The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Best of Bristol: "How Are You? Out of 10?" Transforming Mens Mental Fitness with 'Talk Club' Founder, Ben Akers: His journey from Personal Grief to Founding a Global Movement, Saving Mens Lives by Getting them Talking & Sharing a Non Alcoholic Beer!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

Share episode

Send us a text

Ben Akers never expected to become a Mental Health advocate. But when his childhood best friend Steve died by suicide 10 ago, everything changed. Confronted with the staggering reality that suicide is the biggest killer of men, Akers channeled his grief and advertising background into creating 'Talk Club' – a revolutionary approach to men's mental fitness that's now saving lives across the UK and beyond.

At the heart of Talk Club's genius is stunning simplicity: "How are you? Out of 10?" This numerical scale gives men a framework to express their emotional state without struggling with what Akers calls "the foreign language of feelings." Where men typically respond with a reflexive "I'm fine," the number system creates an opening for honesty. "If you're a higher number and regularly a higher number," Akers explains, "you're mentally fit, you're mentally strong, and you're good for everyone around you."

From its first meeting at Bristol Beer Factory in April 2019, Talk Club has expanded to 120+ venues nationwide with over 5,000 members. The organization has formed strategic partnerships, including creating Clearhead non-alcoholic beer, allowing men to gather in comfortable spaces without alcohol's potential mental health impacts. Every aspect of Talk Club reflects Akers' design philosophy: make it accessible, remove barriers, and speak directly to men as they are.

The movement reframes mental health conversations through the lens of fitness rather than illness. Just as we congratulate someone for going to the gym, Akers wants mental health maintenance celebrated rather than questioned. He applies his personal philosophy – "Does it make you better?" – to every decision, encouraging men to evaluate relationships, work, and habits through this simple yet profound lens. 

Whether you're struggling personally, concerned about someone in your life, or simply interested in supporting mental fitness, visit talkclub.org today. As Akers proves through his work, sometimes the smallest questions can save the biggest lives.

Find out more at talkclub.org or email hello@talkclub.org to get involved, donate, or start your own Talk Club.


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!

Speaker 2:

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? Then we shall begin.

Speaker 2:

Well, hello and welcome to a very important, I suppose, red letter day, halcyon day, important day in the good listening to show tearing. This is a special series strand which is called Best of Bristol, bristol Voices, which sets out to tell the story behind the story of all the best, of all the creative endeavors that are happening in my home city of Bristol, and I'm delighted to welcome Ben Akers, who is the founder of something seismically important called Talk Club, which is a men's mental fitness movement. It's a talking and listening movement called Talk Club. I'm going to get you to tell us all about the story behind the story of it, and I'm delighted to have you here, ben. I just this morning watched your extraordinary TED Talk that you gave four years ago as the movement began, and since then you've gathered an extraordinary amount of momentum, so it's an absolute delight and pleasure to have you here. So welcome aboard, ben Akers.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, chris, thank you for having me. You're very welcome, and if we don't have any sort of point of reference, just tell the quick, open question of what would you say that you do? I've just blown a bit of happy smoke at you, so go where you like, how you like, as you like, throughout the curation of this structure. But, ben Akers, how's morale? What's your story of the day? And then what would you like to say? You would answer to what do, to what do you do? Then? Over to you.

Speaker 1:

So I begin every day with how are you out of 10? So can I ask you, Chris, how are you out of 10 this morning?

Speaker 2:

I was thinking about that, not knowing you were going to ask, and I'm going to give you a seven today, a seven.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you for sharing. I'm a good eight and a half. I'm a good eight and a half chatting to you.

Speaker 2:

No-transcript me is me is the reason why we exist that was a staggering statistic that I heard you talk about in your extraordinary ted talk, uh, about the fact that the biggest killer of our of men is themselves, statistically. That's extraordinary, and also what got you on the open road, I know, was the documentary that you made about steve. So do you want to just tell us the story behind the story of that?

Speaker 1:

yeah. So steve was my my child of best friend brother by another mother. We were best friends from the age of 11 and we lived in, like, if I honest, stuff that was going on for me at home. I had quite a turbulent upbringing a home life, if you like and he was stability in my life. He was sort of like him and his family were my stability. I was there almost every day and then throughout sort of as we got older, as we drifted apart, and then 10 years ago, last May, he took his own life.

Speaker 1:

So it was a real punch in the face for me. I'd never been confronted by suicide before. So I've been around mental ill health most of my life, but I'd never been confronted by suicide. I never thought that he would. It was the last thing I ever thought in the world that he would do. So after three years of therapy and trying to work out a lot of whys never find out why I decided to use the little skills I have of problem solving and uh and filmmaking and I made a film called steve and the idea was to get men to start talking. So I did it as a as it did as a pub tour. So I went to where men were, so 50, 50 screenings well, 49 screenings I did before lockdown, and the 50 of us meant to be at the bristol beer factory, which is sort of like how we met.

Speaker 2:

I'll explain a bit more about that in a second. But also what I so so enjoy and think is so richly profound is the construct of the three words that you ask. And then the second three words. I know it's on display behind you, beneath beautifully clear head the non-alcoholic lager brand that I know the Bristol Beer Factory have, I suppose, brewed in your honor, because that's a really wonderful strategic partnership. So we'll talk about that too. But just talk us through why? How are you out of 10?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so my advertising background. I used to run ad agencies and I started as an advertising creative, selling crap to people they didn't need. And what I found was that creativity has an amazing power it does. And when we decided that we there were six of us that started Talk Club. So my co-CEO, gav, neil Harrison, my wife Claire, a bloke called Blue O'Connor who's in the other room, and Tom Button, and we all met through the film.

Speaker 1:

So basically, people were in it, or people helped make it or Gav did the music for it, and what we were finding was that we needed something really really, really simple for men to get their heads around. And when Blue said to me I'm working with kids, mentoring, and why I get them to talk is saying, how are you at 10? And I was like, well, men are just kids. They just keep it really really simple. Because what we do is we find it really really hard. Men find it really really hard, especially I'm doing broad brushstrokes here but we were not taught how to talk feelings by our parents and our and and our dads and our granddads. So when someone says how you're feeling, your automatic reaction is, yeah, I'm fine. It's almost like a negative solo. Yeah, I want to. I want to create the stability.

Speaker 1:

When you sort of say, can you put that into words? They find it really hard because we've never been taught this foreign language. Feelings, um, you might as well say go and speak latin to your mate, right, I've not done that either. But when you say, put your number into it, like I, when I asked you what your, what, you put where you are as a seven. Normally I don't have a seven. I won't let people have a seven. I normally go 6.5 or 7.5. I want you to sort of lean one way or the other. But actually, by the way you said seven, I knew that there was probably a lower seven, so I don't want to put you into into a situation. So seven or normally is an automatic answer. You didn't answer automatically, you thought about it, which means you probably are a seven right.

Speaker 2:

So yes, and it's seven for me is a good number. Seven is is a real balance for me, where you know there are times when I'm utterly exhilarated and obviously there's a higher score, but I generally I would say it's not about me, but seven is an optimistic answer from me. I rarely go beneath that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah that's brilliant, because what happened is that I reckon, even though during my 20s, when I was flying all over the world and working on amazing campaigns and sort of, I don't think I let myself get higher than a six, because if I let myself get higher than six, I've got to have lower than six. I've got a bit. I was just probably numbed for the whole of my 20s but what I've found is with these numbers is that I like to be an eight and a half. I feel fit. I like to be an eight and a half. I feel fit, I feel healthy. I could probably do with a bit more exercise.

Speaker 1:

At the moment I'm 50 this year. I'm still feeling in that world I'm not a nine, but eight and a half is a good, optimistic number for me. When I'm a seven and a half, I start feeling a little bit on the slide. I've been six and a half in the past couple of weeks and I'm going. I'm not in a good space. And during the pandemic I was like four and a half because I've got to let myself. If I have the highs, I've got to let myself have the lows, and this is the whole idea of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah is the same as same as physical fitness. Like if you, you know that you're feeling physically fit, your phone call to me this morning, I'm just going to the gym. I'm sort of like, brilliant, that's amazing, I'm so glad you're going to the gym this morning. But that's what we do. When we see people going for a run or we see people going to the gym, we congratulate them.

Speaker 1:

But when it comes to our mental health, if someone says to you, I'm going to therapy, you go, what's wrong? You don't go like, oh, he must be unfit because he's going for a run. But when he's looking after his mental health, you go, oh, what's wrong? There must be something's wrong. So so a lot of what we do in in talk club about mental fitness is about positivity, about saying it's okay to look after yourself, it's okay to sort of like want to be a higher number, it's okay to sort of like want to exist at a higher number. And that positive world is really really good for men, because if you, if you're mentally fit, you're mentally strong, if you're mentally strong, you're good for everyone around you. So if you're a higher number and you're regularly a higher number, then we start working into sort of men's egos, but the way that men communicate and, as I said, keeping it really really simple, because men are just kids and I love that and also I just love the simplicity and the profoundness of how are you out of 10.

Speaker 2:

It's not how are you out of 10. That's a way of hurrying it slightly. It's deliberately a sentence in two halves, if you like, because it's an equation of two halves, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was literally and like our branding, Black on White. Everything that we do me and the team, think really really hard to keep things really really simple. Yeah, and we try and be really economical with words. We try and be economical with messaging because we go like you've got, especially nowadays when you're being bombarded by thousands, thousands of messages a day, if I can cut through the crap and just try and go and go like, as you say, not rush it, how are you out of 10? Like I, I care about you, I'm getting that out of 10 goes. I want you to give me some, I want to give you some time to be heard, because quite a lot of the time, actually, when it comes down to mental health, it's not actually about the talking, it's about listening, it's about being heard. Yes, Because we don't give ourselves space or time or the opportunity to be heard. And that's what Talk Club is basically. It should be called Listening.

Speaker 2:

Club and I love the bish bash boshness, which is something I'm an advocate of. And talking to men as simple creatures, I think is profound as well, and I love the fact that you sort out where men hang out for the constituency of where best to host talk clubs. And that was where I knew that the Bristol Beer Factory. When I did a show with Sam Burrows, the MD of the story behind the story of the Bristol Beer Factory, last autumn. He passed the golden baton on to someone in his organization called Carrie Hilton, but also to you, most importantly, carrie halford, sorry carrie halford I'll talk to her just before I talk to you and I think it's that's what we are.

Speaker 1:

We. We have to make it comfortable. So a lot of what I do is I try and make it easy for people to say yes, that's all I try and do. I try and remove as many barriers as possible and it's. You've already got a lot of barriers there. You've got years of stigma. You've got years of buildup, of conditioning on not talking about your mental health. Even just when we say mental health, people think mental ill health. They don't think mental health as physical health. If you say physical health, you don't think physical ill health. So we've got all these barriers up there and all these things to cut through. And that was one of the major reasons why we approached sam about clearhead because I love pubs.

Speaker 1:

I grew up in pubs. I mean, steve spent all our sort of teenage years, from the age of 12, 13, in the working man clubs and in south london and I love them. But I'm not. But I know about alcohol and depression. Yeah, I, I, I, I use alcohol. I've, I've had my own fun with alcohol over the years, but I'm a father of three now I can't even drink, so it's like it's. I can't handle the hangover, but it's like, um, but to me being in male comfortable spaces, pubs, that's the's the reason why we went to Sam with Clearhead, because if you can create an alcohol-free space where and it has to look like a beer, has to taste like a beer, has to feel like a beer and men feel comfortable, then they can actually be there as well without feeling the pressure of alcohol. Because alcohol can be damaging to your mental health. It can be if used irresponsibly.

Speaker 2:

And indeed Clearhead has so many ramifications for the community in Bristol because it helps with all sorts of initiatives. You're at the heart of it because you were the genesis point, but I know that 5% of all sales goes to talk club and it's a difficult job you have because you're trying to grow the movement. So how many Talk Clubs are there nationally at the moment and increasingly internationally?

Speaker 1:

So the first ever Talk Club was where you were right. It was literally in the back of the before it was even the BBF studio. It was an industrial kitchen and that was the first ever Talk Club. And that was the first ever talk club and that was in April 2019. And we now have over 120 clubs around the country. We have over 5,000 men in in our community. We have been working with Bristol prisons and Bristol prison. We now have four talk clubs a day in Bristol prison. It is growing and growing, growing, growing. I've got we've got staff of five full-timers and another five part-timers and we we can't keep up with the growth, if I'm honest. We need, we need people to buy more more clear heads so we can employ more people. But it's, the need is there, the growth is there because people need it.

Speaker 2:

I mean we've got 16 alone in in bristol so, and and one other thing I'd like you to talk about is the because of your natural constituency in your endeavor, which is men's mental fitness, even how you've crafted the flyer, the bit of paper is a brilliant story. So just tell us that quickly. I haven't got one here.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, it's so. Basically, what it was was there, but there was a. We were creating what the rules are. So, basically, a talk club is there's four rounds in a talk club. So how are you at 10? What are you grateful for? How are you going to look after your mental fitness this week? And then your checkout number.

Speaker 1:

And what I wanted to do is I wanted to create this flyer where, if you picked it up, if you didn't take anything else away from talk club, right, if you pick up this flyer, you can start your own talk club. You don't need to join the community, you can just start it with your mates, right? So the idea was like, literally. So I wrote it down. I wrote down a piece of paper and I was like, and I say in my TED talk is like, men don't read instructions, but we need rules on how to talk, right. And the idea was, literally, I'm going to have this on a sheet of paper and I was like, okay, now what's the first thing a bloke's going to do? He's going to fold this piece of paper up and he's going to put it up to. It's an A4, it's going to go down to an A6, an A7. And I was like, okay, well, why don't we use every single side of this piece of paper to convince you to be part of TC? So what you do is, when you open it up, it's actually a journey through why you need to be part of Talk Club. But again, it's on black and white. It's a two-sided PDF. It's been downloaded thousands of times and printed out thousands and thousands of more.

Speaker 1:

The whole thing is that openness. We wanted it to be, again, easy to say yes, you can run this out of your photocopier at work, you can run this and you can print out the thousand yourself. And we wanted to make it just easy for everyone. So like, even even when designers come to me, because I'm lucky enough to have access to some of the best designers in the world. So why is my brand so shit? Um, because it's it's designed to be shit. It's designed to be accessible. It's designed to be. It's designed to be accessible. It's designed to be. It's designed to be really, really like. There's a great design company across the road from us. They created this font called Bloke and um, wow, this is the typeface here is very much like a typewriter face, because I want to talk to builders and I want to talk to solicitors. I want to talk to solicitors. I want to sort of like make sure that everyone feels fiasco is the fantastic design company that created bloke.

Speaker 2:

Let's make sure we've handled that. They are fiasco. Fiasco and the font is bloke and I love that of course you've got the font bloke, because that's your natural constituency yeah, and they created that for us.

Speaker 1:

But this is the whole point is just. The thing is I want to almost create anti-design. I want to make it so accessible that you don't feel intimidated by it, and we've had brilliant designers come up to us and try to play with the brand. And then when I do the little fold-up and I put it into all those flyers that you see at coffee shops and I go which one stands out? And the plain black and white one is the one that leaps out at you Because that's what TC is about. It should be black and white. One is the one that leaps out at you because that's what TC is about. It should be black and white. It should be simple, because talking about your feelings should be simple, it should be accessible, it should be easy and I love the cut of your jib in using addressing men's mental fitness through the gift of origami.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I wish I had one with me now. So, yeah, wonderful. And there is going to be a very exciting moment at the end, which is show us your QR code, please. So I know that we're going to point people to the Talk Club website and they will definitely be able to download the Origami Men's Mental Fitness PDF as a matter of course, right? So it is my great privilege, joy and pleasure, and also I'm sincerely, really happy to have you here, because this show is also a weekly show on UK Health Radio which has a global audience reach across 54 countries of 1.4 million listeners and growing.

Speaker 2:

I really, really hope that this will further, further amplify the cause, which is so, so seismic, and also further everything that you, ben acres and talk club are up to. Thank you, chris, you're very welcome. So it's my great pleasure now to curate you through the structure of the good listening to show best of bristol, bristol voices special series strand, where there's going to be a clearing a tree, a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called five, four, three, two, one. There's going to be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. It's absolutely good luck with that. It's not a memory test, but I'm going to. You're smiling, which is the good thing.

Speaker 1:

I watched your video about six times and I'm like, okay, this is going to be bananas, We'll see what we get to.

Speaker 2:

This is going to be bananas. Even the colours, though it's sort of bananas, are us Fantastic and it matches. I've noticed it resonates with the branding of Clear Head as well, which is a different hue of yellow. So a clearing, first of all, as I say, it's not a memory test. I'm going to gently curate you through it. So, ben Akers, founder of Talk Club and documentary filmmaker, awesome, creative. Where is what is a clearing or serious happy place for you? Where do you go to get clutter free, inspirational and able to think?

Speaker 1:

so I had to think about this one right, because, if I'm honest, I rarely get clutter free because I've just got a very, very I mean most of my ideas come up with in while I'm walking or in the back of the cab or in sort of something like that. Right, but where do I feel most comfortable is on a football pitch, literally. So my clearing is actually on a football pitch. As soon as I walk across the white lines my brain switches into something else, because I've got a very busy brain and it suddenly just concentrates on the game and I get lost in the game. So I can be creative on the field. I play very instinctively, so it's sort of my happy place has always been since I was probably about 10 and I'm 50 this year, so the past 40 years my happy place has been on the football field.

Speaker 2:

In all my circa 250 episodes, nobody has yet said on the football pitch the beautiful game and the beautiful game of men's mental fitness is exactly where you belong In the back of the net, Awesome. So who do you support, Ben? You're from London, but is it Bristol that you've had you nominated?

Speaker 1:

No, so I'm an Arsenal fan. I'm a gooner through and through. I love all football. I watch all football. If I walk through a park and a bunch of kids are playing, I'll stop for a minute and watch football. I mean, I've been to City games. I've been to Rovers games. I was even watching Spurs the other day, more hoping or happy that they're losing. But I actually love. I love the.

Speaker 1:

Doesn't matter who you are okay, away from elite sport but it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you do On the football field. I mean I've played football with kids in Kerala who've got nothing and the happiness they get from playing football on the beach. I just think, as a leveler, if you like, no matter who you are, where you come from, the joy that you can get out of just kicking a ball around with jumpers and goalposts. And it's travelled me. I've been lucky enough to work all over the world and travel all over the world and no matter where I land when I land in Bristol, when I land in Manchester, when I land in Sydney the first thing I do is get myself a regular game of football because suddenly you've got 22 friends and it's just amazing. So football is my happy place.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Great answer. And of course, the football arena, the football game, the stadium is a bastion of men's mental health anyway, ironically and especially so that makes complete sense. And as you're an Arsenal fan, I'll just let you know in Bristol I had a wee in Next in the queue behind tony adams recently.

Speaker 1:

yes, so he, we've seen him. We've got a photograph of uh, it's a gavs. My co-ceo is a gooner as well, and we were walking down through whopping morph and, uh, tony was having a coffee. So we just sort of like we've got this photograph of us and mr arsenal. So yeah, he's from around there. So yeah, is he?

Speaker 2:

yeah, he lives around here yeah because I was in new cup coffee and he went into the disabled loo because that's all they've got as a disabled loo went, and whilst he was in there I said to the people behind the counter do you know? You've got a legend in your disabled toilet? And they're like what? But anyway, I watched the very tall legend walk past. Yeah, anyway, that is a great clearing on the football pitch, love that. So now I'm going to arrive with a tree which is going to interrupt your game a bit, and I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out.

Speaker 2:

I've got a couple of comedy props I forgot to get out. It's an apple. How'd you like these apples? And this is five, four, three, two, one now where you've had five minutes or as long as you've needed before we knew we were going to be doing this together to have thought've thought about four things that have shaped you. Ben, take this where you like, when you like, as deep as you like, how you like, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention. And borrow from the film oh, that's a bit. Oh, squirrels or shiny object syndromes, where do you? You know what are your monsters of distraction. And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you we couldn't possibly know until you tell us so. Again, not a memory test, but over to you to shake the canopy of your tree as you see fit great, so so, yeah, so.

Speaker 1:

So I think it's got to be in the center circle as this, this, this, this tree I mean I did go deep. To start with, the things that have shaped me is my relationship with my mum is a massive, massive thing that shaped me. My dad was schizophrenic when I was growing up. So he's illness and then leaving, and then what that turned into this strange, strange relationship. I back in my day they had this thing called the 11 plus, which any of your younger use, younger listeners will have no idea about. But I failed my 11 plus because it was around the time that I was in a a bad wives and, uh, kids refuge in in woolwich and I think my, my relationship with my mom, that happening my dad illness, my dad leaving has really shaped me into my drive. It's given me a massive drive. So a lot of that and the way that my mum handled it with such dignity and respect and has given me the ability to sort of believe in myself, has really, really shaped me.

Speaker 1:

The second thing sort of like of shaping me was meeting my wife as sort of like, quite a lot of these, quite a lot of these people are and moving to Sydney. So we were together and then we moved to Sydney. As I say, I was in advertising, used to run ad agencies and then, when we were in Sydney, I'd had enough of the big corporate world and I started working for an agency called Republic of Everyone and it was only doing ethical and sustainable work. So it was ideas that were good for the world. So this really shaped my creativity, really shaped me inside, how I needed to add purpose to my creativity. So I think that that was a massive push inside who I was. And meeting a bloke called Ben Peacock was a massive shaping of what I came about. I think three has got to be about having kids, being a parent and just to stop you one moment.

Speaker 2:

Who is Ben Peacock? Just to unpack that.

Speaker 1:

So Ben Peacock was the founder of Republic of Everyone a hugely inspirational man he still is. He gave me so much belief in myself at that point. I'm very lucky to have worked with some amazing people throughout my career and he's definitely one of those people who sort of shaped my way of thinking, sort of like turned me from sort of like someone who just thought about ideas and start actually using those ideas for power. He gave me a lot of purpose to my creativity.

Speaker 2:

So, working for Republic of Everyone, he was massive in that I don't doubt he's very proud of what you've curated with the bish bash bosh simplicity, of the demographic, of what you've curated for Talk Club.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean I don't talk to him as much as I should, but yeah, I mean we've had those conversations. Yeah, as I say, being a father, ben was sort of like. I was lucky enough to sort of see he was he's sort of five years older than me, so seeing how he was with his kids and having almost big brothers in the world to sort of see how they react with their kids, I've got I've got three kids under 12. My house is very, very loud, uh, because they all, they all have lots of friends. But I think that that has shaped me inside why I exist, why we do what we do, and also just sort of like the respect for little people.

Speaker 1:

But I'll go on to that one of my things later. I've struggled with the fourth one, but I think because I don't want to do a negative but Steve's death has shaped me. It has, and I wish that he hadn't. I wish someone had created talk club 10 years ago so I didn't have to do it and he'd still be with us. But his passing and the fallout from his passing has shaped sort of where I am. So I've got lots of positives, but I've also got a drive of the negative, so I'm gonna put that in that.

Speaker 2:

And I know it's coming up to the 10-year anniversary. So you've had your 40s without Tim and then now you're embarking on your 50s.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like. So May was his 10th passing, but the fact that we both would have been 50, it was quite hard work with sort of like the thought of we were born four days apart. Hard work was sort of like the thought of we were born four days apart. We were sort of like we always used to have joint parties up until sort of like our 18th was a joint, our 21st was a joint, so I'd imagine our 50th would have been a joint, our 40th would have been a joint.

Speaker 1:

It is hard, it is hard and it I mean I've I've had months of therapy sitting in, sitting in trying to work this one's out and I still haven't got the answers. So to anyone who might be worrying about my reactions, but there is something there that I still need to have. I still need to keep him here. When I do my talks I talk about him. It is hard, but it's hard for a couple of minutes and then we go on to the good stuff that's come out of his death. If I'm honest, I've had hundreds of people now say to me I'm only alive because of the film, or I'm only alive because of talk club, or thank you from a wife or a partner in the street because of that, and so his death has meant something. His death has been, uh, has meant that hundreds of other men can like live. So it has shaped me and it has shaped where we're a meter yeah and just to reincorporate your purpose, super imperative of ideas to help the world.

Speaker 1:

That's absolutely in pursuance of that endeavor yeah, it's something that the drive is there. We go down back to the full circle of my dad being schizophrenic and he's sort of going to steve. Had this such perfect life as a child where I was so attracted towards his stability. And I've come out of it many a time in therapy were him not me but Was he four days older than you, or the other way around.

Speaker 1:

I was four days older than him, he was the puppy of the two, so, but it was funny, it was like we were. We came as a pair, um, but but it was funny, it was like we were, we came as a pair, I mean, even with our first jobs together. It was like you didn't see steve without bed or ben without steve. So, um, it was that bizarreness. And even with my, my ted talk, I woke up. I found it really really hard to actually put that thing together. Uh, anyone who's done a ted talk knows this. But they give you a coach and they work with you for months beforehand and I couldn't remember it. I just couldn't.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't going, because I'm not talking about tractors, I'm talking about my friend, yes, and and I actually woke up that morning. And I woke up at five o'clock that morning when I was going to give my talk and I dreamt that steve was still alive. So I was like, oh no, I'm gonna have to ring caroline and tell her that sort of like. I can't do the talk and maybe Steve could come on, and sort of stuff like that. And then suddenly I mean I must have believed he was still alive for a good couple of minutes and then suddenly I was like, and then suddenly it hit me and I remember breaking down and crying in my hotel room and then breaking down and crying on the street.

Speaker 2:

I had to have just watched it this morning. It is truly, truly profound and authentic, most, most authentic, because you're really, really, really present and gulping for your breath in between bits, which is not a that's. I think it's a beautiful testament to your love of steve in what comes through and and anyone who wants to see you know, obviously, look at talk the ted talk, ben acres, and it was the the royal tunbridge wells ted talks that you did yeah it's.

Speaker 1:

It was up there as sort of like one of the moments that that really propelled talk club to the forefront. So I'm so glad. I mean they offered I broke down and couldn't in in both rehearsals and they said do you want to do this? You don't have to do this. And I sort of like I need to do this and I'm really glad I pushed through and did it well, the vulnerability is not a weakness, it's a superpower, and that's the superpower of the movement.

Speaker 1:

That's why it's so important yeah, it is one of these things where giving that speech to a thousand people and then like a standing ovation and I just ran off stage and they pushed me back on to sort of like try and try and soak up the audience. And it was funny after because that was literally just before lockdown and I'm pretty sure I hugged a thousand people. So I'm probably a super spreader, but it was an amazing I mean, anyone who gets the opportunity or or puts themselves forward to do something like that. The Tunbridge Wells team are amazing and it was a sort of like it was a life-defining changing moment for me. So I'm so glad I did it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Again, I know I'm reincorporating deliberately, but ideas that help the world bosh fantastic, Thank you. We're on to three things that inspire you now, Ben Akers.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So the three things that I've got in my head were people. So a boss that I had was a gentleman called John Hegarty or Sir John. Sir John Hegarty he ran an agency called BBH Bartle Bogle Hegarty. He was the first person that I read an article by him when I was 14, and I said I want to write adverts because I read this article by him when I was 14, and I said I want to write adverts because I read this article by him.

Speaker 1:

And 15 years later I was lucky enough to work for him, or 14 years later, and he's still a really, really inspiring man. He's the man behind all the Levi's ads, all the Addy ads. He inspired me to think differently. He inspired me to think differently and, if ever I mean, one of his favorite ones was when the world zigs, you zag for BBH, and that was probably again an inspirational moment in reading Creative Review when I was 14, going this is what I want to do, I want to be like him.

Speaker 1:

So the honor of sort of working with him for two years and for him, and then when I decided I was going to move to Australia, I walked in and resigned to him and he was a chairman, he's not my direct boss. There's there's three layers between him and me. But I went in and he goes just the way that he. He held it. He goes where are you going? If it's money, we'll work that out. Going, if it's money, we'll work that out. Please don't tell me you're going to one of the other ones. And I said I'm going to go and work in australia for the dave droger and he goes like he goes. Oh, david's brilliant, he can. I'm happy with that. He I yes, it was. It was just like it was just lovely. He just held, he just has so much respect and the way he handles himself was so he's so respectful. He's an absolute inspiration for me, sort of the godfather of advertising for me.

Speaker 1:

The second person that inspires me is my co-founder, gav. I'm inspired daily by the way he thinks and the way he works. I think we push each other to come up with these ideas and I've learned a hell of a lot working with him. We didn't know each other before we started this thing, but we're work wives. We've got sort of like, we've got these relationships so. So I think he's definitely Gav is an inspiration because he doesn't think how I think as well, he sort of. I think we're very complimentary in the way that we work. What's?

Speaker 2:

Gav's second name. For those that don't know that it's Gavin Thorpe.

Speaker 1:

He, he still is a musician, but he was a musician and we met through our love of Arsenal. But also he did all the music for Steve and my second film, our Kids, our Lives, and he is just as an inspiration, as a daily inspiration of being nudged and going what about this, what about this, what about this? And where we've got Talk, club 2, I think is very inspirational. And then my third is my kids. It's a bit of an easy one, but they are. I just love them.

Speaker 1:

I love hanging out with my kids, not all together they get on my fucking nerves but individually, or even in pairs, even just with two of them, but individually they're so different. My littlest is just free. Her creativity is just free and I almost sort of want to sit there and I just listen to her and I'm going. I almost feel like I'm making notes and going, like I wish I could interpret that I can use that in what I'm doing at the moment. And my boy is my middle one and he he's just sort of, he's just fearless the way he does stuff and like even just the way he plays football. He's just fearless.

Speaker 1:

And my oldest one is just, she's so considerate and she's so honest about who she is, and I find them all very inspirational inside. I want to be more like you three as a person, so I'm learning from my like. The way I look at things is mentors and I say this quite a lot to when I do talks to colleges or whatever is that your mentors don't have to be older, they can be younger too, and my three kids are mentors to me. They're also really annoying and really wrong all the time, but they're also some of these little sparks of genius that they come up with. I sit there and go. That's brilliant. I'm going to hold on to that one today. So, yes, those are my three people of inspiration.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful answers. Thank you so much. And now squirrels borrow from the film Up where the dog goes. Oh squirrels, what's your shiny object syndrome? What are your two squirrels or monsters of distraction?

Speaker 1:

Okay, so Arsenal it is, I want to say football, but I can listen to football without going squirrel on it, but anything that's sort of like. And obviously we've just had the transfer deadline and I've been refreshing all the different things seeing if we're going to sign a striker. But literally if I'm in the most important conversation in the world and someone brings up Arsenal, I'm off, we're off there, we're just gone and we can sit there and just talk Arsenal for 20 minutes. So anything Arsenal is definitely a squirrel moment.

Speaker 1:

The other thing what stops me is real behavior change ideas. I'm still sort of even though I'm not in the ad world or the creative world of that sorts I'm still surrounded by, I still look out for these things and when I, when I see an idea that's sort of like, oh Christ, I wish I would come up with that or that is really really clever, that's getting someone to think differently or to behavior change is really really important to me. What ben peacock taught me about how you can use creativity for good, that evil power for good is the way that we phrased it that's a squirrel like, literally I I'm still thirsty for new creative ideas all the time, so that's definitely a squirrel moment for me.

Speaker 2:

Love that no one's ever said. I'm still thirsty for that squirrel Boom. And now the one is a quirkier, unusual fact about you, ben Akers, co-founder of Talk Club, that we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us.

Speaker 1:

So there's thousands, but I'm sure there are, but I'm going gonna go with. I've got the freedom to the city of london. So if you can see my tattoo, that is london's tattoo. Yes, so on my 21st birthday, my dad, my granddad, my great granddad they all had, uh, the freedom, and what you can do is it used to be like a license for the trading in the center of London. The only thing in the UK that's older is the coronation. So I've got that. So I went up to Guildhall and swore my allegiance to the Queen and had to sort of do this thing for my 21st birthday. And yeah, so I've got the Freedom City of London and I've taken sheep across London.

Speaker 2:

Bridge? Of course you have. I was going to say that's what that thumbs up for me, which is oh, you, that means you've got the right to get your sheep across london bridge, so tell us about that yeah, so.

Speaker 1:

So my family were actually iron mongers, right? So so that's what my freedom's attached to is the iron monger deliveries. But I was doing a film called slowing down fast fashion with alex james from blur and we were. It was all based around. The money came from Prince Charles's campaign for wool, so it was all about sustainability and wool as a sustainable resource.

Speaker 2:

I thought you said for a minute, campaign for wolves and being an author.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's my dodgy accent campaign for wool w-o-o-l. And and what we did was I was filming, there was part of London Fashion Week and they had these sheep and I was just I would turn up early, was I was filming, there was part of London Fashion Week and they had these sheep and I was just I turned up early and I was chatting away to the bloke and I sort of said, is this to do with freedom? And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, how do you know about freedom? And I sort of told him the story and he goes would you like to do it? And I was like, yeah, so I've taken sheep, sheep across London Bridge, because they were doing it for slots. I think they did about 10 people got to take sheep across London Bridge and before they opened it up, I took these five sheep across, put them across London Bridge. But there's always other weird things that you can and can't do and I don't quite know.

Speaker 2:

I love the world exclusive that Ben Akers is Little Bo Peep.

Speaker 1:

But it's like things, like we could I don't know if this is true, and I'm pretty sure it's not, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway is that I can demand to urinate on the the off side of a hackney carriage, which anyone knows is a black cab, and they have to allow me to do that, and I'm pretty sure. But I and I can't be arrested inside the square mile. But I can't imagine me being drunk, trying to sort of like urinate on the back of a cab and then telling the copper that they can't arrest me for it. So but I think there's all these, there's these things that you're meant to be able to do.

Speaker 2:

That's freedom, right there I've got freedom to waz against a fender of a hackney cab.

Speaker 1:

I love that fantastic yeah, so that's the thing you don't know about me is I'm a little low-feeb.

Speaker 2:

Yes, May I ask is your dad still out there Because he won the Freedom of London as well? You were saying.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I haven't seen my dad since I was 11, so I've got quite a complicated relationship with that and one of the things was he was mentally ill. When my parents split up and that's the reason why they split up and back in the good old mid-80s they didn't know how to handle mental ill health. So, yes, he disappeared and I heard from him when I was about 18, 16, 18, about making sure that I claimed my freedom. Obviously not very well as well, but it's really weird because, even with grief because one thing that Gabba taught me was that if you, if you are suffering from grief cause I've never had I've lost my dad. I've lost my dad. It's not been part of my life, but I've never buried him.

Speaker 1:

So what I started doing was I started writing letters to him and I write letters to people I've lost all the time, so part of my grief process. So I wrote letters to Steve. I lost a friend to a heart attack recently and I write letters to my dad and I just sort of update them on what's going on, because I find the idea of letter writing really cathartic and it's a real, because I did a lot of pen pal work when I was younger, and so I find the actual physical. I've got a really nice pen, so I've got a real sort of like. I've got an old school fountain pen pen, so I've got a real sort of like. I've got an old school, old school fountain pen and I write letters, so that that's how I deal with delightfully old school as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, proper fountain pen and yeah, so I write to him because I could, basically, like I, I started writing letters to him and I accepted that he'd gone. It's only recently, like three years ago, that I started working through the the grief of him. I mean, he's been in therapy with me, for I mean, I've been in therapy most of my life. But, yeah, it's quite a strange acceptance that he could still be out there. And I went through a long time, especially when I was working in London, looking at every tramp thinking that sort of like every homeless person thinking is that you Dad? But I mean it is what it is, it's out there. So I mean it is what it is, it's out there. So I mean the chances of him passed on is probably quite high.

Speaker 2:

And what do you do with the letters? Do you symbolically burn them, or do you put them in a box, or what do you do?

Speaker 1:

I've done everything. I've burnt some. Depending on who it is, I've sort of burnt them. Sometimes I just write them and just then next day chuck them in the bin. I've kept some.

Speaker 1:

Especially when you work in this world, you hear about death quite quickly. We lost another classmate, to steve's darren, last january. So it was around this time last year and it was quite hard for me because he was meant to be coming to a screening of my film and then I had two weeks later they'd taken his own life. So I wrote some letters to him. I wrote a letter to him last week because it's really hard, especially with grief. You can't really. There's many, as you know, stages of grief, but when it comes to things like suicide or things like abandonment with my dad, you don't really got the answers. You never get the answers. So I find sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm sort of like just upbating them. Sometimes it starts like that Quite. A lot of the early ones with Steve was quite angry. I was angry with him and then same with my dad. I'm still with that 11-year-old boy who was abandoned.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and all very profound resilience strategies, the idea of the catharsis of writing with a pen. That means a lot to you, it's beautiful, and all in the world of resilience and mental fitness yeah, but I mean positivity.

Speaker 1:

You can't I mean I can't control what's happened to me in the past. I can only work out what I can do with with now and future, and that's the reason why being a parent, being a father, especially being a father who uses the word love especially, is really, really important to me, because I think that we've got a whole generation of men. I do remember my dad saying I love you, but my stepdad he's a brilliant man, also called steve he didn't show emotion, he didn't show the word love for a long, long time. Yeah, so so it was really important for me that I tell my boy, especially because I still love my kids, but especially tell my boy that I love him and he goes yes, yes, danny, I know, but I think that, especially as men, we need to be told and we need to say it, and we need to be told the word love and we need to use that and we need to use the power of that, because I know that there's a whole generation of men.

Speaker 1:

We did a little study where I asked 100 men have they ever, or do they regularly say to their dads they love them? And 83 of the men I I interviewed said they didn't or don't say they love them to their dads and sort of like. So you've got a whole generation of men who are not told they're loved, and compassion for self, compassion for sort of like the world you mean like the amount of times you see it on the football field where people are just angry because they don't know how they're not being cared for. They haven't got compassion for home. Yeah, so I do think we need to as men, we need to sort of like, not tap into our feminine side, but understand the word love and be more compassionate. It's really, really important. So, yeah, so I've learned a lot inside that. And back to Gav being inspiring, gav's taught me that.

Speaker 2:

The most delicious shaking of the canopy of your tree. That's the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 done. Now we're going to stay in the clearing which is still on the football pitch, and now we're going to move away from the tree and we're going to talk about alchemy and gold now. So, when you're at purpose and in flow, ben acres, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to rebuild to the world?

Speaker 1:

to me, it's about ideas. So I'm the most happiest when I'm coming out of an idea and and something, that sort of something that can be like a little bit of a change or a little bit of a like getting someone to think differently about that. That's when I'm most happy. Back to me being the CEO of a charity. I didn't mean to start, I just want to cut up ideas. That's all I love doing. I love. What about if we did this? What about if we did that? What about? That's when I'm the most happiest.

Speaker 2:

That's when my, my world I was going to say I'm thinking of you now ping with a big light bulb, a light bulb above your head it's sort of.

Speaker 1:

And then when you tell that idea to someone and they give you that smile going oh yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

Oh yes, yeah, oh yes, love that brilliant, that's a great answer, and now I'm going to award you with a cake. Ben, do you like cake? Oh, everyone likes cake. Of course, mike's cake. Of course you do. What cake do you want? I'm working on having a partnership with a cake company where I actually send you the cake. Nom, nom, nom, nom nom. But what cake would you like?

Speaker 1:

Well, the thing is, it all depends whether it's about a cake that I'll actually get to eat, because I never get to eat cake in my house, right? Because literally I'll put it down, I'll turn away and the cake's been eaten. We got a massive. We got a massive chocolate cake for for my boy's birthday. We had this party the weekend even though his birthday is the first of january, and literally it was. It said serves 20 and I didn't get a piece of it right, I've got a family of locusts, like, like, like.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's classic, filling up the fridge and it's gone. Yeah, but it's not just them.

Speaker 1:

I mean, as I say, like there's, I can walk into my house and there could be nine, ten, twelve kids in my house. I love it. It's noisy, but everyone all my kids, best mates, all live across the road and sort of stuff, and our house seems to be the centre of it so self.

Speaker 2:

This is your cake, so what do I?

Speaker 1:

like a good sort of a good sponge cake. Please Sponge cake.

Speaker 2:

I like sponge cake Like that Great. And now you get to put a cherry on your sponge cake, which is stuff like now. What's your favorite inspirational quote? You gave me the zigzag one earlier on. That doesn't have to be it, but what's your favorite inspirational quote? Ben Akers, that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future.

Speaker 1:

So this is a very, very easy one for me, because it's the line I live by daily. Does it make you better? Right? So everything I do, and probably everything that I've done for probably the last 15 years, I hold that line up to everything. So this conversation with you does it make me better? Yes, does this sort of like, does the decision I make this afternoon make me better? Yes, sometimes you've got to take the money right, sometimes you have to right, because that makes a better life for your family. So, so there is always a. There's also a nice little caveat in there. Yeah, but everything I do, every decision I make, every friendship I have, every piece of work I take on, every idea that I move forward for, is about does it make me better? And I literally hold that line up to everything I do. So I've removed, unfortunately or fortunately I've removed people from my life because they didn't make me better.

Speaker 2:

I absolutely love that. Thank you very much Again. The simplicity and the sort of pairing away to the essence of a bit like how are you out of 10? Does it make me better? Wonderful. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Ben acres.

Speaker 1:

So I actually wrote a piece for a talk that I did last week and I did the 10 things I wish I'd say to my younger self, right? So I've got 10 of them, but I'm not going to give you them all. But to me, number eight on this was enjoy the wins, forget the losses, and that was something that I didn't do enough when I was younger. I used to sweat the losses so much, especially in sort of the pitches we didn't win or not getting that validation that I wanted, and then when the actual wins did come and I was lucky enough to sort of have plenty of wins throughout my advertising career and then plenty of wins in richness in life since then and I think that we don't do that enough, we just have to just hold our breath and sort of go this is awesome, just let it be awesome, just sort of like soak it in, going like I even love that.

Speaker 2:

Hold our breath. This is awesome. That's lovely yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cause I think that's where I was. I didn't enjoy the wins as much as I could have done. I got lucky, especially in advertising. I got lucky enough to win like a lot of awards. I don't think I ever James, when he was, I go. What was the best gig he did? And he goes Glastonbury the second time. And I said, why was it the second time the best one? And he goes? Because I didn't realize how amazing it was the first time. Oh, yes, and so when I was there the second time, I actually was able to sort of soak it up and that's exactly how I felt.

Speaker 1:

I felt like if I was going to talk to my younger self more. It was like living the moment more. Enjoy those moments. But also, if you lose, just let it go. Let it go, it's done now, Right? So there's an amazing thing about elite sports. What actually separates, apart from ability, but what actually separates the mindset of elite sportsmen is their ability to forget. So back to Kai Havertz and sort of missing an opener against City at the weekend, he still scored an amazing, he's still got the fourth goal. So it's like it's the ability, it's the actual ability to forget and not sweat the losses is really, really something that I would say to my younger self.

Speaker 2:

Lovely. I love the fact you've interpreted what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given as being notes to your younger self, which is perfectly brilliant. That's where we're going. So as being notes to your younger self, which is perfectly brilliant. That's where we're going. So thank you for that. And you've given us number eight and you've teased us whether actually, in your talk up to nine more, do the math Brilliant. Now we're going to ramp up in a moment to Shakespeare to talk about legacy, but just before we get there, this is the they don't like it at my. Mr Manoring, that pass the golden bat moment, please. Now you've experienced this from within, ben. Who would you most like to don't like it up by mr man?

Speaker 1:

ring past the golden bat and along to in order to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going so I've been lucky enough to sort of to work with and be associated with lots of amazing people, and one of those amazing people is a man called merlin nation, who is a animator, artist, creative person, and he's just the reason why I wanted him to take us on this, because he's playing with, he's playing his own thing about moving his art forward. He's an amazingly generous and talented person and also, every single time, he's done all the he did all the the opening things for my films. He does animations for me. He's just a genuinely beautiful man and a genuinely amazing person. So he is the person. I would love to pass this golden baton on to, merlin Nation.

Speaker 2:

A privilege and what a great name. Merlin Nation, yeah, and now, inspired by Shakespeare and all the world's stages and all the men and women, merely players. We're going to talk about legacy now. Borrow from the jay queez, which is quite a sort of melancholic speech. But it's about legacy now and how, when all is said and done, ben acres, you would most like to be remembered so, okay, I love the whistles or the, the outlist of that.

Speaker 1:

To me it's it's. It is talk club. I mean, obviously I want to be remembered for being a good father and a good sort of like, a good husband and a good person, but I think that what we've created not just me, the other five founders and all the men and the people inside the community and the people we've got working for us here but if I was plucked from this earth tomorrow, and what would I want to leave behind? It is Talk Club. I'm really, really proud of what we've created and the people that we've helped and the people we will continue to help. So, yeah, I think that's what my legacy is and what maybe I was put on this earth for.

Speaker 2:

I was thinking you've prepared your entire life for this moment, partly because of the Steve Genesis point, everything in it. So, yes, that legacy is yours to claim, and now we're going to do a lovely section called Show Us your QR Code. So where can we find out all about you on the old interweb? I'm going to show you a QR code. This is the really important one. To go to Talk Club Central, which is the. So tell us what the URL is and the domain is. For those that can't scan the QR code.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so talkcluborg is sort of like our main site. Talk Club Charity is all our socials and if you would like to chat to anyone here or set up a talk club or have any questions or want to donate or anything like that email, hello at talkcluborg want to donate, or into my email.

Speaker 2:

Hello at talkcluborg. Wonderful, thank you for that. Scan the qr code if you can at this point. And then this is how to follow ben acres on linkedin filmmaker, problem solver, co-ceo and founder. Mr ben acres, there you are, so look for you on linkedin too, as this has been your moment in the sunshine in the Good Listening 2 show, ben Akers. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Speaker 1:

No, I mean I just want to thank you. I think that what you've created and the energy that you bring to these sessions I've watched a few of them in my research for coming on and, yeah, I just want to thank you it's just, it's a pleasure and an honor to be part of this, this thing that you're creating. So well done to you, Chris, Thank you.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome and also, um, I love the fact that you will it make me better Felt like a real compliment when you said, yes, it does, by being here, and I suppose we owe it to each other to ask part of how are you out of 10?

Speaker 1:

well, I have to be a nine. I'm still a tiny bit tired, so I can't be a nine and a half, but I'll go on and I'll go a nine and a half. I'll exit. I'll exit at a nine and a half and I'll I'll. As soon as I walk out the door, I can drop down there, but at this moment I'm a good. I'm a good nine and a half. So, thank you. What are you now?

Speaker 2:

I'm a nine and a half too. I've absolutely loved the energy transmission and reciprocity that's happened in this. And should we just say one other thing about Clearhead and the importance of it? Behind you, on your backdrop, is all the iconography of I love the bloke font. But also just talk us through Clearhead and everything it brings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so Clearhead, I'm going to go like that, so you can just see the top of my head now. But yes, clearhead, as I say, we created it 2020. And it's an alcohol-free beer. 5% of total sales go to the community. I've been able to employ someone just off Clearhead, our community manager, so it makes a major, major difference.

Speaker 1:

The idea of it was was changing the way that you interact with a charity, because we will quite happily like we'd love you to run up mountains for us, we'd quite happily for you to give us your fibers but also creating sustainable relationships with people, because when these cases of clear head go out, we've actually just put a card in there because they're going out to, so, for example, they're going out to pubs all over the country and we sort of said like, if you'd like to set up a club here, now there's been five clubs just been set up from this little card that goes out with a case of clear head. So it's just, it's a, it's a vehicle. It's a vehicle of community, a vehicle for helping men talk and to look after themselves. So please buy, it's great.

Speaker 2:

It's a lovely beer as well. It is non-alcoholic and it's fantastic. It's a banger of a beer. Yeah, it is. It's great, wonderful. So yes, thank you so much for joining me here on the show, ben. As I say, my sincere hope is to help even more with the sort of global reach of what this show can bring because of the excitement. I mean. Uk Health Radio's mindscape would be totally appropriate for everything we've been talking about as well. So thank you so much for saying yes and for being here, and I'm glad it made you better to be here too. Thank you. So I've been Chris Grimes. Most importantly, that's been Ben Akers, founder of the Talk Club. If you'd like to have a conversation about being a guest to the website for my show, it's thegoodlisteningtoshowcom. There are seven different series strands as to how you can get involved, but this has been a best of Bristol, bristol Voices one where it's been my great. Did I hear a psst? There, are you?

Speaker 1:

about to have a tuck into a can of clear. No, that was just my watch. I just put my watch on.

Speaker 2:

I wish I had known that would have been a great outro. Oh blimey, he's necking a can of Clearhead. Fantastic, and then finally, slightly dull one. If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn too Boomtastic, there's the QR code for connecting with me on LinkedIn. So, ladies and gentlemen, I've been Chris Grimes. This has been Ben Akers. Anything else else you'd like to say? Ben no growing. Thank you very much indeed. And, uh, good night. You've been listening to the good listening to show with me, chris grimes.

Speaker 2:

If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the good listening to showcom website, and one of these series strands is called Best of Bristol, bristol Voices, helping to celebrate and amplify all the best of all the creative endeavours, the movers, the makers, the shakers and the mavericks, the influencers and the personal heroes, all from my hometown of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Best of Bristol, bristol Voices episodes can also be filmed and recorded live in front of an audience of the creative entity's choice, as well as streaming to all the usual social media channels as we do so. So, yes, get in touch if you'd like to find out more about Best of Bristol. Bristol Voices Tune in next week for more stories from the Clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.