The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Founder Story: From Corporate Misfit to Change Alchemist with Patrick Bevan. On unleashing his ADHD Super Power, Sporting a Purple Mohican & Finding True Purpose Beyond the Contrains of Corporate Walls

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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What happens when you finally stop trying to fit in and start embracing your true self? Patrick Bevan's transformation from corporate misfit to change alchemist reveals the power of authenticity in both life and business.

Patrick's journey begins with childhood struggles of not belonging – growing up in Hull as the kid who didn't fit in. The narrative takes a fascinating turn with a seemingly random walk through Battersea Park with a stranger who would become one of the world's most successful fund managers. This chance encounter catapulted Patrick from a dead-end job in a television shop to a cutting-edge trading firm, setting him on a path through the corporate world where he would continually feel like an outsider.

The turning point came when a Myers-Briggs assessment revealed Patrick as the lone ENFP in a room full of introverted, judgmental bankers. The facilitator's words struck deep: "The bank absolutely needs people like you because you bring the spark, but they'll never welcome you." Years later, an ADHD diagnosis would help Patrick understand why he'd always felt different – and how that difference could become his greatest strength.

When the pandemic hit, Patrick embraced radical change. Sporting a purple mohican and questioning his corporate path, he finally took the leap to establish Change Alchemy, where his unique ability to see solutions others miss has become his superpower. "I see things that you don't see because you're down in your rabbit hole," he explains, perfectly capturing the value he brings to clients.

Despite leaving the security of a corporate salary, Patrick is now "happier than I've ever been in my life." His story isn't just about career transformation – it's about the courage to embrace your authentic self and turn perceived weaknesses into strengths. Whether you're feeling stuck in a job that doesn't value your unique perspective or considering a bold change in direction, Patrick's journey offers both inspiration and practical wisdom.

Ready to solve problems differently? Connect with Patrick at changealchemy.co.uk and discover how embracing your true nature might be the key to unlocking your own potential.

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 1:

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 five, four, three, two, one, 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? Welcome, welcome. Well, hang it thrice welcome. Welcome to Future Leap Studios in Clifton, my recent swanky glow up studios.

Speaker 1:

I'm Chris Grimes. I'm a broadcaster, facilitator, motivational comedian, and this is the Good Listening To Show Stories of Distinction and Genius. And it is my great joy and delight to welcome Patrick Bevan to the clearing of the show. You're all thinking it. The fatal flaw with any podcast is the fatal flaw with podcasting across the world is it's normally two middle-class men talking to each other. But we're going to break the mold by proving that this is very exciting and a wonderful episode for you to enjoy. So, patrick bevan, you are more than a business change strategist. You bring the magic with you. Correct welcome to the show. So how's morale and how's your? What's your story of the day?

Speaker 2:

I'm delighted. Thank you for having me, chris. I'm really happy to be here. Um, we could have done this on the phone, but no, I thought I'd have a day out in bristol, so a lovely little drive over this morning, feeling very chilled and we met because you're kind enough to get in touch after you'd seen me being in julia duffy's podcast, which is fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Just a quick mention people are everything is a wonderful podcast as well out there, I think it's you talking about stan, laurel, and also you and julia not being able to say the word reciprocity well, to be pedantic, she couldn't say reciprocity, whereas it's my favorite word.

Speaker 1:

You see, okay, yes, so yes, but but stan laurel is my all-time comic hero. But just explain what was the resonance? Why did you get in touch? Because of that?

Speaker 2:

we'll'll probably get more into it, but since I've got into my 2.0 life, I'm out meeting new and interesting people, and I found through Julia. I started watching your podcasts and I've got plenty of things to fill my day, but I found myself hooked and I thought well, I'll give this guy a shout and just say hello.

Speaker 1:

It's as simple as that it's as simple as that and just say yes, more in the universe of yes and and yes, windows and doors on lubricated hindus tend to just swing open, and it was.

Speaker 2:

It was that it was you saying yes and, and I've had a career of um no buts and it's no yes, and it's very much a more positive outlook on life and you mentioned patrick bevan 2.0.

Speaker 1:

That's something I just riffed with you today and I like that. So just what's the story behind the story of why Patrick Bevan 2.0?

Speaker 2:

Lots of change in my life, so I deliver change, but I'd say over the last few years, kind of starting just before lockdown, going through lockdown and leaving working big business so I worked for the big companies like HSBC and Deloitte and I've got an amazing CV that looks fantastic, but I just went. I'm not working to my purpose and this is 2022, I'm going to go and do something different and I didn't even know what it was and I've been on this journey since. I've kind of been meeting people like yourself and seeing where that takes me and just having fun. So the pandemic was the catalyst to sort of have to stop, I suppose, or change.

Speaker 2:

Part of it was kind of I'd recently been diagnosed with ADHD, which I don't want to jump on a Daily Mail bandwagon here and say, oh, everyone's got ADHD. But even just as recent as 2019, it wasn't a big thing and that made me realise I'm different. And why am I in this bank? Why am I in Deloitte's then? Sorry, what am I trying to do? And I think the pandemic gave me the time to think about it.

Speaker 1:

And something I was really struck with and we're going to show the photograph of this towards the end at a very exciting moment called Show Us your QR Code please, because it's very important we find out where exactly we can come and work with the awesome reinvigorated Patrick Bevan 2.0 at the end. But one of the things I remember you saying you did is I mean, your hair is, may I say not natural.

Speaker 2:

Today it's beautifully blondly. But you got a purple mohican at the beginning of the pandemic, so just just riff on that for a moment. Not just a purple one. So with the pandemic I actually ran a run club at deloitte and we did every week. But when the pandemic shut us all down, we thought, well, what do we do? So I came up with a wacky idea of let's all run in fancy dress in our local neighborhood because we can. So I did myself a ba barracus. I got my wife to shave in the mohican. I put on a big kind of black mustache thing.

Speaker 2:

I got all my old medals from half marathons. By the way, if you turn up for half a marathon, you get a medal. You don't walk it, you've lost an opportunity to big yourself. Yeah, I've got hundreds of these things and I ran around the locals thinking I'll see nobody, and I saw everybody I knew running around with a mohican and a deloitte top and these medals and it stuck. So then I went purple and I had blue. Then I went red, white and blue for ve day and it just picked out orange white.

Speaker 1:

It just became a thing, wow so the, the pandemic was a real enabler and a catalyst for profound seismic, actually arriving at your true, authentic self.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, taking a step back, really thinking I'd had quite a challenging time at work and just thought I can't do this anymore. I'm bored, I've got to go and find, I've got to go and find my thing and this weird thing called adhd, so I'll look into that. Oh, and seven days after my 50th birthday, the world shut down.

Speaker 1:

And what attracted you to going to find out about ADHD. I mean, what made you decide?

Speaker 2:

It's simple. I've always been weird. Well, in truth, it's my son who, being clear about it, my daughter, who now is identifying as a son. So we've been through quite a challenging time with Luke. He was diagnosed with ADHD probably five or so years before. I started to see the traits in me and thought, well, a way of accessing luke is to show him that I've got the same sort of thing. Other than saying we all do that, because that's what adhd people do. I thought I'll get a diagnosis if I find out if I am, and I did, and I basically basically passed it like I've never passed a test in my life. You know, this was A star star and it wasn't for me. It wasn't me thinking I've got to see what's wrong with me. I wanted to help Luke see that you're not alone.

Speaker 1:

And I was intrigued by you saying it was yes, I passed it more than I've ever passed. It was an A plus plus. The fact of the matter is it is a superpower now because it's a. It's a liberating diagnosis, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

it is, and you've got to be careful how we say this, because I've learned the things I'm good at, and a lot of them are the things that have massively helped me in my career. But I've also been slapped down for, like you, you can't always be solving problems. You've got to do the boring stuff.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm not very good at the boring stuff sorry you know, one of the things I did at loy was I hated the admin so I built an admin team for them to save the millions of pounds there. Now you've got to run the admin team.

Speaker 1:

Really, you want me to run the last it's it's the true art of delegation to realize and appreciate properly. Appreciate where you end and somebody else begins exactly, and then that's the art of delegation. Yeah, we can't be good at everything, and the the more people wake up to that, the better the world will run without sand in its gears exactly, and I'm not.

Speaker 1:

I'm not the world's best delegator and I love the empathy of identifying in inverted commas with luke, in order to then work out whether you were too yeah, I think his attitude to it is we've got a wonderful family.

Speaker 2:

My wife is undiagnosed autistic, which really annoys her because she wants the diagnosis, but I think we balance each other off and drive each other mad in a wonderful way that's a yin yang.

Speaker 1:

So do you think? The complete dream scenario is an adhd. And then autistic.

Speaker 2:

Is the great, that's the magic no, I think the dream scenario is still me on my own on a desert island with kylie.

Speaker 1:

But in terms of what we've got today, yes, talking of being on my own in a desert island with kylie. We may or may not go there, but my clearing like desert island discs, but not my clearing is your serious happy place, and this, rather than being on an island, is going to be about stories rather than music. So, just to borrow a bit of happy context, if you've not seen this show before, where have you been? I've done about 260 of these monkeys now, and now what we're going to do is going to talk about a clearing. There's going to be a tree, there's going to be a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There's going to be some alchemy, some gold, a couple and squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So it's all to play for.

Speaker 1:

So may we get you on the open road of that, definitely. And don't forget, there is a very, very exciting Show Us your QR Code section at the end and very clearly this is a storytelling platform in order to get into the who, the what, the how, the why you do what you do and then, really importantly, we'll find out where exactly we can find patrick bevan. More than a business team strategist, he brings the magic with him at the end of the show. Patrick bevan 2.0. 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 2:

where we live in claygate near east, near surrey, southwest london, we're very lucky that we've got woods all around us. So about 10 minutes walk from my house I'm in the woods with the dog and everyone goes up and down the main tracks but I go down a little side track that goes around the stream and ever since we've had our little dog, ripley, the seven-year-old puppy that he still is, there's a particular patch where he would do this mad five minutes and start swirling around doing a figure of eight at speed and you just stand there and watch him and still to this day he does that. He's done it from a puppy and he still does it, not every time, but it's still his kind of happy place and my happy place is standing watching ripley do that next to the stream, in the woods, and it is a clearing the spontaneous figure of eight that he keeps doing.

Speaker 1:

There's something so spiritual about the figure of eight. A bit like the figure of eight, fairies are there going.

Speaker 2:

This is where the clearing is exactly he messed up our garden because when it's for kids we got him. He used to do this figure of eight round that bush and he just started cutting it in.

Speaker 1:

Monty Don, at the Chelsea Flower Show, recently curated an entire garden based on the desire lines of his dog, as in where would you like to go? And did you know that the random paths that we all take off the beaten track are called desire lines rather?

Speaker 1:

than stuff, the path. This is where I want to go and that's called a desire line. I didn't know that. I learnt that from another podcaster called Katie Elliott out there and I learnt that from her. So if you watching, Katie, thank you for that. I thought you were the only one.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the only podcaster. Yeah, if only we're in a beautiful off-piste, off-path lakeside or puddle it's a streamside, streamside and clearing in a wood with a stream going round it. So the meanders created this little clearing, with my little dog running around doing a figure of eight and the name of the dog, ripley, ripley or dig bat, ripley, dingbat, ripley or dingbat depends on the day not full name posh, ripley, dingbat.

Speaker 1:

The third, no, lovely. And now I'm going to arrive with a tree in your clearing. I'm now going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. How do you like these apples? You can please do hold one, but you don't have to eat it. Yeah, come in um. So this is now your preparation that you've been kind enough to do, for the exercise called five, four, three, two, one. At this point, I got this exercise in the curation of everything that I've I'm doing with the, the good, listening to show to a wonderful man called dave stewart, out there from fresh air leadership. Every time I think to remember to thank him for this. It's become the epicentre of taking Dave Stewart. So 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. So it's four things that have shaped you first of all, over to you.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to start. I'm going to go way back and I'm going to start with a Christmas party on Christmas Day at the house of a paedophile in Hull when I was 10. Wow, violin, hull when I was 10. Wow, yeah. And then I'm going to try and make it light. But when I was 10 we moved to the most run-down house on the posh street, which meant from that moment on I was beaten up for being posh because I wasn't. And when it snowed I remember we went there 10th of October 1980. It snowed soon after we went out on the street, no kids at all, until two girls turned up who were a bit older than me and one of them just basically beat the hell out of me with snow. So that's no fun. Moved on now.

Speaker 2:

Our family didn't really do much. I'm jumping around a bit, but I will get to the point. Our family didn't really do things like go out and do stuff. My dad was in the club every night, the club that had sports things on it, but he was drinking in the club every night. Mum was at home.

Speaker 2:

But then this christmas day 1980, we all went around to this guy's house for a party and it was just all the dads from the club with their families and their kids, and I had one of the best christmas presents I'd ever had. It was 1980, so it was a space invader game and tell that space and get better. Three columns, little things moving around. What have we got today? Forget that. This was better. I remember sitting down playing it and one of those girls that beat me up with the snow came and sat next to me, nicked it off me and just played it all day. It's like okay, great, but actually we got to be friends and that friends. And that friend is Emma, and Emma's still a friend and she lived three doors away from me in Hull and I think it's a pivot moment for me that she became my one and only friend on that street. But the reason for it was I didn't know this at the time. I only found this much later on the reason we'd gone to the club.

Speaker 2:

Now, bear in mind this is 1980. How many times do I have to say? This was the person whose party it was. It was a little bit older than my dad and Emma's dad, but he'd just been investigated by the police for being a paedophile. So all the dads at the club thought we'll rally around Max. Max is a great guy. Didn't mean to say his name, but it's long gone and it's public knowledge and that's the reason we were sent there. We were sent to basically support this. Wow, yeah, but I don't think I'd have ended up meeting emma properly and becoming her friend to the extent I spent most of my teenage years around there and hopefully you remember, just because of the occasion and that's why we've been since.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, there was no, you didn't really have to. Well, I hope you didn't go to any really dark sides with that?

Speaker 2:

no, luckily not, luckily not. But it's just weird that mentality of oh no, this guy's great, we'll all show your support.

Speaker 1:

How strange, yes, and Emma's own first impressions were very compelling the idea of pelting you to she still beats me up at every opportunity. And then Nikki, she's still making things from you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've kind of. No, it's not like that. We love each other. She's now living down near the south coast and doing very well for herself, but we still see each other. She was around our house a little while ago.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful. That's a very profound, unique first shapeage. Shapeage number two, please, number two.

Speaker 2:

This one is going for a walk in the dark with a strange man in Battersea Park. There's a bit of a theme developing here, let's move on.

Speaker 2:

Um no, so so play it forward. So I had a troubled teenage time. Yeah, I muddled through some o-levels completely, failed my a-levels completely. I think you got a general studies one, but I was drunk for most of my levels. So where everyone else was falling out of school and going to university, I fell out and ended up working in a telly shop where I'd had a Saturday job and I just worked in a telly shop for three years, just pretty damn depressed, going absolutely nowhere.

Speaker 2:

By this point Emma had moved away, she'd moved to London and I mean I still hadn't got a girlfriend. I was so looking back. It's quite a sad situation. But I went to visit her and her boyfriend and they were living in Soho, right in the middle of Soho, murd Street, living opposite Greta Skokie of all people, which meant that I was in the front row staying over. I didn't go to sleep. She goes, it's great. She didn't turn up and I didn't sleep, but it was really awkward because I was with a boyfriend. I felt a bit third wheel. I mean I didn't like it. And then on the Sunday we were there.

Speaker 2:

We all went around to this big house in Chelsea to meet James's friend James was there with his boyfriend, james's friend David, and they were all smoking and it was all I just I didn't fit in and it was getting smoky, so I just used this as an excuse to say I've got too much smoke, I'm feeling a bit choked up, I'm going to go for a walk. At which point this David, who had actually been a bit in the way because he said I'll come with you. Great, I just wanted a bit of peace and quiet. But we left his house, beaufort Street Street, which is very posh I didn't know this because I'm a rough kid from Hull and we went for a walk around Bathory Park. Yeah, and he blew me away because he told me about his company. He had set up a computer trading fund management company trading futures globally, and this was before dot com, this was well before tech, startups and founders and exit this and seed capital, this, that and the other. This was I'd never heard anything of it. And by the end of the walk it's so many stories look up at tulips from amsterdam on the first futures markets. Just, I've never heard this stuff.

Speaker 2:

And he offered me a job and there I was, on probably about 100 pounds a week in the telly shop, spending all of that on booze, still living at home with my dad and just not having a good time. So I thought I'll think about it. We then all I stayed on my little holiday with Emma and James. We went round James's house in Bath actually Not Bath Bath, I think, there's a different one down here and David turned up. I thought this is going to be nice, but it was horrible. It was just really tense and after a day of being there I thought I can't stand this and I left, which annoyed them because I was the only one with a four-seat car. But I just left them like I can't be here and I thought well, that's it, you've thrown away this job. Something's going on. I'm out, play forward the. I got a girlfriend, which was fun.

Speaker 2:

Emma left James and started dating David, got engaged to David and got married to David. So I think I know what was going on. But whether it was going on then or not, I don't know. But I was supposed to go to the wedding. I'd blended a few of my bikes so I couldn't go. But I remember Emma calling and saying you know, david says you can still have the job, and I thought I've got to do it and it seems so obvious now that I should have done it.

Speaker 2:

But thinking back to Patrick 1.0 didn't do things. Patrick 1.0 had no confidence in himself to do anything. His safe place was his bedroom and sliding in his bedroom, smoking and drinking, smoking a lot and I thought, sod it, I'll do it. And I went to be a data temp. I started on 28th of September 1992 for a company called Adam Harding Lewick which was part-owned but then fully bought out by the Mann Group, who are a massive fund management company because they bought AHL. David is David Winton Harding, sir David Winton Harding, who set up Winton Capital. So he's one of the biggest fund managers in the world really. And it was all down to that little wander around Bathsea Park.

Speaker 1:

And winding back to that walk in the park, did he just see potential in you? So he's a key influencer? Obviously I think so, but he really plucked you out of potential teleshop obscurity and picked you up and tried to put you down several times but kept picking you up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and he excited my brain and it was because it was a startup. It was like we'll try this, we'll do this, and I had four brilliant years working there where we built an amazing company and I went from cleaning tick data to running a trading system, building the team, writing the engine that basically makes the millions Not the clever bit, but actually writing the code as such but it just felt naturally like another problem every day. We just did it and we were surrounded by people that just had that attitude.

Speaker 1:

So you obviously have a very mathematical brain, or coding brain. Yeah, so you're coded differently to your own volition, as ADHD, exactly so the coding is the superpower.

Speaker 2:

I thought because when we'd finished the system and it was all getting a bit stable, it was like well, what do you want to do? There aren't problems every day now. So I'll go and join the development team. I was bored out of my mind because there weren't any problems to solve. So give me code, but give me a problem to solve and some tools. I'll find the way.

Speaker 1:

Because you're a maverick, an outlier in a good way.

Speaker 2:

I mean I apply the same currency objective outside, looking in. So I like the maverick. It's a compliment. Two bosses separately, about five years apart, put maverick in my end of year review when I worked at hsbc and it was both.

Speaker 1:

It was both as a detrimental point I've always taken it as a compliment whenever I think it's a compliment.

Speaker 2:

2.0 takes it's a compliment wonderful.

Speaker 1:

So david is a legend because he's and he's still. Obviously you're still connected and he's still out there and vaguely.

Speaker 2:

We kind of drifted apart because he went on did his own thing. But we had lunch last year and I found it funny that you've got this mega rich trading guru. We talked about jigsaws. That's what middle-aged men do, is you know? It was nice to see the normal side.

Speaker 1:

Yes, because everyone's normal really and it's all about just remembering your roots and where you're from, and, yeah, he probably remembers. Well, does he remember that walk too? I know it's totally life-changing for you ultimately he said he did.

Speaker 2:

He doesn't remember exactly what we talked about, because I remember, because it's the first time I'd heard about the tulips of amsterdam being this massive few. They were kind of like one of the first documented boom busts. Yes, oh my god, everyone, god, everyone needs tulips. Oh my God, this beautiful flower from Turkey. Let's get tulips. Everyone bought them when the boats went off. Yeah, kept trading the tickets.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

You had a ticket for tulips. You could sell it for so much. Then all of a sudden, a glut of tulips comes back. You can get them off the dock. You don't need a ticket for them. So it was one exchanges.

Speaker 1:

Yes, to, rather than boom and just saturation. It's how to the law of scarcity. Yeah, okay, shapeage number three.

Speaker 2:

Um, shape is number three. So those four years at ahl were phenomenal, but they didn't set me up for what came next, which was basically what do I do next? I said I went to be a developer. I engineered it so that I managed to get kathie, who ran the New York office. I got her to take me over to New York to be a broker. Well, it's a futures broker. So think Wolf of Wall Street, but worse people. Oh gosh, I see it now the closer you are to the money, the worse the person generally, and it just wasn't me. So I had a year in New York which confused me. I came back, I ended up in banking accidentally, because I knew people had gone from HL into banking, and they said, oh, come work for me. And I was just rudderless. Really, I was just kind of drifting. I was a business analyst, a bit of a project manager, but I didn't know what I did.

Speaker 1:

I'm intrigued by the calibration of we've discussed saying yes to everything. Of course, the really important thing is not to say yes to everything, because you end up doing it others control your destiny. So obviously you have to be really discerning about what you say no to by stating your own truth yes, so I'm getting better at that.

Speaker 2:

And so point number three came when I've been at hsbc is I've been there three or four years the horrible boss really having a bad time doing everything I could to please him and I was sent on a management course. And point number three is enfp. Do you know what that is? Myers briggs? Yeah, yeah, so I was myers briggs.

Speaker 2:

And for those that don't know, you have four ratings, four, four areas, your categories you're rated on no, you're introvert or extrovert, intuitive or sensing, feeling or thinking, and perceptive or judgmental. So I came out screaming extrovert, intuitive, feeling and perceptive. I was in a room full of bankers. I was the only one. Most others were introverted, thinking, judgmental. It's not a band of words, it sounds, but just me. And it was actually the tutor that said the bank absolutely needs people like you because you bring the spark but'll never welcome you.

Speaker 2:

And that was a penny drop because it made me think I'm going to do something about this. But again, remember, this is patrick 1.0, low self-esteem. It's obvious to say right, I'm going to go home. Right, with cv, I'm going to go and get a brilliant job. No, I cogitated and I thought I saw a careers guidance guy that said I should have been a fighter pilot because he did even more psychometric tests, like, well, that's not helpful. And I didn't know what to. I did change my job in hspc. I went into a better department. I managed to get that bit done. You went into what department into? I went into technology, but still toxic, always toxic.

Speaker 2:

Yes, um, my experience there was just toxic throughout, to be honest yes but that was the first time enfp was me realizing I'm different and I'd always felt different. And this was the first time ENFP was me realizing, oh, I'm different and I'd always felt different. And this was the marker for it, which we know later on turned into an ADHD diagnosis, which I now happily see as a superpower. Yes, but definitely HSBC. It went against me but got into Deloitte and Deloitte was so much better for me because it's a people business. There's a downside that you're selling people. That's the downside of consultancy, but it's all about networking who you know where hsbc kept you in a box. You're in. You're in your little grid of the bit you work in. At deloitte I made some fantastic friends and got to know loads of people and kind of made my own way, so you got back into your superpower lane of problem solving, my superpower came out.

Speaker 2:

And now should I jump straight onto the fourth apple, because that's what happened next it was. This is in parallel to me getting the diagnosis for ADHD, which came at a time when I got onto the top project, which I thought was brilliant, and I was like my God, I got myself on something that good. I was running that, co-running their transformation program. I told the guy who led it you need somebody to come and set the vision, because it's not clear what the vision is. I can do that and I've got this.

Speaker 2:

And I told them about adhd. He's like well, don't bring that to work, just do your job. So that was a warning and probably the best thing I did there was I walked off that project about three months later saying I'm done, I can't do this, I don't believe in where you're going, I can't change it and then in our timelines, that's the beginning of the pandemic, by the sound of it, and it's time that was just before the pandemic, um, a really great guy, andy morris, who was ceo of the part of deloitte I was in risk said yeah, don't worry, come back, we've got plenty of work for you.

Speaker 2:

So I came back, but then, as the lockdown was finishing, I just had a very honest conversation with Deloitte and said and this is point number four I just said look, that transformation program is taking away all the fun work that we could be doing in the risk department. There's nothing really for me here. How about we call it a day and that's weird for somebody who has spent his whole career desperately just trying to hold onto a job Me having the confidence to actually say I'm going to go and find my way now. And that's where patrick 2.0 started.

Speaker 1:

And obviously there were mohicans along the way and tattoos ah, we can talk maybe about those in a bit, but that's the end of the shaping. That's wonderful. Now onto three things that inspire you. God, what do?

Speaker 2:

I think of there, people that are going against the tide. That's number one. Some obvious ones good old bill gates, billionaire. He's doing so much good but people don't see it. Another one is richard branson, who, the more you look into what he's done at virgin, it's always about how do we change the world for for the better? That's the purpose behind virgin, but it's not just the big guys. It's that's the purpose behind Virgin. But it's not just the big guys, it's the countless startup founders that I'm meeting. I mean one guy yesterday I met who's determined I won't give you an ideal way, but he's determined to work out a way to make the future of work better, instead of just waiting to see how AI is going to take away everyone's job. Let's get on top of it and work out how we get good jobs sorted out and it's like great, great, do it. So people that swim against the tide.

Speaker 1:

With an eye on the prize of humanity and philanthropy and push forward. Yes, yes, yeah, lovely inspirer, you've got another two of those if you want.

Speaker 2:

Two is the wonderful Prince. I discovered Prince when I was 14, 15. He just blew me away and I've stuck with him and, yeah, I used to sing into a hairbrush. That was my happy place. But he's again somebody who just is different. If you're not in the world where you understand prince and back in the 80s people like, oh, it's just this weird little black gay guy from bloody america, no, he's so he's unique. I don't think he's on the spectrum, I think he actually actually had his own spectrum.

Speaker 2:

The best moment for me and thankfully I was sober because I'd driven was when he did his o2 shows. He did 21 nights at the o2. So many people didn't know this, but he did an after show at the mini o2, the indigo 2, which is like a thousand person venue, so it's like a school hall. I was in there. It goes from 1 o'clock till 3 o'clock. It was two hours of him on guitar, bass, guitarist and a drummer two hours, wow, not just playing, he did all sorts radio head bit of Led Zeppelin and may I ask what your favourite print's tracking?

Speaker 1:

because my podcast editor, dan, is big. Shout out for Dan pod cuts editing. Yeah, don't use him because he's mine, but um, he's very good at texturing in music at the pivotal point it's so difficult to say, but I'm going to say when doves cry, definitely and then you'll go back home in your little black corvette.

Speaker 2:

Thank you little bit anyway, my little red z actually, but we'll get there.

Speaker 1:

Prince is a wonderful inspirer.

Speaker 2:

Number three, number three, it's the wife has to be the wife. I could talk for hours and embarrass her, but she does inspire me. We met at a difficult time for me. I was 29. I was going through all sorts of turmoil, started falling in love with her with, actually which actually sent me into depression because and you know therapy I've paid for a lot of therapy so I can say this but therapy showed me that basically any relationship I get close to I'd push away.

Speaker 1:

So she stuck with which she did with david. Actually, there's something there, yes, anything good.

Speaker 2:

No, don't, don't be nice to me go away. Yeah, so I her away, but she stuck and she wouldn't get lost, actually. And we've stuck together and we are absolutely best friends. We've married 21 years together Well, not 26 years, but my kids are phenomenal, they're brilliant. But there are challenges. So we've got two autistic children. One is ADHD as well. We've had all sorts of different challenges and a lot of we have done so well with them because of the work vanessa has done to fight the council to get the right support. Yeah, ben, into the right school. Ben, our eldest, is now doing maths at warwick and happy as larry. Couldn't be better. Just watching Vanessa. It's been horribly hard at times. They're worth it.

Speaker 2:

She works with autistic children as her day job. She goes and helps autistic children who can't access school, and there's one in particular I will call out, but I definitely won't mention names. But this is a kid that wouldn't come out of his room. What she does now, she'll take him out to the shops. She takes him to chessington world of adventures. We joke that her job is just going down alton towers or something, but but actually it's so. I know what it's like with autistic and demand avoidant children. She actually gives them a life they wouldn't have and she's gotten that for it. And she, yeah, inspires me, lovely, and she puts up with me and now this is the exciting bit we're on to squirrels.

Speaker 1:

Uh, borrow from the film up the two is what are your random squirrels, sometimes called your shiny object syndrome, what two things never fail to squirrel and stop you in your tracks, irrespective of anything else that's going on for you having a lovely square I'm gonna nick this, having a lovely squirrel thrown at you is one.

Speaker 2:

No, it's actually starts with when Does Cry, of all things. I have this knack of becoming obsessed with songs, and obviously when Does Cry was 84, I think, and you had to tape it off the radio and then play it back 200 times. Wow, and that was the obsession I had with that song.

Speaker 1:

It's a bit ADHD, isn't it listening to it 200 times A?

Speaker 2:

little bit OCD would be 224. But there's more of them. I mean, anne, there's one that came up just before lockdown. I got to see her live just before lockdown Rosie Lowe. You won't have heard of her.

Speaker 2:

A song called the Way. I heard it on Radio 6. I'm obsessed with that song now. Something about the way you touch something. There's just. There's a catalogue of these songs. I've just been completely hooked on and some of them are just like the weirdest random things, like Shaft, the theme from Shaft. In the old days it was harder. It's almost too easy now, because in the old days you had to wait for Gary Davis to play it and you could record it and cut the voice out. But yeah, so that's my squirrel. Sometimes it's like I can't talk. I've got to listen to this. I'll be back in an hour because I'm going to listen 10 times. Squirrels lovely Squirrel number two, please. Problems, problems, problems, problems. I can't resist. So this is where the Patrick 2.0 is leaning into it with his business, because I keep talking to people. Oh, you've got this, are you doing that, are you? Oh, can I help you with that? Yeah, oh, I can't stop myself. I can't stop myself.

Speaker 1:

I've experienced that firsthand because when we first started talking, you said look, I can help, let's talk. So that's got us both to this point where we're going to do, as I did with Julia Duthie, a lovely bit of reciprocity, which is my favourite word, and she can't say it. Can you say reciprocity please? Reciprocity?

Speaker 2:

There you go, julia. She's spitting it at the mic now, but yeah, I just I have to stop myself. Sometimes it's kind of I say it's meddling, but it's always. I think the thing I get is I can see what people want to do. I can see they can't. They haven't quite got it right in their mind. So I can help you get it right in your mind and I can help you get that working.

Speaker 2:

So any particular type of problem or any problem is the problem any. I love business problems, I love. I think the problem is I'm very good at helping founders, but they've got no money. So that's one of the business downside. But that's why I've kind of I've tagged it as business strategy, but it's really bringing it back to what do you actually want?

Speaker 1:

to do yes. Well, this is where the magic comes in, just to re-incorporate your strapline of business change strategy, bringing the magic with you.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. I see things that you don't see Because you're down in your rabbit hole. I'm up on the surface and you're able to do a figure of eight around the problem.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2:

With my dog.

Speaker 1:

Great squirrels, and now a one is the quirky or unusual faked about you, patrick Bevan.

Speaker 2:

We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us I can do the Rubik's Cube and quite often if you see me on a call, I'm doing the Rubik's Cube, which is my way of focusing. Or, to be clear, it's because you're boring me. So it's one of those two. Thank you for not bringing the Rubik's Cube, as I bought it. Maybe I wish I had.

Speaker 1:

Do you cubas? I bought, maybe I wish I had. Do you know what? I've never, ever managed to do one, so that's a very impressive thing. We've shaken your tree, patrick bevan hurrah. Now we stay in your clearing, which is by the beautiful, enigmatic figure of eight. Not lakeside, you said stream side, and now we're going to talk about alchemy and gold. Yeah, so when you're at purpose and in flow, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Speaker 2:

It's helping people solve their problems and it's, I think, my happy, happiest place is. We've got so many challenges in the world now. Sustainability is one I'm passionate about, I really believe in, but, with that being mean, people are getting it wrong because people don't know there are better ways of doing things and helping people really to get through. How do we turn this into a part of our strategy so that it's not just a bolt-on and something on our web page that says aren't we great? How do you actually make money out of it? Because you can and I'm at my best when I can get people to be completely honest and just share. I don't drink. They help me and they do that because the public front is absolutely fine. We've got a strategy we've painted on the wall. We're going to get there. Yes, and then I'm going to go home tonight and I'm going to cry and get to sleep somehow.

Speaker 2:

But no, I kind of build that level of trust and say, no, I'm on your side, I'm going to help you through this. So the whole idea of Patrick 2.0 is you can buy me as a bite size. You don't need to pay me hundreds of thousands of pounds for a year. I'll come and do a little bit of work for you and you'll get way more than you'll ever pay for me.

Speaker 1:

That's the idea and now I'm going to award you with a cake. So first of all, do you like cake, patrick?

Speaker 1:

I've recently gone vegan, so I love cake, but I don't eat cake I've recently started a sort of um, a really good relationship with someone called anna's cakes. Guess what she makes. So come the day when this is going where I know it is, you'll be getting a literal cake sense, so there could even be a vegan cake. Now we're going to put a cherry on the cake, yeah, which is stuff like what's your favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future first of all, I'm gonna cheat.

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna have two cherries because I can't decide. So there's one that is attributed to einstein, but it's not, and it is insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That's my career. So there's that one, and the other one is see if you know who said this. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing walt disney, walt disney.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I know that because it's on the wall at entrepreneur's circle and, very excitingly, nigel botrell has agreed in principle to be in the show in the autumn. But anyway, that's. They've got a new swanky echq that is in the main room where we all do the inner circle thing actually, no, it isn't, it's in their new ec plus room. I was just there on tuesday. I suddenly did a double take because walt disney was saying that.

Speaker 2:

Say it again the way to get started is to quit talking and start doing now.

Speaker 1:

Um, we're going to talk about what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given by somebody else.

Speaker 2:

I've had bad bosses throughout my life. So I'm going to I'm going to go negative on this one. And it was a boss at HSBC who said sometimes you've got to know when to play with a crooked bat. I just thought I can't do that. Wow, it was so icky and I thought I'd respected you and all of a sudden I saw how he'd been acting, had been playing with a crooked bat. I'm not going with a cricket bat. I'm not going to do that. I'm never going to do that. Wow, I'm more principled than that. So it did make me quite sad to think I've never had that kind of arm around my shoulder coming with me. Patrick, I'm going to get you somewhere. I'm going to give you all the advice.

Speaker 1:

I had one manager who thought he was really good at giving me advice, but I just asked him to shut up and telling me, and, as we know, in the world of leadership facilitation that I'm part of as well, is we've learned seismically profound lessons of good leadership, but we've learned even more seismic ones from instances of bad leadership, and that's a beautiful example of that.

Speaker 2:

Still all out there, yes, with the gift of hindsight?

Speaker 1:

this could be you putting your own arms around you now and giving yourself a nice stroke. So what's the with the gift of hindsight? What notes, help or advice might you proffer to a younger version of yourself?

Speaker 2:

Just do it. Just, I had so many dreams and aspirations, but they'd always be capped while I was in my bedroom. Smoking, drinking whatever Always be capped with. You can't do that, it's too hard. Smoking drinking whatever always be careful with it. You can't do that, it's too hard. And I'm doing something very hard now and still I'm waking up thinking stop, but it's just do it. I will say that, since I've smoking, drinking kebab, eating whatever I was, I'm now vegan, don't drink caffeine, don't drink alcohol, don't smoke. I haven't smoked for many years and I'm happier than I've ever been in my life, even though I haven't got a salary which would terrify everybody.

Speaker 1:

I'm happy and I'm doing stuff, so it's just do it. And it is the wonderment of being a freelancer, actually, because, although we're navigating complex seas of security, actually it's a very wonderful place to be because you can go where you like. Amazing. We're going to ramp up to shakespeare very shortly, uh, but now this is the past. The golden baton moment. Please. They don't like it, abba, mr menring, but um, and thank you for saying that you enjoyed listening to the roger black episode. That I did way back when, and I that was when I first thought of the golden baton, because roger black only got silver in the olympics and I was able to award Roger Black OBE with the Golden Baton. But that was that. Here we are now. Who would you most like to pass the Golden Baton along to? To keep the golden thread of the storytelling going?

Speaker 2:

I've just literally, as you were saying it, I've just thought of somebody new for you. That's the way my brain works Jenny Davis. Now, she is a lady who she's an ex-Commonwealth cyclist for Scotland. I was at an event in Jersey a few weeks ago and I met her and she did a talk and it was an event all about Lean Six Sigma program management. What have you? It couldn't have been drier. I was more there because it was a way of me and my mate getting together for a jolly in jersey. She went up to talk and her story. I don't want to spoil it, but it was not what I expected. But so do you want me to give you a bit more information?

Speaker 1:

on her. No, that'll do so. Everyone's going. Oh, googly, woogly oogly, but jenny davis.

Speaker 2:

Jenny davis, and I will text her to say that I've done this, but she doesn't know we're coming for.

Speaker 1:

No, thank you for that very generous and now, in spite of Shakespeare, all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. This actual book was one I bought myself when I went to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School circa 1986. So this is now to talk about legacy and how, when all is said and done, patrick Bevan more than just a business change strategist how would you most like to be remembered?

Speaker 2:

That's a good dad actually, If we, yeah, good husband and good dad. It's not about work for me. I mean there is the little bike dream of getting a CBE or something for all the things I could do for sustainability, because I think if I can do something, if I can get that, that it says I've done something good. But that's that world to be a good dad and a good husband and a good friend and now it's a very exciting moment, which is called.

Speaker 1:

Show us your qr code, please. You can scan the q QR code if you're watching, but if we're not watching, just listening, what's the URL? Or we can find you on the old interweb.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that one is wwwchangealchemycouk. Lovely. And Evanall. Evanall is the exciting startup for manufacturing sustainability. That is wwwevanallcom.

Speaker 1:

And then a couple of quick announcements from me. If you have enjoyed the show and would like to talk about being a guest to the website, for my show is the good listening to show dot com also, very excitingly, it's been there as part of the mountainscape of the good listening to show dot com anyway all along, but there's a new, brand new website which is called legacy life reflections dot com, which is to use thisifereflectionscom, which is to use this unique story scape to record either your story or the story of somebody really precious to you for posterity, without any morbid intention, lest we forget before it's too late. That's legacylifereflectionscom. And then you can also connect with me, chris grimes, motivational comedian, broadcaster, facilitator, coach, on linkedin as well, which could be one of the places you're watching this. Anyway, back to you, patrick bevan, as this has been your moment in the sunshine in the good listening to share stories of distinction and genius, where you've done a wonderful hybrid of founder story and leadership reflections. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Speaker 2:

well, is this my moment to mention that I'm doing a podcast, or is this? Yes, yes, I just thought that now I'm dabbling and I've said to chris earlier that chris said something great on when he was on julia's podcast about staying on the bus, and I've I'm testing doing a podcast called the unspoken ceo, which is about trying to get behind the mask of what it's like to be a leader. Try and be honest, show a little bit of yourself, but also tell us about a tough time. So, if you search for Unspoken CEO or through my LinkedIn, I would love leaders who are willing to come and talk to me and be honest and open and just have a chat. I won't throw a squirrel at you. That's the one promise I can make, but I would like to say thank you. This has been lovely. I I think we are, in a weird way, kindred spirits, that we're very good at talking to other people, but we don't always talk about ourselves, and this feels not as awkward as I thought it would feel talking about myself so thank you, chris.

Speaker 1:

You're very welcome. Thank you for watching across the world Wide Web interweb as well. This has been, very importantly, patrick Bevan from changealchemistcouk. I've been Chris Grimes. This has been Patrick, thank you. Thank you, future Leap Studios in Clifton, my new swanky podcasting base, and good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening To Show with me, chris Grimes. 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 goodlisteningtoshowcom website. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please do so, and if you'd like to have some coaching with me care of my personal impact game changer programme then you can contact me, and also about the show at chris at secondcurveuk On X and Instagram. It's at thatchrisgrimes Tune in next week for more stories from the Clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.