The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Founder Story: Walk This Way! With Mike Rollason & Gill Stewart, Pioneers of a Walking Revolution. Transforming Health with Every Step with their Patented Walx Walking Poles & accompanying Book!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Everything you need with a daily walk! Could something as simple as walking transform your health, mood, and fitness all at once? In this enlightening conversation with Mike Rollason and Gill Stewart, Co-Founders of Walx.co.uk, we discover how they've revolutionised the concept of walking with their innovative 'Total Body Walking' approach and patented ergonomic Walking Pole design.

From their earliest days working in the Fitness Industry (Gill with her 1980s leg warmers, Mike with his outdoor adventure background) through to developing a unique walking method that engages 90% of your muscles with every step, this remarkable husband-and-wife dream team share the journey that's helped over half a million people improve their health and wellbeing. Their story weaves together entrepreneurial innovation, environmental consciousness, and a genuine passion for helping others experience the transformative power of moving outdoors.

What sets Mike and Gill apart is how they've taken Nordic Walking – traditionally technique-heavy and sometimes intimidating – and reimagined it into something accessible for everyone. Their breakthrough came in creating their ergonomically designed and patented Walx poles, manufactured sustainably in Italy, enabling users to enhance natural movement patterns while strengthening their core with every stride. This innovation has spawned a community of 60,000 UK members and expanded internationally across Europe and into Asia. As they explain, the benefits extend beyond individual health to potentially saving the NHS billions through preventative wellness.

Gill's newly released book "Walk This Way" distils their decades of knowledge, showing how a daily walk can incorporate cardiovascular training, strength work, balance exercises and mindfulness. Their approach proves you don't need complex equipment or intimidating gym environments to transform your health – just step outside, grab your poles, and discover how walking can become your complete fitness solution. Ready to revolutionise your relationship with exercise and the outdoors?

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. And good morning here in the UK on the old internet broadcasting live. Welcome to the Good Listening To Show stories of distinction and genius. I'm Chris Grimes, I'm your host.

Speaker 2:

This is the podcast and radio show in which I invite movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers and also personal heroes into a clearing or serious happy place of my guests choosing and I'm absolutely delighted to be welcoming today Mike Rollison and Jill Stewart, who are here from walkscouk, and we're going to talk initially about Nordic walking, but then we're going to reframe that and put that right. But Mike and Jill, a dynamic husband and wife duo, have now patented some element of walks which they're going to talk us about. And also jill, hot off the press, hotly unboxed, is her new book walk this way. If you're of a particular age, you'll remember a punch line to a joke. You know, if I could walk that way, I wouldn't need the talcum powder. But this is all about the supreme health benefits linked to a nietzsche quote the best ideas happen outdoors. We're going to talk about all things Nordic walking and beyond.

Speaker 2:

So let me introduce and I'm very delighted to have here Mike, who you can see on the left there, and his lovely partner Jill. Both of them run walkscouk, but here you are. Welcome to the show, both of you. Hello, thank you. And what a majestic setting. Can you just talk us where you're piping in through on the old interweb today, where are you sitting?

Speaker 1:

We're sitting in sunny Dorset in the village of Corfe Castle. Love that you might hear a steam train in the background in a minute.

Speaker 3:

And the odd seagull.

Speaker 2:

Steam trains and seagulls are us. That's fantastic. So welcome to the show. I'm going to curate you through the structure that I'll explain again for those that haven't seen the show yet. But if you've not seen it, where have you been? I've done about 250 of these monkeys. We met just to blow a bit of happy smoke at you through the entrepreneur circle. I went into the Facebook group to talk about one of my series strands called Legacy Life Reflections that I'll talk about at the end. But you're coming into something called a Brandstrand Founder Story, so let's get you on the open road. We all have the clunky experience of someone saying hello, what do you do? I know there's a reframing of Nordic walking coming, very importantly, but if people don't have a frame of reference for the dynamic duo of Mike Rollison and Jill Stewart, what's your favourite way of answering that question, helaire, what do you do?

Speaker 3:

We get people active and we help them, whether they need rehabilitation, whether they want fitness, whether they just want to be outdoors exercising and meeting other people. But we make sure they get results with every single step they take, and we do that via a network of instructors, a unique product and some programs that come from our background in the health and fitness and physical activity promotion sector.

Speaker 2:

And you've been doing this all well for circa 30 years. I'm gathering collectively, and in fact it could be 60 if we add both of the maths together.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm not trying to age us all, but you know.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, you're absolutely right. I don't know if that's good or bad, but anyway.

Speaker 3:

I first started to teach fitness in 1981. So you know, leg warmers, Olivia Newton-John, all that jazz, that was me.

Speaker 2:

And all that jazz is the seminal musical where leg warmers featured very, very heavily. Yeah, and all that jazz is the seminal musical where Legwarm was featured very, very heavily. Yeah, I think that was Bob Fosse, I think was the choreographer of that, I think.

Speaker 3:

I've seen them come around about four times in my lifetime.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and they could be back again, who knows? Wonderful yeah. And Mike, you're an epic skier. Back in the day You're a silky skier, aren't you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, aren't you? Yeah, I had a life in the outdoors and uh, yeah, very much. My whole career, from you know, from the age of 21, has been basically started off in the outdoor side and the sector and then moved into, uh, running health clubs, and then I became a director of the fitness industry association, my sins, representing all the ownerators through the UK and getting the industry mapped into government framework and, yeah, trying to get the standards in place. So that's been my life.

Speaker 2:

And how wonderfully appropriate. In Corfe Castle you've sat outside in order to broadcast. Normal people, most people and this is a compliment most people would be on the other side of that window frame trying to broadcast on Restream. You know, through their inside, their office or workspace, but you're outside, of course. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I, like I'm glad you used the statement that we're not normal, because normal doesn't.

Speaker 2:

It is a compliment. I promise we don't look normal.

Speaker 3:

No, we're very non-corporate and any of our team will tell you it's quite hard to get us to sit still or indoors for very long.

Speaker 2:

So so my test is whether you'll sit still long enough to allow me to curate you through. And you talk it's about total body walking. So just tell us a little bit, a little bit about that, and obviously we'll go deeper into it as we go through okay.

Speaker 3:

So total body walking is an involvement from um, using poles for fitness training, which is what cross-country skiers did and which is what Nordic walking was all about. Total body walking is a less coached, sporty version of that, which has become kind of all about technique and doing it correctly about technique and doing it correctly, whereas, probably because we are not conformists, we've broken it down and looked at what do people need to get from poles? How can we make that really really easy for them to get onto them and get results from them from the beginning in a much more natural, fluid way. So that's what total body walking is, and it also allows us to add strength, flexibility, conditioning and for people to connect with nature in a relaxed way, rather than strict nordic walking yes, and the exciting patent is to do with a universal grip now attached to your walks poles yeah this

Speaker 1:

gentleman here invented, yeah, so it was our opportunity to take our fitness industry knowledge to to walking. We actually work with our uh, our partner, fisan in Italy that have been making poles for 80 years and we looked at developing the perfect ergonomic handle, that basically that natural movement, uh, when you're walking, but enhanceable. And so we designed and patented ergonomic handles and work with the poles from feesan and that's now the flagship of what we do around those poles so you said flag their flagpole.

Speaker 2:

It's the joke that's going to keep on giving. You've run it up the flagpole. At the top of the flagpole is this patented handle, which is now. I suppose it's the entrepreneur's dream, because you've found the dream widget now, because that's what's going to be the thing that will make everything easier for everybody.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because we were very much about the service side of helping people get active, get results from activity. We were all about programming for encouraging people to get effective exercise. But actually now the poles themselves are a vehicle of which people can now buy and they don't have to come to one of our clubs or groups. But also, most of the poles were made out in China or Asia and we actually booked it and went actually sustainability, flying them from China carbons. So very much work with Fisan in Italy. It was also about looking at that sustainability aspect and longer term we're even trying to work with the likes of British Wool to see whether we could actually make the handles out of a byproduct of wool as well. Ah, yes, wonderful.

Speaker 3:

But when we first started, we looked at all of the benefits of using poles but also all the negatives of trying to teach people, and actually one of the key ones was well, you don't actually hold the pole with NordicWalking. You have to have a strap on it but not actually hold the handle, and when we're trying to get people onto them, it confuses them and whatever. So we went out in lockdown and we looked at how your hand is when you walk and we moulded something to fit into how your hand is when you naturally walk, so we can enhance natural gait and engage the core with every step you take.

Speaker 2:

Enter the sting song every step you take, every walk you make yeah, there's so many.

Speaker 3:

I mean in the book.

Speaker 2:

There are so many walking songs as well, lovely and may I say, walk this way into the clearing. Hurrah, yes. So it all takes place energetically in a clearing or serious happy place of my guests choosing. I'm then going to arrive with a tree. There's going to be a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called five, four, three, two, one. There's some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels oh squirrels a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So it's absolutely all to play for. I really enjoy doing it when it's a duo, because obviously you've had to think extra hard on who's going to answer what, and that'll be quite interesting insight into the quality of your managers as well as you decide who's going to answer what. So, first of all, a clearing. Where is what? Is your serious happy place, would you say? Where do you go to get clutter-free, inspirational and able to think?

Speaker 3:

Out on a walk. Just go walking. Every time Need to clear my head, need to think, need to think of the next chapter, need to think of a programme. I do that when I'm walking and I think you do the same, do you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is when we moved on to start something new. We lived out in Chamonix, in the Alps, so we did a lot of walking in the clean air of the mountains and suddenly we came back to life within, being productive and new thoughts while we were walking. So we each do our own thing. I mean I go out early in the morning taking the dog out, but you might hear in the background in a minute, so I do apologise if she contributes to the meeting. We love dogs. That's where I get my real thoughts from, not for the day, but thinking of the future.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like you've now become specific. You want it to be in the Chamonix Alps, where you want to stick your walks, pole in the sand to go, or in the mountainscape to say this is where we're walking although it sounds like you can walk anywhere pretty much and you find that same state yeah, yeah, anywhere.

Speaker 3:

I mean mike, mike likes to walk up a hill and look out over pool harbour. He likes to push himself. I um, I do like the exercise factor but, um, I'm really into mindful and walking slowly and really listening, smelling, picking flowers, making wild geese, that kind of thing as well.

Speaker 2:

And what's so exciting is obviously your perfect companion for your walks is often your dog. Dogs, as we know, are perfect companions because they're always living in the clock of now, now, now, now, now. And that's the best type of companion, because we forget to be truly present when we're walking. And in researching you, there was a statistic which you may please feel free to correct me on, but apparently using the walks poles is 40 percent more dynamic than not using them in terms of what what the health benefits are is. Was that a correct presumption?

Speaker 3:

it's. It's one of. There's lots of different measurements because it depends on the fitness of the individual and how much they can move and stride etc, etc. So, um, it can be from 20 to 40, but you're engaging 90 of your muscles, you're smiling much more, your posture is better, your core is engaged and you're striding out. So there's huge benefits cardiovascularly. But also the poles do aid you. So for people that aren't very good at walking, it means they can walk, and for people that are good at walking, it means they can perform much better, faster, further, etc.

Speaker 2:

And we'll talk about this, I know in greater depth, but the community that you've curated is very impressively large now. So how many people are in the total body walking community?

Speaker 1:

In the UK there's over half a million people that have gone through our induction course, which is the first one of our programs. So very muchill writes the programs according. So we may be working with people that live with parkinson's, we might be working with rehab, we could be working with people who want fitness, and very much our ethos was around empowering people, motivators within a community. They're the ones that are going to change people's lives and then we give them the skills and the support to then go and change lives within their community. We have about 60,000 members in the UK, but now we've extended out abroad, so we're working in a lot of European countries and we've recently launched in Taiwan, already in Malaysia. So we see that as the new gateway to Asia, which is really exciting. The only problem is with the sustainability. We might have to move the production of bowls back to China or Taiwan because we're not shipping them from.

Speaker 3:

Italy. We don't want to be shipping out there. I'm with you.

Speaker 2:

That's the sort of made in Taiwan stereotype that you're trying to subvert.

Speaker 3:

basically, Well, no, it's just we lovewan and we've got really good partners out there and um, but we made a conscious decision that we wouldn't be shipping poles that we were supplying, and now we started to work with taiwan. We don't want that to be in reverse. Yes, so if we continue to grow as we think we will, um, then we'll look at ways somehow that that that products can be manufactured closer to the people that are buying them.

Speaker 2:

The sustainability piece is is wonderful to hear as well. So we're in it. We're outdoors, we're walking. You can be specific? I talked about chamonix. Are you happy with that, or would you like to pin your walks, stick somewhere else? Where would you like to?

Speaker 1:

be. You know, chamney was the heart where we started from and to a certain extent, our heart is still there, um, but now we very much to make this happen. We realized we had to come back to the uk. And uh, and I actually said to jill, if we, we come back to the uk. The only place I want to live is down on the south coast, where I spent my life, every weekend coming down here. But we chose Dorset as the place to base ourselves. It was reasonably easy to get around the country.

Speaker 3:

Really.

Speaker 1:

From busy, busy summertime.

Speaker 2:

When I asked the question about how large the community is, do have a happy boast. How many people have been positively impacted, would you say, by what it is you're curating?

Speaker 1:

well, give you in the financial figure. You know we, we, we as an industry work with, uh, the nhs for many years and and a few years ago they gave a really interesting quote that they reckon that a one% improvement in physical activity would knock over £1 billion off the financial cost in preventative medicine to the NHS every year. Now I would equate with the fact that we've already changed the lives of over half a million people in the UK. We're probably contributing to the taxpayer by what we do. We're saving the NHS probably a billion pound every year already. Lovely story.

Speaker 2:

I'm now going to arrive with a tree in your clearing, which is definitely, quintessentially and very importantly outdoors, and I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. This is a bit deliberately, samuel Beckett-y, a bit. How do you like these apples waiting for Godot? This is where you've had five minutes to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, and then two things that never fail to grab your attention is the oh squirrels that we'll talk about when we get there, and the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you both or independently, that we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. So it's not a memory test, but over to you to shake the canopy of your tree as you see fit.

Speaker 1:

so four things we're going to do two each. So there you go.

Speaker 3:

I like that shake it on the things that shaped us a lot, I think, and it's really interesting because I was in my late 30s when we, when we met and um, we come from very different backgrounds but we both had very unconventional childhoods, so and I think that really has shaped me. In fact, I know it has shaped me because my parents were absolutely obsessive campers, and when we talk about camping it's any weather, every weekend, uh, off we would go. They would run campsites, they just loved camping. So I grew up knowing every county in the UK, going to all the most wonderful places, never being indoors and absolutely hating Sundays. And when I met Mike, I found out well, he'll tell you his story it was exactly the same because your parents In a similar vein, I was outdoors, except every weekend.

Speaker 1:

I was coming down to the south coast and going sailing. Every weekend I was coming down to the south coast and going sailing. So from the age of four through to virtually the rest of my life, I was heading in a different way and being in the outdoors in the sailing environment, whereas jill was heading north in the uh, the camping side so you both went feral, but independently you were going feral but the interesting link which jill brought out is when we were driving back from the south coast and Jill was driving back from wherever we were listening to that Sunday afternoon, packing the tent up, heading back and my mood would drop all the way back home.

Speaker 3:

When we were discussing this, I said I just distinctly remember being in the car and my parents would have Radio 2 on and it was something called Sing, something Simple, and Mike immediately went. Oh, so did we, and his parents used to listen to this.

Speaker 2:

I remember it Sing something, sing something simple, mike. Wonderful. Thank you for that memory, for me too.

Speaker 1:

What shaped me was that my parents were very entrepreneurial. They were in the timber industry and I think one of the things that really shaped me more than anything was my father how he actually came from being an employee to running his own business, because he worked in a timber company and he'd heard that Ford needed an awful lot of timber. So what he did is he borrowed an office from a friend of his and my mother sat in the office with a typewriter and there were lots of busy people around and he put up a little sign saying Rollison Timber with a typewriter. And there were lots of busy people around and he put up a little sign saying Rollison Timber. And so the Ford buyers came in and he didn't say it wasn't his offices, they just came in and of course they assumed and he won the contract of supplying all the timber for Ford and he then became very much of probably what shaped me was living in this world of an entrepreneurial family and I think that was a big shape for me.

Speaker 2:

To pick that office. How did he end up in the right office at the right time, with the right sign? Because how did he know that Ford were going to walk past?

Speaker 1:

No, no. He invited them, saying he'd had a little business card done up. He said I would like to come and talk to me, I would love to supply you and quote you for the timber and, I think, that little bit of cheek. And I love business. I've spent a life, but if you look where you came from, there's always the boundaries that you can step across without being, you know, too far across those boundaries. Such a lovely story, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And for me it was. You might remember the Dunlop Book of Facts that used to come out every year and my dad was an avid knowledge person. He had to keep reading, he had to keep getting facts and he used to test us on the counties and the geography, everything. I always remember those little quizzes from the dunlop book of facts, so I I credit that to um why I gather and retain the weirdest facts and and may I ask are you the dream team elite squad for a pub quiz?

Speaker 2:

then, because of your love of random facts, Jill is, I'm not.

Speaker 1:

I can't even remember my name. By the end of the week you can do the sport stuff. You have to be careful, though, chris. If you've spoken to Jill, it will be in that grey matter, and even 20, 30 years years on, it will still be there in some way I'd like the fact that you say you've got to be careful there so that there's a caution there.

Speaker 2:

Beware, because she remembers everything.

Speaker 3:

Great, dynamic, and now we're talking about three things that inspire you now well, I worked many years ago again, uh, for body shop in the early days and I was totally inspired by Anita Roddick, but it was around the fact that she just wouldn't be be bowed by anything. Everything was professional when we were there and that's always stuck with me and the fact that it was a brand that can make a difference and I always wanted to. If I was going to do anything, I wanted to make a difference and I always wanted to. If I was going to do anything, I wanted to make a difference and I wanted it to be as positive as that experience with her was. So Anita Roddick is number one and number two is a really weird one.

Speaker 3:

I was flying to Australia in the 90s and I picked up a book in the airport about aborigines, as you do, and I sat and read that on the plane and the whole ethic of if they come across something it's always got a meaning and they wouldn't eat something unless they're hungry that whole ethos of being at one with nature and the world really stuck with me. And the weirdest thing about that is the guy sitting next to me was reading the same book and some of the stuff in the book was around about. You know how things happen for a reason and and we spent quite a lot of the time on the flight trying to work out what what the reason could be for that one- you've just reminded me of that beautiful film walkabout, with jenny agata in it.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if you remember that that was of the same era that we were describing yeah, everything about the walkabout it's uh, yeah yeah

Speaker 1:

I think from my point of view. I saw the question and one of the early businesses I ran there was a lovely customer that used to come in and he was so polite and you know he's such a lovely guy and it took me probably 12 months to find out he was a guy called bob ediston. I won't go into all the details but he owns International Motors and if you read their story you know he was an accountant that went out and decided to become an entrepreneur and he took the importership of Mitsubishi and Subaru and Isuzu and how he grew. But I think he he for me, inspired me that you could be a really nice person but you could still run a very profitable big business and you don't have to be totally ruthless and just say his name one more time bob edmiston.

Speaker 2:

I like the fact you've bookended with anita roddick and bob edmiston in there. Yeah, yeah I think.

Speaker 3:

I think sometimes business is frowned upon. But if business is done correctly and somebody like our instructors can actually earn a living while they're helping others, they don't want to be made rich out of it, but business is not always bad. It shouldn't be seen bad that that somebody is making a living. You know, if it's all about profit and not about the consumer, then then that's wrong. But business itself can be done by nice people and it can be a good thing and ethically done.

Speaker 2:

Lovely, great interpretation of everything I'm giving you to interpret so far. And now we're on to the squirrels. You know what are your two, uh, monsters of distraction? This is borrowed from the film up deliberately. My family think I'm a loony for this bit. My wife said that'll never work. But, squirrels, what are your two monsters of distraction? This is borrowed from the film Up deliberately. My family think I'm a loony for this bit. My wife said that'll never work, but it's become a lot of people's favourite bit. You can be the judge of this. But what are your? Oh, squirrels borrowed from the film Up, what two shiny objects never fail to stop you in your tracks, irrespective of anything else that's going on for you in your head for me if I ever pass a river.

Speaker 1:

One of my passions that I do is is fly fishing and uh, we used to as lads, and if I see a river, I just that's it. Stop, pull the car over. I've got to go and look at that river and see if I can see a trout rising or something like that and presumably you like the gone fishing program with bob mortimer and and paul whitehouse yeah, I think it's good that it's brought into mainstream and attracts a lot of new people.

Speaker 1:

Probably wouldn't be, uh, be involved with it, and I think that that particular storyline is great because that goes way beyond just a bit of fishing and may I ask you, always have a rod in your boot, if you'll pardon that particular expression I do, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And he has his boots in the boot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do. I'm not exactly Mr Travel Light. And yeah, jules can be Stig of the Dump. Is that I always have to have the right bag?

Speaker 2:

That's another great reference, Stig of the Dump. I love that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I always have tucked in the back of the car.

Speaker 2:

It's just in case, just in case, just in case and I'm assuming you've got a boot full of walks sticks, because why wouldn't you? But who knows?

Speaker 1:

oh, yeah, yeah. People say why do you always drive such big cars? I need to carry everything with me just in case.

Speaker 2:

So that's one squirrel, and then do you want to interpret one too, joe?

Speaker 3:

yeah, mine is trees. I can't not stop at an amazing tree, and I'll be. I'll quite often just stop a conversation and say, oh wow, look at that tree. Um, and people, some people really buy into that and will look at it, and other people, just you can see them going. It's just a tree. It is never just a tree.

Speaker 2:

Take your time, it's never just so resonant inner clearing is a tree and you and me and that's the whole point, and in fact just yesterday I took a walk up through through colleton in devon to look at a tree that had just been shouting out to me from down below took a long way to get there and it was not on the main beaten path, but I specifically went to take a picture of a tree and stand next to it yeah, they are just fascinating and, of course, the tragedy of what happened at sycamore.

Speaker 2:

Sycamore gap as well was something else that was very seismic still feel the pain of that one, and how lovely for coming back to your story, that it's. You've bookended again deliciously with rivers and trees as squirrels.

Speaker 3:

That's great, I love that yeah, so unfortunately with material things for me, I just you know I'm not interested in gold or pearls.

Speaker 1:

We do have we do have a problem with the squirrel because bessie that's sitting in the background moaning squirrels are the one thing she'll go and change. So we have a slight problem that the the peace and quiet is is is disrupted if there's a squirrel about.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, so I love that bessie and squirrels and that's the dog from up, if you like. That's the point.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you've got it, thank you you might join our meeting in the moment, the way she's moaning, so you're very welcome.

Speaker 2:

Um, so now it's a quirky. We're onto the one now.

Speaker 1:

A quirky or unusual fact about you both that we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us we're actually going back to the fishing theme that when, when my brother and I were he was 10 and I was 8 and my parents put us on a uh, a trout fishing course in in near birmingham, and uh, suddenly a film crew turned up and it was johnny morrison animal magic. So we appeared on uh, or I appeared on johnny morrison animal magic, and even to the point, it was the time which my parents dashed out and bought a color tv because their two sons were going to appear on tv. So that's my little claim to fame that's a really cool fact.

Speaker 2:

And you've got a color tv upgrade as well. Fantastic, and mine was.

Speaker 3:

I did for a very short period in my life, when I was about 17, I decided that I would go and work in the city and so I became a civil servant and worked in London and hated every minute of it. But I saw a very famous hair salon was quite close by and they put one of those signs out that they wanted models for the hairdressing students to practice on. So I thought I'd get a trendy free haircut, went in, had a purdy cut again referenced to the good old days had this stunning purdy cut and they took a few photos. I thought, oh, that was really nice, great. You know, parents weren't overly impressed with the haircut when I got home, but I was very proud of it. And it was a few weeks later that colleagues and people pointing at me and saying, oh yeah, I saw, I saw that picture of you. And my dad was furious because on the underground suddenly my face appeared with this purdy cut advertising said chain of salons. And my dad pointed out that I'd got nothing for that, um, for that picture.

Speaker 2:

Because it wasn't ethical, which all business should be. It was not actually say ethical. But Purdy is great company. That's Joanna Lumley, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

yeah that was the Joanna Lumley cut was the Purdy cut to be fair, chris, we're always because we wrapped our brains with that one and we. We did a very similar thing when we took a group from the fitness industry on a ski trip and we were sitting around the table and we asked a very similar question what factors, what can you do? And we went around the table with all our great little stories, but the one that we could never. We looked at this guy and we said, well, okay, and he goes. I was the Milky Bar kid and he went. That is fantastic. You just looked at him. He was the Milky Bar one of them and he went. Well, I can never beat that one.

Speaker 3:

I've never done that one since, because it's just been topped for us and the minute he did the thing you could just see the specs on him and it was him Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Cool fact and thank you so much for the care, attention and commitment you put into the five, four, three, two, one. That's lovely. And now we're going to stay in your clearing, which is definitely quintessentially outdoors, and now we're going to talk about alchemy and gold. When you're at purpose and in flow, what are you both absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Speaker 3:

gardening. I'm I'm tending my plants and gardening for me it's fly fishing.

Speaker 2:

That's where I'm happiest he's tickling. A trout is the is tickling a trout can't be tickling a trout and and obviously writing, reading, writing, gardening oh, what a gorgeous segue into now putting your book on a metaphorical plinth within the clearing at the alchemy and gold moment. So, um, walk this way is your new book. There is going to be a qr code as well, so if you're listening at this point, this is your brand new, only just unboxed new book. So talk us through your book. Walk this this Way, jill.

Speaker 3:

It's a culmination of everything that I've done. So about getting people active, about loving the planet and wanting to be part of that and being active, being fit, but not this thing about exercise being somebody who's really fit and loves being fit, barking you and and telling you what to do. It's about you can work your whole body and your mind on a daily walk so you can work your cardiovascular, you can do drills for speed, you can do strength, you can do balance. You can get everything you need on a daily walk, and so the book is chapters about how to do that, and then the final chapter is lots of bonkers ideas for making a walk more interesting, and for those who's watching as well as listening, there is a qr code where you can go straight to where you can buy walk this way it's being released next thursday congratulations and wonderful stuff, and, and now I'm going to award you with a cake, hurrah.

Speaker 2:

So do you like cake? First of all, I love it.

Speaker 1:

I like cakes too much, yeah, unfortunately, but yes, I love cake.

Speaker 3:

Polenta cake is just. Raspberry polenta cake is the best.

Speaker 2:

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. And Mike, what cake do you want to go for? Battenberg? And Mike, what cake do you want to go for? Ah, battenberg, retro Battenberg, excellent, the almond and the pink and the yellow.

Speaker 3:

He makes one every week, do you?

Speaker 1:

That's it Actually. No, I do the cake. Well, is it a cake? Dorset apple cake? Then you're talking. If you haven't had dorset apple cake, that's yeah, yeah you've tickled our senses with battenberg, apple cake and the.

Speaker 2:

What did you say? The was your cake, polenta, polenta, yes, polenta, so I'm going to award you with that. That's the cake. And now you get to put a cherry on your cakes because you've done plural. And this is now what's a favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled. You get to put a cherry on your cakes because you've done plural, and this is now what's a favourite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your futures.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, the quote I actually do refer. The more people I meet in life, the more I love my dog.

Speaker 3:

Apart from at the moment now, while she's moaning in the background Apart from in the background, which I.

Speaker 2:

That's a lovely self-penned quote. The more people I meet in life, the more I love my dog. Has anyone else said that before? That's a Mike Rollison quote. It's unfortunate.

Speaker 1:

you get older and grumpier in life, then that's part of Greg Old, but apparently Mark Twain originally supposedly said it and then some french guys said it, so in a different way, so I think it's been around a long time, I think quite a lot of women have said the more men I meet, the more I like I think that was yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I think it's something of which it's well known, and I think again, especially post covid, where we we've changed in life and there seems to be a lot more grumpy people around in the world, yeah, feeling sorry for themselves, and uh, yeah it's, it's something of which I I can relate to and for me it is walking is batman's best medicine.

Speaker 2:

Hippocrates and also the latin phrase solvita ambulando, which means it is solved by walking, and let's deliberately reincorporate those two, because I heard batman there, but then socrates walking is man's best medicine, which was Hippocrates, and then solvateur ambulando, which is just.

Speaker 3:

it is solved by walking and it's an old Latin phrase.

Speaker 2:

Gorgeous, lovely jubbly. So what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given by somebody else?

Speaker 1:

Going back to business side. He's another lovely guy, dutch guy that I work with in the fitness industry called Harm Teglers and if anybody knows Cannons and he was the man that pioneered and he said to me one day he said, mike, never get into bed with anybody bigger than you because when they roll over they'll crush you. And I thought he's absolutely right.

Speaker 3:

That was great wonderful um, mine was just when I think I'd I'd either written something or done something, and then I saw it being copied and was a little bit frustrated by it. Um, and I was. I was told by a very good friend um, just accept the fact that you're brilliant at what you do and so if you're successful, people will copy you and and um and I, just when I see it now, I just go come on. Then ai say say everything. I know, I said it first lovely um.

Speaker 2:

With the gift of hindsight, what notes, help or advice might you proffer to a younger version of either walks or yourself? You know, however, you'd like to interpret that the best. You know what advice you give yourself.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's an interesting one, but whenever I meet people, I like to know who I'm dealing with. So I always imagine who they were in the classroom when we were 11 years old and when you think back, you might have a 55-year-old in front of you, you might have a 35, you might have a 70-year-old. That 11-year-old is still there and I try and imagine, when you were back in that classroom at 11 years old, who that person is, whether they're the school bully, whether they're the geek, because that true character is still there. Might get disguised that that is there still, and I think that will save people a lot of heartache and also give them better understanding of who who they're working with I love that, absolutely love that it links beautifully to the einstein supposition if you can't be clear to a six-year-old, it's not the six-year-old's fault.

Speaker 2:

And then, winding forward to being 11, you. The autonomy of thought age begins there. Love that.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think that's where the word 11, I just imagine that they were old enough to be their true character, yes, but they haven't yet then started to disguise it in whatever form that might come. And that's not a deliberate act, it's just naturally.

Speaker 2:

But they're old enough and wise enough to 11 years old.

Speaker 3:

That's a great leadership reflection. Thank you for that. And, and mine is really just surround yourself with um selfless people and not selfish people, because as soon as I come across someone, if somebody says to me oh, I want to be an instructor, how much will I earn, then don't bother.

Speaker 2:

It's the wrong question. How?

Speaker 3:

many people do you want to help and are you going to gain something from doing that? Then come and talk to me, and that's the way we operate. Selfless people.

Speaker 2:

And may I congratulate you both at this point for how you're interpreting the structure of all this. It's a delight we're ramping up to Shakespeare finally in a moment to talk about legacy and how you're remembered, but just before we get there, this is the pass. The golden baton moment. Please, they don't like it, I'm misdemeanoring, but who now? You've experienced this from within. The construct of the Good Listening 2 show is stories of distinction and genius.

Speaker 1:

Who might you most like to pass the golden baton along to, to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going? Yeah, we had a thought about this and there's only one. There's only one, and I think for you, chris, he would be absolutely fantastic. His name is paul brown and he's based on the gold coast of australia and he's a leading light presenter in the fitness industry and he's been a friend of ours for 30 years. And his story. So I won't go into it. No, we mustn't tell his story, honestly. We will pass the baton to an introducer because he will entertain and he's a great person. We will pass the baton to him.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I'm excited already. Thank you very much. And now, finally, then Shakespeare. All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. How, when all is said and done, borrowed from the seven ages of man's speech, would you most like to be remembered?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's an interesting one because we've had to really struggle with coming out of the shadows and you know, both of us, interestingly, have had business partners that have been the front person, um, and I've been quite happy being in the background, and I think we both think the same that what we've created with now, with the product and the patent, which is literally life-changing.

Speaker 1:

What we would like to see as a legacy is that is all around the world changing lives, that it gives people a vehicle that we can look back and, rather than it being us with our name on it, we would smile to ourselves wherever we might be in the future, looking down on earth, yes, and saying we invented that and we had a blank sheet of paper and we redesigned it and people have adopted as a mainstream way of improving their health and well-being yeah, I mean, if obviously I want to be a tree, I don't want to have a gravestone, but if I did a pair of poles on it with um, she made something we all do better, faster, you know, easier fun that then that's fine for me and now we're going to show the qr code tocouk.

Speaker 2:

So just talk us through if you're not watching this. Just tell us what the website is and you can also scan the QR code.

Speaker 1:

So basically, it is at this stage in life. It is a summary where people can go, whether they're a member of the public, whether they are wanting to be an instructor with a new career, whether they want to be a retailer, whether they're wanting to be a social prescriber. It's somewhere that they can go to a resource and hopefully find information of which then we can engage with them. But it's an opening book.

Speaker 3:

I mean, if people can't find a club near them and they can't find someone to show them how to walk with our poles and do all of our programs and exercises outdoors, then we can engage with them online as well. So we are just there to help people walk um and you know whether they can and they want to improve their walking, or whether they just want to get more into it and find out how valuable it can be for them, and it's also a retail store where they can buy of course, lovely, and if you are a, you know obviously with very intelligent lay people out there wanting to google about and how to get going in this.

Speaker 2:

Will they find you if they google nordic walking, or is that the whole point?

Speaker 3:

they need to go somewhere different they probably will, because we established that we brought it into the UK many moons ago. They'll also find us under walks, w-a-l-xcouk, total Body Walking, you know, and Walks Polls. All of those things should lead to us and our lovely instructors and clubs out there.

Speaker 1:

So, if we've done our job right, we've reversed engineers 10 years of Nordic walking over the last five years into the new brand which is walks and total body walking. So we are in in. Uh, we very much changed the narrative uh, to to make sure that our message was being told. So if Google's doing its job right, then hopefully they'll find total body walking and walks for the next Um. But if they went to nordic walking, then we should. They'll still find us because we still have very strong presence in that arena.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful so there'll be a final question coming up in just a moment, but just a couple of announcements. If you've been listening to the show and would like a conversation about guesting too, then the website for the good listening to show is the good listening to showcom. That's the good listening to showcom. If you'd like to connect with me on linkedin me, chris grimes, motivational comedian, broadcaster, facilitator and coach you can do that too. And then, very, very excitingly, the third one to show you is a new series strand that I know um mike and jill are going to overtly help me with as well, which is wonderful, which is called legacy life Reflections.

Speaker 2:

And, without any morbid intention, legacy Life Reflections is using this unique storytelling structure to record the story of somebody near, dear or close to us for posterity, lest we forget before it's too late. Again, no morbid intention, but it's just a new way to capture that precious life, and it takes just two hours of your life to capture that precious story forever. So, mike Rollison, jill Stewart, this has been your moment in the Good Listening 2 show, sunshine. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Speaker 1:

No, apart from, I think your new proposal and we look forward to helping you within that and I think it's a great idea and we, just you know, welcome the opportunity, your new proposal and we we look forward to helping you within that and I think it's a great idea and we, just you know, welcome the opportunity to share what we do and I think it's a great platform and we really appreciate your time you can see, from today, we we've dragged things out from many, many years ago and I think chatting to someone and them asking you those questions, uh, it does show what shaped you and I think this is a great concept for getting that information out for posterity wonderful and thank you so much for the wonderful care and attention and I loved how you divided up the narrative as you went through.

Speaker 2:

That was a perfect. That felt that was a perfect, curated episode for me. You'd done your homework and it was much appreciated. So, uh, ladies and gianmin, min, min min, I've been chris crimes, but most importantly, this is mike rollison and jill stewart. And don't forget to buy, walk this way and also keep walking this way, because that's the whole point, it's total body walking. So anything else else else you'd like to say?

Speaker 1:

finally, the two of you no no, no, it's just goodbye from me and it's goodbye from him.

Speaker 2:

The two Roddoos as we leave us. So thank you very much indeed for watching. So thank you very much indeed. Good night, bye.

Speaker 2:

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 capture the story of someone else, with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the goodlistening2showcom website, and one of these series strands is called legacy life reflections. If you've been thinking about how to go about recording your life story or the life story of somebody close to you for posterity, but in a really interesting, effortless and creative way, then maybe the good Listening To Show can help. Using the unique structure of the show, I'll be your host as together we take a trip down memory lane to record the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of either your or their life story, and then you can decide whether you go public or private with your episode. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more. Tune in next week for more stories from the Clearing and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.