Visual PR LIVE!

Episode 2 of Visual PR LIVE (formerly Visual PR TV) starts the new monthly format of Visual PR’s representative show, which from now on will include three main parts.

You can also watch the episode in video format here: https://www.youtube.com/live/L2Sl-BG6lz0

Part one is to look at the key benefits of the live and interactive video podcast talk-show style productions that Visual PR broadcasts for our clients. Each month will include some key benefits and advice on how to get the most out of such creative content that is designed to elevate your brand and ignite your audience engagement.

Part two is to welcome and interview a guest from the business community to not only touch on what they do, but to leave you with at least one golden nugget of advice from their speciality to help you or your organisation.

The third part of each episode is something very close to our hearts, and this is a Charity Spotlight section where we welcome someone from a charity either chosen by our business guest, or by Visual PR, to delve into not just what the charity does, but why it is so important.

With many charities operating across the world, it is easy to miss just why it is so vital, and what they do to achieve their objectives. Charities are not just about raising money but about making a difference, and there are various ways this can be achieved above and beyond the money that is raised to help them do it, and this makes more sense the more we can understand their motives, objectives, and methods.

In this episode, the content of the three sections are:
  • Visual PR – “It’s Not Just About the Show!” – we look at how we can really get the most out of each episode of your own regular video shows, including how to promote upcoming episodes, content, and guests, and how the full episode is more than just a growing evergreen library of useful knowledge and insights, but can provide a month or more worth of digital marketing assets each time in the form of social media ready clips.
  • Business Guest – John Lewis of JL Mindset Performance help individuals or organisations achieve your personal, sporting, and/or business goals by getting the best out of you as an individual or as part of a team to reach your full potential. Plus they also provide Mental Health Certificated Training Courses to help you support individuals in your workplace (Mental Health First Aid).
  • Charity Spotlight – Jeff Tucker from Best Mates – They aim to make a real difference in people’s lives through financial, emotional and physical support. They try to help someone have a more positive outlook on life or take away some stress and worry. They are not counsellors, nor do they offer advice. They are normal people who have gone through periods in their lives that enable them to relate to you on a very personal level. They do what a Best Mate would do and listen to you, never turn their backs on you, give you the shirt off their backs, and will tell you that you are being silly if you are being silly. They WILL point you in the right direction and get you the support you need from the right people.
Our shows are designed to help you gain control of how your information is received and perceived and to make sure that your personalities and brands are seen, heard, and felt as they should and deserve to be.

PR is "the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organisation to the public in order to influence their perception", so it deserves to be brought to life rather than risk whether it is received in the tone and emotions that you intended, let alone read at all.

Visual PR works with individuals and organisations (and/or their PR/Marketing teams) to add this unique interactive conversational broadcast to their marketing and/or PR strategies. They are commonly hosted and interviewed by our founder, professional sports commentator and live host/presenter, Chris Dawes, to help make you or your guests feel more comfortable and natural, and for the conversations to be informative, engaging, fun (if appropriate) and flowing.

Don’t forget that on the live show viewers can add their own questions/comments in the comments section of wherever you are watching the broadcast (YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn), and they can be put up on screen with your profile name and photo. So get involved and ask away.

The shows can be watched back after the live broadcast (without the interaction) from the following locations:
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@visualpruk/playlists
Facebook: www.facebook.com/visualpruk/live
www.visual-pr.co.uk 
@VisualPRUK (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
enquiries@visual-pr.co.uk 
01793 915110

Creators & Guests

Host
Chris Dawes
Sports Commentator, Voiceover Artist, Host/Presenter, founder of @visualpruk & @Open_Dawes Training.

What is Visual PR LIVE!?

Visual PR provides deeper public connections with longer-form natural conversational shows at the core, which then spawns marketing and PR collateral that all interlink with each other, joining the dots between your Marketing and PR efforts. All of which then link to each others to maximise the exposure and authentic and credible personal connections with your clients or potential clients.

Visual PR LIVE is the monthly show with each episode being split into three main sections - Visual PR tips to get the most out of using video content to maximise the personal touch points with your viewers and social media users, Business Guest to provide advice and leaving the audience with relevant take-aways to apply and think about, and a Charity Spotlight.

Each episode is the audio taken from the live video broadcast, which can be seen at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-9Avh0E8GT8Zs82ObLkDn8A9SuSWdiaH

This is where we be.

Greetings.

Welcome to Visual PR Live.

It's actually officially Episode 2,

but it's a completely

different look and feel.

There's been a big gap

between Episode 1 and 2

because I've been focusing

on everyone else's shows,

as you can imagine,

rather than our own internal.

But we're going to go for it,

and it is a different format.

We're going to do a little

bit of a talk at the

beginning about Visual PR

and how you can get the most out

of the service we don't just

do the shows it's all of

the things you can do pre

and post production as well

and I've then got a very

special business guest and

a very special charity

guest on as well so let's

get episode two underway

so there we go all the

intros done and dusted for

for my side and I just want

to cover a couple of bits

and pieces that are going

to be helpful not just for

existing clients but for

future clients because

we're really designed to

make sure that the retainer

is is on board to get more

than just these live

episodes if you consider

podcasts with a video

element but going live

where we can get interaction

with any viewers with

comments and questions.

And please, anybody,

ask comments or questions

of me or the guests we've got coming up.

We've got John Lewis from JL

Mindset Performance.

He's the business guest.

And we've got Jeff Tucker from Best Mates.

Hashtag, we got you.

An amazing charity that I've

just started learning a lot more about.

And it's just really, really special.

So when they come up,

please ask any questions.

Now...

The quick title from the

visual PR side of things is to say, right,

it's more than just the show.

It's going to be great

content because we can

cover anything in it.

We can do news, announcements, how-tos,

instructional pieces, meet the team.

speaking to some of your customers, tours,

because these cameras can

be either in person,

webcams or even mobile

cameras touring around somewhere.

So there's a lot of

information that we can do,

but it's about what we do

wrapped all around it.

Now,

the idea is we schedule it from our

virtual studio to your platforms,

your YouTube channel, your Facebook page,

your LinkedIn pages.

And we then provide you with

the links that say,

here's the description of this episode.

Here's the guests that you've got on.

And here is the links to

share to people to be able to view it.

And that would be a week

before that it would push it out.

So Facebook, it will be an event.

So people can say they're

interested or they're going on Facebook.

So LinkedIn and YouTube,

it's pending lives so that

you'll be able to share those as well.

And the trick is, you know,

share it as much as you possibly can,

not just by sharing the event itself,

but there can be QR codes

or links and we can create

branded QR codes for you

that will take you to that episode.

in your written PR,

in your digital marketing efforts,

anything at all.

And you start getting people

to know next week we've got

this guest on and we're

covering this subject and

you create an anticipation.

So that's an idea of some of

the things to do beforehand

and try and get people to

have their questions and comments ready.

And it will just make it an

even better experience.

thing to be able to do.

By the way, talk about comments.

There we go.

Hi, Sophia.

Good to see you.

I interviewed Sophia on a

podcast last week as well

for somebody else.

So hi, Sophia.

Great to see you.

So your comments,

your questions can all come

up here as well.

But it's not just about the pre.

episode.

There's a lot that we can do

post episode as well, post production.

Now,

one of the big things we do is that we

create a number of clips.

I'm just going to play this

video just as an example.

I can always point the wrong direction.

There we go.

That way,

where we take the episode

and we create a number of

clips from them in three

different size formats.

As you'll see from this nine by 16,

16 by nine and one by one,

because all of our platforms,

they love it in different angles,

different sizes, don't they?

We create those for you.

half a dozen to a dozen clips,

20 to 90 seconds long, that sort of thing,

so that you've now finished

your episode and we've then

got another three weeks of

social media before we then

start promoting the next episode.

So you've got a whole load

of video collateral that is

created from that episode

to really give you,

because what's the hardest

thing I find with digital

marketing is coming up with content.

well,

the episode can create a lot of that

video content for you.

And don't forget,

not only is video content good in itself,

there's the whole SEO side of it.

So when we create the

description of the episode,

we're thinking of the SEO

because apparently YouTube

is the second largest

search engine in the world.

Second only to Google.

And of course,

Google put videos at the top

of your search results from YouTube.

So it makes sense that we do all of that.

You're then sharing with

descriptions as well on

your social media.

So you're getting a lot of traction,

a lot of interaction.

If you've seen how much more

interaction videos get over

just text or even images,

it's a worthwhile collateral to have.

um we can even put them as

YouTube shorts so if you're

putting a lot of effort

into your YouTube channel

these would go as live

episodes plus an evergreen

resource that is growing a

library for you of content

and guests but with these

clips you're also able to

create these YouTube shorts

as well let alone things

like TikTok kids are down

with that John Lewis I can

see him in the green room

there he's probably getting

down with TikTok yeah

Geoff,

you knew John would be on for that one,

wouldn't you?

He'd be all over TikTok.

He's a superstar there.

But you've also able to

encourage more people to be

guests on your shows when

they see how it works.

And even if I'm not doing the presenting,

because quite often people

like that they're not being

thrust in front of a camera

with a script.

I'm actually interviewing

them and I do it professionally.

I'm a professional

motorsports commentator and

things like that,

as people who know me know.

And it makes them relaxed.

It makes it a more natural

conversational piece.

But I don't have to be the interviewer.

I can be the producer in the background.

And sometimes we have our

client has someone that is

going to be the interviewer

and they're interviewing

other guests along.

That's fine.

And what you're doing is

you're making people say, hey,

this is a good thing to be doing.

and I want to be a guest on

that as well and so you're

growing that for you we can

also strip the audio out

from this and make it a

podcast for you so an audio

only podcast which are very

popular these days but it

means that they can either

view it or just listen to

it and it's all from the

same show the same

interview they're able to

do all of the above we can

also transcribe the whole show

including who has been

saying what and there you

go there's a blog post for

you to put on your website

or wherever it might go

whilst embedding the video

for you as well it's all

there it's been created for

you uh or you could just

use that transcription for

for seo and then of course

the final piece before I

start bringing my guests

out from my side is that I

mentioned earlier about

these qr codes fully

branded with your logo on

it and everything

that takes people to that episode.

You suddenly do an article

in a journal or a press

release or whatever it might be.

Who's to say you don't throw

this QR code at the bottom of that?

So someone sat in a

reception reading this journal.

They're enthralled by it.

You can only go so far in

those words and you never know.

Have they read it all?

Have they read it in the

tone and emotion that I wanted them to?

now you've got this here

they're sat there with

their phone next to them

click this qr code and you

can watch this interview in

full bang they click that

they're now watching on

their youtube on their

phone the full interview

with the emotion with the

humor if I have anything to

do with it um you know the

the personable side of it

and so you're actually

spreading add to that by

the way you're now starting

to get stats that will be

able to show you how many

people have watched that video

Therefore,

and we can say that they've

clicked from that

particular journal and you

start getting stats from

written PR as well as your online media.

So there's a lot of things

that we do before a show, after a show,

as well as during that show.

And it is about that full service.

And it really pays.

We can do everything.

All of that for you if you wanted to,

or we can just be providing

you with a collateral to

enable you to do an awful

lot more with your digital

marketing and your PR.

Visual PR sits between PR and marketing,

feeding from and to both of them.

That's the kind of the idea of it.

So hopefully that's going to

help you make sure you get

the absolute maximum out of

your efforts with this and

feel a lot more relaxed

where you are being

interviewed rather than

thrust in front of a camera.

And as I said earlier,

I do like to try and have

as much fun as we possibly can.

So that's the tip from Visual PR.

That's part one.

That means I'm now going to

move on to part two and I'm

going to bring on our business guest.

John Lewis.

Hello, my friend.

Mr. Dawes, how are you, sir?

I'm doing well, mate.

It's so good to see you on.

John Lewis from JL Mindset Performance,

no less.

Tis me, Chris.

Tis me.

I enjoy kind of being in the green room,

although it's not very

green here in my mum's

cubbyhole in Bassett,

looking at all the

brilliant things that you do, mate,

and everything visual PR offers.

So if you can airbrush this head out,

and if you can make me sound different...

We're all on that, mate.

We're all fine.

We're all fine.

But listen,

you and I have known each other

for quite a few years,

actually a lot of years,

because I can't remember

whether JL Mindset

Performance existed when I first knew you,

when you were collecting

parcels and things like that,

or whether that was just

helping you build up to it.

I can't remember.

Yeah, I mean, well, actually,

you were in Bassett, Chris.

Correct.

We're in Bassett now,

and you were over the top here by...

uh yeah yeah big computers

I've I was a delivery man

at the time um so we're

probably going back 10

years something like that

probably more than that now

mate I gotta be honest

there's every chance it was

longer ago than that but

it's it's great to see I

mean give us a a synopsis

first of all we'll start

then go into a bit more

detail what is jl mindset performance

Wow, what is JL Mindset Performance?

JL Mindset Performance is me

as a trained person who

helps people overcome the obstacles,

whether that's in their life,

whether that's in their business,

whether that's in sport.

It's all around mindset and

helping people think in a

different way that enables

them to feel a different way,

to enable them to perform a

different way.

And again, it crosses all boundaries, mate,

because, you know, people...

want to achieve things personally,

professionally.

And I get, you know,

I have the pleasure of

doing it every single day, Chris,

have the pleasure of doing

it every single day.

And there's several things I

want to pick up on there.

The first one is that you

say you're trained and it's

important to pick up on

that because we're in a

world where there's a lot of coaches,

life coaches and things like that.

That means that not

everybody is trained and certified.

And I know you spend a lot

of time going and getting

training yourself, don't you?

I do, mate.

I think it's important when

you're working person-centred,

so you're working with people on a mental,

physical and emotional level,

it's only right ethically

and morally that you are

doing things the correct way

so you know you're doing

things for for the good

rather than just doing it

to create a business you

know opening up a book and

saying that's it I'm I'm a

life coach which can be

done it's it's it's not

accredited sorry it's not a

um regulated industry yeah

and for me chris I want to

give the best to to my

clients knowing I'm doing

things morally the right way

you know things change all

the time you know different

techniques and tools to use

with people so why would I

not want to invest in my

own development so I can

offer people the best in

their own personal and

professional development

well that sounded quite

good Chris didn't it was

that right no 100

absolutely and I enjoy that

I like that because it is

it's one of those things

that definitely stood out

for me where I've spoken to

you over the time is all the

the accreditation and the

training that you get and

that you're able to then pass that on.

And we're going to,

when we get towards the

tail end of the interview

with you is that we're

going to try and leave

people with a couple of

little nuggets of some description.

I have no idea what they are.

I put the pressure on you.

But, you know,

I love the fact that your

client base is so varied from, you know,

just personal individuals

that have got some kind of

blocks or challenges.

And, you know,

we've gone through a tough

time since 2000, sorry,

2020 with the pandemic in particular,

that hurt a lot of people.

And, you know,

we've had a lot of

challenges to overcome.

So as individuals, there are,

businesses as well as business people,

because you actually go and

train groups as well as individuals.

And some of the most

enthralling is sports

people that are already

even achieving flying things,

but not getting the mental, you know,

mindset support.

And you come in at that

stage with all of that

repertoire of clients.

I do.

And, you know, and again,

I'd like to think that, you know,

I think as we go through

the age and just what you're saying there,

Chris, you know, 2020 things change.

And I think a lot of people

since then are more

self-aware of their own

health and well-being and whatnot.

You know, even psychology.

I'm not a sports psychologist.

You know, I use NLP, which is, again,

fantastic tools and

techniques to use in sport.

But, you know,

even the notion of sports

psychology is still new.

You know, it's still a newish term.

It's still a newish thing that people,

you know, get or believe in,

if I can use that.

Because, again, even in sport,

it was always you play sport.

You know, and that was it.

Whereas, you know, again, as time goes on,

you know,

you need to understand it's not

the athlete that plays sport.

It's the person that plays sport with head,

emotion and obviously the

physical aspect.

And when you can align all three, you know,

chances are you'll get

yourself in the best

position to go on and perform your best.

And again,

that's why it crosses all

boundaries because, you know,

you and I are humans, Chris.

Well, kind of.

You're more human than I am.

We know what it's like.

The better we feel in ourselves,

then the better we naturally perform.

It doesn't always mean we

get the greatest results and whatnot,

but we give ourselves the best chance.

We give ourselves the best chance.

It's like a jigsaw puzzle, isn't it?

You know,

it's like find someone as

potentially born with with a talent.

And I think there's a big

element of that for those

that go to the absolute tops.

They still need to train to

hone their skills and use

it in the best possible way.

And, you know,

all the other bits that come with it.

But then you've got

nutritionists that get involved.

I provide media training for

sports people because they

need to interact with media

and sponsors and supporters

and things like that.

Otherwise,

they can still fall by the

wayside and not achieve

their full potential.

So yours is probably the

most obvious in my mind of all of them.

I used to be a national

level swimmer before I

found beer and everything else like that.

And and it could be, you know,

there are certain events

that I would just excel at.

And it would be because I

turned up in the right frame of mind.

And then others where my my

parents would be like

pulling their hair out

because I just didn't rock

up with the right mindset.

And it would make a big

difference to what I

achieved in that competition.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

And like I say,

you kind of hear about it

more and more now.

And I guess it's because

people are more open to

talking about actually how

they're feeling.

And, you know,

and now we've got this whole link of,

you know, the mind and body are one.

Whereas for a long period of time,

it was OK,

the mind is separate to the body.

But it's not, you know, we know.

And again,

everything you're mentioning there, Chris,

around nutrition and everything else,

you know,

there's a whole science now

behind nutrition.

playing a sport, you know,

the science is always there, Chris,

but we weren't kind of

pulling it apart in its

little entirety is to think, okay,

if we can gain a little

percentage advantage here, you know,

what the difference will that make?

You know,

if we can gain an advantage here

with your nutrition,

what difference will that make?

You know,

and I think the more that we can

pick apart all these

different elements that no,

will either hinder or excel

someone's performance, you know,

then we can kind of get

better clues into what we

can best do to enable

somebody to go on and

perform their best in

whatever arena it is.

And, you know, for multiple things,

I'm sure this is now.

I put it up earlier.

Sophia said I could not agree more, John.

And that was just one of the

early comments is that she agreed.

And I do.

It just sort of resonates

with me dramatically.

And what I love is that

whilst sport is possibly

the easiest one for us to

understand where that

mindset could come in, it applies...

in our everyday life and in

particular within organized, you know,

businesses.

And that's why, whether it's sort of,

you know, solopreneurs or whatever,

trying to make their businesses a success,

but equally you get taken

on by commercial

organizations to go in and

train all of their people because they,

they know whether it's,

I guess the extreme is, is meant,

was it mental health first aid?

Yeah,

I train mental health first aid as well,

yeah.

Train mental health.

Which is different to what

we're talking about now in a way,

but it's all sort of interlinked,

isn't it?

It's about how our mind is.

But you help the performance

in business as well as in sport.

Yeah.

And again, that's something, Chris, that,

you know,

when I trained to become a coach,

it was never I want to do it, you know,

in business, in life, in sport.

It just seems it's the way

my business is developed that it's,

you know, again,

I'm very proud that

businesses kind of take me

in and trust me to work

with with the teams, because, again,

naturally, the way we work.

thing we all have blockages

chris and we don't always

get the results we want but

um you know to be able to

go into to a business and

and work with with

individuals you know again

around the mindset around

kind of aligning their

beliefs with the business's

beliefs etc uh you know

then the best chance we

then have of the business

performing at its best

because the people within

the business are

will perform at their best

and also they will feel

valued by the business so

then it then has more of

you know mental health etc

um you know and that's

that's what we want and

again you know without

putting too much back on

2020 which ironically

you know four years ago this

weekend was probably the

first kind of lockdown you

know I think businesses now

have realized not all

businesses because some

were good at doing it

anyway chris but the

importance of its people

the people in your business

are the most you know get

the people right and like I

say the business will excel

and if you can work with

those people within the

business rather than just

leaving things to chance

yes grab things of course and not

happens to you is it because

it's what you're creating

or are you living your life

based on what's happening

I agree.

And another mutual friend of ours,

Rachel Weaven.

Hi, Rachel.

She says, invested in you, John,

to help their people will

improve their productivity.

And that's exactly what you

were just saying there.

It really will, the success.

And you don't just take them

on and press go.

And let's be honest,

is that there's no strong person,

weak person.

That's a myth.

That doesn't exist.

Life

dare I say, gets in the way, you know,

things happen that can come

out of the blue and create

a blockage of some description,

let alone for you to then

take it even higher where you kind of go,

well, you're doing well,

could you do even better?

And, you know,

you're able to sort of take

those skills even further.

It must be so rewarding as

well as emotional at times as well,

I'd imagine.

It is, Chris, yeah, you know,

Again,

nothing is more satisfying for me

than knowing somebody has

achieved something they

want to achieve or they're

happy or I've played a part.

I don't see myself as the whole picture.

I've played a part in

helping that person maybe

believe in their self more

or maybe achieve something

they never thought they

were capable of doing.

I'm very privileged and honoured.

to do that Chris you know

that said I'm still a human

being myself and I still

have these feelings and

these thoughts and these

emotions and blockages and

whatnot you know and again

it's having having a

self-awareness and that's

what I personally believe

it comes to having a

self-awareness of self

obviously hence the

self-awareness and you know

stacking on what you are

already doing but knowing

you know we nine times out

of ten we limit ourselves

we limit ourselves

Yeah, no, I agree in that completely.

Where did this come from then?

What happened in John

Lewis's life to lead to JL

Mindset Performance?

Well, how long have you got, Chris?

As long as we need to, definitely.

Short and curlers of it, mate.

Can I say short and curlers?

That's not swearing, is it?

Well, it depends.

People overthink it.

If people overthink it, they might be.

Okay.

So for me, again, you know, just naturally,

I've always loved working with people,

Chris.

I've always had an interest in people.

I've always wanted to help people,

support people.

You know, back in the school days,

I would want to help people, you know,

I always stood up to

bullies and you know yourself,

I'm not the tallest guy, but you know,

I always, from a young age,

I always believed that

everybody should be capable

of doing what they want on this planet.

We've all been given this

gift and that is life to start with.

And so, so, you know,

I always had a natural

empathy with people and

understanding of people and

always found it easy to,

kind of get on with people

always found it easy to

build rapport with people.

And I feel that is something

that naturally was

ingrained in me that when I, again,

I didn't choose to do what I do.

I believe it kind of was a

natural progression that

when it came to like,

even a crossroad in my life,

there's me doing a cross.

Yeah.

When it came to a crossroads for me,

because, again,

this ties into what we said at the start,

Chris, when I was a delivery driver.

You know, dad, two beautiful children,

a beautiful wife, mortgage bills.

You know, I needed to work, you know,

support my family as we go.

It got to to a point where, you know,

it came back to me.

OK, what do I want to do with my life?

I don't want to drive a van all my life,

you know, so.

then did some research on on

you know I knew what I was

going to do would be

person-centered and I just

feel I just I just knew was

that was that the answer

you were looking for chris

have I just gone on 20

minutes and you were just no no no

No, no, no.

Keep going.

But it's like I got that is

that you were then looking.

I mean,

I didn't know the story that it was.

I kind of suspected it was

the case that you were

doing that means to an end.

And I wasn't sure where the

jail mindset had already started.

And this was just but it was

a side hustle at that stage or whether.

No, you it sounds like you actually said,

right, I'm not happy.

I now need to do something.

And that's where it became.

I'm doing something person centered.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't think I was ever unhappy.

I don't think I was ever unhappy.

You never seemed it, I'll be honest.

Yeah, you should see me in the green room,

Chris, crying my eyes out.

You know,

but it was just I knew I wanted more.

And I thought, gee, you know, by then,

probably eight years ago,

I was doing the maths thinking, right,

if I work until 66, I was...

38 back then, that leaves me 36 years.

Okay.

I want to go through the

rest of my life doing

something that I want to do.

You know, I made that choice.

And again,

it's great me doing all these

things and supporting other people,

but very aware in the South

that I want to create my

future for myself.

And it didn't happen overnight.

It's still a work in progress.

You know, as,

as we said in the green screen, you know,

we're in business.

This is not always easy as

challenges and whatnot,

but the vision has always been clear.

The vision has always been clear.

Yeah.

And I'm very,

very proud that I'm achieving my own

goals as I go knowing

there's still more things

along the way knowing

there's still going to be

hurdles in the way but

again it's not what happens

it's how you respond to it

Chris and I feel if we kind

of respond to things in a

way that that you know

keeps us on our journey

then that's that's half the

battle there Chris because

it's it's a mindset of

never say die believe in

myself and what I'm doing

um and yeah you know the

evidence is there Chris

that the business is is

going well and every day I

wake up with an

pleasure in in doing what I

set out to do what does the

future hold for jay on mindset

oh good good question coach

good question good question

and here's the irony of it

I've never been really big

you know like as a coach

and people always think

when you're with a coach

you can say what's your big

goals what's your big

dreams etc you know I've

never had big goals and big

dreams it was more like a

feeling it was like a

natural feeling to to to

you know very kinesthetic if

you if you know what that

means you know so I i go

more on feel than than what

I see and for me like I say

chris for me and I said

this on someone's podcast

last week for me success

isn't having a car on the

drive you know a big car on

the drive or having a yacht

in I don't know lech laid

there you go that's how big

my mindset works

You sound American there.

There's no borders outside of Wiltshire.

Exactly.

Who are my friend?

Who are?

You know, for me, it's just waking up,

feeling like I'm making a

difference and doing that

on a grander scale than

what I'm currently doing, Chris,

you know.

My kids are getting older.

It's nice now to watch them

kind of flourishing in their lives.

You know, so for me, it's it's, you know,

to answer your question,

the future just holds me

steadily doing what I'm doing, Chris.

I feel I feel like I'm on the right path.

I feel like I'm on the right path.

So Rachel's wrong.

She said world domination.

So she's not right.

Oh, Rachel, world domination.

You've asked that as a question,

like world domination.

Like I should be, hmm, world domination.

It's like pinky in the brain.

Do you remember that animation?

Do you know what?

I would just like to dominate Highworth.

You'll be happy then.

You'll be happy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can you give us, the viewers,

a piece of advice or two

that is a useful thing to

be able to take away in

what is a challenging world

and climate that we live in?

Okay.

Don't watch the news.

There you go.

There's one.

I'd agree with that.

Yeah.

I agree.

I actually have done the

occasional one where I've

just turned every all

notifications from the news

apps and everything and not watched it.

And it made a world of difference.

Yeah.

And I also think, you know,

keeping it on a kind of

business stroke life theme, you know,

if we if we kind of get out

of this mindset.

And again, I see it with a lot of people.

They won't start something

because they're too scared to fail.

Yes.

They don't start in the first place.

And I've always been a believer that,

you know, there is no failure,

only feedback.

Now,

if you're going with that kind of

mindset of, okay, you know,

this might work, this might not,

but if I get the feedback and move on,

then I can come out the

other side and do things in

a different way with new evidence,

you know, with new ways of doing things.

And for me, that's kind of been...

game-changing it's been

game-changing because I

think it always comes also

just just on that you know

because it comes back to

confidence in in respects

and the reason I say that

is because it was a

conversation I had with

someone the other day when

I told them this and they

said yeah but I'm not

confident enough to to to kind of do that

I'm like,

what you need to be confident in

is confident that it might go right.

It might go wrong.

That's confidence.

You know, confidence is thinking, OK,

I can do this and

everything's going to be grand and rose.

You know,

people who know me know I make

things up on the spot.

I'm confident to know that it might work.

It might not.

But I'll take the feedback and go again.

And that helps drive me on.

I've got one that is in the

same vein as that is that I have a rule,

never have a what if.

I would rather give

something a go and heaven

forbid find it doesn't work

or doesn't work how I intended it to.

And no, they'll never go for it and go,

what if I had done that?

I mean, my commentary,

my motorsports commentary, I'm so lucky.

I get paid to travel the UK and Europe and,

you know,

pretty much every weekend

between March and November

commentating on motorsport.

And this came from a

five-year-old boy that used

to sit on the spectator

banks at Castle Combe with

my dad and fell in love with racing.

And suddenly I'm doing that.

And it all came from...

I would rather go for it, apply for it,

and not get the opportunity

than bottling out,

because I nearly didn't.

My wife had to sort of change,

remind me this rule of

never have a what if,

because I was about to go,

that's what other people

are lucky enough to do, not me.

But she said, hang on,

if we're sat up in a

spectator bank listening to

a new commentator, how will you feel?

And I'll go, oh,

I wonder if I'd have got it

if I had gone for it.

And this is just how I live

my life is that give it a go.

and find the answers grow

from it learn from it

rather than than say no

just in case I know so I

I'm with you on that one

and rachel says great tip

guys uh tips guys love the

feedback not failure and

the what if absolutely I i

agree uh thank you for that

rachel and sophia says

confidence is having the

courage to try and not

being afraid if it doesn't go to plan

Yes, I agree.

And I find that it's quite

often not two dimensional

of success or failure.

What we have in our head is

that this is what I'm going

to do and this is how it's going to be.

It doesn't always go that way,

but you suddenly could be

doing things even better

than you imagined because

it opens up doors that you

hadn't considered before,

but you would never know it.

I do it with my public

speaking training is that

if you don't go and take

those opportunities to

speak in front of people

and let people know what you know,

what you're good at,

what you're passionate about,

The only thing you can be

sure of is that you will

never open those doors that

you could have done by being heard.

Yeah.

Put yourself in there.

So I love that one, John.

That makes so much sense to me.

Thank you.

Is there anything that I

haven't asked or got you to

say that you'd like to on

JL Mindset Performance,

other than the fact I put this up,

jlmindsetperformance.co.uk?

Ta-da!

You're loving this, aren't you, John?

This is like the best day of my life,

Chris.

I'm very easily pleased.

See, the yacht in Lettslade and this.

And this, yeah.

It's the dream you didn't know you had.

There you go.

Cheers, coach.

Anything that you'd like to

say that I haven't asked

you or got you to say yet

about it for the viewers?

No, nothing.

I mean, my website is up there.

If you want to take a look

and see if anything there

you feel relates to you, yourself,

your sport, your business or anyone else,

you know,

because I cross a lot of

boundaries between, like we said, sport,

life, business, you know,

mental health first aid,

delivering workshops on confidence,

belief.

You know, there's a lot.

There's a lot I feel I can offer.

You know, I work hard to do it.

So we've just left to have a

conversation with somebody

who feels as though they

would benefit from jail

mindset performance.

absolutely uh which rachel

said more like a dinghy

boat to your uh to your

yacht in lech laid so uh

can we can we like get

people can you like kick

people off of sending

messages I can I can love

you yeah well john thank

you so much for that

insight it's been really

useful don't go anywhere

everybody because we've got

something that is very close to

your heart and before we

introduce them uh let me

just quickly check because

uh I love it see she's

she's regained us now

hasn't she probably it

probably is um but we

before we bring out the the

next guest and as as we've

explained this the whole

idea of this charity

spotlight we're about to do is that

There are a lot of charities

about and we don't always

necessarily understand or

appreciate what it is that

they do and why they do it.

It's not just about sort of

like shaking the can and

putting money into the pocket.

It's not always money they need.

There is an objective

they're trying to go and

there are multiple ways

that they can achieve that objective.

And so I want to do in every

episode a charity spotlight

where that charity in

question is going to come

on and explain what it is they do,

why they do it,

what's the background to it

and how they do it.

And we're then shining a

spotlight on that charity

so that we can understand

more about what is around us.

So before I do this, Sophia says, awesome.

Bless you, Sophia.

Thank you for that.

Um, on, on that one,

before we introduce and

don't give necessarily all of it away,

but what made you a

recommend that we got this

next person on as,

as the charity guest and

why you've teamed up with, uh,

with best mates.

Well for me personally the

reason I've teamed up with

Best Mates is purely

because I absolutely love

what they do and you know

in a lot of respects

there's a lot of synergy in

what I do and what Best Mates do.

Actually it was Rachel I

think that first introduced

me and Jeff to each other

when I first sat down with

Jeff and a couple of the

other guys I know who are

within the charity you know it was a

No brainer.

It was an absolute no brainer.

They're doing amazing work.

They're just at the start of the journey.

And again,

I can't wait to see how this

charity excels and the

brilliant work that it's

doing and the even bigger

and brighter and better

work it's naturally going to do.

Absolutely.

Well,

I think we need to get the main man out.

It's Jeff Tucker from Best Bates.

We're going to kick in to

our charity spotlight.

Alone, we can do so little,

but together we can do so much.

Visual PR's charity

spotlight is about shining

a light on the amazing work

and objectives of charities,

as they do not do it for publicity,

but it is important that we

know about them.

what they do and understand

why charity is not just

about making a donation it

is about making a

difference well so without

further ado jeff tucker

welcome my friend thank you

so much for joining us how are you

Very good.

Thank you.

Very interesting.

Listen to John there.

Yeah, but we love him for it.

That's the main thing.

You know, your words,

your kind words just a minute ago,

John was, you know, it's fantastic, mate.

You're great that we've got

you on board and you

understand what we're

trying to do in someone.

So if we can get that across

today and share that passion,

then that's what we're here to do.

So thanks for having me on.

No, appreciate that, Jeff.

And obviously,

you're in the boardroom of

your original responsibility,

and that is track employment.

That's right, isn't it?

Track employment solutions, yeah.

We're a 17-year-old

recruitment business based in Swindon.

So changing people's lives

by finding them jobs effectively.

So this is now,

we're obviously focusing

today on the charity Best

Mates with the hashtag We Got Ya.

It's very new, isn't it?

Am I right in saying that?

Very new, yeah.

We started the concept,

the idea sort of kicked in back in 2022.

Carl, my business partner,

he ran the marathon

and with things going on in

the background.

So the idea and the concept

was back in 2022,

sort of started things

moving around about November 22,

and then we went live with

charity status as of November 23.

So yeah,

as in charity status and actually

going live, very new.

But in the background,

lots of bits and pieces

have been sort of building us, you know,

as we get to this stage.

I love that.

That's really cool.

Well,

for the people that hadn't heard of it,

and I'll be honest with you, Jeff,

that included me until John

said about it.

Not surprising with those

dates you've just said.

We're not even at six months old yet.

So speak to us.

What's the synopsis of what Best Mates is?

Because from what I read,

it's very different to what

we see elsewhere.

Okay, cool.

Well, I might wrap it on a bit here.

So just feel free to jump in.

So effectively...

There was a time,

so I went back there with

Carl run the marathon and

some thought process going through.

But back in 2020,

my son went through a tough

period where he actually

got attacked by some lads

and he went through a

really tough time that he

didn't know where to turn.

Depression and really sort

of hit a spot where me as a dad,

I didn't know where to turn.

I didn't know who to speak to.

I got to a point where I

didn't even know how to

talk to my own son.

You know,

it was just remember at that time

when I just stood at the

patio doors looking out crying, thinking,

what am I going to do?

How am I going to help you?

And it dawned on me over

over a period of time that, you know,

some people hit a period

where they need somebody to help them.

You need to be able to reach out.

You said earlier that

there's hundreds and

hundreds of charities out

there that do this, that, the other.

We don't always necessarily

know what they tend to do.

It kind of dawned on me that

there wasn't a support

charity group out there

that you could reach out to

and find your way through a

crap period of time.

You might be

what if you go through

depression it could be

grief addiction

unemployment and so on and

some people you just don't

know and you wriggle your

way through it um and john

will probably tell you you

know that you end up

talking to some people and

they just need that guide

so effectively what

happened was the thought

process was going on in the

back of my head about what

can I do how can this work

now this sounds really this

is a bit ridiculous but I

was on a golf trip

with a load of lads.

A few customers, never met them before,

but one of my best mates came along.

I hadn't seen him for about a year,

so he came on this trip with us.

And when we got on the trip,

I introduced him as my best mate Steve.

I said, hello guys,

this is best mate Steve.

Every single person through

that gold trip started calling each other,

best mate Jeff, best mate Steve,

best mate Ian, best mate pal,

best mate this, best mate that.

And it was just a joke

through the whole weekend.

But

Do you know what it did?

It built a camaraderie ship amongst those,

I think it was probably about 22 people,

and we just had such a

laugh and a connection that

it got me thinking, hang on a minute,

that word best mate,

it just breaks any walls down.

It breaks anything down that

sort of gets in the way of

you talking to.

So effectively what then

happened was the concept came out of,

Best Mates basically works

as if you're going through

a certain issue and you

don't know where to turn,

you'll reach out to us.

And what we do is we recruit

what we call mates.

Now those mates are people

which have all been through

their own individual circumstances,

might be continuing to go through it,

but they've come out the other end,

they've seen the light,

they're getting better and

they're on track for a

better life and they fix themselves.

So take yourself with your

problem and I put you with

somebody that's been

through exactly the same situation.

You're then talking to

somebody that can

completely relate to your situation.

Absolutely not advised

because we're not

counsellors or anything like that.

But if you if you were

talking to me about that

situation and I could really say, listen,

this is where I was at.

This is how I got to where I got to.

You're not talking to your mum, your dad,

your brother,

your sister or whatever that might be,

who will say what they need to say.

You're talking to somebody

that will just go, I can really,

really resonate what your situation is.

And then basically, simple as that,

the charity will then step

in and either signpost to

the service you need,

or supporting that service

and just help us to help

you change your life to get

it back on track where it needs to be.

So it's as simple as that.

You come forward with a problem,

we match you with a best

mate or a mate as we call them,

and then the charity backs that up.

So I like that.

So you are, first of all, giving that...

feeling of or get rid of the

feeling of thinking that

you're alone you know I'm

picturing you at the back

door where you're going I

don't have the answers and

this is we all have these

moments don't we go damn it

I don't have all the answers

And we just bumble along thinking we do.

I know all I need to know

and I'm getting on with it.

And you said, no, I don't.

I can definitely relate to

yours because as a parent,

you're there kind of going,

I'm supposed to be looking

after and I can't do that.

That was your particular one there.

And it's like, I'm alone.

So first of all,

this removes that element.

Secondly,

it's given a person that you can

open up and speak to that

doesn't have a bias.

You said it's not a mum, a dad, a brother,

a partner or anything.

With the best intentions,

they're still going to have a bias.

Sometimes you just need that peeled away.

Get rid of all of that and

just be someone who's going

to even slap me around the

back of the head if I needed it.

100%.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is what, equally, by the way,

I've only just realised

where your nameplate, Best Mate Jeff,

I now get why it says Best Mate Jeff.

Very important.

I do like that.

I didn't get that earlier,

but after that story, I get it.

But the follow-up is that you can,

if required,

you're then able to signpost

them to the best source of support,

et cetera.

And also to support that if

the need's there as well.

I think the next stage on

from that scenario, effectively,

is one of the biggest

things that we hang our hat

on is there are some

fantastic charities where

you go and signpost

you donate and it sort of

goes into the research part over here.

And, and, you know,

in terms of finding

remedies and fixing and cures for stuff,

the money kind of disappears into the,

into the pot to make that happen.

So, but what we tend to do is we, we,

we aim to, it's the wrong side of it.

It's like put it where it's needed.

Effectively.

So for example,

we had a lad come forward to us.

He was working on a building site.

He unfortunately fell down

two flights of stairs, ladders,

should I say, broke his back.

came forward he didn't have

any um any sort of um

salary cover or anything

like that so he came

forward to us to say look

is there anything you can

do to help me out we're

going to be out for a good

six months um spoke to us

we went out to see him had

a good conversation and so

on so we ended up paying

his mortgage for the last

six months and paying his shopping bill

So we're talking actually

where it's needed.

You know,

this guy is now back on his feet.

He's now getting back into work.

We've helped him and his

family get back where they need to be.

Now,

this guy is a great lad and we haven't

done it for this reason.

He's a fundraiser as well.

But he he he will he will

bring back to us in terms

of being a mate.

and offering services out to

anybody else that goes

through something similar.

He will bring that back over

and over and over and over again to us.

But the key thing here is

we've gone into that person,

we've figured out that

there's a problem here,

and without that support,

his last six months would

have been pretty much

Well, I don't know.

I don't know where his

mental health would have gone.

I don't know where his mindset would have.

Do you know what I mean?

I mean,

that's just like one particular

thing we've done.

We had somebody come forward

that needed a CT scan

because her husband fell off a wall,

smashed his head and had a

fear and lost his lorry driver,

lost his license,

couldn't afford to get a CT scan.

So we paid for the CT scan to happen.

We've put people,

we put a group of lads

through boxing school who

all suffered from sort of

ADHD and other issues out in Wantage.

You know,

we put these lads through summer

camp effectively.

So every day they went to

something that gave the

parents a level of a break.

And it also gave the lads some, you know,

stimulation, some, you know,

some just good feedback and

good experiences.

So it can be anything,

but the key thing there is

it's where it's needed,

not where it should go.

And instantly it's straight to the source,

isn't it?

And that's a key one.

I mean,

that was picking up on one of the

things that was blowing my

mind when I looked at the

website ahead of this

discussion is that

obviously we started with

the more obvious side that

was where you are that mate to chat with,

that mate to, you know,

give the clip around the head,

which I love that Rachel

Weaven said that she can do that.

That's why you're mine and John's mate,

Rachel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's why she is a good friend,

because we know she would.

But it is also the fact that,

you just used examples,

paid the mortgage for that period,

paid for a CT scan,

is that you do that mate

that sort of like helps out,

puts a hand in the pocket.

Now, how does that work?

I don't know how much you're able to say,

but how does the mechanics

of that work for people to

understand best mate

support in that way as well?

Well, I suppose it's quite difficult

take every case as an

individual case you know

people do reach out and we

have to look at what the

scenarios are what the

situations are stuff so

obviously we've got the

board of trustees and so on

so you know people come

forward we speak to the

trustees there's some stuff

going on in the background

now which gives us certain

parameters of who who who

is legible for and so on so

we're just working those

out to be a little bit you

know try to be as

there's lots of legislation

about running a chair and

you've got to make sure

you're doing things correctly.

So those things are all

being put in place.

We've got CRM systems going

in and stuff to help us achieve that.

But I think at the end of the day,

so if we go back to what the concept is,

which is we will hook you

up with somebody that's

gone through a similar situation.

We've had,

Probably, I mean, we're only young,

but probably five to six

different people that have

simply spoken to a mate and

they haven't needed

anything else but that.

Yeah.

So we go back to don't suffer in silence.

Reach out, speak, talk to somebody.

You know, men, we're terrible.

This isn't just a male charity.

This is for absolutely everyone.

Lots of people suffer.

The workplace.

We work in recruitment.

You go into the works and

there's people suffering

different areas of different things.

Sometimes they don't want to

talk to their HR manager.

Sometimes they just need

something to reach out to.

But the key thing there is, for me,

what BestMakes is all about,

it's that connection to

speak to somebody.

I'm going through this.

I'm going to ring John

because he knows damn well

what I'm going through.

we're gonna have a little

bit of support from there

and it helps but like I say

you know some people some

people have those

conversations and they're

like their mindset changes

their attitude towards it

changes there hang on a

minute he's got through

there by just doing that if

I just put that in place

and people go away and they

get it you know and it's

it's fantastic but then of

course the key thing is is

the signposting if it's needed

Which more and more,

and I'll come to John in a second,

but first of all, sticking with you,

Geoff,

and you did open it up by saying this,

listening to John's part of the interview,

is that the synergy between

the two of you is so obvious, isn't it,

in all honesty?

100%, you know,

one of the other things we do.

So we go along in life as

best mates and we're

recruiting mates all the time,

people which have got their

experiences as its own

challenges because people

have to want to come forward for that.

But, of course,

we also need those service partners,

those service providers

that meet everything that we do.

And when I met with John, you know,

and started explaining what we were about,

what we were trying to achieve, you know,

I think...

I still get goose pimples

now talking about it.

We're a few months in of this thing,

and it resonates with so many people.

You start talking.

I mean, I've been in rooms,

networking rooms and stuff,

and I've had people turn up

just to talk to me.

and start opening up about

what their issues are.

And I'm like, right, hang on a minute.

Cause I'm not that right person.

I need to put you with said person.

Do you know what I mean?

But it just starts to unravels and it's,

it's just, we all know, you know,

not just mental health,

lots of stuff going on there.

People are not talking.

We all know that it's a big, big thing.

And now myself, Carl and Ian,

who are all the best mates,

we sit there and on a daily basis,

it sounds awful,

we talk to people which

have got problems.

But if we can change one

person's life at a time and

we can make one person

better every single time,

then we're doing what we set out to do.

And that's literally to

change people's lives and

try to fix them.

Yeah,

and some of those can be practical or

physical things, can't it?

I mean,

I remember I went through a bad

time financially,

and this is just one that

springs to mind as a practical example,

is that because I went

through that experience of

trying to deal with it in

my head and the enormity of

it as one big mush, but when I then went,

right,

I've got to get this down on a

spreadsheet and work out everything,

that's there and by when and

what can be done with each

one suddenly you're there

and go actually there is a

way out of this it now

makes a lot more sense and

and it's so easy to say

that but when you're in the

middle of that hell and you

can't sleep it's it's

making you sweat it's

making you not eat properly

it's you know or drink too

much whatever it might be

because you've got this big

mess in your head it was

that piece of advice that

someone gave me and I've

given to others since

is that the power of a

spreadsheet in that one to

just break everything down is a big one.

And actually,

I would say that's led on to

other things further down the line,

is that when there's been

other things that have

become a mess of what to me

I think is one big problem, if you can go,

you know,

what's the app that you can meditate to?

Mind...

Yeah, yeah.

I forgot what it's called now.

I'll have a look in a minute

to remind myself.

But one of the big ones that

that taught me was to break

down each of the individual

things that are worrying

you or troubling you.

And you suddenly go, oh, actually, right,

that I can't do anything about.

That I can do this and it will change it.

That isn't as bad as it feels,

just feels that way because

of everything else that sat there.

And that was, again,

just some piece of advice.

So there's some very

practical things that can be done as well,

isn't there?

My wife is watching, and my wife,

thank you, Claire, has said headspace.

That's the one.

Rachel's put another good one on.

Calm is another one.

Yeah.

So I think you just saying that, Chris,

is your perfect example there.

If ever you wanted to come

forward to be a mate,

And you wanted to say, listen,

I went for a financial

thing and I'm happy to speak to people.

There you go.

That conversation you've just had there,

just a little bit of advice.

You know what we're like as men, women,

we sit there and we think

we know what you think, you know,

the answer.

You know,

I always used I gave up smoking

12 years ago.

I gave up smoking because I read a book.

I read the Alan Carr's Easy

Way to Stop Smoking on 28th of November,

12 years ago,

day after my wedding anniversary.

I'll put the book down

because I've finished it

and I've never touched another cigarette.

Simple as.

So as far as I'm concerned,

we all go around thinking

we know what the answers are.

You know, you're in their own headspace,

as your wife just put that.

But if you can then gather a

bit of knowledge from

somebody that says

something to you that goes,

I hadn't thought about that.

Suddenly it opens a door.

Suddenly you're moving forward.

Suddenly life starts to get better.

You know, and that's where we are.

Just getting people's lives

and making them better.

Hadn't thought of that or

hadn't thought of it that way.

I think that's the big one.

Yeah, definitely.

Rachel's just,

she's just put well-volunteered Chris.

But John, you know,

flicking over to you is that, you know,

as I said to Jeff there,

is that the synergy between you guys,

even more so now after, you know,

being part of this discussion,

it's just obvious, isn't it?

Yeah, definitely.

And again,

that's what attracted me to

obviously speak to Jeff and

find out more about what, you know,

what Best Mates is about,

because it's fantastic, again,

that people can have normal

conversations with those

who have been there, you know,

and maybe can offer some

things to support a person.

But, you know, again,

for somebody who might need

something a little bit deeper and

you know it's great that

then I'm aligned with best

mates because then I can be

that support you know that

next level because not

everybody needs

professional support yeah

but be able to kind of

offer that next layer um

you know kind of a

no-brainer I think when me

and jeff had the conversation

And I like it because,

especially us men are

probably the worst at this,

is that our best friends in

the real world might not be

perfect to go to because we're proud.

We're probably being stupid

and not doing them justice

because they would be there for us.

But you kind of go, no,

I can't go to them about

this or whatever.

But the biggest one is that

life gets in the way.

I used it in another context earlier,

is that

We're busy.

We're always busy.

And you go, well,

I can't trouble them

because they're busy.

Whereas if you're going to

this neutral mate,

it means you have the same

level of discussion from

someone that's experienced it.

And it's going to help you

to open the door to the

right sequence of thoughts.

Definitely.

I think sometimes we feel

we're going to burden those

closest to them by having a

conversation or we're going

to be judged or they're

going to have an opinion.

A lot of it's perception.

We can't have a conversation

with our friends because

they're our friends.

We go down the pub and we

just talk about happy stuff

no matter what.

Yeah.

Things are going on, you know.

But when you can kind of

hold a safe space.

somebody to actually tell

you exactly how they're

thinking and how they're

feeling and then be able to

support them on you know in

that level it's it's it's

life-changing and it truly

is life-changing as we know

you know we're three men on

the conversation here but

it saves saves people's lives

It does.

I mean, I saw Jim Carrey make a phrase,

you know,

said something that really

resonated with me, as we know,

is that my profession and

my personality is like, yay,

let's all have fun and let's entertain,

whether I'm on a mic or

just in a room with people.

And Jim Carrey's one was that.

True depression can be where

your brain just suddenly says,

screw off with this

caricature you've made me

portray to the world.

I cannot deal with this

caricature you've made me

portray to the world anymore.

And that means that it

almost becomes the tears of

a clown if you're not careful.

Whereas this mate that we

can be given gets rid of that.

Oh, but my best mate,

I've still got to be that smiley, happy,

strong, confident person.

You don't need to be anymore with them.

Exactly.

And even what I do for a for a profession,

you know, if if a client says to me,

how are you, John?

And I say, do you know what?

I'm actually a little bit rubbish today.

I've had it many times when

a client has said to me, hang on,

you you can't be rubbish.

You're helping.

You know, you're supposed to help all us.

You know,

and even I even I find it again as men.

You know, young children at home,

do you really want to go

home and burden your, you know,

if your day's rubbish on your children?

Because you just want to

kind of be this person that

you want other to perceive that you are,

you know...

Dad,

you don't want to be burdening on

children with how you're really feeling.

Same as your friends.

Do you really want to be burdened?

You know, I wear my heart on a sleeve.

I'm sure we all do, you know.

But for some, it really is a struggle.

That's why best mates, again,

putting somebody in a

situation who's been in a situation,

you know, that stigma,

there is no stigma.

Because you are being

matched with somebody who

might not know exactly how you're feeling,

but they have definite

evidence through their own experience.

And there's a massive power in that.

Yeah, they're very close.

And that's why, you know, Jeff,

we're really just sort of

backing up where you opened

up this conversation about

your own challenges that you went to.

Very personal insight there.

And it's kind of like, yeah,

the detail might be different,

but a lot of us go through something.

And this is where it really helps.

I mean,

hopefully that we did it justice in

the way we were discussing

it there as well.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, exactly that.

It's just opening those doors.

It's opening that mindset.

It's opening that room for improvement.

How do I get, where do I go?

How can this get better?

It can, you know,

don't care what you're going through.

Don't care who it is,

whatever your situation is,

it can get better.

You just need to be hooked

up with the right people.

that are prepared to have

those conversations and

help you to go and do what

you need to do.

And I think John said at the

beginning of his conversation,

you get up in the morning

and you have a choice.

You know, very difficult,

very difficult sometimes

depending what you're going

through to make the right

choice to turn the right head on.

But then when you've got

somebody alongside you that

understands that you can

reach out to and you see

it's physically made a difference,

it makes that whole process

that little bit easier.

And even if it's one step at a time,

you know, small steps,

but as long as those doors

are opening and you're

going in the right direction,

things are starting to get

a little bit better,

you'll start to feel it.

And that's what we're there to do.

And I'm going to put again up there,

bestmates.org, www.bestmates.org.

You'll be able to find out more.

Now, obviously,

that includes if people

want to reach out and they

need support themselves.

But equally, Geoff,

what about in terms of

supporting best mates?

What can people do and how?

Yeah, supporting best mates.

Yeah, I think, like you said,

getting the point across of

what we're trying to do is

the main thing.

But when it comes to supporting us and,

you know,

raising funds to help us to

achieve what we're setting out to do,

you know, if we're a new charity,

I hope this gets the

message across for who we are,

what we are and what we're trying to do.

If there's any interest out there from,

you know,

businesses or individuals that

want to raise funds to help us,

please do reach out.

Please do come and speak to us.

You'll see if you follow us

on our socials that we've

got a Tower to Tower event,

Tower of London to the Eiffel Tower.

We're all riding our bikes, including me,

to the Eiffel Tower on the 17th of June.

So there's fundraising out of that.

You're on the handlebars, Jeff,

aren't you?

I'm just taking handlebars.

I'm just going to sit on the

train and just video that.

You know,

we've got a parachute job going

on in April.

We've got an actual physical

launch to Best Mates,

which is going on in London,

which is in April.

We've got businesses,

which we've got a business,

One Vision Signs in Swindon.

They've put on a race night

for us at the county ground

this Saturday.

Friday.

Friday.

You're going, John, aren't you?

You're there.

I've got your tickets here, actually.

Yeah, they're no good there, mate.

We need a mayor.

If businesses and people

want to raise funds and

help us and get involved more,

and as well as if you are a

person that's obviously

gone through something and

you feel that you would

personally benefit from

becoming a mate and helping people out,

again, come forward.

You know,

it's a little interview where we

just talk to you a little

bit in complete confidence.

We sign some forms to make

sure that the

confidentiality side of things is there.

And then as somebody comes forward,

we put it out to see who

wants to step forward and

speak to people.

Can I ask a question on that then, Jeff,

is what's the support

infrastructure for the mates?

So the support and structure for the mates,

we've got partners on board.

So it's a good question, actually,

because what we don't want

to do is have a mate come forward,

speak to somebody,

and it brings everything

back to life again.

And they sit there and start to suffer.

So we have got support

partners in place that should support

that happen,

then we've basically got the

services there to say, right, okay,

and they will receive that

counseling or whatever that might be.

Best Mates, again, obviously covers that.

So, yeah, it is very important.

And it's also very important

that when Mates come

forward that we select

the right mates as well you

know we're not just a hey

everybody come forward we

need you all we have to sit

down and do some vetting

and understanding because

um if you're not quite out

of that out and in that

strong position we don't

want to put you the wrong

wrong say don't want to put

the weaker people forward

yet until we know they're

ready for it so it's it's

it's very important and

it's it's um yeah you've

got to go very careful with it but

you will also get that feeling of,

you know, like I said earlier,

I get goosebumps just

talking about it because I

know that whatever happens,

that's another person's

life's changed because, you know,

making a difference.

It makes a difference.

Yeah, no, and I get that,

which is why I just wanted

to make sure if anybody was

there on the fence and just worried that,

you know, the support is there,

it's very important to know.

Rachel Weaver, yeah, she said,

I'm up for becoming a mate,

so get in touch, Rach.

We need to catch up, Rach.

Yeah, we'll sort that out.

Yeah,

I think that you'll make a blooming

good one, definitely there.

Geoff,

anything that I haven't asked you or

got you to say that you'd

like to say at this stage?

No, I think I've gone on.

I hope I got the message

across of what we are, who we are,

what we're trying to achieve, you know,

We do need everybody's help.

We do need people to come forward.

It can be quite overwhelming

at times because so many

people are interested.

But if there's any interest out there,

I think for me, for us at Bestmates,

we need people's help.

So if you want to help and

you can do things for us.

And also, the most important thing,

if you're out there and

you're going through a bit

of trouble at the moment,

get on the website, reach out to us,

drop us a little email.

Let's start to fix you.

Yep, absolutely.

Our catchphrase is, we got you.

And we have got you.

Come forward.

I love that.

We got you, I think,

is such a lovely phrase.

It sums it up brilliantly.

It kind of brings the

emotions up to the surface

on that at all.

John,

anything that you want to add about

Best Mates from your

perspective or have we covered it all?

No, just that, you know,

early on into their career,

if I can use that,

but making massive strides already.

And it's very,

very proud to have kind of

met Jeff and the team.

And, you know,

long may this journey continue, Jeff,

because you're doing

amazing things in its infancy,

let alone when everything

is kind of bigger, brighter,

bolder and stuff, you know, so amazing.

Just brilliant, brilliant.

Well,

thank you so much for joining us as well,

Jeff.

I do appreciate that,

and I hope this has helped.

Rachel said, awesome, guys, as well.

Thank you for everybody that has watched.

We could go on for so much longer,

but hopefully that has

given everyone a flavor.

It's been a very proud

episode of Visual PR Live,

obviously a Visual PR production.

And I thank people for

taking the time to be

watching this and participating.

Remember,

Visual PR is all about being in

control of how your

information is received and perceived.

And I think today's been a

great example of how we've

been able to do that with

everything from jail

mindset performance and

very much so from bestmates.org.

Reach out to both sides of

these guys if there's

anything that either of

them can do individually as a group,

whether that's a business,

an organisation,

a sporting team or anything like that.

There's a lot that can be

gained from both John and Jeff.

So, guys,

thank you so much for joining us

on this show.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

It's been an absolute

pleasure to get you both on.

Thank you, Chris.

That was brilliant, mate.

Thank you very, very much.

Yeah, thanks for the invite, Chris.

John,

thanks for bringing us on and letting

Chris know about us.

Really, really good.

Really, really impressed.

Thanks ever so much.

Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it.

Remember, you don't go anywhere.

Stay in the green room when

I drop you back there.

But from myself, Chris Dawes of Visual PR,

it's been a pleasure to

have your company.

We'll see you on next month's episode.

Cheers.

Bye-bye.

Bye.