The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Rosettes at the Gates of a 5 Star Destiny and "No Biscuit Stacking for Me!" Creativity GOLD with the Ultimate Polymath and Producer of all things Creative, Kevin Tewis

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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A courageous journey, a chance meeting and a single ring on the bell at the gilded gates of his future, changed everything for Kevin Tewis and launched him into being! And nothing has stopped him ever since!

At 15, a disastrous careers interview informed Kevin that he simply wasn’t good enough and a life of stacking biscuits as opposed to a glorious creative career lay ahead. To quote Churchill Insurance's iconic dog Winston that Kevin subsequently went on to create: "Oh No-No-No-No-No!" 

A day later Kevin found himself at the gates of 5 Star, his very favourite band. And having taken his destiny into his own hands, there at the gates, his future began. That mix of nerve and pitch-perfect timing became a blueprint that Kevin still follows: Create work with staying power, not sugar highs. 

In this extraordinary episode we explore how a shy Superfan became a Photographer, a Music Producer, a Brand Builder, a Creativity Legend and the mind behind one of Britain’s most loved advertising  icons, Churchill’s nodding bulldog Winston: "Oh Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes!"

We dig into the craft. Kevin’s teenage habit of hand-charting Top 40 hits helped him decode what makes a song endure across formats and decades. That data-meets-feel approach fuelled records designed to live on Heart and Smooth long after the charts. It also birthed a branding masterstroke: “Winston,” a bulldog that turned insurance into affection by blending British heritage with warmth and simple, memorable language. You’ll hear how he later applied the same logic in government, naming ANTENNA for Number 10’s secure comms by building inward and outward meaning straight into the word.

Mentors loom large in Kevin’s story. From Five Star’s kindness to Eddie Gordon’s industry schooling, he shows how generosity scales careers—and why he now mentors young creators, sits on a school trust, and argues for business literacy in classrooms. We talk ad quality, radio’s surprising strength, Simon Cowell’s new boy band era, and why AI is best treated like Grammarly: a sharp helper, not a stand-in for empathy, timing, and taste. Creativity remains stubbornly human because what moves us keeps shifting.

The most luminous turn arrives with fatherhood. Kevin shares the joy and honesty of building a family through surrogacy and egg donation, keeping both women an active part of his children’s lives. It’s a lesson in dignity, clarity, and the kind of legacy that truly lasts. Anchored by a favourite line from Kipling’s If—keep your head when others lose theirs—this conversation is a guide for anyone who wants to make things people will still love in ten, twenty, thirty years.

Enjoy the story, share it with a friend who needs a nudge of courage, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more listeners can find these conversations. Wh

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Welcome, Format, And Guest Setup

Chris Grimes

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening to Show. Your life and time is 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 54321, 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. I'm sitting comfortably. Then we shall begin. Boom! I allowed a microbeat there to doubly check the boom. This is a very, very exciting flag in the sand, Halcyon Day episode of The Good Listening To Show. So I'm Chris Grimes. This is the Good Listening To Show. Why it's called that is because what you need is a damn good listening to. And I can't wait to curate. Uh it's been a couple of months in the coming, but uh Kevin Chewis has been recommended to me by the wonderful Richard Selwyn Barnett, who is renowned as being a sort of super connector, but he has recommended you similarly as being a super connector. And I'm going to describe you as the ultimate polymath, if I may, Kevin Chewish. Because if I may say, my you know, giddy goo jons and heavens to Betty Boothroids, you've had and are having an extraordinary career. I know that you're currently at the helm of We Are Starbridge, which you can tell us about and get on the open road in a second. Just to get you going on the open road of the storytelling, um if people ask you that sort of terrible clunky networking question, oh hello, what do you do? Uh, what's your favorite way, Kevin, of describing or telling us what you actually do then?

Kevin Tewis

Sure. So it's quite simple for me. I've got it to the elevator pitch in case I ever meet Alan in in the kind of elevator. That's Alan Sugar, by the way, not Alan Shearer, not to confuse the two. That's important.

Chris Grimes

If you're locking, if you're in the lift with both of them, then the same pitch works. It's the same elevator. Same element.

Kevin Tewis

So I make brands market leaders. That's what I do.

Chris Grimes

And just a bit of extra happy smoke. I know that Starbridge, it's about creating entertainment legacies for the world to enjoy together. So there's a really nice sort of comma stroke together in there because it's about collaboration and about sharing one.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah. So it all started as a music producer where we would be tasked with creating. I mean, we're of a certain vintage circus where that my children wouldn't know an A and a B side. They would, what's that, a loaf of bread? But no, there was there was the hit record, and there was the one that wasn't the hit record on the other side. And we were tasked with making albums and hit records, but it was around it when we were taught when we were doing music career, make a record that will be on Heart, Magic, Kiss, Capital in 10 years' time. And I tell you, that is a crux when you are producing a demo to go.

From Timeless Music To Legacy Thinking

Chris Grimes

It has to stand the test of time. If I may, sorry to interrupt you, that lovely observation about kids now. Is it a loaf of bread rather than what's on the A side, what's the B side? Have you heard the rather tragic but tragic comic notion that kids at schools now, and this is happening, are basically trying to swipe their books and saying they're not working?

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, although I mean the book publishing entry is having a really good run at the moment. The book publishing uh UK entry is worth six billion. It's weird, I know that, because I'm an author um and I've imagined team, but yeah, I I have heard it. Um, but yeah, the whole point around legacies is to create something within 10, 20, 30 years, it's still listenable rather than a trend. Yes, that does put quite a lot of pressure on you as a producer and a writer to go, okay, this has not just got to be excellent, it has to be superior to everything in the charts.

Chris Grimes

Yes. What I'd love you to tell is your almost your your wonderful Genesis story of how you uh had an allergic reaction to a computer when computers first started cranking on with a blinking cursor. There was some sort of CBT careers test where the result that went and sort of spat out said you're either going to be a music producer, a vet, or an author. You thought boom, and then your careers. So just tell us that story because it's an extraordinary allergic reaction. And then what happened with your train trip to Sunningdale? So let's get you on the open road of this, first of all.

Kevin Tewis

Wow, you have the best knowledge ever. Um, yes, so at 15, I was pulled into the careers advisor. She sat on these original BBC computers, it was the size of Mount Rushmore with a green screen, disgusting. When you look backing it with a green button, oh god. So, like Doctor Who, she was typing these things. So I I kind of did some kind of a verbal analysis of what I want to do, and she said these things are going to throw up three jobs for you that you know should define the rest of your career. And I was like, Oh wow, this is wow sensational. Thanks so much for talking about. So, like grumpily, the results come in, and she had music producer, and she huffed. And I thought, oh, oh, that's that's an authoritieship. Vet and she said, author. And she just turned to me and she just said to me, as a Bexley member of Kent County Council would have done normally back in the end, said, You're just not good enough for anything. That was her word. So her next phrase was what compelled me to get to Sunningdale was I've got a job for you stacking biscuits and Tesco's. And I'm like, there's nothing wrong with stacking Tesco's biscuits or work into it, but I am a creative, I have an A in photography, I have an A in economics, I know what I'm doing differently, and I'm not gonna accept that. And I left the school with a huff to be huffed with. My parents were like, What is wrong with you?

Chris Grimes

A huff to be huffed with.

Kevin Tewis

It was a huh, because I I was I'm not gonna swear on the podcast, but I was F C B F G H Y F L M N O P Q R S T. My mum was like, With a Tesco's chucky biscuit chaser, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I'm like, really? Like the computer said yes, and then she said no. I'm like, why am I here? You asked me, I didn't ask for the test. So the computers analyzed my words, and she said, I'm not good enough. So it was really weird because that day I'd um read in the I think it was the Daily Mirror, one of the big rags at the time, Five Star, my big pop group, who I absolutely adored, had moved to Sunningdale on the A30.

Chris Grimes

They were listeners, hold that thought. Five star, he's just mentioned five stars.

The Careers Test And A Defiant Train Ride

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, and they bought the Queen Mother's holiday home in Sunningdale, and it was called Stone Court, it was a two-acre mansion behind beautiful gilded gates. And then I'd read in the newspaper and Smash Hits that Stedman, who was the oldest one in the group, was an ace in photography, and he'd bought all his photography equipment in the loft, stinking the house out with chemicals and stuff, and his sister wrote an exposure on him with Smash Hits. So I I like I said to Mum and Dad, I'm gonna get some from sunning now. I'm 15 at this point, it's not this year, it's years ago. And they were like, Of course you are, darling. I was like, No, no, I really am. I'm going on Saturday morning, I'm gonna go ring the bell and ask them for a job as a photographer. And they were like, Okay, so my dad was a transport manager, so he he opened up and he said, Look, the A30 is one road. So if you walked all the A30, swap sides and walked all the way back, there's the Daily Mirror, you know what the house looks like, there's a picture of them. Try it, just try so like an absolute numpty. I get on a train, I'm absolutely pooing my pants. I'm like, I've never been on a train in my life outside of kind of Kent, get to like London Bridge, Waterloo, get the train out to Sunningdale, and it there's just me and an a hopeless dream at that point. Hopeless dream. I am so embarrassed with myself, I'm nervous. I've got I had no confidence at 15. I was a complete recluse. And then I walk up A30 and I find the house. And at the house was Steadman at the gates doing rosettes because he's mum and dad had their wedding anniversary on the Sunday, and he was hand-doing rosettes on the Gilded Gates, these beautiful gilded gates, stunning. And I said, Um, hi, Stead. And he goes, Oh, hi, how can I help you? And I was the only person there. This house was normally flooded with three, four, five hundred, six hundred people. You couldn't get there. But for some reason, I got in early, got out, got up, and then I said, Um, your sisters wrote um a thing in Smash It's about the photography that you're doing and how you're doing developing it. And he said to me, Did she? I said, Yeah, because um she said that you're stinking the house out. And he said to me, bitch. I'm like, really? I said, Yeah, and he's like, What? So I had Smash It's we said, I'm showing you. So we took the thing through the gate. She's like, Oh dear lord, oh he goes, What can I do for you, young man? I said, Look, I'd like a job as a photographer. My career's advisor Betsy says I'm gonna stack biscuits for the rest of my life. And he's like, No, no, no. Nah, which you yeah, typical Jamaican. What's your um no racist commentation either? Just for the sake of the podcast, is they they were pure blood with that. He said, What was your grades in photography? I said, A. He said, You know what? My dad wants an in-house photographer. I'm gonna pop back in and get you my number. Stay there. Think about it for a moment. Imagine rocking up to Adele's mansion in Beverly Hills, go, could I have your phone number to speak to someone about a career? And she goes, No problem, love. I'll get up close to hang out, hang on. And he comes up with a scrap of paper torn, and the number was 26428. That was their phone number. That was their number. So he comes, he goes, if you phone my dad today, get an appointment. They're not doing much tomorrow before the event. So come in the morning, bring your parents because you're 15, and then we can speak. Because we've got a video shoot on Monday, and you could cover that. We we want to do like family albums and we do so much on television, but no one does any diaries for us. So dad wants to do something internally for the Pearson family. Really? Is it yeah? So my mum go back home. It's like, Mum, I've done it, I've got a job, bro. She's like, Of course, you have darlings that sit down, have a whiskey, whatever, the whatever you're doing.

Chris Grimes

Just before you go back to your mum back home, what I'm intrigued by is the gates of heaven. You literally arrived at the gates of your future, the portal, the doorway, the destiny of the gate, the rosette. Yeah, and what's meant for you won't pass you by. What an extraordinary, extraordinary moment of history. It changed my life.

Kevin Tewis

That those I mean, we were only together five, six, seven minutes because I was so excited. I had to leave. I couldn't stay and be this cringy fan. It was like, oh, I really love your music because I didn't want to go there. I was like, oh my god, leave, leave. No, you you've got like the golden sheep and the fleece, and Jason's coming off his shoulder. I was like, Jesus, right, okay. So I I left and walked home with this number in my pocket, thinking, Oh, and all the way home, I was like, palpitations. Oh my god, it's what's exciting.

Chris Grimes

Can you say the number again? Because now we know even if you ring it, it won't get through.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, it was 26428 with an ascot code, which I think was 01344 back in the day. I don't know what there was. Yeah, it's like Robbie Williams in the take that documentary when she phones. So my mum phones and gets through to Buster, who is their father manager, and he goes, Yeah, yeah, you know, come tomorrow. Like um, Stead said he spoke to Kev, he was a really nice, really sweet, had a golden smile. What is the moment that golden smile? He said, You know, let's he said, I need someone for Monday. Would you come? So we we rock up now on the Sunday. Oh my god, Chris, there is eight, nine hundred fans there. I mean, you so we pull up in our crappy family car. It was a Volvo, I think. Not a reliant Robin. Oh no, no, it was it was a nice family volume. It was it wasn't no, but no, you got on their drivers a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Massane, a limousine, an SL500 Mercedes Light. It was littered with supercars, and there's us in our you know, awesome.

Chris Grimes

And then you were about to go coming through, coming through, coming through.

Kevin Tewis

So I had to literally fight through all these people, and they were like, Who are you? What you you're not getting? So I'm ringing the bell, and they're like, Oh, you can't ring the bell. I'm like, ringing the bell, bitch. I was like, I've got this. And he's like, Yeah, man, come in, come in, just just drive through and how it's gonna get open as you get a stampede, or no, no, no, no, no, you wouldn't dare back in 1989. You wouldn't dare cross the line that now you would like you'd have influencers jumping over and filming and but so the gate's open, there's a ring of fire of humans and the car as you see, and we park up and we go in. And it was one of the nicest meetings I've ever had in my life. He was so lovely, he was a hardcore music manager. He was, he was tough. But Lorraine from the group brought me tea on like a gold tray with like Royal Dalton cups and things, and and then in Monday morning I'm at Shepperton Studios filming their latest record.

Chris Grimes

And if I may, one thing I really remember from our first conversation, you said, and I'm sorry if I'm stealing your thunder from stories that's going to come further down the path, but you when you were on stage having done the job for them, you came up with a quote about seven people. Do you remember the quote you gave me?

Kevin Tewis

I do, yeah, and I say it a lot. And it's because unfortunately we're in this weird political time, is I've done a lot for the black community with LinkedIn Black and the Diner Award, and I've mentored a lot of people, and it's not because I want the badge or the tokenism, but I say to people, without seven black people, which is five-star mum and dad, because they were all together, this white one person would be nothing.

Meeting Five Star At The Gates

Chris Grimes

Yes, gosh, that's lovely. Kevin Chose, I'm thrilled and delighted to have you here. And now, if I may, I'm gonna curate you through, and honestly, this is a privilege to curate you through. I'm so excited to let you experience this from within to see what you think about it. But this is the unique storytelling structure of this show that's been likened to having a day spar for your brain in an oasis of kindness. So thank you for being receptive to me giving you a brainwashing. See what I'm doing there. Uh so there's going to be a clearing, a tree, a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 54321. There's going to be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton, and a cake. So it's absolutely all to play for. So here we go. Energetically, it all takes place in a clearing or serious, happy place of you, Kevin Chew is my guest's uh choosing. In researching you, there's an Alan, there's Kevin Chewish Allen, an Alan that's fallen off your current profile. So can you just tell us the story of where the Alan's gone, first of all?

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, so uh it's unfortunately a divorce. So uh that's right. I got married in 2015, um, had 13 years together, didn't work out, called it a day, amicably split. Um, so I'm coming back to just my first name.

Chris Grimes

Uh so I'm we're coming back to factory default settings to ex to find out the story behind the story of being Kevin Chewist. Great. So yeah, to the structure. Your clearing is your serious happy place. Where does Kevin Chewist go to get clutter-free, inspirational, and able to think?

Kevin Tewis

Okay, it's quite interesting. I have a few moments during the week where I switch off. My unfortunately, the gym is the worst of the catalysts because when I get to the gym and I love the gym, I've been a gym freak for 30 years and I love it. I think it's great for your mental health. As you get a bit older, you can't be running out on pavements because it's not so great for all your joints. So I love going to the gym regularly. Unfortunately, I get there and I'll be on the trip when halfway through, and something taps on my head and goes, Why are you here and why are you not working? Um, and I thought about that idea you had yesterday or last week. And honestly, when I declutter the norms and I get into a space of I'd say well-being, all I get is this kind of parliament in my brain going, Why are you here? You have a lot to do. There's no time for this mucking around nonsense and all these weights and things like that. So often, be honest with you, I leave the gym halfway through because I I'm just literally keen to get back. And because my world has been shaping, creating, and challenging the status quo. And it to me, it's not a job. I love the people I work with. I love I have a select of people now that I've grown up with and I connect with over years and years, people from music, industry, film, TV, and I adore what I do. So I love because you only have one life to live. And as as it says on my website, creating entertainment legacies is not the nightly. If you're gonna so when I created Winston the Church of Baldwin, we'll probably come on to that later. He's 30, 33, 32 years old this year, and to have that foresight to create something that is.

Chris Grimes

Well, just hold that for such that's I remember our audience is hearing that for the first time. The very famous, oh doll, doll, douh, doll, doll. Oh, yeah. Oh yes, the Churchill iconic dog was was your creation.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I I knew that. I didn't design him as an artwork, but he was my concept. So I won a competition back in 1993. The breach was really simple. Churchill car insurance in Bromley, still in Bromley and Kent, had a remit of we have no first-time female car insurers onto the insurance market with us. How do we convert every female to join us? So uh they had four creative agencies that were in London at that time, none of them come forward. A young girl that worked in that company was Jackie, actually, and she said to me, Kevin, I know you're really creative. How the hell she knew that? I've got no idea. I'd know MySpace or Google that point. And um, she said, Look, we've got this brief, told me the brief next weekend, give me an answer. She was really forthright. I was like, You all right? That was a bit brazen. I was like, okay. So then I come back and I said, Next week, it's all right, I've got a puppy for you. And she a puppy. She said, This is car insurance. I know it is. I said, but you're a very British traditional heritage brand. She goes, Yeah, we've got to keep that. We can't change our values. So I'm not asking you to. The dog's called Winston. And she went, What? She said, Have you lost your mind? I said, No, no, it's Winston. He goes, Oh yes, oh no. Like the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and she went, as a dog. I went, Yeah, he's like a and there was the first one's a nodding dog on the back of the door.

Chris Grimes

They used to be before that's genius because those nodding dogs were what you'd follow.

Kevin Tewis

You so I said, every time a woman passes her driving test, I want to think about a puppy that buys car insurance from the puppy. And she went, Jesus Christ, okay. And then within a week, I had a thousand pound check, a lifetime commendation for the award, and like a thousand pounds back in 1993. I I I I brought all my recording equipment with it. I bought my decks and my sound and my my keyboard.

Chris Grimes

You mentioned you being a polymaths polymath because then there's radio producing stuff. So so arriving at the gates of five star is just one part of the polymathic into the world of Kevin Cheers, no longer, of course, because of the divorce. Awkward. So sorry about that. But it's that's an amazing story. So sorry, I I'm I wanted to make sure we we knew oh yes, yes, yes. That's wanted. So back to the story.

Kevin Tewis

Um, yeah, so that was really my first step into what we now call marketing. I didn't even know what that word was. I knew that now that it was invented in the 1920s with the Freud's or Sigmund Freud, but um, yeah, I it was kind of my first step into kind of money and marketing together as part of the creative process. So it excited me.

Chris Grimes

And in terms of your clearing, then are you saying it is in the gym for the moment you can get on the sort of metaphorical weights treadmill, or uh or is it uh it's your sanctuary, but it sounds like your parliament. I love the parliament in your brain as well. And also the lovely segue. I know you are an advisor behind the black doors of power because you are an advisor to number 10. That's something else that you you do. So again, riffing on the polymathic polymath. Um, so so where is your clearing? Because the parliament of your brain hijacks you and pulls you away.

From Fan To Manager And Gratitude

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, so I don't I don't think um it ever stops. It's quite weird. And I say this to people and they they find it quite hard to understand. Is um I think it really from about 13, because I say as a teenager, I was so reclusive. I mean, the confidence I have today, I wish I could go back and get my 13-year-old self, grab myself a. Remember, there is the gift of hindsight coming up later on. Come on. Yeah, we'll we'll do that. So I started to write chart positions in the chart. So in my school books, I'd handwrite. So I used to listen to Bruno Brooks in the charts every weekend, and I'd write down and I'd put like because they used to have on top of the pops these little triangles up and down or squares or a line for new entry, and I'd do that. And then I did that for two years straight, um, between 13 and 15. And I really attribute that as kind of the first working algorithm, what we'd now call it today in my brain, because I got to work out why a hit record was a hit record in what genre, with what artists, with what music label, and why it was working. So when I got to eventually work into the music industry, our first record was top 10. And I think it's down to the academic insight into the data that I was handwriting, and it was kind of riffing in my brain. And the blink back into the gym is that once we got into the music, it turned into a radio, and I would listen to music and I go to bed and the radio would still be in my head. It still happens every night. So I go to bed with a record in my head, I'll wake up with a different record in my head. Like I'm listening to like Smooth FM and Angie Grease, for example, it'd be literally like a constant radio show because it's always trying to work out is that the best way of doing this? These are cool rhythms, why are they repeating? And I pull it apart. And I'm famous for going to bed with a business problem and waking up with the answer. I have no idea where I've come from. I think I might be quite alien most of the time. So that's why when I get to the gym, my kind of cool place is actually work, cool place is creativity. It gives me the most happiness. It really does. And I I try and tell my children that creating is such a privilege. It's such a joy. Embrace every moment because we're only here for a hundred years or wherever we're here. And leave a legacy. Leave something that everyone else can enjoy.

Chris Grimes

I love that that quintessentially you're a DJ that's constantly spinning decks in the radio algorithm of your head. So your head is just one big spinning 40 seconds. Unless you've got over radio in my ears. And you move fast, so I'm sure some of that's at 78 RPM as well. Oh, very which is wonderful. So whenever you can find the treadmill, and even that's moving in the gym, and and it's just the arc of creativity is your is your clearing, if I've interpreted that correctly. Absolutely spotted. And now I'm going to arrive with a tree in your clearing. And because of my acting background, this is a bit deliberately waiting for Godot-esque, a bit Samuel Becketty and existential. This is I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. How'd you like these apples? Couple of love things hovering in the air for you there. And this is where you've been kind enough to have thought about, or maybe you haven't yet, four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention. And when we get onto that section, I'll talk about squirrels. You know, what are your monsters of distraction? Your squirrels, what never fails to stop you in your tracks. And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you. We couldn't possibly know about you, Kevin Chewis, until you tell us. It's not a memory test. So we're going to shape the canopy of your tree. So first of all, four things that have shaped you, Kevin.

Kevin Tewis

This is why I've done no prep, and I don't want to, because you're going to get the real answers. It's just how I work. So I mean, you just have to. I mean, five stars by first. Without a five star, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't. My success is down to those seven amazing people, and I love them for the rest of my life. They just are genuinely. And are you still in touch with them regularly, obviously? I mean, no, Steadman died recently, so he died of diabetes last year, which is a great shape. So I'm not in touch with them. I did manage them later in life, but yeah, because the father that's sorry, that's extraordinary as well.

Chris Grimes

That you arrive at the gates, the gateway to your future, and then you end up managing them, not just being there for them.

The Clearing: Creativity As Sanctuary

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, so Denise and Stedman were um later in life around 2001 to 2009. I actually personally managed Stedman. So it was the ultimate give back because he remembered me and he was we were introduced to a contact in Europe from a fan club, and he said, There's this guy in London you've you made success, and he's a really successful music producer, and you want to do a new album. I've just got to connect you. So it was so weird. So I went to his flat in Hammersmith, and as soon as I opened it, he went, I knew it was you, the boy with the golden smile. And I was like, Ohstead, stop it.

Chris Grimes

So it was just lovely. Sorry, the storytelling, the boy with the golden smile. What a great title. It might even be that.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, he said you just have that smile that just lights up the room in the face, and you just have this warmth that rushes in, and everyone goes, Cuddle time. I'm like, all right, I'm in with that.

Chris Grimes

The last post I saw you do on LinkedIn a week ago, you were actually there in the middle, right in the middle and the centre of the throng of December 10th, which is Simon Tower's new band, uh boy band. Um what's your connection to them, if I may ask?

Kevin Tewis

Um, can't go too much into it just yet. Um, but I got a V Pass to meet the boys, they were incredible, lovely gentlemen, incredible talent in there. Um, and I got the pleasure to meet them on stage up in Camden Lock. And um, yeah, I I'm I'm working towards something significant, and I I wish them all the best. I think they're a world-class act, and Simon's done a great job.

Chris Grimes

And the Netflix documentary about their genesis and now them being December the 10th is extraordinary, actually.

Kevin Tewis

I saw the I think it's lovely how he's being brave enough to move the industry back 15 years to kind of NSync and Backstreet Boys and Westlife. It's his sweet spot. He was so, so, so, so good at that piece and One Direction masterpiece. Um, and I think if I'm honest, and I'm hopefully not going to offend anyone, but the music industry we currently have is shocking. That's why you know Global Radio doing so well with Heart and Smooth. I mean, Jesus, she got look at someone like DJ Angie Greaves, she's the number one female black broadcaster in the UK with 3.1, 3.2 million people listening to her a week. I mean, those are numbers that BBC can't offer.

Chris Grimes

So yes, exactly.

Kevin Tewis

It's it's great that we have um a reset coming on. So I really appreciate that. You know, Simon says it on his show, it's the last gig and blah blah blah. I think he's got to have a crack because he's probably the only person alive that can do it.

Chris Grimes

Yeah, yeah. So does that mean that you know Harry Styles says hi Kevin when you see him?

Kevin Tewis

I have met Harry a few times. I wouldn't say that he'd go, Hi Kevin. I remember texting you, he'd probably say, I saw your X Factor, didn't I, a few times? Because you've got that that kind of smile. So yeah, I love the 1D boys. Again, super humble, no attitude, so lovely.

Chris Grimes

Um, where we're into the canopy of you, so you credit five star for being the first shapage. What would be shapage number two, please? And I've got a bell for if we go down any rabbit holes.

Inventing Churchill’s Nodding Dog

Kevin Tewis

Shapeage number two, please. So I got introduced in my early career to a band called Eternal, and take that, that were coming through the ranks. And there was a chap in the background called Eddie Gordon, and he had signed Donna Summer and Bobby Brown to his career. I didn't know when I met him that that how what he did. And within quite a few short weeks, he was mentoring me. And again, he ended up running the biggest dance label ever created in the UK, which is what I was a part of with Pete Tole and Judge Jules, and cut so he was at five-star kind of taught me music as in soul, pop, world-class, billboard. Eddie kind of dragged me into kind of Radio One and Dance and Kiss 3, and it was had is my second crux to making things famous. And we're still friends today. In fact, I only messaged him yesterday. Um, he is just being a phenomenal human being and just gives love. And one of the reasons why I do what I do nowadays is he's taught, he said to me, always give back. No matter what they say about you, give back because you will mentor someone that will be the present of Apple, and your phone will go, come on my yacht for the weekend. You are a star, thank you.

Chris Grimes

Talking of yachts, that's what you mentioned. Your kids want today, they want you back on in the Monaco yacht. They're six and four, but they've got aspirations for your career.

Kevin Tewis

Yes, they'd like dad to have a yacht so they can go jet skiing when they're a bit older.

Chris Grimes

I wanted to say your ex-unilad and now proud dad at some point, but anyway.

Kevin Tewis

Very good, very good.

Chris Grimes

So that's your second shape it, shape it's number three, please.

Kevin Tewis

I have to say my parents, so we're doing them both together, and they've been a huge support for me. They were not entirely happy when I came out of my career as an electrician with my city and guilds and resigned to go into the music industry. I was like, got out of a trade, what are you doing? But they've been significantly empowered to push me through. Um, so there's a lot of human beings that have often had my back, even when I think at times they feel uh done it.

Chris Grimes

No, what your dad's had your back all along because he it enabled you to get to Sunningdale on the train, I remember.

Kevin Tewis

That's right, yeah. He did point out the A30s, one long line, and um, and it was like, okay, so it's just up, left, right, and back. So that's number three. I mean, it's probably slightly generalistic, but four, I have the most amazing friendship network, my close friends. I've been with most of them for 30 years, and um, they've grown with me, they've learnt with me, we've cried together, we've laughed together, we've done all things together, and they've kept me solid because you know, if I'm having a questionable time in life, I will follow them and go, What do you think should happen? And that they're they're pretty resilient and brutal. Like there's when they need to be punching, they just give it to me.

Chris Grimes

I was gonna ask if you beef as well, because you've loved, you loved, you've laughed, you've cried. You you have to beef if they're proper friends, obviously. I know you have a particular cut thrust and passion for men's mental well-being at the moment. And when we first met, I sent you the Ben Akers uh episode talk club, which I've no idea whether you listen to yet, but it was my attempt to reciprocate and give you a connection as well.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, no, he's he's amazing. And men's mental health, we've not, I don't we've tapped 10% of it. I don't we're nowhere near it yet. We hide as men, we hide. That's what we do. It's a great shame.

Chris Grimes

But you are giving back, which is awesome, wonderful. And now we're going down the tree trunk if you're looking at the graphics of this as well. The three is now three things that inspire you, and you're being very inspirational anyway, so don't worry if there's any overlap. But what would you say are the three things at Kevin Churst that inspire you?

Kevin Tewis

I love learning, I never stop learning. So I love trends and innovations. So I'm regularly a part of multiple newsletters. I'm on the board of Advertising Week under their presidential council with the lovely roof as president, and I like being at the forefront. I call it on the tip of Concord, because whilst everyone's having a great time back in first class and having some champagne, we're all on the front of it going, holy crap! Like this is this is new territory, but you just kind of the nose, yeah. And the pilots behind going, Are you all right up front? Yeah, I know I'm I'm absolutely freezing cold, not gonna lie, but I think we're going in the right direction. So that that keeps me young and alive and fine. I love that. So when someone says to be watching it, the future of the music industry is I'm like, you can't call it that anymore because it it's much wider than music. It's so that's like so. That's the first thing.

Chris Grimes

Yeah, it's entertainment legacies are coming full circle, of course.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, it's all about the young people. The second thing is young people. So I've mentored probably over 200 young people in the last 20 years, and you know, not not to be cringe about Whitney Houston, but I do believe the children are a future, and I've got two young ones now. And if we don't start to give back properly, so the things I try and do is I I hear a lot of mentees and mentors, and I'm I'm the person that cents on like a marketing business plan framework. Rarely, people do it. So, right, we spoke about this. Here's what I suggest you do as a framework, and then I'm going to help you fill it in. That's got me to a position of unbelievable precedence. I mean, I'm on my school governors, I'm a co-trustee as well. Um, so I go into you know the younger children in schools and help them become more business ready. I think that young people that can be more business-minded, because we still don't teach banking in schools, that frustrates me. Yeah, that's not right. So, how do we get a mortgage? And economics is my second favourite subject in school. So, around kind of data business, I love it because it is supply and demand, and you can colour it in how you like. But if you don't sell enough records, you're dropped. If you sell a million records, you win icon of the year.

Chris Grimes

Yes, great answer. Just allowing a deliberate bit of silence there. A third thing that's inspired you.

Kevin Tewis

I'm gonna say poor management. I've been surrounded and seen terrible business decisions and terrible decisions around markets, economies. I'm not gonna point any fingers anywhere because it's a podcast, but I think that my rule of thumb is there's a poem by Roger Roger Cupliard called If, and basically it's if you can keep your head to what everyone else is losing theirs, you should be a man standing. It's kind of the crux of the poem, it's amazing. So I've learned more about how not to manage people and how not to manage companies by being a sponge, and that's my greatest advice is your first month in a job as a senior leadership member is shut up, fold your arms, and listen. Because in that first month, you would get all of your tacit knowledge and the tidbits to re-change your business, make it a market leader, solve a problem, then the culture of I create, I believe in not a killer culture, but creating a killer culture where it innovates. So that comes through my third piece is be humble, have huge humility because we're all human beings, and encourage collaboration.

Chris Grimes

And it's all about that's so resonant with the deep, deep listening imperative to go in stealth listening mode, and as you say, shut up and listen. That resonates so well to me because obviously I love listening. So in my acting background, the best actors are those that go on stage and truly listen and then try and enable others to look good around them. So this this there's giving back implicit in really good listening too. Okay, now we're on to the two, which is what are your two squirrels? So this is um borrowed from the film Up where the dog goes, Oh, squirrels, sometimes called your shiny object syndrome. What two things never fail to grab your attention, irrespective of anything else that's going on for you in your treadmill multi-record producing algorithmic brain?

Data, Radio, And A Restless Creative Mind

Kevin Tewis

My job now is heavily in marketing and advertising and content provision. So I watched the television for a reason and I saw a BBC report last week where they kind of did because people say, Oh, BBC's dead. 53% of the nation are still watching television. That's not dead, that's 35 circamillion people still watching the box. The thing we have on the wall will always be the thing on the wall. It was never going to change, whether it's Netflix, cinema, sky, whatever we call it in 100 years, we will still want to absorb content via some kind of device on a wall that's family related. I get inspired or shocked or amazed by the quality of our advertising at the moment. So, how many times have you sat down and watched an advert and gone, what what did what was that about? Does anyone know what that's saying? Or you like you'll see like a there's a real trend at one. It really makes me cringe because in music, like I know, like it I can't either one. It's um there's a a probably a Procter and Cramble brand's flash, and they're talking, and they redo like Queen, and they they do it with really crappy lyrics, and you just sit and you go, Holy god, if Freddie Mercury was alive, he'd be turning in his craze. And as like a person that produced A-sides, we look at it and go, Holy Taras, like what why?

Chris Grimes

You'd be sitting there going, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So so that I'm sure with my impression of the Churchill dogs better than yours, actually.

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, I think it's very good. And the real everyone always remembers the no, but he actually said yes more than it was. Oh, yes, it was all yes, very that's great. Um, so that's my first one. Second one, it's really hard question, isn't it? Um you can make it your kids if you like, because that's no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. No, no. I mean, they're a pain in the ass most of the time.

Chris Grimes

I love them.

Kevin Tewis

As a parent, you get to the six and four-year-olds, they're constantly around with each other, but I can't park it. You'd be fine in a year, it'd be all good. Um, I am obsessed with technology innovation. So I'm one of these people where like AI is a constant subject, so I get asked about, and I'm like, just treat AI as Grammarly in your Word document. So when you're writing and Grammarly goes, hello, hi, and it goes little green thing in the corner, and it parts loads of things in red. I'm like, yes, that's great, lovely. Thanks for that. That's not what I want to say. And if you Google in one of the many, and there's many others you could go there, into one of the painable search engines in AI and say, what are the industries least affected by AI? The second one is creative, because it will tell you that humility and empathy and emotion will not and cannot be taught. As many prompts and as many algorithms you can put into it, what as a human being we find funny is ever changing. So, for example, if Ricky Gervais was in the 80s or the 70s, he wouldn't have been funny, and even now people don't find him funny. But he's the number one comedian on Netflix for a reason, and he's as some strange content, but my god, he gets the numbers. And I think that appropriateness and understanding the levels of digital change and technology should be embraced. There's this whole social media ban in Australia. Yeah, I've seen some data that and I won't say the platform, but within the next day, a million Australians, youngsters, turn to another gaming application where they continue talking. I'm like, and all of these ideas frustrate me as a parent and the business leader because I just think they're great ideas in inception, but the in the implementation of it is absolutely horrific, and you've had no idea how a 14-year-old thinks. You just don't.

Chris Grimes

Yes. So you haven't listened or asked. Yes.

Kevin Tewis

You didn't fold your arms and listen. You didn't listen. You just decided through a white paper from someone else that said something via an academic that you think that's the way forward.

Chris Grimes

Well, and I'm that's really um heartful and good to hear that you agree that you know the empathy, the humour, because what my cut and thrust is to keep this warm, human, and connecting. Um, I know that people can algorithmically do a podcast straight away within 10 seconds, but you know, they won't do it this way is the hope. So, and now we're on to the one which is a quirky or unusual fact about you, Kevin Chew is we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us.

Four Shaping Forces: Mentors And Friends

Kevin Tewis

I have since the age of 15 seen ghosts. And I'm obsessed with the paranormal. So, one of the reasons why I became an author later in life is to write books around the paranormal, not as in like science books, but more like very Lord of the Rings, Carlster, like quite dark um stuff, because that that works a lot in Hollywood and International at the moment, and you know, the franchises that are doing well in the paranormal Stranger Things being the biggest hit of the moment is yeah, I mean unparalleled success. So I have a love of the paranormal. I don't say to people you have to believe in ghosts, because I think you've got to see stuff to believe things in your own world, and whether it's a mind trick, whether it's your I don't know, but I've certainly seen an awful lot of unusual activity and with friends that are validated what's going on, like moving objects and voices and things. So I'm an avid supporter of it, don't understand it. I've had lots of medium readings and things, and they come forward and they tell me stuff that no one would know. No one would know, and it makes me more believe it. So, yeah, one thing that people wouldn't know is that my first ghost was why watching watching Die Hard at 15, and a woman walked through a wall, stopped it in my bed, looked at me, walked through the other wall, and I thought, and she it was a very pretty old lady, like it was a shimmery, kind of white, beautiful apparition. It wasn't frightening, it was not like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Don't know that. Um it was Bruce Willis saying yippie kaye and a swear word at that point. And in the morning I went and told my mum, she's like, Oh, for God's sake, darling, what now? And then I told my next neighbor, and she said, Oh, that's my mum, probably. Here's a photo, pulls out a photo from the drawer, and I'm like, Oh my god, it was like mum, it's it's Eileen's mum. She said, Oh, she's been haunting here for years. She'd tell her to sod off. You wasn't my first thought, I'm not gonna lie, it was poor like that.

Chris Grimes

And when was the last time you had a anotherworldly experience, would you say?

Kevin Tewis

Was last year, yeah. Very, very last year, quite a quite an unusual one, but yeah, it it threw something across the room quite violently. Yeah, right. No one was out, but um, yeah, I have some tricksters around me, is how I describe it. So I've got I've um inherited a couple of pranksters and uh they're forever being a pain.

Chris Grimes

In all my circa 270 episodes, nobody's ever said that as their quirky fact. I congratulate you. We have shaken your tree, hurrah! Now we stay in the clearing and we move away from the tree, and now we're going to talk about alchemy and gold. When you're at purpose and in flow, and by the way, you've been giving me alchemy and gold by the bucket load already, but when you're at purpose and in flow, this is like your purpose imperative. What are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Kevin Tewis

Being my kids, it it just being a dad has been what a privilege. There are people that can't have children. Obviously, we were in a same-sex marriage, so we had surrogates and an egg donor who was still incredibly favourable to us and we love them for the rest of our lives. But those two nuggets of gold are just they make me laugh, they get tety with each other. But I'll just sit back as a dad and thinking how lovely that we've got two human beings that are gonna be invested by two great humans that will make them thrive. So that they have to be my number one piece.

Chris Grimes

Can I congratulate you for that lovely expression? Just beautiful, my two nuggets of gold.

Kevin Tewis

How they are, they have other names, but not for today.

Chris Grimes

Today's name is Nuggets of Gold. Tomorrow's name is a complete pair of anyway. That's all good. So um, and just to ask, also, if I may, this is an extra question, because this show also syndicates to UK Health Radio because of surrogate parenting, you've just mentioned there. Um, what's uh I'm assuming because of how you are that you're gonna have a fantastic relationship still to this day with the surrogate mother as well, and they're very involved in your son and daughter's life.

Kevin Tewis

Very much, yeah. Yeah, we regulated so we were the first same-sex couple to have a mother and sister be part of two children's lives. We were in the telegraph, uh, I mean, every we were we were massive news to stuff, and and they've stayed in their lives to say that basically what happened was is Rachel, who was our egg donor, because we don't ever call them anything other than the egg donor, and then Her sister, we couldn't get someone to bake the eggs, which is what they call the oven.

Chris Grimes

Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Tewis

And then kind of her sister was on the sidelines, Leanne, and she was coming for and she just said, I'll do it. And we're like, What do you mean? Well, I'll do it. I was like, Why would you do that? She goes, Because it's a great story, and I just want to I want to be, you know, I've got three kids, I'm done. I want, I'll have you know, your two as well. We were like, Really? So it's kind of the egg donor sister and the oven, the sister, have both been imperative to life. And we want them to know, you know, they go on the playground, they know they're from a same six couple, the schools are really good with this, and we want them to know that it's a different journey, but it's not one that's odd and one that should never be bullied. So we've, as you say, we've put surrogacy and parenting and mental health right at the forefront of their brain. So they'll never be bullied in a way where they can sit in the playground and be like, I know exactly where I'm coming from, I know who I am, and you can jump off the oak tree over there and play on the swings. Goodbye. That's how we're teaching them to be.

Chris Grimes

I'm very glad I asked you that extra question. That's lovely. And now I'm gonna award you with a cake, uh, Kevin Chew. So, first of all, do you like cake? I love cake. Who doesn't like cake? Of course, you'd be an idiot if you don't like cake. So nom nom nom nom nom. You get to choose cake of choice now. What's your cake, please?

Kevin Tewis

It's red velvet cake.

Chris Grimes

Do you know what? That doesn't surprise me. I love a red velvet cake, rather tragically, metaphorically, is now yours. But if I can get to meet you in person, I'll try and furnish you splash with a red velvet cake. Okay, now you get to put a cherry on the cake. You'll see where I'm going here. This is a final suffused with storytelling metaphor. Your cherry on the cake is stuff like now. You mentioned if by Rudyard Kipling earlier on. Doesn't have to be that. But what's a favourite inspirational quote, first of all, that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future?

Kevin Tewis

Oh, goodness me. Yeah, I've already said it. It's the only one I ever remember, weirdly weirdly. It was something that my um it was very close to my grandparents, and my granddad, who was in the war and fought in the war, used to have that poem read to his five children, and then obviously us grandchildren. I only learned really after he died, and he's been dead quite a while. But mum said to me at one Christmas, Granddad used to have this poem, and I'm gonna get it printed for you for Christmas, put it in a frame. And I said, Oh, I'm not into poems, Mum. I'm you know, I love I love you know books and stuff, but she's like, No, no, no, trust me. She just read the first sign and the end line. And the first one just basically says, if you can keep your head and then the bottom while everyone else is losing yours, you will be a better man. And that is everything about my fabric today, and to the day I die. I think that's a really great quote is stop listening to the noise. There's so much hate, there's so much drama. The best thing you can do is nothing, just disappear, have your own mental well-being, shut the noise out, and crack on and change the world.

Chris Grimes

Love that with the gift of hindsight. What most help or advice would you give a younger version of yourself, Kevin? You can decide where to go back and what to say to yourself.

Industry Reset: Boy Bands And Radio

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, so I I've done a two sessions on stage to 300 people around what would I tell my 18-year-old self? And I had to write my own slides, it was cringe, it was cringe. I was a pathetic, reclusive teenager. I mean, Adrian Moe had nothing on me. So my first slide was basically if I could go back and shake me myself out of the bedroom or wherever I was, I'd be like, you need to be bolder, braver. And there's a real difference in arrogance and confidence. And I've worked in the music industry where I can say the arrogance card is about as hot as you're gonna get. That is not me, but confidence and having the ability to persuade, remind, inform, and educate and be humble around what you do with your career and your professionalism is everything because people remember you. There's that whole saying, isn't there? On the way up, don't sod anyone off that you are gonna tell you what, I think I will fall from grace so hard, and I'm just like, damn. Well, I kind of aye, no, no, don't call me. No, no, there's there's toxicity around you that no one wants to be. So I've tried to keep a very clear ship, no one can like you forever. Not everyone likes you, but if you've got one in one in a hundred, one in two hundred people that don't like you, that's okay. Yeah, and there's that weird metaway if everyone hates you doing success. I'm like, nah, I'm not sure Elon Musk thinks that at the moment, and I'm not sure. Not sure. So Jim Radcliffe thinks that either this morning, but I mean, apart that for the moment, money and everything. So I I'd say that you know, again, coming back to the steer, just be kind if you can, and if you can't disappear and be an arsehole on your own, because no one's gonna love you for being that. Love that.

Chris Grimes

Keep your own compass pointing true north. I love that. And very resonant with the if by Red Judd Kipling as well. We're wrapping up shortly to talk about Shakespeare. Uh more about that in a minute, but this now is the past the golden baton moment, please. So maybe experience this from within. They don't like it up, Mr. Manring. This is an invitation to invite you, uh, Kevin Chase, if I may. Who else in your network do you know would really love, enjoy, or just like being given a damn good listening to in this way?

Kevin Tewis

Oh, goodness me, I have countless people. I'm gonna do a five-star card. I'm gonna say to you, you should next interview the most successful black female broadcaster in the United Kingdom on radio, Angie Grooves.

Chris Grimes

Boom and wow, in equal measure. Thank you very much. And now, inspired by Shakespeare, all the world's stage and all the birded women merely players. This is again borrowing from my hacking background. This is the actual book, not a first folio, but this is the actual book that I took with me when I went to the Bristol O'Vick Theatre School. And it says here, Chris Grimes, 16986. So this book is part of my DNA and part of my fabric. I've borrowed from the seven ages of man's speech, all the world's teached and all the men and women nearly players. Kevin Chewis, when all is said and done, how would you most like to be a remembered?

Kevin Tewis

That I've created entertainment legacies for people to enjoy together.

Chris Grimes

Those of you watching, you can scan straight away into Starbridge, we arestarbridge.com. But would you please tell us where we can find out all about you, Kevin Chewis, on the old interweb?

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, I mean the two places. This this website is basically I had a uh a moment where I thought a CV is just so boring. So I turned my CV into a website thanks to a business partner called John Riley, who's an epic friend and legend. Again, 33 years in, superb guy. He uh is a great web designer, so he brought that to life for me. The other place is simply LinkedIn. I do all my updates on there. You can contact me, it's very vocal around what I do, and yeah, feel free to reach out should you wish to.

Chris Grimes

Again, you've done a beautiful segue because the next one is uh connect with Kevin True on LinkedIn, please. And if you notice what you're reading there, CEO, ex-unilad, and now proud dad, thanks very much, and Downing Street Advisor. Do you want to talk about a little bit what you what do you advise on behind the black doors of power as being a Downing Street advisor, or are you not allowed to tell us?

Three Inspirations: Trends, Youth, Humility

Kevin Tewis

Yeah, I can tell you some of the stuff. So the most famous thing I've done was um because of again, Winston has always been a thing I get booked on world stages for and asked about, and why did you create a dog and not a cat and a or a breadstick or what I'm not really? Um, because the brief was around young girls wanting to fall in love with an animal, really. That was the crux of it. So what happened was is um Downing Street had a phenomenal opportunity with their 2016 was their first video phone. So a lot of what happens in government, not just down the street, is you'll be literally the other side of the wall and you'll pick up the phone. I won't do that dial. I'll I'll do the I'll do the other one because everybody's he's moving his hands for invalid. Um and they would go, Hi, hi Jeff, hi Barbara, hi Claire. Um, I was wondering whether we could have a meeting. I was like, Why didn't you just put your head around the door? So it was like, oh uh so literally they get up and they come. So there was a laughing thing in government. So they created like a video phone, so it was like a handset, but it was video. So the moment you spoke to someone, a video come up, which was secure, so they could leave the building with these handsets, and um, yeah, so and they were like, Oh, hi, how I oh lovely dress by the way, it'd be looking beautiful today. Thanks very much. So it's got a good or like hi Jeff, got a gorgeous suit. Like, where would you go with our money? And so it would start conversations around more employability. Um nowadays you move forward, kind of thing. You think is it right to say to him you look nice in your dress? I mean, all of that to me is rubbish because like you're just being a human, so you look fantastic, well done, like whatever. Just its compliments seem to be now like you can't see like imagine you walked in and go, You look like a hippopotamus, like so. I'm like, where's the line? Where's the come on? So they had this brand, they had a telecommunications brand, it was all based at number 10. And I was like, We need a brand name. We've had eight again, bit like the bulldog, we've had all these agencies over at people, no one knows. You can we have a name so within 37 minutes, I did seven names, and the first one was antenna, and I didn't realize until I'd done it how good it was, but it basically A N was inward communications, NA was outward communications, and in the middle of communications is the letters T-E-N. So it was inward and outward communications at number 10, and the word antenna had a telemask because it's communications, it telephone signal back to Crystal Palace in the BBC for those that can remember that. Yep. And I got a gold medal in 2017 for my efforts to industry.

Chris Grimes

Oh, boom. Also, that antenna, Ali Pali antenna resonates. I I interviewed the editor of the oldie magazine recently, and the oldie radio has this antenna going beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep transmitting old styling and old schooly. So that was a great segue. Uh, just a couple of announcements from me before we come back to you uh in a moment. If you've enjoyed listening to me and Kevin Cheers and you'd like a conversation about being in the show, the website for my show is thegoodlistening to show.com. It also currently syndicates to UK Health Radio and also very excitingly to help me trebuchet to the tapes to the states, put your teeth back in, to Brushwood Media as well. So if you're in the show, uh a large audience awaits you in the clearing uh to hear your story as you tell it. Similarly, you can join me on LinkedIn too. Hurrah! And then a final announcement, very, very excitingly, there's a particularly exciting cut and thrust to one of the series strands. Uh, Kevin has been doing a story of distinction and genius, which is the overarching title. But there are a number of different series strands, one of which is called Founder Stories to help companies tell less transactional, warmer, more authentic, and human stories. But this one uses the same storytelling structure called Legacy Life Reflections to record your life story or the story of somebody that you love for posterity, lest we forget. So check out legacylifereflections.com. Back to you, uh, lovely Kevin Cheers. This has been an honor and a privilege. As this has been your moment in the sunshine in the good listening to show, stories of distinction and genius. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Kevin Tewis

Thank you to you for being an incredible host. I've never done such a diverse, rapidly led on the spot thinking podcast ever. It's a world first for me, and I didn't prep for it. I didn't want to prep for it because you'll get rubbish answers. I'm just better on the spot. Thank you. It just leaves everyone to say thank you. Joy join Chris on his journey. And the more fabulous hosts we can get you on board, the better you are world-class, sir. And I thank you for your time today.

Chris Grimes

Wow. Thank you so much for that extremely warm and generous feedback. Really appreciate it. And also thank you for the Angie Greaves batten pass. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to furnish her with yes, I'll do that. Thank you.

Kevin Tewis

Absolutely. She's a hoot, and she has immense stories at entertainment level, which I can hope she shares with all the listeners.

Chris Grimes

She's and I can't help knowing that she's also connected to Global. And if I could just get the right uh broadcasting entity like Global or the BBC to know that this is a glow-up. It's not competing with something like Desert Island Desks and then Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, as they say. Anyway.

Kevin Tewis

Auntie Angie might have some magic, let's hope.

Chris Grimes

Kevin, thank you so much. Um, I want you to have the very last word. So uh I've been Chris Grimes. This has been Kevin Chewis. Anything else else you'd like to say as we drop the mic?

Kevin Tewis

Oh no.

Chris Grimes

No, no, it's oh yes. Google the Churchill dog and you'll see the extraordinary thing of wonderment, the nodding dog of Churchill that Kevin has created. 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 Goodlistening2Show.com 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 game changer programme, then you can contact me and also about the show at Chris at secondcurve.uk. On X and Instagram, it's at that ChrisGrimes. Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.