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This episode is brought to you by Thorne and I have some incredible news for any of you

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that are in the military, first responder or medical professions.

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Now to learn more about Thorn, go to episode 323 of the Behind the Shield podcast with

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Joel Titoro and Wes Barnett.

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This episode is sponsored by a company I've literally been using for over 15 years now

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and that is 511.

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Now my introduction to their products began when I started wearing 511 uniforms years

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ago for Anaheim Fire Department and since then I have acquired a host of their backpacks

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and luggage which have literally been around the world with me.

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The backpack where I keep all my recording equipment is a 511 backpack and then most

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of my civilian gear, the clothes that I wear are also 511.

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Now more recently they've actually branched out into the brick and mortar stores.

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So for example, Gainesville where I do jiu jitsu has a beautiful 511 store.

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responders and then I want to highlight one new area, their CloudStrike packs.

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community.

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They've created an ultra light pack now with a hydration system built in for rucking, running

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or other long distance events.

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So if you want to hear more about 511 and their origin story, go to episode 338 of Behind

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the Shield podcast with their CEO, Francisco Morales.

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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast.

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As always, my name is James Gearing and this week it is my absolute honor to welcome on

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the show former oil broker and the man behind One Year No Beer, Rory Fairbairns.

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Now in this conversation we discuss a host of topics from his mental health struggles

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as a child, his suicide attempts at the age of 14, the impact of a letter to Richard Branson,

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the destructive journey he took with alcohol through his sales career, the paradigm shift

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that sent him to sobriety, the formation of his unique peer support based alcohol program,

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the impact of alcohol on mental health, obesity, sleep, the predatory advertising from big

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alcohol, the future of functional drinks and so much more.

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Now I also want to say I'm recording this intro four days after I did the recording

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and I am four days into my own One Year No Beer sobriety program.

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I've been very transparent with my struggles with alcohol, not as a binge drinker, but

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a frequent drinker and so I'm leaning into his program to try and help myself.

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Now before he gets this incredible conversation, as I say every week, please just take a moment.

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Go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and

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leave a rating.

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Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier

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for other people to find.

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And this is a free library of almost 950 episodes now.

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So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so

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I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.

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So that being said, I introduce to you Ruri Fairbairns.

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Enjoy.

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Well Ruri, I want to start by saying thank you so, so much firstly for connecting with

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me on Instagram and then secondly to saying yes to this discussion today.

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I love your Instagram.

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I absolutely love what you're doing.

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I'm very connected to the support that you're trying to help and do out there in the world

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and you've got a sort of cheeky, jappy, funny entertainment, informative, insightful, it's

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great.

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It's a great Instagram page.

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So kudos to you and the mission that you're on.

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Happy to be any part of it.

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Yeah, well, I mean, I'm honored because the ultimate goal is I've never ever once said

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I'm the SME on anything, you know what I mean?

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I'm literally standing in the middle with a wire and connecting the people that need

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it with the experts and this conversation, one of the people that need it is me because

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I have never drank excessively as far as binge drinking.

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I don't like even being drunk.

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However, it has been an emotional crush of me for most of my adult life.

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So we'll dive into that, but I'm excited to have you on and kind of share some more solutions

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for people.

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Great.

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We're definitely coming back to that.

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Okay.

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Yes, I think we would.

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I'm going to be vulnerable.

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All right.

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Well, I love to start the very well, actually before we even do that, where, because it's

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interesting, where on planet earth are we finding you despite the Scottish accent?

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I'm in a studio in Palma in Majorca, which is in Spain in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Beautiful.

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We'll circle around a while you're in Spain a little while, but let's start at the very

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beginning then the origin story.

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So tell me where you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic, what

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your parents did, how many siblings.

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Cool.

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So I was born on the Isle of Mull, which is a small island, 50 miles by 25 miles, sort

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of in the shape of Britain on the west coast of Scotland.

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And I was born there in 1980 and both of my parents had been born in England, but my grandparents,

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three of all four grandparents were Scottish, but had moved down to England.

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So despite that, I grew up on this island and my dad had bought a, you know, an estate,

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a farming estate when we were sheep farming and all that kind of stuff, trying to make

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that work.

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And my parents had quite posh English accents and I had an English accent.

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And back in 1980 in west coast of Scotland, they were just a few years prior to that.

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They would stone the English to death still.

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So it was pretty tough upbringing of just not fitting in and being the people who seemed

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to have money, although we absolutely definitely didn't.

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And you know, the people who, the English lot.

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And you know, I came out at 10 million miles an hour and that's how it stayed for my whole

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life.

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And at six years old, going through all of this huge amount of energy constantly, the

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teachers at the school gave my parents an ultimatum.

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Then they were like, it's drugs or counseling.

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And you know, back then they were calling it hyperactivity because they didn't really

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know what it was.

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But later I was diagnosed with ADHD and that level of ADHD, that whole destructive thing

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playing out, I'm very, very lucky.

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I believe, I think medication works for a lot of people and that's fantastic.

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Well done.

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But they chose counseling.

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And for me that started this journey of being able to talk, being able to talk about emotions,

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finding out what's going on with my brain, like trying to understand what was going on.

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Just to be more precise in the question, I'm one of five kids.

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So getting attention was really challenging and I had a lot of energy.

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And I pretty quickly learned that when you set things on fire, you get a lot of attention.

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And so that was kind of the route I went down in childhood was just a destructive behavior

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and wild behavior from a young age.

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When you talked about setting things on fire, was that a metaphor or were you actually a

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little arsonist when you were a kid?

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I was a little arsonist.

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And you know, there may not have been some animals involved and there may have not been,

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you know, I mean, 13 years old, I wrote off my first car, my mom's car.

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And it's amazing.

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You go, wow, you were driving at that age and we grew up on a farm.

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So you kind of, you learn these things pretty early.

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And it wasn't all bad.

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I wasn't, you know, too crazy.

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It was just, you know, there was a lot to do to get attention.

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I nearly set fire to the whole village.

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They had the fire engines out one day and all of that kind of stuff, people beating

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the hills to stop the village going on fire.

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But you know, this whole sort of destructive thing.

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And then I got into my teens, I think, and that's when I started to discover alcohol.

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I remember the first time discovering alcohol.

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So I was actually 12 years old, so pretty young.

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And I'd just gone into secondary school and in secondary school, they were like, what?

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You've never drunk alcohol?

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What's wrong with you?

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And I was like, oh God, this is embarrassing.

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And I was from a smaller village away from, so I just went home and you know, I contacted

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a friend down in the village and I said, look, will you babysit me?

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You don't need to drink.

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You know, you don't want to.

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She was actually younger than me, but will you just babysit me?

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And I went into the, you know, my parents' alcohol cup and I didn't really know what

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I was doing, but I knew that they mixed this sort of brownish liquid with this black liquid,

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right?

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Which was my dad drinking a whiskey and Coke.

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And so I just mixed together whiskey and port and a Coke bottle and headed down to the village.

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And I just sat there sipping and sipping and drinking and drinking and drinking.

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And I got about three quarters of the bottle through and then I started to get pretty delirious

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and I was a bit lost and this girl called my other brothers to come and get me and they

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didn't believe me.

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They didn't believe that I was drunk.

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And I was just absolutely away with it.

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Got home, mess everywhere, every end.

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It was absolutely everywhere.

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And my parents came back and they're just like, oh my God, what a disaster.

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Felt pretty horrendous for a while, but that never puts you off, right?

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That's just the first experience.

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Most people have a pretty horrendous first experience, but that's just the initiation.

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Now what's really interesting I know is there is one single factor over and above all of

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the factors of demographic or country you grew up in or the amount of alcohol advertising

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or how much your parents drink or how much you're, you know, out of all of the individual

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factors that drive problematic drinking.

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There is one over above everything, which will determine the likelihood of you developing

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alcohol use disorder.

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And that is the age you start.

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And so when we mentioned how impactful that is, like way over above the other factors

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of access of everything else, as parents, we must delay that.

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The brain is so sensitive at that young developing age that holding off the consumption of alcohol

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is going to significantly diminish or reduce the likelihood of them developing a problem

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with that in their life.

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Staying on that theme for a second, an observation that I've made European versus America is,

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and maybe this is the other side of that curve that you're talking about, the other side

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of the bell is that in the States, when they demonize alcohol so much, and obviously we're

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going to get into why, you know, it's definitely not something you should promote.

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I almost feel like the archer is pulling the bow back even more.

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And so, because I never saw a keg stand or beer pong or any of that stuff in Germany

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or France or England, you know, and obviously, yes, there's some binge drinking session

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in the pubs in England, but usually it is, you know, wine with dinner and it's a lot

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more social.

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So what are you seeing about that?

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Have you looked at the American model?

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Because it seems to me that the, you know, pull, pull, pull, now let go creates this

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kind of mystery and mystique about drinking.

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And there isn't that gentle introduction.

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Now obviously, abstinence is the perfect example, you know, is the ideal situation.

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But if kids are going to be introduced, it seems like not talking about it and holding

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them all the way back to 21 years old could also be detrimental.

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Yeah, 100%.

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I think that if like all of these things, like at the end of the day, drugs are getting

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more and more readily available, more access to it.

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You can get it on Snapchat these days, who knows what it's laced with.

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I know we've got lots of horrible stories around that.

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Alcohol, like the access for kids is easier and easier and easier and easier.

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And if you outright, frankly deny it, you're right, you build demand.

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Like absolute no.

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As a parent, if my parents said no to me, I just said, fuck you, I'm doing it anyway.

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That was what happened in my head.

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And so knowing I have got two young girls and they're growing up and they're getting

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into that age, everything has to be okay.

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But we have to guide them through that of helping them understand what decision that

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direction will make and everything else.

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So I don't think it's about 100% abstinence till much later, but I think it's like, hey,

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if you want to try this, that's once in a blue moon, it's okay.

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But actually getting into a regular pattern of consumption at a young age is where that

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is really considered dangerous.

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And the other thing you were talking about, because I think this is really interesting

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about the preconceptions or the ideas that people have about what is good drinking and

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what is bad drinking.

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And you're like, well, you know, that's the binge drinking thing, which is bad versus

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the social thing.

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Well, that's okay, right?

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That's okay.

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But the reality is, you know, let's take two studies.

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One was a documentary in the UK, two twin doctors, and they decided that one of them

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was going to drink.

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So they stopped drinking for 30 days, I think maybe 60 days prior.

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And then one of the twin doctors drinks all, and at the time it was 21 units recommended

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in a week as the maximum, it's now down at 14.

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So one of them would drink 21 units in one go, the binge drinker, and then not drink

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for the rest of the week.

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And one of them would drink the 21 units just nice and gently through the week, which is

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basically like half a glass of wine each night through the week.

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I mean, the other one's having shots and beers and everything else.

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Now, although the impact 30 days later is different.

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The truth is both are severely under, you know, inflammation massively increased.

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You can see detrimental impact on their brain.

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Like both of those are still very significantly harmful to our brains and bodies.

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Now, when you look at society, so as an example, Germany, one of the highest drinking countries

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per capita in Europe, if you don't include the Baltics, which is now another level, right?

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So Germany, Germany's alcohol consumption over the last few decades has just been steadily,

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gently rising, keeps rising, keeps rising, keeps rising versus the UK.

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2004 is when we saw peak booze in the UK and then it started to diminish significantly.

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Why?

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Because of binge drinking culture.

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Binge drinking culture is all over the news.

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Binge drinking culture is accidents, deaths, dramatic impact and everything else.

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So the binge drinking culture creates the desire or the change earlier.

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And it's harder to change when it is just social and socialized and normal.

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And I think this is a really important thing because you're like, I never was the binge

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drinker.

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So therefore I don't have a problem.

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And therefore it's even harder to change.

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But the truth is the negative impact that it's having on you, on your physical health,

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on your mental health and everything else is still very much the same or at a similar

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level.

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So we can kind of be grateful of binge drinking culture in a sort of twisted way because it

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ends up making people change their relationship with alcohol sooner.

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Where it's really detrimental for my profession is we are shift workers.

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So in America we do 24 hour shifts.

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Every third day you're more often than not either awake or very, very poor sleep for

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that 24.

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And then you go home the next day having not slept.

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So there's that kind of, I want to unwind and I'm doing air quotes again.

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And so it will be the wine or the beer or whatever it is.

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And this is again my example, a couple in that evening, but now you've disrupted your

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sleep again.

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And then the third night you may or may not then because you've got to be up at 5 a.m.

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to drive 70 miles to the fire station.

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But now so that's too disruptive sleep because that's the thing I don't think people realize

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and this is what makes me kind of hard on myself as I know the science behind what alcohol

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does.

284
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So when I make poor choices for lack of a better word, I'm fully aware of what I'm volunteering

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to do and the detriment that it has.

286
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So when it comes to sleep deprivation and the impact on our hormones and our mental

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health and these other areas, we're then compounding it with alcohol consumption, whether it's

288
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binge drinking, whether it's simply the way I drink.

289
00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:02,920
Yeah, it is. I wish there was a bigger word than compounding because it's so much bigger

290
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than that that people don't realize.

291
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,400
You know, I mean, let's take sleep deprivation.

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First of all, for shift workers, incredibly difficult.

293
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We're now starting to understand the truth about sleep deprivation.

294
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You take somebody perfectly normal health, mental health, all of that, and you sleep

295
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the by then of three days.

296
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80% of people will pass an ADHD test.

297
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People are now showing severe signs.

298
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You know, so the mental health issues and the mental health downstream of sleep deprivation

299
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on its own is really detrimental.

300
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But what post people don't realize is that sleep deprivation is up there with the top

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two or three drivers of compulsion, drivers of compulsive behavior, which is why people

302
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:43,080
reach for alcohol.

303
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That's the most readily available tool when we feel that compulsion to go.

304
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:51,440
But it could be cake or it could be Netflix or it could be porn or it's something I need

305
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:55,480
to take the edge off this and I'm feeling compulsive to do something.

306
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:59,760
So and the, and the, you know, like you touched on into there, we now start to understand

307
00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,680
just how detrimental even two units of alcohol.

308
00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:09,720
So one beer, one glass of wine at night, just one is so impactful on your REM and your deep

309
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,480
sleep and people think it gets them to sleep, which it does.

310
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So it basically knocks you out because it calms down that brain.

311
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It does the prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain, which during

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00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:28,400
zero to seven actually much up into your twenties, but pretty much zero to seven, it hasn't switched

313
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:33,360
on and from seven onwards is when it's really starting to develop and all our, a lot of

314
00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:37,640
our rumination and thinking and also our morals, our judgment, our understanding, situational

315
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:41,600
awareness, like all of that comes from this prefrontal cortex.

316
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:45,080
And so when you start to have a drink, it does that down, it quietens that down and

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00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,160
that allows you to go back off to sleep.

318
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,600
But unfortunately, because you're drinking a hundred percent poison, which is, you know,

319
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,000
ethanol, a hundred percent toxic to the body, it's toxic to the brain.

320
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It's toxic to the body.

321
00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,040
It instantly shoots up your heart rate.

322
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You are your, your central nervous system now believes it's being attacked.

323
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:08,880
So you've been injected with COVID and it's now furiously trying to work to get that out

324
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:09,880
of your system.

325
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:11,440
If it doesn't, you will die.

326
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:12,440
Right?

327
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:17,560
So it must process this toxin out of the body and it's doing that while you sleep.

328
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:24,140
And so yes, it knocks you out, but it is costing so much, so much greater.

329
00:21:24,140 --> 00:21:26,200
So then of course you're sleep deprived.

330
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You wake up the next day.

331
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:32,280
Compulsion is so much harder because again, you drank yesterday and also you didn't sleep

332
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:33,280
well.

333
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,360
So you have these compounding factors, which get people into that routine of, I need a

334
00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:37,360
drink, I need a drink.

335
00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:40,340
The only way I can keep going and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

336
00:21:40,340 --> 00:21:45,160
When we kind of unwind that, so how do you look at it from a different perspective?

337
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:49,680
This all comes down to the central nervous system and learning to self-regulate.

338
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:58,000
So imagine for a second that our central nervous system, so, you know, connecting the brain

339
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,160
and the body and how we are, how we are interacting, you, it's a bit like a, um, a toy car with

340
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:04,960
a little dynamo in it.

341
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:05,960
Okay.

342
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:10,720
So you wake up in the day and you start to wind that little toy car up at this zoom,

343
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:11,720
zoom, zoom, right?

344
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:13,600
You're winding the toy car up.

345
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,560
And normally if you just put it down, it would, you know, trickle across the room, like one

346
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,360
of those little wind up toys.

347
00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:25,600
Um, but you know, if you're ADHD or you're, um, you know, neurodivergent, thank you.

348
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:26,880
That's the word that's come back to me.

349
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:30,600
If you are neurodivergent, then you're more heavily geared, right?

350
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:34,440
So the, you only need to wind it a little bit for it to get really wound up.

351
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:35,440
Okay.

352
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:41,520
So why ADHD years, ADD years, why neurodivergence massive increase in addictive and compulsive

353
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,220
behavior three times more likely, right?

354
00:22:44,220 --> 00:22:47,440
Because our central nervous systems get wound up so much quicker.

355
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:50,960
So instead of every single day, wind up, wind up, wind up.

356
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,240
Now of course, if you're a first responder, right?

357
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:57,600
That the stress, the trauma, the things that you're seeing, the, the moments you have to

358
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:03,900
deal with life, death, communicating with people, seeing that, I mean, it's so huge.

359
00:23:03,900 --> 00:23:10,240
And I think we are only just starting to understand in society today, the truth of trauma, right?

360
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,720
And how impactful it is to us.

361
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:19,760
So the coping mechanisms taught to first responders are, I mean, it's nowhere near what level

362
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:22,560
of trauma and stress that you are dealing with.

363
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,880
And so you don't have any in reality.

364
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:28,440
We wind up that central nervous system, we get to the end of the day and it's totally

365
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:32,680
wound up and we think, okay, now I'm going to relax and sit down in front of the TV.

366
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,680
And you'd be winding up that car all day.

367
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,080
You put it down and guess what?

368
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,000
It shoots off out the room at 5 million miles an hour.

369
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,480
And this is your brain just going, oh my God, and you're like, oh gosh, I'm going to switch

370
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:44,480
this off.

371
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:45,480
I'm going to have a drink.

372
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:46,480
And it's amazing.

373
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:47,840
Alcohol is amazing at that.

374
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:53,000
Within seconds switched off and you're like, oh, I feel so much better.

375
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:59,440
Problem is that alcohol creates anxiety and it builds that, that thinking in the next

376
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:00,440
day.

377
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:01,440
So the following day, guess what?

378
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,440
It's even easier for you to get into that hyperactive state.

379
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,200
So that's the pattern and that's the pattern most people are stuck in.

380
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:12,280
Whether you're stressed at work or in your business or a first responder, we are, we

381
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,640
are winding up our central nervous system so much during the day that the only thing

382
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,560
we have to do to unwind is, is have a drink.

383
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:20,560
So what do we do?

384
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:22,920
Well, the thing is we now know, right?

385
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,080
Sympathetic, parasympathetic, everyone here knows what that is.

386
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:30,960
Central nervous systems is that we must put our central nervous system into parasympathetic

387
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:36,160
during the day to calm down and reduce that desire for compulsion.

388
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:40,160
On our, one of our programs, we actually use a really cool device and we remotely monitor

389
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:41,360
people's central nervous system.

390
00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:45,080
We show them minute by minute, whether we're in fight or flight or recovery, we teach them

391
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,160
about their lack of stress coping mechanisms.

392
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,360
We're like, look, you thought you were calmly reading the newspaper, but look how stressed

393
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:52,360
out you are.

394
00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:55,080
Like you're, you are stressed out your mind.

395
00:24:55,080 --> 00:25:00,360
And so when they see that and then they start to take action to find calm during the day,

396
00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:02,240
breath work, meditation, cold shower.

397
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:05,440
Hey, I know you can't jump out the ambulance and go for a cold shower at that moment.

398
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:07,080
I understand that, right?

399
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:11,320
This is not reality or on the way in the, in going in the ambulance or the, or the fire

400
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:14,840
engine or whatever it is meditating quietly, but you can do breath work.

401
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:18,620
I mean, the physiological side is the fastest way to get your central nervous system to

402
00:25:18,620 --> 00:25:20,600
go from sympathetic to parasympathetic.

403
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,320
You know, it's, it's an amazing tool and it's something that you can easily introduce.

404
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,960
So understanding that and saying, well, hang on a minute.

405
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,720
I don't want to have that desire for compulsion at the end of the day.

406
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,520
I want to reduce that down now.

407
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,200
And by taking these breaths and finding this calm in that moment, whenever I can just like

408
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:41,480
try and calm that central nervous system, I'm mitigating that inevitable moment of being,

409
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,800
Oh my God, I need a drink.

410
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:44,800
Make sense?

411
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:45,800
Absolutely.

412
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:46,800
Absolutely.

413
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,240
Well, I want to go back to early life for a second.

414
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,320
When I started this, this podcast, you know, we were losing all of the first responders

415
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,000
and that was kind of the origin story.

416
00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,400
And then as I got a little bit further in and certain guests started talking about the

417
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:07,280
massive impact of childhood trauma or experiences on behaviors as we, as we grow up, it was

418
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,680
a massive missing piece of the first responder mental health puzzle, because you have a firefight

419
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:13,920
that was in the Grenfell fire.

420
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,640
Like, well, Steve, you know, the reason you're struggling is you were in the Grenfell fire.

421
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:23,760
Well, you know, thing X, Y, and Z happened before he even ever put the uniform on.

422
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:28,240
You talked about, you know, obviously the accidental binge drinking, you know, first

423
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:32,000
time story, but then you also talked about, you know, the behaviors as far as the arsenal

424
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,880
and some of these other things in 2024 with this wise lens that you have now, when you

425
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:43,160
look back at your upbringing, are there areas of that dynamic that contributed to that?

426
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:44,160
Absolutely.

427
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:50,480
I mean, the thing is totally, you know, completely misunderstood and not really with the, with

428
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:56,840
the resources and understanding of what was going on for me and how I was trying to get

429
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,120
attention and the things that I was going through.

430
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:03,480
And so, you know, they just didn't know what, what was going on.

431
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,440
They just knew they didn't like it.

432
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:13,640
And I see the same sort of, not setting fire to things, but same sort of behaviors early

433
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:14,640
in my children.

434
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:16,440
And I know how to mitigate that.

435
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:18,960
I can see how hyperactive they get at the end of the day.

436
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:25,000
So helping them understand how to regulate themselves is so, is so key that they can

437
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,880
help themselves get to sleep, that they can change their, their, their system.

438
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:30,480
So I think that's really important.

439
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,280
And then, you know, being way more understanding about diet.

440
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:38,480
I mean, I was just eating sugar and E numbers and everything else and going out of fashion.

441
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:43,400
And then, I mean, people would give me a pack of Skittles at school and it would be like

442
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,960
fireworks, not the Skittles, me.

443
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:52,160
I would just be off climbing walls, breaking something, graffitiing on, I mean, it's just

444
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,360
bananas.

445
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:54,640
So it was like having the show.

446
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,480
Well, now we know, you know, all those additives and E numbers and sugars and everything else,

447
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,600
it's just kryptonite for ADHD.

448
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:07,440
So yeah, I think, you know, coming back onto, onto that story and going up through there,

449
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:13,080
how, you know, I, oh yeah, I know where I am.

450
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,280
13, 14 years old, really, really struggled with my head.

451
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:20,600
I just didn't fit in and it had been growing divide of being, you know, I'm, I'm bad.

452
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:21,600
I'm naughty.

453
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:22,600
I'm, I'm hearing this.

454
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:23,600
I'm bad.

455
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:24,600
I'm naughty.

456
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:25,600
I'm a bad kid.

457
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,320
And my parents being like, you're special, you're gifted and blah, blah, blah.

458
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:30,200
And it was just creating this divide.

459
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:34,040
And you know, I got to 13 and had my first suicide attempt.

460
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:38,560
I took an overdose and had my stomach pump from that very miserable experience.

461
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:41,320
And at 14, I tried to hang myself.

462
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:47,960
And when I hung myself from the stairs, my parents arrived back early from their anniversary

463
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:48,960
dinner.

464
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,880
I know horrible time to choose it and walk back into the room.

465
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:56,400
And in, I was very, very lucky to, to survive that.

466
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:02,160
And my dad sat me down and he was, he used to work for Childline and, you know, so he

467
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:07,240
had, he had talked a lot of kids down from suicide and he had, you know, spent a lot

468
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,320
of time supporting and understanding children.

469
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:15,720
And you know, he was like, look, I need, I know I need to give you hope.

470
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,640
So why don't you write a letter to somebody who inspires you?

471
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:23,360
And we sat and we thought, and my dad's called Richard and had a recording studio and he

472
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:24,560
loved Richard Branson.

473
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,480
So I was like, I'll write a letter to Richard Branson.

474
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:28,480
So I wrote a letter to Richard Branson.

475
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,480
I said, you know, amongst lots of things, I'm going to change the world one day and

476
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,040
I'm looking forward to having lunch with you.

477
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:37,920
And then I kind of set out on this mission to change the world and set up my first business

478
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:42,400
when I was 15, I left school before the legal age to run my first business.

479
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:47,160
Five companies by the time I was 25, I'm all failure, failure, failure, failure.

480
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,600
I just couldn't get it right.

481
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:56,560
And rather demoralized from that, I entered the TV program, The Apprentice, which was

482
00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:01,920
series two in the UK, got accepted, went down for the beginning of the show, thought I was

483
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,320
going to go on and it was going to be, you know, life changing experience.

484
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,840
And then eventually they said, look, we can't explain, but you're not going on the show

485
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:08,840
this time.

486
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:12,520
And so instead of flying back to Scotland, I didn't take the rejection.

487
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:19,040
Well, I flew out to Ibiza to sort out the rejection and get old party Island.

488
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:24,760
And in Ibiza, I met an oil broker and this is where I ended up becoming an oil broker

489
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:25,760
in London.

490
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,000
And for me, two worlds collided, right?

491
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:34,200
I, I always used to party quite hard, although I was very serious and I'd miss a lot of stuff

492
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,120
because I was very serious about building these businesses, even though they weren't

493
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,000
successful.

494
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:40,880
This is where those two worlds came together, right?

495
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,620
The more I partied, the more successful I was as an oil broker is amazing.

496
00:30:44,620 --> 00:30:47,520
So much entertainment, so much fun.

497
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,520
That was 13 years of my life in London.

498
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:56,680
And I met my wife, we started to have a family still partying, even though we'd start to

499
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:01,200
have a family, you know, coming home sometimes on Tuesday at five o'clock in the morning,

500
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:02,540
not able to find my keys.

501
00:31:02,540 --> 00:31:06,320
So I just sleep on the doorstep, which is not great when your wife wakes up in the morning

502
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,480
with a six month old baby and finds her husband sleep on the doorstep.

503
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:16,000
So that started to wear a little bit thin and in a way she was putting pressure on me

504
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,400
either to leave the job or to, you know, the drinking.

505
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,400
And I was like, it's the job, it's just the way it is.

506
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,680
And then one day I decided to take a break from alcohol.

507
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,120
And it took quite a long time.

508
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,800
You know, I approached my boss in the beginning and I said, I'm thinking about taking a break

509
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:31,880
from alcohol.

510
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:37,200
And he said, if you stop drinking, you are committing commercial suicide.

511
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,720
And it took me a long time to pluck up the courage, six months or so.

512
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:43,760
And then I took a break and I just couldn't believe it.

513
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:49,600
I mean, fitter, faster, healthier, happier, better dad, better husband, grew my business,

514
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,000
every area of my life improved.

515
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:57,800
And that was 11 years ago, 11 years ago.

516
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:02,320
And it kind of sent me on a mission of how do I help more people realize, you know, the

517
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,920
advantages and the benefits of taking a break from alcohol instead of it being this thing

518
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,200
that you have to have a problem and reach rock bottom and all of the stuff that was

519
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:10,200
out there.

520
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:11,440
I was like, no, this is a thing to do.

521
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,280
If you want to be fitter, faster, healthier, happier, better.

522
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:21,600
So yeah, that was the beginning of the launch of one year, no beer.

523
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,880
Two or three, three days ago, I woke up.

524
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:26,200
My wife is down.

525
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:27,760
She lives in South Florida at the moment.

526
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:28,760
She's in medical school.

527
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,040
And so she, you know, and the week she's on there on her own and then weekends, she'll

528
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,320
either come home or I'll go down there.

529
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,620
And ironically, her phone broke the other day as well.

530
00:32:36,620 --> 00:32:41,080
So I wake up five in the morning, Instagram messenger video coming in.

531
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,080
And when I answer, she's screaming because someone's trying to kick in her door.

532
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:51,080
And it was a, it ultimately ended up being a drunk guy who was in the wrong building,

533
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:55,120
you know, going, trying to get in the same number, which absolutely terrifying.

534
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,640
He was belligerent as well as he was telling her to F off and all this kind of stuff.

535
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,060
And you know that if I had been there that day, that could have resulted in him being

536
00:33:02,060 --> 00:33:05,960
dead because you know, that's what happens when you kick in a door in America, you probably

537
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:07,400
going to be facing the barrel of a gun.

538
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:08,400
It's not bravado.

539
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:13,400
It's just the reality because every bad guy is armed, you know, so it was such a kind

540
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:19,000
of haunting realization of obviously the vulnerability of her, but also that this guy could be dead,

541
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,520
whether I punched him down the stairs or shot him or whatever.

542
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,080
And again, this is not anything I would want to do, but if someone is kicking in your door

543
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,880
and telling you to F off, you assume they have ill intentions and you're going to protect

544
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:29,960
yourself.

545
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:34,560
So you know, with you talking about lying on the floor, this is the other side, which

546
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:41,840
I was just, you know, glaringly made, you know, aware of is that that just simple intoxication

547
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:46,840
can lead to your demise or demise of someone else as well, which is another important conversation

548
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:47,840
about alcohol.

549
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:52,320
I've been in A and E many times.

550
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,680
And I used to say, you know, getting, it used to be this theme tune in my head, getting

551
00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:01,760
away with it all messed up, you know, that James song, because I was like, I just get

552
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:02,760
away with it.

553
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,720
I mean, I remember sitting on the roof of a car or my two brothers got on the roof of

554
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:08,880
a car, it's driving down a dual carriageway.

555
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,940
And I decided to climb out the back window and hold onto their trousers.

556
00:34:11,940 --> 00:34:15,320
And then we come onto this little lane and the car turns right and I didn't, and I lost

557
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:19,000
my front teeth, lost the skin on my arm, chest in next minute.

558
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:23,360
I'm in hospital and you know, so I was very, very, very lucky.

559
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:27,240
And, you know, absolutely hammer drunk when that happened.

560
00:34:27,240 --> 00:34:29,280
And there's a lot of, there's a lot of things like that.

561
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:33,560
So the thing about that is the first responders are the ones who are dealing with the people

562
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,160
who didn't get away with it.

563
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:40,640
And, but the people who get away with it are how many times is it a thousand times?

564
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,560
Is it 5,000 times the number of people who don't get away with it?

565
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:45,560
But it's huge.

566
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:50,440
People are getting away with it every weekend, all over the world, all the time.

567
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:56,160
And the first responders are dealing the ones with the ones who didn't in a way or don't.

568
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:57,600
Absolutely.

569
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:02,800
I had a guy on the show who was the author of The Introvert's Edge.

570
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:04,620
And it was such an interesting conversation.

571
00:35:04,620 --> 00:35:08,000
It was actually a book that had helped one of my friends who was an alcoholic turn a

572
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,520
corner and I'd never really heard it put this way before.

573
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,800
You know, you think about introvert and extrovert and, you know, the extrovert is the jazz hands

574
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:20,120
guy in the pub, you know, and the introvert is the one curled into a ball in the corner.

575
00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:22,120
But in the middle is everyone else.

576
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:26,880
And the way he framed it, I know it's not originally his concept, but if you, you know,

577
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:31,880
where you gain energy from, where you recharge is the kind of personality that you are.

578
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,240
And I was thinking, you know, I was kind of like, you know, one foot on each side, but

579
00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:37,360
no, I'm, I'm an introvert.

580
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:42,440
So I'm happy to be in a crowd, but I'm the kind of person that you'll turn around in

581
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:44,020
a party and I'm just gone.

582
00:35:44,020 --> 00:35:47,640
Or I'm sitting out in the back garden and everyone's, you know, and it's not that I'm

583
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:48,960
worried about crowds or anything like that.

584
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:52,840
I just, that's how I recharge, you know, intimate dinner with my wife or walking my

585
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:54,920
dog or all these kinds of things.

586
00:35:54,920 --> 00:36:01,440
And so in this conversation, it made me realize how many people look at other people who are

587
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,920
the life of the party because they've been drinking and go, the only way I'm going to

588
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:10,000
fit in is to drink so I can also be like these cool people.

589
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,760
And especially when you think, which I did when I was younger, when you pregame, I'm

590
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:15,280
going to go out and get drinks.

591
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:18,000
So let me have drinks to get me ready to go out and have drinks.

592
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,040
And you look at that and you go, God, why, why isn't this talked about that most of us

593
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:26,880
are actually introverts because in a tribal experience, you're not supposed to stick out.

594
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,960
You're one cog in this beautiful machine.

595
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:35,080
So many people stop drinking or change their relationship with alcohol and realize they're

596
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:36,080
introverted.

597
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:43,840
Oh wait, I fucking hate going out and you just talk same shit all the time.

598
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:49,240
I needed alcohol for you to be my friend, which is, which is extremely common.

599
00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:51,600
A lot of people, they have a bit heartbreak around that too.

600
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,880
They're like, Oh my God, you know, I thought I really loved these people or I thought this

601
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:55,880
was my thing.

602
00:36:55,880 --> 00:37:00,600
And you're like, well, actually when you come to it, and I think that's about the whole

603
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:07,600
journey is that, you know, using alcohol to make your life okay is the truth.

604
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:13,000
You know, that it's, it's a numbing agent and it's what makes your life okay, but we're

605
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,120
only here for one life.

606
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:18,920
So why not make your life okay so that you don't need alcohol?

607
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,600
And I think that's what the angle that we're coming at this whole thing with.

608
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:27,180
I'm really sorry, but there is no disease and the scientific community is pretty aligned

609
00:37:27,180 --> 00:37:28,840
with that fact.

610
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,400
We don't, we don't have a disease of alcoholism.

611
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:33,440
Okay.

612
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:37,200
We have serious alcohol use disorder.

613
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:42,740
And interestingly enough, the population that gets alcohol use disorder during their lifetime

614
00:37:42,740 --> 00:37:44,120
is really big people.

615
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:50,240
Many, many, many people get alcohol use disorder and the greatest intervention in the world

616
00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:55,280
for helping people going from alcohol use disorder to a better relationship or not drinking

617
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:56,280
at all.

618
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:57,360
It's not AA.

619
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:58,360
It's not what I do.

620
00:37:58,360 --> 00:37:59,600
It's not what it was.

621
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:00,960
It's time.

622
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,560
Most people grow out of it over time.

623
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,440
And when you look at what the definition is of alcohol use disorder, most of us have it

624
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,920
in our twenties and most of us stopped doing it later on.

625
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,320
And so that's not a disease.

626
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:15,200
Disease doesn't heal with time.

627
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:20,080
So we have to have to kind of rethink some of this stuff here.

628
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:27,560
And I think, I think with this part is, you know, what we are doing and I know we all

629
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:34,320
get onto this is our focus or our realization over the last 10, nearly 10 years now running

630
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:35,320
this organization.

631
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,480
I'll put this into the right perspective.

632
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:42,280
So in the beginning, we started helping people take a break from alcohol.

633
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:43,280
That was the thing.

634
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:44,880
I thought if we give people the idea of having a break.

635
00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:48,280
And so we came up with the idea of a challenge, one year, no beer.

636
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:49,280
You know, it's just a challenge.

637
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:50,280
Do it.

638
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:51,280
It's fun.

639
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:57,400
And we had a lot of success growing that over a hundred thousand members in 138 countries.

640
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:06,000
And I mentioned just before this that during COVID, when it kind of really got bad, we

641
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:11,400
kind of saw that there were a lot of doctors, nurses and emergency workers inside our audience.

642
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:15,920
And they were talking about how fucking hard it was dealing with what was going on in the

643
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:20,560
world and either wanting a drink or going back to drink.

644
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,680
And so I came up with this idea, like, why don't we offer it out for free, our program

645
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:29,120
and our support to emergency workers, first responders, NHS.

646
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,520
So right in the first lockdown, we announced that.

647
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:37,600
But first of all, I sent an email out to all of our members, multiple emails and lots of

648
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,320
posts and I said, look, I need you to come back and re-engage.

649
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,040
I need you to come to the community.

650
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:45,040
We are going to support whoever wants to come in for free.

651
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:51,360
We had 3000 people respond to say that they were willing to support, like, hey, do whatever

652
00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:53,040
we can to try and support.

653
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:54,800
Then we opened up our doors.

654
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:59,240
Over the course of three weeks, we had 10,000 people join us.

655
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:06,180
And this is all over the UK predominantly, mostly NHS because we put some NHS stuff together.

656
00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:11,940
Every time I do this and every podcast I mentioned this on, I always get a message into our internal

657
00:40:11,940 --> 00:40:14,800
system from someone saying I was one of those first responders.

658
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,400
I was one of the NHS workers that came in for free during that thing.

659
00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:23,360
And it was amazing to see that community support and all of that.

660
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,700
Just amazing.

661
00:40:24,700 --> 00:40:29,560
So we kind of were super focused on this and helping people to stop drinking.

662
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:33,520
And as this time went on, we were speaking to a lot of people who signed up and why they

663
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,260
signed up and everything else.

664
00:40:35,260 --> 00:40:39,000
And we put a survey out there, which now more than 40,000 people have taken.

665
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:44,720
And part of the survey is just asks random people out there on social media land, what

666
00:40:44,720 --> 00:40:48,040
would you like your relationship with alcohol to look like?

667
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,080
Six percent say that they want to stop drinking.

668
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:52,080
Okay.

669
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,680
30% said they're fine as they are delusional.

670
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:55,680
I'm kidding.

671
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:56,680
I'm kidding.

672
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:57,680
I'm kidding.

673
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:58,680
And yeah, sorry.

674
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:05,040
The other 64% said that they'd like a better relationship with it.

675
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,240
They'd like to reduce how much they're drinking.

676
00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:09,900
So this is when I had a massive aha moment.

677
00:41:09,900 --> 00:41:14,680
If we're just talking about not drinking, if we're just talking about sobriety, right,

678
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,520
which is huge, it's growing out there.

679
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:17,520
Super amazing.

680
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,960
We're only talking to 6% of people.

681
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:20,960
Right.

682
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:25,120
And the reason why we had struggled as an organization was because we were saying, come

683
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:26,120
and stop drinking.

684
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:28,280
But people were like, I don't want to do that.

685
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,080
I don't want to stop drinking.

686
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:31,600
I'd like to drink less.

687
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,960
And so everything that we are doing now is about helping people to get control of their

688
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:36,960
drinking.

689
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:41,040
And when you talk about control, when you talk about trying to help people reduce their

690
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,840
drinking, if that gets them to come in the door and sit and have a conversation with

691
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,760
you and say, come in here and have it, and as you have that conversation, you realize

692
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:53,480
that this is somebody with a very serious problem or even whatever level at our core,

693
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,760
we know that the fastest way to get control is by taking a break.

694
00:41:57,760 --> 00:41:58,760
Right.

695
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:00,000
And so we have this conversation with them.

696
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,160
We help them understand and see the benefits and everything else.

697
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:04,080
And then we encourage them to take a break from alcohol.

698
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:05,080
And then guess what?

699
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,680
Many people go, I don't think I want to go back to that.

700
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:15,600
So we found a way to help people so much earlier and a much wider audience of people.

701
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:19,960
If we can talk about control and we can help people reduce their drinking, we can help

702
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:24,000
them earlier and we can help them prevent more serious relationships with alcohol over

703
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:25,000
time.

704
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:26,440
So that's our main focus now.

705
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:32,440
I mean, I've had many, many months where I haven't, you know, and this is the thing.

706
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:36,600
It's like when I'm in that groove, it's easy.

707
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,600
After a while, you don't have that drink until the one time that you do.

708
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:43,480
And again, it's not like, you know, I'm downing two bottles of wine or bottle of

709
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:47,120
scotch or something, but it just it's insidious.

710
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:49,120
You know, it starts creeping back in again.

711
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,880
And now you're like, oh, it's habitual again now, you know, two glasses of wine every

712
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:53,920
evening kind of thing.

713
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:58,400
So I think by approaching it that way, it just makes a lot of sense.

714
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,240
It's like a lot of stuff I try and do with the fire shift work and some other things

715
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:05,640
that we've got to change because it's literally killing our people.

716
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:09,800
You know, you're you're trying to find that kind of middle group of rebel rouses and then

717
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:11,360
you start pushing the walls out.

718
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:15,680
But again, if you can get someone to dip their toe in, get their kind of knee jerk reflex

719
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:21,000
down so they can actually understand the whole picture and really dig into the why, then

720
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:22,280
the kind of the hook is in the mouth.

721
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:27,720
And like you said, now you've got the ability to kind of go from reduction of alcohol to

722
00:43:27,720 --> 00:43:30,640
no alcohol, which is, you know, I'm going to say this now, I'm going to say at the

723
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:35,520
end, but I'm going to dive into your program and do the one year starting today because

724
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:40,480
I think, you know, I just needed I needed some help, you know, and winging it on my

725
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:44,640
own obviously hasn't worked because, you know, last night I had two glasses of wine.

726
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:46,800
So today is day one.

727
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:47,800
Good man.

728
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,800
Well, so here's something really important.

729
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,600
Having now seen, well, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people do

730
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:59,000
a week, a month, a year.

731
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:03,320
It's an amazing thing to do and then see a huge proportion of them go back to drinking

732
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,080
and for it to start to climb back up again.

733
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:07,960
And that is what I've been doing.

734
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:12,200
I'd been getting people to stop drinking only to see them go back to problematic drinking.

735
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:14,880
And I was like, there's something more here.

736
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:20,180
And so now, and I think this is really, really important.

737
00:44:20,180 --> 00:44:22,440
It's not about the alcohol.

738
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,120
The alcohol is actually completely irrelevant.

739
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,280
It's just the tool that you're using.

740
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:28,280
Right.

741
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:35,040
So if you go in search of abstaining from that thing, you will either build a worse

742
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:36,260
relationship with it.

743
00:44:36,260 --> 00:44:41,000
So you will increase your desire because you're trying and you're using willpower and you're

744
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,020
forcing yourself away from it.

745
00:44:43,020 --> 00:44:47,720
If you do nothing, if you, if you do no change and we can talk about what's required to change,

746
00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:48,900
it will build over time.

747
00:44:48,900 --> 00:44:54,440
And they've shown this in all sorts of, you know, rice, rice, mice, lab rats, kind of

748
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,900
stuff aversion therapy doesn't work.

749
00:44:56,900 --> 00:44:58,200
Don't think of a pink elephant.

750
00:44:58,200 --> 00:44:59,520
That's what you're thinking of.

751
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:00,520
Right.

752
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,080
So, so that is not the solution, especially not in a world which is absolutely drenched

753
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:05,080
in about it.

754
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:06,080
Don't get me wrong.

755
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:09,080
If you want to stop drinking and you want to be sober, of course, it's amazing.

756
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:10,080
Well done.

757
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:11,500
You a hundred million percent.

758
00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:14,600
That is the best place you can possibly be.

759
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,800
And a lot of people are holding onto that with dear life and I don't think they need

760
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:18,800
to do that.

761
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:24,620
So what I'm saying is there are drivers of compulsive behavior and we know what those

762
00:45:24,620 --> 00:45:28,020
are and those are the things that we must address.

763
00:45:28,020 --> 00:45:31,800
And if we address those things, then you can have a take it or leave it relationship with

764
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:32,800
alcohol.

765
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,400
The truth is the best relationship with alcohol is always leave it because it's a hundred

766
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:37,460
percent poison.

767
00:45:37,460 --> 00:45:42,000
If we sat and recategorize drugs right now, alcohol would be right up there with one of

768
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:43,000
the worst.

769
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:44,040
We'd think of it more like meth.

770
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:45,720
How often do you want to take meth, James?

771
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:46,720
Right.

772
00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:49,240
And you might say, well, you know, I don't mind trying it now and again, but it'd be

773
00:45:49,240 --> 00:45:50,600
once in a blue moon.

774
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:54,480
And that's probably the reality we should have of such a toxic drug that's so bad for

775
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:56,880
our mental health and our physical health.

776
00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:57,880
Okay.

777
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,960
So we live in the world we live in and it's absolutely drenched in it in every single

778
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:02,960
way.

779
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:07,640
So that is, that's a positive thing because lots of people don't want to stop drinking

780
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,280
forever and we need to address those underlying drivers.

781
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:11,280
Right.

782
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:12,280
Shut up, Ruri.

783
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:13,280
What are they?

784
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:18,240
Now, if I was being truthful about what this program really is, I don't think we'd sell

785
00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:19,240
any.

786
00:46:19,240 --> 00:46:20,240
I don't think anybody would sign up.

787
00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:21,240
Right.

788
00:46:21,240 --> 00:46:24,320
Nobody is wanting rushing through the door to deal with their trauma.

789
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:25,420
Right.

790
00:46:25,420 --> 00:46:30,200
But that is the number one core driver of compulsive behavior and trauma.

791
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:31,200
Right.

792
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:32,200
We understand.

793
00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:33,200
Let's address trauma for a second.

794
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:35,760
I'm sure you talk about it an awful lot in the podcast.

795
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:40,840
How about I'm going to give part opinion, part belief and specific understandings from

796
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:42,960
world leaders and gurus that I believe in.

797
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:45,960
Besser van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Gaber Mate.

798
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:46,960
Okay.

799
00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:52,220
And what we're talking about is big T and little T, but predominantly we're talking

800
00:46:52,220 --> 00:46:57,040
about that age of time zero to seven when you have not yet developed your prefrontal

801
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:58,040
cortex.

802
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:01,720
Arguably, you could also be talking about inherited family trauma.

803
00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:04,400
You could also be talking about in utero and things like that.

804
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:07,840
We're still trying to figure all that stuff out and how impactful it is.

805
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:13,000
But some things happened to you or in front of you that you perceived that you didn't

806
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:17,380
understand as a child and everybody has had that moment.

807
00:47:17,380 --> 00:47:20,780
And because you didn't understand it, you weren't able to understand the emotion.

808
00:47:20,780 --> 00:47:24,680
You felt intense, insane emotion.

809
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:26,320
And that was hard coded.

810
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:31,360
Now as human beings, we are world class at teaching our children to pack down their emotions

811
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:33,840
and then we become men and we got to be strong and everything else.

812
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:35,680
And we pack down those emotions.

813
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:38,560
Turns out these emotions are toxic over time.

814
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:40,600
And in fact, they're not just causing addiction.

815
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:42,980
They're causing autoimmune diseases and disorders.

816
00:47:42,980 --> 00:47:46,360
They cause brain and mental health disorders, neurodivergence.

817
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:49,780
They cause cancers, illnesses.

818
00:47:49,780 --> 00:47:51,300
Our future, right?

819
00:47:51,300 --> 00:47:55,640
Our long term future is you're going to walk into the doctor and all the symptoms he'll

820
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,040
describe, he'll say, tell me about your childhood.

821
00:47:58,040 --> 00:47:59,760
That's the future, I believe, right?

822
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:02,400
Is the significance of trauma.

823
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:07,480
So what we have is this original part trauma and we have not yet learned to deal with that.

824
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,840
We've packed it down and we have these emotions trapped inside of us.

825
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:17,320
And so every time we feel stressed, every time we feel lonely or sad or these emotions

826
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:22,540
we feel today, we immediately connect to the emotions we felt as a child, which were utterly

827
00:48:22,540 --> 00:48:26,620
overwhelming and we need a drink or we need something to take the edge off because it's

828
00:48:26,620 --> 00:48:28,380
too hard to deal with.

829
00:48:28,380 --> 00:48:32,480
So what we do now is help people release those emotions.

830
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:36,600
One of the tools that we use that we love is somatic experiencing, which is based on

831
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,040
helping people feel the emotion, right?

832
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:40,040
Not talk therapy.

833
00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:41,800
I did 30 years of it.

834
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:44,360
It's great, but I don't think it really changed me much.

835
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:46,880
I think there's some good stuff with EMDR.

836
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:51,120
I think there's amazing things with psychedelics and absolutely the future of what we're doing

837
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:52,960
will integrate psychedelic therapy.

838
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:54,880
No doubt with that whatsoever.

839
00:48:54,880 --> 00:49:00,480
But I know that a major part of addiction, compulsion behavior, the inability to stop

840
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:04,920
is rooted in you haven't dealt with your childhood shit yet.

841
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:06,680
And you probably don't know what it is.

842
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:07,680
Most of us don't.

843
00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:08,680
We hide it.

844
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:09,680
That's what the brain do.

845
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:11,000
It pushes it out.

846
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:17,040
So trauma is the number one driver of compulsive behavior.

847
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:21,880
The second driver of compulsive behavior links directly to trauma.

848
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:25,280
So trauma is impactful on your central nervous system.

849
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:26,280
And guess what?

850
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:27,440
We have daily stress, right?

851
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,680
So if you haven't yet dealt with your shit, you come in with this heightened level of

852
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:34,080
impact on your central nervous system.

853
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:40,480
And then it's really easy for you to get snappy, frustrated, angry, drink a coffee, which drives

854
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:44,320
your central nervous system, drink alcohol, which stimulates your central nervous system.

855
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:48,080
And we're just in this fight or flight, fight or flight, fight or flight all the time.

856
00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:50,600
And that's why compulsion is so significant.

857
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:52,760
And those two kind of go hand in hand.

858
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:57,280
And then just to summarize really quickly, the other main sort of core drivers, our environment,

859
00:49:57,280 --> 00:49:59,480
our sense of meaning and purpose.

860
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:01,320
This is huge, right?

861
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:06,360
People who sell their businesses, retire, people who go in between things, people who

862
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,960
are in jobs, they fucking hate.

863
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:11,080
Compulsion is massive.

864
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:15,120
Compulsion for me working in the finance industry, just making money for myself was through the

865
00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:16,120
roof.

866
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:18,840
And I didn't realize that I have to help people.

867
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:21,200
And that's what gives me meaning in life.

868
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:24,200
And it calmed down that element of compulsion.

869
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:25,920
Connection is really important.

870
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:27,400
Feeling that sense of connection.

871
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,240
What lots of people do is they think, oh, alcohol is the problem.

872
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:31,320
I'm going to stop drinking.

873
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:32,320
So they stop drinking.

874
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:33,320
They do a month.

875
00:50:33,320 --> 00:50:35,360
And during that month, I'm not going to see my mates.

876
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:36,400
I'm not going to go over here.

877
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:40,200
And what they're doing is they're becoming more disconnected.

878
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:43,280
Unless you're a sociopath, you cannot be disconnected.

879
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:44,280
So guess what?

880
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,640
The only way to be connected again is to go back to drinking.

881
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:49,000
And they're like, oh, I've got a problem.

882
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:50,000
I don't know what's wrong with me.

883
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:51,000
Well, I do.

884
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:54,760
You just haven't built connections out with the drinking culture.

885
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:59,680
And that's how key it is to reducing compulsive behavior.

886
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,320
Few other elements.

887
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:06,480
Emotional health, obviously, is a major driver of compulsive behavior.

888
00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:10,320
Emotional regulation is absolutely key in understanding your emotions for compulsive

889
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:11,320
behavior.

890
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:13,520
So it's not disease.

891
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:17,260
It's not some kind of crazy, weird thing that we don't understand.

892
00:51:17,260 --> 00:51:18,600
It's not even the alcohol.

893
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,200
I know alcohol is an addictive substance.

894
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:23,760
There's lots of addictive substances out there.

895
00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:27,880
But it's about you needing or using or desiring that.

896
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:29,120
And you can change that.

897
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:30,960
You have the power to do that.

898
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:34,240
You have the power to change the things that are driving compulsive behavior.

899
00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:39,840
And I think that model, that thing will help so many people avert more serious relationship

900
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:42,680
with alcohol or anything.

901
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:45,320
I had Johan Hari on the show a couple of times.

902
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:50,000
The first time he discussed Chasing the Scream, which is I think every person should read

903
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:51,000
that book.

904
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:52,000
It's phenomenal.

905
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:53,160
But there's a quote from there.

906
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,020
The opposite of addiction is not sobriety.

907
00:51:56,020 --> 00:51:57,920
The op of addiction is connection.

908
00:51:57,920 --> 00:51:59,880
And you look at my population.

909
00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:06,160
So especially when our firefighters retire, get hurt, get fired, whatever happens, you're

910
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:07,240
on that rig.

911
00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:12,960
In that station, home life and drinking and all that stuff aside, you have purpose.

912
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:14,480
You have an amazing connection.

913
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:15,480
You're not just around friends.

914
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:17,880
You're literally around people that you would die for.

915
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:20,560
You use this massive power of tribe and then their purpose.

916
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:22,320
You're truly trying to make the world better.

917
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:27,320
You're literally there when people are having the worst day they ever had.

918
00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:33,100
But then they go home, whether it's permanently, whether it's from an injury, whatever it is,

919
00:52:33,100 --> 00:52:34,920
and all that is taken away.

920
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:39,560
And I think this is a big part of the first respondent mental health story is that we

921
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:46,080
have such an uber tribe connection purpose that it can be so jarring when they're alone

922
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:49,960
in that apartment or whatever that dynamic is when they're taken from it.

923
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:57,200
And we see a lot of mental ill health, suicide, addiction, alcoholism in the fire service.

924
00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:02,400
You know, partly when we're still in uniform working, but I think it's absolutely magnified

925
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:07,600
when we're removed from that group that we were so proud to be a part of.

926
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:09,200
Totally.

927
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:15,120
And I think when you look at the elements of connection, you know, this is why we produce

928
00:53:15,120 --> 00:53:19,760
a community and it's really important for that level of connection.

929
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:21,120
And you've got varying levels, right?

930
00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:25,320
You know, you come into a Facebook group or a social media group like that and you can

931
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:29,240
feel warmth and connection and everything else, but it's not the same as really getting

932
00:53:29,240 --> 00:53:30,240
into that connection.

933
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:36,760
And that's why we also run, you know, group, a group support program, which again is just

934
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:40,400
everyone getting onto the zooms and having that conversation and talking it out.

935
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:47,720
And people don't realize the power of that, you know, so you look at the data behind this

936
00:53:47,720 --> 00:53:53,040
and somebody who doesn't have that community, ask the question of go on, just have one,

937
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:59,520
is so many more times likely to crumble because they have that no, that, that, that tribe,

938
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:00,520
that belonging.

939
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,320
Um, and, you know, he talks about that in the, in chasing the screen, right?

940
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:07,040
This sense of belonging, this sense of being a part of something.

941
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:10,300
And yet you could be at that wedding and everyone like, come on, just have a shot.

942
00:54:10,300 --> 00:54:13,720
But because you're a part of something, even though it's a Facebook group, right?

943
00:54:13,720 --> 00:54:18,480
Or even though it's an online community, but you, you give to it every day, it gives to

944
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:19,480
you every day.

945
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:23,000
I've got, I can think of a few wonderful, we've got a few moderators in there.

946
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:24,560
Who are first responders.

947
00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:26,960
I have one paramedic in London, Kate.

948
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:28,280
She's absolutely, I just love her.

949
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:30,200
She's been with us for years and years and years.

950
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:34,840
I can't tell you how much time she dedicates to supporting people in that Facebook group.

951
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:38,720
And I'm like, you already have an insane job.

952
00:54:38,720 --> 00:54:41,600
You already have all of this, this thing in here.

953
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:46,220
And she's like, this, this thing changed my life so much.

954
00:54:46,220 --> 00:54:49,480
This one, you know, beer thing changed everything for me.

955
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,960
I mean, she ended up getting into wild swimming and then she met Russell Brand in the circuit

956
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:56,720
serpentine one time and it went into the paper and she's super cool lady.

957
00:54:56,720 --> 00:55:02,480
But I think, I think that the, the element of that community of people who are choosing

958
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:08,440
to live how you want to live is really, really, really powerful and really important.

959
00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:12,680
And I think we can give that, you know, we will talk about the, how I can support anybody

960
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,760
listening to the podcast at some point, I'm sure.

961
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:23,600
But I think people misunderestimate how powerful that is in their ability to say no, thank

962
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:29,800
you in the moment of pressure, even if the pressure is from themselves, which is huge,

963
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:31,360
you know, go on, just have one.

964
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:32,360
You'll be fine.

965
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:36,400
No, I'm a part of this community and I'm a part of this program.

966
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:38,680
So yeah, it's, it's a big part.

967
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:43,400
I think that's why people struggle during the pandemic, you know, people in uniform

968
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:44,400
that I saw.

969
00:55:44,400 --> 00:55:47,240
Yeah, and what it's also, you know, there's a bigger tribe.

970
00:55:47,240 --> 00:55:52,600
If you're in the NHS, and I've always said this, the NHS at its core is the most beautiful

971
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:57,460
healthcare system on the planet, hands down, that we all going to chip in and hopefully

972
00:55:57,460 --> 00:56:00,440
be so healthy that we don't need to use it very much.

973
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:03,960
But if someone's having a baby or someone has a car accident or someone's elderly and,

974
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:07,120
you know, getting dementia, we're going to take care of you.

975
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:08,280
That's that's the philosophy.

976
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:12,520
And then watching it kind of getting torn apart by politicians absolutely kills me.

977
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:16,920
And then obviously the other side, not investing in the health of the people is crippling it.

978
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:20,760
And now we have the same obesity in the UK that we're seeing here in America, which,

979
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:22,400
you know, is why the NHS is failing.

980
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:24,040
It's nothing to do with the people in it.

981
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:27,400
It's the fact that the, you know, there's no leadership and making sure that a tax based

982
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,240
healthcare system is creating healthy people.

983
00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,180
So you don't use it very much.

984
00:56:32,180 --> 00:56:37,160
But what I saw, especially in it just, I don't know, it just drove me crazy.

985
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:42,880
This whole stand outside and clap bullshit at five o'clock every day when what they needed

986
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:47,560
was PPE and more people to help in this.

987
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:50,900
I feel like there was a massive sense of betrayal.

988
00:56:50,900 --> 00:56:55,200
It wasn't a tribe because what it did is just throw all the responsibility on the first

989
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:56,200
responder will be clapped.

990
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:58,000
I'm going back to watch Tiger King now.

991
00:56:58,000 --> 00:56:59,000
Good luck.

992
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:02,320
You know, so I think that's why a lot of people really struggle and then fast forward a little

993
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:03,720
bit more.

994
00:57:03,720 --> 00:57:06,440
Now you're out there on the front line and now they're telling you they're going to fire

995
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:08,720
you because you didn't take a vaccine.

996
00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:10,560
Massive betrayal of your so-called tribe.

997
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:14,040
So that's what I saw as a first responder and I'd already transitioned out.

998
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:18,960
So I wasn't wearing uniform by this point, but you know, it w there was so much lip service

999
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:23,120
and if you're going to be a community, you've got to show up in the best times and the worst.

1000
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:28,760
And what a lot of the people in the UK did is they, they turned their back on the very

1001
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:32,760
people that were out there on the front line, especially when it came to, to mandates, you

1002
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:37,040
know, people have served 10, 20 years and then they're calling them murderers when they

1003
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:39,640
were out in the front line unprotected for a year.

1004
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:45,040
So that betrayal I think was really, really toxic in a lot of these people that were selflessly

1005
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:46,800
serving at that time.

1006
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:47,800
Yeah.

1007
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:48,800
Awful.

1008
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:49,800
Yeah.

1009
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:57,040
Pretty just not sure what to say to that other than, you know, I think that whole thing just

1010
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:04,720
absolutely crazy and genuinely my heart goes out and in support to anything I can do to

1011
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:09,000
help first responders and the good work that you guys are doing.

1012
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:15,440
We were going to talk about this earlier, but we do have our challenges and as in, you

1013
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:19,240
know, the 20 day challenge, the 90 day challenge, the 365 day challenge, and we provide that

1014
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:20,240
group support element.

1015
00:58:20,240 --> 00:58:24,360
You know, if anybody is a first responder out there and feels like they would like a

1016
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:29,400
little bit of support, they'd be very welcome, happy to do a free discount code.

1017
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:33,560
So I'll make it, you know, behind the shield discount code.

1018
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:34,560
How about that?

1019
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:38,440
And it gives free access to the, to the program and the, and the community.

1020
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,880
And we're just welcome, welcome to support anyone.

1021
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:42,880
Absolutely.

1022
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:44,360
You're doing good stuff.

1023
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:45,960
Well, I appreciate it.

1024
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,920
And like I said, I'm going to do, I'm not doing the one month.

1025
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:49,920
I'm going to do the year.

1026
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:53,080
I think it's the only way that I can really, you know, because I obviously have done a

1027
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:54,880
month and I'm like, Hey, good job, James.

1028
00:58:54,880 --> 00:58:55,880
Now I'm drinking again.

1029
00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:59,960
So clearly James needs a little bit more than a month to, to, you know, unpack his little

1030
00:58:59,960 --> 00:59:02,720
mental toy box.

1031
00:59:02,720 --> 00:59:06,880
When it comes to the pandemic, looking at the other lens and look at just the whole

1032
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:09,600
population, I've talked about this a lot.

1033
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:16,200
There was such an incredibly powerful opportunity with a captive audience to really address

1034
00:59:16,200 --> 00:59:22,360
the physical and the mental health crisis in America, in the UK.

1035
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:28,360
But what I, you know, what ended up happening was if you wrote down how to break down a

1036
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:31,880
human being and make him more vulnerable to a virus, that's what we did.

1037
00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:36,480
Don't, don't see other people stay in your house until we tell you to come out, but you

1038
00:59:36,480 --> 00:59:41,360
can get fast food and alcohol delivered to your home while you binge watch Netflix.

1039
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,520
And so, you know, you've created an environment now and I've heard this from so many people

1040
00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:51,040
that there is an uptick now in mental health challenges post pandemic where it should have

1041
00:59:51,040 --> 00:59:52,280
been the other way around.

1042
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:56,620
We could have been, you know, putting PE programs back in schools and bolstering local farmers

1043
00:59:56,620 --> 01:00:01,880
to create organic food and, you know, taking the bad food out of schools and cooking food,

1044
01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:05,380
you know, like we used to a few decades ago.

1045
01:00:05,380 --> 01:00:07,000
But the, you know, the opposite happened.

1046
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:08,000
Nothing happened.

1047
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:09,960
And then it was like, well, we don't want to talk about it now.

1048
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:15,680
So talk to me about from the alcohol perspective, have you seen like an increase in alcohol

1049
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:23,440
consumption after that, you know, that forced loneliness with, with a delivery service for

1050
01:00:23,440 --> 01:00:24,440
booze?

1051
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:25,440
Yeah, exactly.

1052
01:00:25,440 --> 01:00:33,600
And so, yes, absolutely massive increase in alcohol consumption, I mean, globally and

1053
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:36,400
massive increase in problematic drinking.

1054
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:40,720
Yes, more people than ever chose to change their relationship with alcohol.

1055
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:44,840
Amazing, you know, when you know, you saw more signups than ever, more people were trying

1056
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:50,440
to get fit and healthy, but that's a small fraction of the population compared to people

1057
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:53,560
who fell down a bottle.

1058
01:00:53,560 --> 01:00:57,400
And you know, most of the people who come to our programs today say it stepped up a

1059
01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:02,080
notch at the pandemic and I've just never been able to get it back down again.

1060
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:08,880
So it was very detrimental to our relationship with alcohol and the alcohol industry.

1061
01:01:08,880 --> 01:01:16,320
As always, manipulated governments to specifically in the US and other countries in the world.

1062
01:01:16,320 --> 01:01:23,800
So in the US, they lobbied to change the licensing laws so that delivery of alcohol was an emergency

1063
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:32,160
service and have access 24 seven and alcohol consumption increased by 20% and they're expecting

1064
01:01:32,160 --> 01:01:35,700
it to increase by another 20% over the next 10 years.

1065
01:01:35,700 --> 01:01:43,280
So it is absolutely huge and it is quite surprising because when you look at the media and you

1066
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:46,740
look at all that stuff, so many people are going sober and lots of people change their

1067
01:01:46,740 --> 01:01:50,280
relationship with alcohol and that's not the truth of what's going out there.

1068
01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:54,440
You know, alcohol consumption is growing globally and in some countries it's growing pretty

1069
01:01:54,440 --> 01:02:00,800
fast even in Western countries, it's still growing very fast despite knowing the true

1070
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:06,320
cost, the cost estimated to the US economy is 250 billion a year.

1071
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:12,920
That's many, many, many, many times the tax part of it and so you say, well, hang on a

1072
01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:16,640
minute, why is that going on?

1073
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:20,640
If the cost is so much, why is it doing it?

1074
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:31,620
The biggest drinking demographic are white affluent males who also run the country.

1075
01:02:31,620 --> 01:02:39,360
So you know, there's lots of conspiracy ideas and thoughts but ultimately big alcohol does

1076
01:02:39,360 --> 01:02:43,600
everything it can to keep selling considerable amounts of alcohol.

1077
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:56,120
And so you know, 46% of alcohol revenues come from people who drink double the risky limits,

1078
01:02:56,120 --> 01:03:01,720
so into risky drinking, which basically means that if the alcohol industry achieved what

1079
01:03:01,720 --> 01:03:08,120
they say they are trying to achieve, responsible drinking, they would half their market, they

1080
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:09,880
would half their share value.

1081
01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:12,320
They're never going to do that.

1082
01:03:12,320 --> 01:03:14,400
So it's just lip service.

1083
01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:21,320
Now, I can talk quite detrimentally about the alcohol industry and yet there is also

1084
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:22,800
an opportunity.

1085
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:24,800
There's a huge opportunity here.

1086
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:28,200
Unlike the tobacco industry, it had nowhere to go.

1087
01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:32,160
The tobacco industry had nowhere to go, so it just funded misinformation and we proved

1088
01:03:32,160 --> 01:03:33,640
that right.

1089
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:40,660
Massive expose, lots of court orders, all of that kind of stuff for paying for proving

1090
01:03:40,660 --> 01:03:42,240
that smoking was good for you.

1091
01:03:42,240 --> 01:03:44,280
And we know the alcohol industry has been doing the same thing.

1092
01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:50,120
We know that one of the largest ever studies, which had a preordained outcome of moderation

1093
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:54,500
is good for you, the vast majority of the financiers was the alcohol industry.

1094
01:03:54,500 --> 01:03:57,880
We know there's a load of misinformation out there.

1095
01:03:57,880 --> 01:04:03,880
So what we have the opportunity to do, and I was actually invited down to number 10 Downing

1096
01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:07,960
Street and a chat with the chancellor and the PM.

1097
01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:14,280
And my very brief point was the opportunity here is to incentivize the alcohol industry

1098
01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:16,400
to find an alternative.

1099
01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:21,520
And that is heavily offer tax deductions in R&D into functional drinks.

1100
01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:26,200
I firmly believe the future is functional drinks.

1101
01:04:26,200 --> 01:04:32,920
Professor David Nutt has developed Alkarel, which is currently being signed off or whatever

1102
01:04:32,920 --> 01:04:34,880
by the FDA.

1103
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:36,840
And it is a synthetic alcohol.

1104
01:04:36,840 --> 01:04:41,440
So it gives you the to drink feeling, the feeling of relaxation, of turning your brain

1105
01:04:41,440 --> 01:04:44,000
off without the hangover.

1106
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,800
And that's what most people are looking for it for.

1107
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:50,520
And it doesn't have all of the negative downstream impact of it.

1108
01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:55,660
So I think if we could encourage and steer the alcohol industry into the direction of

1109
01:04:55,660 --> 01:05:00,240
helping birth the future, that isn't alcohol because it's so detrimental.

1110
01:05:00,240 --> 01:05:02,840
And you could say, well, why do that really?

1111
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:04,840
You know, we don't need that.

1112
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:11,160
Unfortunately, until we're teaching kids at school how to regulate, how to deal with stress,

1113
01:05:11,160 --> 01:05:17,000
and until we're helping our citizens deal with the level of stress, understand compulsive

1114
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:21,580
behavior, all of those wonderful things, maybe we should just teach everyone what we do on

1115
01:05:21,580 --> 01:05:23,600
our complete control program.

1116
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:28,360
Until that happens, people are going to need something to take the edge off.

1117
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:33,380
And it could be social media, porn, gambling, caffeine, sugar, whatever drugs.

1118
01:05:33,380 --> 01:05:40,240
And so that's why I believe the stepping stone market is functional drinks.

1119
01:05:40,240 --> 01:05:45,320
I'm talking a little bit later today again with some friends of mine that are in charge

1120
01:05:45,320 --> 01:05:47,380
of Charlotte's Web and it's a CBD company.

1121
01:05:47,380 --> 01:05:53,160
And I had a guest on Dr. Gregory Smith years ago now and his company, Red Pill Medical,

1122
01:05:53,160 --> 01:05:57,520
but I've used CBD for years, you know, on and off when, you know, there's times where

1123
01:05:57,520 --> 01:06:00,880
I'm kind of achy and inflamed and I use it or it might be, you know, an evening if I

1124
01:06:00,880 --> 01:06:03,640
feel like I'm a little wound up just to help me sleep.

1125
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:04,640
And it's amazing.

1126
01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:08,400
But the resistance they've had from the drug companies and the misinformation, like you

1127
01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:13,080
said, is, I mean, it's made it so hard for people to get it.

1128
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:16,640
Another product which hasn't got the same opposition, but it's probably, I see it being

1129
01:06:16,640 --> 01:06:21,560
put into cocktails now, mocktails, is the functional mushrooms, you know, the lion's

1130
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,000
mane and chaga and all these things.

1131
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,440
You know, you've got Carver, which I had in Fiji years ago with a bunch of villages in

1132
01:06:28,440 --> 01:06:31,360
the actual Fijian village.

1133
01:06:31,360 --> 01:06:35,300
So you've got these things that you're able to do without alcohol as well.

1134
01:06:35,300 --> 01:06:39,480
The irony is though, we're in a first responders uniform and I hear my friends say this all

1135
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:40,480
the time.

1136
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:46,320
Like I've never been on a homicide that was weed involved or a fatal accident because

1137
01:06:46,320 --> 01:06:52,600
someone that's high is driving about two, three miles an hour usually looking for chips.

1138
01:06:52,600 --> 01:06:59,360
So this is the crazy thing is the thing that's legal for my population, we see that every

1139
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:00,360
single day.

1140
01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:05,440
And it's not just all alcohol, but for example, alcohol and or horrendous lack of education

1141
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:09,440
in America, 40,000 Americans die on our roads every year.

1142
01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:15,120
And most of those are, you know, a large percentage are teenagers and children.

1143
01:07:15,120 --> 01:07:19,200
You know, and then obviously all the murders and a lot of the suicides too.

1144
01:07:19,200 --> 01:07:21,840
Alcohol reduces that inhibition to pull the trigger.

1145
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:26,120
We know that does, but then you have the things that work, whether it's CBD, it shouldn't

1146
01:07:26,120 --> 01:07:30,720
even be, you know, you shouldn't have a kind of like a hurdle to it.

1147
01:07:30,720 --> 01:07:33,720
You should be able to just go to a store and buy it, but obviously have it regulated and

1148
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:36,140
make sure it's pure.

1149
01:07:36,140 --> 01:07:41,840
But then you have the MDMA and the psilocybin and some of these things that ironically I

1150
01:07:41,840 --> 01:07:42,840
did recreationally.

1151
01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:44,880
MDMA beer, that's my plan.

1152
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:46,880
We're a long way off.

1153
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:48,920
I don't want to go to prison.

1154
01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:49,920
So, but yeah.

1155
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:50,920
But I think this is what's crazy.

1156
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:56,160
I did it recreationally when I was younger and now they're having so much success and

1157
01:07:56,160 --> 01:08:01,840
I've sent friends to, to ayahuasca retreats who were suicidal before and are now thriving.

1158
01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:05,880
It wasn't just the retreat, but it opened that little door and the depths of their psyche

1159
01:08:05,880 --> 01:08:10,480
that they could then start unpacking and they're continuously doing work.

1160
01:08:10,480 --> 01:08:13,020
But these are life-saving interventions.

1161
01:08:13,020 --> 01:08:14,600
So this is, this is what's crazy.

1162
01:08:14,600 --> 01:08:18,360
We've got prohibition against the things that are working.

1163
01:08:18,360 --> 01:08:19,360
Prohibition against medicines.

1164
01:08:19,360 --> 01:08:20,360
Yeah.

1165
01:08:20,360 --> 01:08:22,840
Prohibition against real, real plant medicines.

1166
01:08:22,840 --> 01:08:27,360
And in the meantime, trying to hold off for the pharmaceuticals to develop pill versions

1167
01:08:27,360 --> 01:08:31,480
of them so that they can make, make as much money as possible.

1168
01:08:31,480 --> 01:08:37,200
I mean, you know, psilocybin, okay, so we're making it into a pill, but that's mainly because

1169
01:08:37,200 --> 01:08:39,000
it's more readily available that way.

1170
01:08:39,000 --> 01:08:40,480
It's in everyone's garden.

1171
01:08:40,480 --> 01:08:43,960
But the, the session lasts six hours and then people have to do an overnight.

1172
01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:45,400
So we would just want it to be four hours.

1173
01:08:45,400 --> 01:08:48,660
So that's why we're tailoring it to, to create a pill for it.

1174
01:08:48,660 --> 01:08:54,120
But yeah, the reality is these substances are, are medications.

1175
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:59,640
And I think we need a recontextualization of the drug reclassification.

1176
01:08:59,640 --> 01:09:01,880
That's the word of the drug thing.

1177
01:09:01,880 --> 01:09:03,800
Well then another thing, very important factor.

1178
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:06,960
And it's funny, I was literally watching, I'm rewatching the Ted Lasso series.

1179
01:09:06,960 --> 01:09:10,480
I don't know if you saw that or not, but such a good show.

1180
01:09:10,480 --> 01:09:14,040
Every single scene, apart from when they're actually in the locker room and on the pitch,

1181
01:09:14,040 --> 01:09:15,040
they're drinking.

1182
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:16,800
And I, you know, we were about to sit down and do this.

1183
01:09:16,800 --> 01:09:19,760
And I'm literally was thinking about, you know, abstaining for a year.

1184
01:09:19,760 --> 01:09:23,920
And so I'm, you know, and it happens every time I stop, you see it everywhere, every

1185
01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:25,640
billboard, every film.

1186
01:09:25,640 --> 01:09:30,640
So talk to me about that, you know, the constant bombarding of someone who's trying to abstain

1187
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:32,440
from alcohol in all the media.

1188
01:09:32,440 --> 01:09:33,440
Yeah.

1189
01:09:33,440 --> 01:09:37,880
I mean, we are so susceptible to marketing, you know, and that's what I was talking about

1190
01:09:37,880 --> 01:09:38,880
peak booze.

1191
01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:45,000
So advertising dollars into the UK advertising market versus alcohol consumption in the UK

1192
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:49,640
attack each other almost perfectly, which is why in 2004 they started increasing the

1193
01:09:49,640 --> 01:09:51,120
legislation around it.

1194
01:09:51,120 --> 01:09:54,100
And that's why there was a decline in consumption.

1195
01:09:54,100 --> 01:09:56,080
So it is a direct result.

1196
01:09:56,080 --> 01:10:00,040
We know more marketing, the more people will drink.

1197
01:10:00,040 --> 01:10:08,340
And I think that, again, once you start to, instead of just abstaining from something

1198
01:10:08,340 --> 01:10:13,740
and avoiding something again, every time you see it, oh my God, I'd like a drink.

1199
01:10:13,740 --> 01:10:18,880
If you do the work, right, which we covered earlier is to try and understand why you've

1200
01:10:18,880 --> 01:10:19,920
got this compulsion.

1201
01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:22,080
Why do you feel the need to have a drink?

1202
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:23,600
Then all of that is irrelevant.

1203
01:10:23,600 --> 01:10:27,840
I'd never feel like having a drink when I see somebody drinking in a movie.

1204
01:10:27,840 --> 01:10:31,520
The distance is not even an association in my head.

1205
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:35,840
There's no, no, Oh, I'm going to go to the fridge and get a beer.

1206
01:10:35,840 --> 01:10:38,160
I mean, there isn't any fridge, any beer in my fridge.

1207
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:39,160
I do drink.

1208
01:10:39,160 --> 01:10:40,880
I drink as much as I want whenever I want.

1209
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:43,600
I just usually choose not to drink.

1210
01:10:43,600 --> 01:10:49,080
And I think once you've removed those associations, the association that steak always goes with

1211
01:10:49,080 --> 01:10:50,080
a nice red wine.

1212
01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:51,080
Well, I'm carnivore.

1213
01:10:51,080 --> 01:10:57,560
So I'd be drinking wine three or four times a day if I had wine with steak.

1214
01:10:57,560 --> 01:11:01,120
And then you, you know, or socializing.

1215
01:11:01,120 --> 01:11:02,960
Every time I socialize, I drink.

1216
01:11:02,960 --> 01:11:05,040
Well, you can either avoid socializing.

1217
01:11:05,040 --> 01:11:07,920
And then when you eventually do socialize, you're going to crumble or you're going to

1218
01:11:07,920 --> 01:11:09,520
find it really difficult.

1219
01:11:09,520 --> 01:11:15,640
Or you can really go to town with socializing, but without using alcohol and, and let yourself

1220
01:11:15,640 --> 01:11:17,000
be the person who you are.

1221
01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:23,120
And I think that's the journey is unwinding, trying to understand what the desire and the

1222
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:24,420
underneath part was.

1223
01:11:24,420 --> 01:11:26,360
Not everyone's going to come on complete control.

1224
01:11:26,360 --> 01:11:28,760
I'm sure it's, you know, it's not a cheap program.

1225
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:29,880
We use devices.

1226
01:11:29,880 --> 01:11:32,640
We are remotely monitoring people 24 seven.

1227
01:11:32,640 --> 01:11:34,960
I tell you a really cool story.

1228
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:39,240
So one of the doctors, so we have doctors around the world who, and nurses who monitored

1229
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:43,880
this data, you know, at the many one time it could be 500 odd participants around the

1230
01:11:43,880 --> 01:11:46,680
world who were, who were monitoring.

1231
01:11:46,680 --> 01:11:51,920
And one of the doctors thought they saw something irregular in the heartbeat, right?

1232
01:11:51,920 --> 01:11:54,000
Afib, whatever it was.

1233
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:57,120
And flagged this and we got a little bit concerned.

1234
01:11:57,120 --> 01:12:02,720
Now this is a doctor in Ethiopia, a nurse in French Guyana who are talking to each other

1235
01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:04,520
and a participant who is in London.

1236
01:12:04,520 --> 01:12:06,740
And it's like, no, let's call an ambulance.

1237
01:12:06,740 --> 01:12:10,760
When the ambulance arrived, as this person started to have a stroke, we saved that person's

1238
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:11,760
life.

1239
01:12:11,760 --> 01:12:13,680
Now that is not the service.

1240
01:12:13,680 --> 01:12:16,440
We are not a healthcare service yet.

1241
01:12:16,440 --> 01:12:20,440
We are a coaching business, which has a clinical director.

1242
01:12:20,440 --> 01:12:25,000
We are way beyond what we need to be because we want to be on the right side of the law.

1243
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:28,640
We want to be on the right side of protecting people's lives, of making sure that we don't

1244
01:12:28,640 --> 01:12:30,840
have things like alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

1245
01:12:30,840 --> 01:12:35,920
And we're looking careful after people, but it is a part of the service is a part of the

1246
01:12:35,920 --> 01:12:38,920
thing that we provide.

1247
01:12:38,920 --> 01:12:41,400
Not everybody will be able to do that, right?

1248
01:12:41,400 --> 01:12:45,720
So, and if you go to our site, oneyearnobier.com and you scroll down the page, you'll find

1249
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:52,440
a webinar which goes into far more depth about the compulsive drivers and those are the things.

1250
01:12:52,440 --> 01:12:54,920
And they are the things.

1251
01:12:54,920 --> 01:13:01,400
So as you go on your year, James, these are the things to be asking yourself are why is,

1252
01:13:01,400 --> 01:13:03,720
why was that desire there in the first place?

1253
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:06,960
And what one of these things is it that I need to address?

1254
01:13:06,960 --> 01:13:12,600
If you don't want it to pop back up again or show up as something else, this is it.

1255
01:13:12,600 --> 01:13:20,480
And I think the other really important part here is once we educate people, right, about

1256
01:13:20,480 --> 01:13:26,320
those drivers and they start to understand themselves better, then they can be preventative

1257
01:13:26,320 --> 01:13:27,320
for themselves.

1258
01:13:27,320 --> 01:13:31,360
Oh dear, I've gone through two or three days of sleep deprivation.

1259
01:13:31,360 --> 01:13:35,240
I am going to really fancy a drink if I don't mitigate that.

1260
01:13:35,240 --> 01:13:37,160
And I know I need to do the work to mitigate it.

1261
01:13:37,160 --> 01:13:38,960
So I'm going to have to just slow down my diary.

1262
01:13:38,960 --> 01:13:40,640
I'm going to have to find some more quiet.

1263
01:13:40,640 --> 01:13:44,560
I'm going to have to try and find a way to relax my central nervous system, get a nap

1264
01:13:44,560 --> 01:13:46,080
in the afternoon if I can.

1265
01:13:46,080 --> 01:13:47,440
All of those things, right?

1266
01:13:47,440 --> 01:13:52,480
I know that right now my environment is toxic and I'm in a job that I have real lack of

1267
01:13:52,480 --> 01:13:54,120
meaning and purpose.

1268
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:59,160
Therefore I need to make sure I sleep well and that I exercise because sleep deprivation

1269
01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:02,600
is probably the thing that will push me over the edge for compulsion.

1270
01:14:02,600 --> 01:14:07,160
So when you've given somebody the understanding and the depth of that knowledge, then they

1271
01:14:07,160 --> 01:14:09,640
look at it in a different factor.

1272
01:14:09,640 --> 01:14:14,960
And just coming back onto that other thing as well, I think the other part of it is,

1273
01:14:14,960 --> 01:14:17,640
you know, once you've taken a break, the hangovers are heavier.

1274
01:14:17,640 --> 01:14:25,640
As you get older, the hangovers are more difficult and you start to see the true impact of alcohol.

1275
01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:31,480
And for me, because of the world we live in today, I could never, never not drink ever.

1276
01:14:31,480 --> 01:14:33,600
I'm not that type of person.

1277
01:14:33,600 --> 01:14:35,780
I don't want to never be able to drink.

1278
01:14:35,780 --> 01:14:39,120
If you tell me no, I'm going to tell you, fuck you, I'm going to do it anyway.

1279
01:14:39,120 --> 01:14:43,120
So if I do that, I'd probably end up getting a problematic relationship with alcohol.

1280
01:14:43,120 --> 01:14:44,700
I want to be able to have the juice.

1281
01:14:44,700 --> 01:14:46,920
If I want to have one, I want to have one.

1282
01:14:46,920 --> 01:14:49,400
But most of the time I don't want to have one.

1283
01:14:49,400 --> 01:14:50,400
Why?

1284
01:14:50,400 --> 01:14:55,720
Because I don't want to feel suicidal three days later, low, depressed, anxious.

1285
01:14:55,720 --> 01:15:00,320
I don't want to be really struggling, especially when times are difficult.

1286
01:15:00,320 --> 01:15:03,800
I say this to business owners all of the time.

1287
01:15:03,800 --> 01:15:08,800
The time to drink is just after you've rang the New York Stock Exchange bell and your

1288
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:12,540
wife has texted you saying she loves you more than she ever has.

1289
01:15:12,540 --> 01:15:18,020
When life is up here, knock your shoes off because you will feel shit for the following

1290
01:15:18,020 --> 01:15:19,200
four or five days.

1291
01:15:19,200 --> 01:15:21,480
It is going to impact you psychologically.

1292
01:15:21,480 --> 01:15:29,360
You're going to be sluggish and tired and anxious and ruminating and all of those things.

1293
01:15:29,360 --> 01:15:33,280
When things are difficult, when you've got challenging times in your life, why would

1294
01:15:33,280 --> 01:15:34,960
you pour petrol on that fire?

1295
01:15:34,960 --> 01:15:38,800
Why would you add a depressant into this thing?

1296
01:15:38,800 --> 01:15:45,600
They reckon one in three people are taking antidepressants.

1297
01:15:45,600 --> 01:15:49,840
An antidepressant, no antidepressant if you look at Johann Harry's work has ever beaten

1298
01:15:49,840 --> 01:15:50,840
the placebo.

1299
01:15:50,840 --> 01:15:58,000
So less than 3% success rate for antidepressants and yet sleep deprivation is 100% successful

1300
01:15:58,000 --> 01:16:01,360
as a depressant.

1301
01:16:01,360 --> 01:16:08,440
Not exercising is 100% successful over time as a depressant on the brain.

1302
01:16:08,440 --> 01:16:15,920
So three of the most powerful, sorry, not sleeping, not exercising and drinking alcohol,

1303
01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:19,680
three of the most impactful depressants and then people doing those things go into the

1304
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:24,360
doctor and the doctor says, here's a pill.

1305
01:16:24,360 --> 01:16:29,120
Rather than stop drinking, sleep better and get some exercise.

1306
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:30,120
Absolutely.

1307
01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:33,520
Well, I know that we've got a hard stop coming up.

1308
01:16:33,520 --> 01:16:37,280
I want to round the conversation off before we talk about where people can find all your

1309
01:16:37,280 --> 01:16:40,880
work with revisiting Sir Richard Branson.

1310
01:16:40,880 --> 01:16:44,240
So talk to me about meeting him decades later.

1311
01:16:44,240 --> 01:16:45,240
Yes.

1312
01:16:45,240 --> 01:16:49,440
So, I mean, I kind of forgot about the Branson story.

1313
01:16:49,440 --> 01:16:54,320
I got overpaid and overworked as an oil broker and then when I changed my relationship with

1314
01:16:54,320 --> 01:16:56,560
alcohol, I was like, no, I'm here to change the world.

1315
01:16:56,560 --> 01:16:57,560
I know.

1316
01:16:57,560 --> 01:17:02,840
And, you know, I ended up randomly, I ended up meeting the Dalai Lama after we got featured

1317
01:17:02,840 --> 01:17:05,760
on BBC World News launching One Year No Beer.

1318
01:17:05,760 --> 01:17:09,720
And I got to ask him a question in front of thousands of people in Pisa.

1319
01:17:09,720 --> 01:17:15,080
And what he said to me, which is a video you can see on our site, it was like the moment

1320
01:17:15,080 --> 01:17:18,520
of understanding of who I was as a human being and while I was here.

1321
01:17:18,520 --> 01:17:23,600
And I knew that this was the vehicle of why I was put on the planet.

1322
01:17:23,600 --> 01:17:24,600
And I was like, okay.

1323
01:17:24,600 --> 01:17:27,480
And I went in on Monday morning and handed in my notice.

1324
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:31,180
At the time, that's like a low seven figure job.

1325
01:17:31,180 --> 01:17:32,180
So earning very well.

1326
01:17:32,180 --> 01:17:33,520
And my boss is like, what?

1327
01:17:33,520 --> 01:17:34,520
Are you crazy?

1328
01:17:34,520 --> 01:17:37,400
He's like, you can keep doing those two things on the same time.

1329
01:17:37,400 --> 01:17:38,400
Just carry on.

1330
01:17:38,400 --> 01:17:40,860
And I was like, no, I can't do another day.

1331
01:17:40,860 --> 01:17:45,040
So far, that's the worst financial decision I've ever made, but the best decision for

1332
01:17:45,040 --> 01:17:48,080
my life and the impact I'm trying to have in the world.

1333
01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:50,840
Cut long story short, I'm trying to, I'm sorry.

1334
01:17:50,840 --> 01:17:53,720
All the way through running One Year No Beer, we raised quite a lot of money.

1335
01:17:53,720 --> 01:17:57,200
So we've raised over five million pounds, almost all from our customers.

1336
01:17:57,200 --> 01:18:00,840
So people would say to me, Ruri, even if I lose the hundred grand I'm investing in One

1337
01:18:00,840 --> 01:18:04,500
Year No Beer, it wouldn't be equivalent to the value you've given me.

1338
01:18:04,500 --> 01:18:08,480
And that's the value people feel after they've changed their relationship with alcohol.

1339
01:18:08,480 --> 01:18:11,680
And they realize the truth that actually this thing is shit.

1340
01:18:11,680 --> 01:18:14,520
The thing that you love, that you rely on.

1341
01:18:14,520 --> 01:18:18,600
The truth is, come for a journey with me and you're actually going to realize that you've

1342
01:18:18,600 --> 01:18:20,920
been in a toxic relationship your whole life.

1343
01:18:20,920 --> 01:18:24,280
And just like a toxic relationship, this thing is abusing you.

1344
01:18:24,280 --> 01:18:28,880
And although you think you love it, and although you think it loves you, you don't.

1345
01:18:28,880 --> 01:18:29,880
And it doesn't.

1346
01:18:29,880 --> 01:18:32,160
It's taking everything away from you.

1347
01:18:32,160 --> 01:18:37,960
It's taking your health, your mental health, your family, your success, your dreams, your

1348
01:18:37,960 --> 01:18:41,280
goals, your sense of self.

1349
01:18:41,280 --> 01:18:43,800
That is a toxic relationship.

1350
01:18:43,800 --> 01:18:48,360
So getting back onto the story, because I'm terrible at staying on track, as you've seen,

1351
01:18:48,360 --> 01:18:51,200
I would, every single pitch I would tell people about the letter to Richard Branson.

1352
01:18:51,200 --> 01:18:52,200
I just kept saying it.

1353
01:18:52,200 --> 01:18:53,200
I kept saying it.

1354
01:18:53,200 --> 01:18:54,940
I kept saying about the letter to Richard Branson.

1355
01:18:54,940 --> 01:18:56,920
And I knew I just kept putting it out to the world.

1356
01:18:56,920 --> 01:19:01,340
And then one day somebody heard me on social media mentioning about the Richard Branson

1357
01:19:01,340 --> 01:19:02,340
story in the US.

1358
01:19:02,340 --> 01:19:03,340
And I'd met him through a friend of a friend.

1359
01:19:03,340 --> 01:19:06,160
And he said, Hey, I've just heard your story.

1360
01:19:06,160 --> 01:19:07,320
I'm going to Necker Island.

1361
01:19:07,320 --> 01:19:08,420
Would you like to come with me?

1362
01:19:08,420 --> 01:19:09,760
And I was like, wow, this is amazing.

1363
01:19:09,760 --> 01:19:10,760
I'm going to go.

1364
01:19:10,760 --> 01:19:11,760
Can't believe it.

1365
01:19:11,760 --> 01:19:12,760
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

1366
01:19:12,760 --> 01:19:14,180
He was a friend of Richard's.

1367
01:19:14,180 --> 01:19:21,560
And so I got ready to go on the show and sorry, I got ready to go and meet Richard Branson.

1368
01:19:21,560 --> 01:19:25,160
And I was so excited, you know, to sit and the guy who was running it was like, Oh my

1369
01:19:25,160 --> 01:19:26,520
God, I'm going to sit you next to Richard.

1370
01:19:26,520 --> 01:19:27,880
He's going to love this story.

1371
01:19:27,880 --> 01:19:28,880
It's unbelievable.

1372
01:19:28,880 --> 01:19:33,720
And the impact you're having and you can FaceTime your dad and you can say, look, dad, I made

1373
01:19:33,720 --> 01:19:35,280
it, you know, from that thing.

1374
01:19:35,280 --> 01:19:37,120
I was really excited.

1375
01:19:37,120 --> 01:19:44,360
And then COVID hit and the trip to, um, to Necker Island got canceled.

1376
01:19:44,360 --> 01:19:46,640
And sadly my dad died two months later.

1377
01:19:46,640 --> 01:19:51,720
Um, and that was, um, pretty hard moment for me.

1378
01:19:51,720 --> 01:19:53,240
Um, very, very difficult.

1379
01:19:53,240 --> 01:19:56,680
He was my greatest champion, greatest supporter and all those things.

1380
01:19:56,680 --> 01:20:01,840
So, um, I then carried on, you know, putting out that good word and I started to hear over

1381
01:20:01,840 --> 01:20:07,560
the next couple of years, Oh, you know, Richard's water sports instructor is doing OAMB.

1382
01:20:07,560 --> 01:20:09,560
And I was like, Oh my God, we're getting closer.

1383
01:20:09,560 --> 01:20:10,560
I can't believe it.

1384
01:20:10,560 --> 01:20:13,760
You know, out there, Richard's cameraman is doing OAMB.

1385
01:20:13,760 --> 01:20:16,240
And then eventually somebody very close.

1386
01:20:16,240 --> 01:20:19,360
I heard, and I got in touch with the person very close.

1387
01:20:19,360 --> 01:20:21,560
And they were like, I've just celebrated one year, no beer.

1388
01:20:21,560 --> 01:20:22,560
You changed one life.

1389
01:20:22,560 --> 01:20:24,240
I can't believe it's absolutely amazing.

1390
01:20:24,240 --> 01:20:26,000
And I was like, this is so cool.

1391
01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:29,320
You know, I'm going to meet, but then nothing really happened.

1392
01:20:29,320 --> 01:20:32,540
Now, as it is with running your own business, I woke up at three o'clock in the morning

1393
01:20:32,540 --> 01:20:34,960
one day, which is pretty normal.

1394
01:20:34,960 --> 01:20:40,160
And I saw the local paper here in Majorca or, you know, news online and it said Richard

1395
01:20:40,160 --> 01:20:43,560
Branson in Majorca launching his new hotel.

1396
01:20:43,560 --> 01:20:46,960
And I kind of thought, you know, fuck it.

1397
01:20:46,960 --> 01:20:48,280
I'm just going to go up there.

1398
01:20:48,280 --> 01:20:53,280
Um, and so I just rocked up and I messaged this person who I knew and they were like,

1399
01:20:53,280 --> 01:20:55,480
yeah, um, be great to meet you for a coffee.

1400
01:20:55,480 --> 01:20:56,760
Just this open vague thing.

1401
01:20:56,760 --> 01:20:58,400
So I was like, I'll head up.

1402
01:20:58,400 --> 01:21:00,760
So I headed up there and I was calling, calling, trying to meet this person.

1403
01:21:00,760 --> 01:21:02,320
I couldn't get an answer.

1404
01:21:02,320 --> 01:21:05,000
And I thought, okay, um, I don't know what to do.

1405
01:21:05,000 --> 01:21:07,240
And I asked someone, look, could I just grab a coffee somewhere?

1406
01:21:07,240 --> 01:21:11,400
And there was like camera crews moving past and all this stuff is busy, busy place.

1407
01:21:11,400 --> 01:21:13,940
And they said, yeah, yeah, just go out to the terrace and grab yourself a coffee.

1408
01:21:13,940 --> 01:21:21,600
And I walk out to the terrace in the terrace, the only person there standing in the parapet,

1409
01:21:21,600 --> 01:21:26,240
looking out at the view is Richard Branson on his own of all the moments I'd arrived

1410
01:21:26,240 --> 01:21:27,500
where he could have been.

1411
01:21:27,500 --> 01:21:29,280
He was waiting for me.

1412
01:21:29,280 --> 01:21:32,360
So I just walked up beside him and I said, Richard, can I tell you a story?

1413
01:21:32,360 --> 01:21:34,160
And I said, he said, you know, is it funny?

1414
01:21:34,160 --> 01:21:37,040
I was like, not really, but I might cry.

1415
01:21:37,040 --> 01:21:39,540
And he said, okay, well go for it.

1416
01:21:39,540 --> 01:21:43,400
And I started to tell him the story about, you know, my journey and everything else.

1417
01:21:43,400 --> 01:21:46,360
Got tearful and I told him about my dad dying, gave me a big hug.

1418
01:21:46,360 --> 01:21:47,800
He's so nice.

1419
01:21:47,800 --> 01:21:52,240
And he was like, look, I'm really sorry you didn't get that opportunity to FaceTime your

1420
01:21:52,240 --> 01:21:56,560
dad at lunch, but why didn't you stay and have dinner with us tonight?

1421
01:21:56,560 --> 01:21:58,840
And so, yeah, we stayed and had dinner.

1422
01:21:58,840 --> 01:22:00,400
My wife came up and joined us.

1423
01:22:00,400 --> 01:22:02,320
We hung out with billionaires for the evening.

1424
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:03,320
There was a bunch of them.

1425
01:22:03,320 --> 01:22:04,640
There was a whole bunch of billionaires.

1426
01:22:04,640 --> 01:22:06,800
It was super cool.

1427
01:22:06,800 --> 01:22:08,760
And yeah, he was super amazing about it.

1428
01:22:08,760 --> 01:22:14,200
And then he wrote on his social media about meeting me and what an impact that was, which

1429
01:22:14,200 --> 01:22:16,200
was really huge for us.

1430
01:22:16,200 --> 01:22:19,920
And you can see that on my Instagram and things like that.

1431
01:22:19,920 --> 01:22:27,080
And I think the underlying message for that for me was, I think when you're doing something

1432
01:22:27,080 --> 01:22:32,480
good, and I've seen this, you know, not just the meeting Dalai Lama, not just meeting Richard

1433
01:22:32,480 --> 01:22:37,120
Branson, my team are like, we don't know how you do it, Ruri.

1434
01:22:37,120 --> 01:22:38,720
How do these things happen?

1435
01:22:38,720 --> 01:22:42,400
Like, things shift for you.

1436
01:22:42,400 --> 01:22:49,160
And this is because we are doing something that the universe wants to happen.

1437
01:22:49,160 --> 01:22:55,500
We are really helping people in the most genuine positive way we are helping people.

1438
01:22:55,500 --> 01:22:58,220
And so these doors and these things keep open.

1439
01:22:58,220 --> 01:23:03,160
And I think more than that, you know, building a business is the hardest thing I've ever

1440
01:23:03,160 --> 01:23:04,160
done.

1441
01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:07,640
It's just, you know, never, ever, ever give up.

1442
01:23:07,640 --> 01:23:08,640
Just keep going.

1443
01:23:08,640 --> 01:23:15,920
So yeah, it was an amazing experience to meet him and hopefully it's the beginning of something

1444
01:23:15,920 --> 01:23:16,920
together.

1445
01:23:16,920 --> 01:23:17,920
We'll see.

1446
01:23:17,920 --> 01:23:18,920
Beautiful.

1447
01:23:18,920 --> 01:23:19,920
Beautiful.

1448
01:23:19,920 --> 01:23:22,760
Yeah, he's someone one day I will get to sit down with him and interview him.

1449
01:23:22,760 --> 01:23:23,760
It will happen.

1450
01:23:23,760 --> 01:23:25,400
But, you know, obviously I'm not there yet.

1451
01:23:25,400 --> 01:23:28,280
A few more ladders, you know, steps in the ladder.

1452
01:23:28,280 --> 01:23:32,880
But that being said, though, like I said, I'm going to jump on for the whole year and

1453
01:23:32,880 --> 01:23:36,440
I'm going to parallel that with a friend of mine who's offered me counseling for a while

1454
01:23:36,440 --> 01:23:37,440
now.

1455
01:23:37,440 --> 01:23:41,480
And he's said that these numerous conversations a week are enough, but I think they're not

1456
01:23:41,480 --> 01:23:46,520
because obviously I keep returning to the bottle, albeit, you know, a smaller version.

1457
01:23:46,520 --> 01:23:47,520
It doesn't matter.

1458
01:23:47,520 --> 01:23:49,320
I'm downplaying something that's definitely an issue.

1459
01:23:49,320 --> 01:23:51,800
So firstly, I want to commit to that myself.

1460
01:23:51,800 --> 01:23:55,880
Secondly, for everyone listening, you know, tell them where, you know, what are they going

1461
01:23:55,880 --> 01:23:58,760
to find on the platform and where can they find it online?

1462
01:23:58,760 --> 01:24:03,080
And then where can they reach out to you on social media or the web as well?

1463
01:24:03,080 --> 01:24:04,080
Totally.

1464
01:24:04,080 --> 01:24:05,080
Well, please do reach out to me.

1465
01:24:05,080 --> 01:24:06,080
I'd love to hear from you.

1466
01:24:06,080 --> 01:24:11,040
So I'm on social media, that bastard name Ruri Fairbairns, but I'm R Fairbairns on most.

1467
01:24:11,040 --> 01:24:12,280
But I mean, I'm not going to spell it out.

1468
01:24:12,280 --> 01:24:14,720
You won't remember, but I am the only Ruri Fairbairns.

1469
01:24:14,720 --> 01:24:17,080
F A I R B A I R N S.

1470
01:24:17,080 --> 01:24:18,520
I did spell it out there.

1471
01:24:18,520 --> 01:24:20,360
Go to oneyearnobir.com.

1472
01:24:20,360 --> 01:24:23,680
One year no beer dot com all written out.

1473
01:24:23,680 --> 01:24:28,320
There you'll find our challenges, which is like a digital support program access to community.

1474
01:24:28,320 --> 01:24:33,320
If you use the behind the shield code, it will just knock the price off to zero for

1475
01:24:33,320 --> 01:24:34,320
you.

1476
01:24:34,320 --> 01:24:37,320
It's free to help and support you.

1477
01:24:37,320 --> 01:24:40,560
Our group coaching program, there's an offer to join that as a monthly subscription.

1478
01:24:40,560 --> 01:24:43,040
The first month will be free.

1479
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:47,020
The main program that we are focusing on now is called Complete Control.

1480
01:24:47,020 --> 01:24:49,220
It's a bit of a juggernaut.

1481
01:24:49,220 --> 01:24:50,560
It's a very intensive program.

1482
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:52,680
We send technology, we remotely monitor you.

1483
01:24:52,680 --> 01:24:55,120
We help you understand how stressed out you are.

1484
01:24:55,120 --> 01:24:56,560
We keep you accountable to good habits.

1485
01:24:56,560 --> 01:25:00,320
We teach you about good sleep, breath work, meditation, there's hypnotherapy, there's

1486
01:25:00,320 --> 01:25:01,680
tons of different modalities.

1487
01:25:01,680 --> 01:25:05,040
We use multiple types of coaching during the program.

1488
01:25:05,040 --> 01:25:06,040
It is amazing.

1489
01:25:06,040 --> 01:25:07,040
It's game changing.

1490
01:25:07,040 --> 01:25:08,040
It's called Complete Control.

1491
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:10,200
You can see it on our site on there.

1492
01:25:10,200 --> 01:25:13,560
Happy to do a decent discount for anybody from the Behind the Shield podcast.

1493
01:25:13,560 --> 01:25:18,640
So just ping and mention Behind the Shield podcast.

1494
01:25:18,640 --> 01:25:20,920
And yeah, reach out to me.

1495
01:25:20,920 --> 01:25:24,440
I'm happy to hear from you and happy to support in any way I can.

1496
01:25:24,440 --> 01:25:36,360
Thank you very much for having me on the show, James.