires you to actually go and do it rather than just throw money at it.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Correct. Yes, it's called the CEO Sleepout and that's exactly what it is. Some of the money I raised there was a bit of my money in there as well just to get the it started up and going and moving forward. But yes, it's raising money, it's involving people, it's animating people to look, to think, etc. So that's why I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, because it was an experience that I probably wouldn't have had in my life.
Chris Grimes:So yeah, and there's a lovely parallel there between the fact you directly experienced your own cancer diagnosis to now be the CEO of the world's number one talk health radio, and I was very struck in the early days of researching you that you don't talk about it being a health crisis. You describe it as being a health opportunity, and your philosophy of carpe diem and seizing the day and actually galvanizing and trying to get better health advice was what got you going with UK Health Radio.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Correct it had. Of course, it was devastating when I got the first one. I always split them up into two because I had two diagnoses. The first one was just cancer, the second one was terminal cancer. But, yes, it turned into my life opportunity, the reason I'm here, that's what it turned into. It took me away from my previous job, which was a fashion photographer, and brought me to do UK Health Radio, which, as you mentioned earlier. I bounce out of bed at quarter to four in the mornings, cannot wait to start my day here, and it's changed my life completely.
Chris Grimes:So, yeah, Wonderful, and I know your wife, raffaella, is involved directly too. And you have UK Health Triangle magazine as well, which is another evolution of the wonderful channel and the health advice that it gives on a global level.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Correct. The Health Triangle magazine is a I wanted. I'm very unfortunate to be married to one of the best designers around. Literally. She's worked with people like Mario Garcia and all kinds of them, and I sold it to her as a newsletter. See what?
Chris Grimes:you did. They're good influencing skills.
Johann Ilgenfritz:And 120 issues later, the Health Triangle magazine has evolved into those absolutely beautiful, vibrant, no light, blue and gray. Like all other health magazines, this thing looks like a fashion magazine.
Chris Grimes:It's vibrant, it's positive, but it's only health, it's got, nothing else in there and I must say, by the way, I'm so, so grateful to you. I want to say it live on air that I'm grateful to you because you've given me the most glorious platform and I've sort of been treated by you as if I'm the equivalent of Desert Island Discs, but on UK Health Radio, where I do a show which is based in a clearing rather than a desert island, and with stories rather than music, which is what this is about. So let's get you on the open road of your second pass to the clearing. As we know, this is a dynamic format. Where should you be here?
Chris Grimes:Three years later, it's highly likely that your answers are going to be different, because the world has moved on since January, the 27th, circa 2021. We're now three years later. I'm also really struck by the way that this is the month February is your anniversary month, which is very profound as we record as another, yet another, year of survival, and I'm so delighted that we're here and, doing the math, that's 13 years ago that that first happened and here we are, and so you've survived terminal cancer. You are absolutely there, which is brilliant to see. Yeah, they gave me 12 months.
Johann Ilgenfritz:It's been, as you mentioned, almost 13 years.
Chris Grimes:Beautiful, so it's my great privilege to curate you through a clearing a tree. There'll be a juicy storytelling exercise, five or three to one. There'll be a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So it's all to play for. So where is what is a clearing for you, johanna Elgenfritz, your serious happy place? Where do you go to get clutter free, inspirational and able to think?
Johann Ilgenfritz:I actually have two ways of achieving that the focus. The first one is the focus one in the mind. I have this beautiful place where I go. It's actually a cactus garden. It's not all fantasy. I actually experienced this garden on Ibiza. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen or ever been in, and I made a visual 3D image of that garden in the time I was there. And I visit that garden often for for meditations, for peace and quiet, for silence, etc. The other part is actually more physical, but it's intertwined with the mind space thing as well. It is my running. I know I've mentioned it already today and I'll probably mention it again, but running has become such a massive part in my life. I don't run with music, I run only with myself. I don't run with other runners at all, except for my younger son who runs a little bit with me and then I go off. But it's actually become like an extension of my meditation, my mind time in my quiet time, in my cactus garden.
Chris Grimes:Oh, that's such a lovely answer, so rich, and I love the fact that it's a specific cactus garden in Ibiza in your head as you run. So, if I may, that's perfect. I'm now going to arrive with a tree, deliberately, existentially a bit waiting for Godo Esca, a bit becquity because of my acting background. I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. And this is where you've been kind enough, within your cactus escape running world, to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you.
Chris Grimes:Two things never fail to grab your attention, and that's where the random squirrels come in. You know what never fails to grab your attention, irrespective of anything else that's going on for you in your very hectic and very impressive life. And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about your Johann Ilgenfrist, founder, ceo of UK Health Radio. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. So it's not a memory test. I'll curate you through it as we go, but over to you to shake the canopy of your cactus tree as you see fit.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yeah, I think, well, let's start with the four things that shaped my life. Definitely, definitely the four things karate or martial arts, art school, going to visiting an art school, army and cancer. Those four things. So karate in the in the sense of I was a very, a very thin, very slight child and karate I started it at the age of nine and it just it really gave me what I needed. It gave me the self confidence, the physical exercise and everything else that I needed at that time. Let's put it that way it was. It was fantastic. I did it for 11 years. I have a black belt. What I still say? I have one. I haven't practiced karate for many, many years, but I earned it and I think back at that time very fondly.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I was. I was a national champion as well, so I think I got the most out of what a sport can give you. I got out of out of karate.
Chris Grimes:Your level and degree of self awareness pertaining to your physical presence is very profound, because I know you've healed from within and you've really done that and that that makes complete sense. I mean, you're you're, you're running prowess and you're disciplined within that and you know the health benefits of it. But also I'm just really impressed with the sort of Zen like capability to be physical, which obviously comes with being a black belt in a discipline like karate.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I do think it's helped me tremendously throughout my life. Discipline you know a lot of people see discipline as in the army, which of course it is, but there's many shapes and forms of discipline. It's getting up in the morning at quarter to four every morning to do what you need to do for that day. It's a lot of things. So, yes, definitely been far outweighs the ability to defend myself or it really does Far outweighs the discipline side of it, far outweighs that. And of course it's.
Johann Ilgenfritz:It's it animates you to succeed, to or to proceed. It's not always about succeeding, but to get to the next belt, the next level, etc, etc. So, yeah, it's, it's and it's sort of given my life a, a sort of like a blueprint on on how to you don't go from a white belt to a black belt, you go from a white belt to a yellow belt, to an orange belt, to a green belt, etc, etc. So it puts it into, into steps, if I could almost put it that way, and that's really helped me a lot as well, especially with the cancer and with UK Health Radio, in achieving some of the things I want to achieve.
Chris Grimes:And you talk about defense. The inner defense it's given you is the thing that's really really profound as well. So you say the ability. It's not about defending myself, but actually in inwardly, you've profoundly defended yourself, which is very, very commendable and impressive.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yeah, and then art school art school was. Art school was a blast. Yeah, Art school taught me to think and live outside of the box, which not many people experienced to the degree that I experienced it. The art school I attended at university was absolutely it. We could literally push boundaries until we were blue in the face, and then a bit more, even if we, if we had the inclination or the energy left so, and we did so. So that was, that was profound, that was. That was an amazing time and very, very, very necessary in my life at that stage as well. It's funny how things happen to you at somehow at the right time, boys, even though in retrospect you can see it's at the right time.
Chris Grimes:Yes, it's the joining the dots up backwards that, Mark, sorry that Steve Jobs very famously talked about how, when you look over your shoulder, you can join the dots up backwards and with the beauty of hindsight all makes sense. But the challenge is how to future focus, but carrying all that you are with you towards that future.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yeah, and then army, army taught me to survive inside a box, not live and think outside of it, but to survive inside of the box. I've always been a person that. It's. Not that I don't like being told what to do, but it's got to make sense to me what I'm being told and then I'll go, I'll, you know I'll, I'll go with it. But if people tell me to do things that don't make sense, I sort of say no, I don't feel like it. And of course you can't do that in the army. And that gave me. That taught me to live inside of that box and survive inside of a box without mentally, physically and spiritually, for that matter. At that stage I didn't realize that the spiritual and the mental side of it would help me further on. But even the physical side of it, yeah, it was. It was a hard but also very necessary time in my life.
Chris Grimes:Lovely answers. These are great shapeages.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Next one Well, the last one is probably the most profound, and that was my cancer cancer, the cancer DI being diagnosed with cancer.
Chris Grimes:I knew what you were trying to say, but I waited for you to do it.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I mean, it has fundamentally just changed everything. I started evaluating my own life, life as it is, life, and it just it's. You know, it brings you to a point where I was evaluating beliefs, even beliefs that I had created, beliefs that I had been given to parents, to friends, family, whatever, and it, just, it, just it, changed my life completely. I am literally a 180 degree person to what I used to be. It's, it's, it's probably.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I have a saying. I actually have a mantra, and part of the mantra is everything that happens happens for you. We just touched on it a bit earlier with Steve Jobs and everything with connecting the jobs, the dots, and it's unreal, if you actually believe what I've just said, everything that happens happens for you, even at the time when it's happening. You might not think so, but just if you evaluate it, if you wait, if you think and evaluate it, you will see why, or life will show you why that happened. But you have to be aware of it. You have to consciously wait for life to show you or your evaluation to show you why it's actually. It sounds easy Everything that happens happens for you, but it's a conscious state of mind that you have to be in for it to be a positive experience, very important.
Chris Grimes:That's so eloquently put. Wonderful Thank you. And now we're on to three things that inspire you, Johan.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Two things that inspire me. I think the first one, and really, really, really important one, is declutterization. Mentally and physically and actually I cannot function in clutter in any way, shape or form as if there's so many things distracting me from what I should be doing or thinking or achieving or trying to achieve or whatever that I just lose the plot altogether and immediately. It's not even a gradual process, it just happens.
Chris Grimes:That makes complete sense to your completely minimal stark background as well. Actually, it's really good. You're very sharp in focus, but it's nothing behind you. There's no clutter.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yes, it's slightly out of focus, but it's clean, it's serene and it's nice, and that's when I function the best. Let's put it that way.
Chris Grimes:I'm imagining a desk in front of you. Now. That's completely and utterly pristine, oh yes.
Johann Ilgenfritz:My wife Rafaela. She walks past sometimes and she moves my pens and my pencils and my stuff because I have them lying where they should be lying. And she'll walk past and she'll look at me and she'll just move the pen just out of a bit of fun.
Chris Grimes:It's a cat's ability to just swap something out of the way because it can. So Rafaela just comes and disrupts your world by cluttering your declutter.
Johann Ilgenfritz:And sometimes she even puts it back, which is never in the right place, but still it's a thought that counts.
Chris Grimes:You're giving some beautiful insights in there, which there is an adage where it's called being a bit I'm not calling you this, but you've got me comically into the idea of having a tight smith. It's called having a tight smith. And then the joke is only dogs can hear you fart because it's such a high frequency. But anyway, decluttering works for you and I commend you for that.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Decluttering is probably the one, but I've got two others as well. The one is they actually go together very well. Listening and learning. I love not being the smartest person in the room. I absolutely love it. I love sitting there almost invisible and listening and just learning from people. You can sit in a bus and learn things. It's unreal, it's unbelievable, it doesn't. When I say stuff like that, they always think corporate meetings or it's of course there as well. You, of course you can. But it's actually in life. And how people react to things and how.
Johann Ilgenfritz:The other day I was standing waiting for the bus and it was pouring down and there was this. It was full and there were many people and everybody was agitated and everything. And there was this beautiful old lady and she was so calm and everything. She was just so serene and she was the first one on the bus when it came. You could see she was so grateful for that bus, for that ride home. Even that showed me such a lot about her. So yeah, listening and learning is what I do. I love doing. I absolutely love doing it.
Chris Grimes:Beautiful answers as well, and I'm loving how different this is, and it'll be intriguing for us both and the audience to go and listen to your first pass through the cleaning, because this is just a complete gold revisited, which is great. Now we're on to two. What are your squirrels of distraction? This is borrowed from the film Up in my Head. It's like oh, squirrels, you know what never fails to grab your attention, irrespective of what else is going on for you. So what are your squirrels?
Johann Ilgenfritz:At the moment they do change. Well, the one never changes. And other stuff At the moment. My wife always inspires, always grabs my attention. It's unreal, whether it's her mind or her physical, physically it's. I've been married for 31 years and she still takes my breath away sometimes. And the other thing is the colour orange at the moment.
Chris Grimes:My wife is a squirrel and the colour orange.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Please don't ask me. I have this thing about orange at the moment.
Chris Grimes:Orange is the new black orange. That's such a lovely answer because there's such a sense of. There's a poem, I think it's by Brian Patton, which is about you ask because I gave you an orange, is the punchline of it. So if you Google that, I'll send it to you. I'll send you the orange poem. Wonderful, and now a quirky, unusual fact about you. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us, apart from the fact you're very particular about how your desk is organised.
Johann Ilgenfritz:This one. I actually thought it came up in a discussion a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't thought of it for many, many, many years. I used to be a yo-yo champion when I was younger, and the reason I actually became a champion was I'm fully ambidextrous, so everything that the other people could do with one hand, I could do with both at the same time. Why and that's why I became a yo-yo champion- and that gives you a straight credit of yo-yo-yo-yo head. Yo-yo.
Chris Grimes:And ambidextrous. Is that part of the acumen of karate as well, that you were able to do everything ambidextrously?
Johann Ilgenfritz:I don't think it's a contributor to that. I've always been able. I was actually. This is actually a very strange story. I was actually left-handed, but in my first and second year of school I was forced to sit on my left hand and write with my right hand.
Chris Grimes:Ah, old-school teaching of almost beating it out of you to be right-handed. Yes, Correct.
Johann Ilgenfritz:And even that, as I said, everything that happens happens for you. Even that has made me a yo-yo champion, because I learned to use both hands equally. I can write, I can do everything with both hands actually, not everything to the same extent, of course.
Chris Grimes:For example, tennis, I mainly serve with my right hand, not with my left, but everything else, is yeah, I love the fact that if you're losing slightly, you go, and now I'll use my other hand and then the game changes. It does confuse people sometimes, but we've shared our love of tennis. I must give you a game sometime. Tennis got me through the pandemic. The idea of being able to twonk a ball about was fantastic. It was a comedy moment when even Well, it wasn't a comic, but the story was that even tennis got banned for a while the idea that you were 20 feet away and there couldn't be anything safer during COVID.
Chris Grimes:But then there was this sudden fear in society that we were actually tonking virus balls at each other. And then I had this very comedy moment when I came out of the house and a neighbour said you are sanitising your balls, aren't you? And I went I'll sanitise your balls in a moment. And there was a comedy couple of weeks where I was actually going er and dishwashing my balls between matches. I mean, that's how extreme the world became, but anyway, the punchline being I'll sanitise your balls, but anyway that's a.
Chris Grimes:I've got a bell, by the way, for if we go down any rabbit holes. That was a rabbit hole, cashier, number three please. So I'm sorry about that. Back on track, and it's not about me, it's about you. So we've shaken your tree beautifully and I love the fact. Punchline Johan is a yo-yo-yo, yo-yo champion. Great, curious fact. And now we're staying in the clearing, having shaken your tree. Next, we're talking about alchemy and gold. When you're at purpose and in flow, johan Ilgenfritz, founder CEO of UK Health Radio, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?
Johann Ilgenfritz:What I do now. That is my absolute go-to spot Helping people, informing people, animating people, invigorating people, giving people even though I hate the word hope, giving them hope and, above all, getting them to become part of their life process, which includes, of course, health process, physically, mentally and spiritually. That is, as the all very old saying goes, what makes my boat float. It's just, it's my life. It literally is. I cannot think of not having the privilege to do it.
Chris Grimes:To be very honest with you, chris, and that's a beautiful segue into this moment where because in your clearing this is a Founder Story, brandstand episode. So UK Health Radio now front and center in the clearing. What I'm aware of and I'm privileged to be a part of the network is that it covers the whole gamut of health care. So if you have a condition, it's very, very likely that you've got a show all about it to help people.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yes, we have 41 presenters, as you mentioned, of which you are one. The shows, especially the other shows, are all only about health. So we have a few what I call magazine style shows where we cover different topics of health in health, different issues, health issues, whatever you want to put it. And then we have many other shows where I have then received from our listeners. We get up to about 300, 400 emails a day of people asking us for information in certain areas of health diseases, cancers, diabetes, et cetera. I take that information, those numbers, and I have a list and then I can see what information is the most needed and then I go content at UK. Health. Radio is my job. That's what I do.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I then go and I find a health professional in that area to be able to deliver a show. We train them to be radio presenters, but we make it very clear that they are health professions. They're not radio presenters. Djs they're not supposed to be as good as the other people. All they're supposed to be is get the message across of what they are trying to tell people, and that's what we look at and that's what we focus at. Radio is a very personal medium and, if done correctly and I think we do it correctly, we really strive to do it in this manner is that it doesn't matter how many people are listening. It's about the experience that each one of those people have, and each one of those people must feel as if you are speaking to them, with them personally, and that is what radio is about. That's what makes it such a personal medium and that's what we try on a daily basis to achieve.
Chris Grimes:Lovely answer and the success is growing. You're on the Ascension because there's also a real seeding into the big global player podcast platforms as well now, which is getting even more audience to it. So do you want to just talk about your audience figures at the moment?
Johann Ilgenfritz:Absolutely, as I said, the radio. As you mentioned, the radio started with two listeners. We now at 1.4 million people worldwide. The demographics have changed a little, unfortunately. Uk was always the main listener group. It's the USA now. But yes, I think that a lot of that contributes to now. This is only radio I'm talking about. This is not podcasts.
Johann Ilgenfritz:We launched the podcast under the UK Health Radio umbrella a year ago exactly well, January a year ago. We up to 104,000 downloads there, as I said, but it's on 12 podcast platforms. So we are on all of them worldwide, all the big podcast platforms, and that, I think, has tremendously helped us also with the numbers. But, funnily enough, I was expecting you know there's a very famous soft drink when they brought out the diet version, they didn't double their sales.
Johann Ilgenfritz:Half of the people that used to drink the one with a sugar then bought the one without the sugar, and I was expecting that to happen to our listenership when we launched the podcast. I was actually quite fearful of it. That's why I didn't do the podcast so quickly or earlier, let's put it that way. But it hasn't. Our listenership radio listenership has kept the same and growing and the podcast seems to be a different group of people altogether, which was really surprising and wonderful, because I didn't want it to detract from the other, the one to detract from the other. So it's a different demographic, a bit of a one plus one equals three type endeavor.
Chris Grimes:ultimately Correct.
Johann Ilgenfritz:It definitely is because as I said, our listenership never went down, not for a day. The exact opposite, it's continuously growing. The podcast demographic is different. It's only been out a year, but it's slow. I find it slow 104,000. I think we should be probably a bit higher than that by now. But yeah, I'm not complaining. It's definitely a different group of people listening. And now I'm going to reward you with a cake, if I may, johan.
Chris Grimes:So this is a final storytelling suffused metaphor, where you get to put a cherry on the cake with stuff, like some questions. I'm about to ask you, but first of all, do you like cake, johan? I don't, I don't. That's really fine. So we won't have to sort of argue the toss as to which cake you'd like me to metaphorically send you. So we're going to go straight to the metaphor then of putting a cherry on the cake. And I like the fact you don't. That's a great answer. So what's a favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future?
Johann Ilgenfritz:OK, I'm very I've actually when I I'm actually very weary of quotes, because quotes are often from, or always from, other people and often from a time way past, way, way past even, which doesn't mean I don't use them, but quite a few of them I have adapted for me, actually as part of mantras and all kinds of things. So if you don't mind, I'll give you a few just quickly. I won't go into detail into them because it's very hard for me to just single out one, but I think probably the most important one is by Mark Twain is the two important days in every person's life the day you're born and the day you find out why. I mean really, let's face it, that is just and that and that's In a hundred years, in a thousand years it will still be how it is, how it was for me. And then there are there are a few others. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Very important, especially when you think about it, when you think it has to do with what I mentioned earlier as well, with evaluation. So if you evaluate something and you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. They do, the whole perspective can change.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I like this one. You know the saying you can have your cake and eat it. I know we're in the right section. You can't have your cake and eat it. Well, my, my version of it is you can have your cake and eat it. And another version of of something similar is the grass is always greener on the other side. My version is the grass is always lush green on both sides of my fence. It works for me. It it just I just needed to to change. And I think the last one I've mentioned already very, very powerful. Everything that happens happens for you.
Chris Grimes:Lovely answers. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given your hand?
Johann Ilgenfritz:That's a.
Johann Ilgenfritz:That's a really difficult one.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I think it's action has genius, and when I started on my on my cancer journey, we had that saying written on the chalkboard in our in our house for years until I actually got to the point where I actually understood it that action has genius.
Johann Ilgenfritz:You know, I I believe in miracles, I believe in the good of people, I believe in all kinds of things, but if those things that you aspire happen so much easier when you take action planned action, evaluated action there's a and I saw this on Facebook the other day and it it it sort of just made how I feel about the saying action has genius, made it visual they were. They were two ladders standing up against the wall and the one ladder had a lot of small steps first to each other, and the person was high up, already half way up his ladder, and on the other side there was this ladder with huge gaps between the steps and there was this person still on the ground trying to get to the first, to the first ladder step, and that really made sense to me. You actually have genius, you've got to think into things and you've got to take steps, small steps, one at a time not see the whole mountain, see the next step in front of you, and I think that's probably the most powerful thing I've ever learned, actually.
Chris Grimes:With the gift of hindsight now, what notes, help or advice would you offer to a younger version of Johann Ilgenfritz and you can pick an age to best suit when you'd like to sort of turn up as a bit of a well, a virtual appearance to yourself? Yeah, hologram, that's the word I was thinking. Imagine you hologram back at your time, and what would you say to yourself?
Johann Ilgenfritz:I think it would probably. I have difficulty to say the time, but it will probably be around my teenage years. I think the first thing I would say to them, the heading would be learn to think about things, be inquisitive I've used this word too many times, I'm sorry, but evaluate, challenge. And that all comes through thinking into things. And there's a saying that I really follow Don't think about things, think into things. Thinking about things creates confusion because you can't go around in circles. If you just think about things, you know. But if you think into things and you evaluate what you're thinking into, I think I wish I knew that now, at 16, I think it would have been. Perhaps my life would have been a different thing. And I'm not saying it would have been better and I'm not saying I would have been better or achieved more. This is not what it's about. It's just I had to wait almost 50 years before I got to that.
Chris Grimes:That's the nature of the human condition.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I love that Before I had the pleasure of experiencing that realization if I could put it that way, because it is a pleasure, it is really thrilling to know that.
Chris Grimes:We're ramping up to Shakespeare. Finally, and I'll explain that in a moment, but just before we do that, this is the past. The golden baton moment, please. So now you've experienced this again from within, who would you most like to pass the golden baton along to in your network? Who you think would most enjoy, appreciate or benefit from being given a damn good listening to in this way?
Johann Ilgenfritz:There's actually only one person that I would. He has been a tremendous support friend Not really meant or anything, because what he does is so different that I can't even start to try and follow him in it or anything. His name is Mas Sayadi. He's an American gentleman that I met at a show here in London, at the Olympia here in London many, many, seven, six, seven, eight years ago, and he transforms the limited into limitless. Actually, the only way I can describe him he I can't and I'm not going to just try and describe him. Please go onto the internet and look at Mas Sayadi, M-A-S-S-A-J-A-D-Y, Because what he does is, and the way he does it. He does it in such a humble, direct, powerful way that it literally is life-changing.
Chris Grimes:And thank you for the gift of Mas Sayadi and I will look him up and that's a beautiful passing of the golden baton, thank you. And now, inspired by Shakespeare and all the worlds of stage and all the better women, billy Plays. And, by the way, this is the actual. It's not a first folio, but this is the complete works of Shakespeare I bought when I went to drama school in my own path. This is Chris Grimes, 16986, when I went to the Bristol Albig Theatre School. So it's quite a nice prop. So we're going to talk about legacy now borrowed from the Seven Ages of man and Women, speech all the worlds of stage and all the better women, billy Plays. To talk about legacy, johann Ilgenfritz. When all is said and done, how would you most like to be remembered?
Johann Ilgenfritz:Actually very easy. As a good husband and dad, I've had the opportunity to work from home a lot of my life, even as a photographer. We lived in a studio, in those loft studios in the beginning where my children were there all the time, or my first child at that stage who was there all the time. And now, with UK Health Radio as well, I work from a home studio most of the home office, most of the time. So I really had the pleasure of seeing both my boys grow up, and I sit in the same office as my wife with Raffaele. We work together not because we have to, but because we like to, we want to. So, yeah, good husband, good dad and, of course, uk Health Radio Not necessarily what I've created, but what it can achieve. What UK Health Radio can achieve is would be a nice legacy to UK Health Radio. The information on it could help so many people and that would be a wonderful thing for me to know that I created.
Chris Grimes:Where can we find out all about Johann Ilgenfritz and UK Health Radio on the internet?
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yeah, it's as we've said before. It's a worldwide station, so it's an internet radio station, so it's not FMAM. So wwwukhealthradiocom is the website. Through the website, you can access Health Triangle Magazine. It's a digital magazine, so it's not printed, it's a subscription. You can subscribe, download it and read it whenever you wish. So that's the main thing. Also, on the website, you can go onto our mother podcast platform and from there on, you can choose whichever one you want to or that you frequent often. So if you on Spotify or on Google podcast or Apple podcast or whatever, you can then select where and how you want to listen to it from there. Social media, everything, whether it's Facebook, twitter, instagram it's all at UK Health Radio.
Chris Grimes:Wonderful. Thank you for that and, as this has been your moment in the sunshine in the Good Listening 2 show, stories of Distinction, of Genius, and again a sincere thanking of you, sorry. Thank you for having me as part of your platform on UK Health Radio. Is there anything else you'd like to say, johan?
Johann Ilgenfritz:Yeah, I'd just like to repeat something, actually, if I may Just think and evaluate it. My father once said to me wisdom is evaluated experience, and I think in today's world people are always looking at experience. Experience. You can have 12 years of experience, or 20 for that matter, but if you've done the same thing for 20 years, you've actually only got one years of experience and you have very young, very promising, very bright young people that have one year of experience, but they've evaluated that experience and they've learned from it and I honestly think that that's worth more than somebody that's just on the treadmill doing the same thing over for 20 years.
Chris Grimes:Lovely. Thank you so much, johan, for being here. This has been a delight to have you have your second pass with the clearing, so tune in next week for more stories for the clearing. I've been Chris Grimes. Check out the website for this show too, apart from watching it and listening to it on UK Health Radio. It's thegoodlisteningtoshowcom. Thank you very much indeed. Would you like to say anything finally?
Johann Ilgenfritz:finally, Just bye-bye and thank you so much for having me.
Chris Grimes:And goodbye. You've been listening to the Good Listening to Show here on UK Health Radio with me, chris Grimes. Oh, it's my son. If you've enjoyed the show, then please do tune in next week to listen to more stories from the clearing. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, then please do so. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for the show too. You can contact me about the programme or, if you'd be interested in experiencing some personal impact coaching with me, carry my level up your impact programme. That's chrisatsecondcurveuk On Twitter and Instagram. It's At that, chris Grimes. So until next time for me, chris Grimes, from UK Health Radio. I'm from Stan To your good health and goodbye. So, johann, you've just had a second pass through the clearing in the Good Listening to Show. Could I get your immediate feedback on what that felt like to be curated through this particular journey? I know it's a programme you know well because you have to put it into UK Health Radio every week. But how was that for you second time around? What was it like? But it was amazing.
Johann Ilgenfritz:I love the steps and I love the process you take people through. It's a flow process. The one leads you into the other, and I think that is what makes it so successful. Chris, thank you.