the diver ceo live my live show my live

reincarnation of this podcast is coming

on tour and it's coming to a city near

you there's a link in the description

below put your email address in and i

will email you when tickets go on sale

can't wait to see

[Music]

everything that people said well you're

lucky to work with dr varna

and i can say that wasn't luck it was

strategy

what's that imposter voice saying is

going to be found out good question i

suppose do you have insecurities yeah of

course i do has that ever had a impact

on you

i never believed my own hype it's very

easy once you see yourself in articles

and winning awards and everyone's

telling you how amazing you are but i i

suppose i never really did

i didn't fit in particularly well and

i've seen the extremities of mental

health me myself going to dark periods

where nothing would nothing to fight

nothing would cheer you up if you

haven't got a thick skin you shouldn't

be in this game

david gandy at one point he was one of

the highest paid male models in the

entire world

a beautiful beautiful man and so hearing

that and seeing how beautiful he is

would understandably make you assume a

lot of things about him

but what you're going to hear today is

that those things are wrong and that you

should never judge a book by its cover

how is it possible

that someone that looks like david gandy

can describe themselves as having

imposter syndrome being low in

confidence

and waiting to be found out

he's now become an entrepreneur he's

focused on launching his brand new brand

david gandy well where and he's taking

on a completely different industry

it's crazy because when you open

people's diaries

you never know what you'll find and what

i found in david's today

was truly fascinating

unexpected

vulnerable and extremely

surprisingly relatable

so without further ado i'm stephen

bartlett

and this is the diary of a ceo

i hope nobody's listening but if you are

then please keep this to yourself

there's a lot of

very beautiful people in the world right

um but they don't manage to achieve what

you've achieved across multiple

disciplines whether it's within your

modeling career which is incredibly

competitive

space to play and one with shrouded with

huge amounts of uncertainty or whether

it's now in business with what you're

doing with your brands there and your

investments

so my question is what is it about you

in your sort of self-diagnosis that has

made

you

rise to the top in those

pursuits

that's a

good question and also where did it come

from

the easiest one to say is probably the

modeling one to to start off with and

that was

um

i

questioned why

men weren't in the same position as the

female supermodels and you had

the equivalent of the the male super

models at the time and you always have

that but they were never to the you know

to that level

um

of fame of you know sort of financial

rewards of

uh as as the female supermodels and i

questioned that that was all and thought

is there a possibility is there almost i

suppose a gap in the market

the first five years no one actually

realizes that i really didn't do that

much for the first five or six years it

was you know

of course we didn't struggle and it was

a lot of

um

you know sort of catalog work earning

really good money wasn't what i wanted

to do but i got to work

with you know like sir chrissy turns and

naomi campbell and those people and i

literally just observed them and asked

them questions

and

sort of got the answers i wanted and i

all realized that it was a business for

them

they had great teams they had great

agencies they had prs and pas it was run

as a business and then you had the guys

you know who were the top of the fashion

that at the time it wasn't a business

for them it was

a lovely way of making a living and they

were felt very fortunate to be there

some of the time not even admitting that

they were

models they were in advertising or

marketing as a lot of people used to say

and i just used the female platform and

i went to head of my agency tandy

anderson

and said

i i don't want to do this commercial

work anymore

it doesn't satisfy me it's not when she

said what do you want to do i said if

i'm going to do this i want to be the

best at it and she said right literally

from tomorrow i've said this a million

times you have to stop all that

commercial work because we have to you

have to be perceived then in a total

different light to

to get to where you want to be so every

bit of that working i said wearing very

good money i

just quit everything we just we said no

to all the campaign no to all the

catalogues and she said to me like in a

position you've got that's what most

models are dreaming of earning what not

dreaming of but that's you know they see

you yours is an enviable position i said

tan it's just not what i want to do i'm

not happy doing it so to me i had

nothing to lose because i would have

carried on so we then started building

up this other perception of me within

the fashion industry not the catalog

model not the commercial model but

editorial a bit more sort of fashion

based and that's when we

instigated a meeting with dolce gabbana

and that's how i did their campaign the

campaign led to

light blue and

light blue was a to me a tick in the box

for them to achieve what i wanted to

achieve

and it was

phenomenal success and it still is

but that was that was what i needed that

was the platform pretty much from there

and then we could put the team together

to say

where do you want to be in three years

what and where's the next three years

after that where do you want to achieve

and i'm a big believer in having goals

not always having to achieve them things

change but i'm big believing having

goals so you know

roughly where you're where you want to

end up at something and then game is a i

always say sorry

life is like a game of chess and you're

moving pieces to get to that checkmate

to where you want to be and often it

diverts and you have to have different

tactics but you you have to have that

ambition to know

the exact point to where you want to be

of course when you get there and

being a

maybe an entrepreneur or typical person

i am then i'm on to the next thing

you're not particularly satisfied and

you know i've achieved that so

what's the next achievement where do you

go from there what role do you think

luck has played

as you view your journey in hindsight

what role and you know everyone you know

especially very successful people will

always have a kind of different

relationship with luck what role do you

think luck has played in

your

journey and however you would define

luck

it annoys me if someone says or you're

very lucky

and i feel like i have to go on this

statement go hang on let me just tell

you about

you haven't seen the hard work that's

gone in there and i realize that it sort

of gets you nowhere um so

listen i

was fortunate to be born like i am six

foot two in the frame i have with

the way i look and people perceive that

as

they the way they do and it's

you can make money from that

hugely fortunate

but as you said before there are a lot

of good looking people there are a lot

of beautiful people i've admitted myself

i go into my agency there are

25 better looking guys on that board

there are 50 better models i've just

cast 10 of them for my brand they're my

they're better models than me they're

better spokespeople than me i was

fortunate to be in that position but

then you

and say you make your own like you maybe

you do

so every

sort of

everything that people said well you're

lucky to work with dolce gabbana and i

can say well let me tell you how this

the story of how we went to meet dolce

gabbana how we instigated that yeah that

wasn't luck yeah it was strategy

and

it was

not my i think at the time everyone's

going you are armani you are raffler in

your mind you're afraid it was tandy

anderson who said you are dolce gabbana

you're adult shigebang i don't listen to

anyone else you are deutsche it was her

genius

that said and then sort of instigated

this meeting with them

and then

through that and working with tandem

working with select everything we've

achieved

is strategy you know it's gone out it's

like think what do you want to achieve

what do you want to

what's your goal

and it just it doesn't just happen yes

there's certain opportunities that come

around that people approach you

but we approach a lot of people with

ideas and we approach from people would

love to do this yeah you know m s

it was

us who wanted

to do that collaboration

and i wanted to do it with one of the

biggest

british institutions everyone knows and

everyone has a great thing i wanted to

do with m s we had lots of different

brands approach us

we didn't do that we wanted to do it

with m s

and that again looked at we didn't start

off by just doing a collaboration and

you know a huge deal it was i had to

model for two years with them prove that

i could still prove that i could work

with m s

then we talk about collaboration then we

would move on and

you know then they trusted me it didn't

it's not a finger click you know it's

yeah it's it's it's because the way that

look um those moments the amazing

collaboration that amazing email that

comes out of nowhere in hindsight

because it appears to have come out of

nowhere um it always appears in

hindsight like look and i've got my own

story you know examples from my story

where when i was 18 19 years old i went

on linkedin and typed an investor the

first person that came up i emailed him

he invested in my company

people think you know they say you got

lucky right and i'm like well you know

again it's what to what you said about

the story well look at the email it was

sent at 3am and i shot on stage i'm like

and i then removed the timestamp and i'm

like i was up at 3am

thinking about emailing people so for me

action and what you describe there is

like that smart strategic work is just

increasing probability

that you know you might get what people

call luck and um

in that moment with dolce and kabana and

when when you form that partnership with

them how pivotal was that for you

and the trajectory of your career

in like real terms

light blue is the reason i'm here and i

you know the famous commercial

but again you could look back to that

when i came into modeling

the circle of the fashion world at that

stage of what was perceived as

fashionable was the small androgynous

skinny guy

now i'm

over six foot two i was quite skinny

when i came in but i built up and i just

got bigger and everyone else said

you need to get smaller you need to fit

in you need to you're too big you're

getting too big

but that's where i was happiest i wasn't

doing it for reading you i was always

playing sport i want to continue i

couldn't play sporting while so i was in

the gym and it was you know to have a

good physique and be healthy was the way

i was

happiest in my head in my well-being so

that's what i did and in a way i just

looked at the models and tyson becquers

and titan baloo and paul scoffer and all

these different people that were you

know the levi's guys

the famous levi's ads that we used to

used to look at and the raffler ring

guys i was like

they're all

big muscular classically handsome guys

and they were the biggest in the

industry so i just thought this has got

to come around at one point so when it

actually came around to that creative

for light blue

of course

there was a smaller pop because everyone

had followed each other yeah yeah yeah

and then there was me and we'd just done

the campaign with the auction gabbana

and then we went to and do light blue

but that the day it came out um it just

changed everything i mean literally

changed everything i hate when people

say that but it was went from that

campaign going out in the afternoon

phone not stopping

and i think i went to new york and

my agencies called up and just said

we've got telegraph the times the mirror

they all want to speak to they all want

to have an interview with you

and we didn't have pr's at that point

you know this was i was like okay

how does this work

um

very green about it all but exciting you

know so that that's that change

um so you're talking about lifestyle how

did your lifestyle change and i want to

know about like

how people treated you and friends and

you know romantic potential partners

when that that blows up for you the

phone doesn't stop ringing how does your

world shift from a like a very personal

perspective

friends have never changed

great

and we're still you know on all on

whatsapp groups and see each other i

don't see them as much they all live

closer together and

that's a shame really but it's just

never changed i get the absolute

roasting

roasting all the time i'm just an easy

target

yeah so you can just google my name on

so many pictures that get putting online

so and that's it you know it keeps you

and i love that no one takes themselves

too seriously and i think hopefully

that's what i didn't do too much as i

always said to people if models ever

come up to me now so what made you

different or how did what did you learn

i said i never believed my own hype it's

very easy once you see yourself in

articles and winning awards and

everyone's telling you how amazing you

are to to believe that but i i suppose i

never really did

do you have imposter syndrome yes yeah

yeah of course absolutely and what does

that mean in practical terms in your

mind and your thoughts

you're always waiting to be found out

i think there's the end of the day

you're always waiting for you know you

sort of go

okay all right come on if you've had a

really good inning

you've been 15 years in yeah you're

still thinking well 20 20 years later

we've had a good angst you know i'm

still thinking that today to be found up

you do that by putting yourself at risk

of something it's like

i suppose there's there is the risk and

reward so

everything i do there has to be a slight

risk

otherwise it's not sort of worth

i suppose me doing it so there's always

got to be that risk of failure

in many ways and i don't mind failure

i've learned more from failure than i

have from success to be honest and

that

risk element of

you know

vanity fair asking me to write an

article i mean i'm not a writer

to do that is scary but i won't have

anyone write it for me i have to do it

we're going back to the integrity thing

i have to do it

that goes for sort of the fashion game

to collaborating with brands to

investing

you know as you know it's you know it's

a risk there's an element of risk i take

into i suppose everything and i suppose

it makes life exciting what do you think

when you say be found out what's going

to be found out

what's that imposter voice saying is

going to be found out good question i

suppose

have you bitten off too much then you

can chew but no one can be as

as uh harsh a critic to me as i am

myself

i will beat myself up in something fail

as i will beat myself up if i don't do

the best job

um

so no one can affect me like that by

actually saying anything because i'm my

worst critic

so yeah that's a good point of what

someone you know what that voice is

going to say to me just a whisper of

doubt i guess

that may be

well the way that i typically think

about imposter syndrome or at least i've

seen it in my business and there's a

couple of like top level execs in my

business that talk about imposter

syndrome a lot and it sounds like um

yeah exactly what you described there

like biting off more than you can chew

and

are you really capable and experienced

enough to be at this level doing this

thing do you really have the skills yeah

there's other people that are smarter

and better and that have you know you

know won more awards or more you know

experienced something like that

there's also the side that and it's not

about money it's about success there's a

lot of people that actually don't

particularly want other people to do

well

and

most people

they will try to bring you down in many

ways and put doubts in your mind you

know it's like the sort of the

backhanded commentizer as i always sort

of call it it's it's hard for someone

and i

i've learned you know sort of that from

other people's comments and what they've

said to me and i'd make sure i never

ever do that and i always just encourage

people and if i can help i will help

them and that's probably where my

investments have come from in many ways

is i have had this opportunity and i

haven't borrowed a penny in my life to

get to where i was

you know i when i first went to new york

modeling i used to go around and

couldn't afford

to eating nice places so every time i'd

go on like castings i was walking around

all day and going to shoot i would then

go past a uh like a diner and they would

have a special deal on so it'd be like a

burger fry and something else for 5.95

and i'd write it down go i've got to

remember to come back here because it's

5.95 plus taxes like i suppose i can

have a beer and it might be ten dollars

that's where i used to have to think

because i just didn't didn't have

anything then

i've always wanted to then i think i'd

never really had any help but i would

like to help people talking about

helping them helping people and then

other people tearing people down with

female models i think we can all quite

easily believe how nasty comments would

affect them but there's something in in

i think the public perception or within

society where we think ah if you slag

off a male model if you criticize them

say nasty things about them well they'll

be fine if you go on twitter for example

it's totally okay just uh people will

tweet at pierce morgan all day saying

but the people would never do that to

well they would but it would be much it

would be considered much differently if

they were saying that to a woman i

believe that to be true so i guess my

ultimate question here ultimately is

like

have

strangers criticizing saying nasty

things on the internet about you how you

look or whatever has that

ever had a impact on you

in this business anyway if you haven't

got a thick skin

you shouldn't be in this game you've got

to have a thick skin and it's

what i understood and i've

probably only actually understood this

from having to cast myself for people to

represent my brand is that

you're not being horrible to someone

someone doesn't fit

what you have perceived in your head and

that could be for any reason whatsoever

um the attitude you bring into it the

charisma you come into that day on that

casting the way you look and it could be

anything that person is too skinny that

person's too tall that person is not big

you know anything

and you have to realize that when you

were

casting is they weren't it wasn't

personal it was almost business no you

just don't fit the creator that we want

at the moment that changes when you have

a name that change when you have a brand

because they're buying into your brand

they're buying into your engagement with

your fans that's different but when they

first look at you at face value

and there's different people you know

there's been castings where they're on

the phone they don't say anything to you

you put the book down they go through

two pages and they hand it back to you

now that is a bit demoralizing but hey

you know like i have always made sure i

might probably overcompensate that

because i've been on the other side of

you know casting casting other people

was i'd probably get there for too long

and just chatted and everything else

internet trolls though like someone on

instagram or in the edm's just

you post something and they just

no i'm very full i'm very fortunate that

my fan base which is a very organic fan

base actually on on social

are

massively kind

and positive and that's the way i've

always put social i'm not a big lover of

social media

i've stated it before i see the use of i

see the brilliance of it i also see the

negativity from especially for young

children i've spoken out about that

um

yes does that do things affect yeah of

course you'll probably know this is a

you might see a hundred comments

all positive

and then

101 comment 102 comment is negative and

you'll remember it you'll remember those

two comments so you can't remember the

other hundred that are positive and it's

a really weird thing

so

it's like dealing with people you deal

with the nice ones you don't deal with

the negativity

and

that's what we've tried to do really and

again another sort of social i guess um

not maybe stereotype but sort of

misunderstanding would be that someone

that is you know makes their career out

of modeling someone that's very you know

um attractive um like yourself um surely

they can't have

insecurities surely they realize that

they are you know

surely they can't have self doubts like

us muggles who had gq are yet to call

doesn't everyone have insecurities i

can't believe that you told me there's

not a person that doesn't have

insecurities do you have insecurities

yeah of course i do absolutely

physical insecurities of course they do

had you said something about your if

your nose and your your nose i know my

eyes got any bigger my nose my eyes got

any bigger which they do the only things

that came with like i just look like the

bfg

also i think

something that going back to the sort of

trolling

and

instagram there is this thing about age

now

age is used as a weapon you are so old

look at all your wrinkles it actually

sort of makes me laugh when people say

my god you like

that most people have positive comments

but they can say oh you're getting older

yeah everyone is i've been in this game

for 20 years if you're comparing an

image from 20 years ago i'm not going to

look the same but it's almost like

it's a negative thing

you know it's and that that's

i've noticed that increasing over the

last couple of years is this aged thing

is used as a weapon as if it's a bad

thing does that bother you

no

i always feel i've always been quite an

old man in a young young man's body

anyway

so

should i say mature but um

no you grow old

at the end of the day you grow a little

bit wiser you get a little bit you you

calm down a little bit more

and you you accept

yourself for who you are a little bit

more as well

20s and 30s 30s less but 20s can be

quite tricky for everyone i don't quite

know who you are you're trying to be

trying to find out where you are in the

world you then i think you get a bit

more confidence in your 30 and i that's

where my 30s sort of came from to why

are you trying to be something else or

trying to fit in

and i never fit in i've never fitted in

ever anywhere really particularly well

or felt i haven't particularly fitted in

you're in the fashion industry i've

never felt i fitted in i was telling um

a model the other day actually we were

working with

and we all used to go off to

new york

for this big

casting two weeks try and get the jobs

be with all the big agencies and you

would go and go in a group of probably

about 10 guys and you'd have a list back

in those days you would have a fax

believe it or not you didn't have mobile

phones it was a fact

so you got your fax in the morning you

had all your appointments 9 o'clock 10

o'clock 11 o'clock 12 o'clock all the

way through

everyone used to go down to the subway

or walk and we'll go together and

there's this very pack mentality

and i was never into that pacman tells

you it was quite always a

i'd say a much more sort of individual

sort of loner so i used to look at the

facts and i used to let them go around

the corner and i would vegetate upside

down and do the opposite way so those

nine guys would go to the nine o'clock

and i would go to the six o'clock and i

would just turn up the office and go hi

i'm i know i supposed to be here at nine

o'clock but is

john someone then because yeah yeah he's

here like can i see him

you take the opportunity where you got

imagine going through seeing nine guys

speaking to nine guys looking but by the

third person you're like

they're gonna be bored and you take the

opportunity so i did that all the way

around and that's why i did kind of all

the time it was thinking constantly of

like outside the box of doing something

different

yeah it's amazing how these small things

can create such significant like it's

such a marginal thing can create such a

big gain and most people are obviously

they don't even try and think outside of

the

script and so they end up you know

competing

in a very saturated way for a limited

amount of rewards but one slight

innovation in the process i think can

deliver such an exponential return you

know i hate i hate

powder i hate mixing powder with water i

hate protein powders that you have to

mix with water

up until now and um obviously he'll

sponsor this podcast so i'm tremendously

biased but that's a that's a true story

i've never been able to use the like my

protein powders that you mix with water

because i always think they taste

absolutely awful

up until huel released their brand new

protein flavor the amazing thing about

all of these proteins is there's 20

grams of protein you get all of your

vitamins and nutrients 26 of those and

as huel always is it's nutritionally

complete

and if you are someone that's trying to

go a little bit lower on the calories

it's only 105 calories so when i wake up

in the morning especially i've been

working out a lot lately come downstairs

quickly blend it together in my

nutribullet

drink it's 100 calories and then my next

sort of main meal because i'm a

breakfast skipper will be

at lunchtime highly recommend it um and

i shouldn't say this because i don't

have any

approval to say this but there's some

amazing amazing flavors coming in the

ready to drink range that i've been

lucky enough to try

um and one of those is my new favorite

flavor so stay tuned

in the industry of modeling one thing

that

i think is probably i don't have any

data to support this claim but i think

it's probably rife because of the nature

of the business and what i know about

the subject of mental health and mental

well-being is anxiety

and i i just i've just seen amongst my

friends um

the women that i know that model

high levels of anxiety um for a variety

of reasons um have you ever suffered

with anxiety yourself

at any point in your career

i'm naturally a shy person

but shyness is not anxiety

so i can't say i mean if i probably gave

someone symptoms of stuff i've had or

things that have happened they might say

well that's anxiety

my anxiety

if i still think of

now there's there's a weird thing of

when i hear

the music to the antiques roadshow on a

sunday night i still have anxiety that i

haven't done my homework

and i have to go to school the next day

that's how much i hated

didn't hate i hated school to a certain

point the sixth one was great with my

friends that i still have but that was

the point of

i still have that today when i hear that

music i literally stop and i'm like oh

you know

oh i don't have to go to school tomorrow

what was that about school i mean i was

i didn't fit in at school that was

basically it it wasn't

you know all good friends from that

school but it was just a certain time

before i kind of met those people

um the group of guys cycle and and girls

i used to you know

hang around with and there was bullying

and there was i just didn't fit in that

was all it was but you said you were

bullied in school primary school well

secondary school secondary school yeah

primary was primary was quite fun

enjoyed primary school secondary school

was just something different maybe went

to the wrong school maybe you made the

wrong choices it was me it wasn't i'm

not blaming anyone not blaming anything

it was just

and i was

quite steadfast i'm not fitting in i

didn't fit in particularly well

and i wasn't going to change my way of

fitting into everyone else in what way

didn't you fit in i just i just

a bit like the same night i i'm still

like it so i'm still in the fashion that

example of not being in that group not

not being that pack not doing the same

thing everyone does

exactly the same thing i didn't want to

be in but i saw things differently and

wanted to

do things my way

maybe that's it i mean

maybe it was doing something my way and

and i've always looked at that that goes

on for

that that can go into if you look and go

into styling it's like well no one's

wearing suits oh i'm going to wear suits

and

no one's

you know why don't you do this

it's like you know people still take me

at me because i do not own a pair of

sneakers or trainers

and the people like now everyone that's

all they're wearing

i

have one pair and i go to the gym with

them and i have a running pad but and

everyone sort of looks at you as if but

i love that fact you know it's just me

being a little bit different

but it it can also lead to you know

being a little bit stubborn that you

take that to a little bit far of not

ever relinquishing that you want to be

sort of different like all the time you

want to i don't know why you do it was

that physical but was that bullying

because of physical things they were

they were saying that you were

physically different what was physically

different no the way you know you

thought

maybe it was the way i thought if you

think about that now yeah it's just

because

in

i do find this

still now in the world that everyone

likes to pigeonhole everyone likes to

you are put in a certain category person

and if you don't fit in

then you're strange you're a strange

person why don't you like the same stuff

why don't you wear the same stuff as us

why don't you

think the same way that we think

of course it's now got to say very

polarized when we have different

opinions as they attack each other now

it's like it's either left or right

there's nowhere in the middle and

it was it was i think that element that

i've always just i suppose i've been got

an individual thinker in some ways which

kind of and that might put me in good

stead for the business we're in

um

but yeah the anxiety thing like maybe

it's

a confidence again when i was confident

into going something

i was absolutely fine i just wanted an

opportunity that was always what i want

to be able to

um you know people say why have you not

gone into acting why are you not i'm not

confident if there's anxiety give me a

script to learn and try and put me

in front of a camera and you'll see

that's where i'll probably be anxiety

although i've done that and i achieved

and i quite loved it so it was a scary

side of it but it's not something i'm

naturally

good at isn't that you know people would

people again talking about naivety right

people would never guess that

you would say you weren't confident

and it's almost like because you know

what the conversation had with ben fogle

you were just it was just not what you

would expect based on like stereotypes

one would expect you to be an extrovert

yeah you know super confident some kind

of you know very loud you know

braggadocious boisterous guy but you

appear to be the opposite of that and

especially the point of confidence

yeah i mean

i wouldn't say i've got a lack of

confidence there's a lack of confidence

where i think i know my limitations

maybe i want to but i also like pushing

those limitations to see where i can get

to and seeing what i can achieve and

learn

um

but the confidence i mean

gq awards

we went to two weeks ago

and

you sign up you're

i didn't get an invite but i got the red

i have to sort this out with gq

um

you're on the red carpet i've done it a

million times before there's still dread

filled like i'm filled with dread to

getting on that red carpet and having

the pictures taken it's just not a

natural environment for me and i was

thrilled that there was a

you know a huge long queue because

everyone wanted to be on the red carpet

everyone wanted their picture taken

everyone wanted to be in the papers and

put it on their instagrams and i went

too long i'm not you know i'm going to

swerve that one

so i swerved it and went upstairs and

went into environment where i was much

happier where actually i needed to speak

to a few certain people for a few

certain reasons and went to go and

hunt them down and go and speak to them

what was it about what was the sort of

psychological discomfort you you

feel when you think about going on the

red carpet and doing that because you

described going upstairs to a place

where you were happier so what's the

unhappiness of the red carpet for you

it's just an unnatural environment for

me to be

when you're on set

when you're employed by a brand

to create what is in who is their vision

you're playing a role

like blue i'm a mediterranean guy in

italy and small white speedos it's not

me

it is me but it's it's there's a role

you're playing i know there's actors as

well i've spoken to them about they love

being in character but after those

characters they don't want the limelight

they don't want fame they don't want to

speak to anyone they don't want to do

press junkies they hate the red carpet

exactly the same so when you're on set

you're almost playing someone else

and there's an element as well of

there is

this david gandy and i talk about in a

third person because that's the brand

sometimes i have to talk about that's

the name

so you you

yes you are walking onto a set almost

being something else

not i'm acting any different

but and then there is and and the red

carpet is just not that environment i

can probably

hide behind

a character or hide behind a role or

something when i'm playing on that date

that's me

it's just not something it's strangely

weird training

yeah

my other half steph loves to go out and

love to go to events she gets

you know such a you know a buzz such

gets enthusiasm for it actually like you

know she didn't

and she honestly probably thought that

was me when we first met

i go to an event i'm drained from people

i'm i'm actually naturally a loner i

could you know

we sort of joked with steph when he

first met she would give me a silent

treatment and i was just like steph i'm

going to tell you know i'll win at this

game because

[Music]

i can go off i can go for days not

talking i'm used to it you know i prefer

it yeah i've traveled the you know i

travel the world don't speak to people

for days so um it was always kind of a

joke between us

so um

yeah i'm and then when you're naturally

the complete opposite of being

alone you know i love taking dogs to

work i love walking for hours and then

if i ever ever get sort of proper time

to do it

um with no one around me the exact

opposite of that

is the red carpet

to me

and your life has put you there because

of your success right

and you must get asked to go to red

carpets all the time and events like

that all the time yeah

and there's nothing

[Music]

the actual event

um

i mean again like presenting presenting

an award reading off an auto cue to

present it i mean i it's an honor to do

it i know it's not i know i have to do

it but the whole night

whenever you're presenting is me on that

table

not enjoying that evening because i know

there was one point i've got to go up

there and be in front of everyone and

i've done it a million times now and it

still doesn't get any easier it's very

very strange

but um

you know there you go it's easy to

accept award of course

that's very interesting

again again it's just a real i think for

most people it'd be a real surprise that

um someone who is very out there

visually

yeah no absolutely it makes no sense i

understand that myself i tell people it

makes no sense have you ever spoken to

like a therapist about that or anybody

about probably should do yeah

but no it'd probably be quite

interesting to know why i was and and

actually might help me

overcome some fears when it comes to my

anxiety and it does sound very strange

even when i say it makes no sense

um

and it's probably why

maybe i've

you know there's there's been sort of

striving for

not to be in front of the camera

especially with my own stuff is to be

being ob behind it you know i've been

creative director to quite a few brands

now on advisor and

i've gone and helped just been on so

many shoots so i just said i'll come on

as creative director i don't need to be

paid i just wanna i just love being that

creative element to it

gentleman's journal asked me in the raf

and braylon asked me to direct her raf

film loved it absolutely loved not i

wasn't in front and it was they were

like no no we want you to be in front of

me i was like absolutely not i'll direct

it not cast someone else for it who i

think is perfect for it because i'm not

perfect i'm not good enough for that you

know not good enough but i just don't

suit that role so i need someone else in

it again people look at me and go why

would you not want to put yourself in

that because i wasn't i'm not the right

part for it why

just because the concept i've come up

with in my head is not me

for that role i see someone else

it's it's casting you know it's it's

because you think of the greatest role

you know if you think top gun you think

tom cruise what if they had put someone

else in that would that been the success

it would be probably argue no you got

asked to do 50 shades of grey right i

got

it's a kind of a rumor i got i met the

uh met the author and she said we would

love to send you the script because

everything

and i think it might have got got sent

and i i i admit i'd never read the books

and

yeah

i mean they had they had i mean jamie

didn't you know jamie dornan

an awesome actor you know he was a model

i mean he was one you know he was one of

the biggest models

but he wanted to go into acting and he's

a great actor you know he's a very very

star and i there you know if i ever went

you know i won't go into acting but

looking at that i was like i'm not i

couldn't beat jamie

i couldn't be as good as that

he's very very good and then you look at

the other levels of

sort of uh of other actors and you just

think it's not something i was i could i

could learn i could you know sort of

learn to be quite getting it

but i but i could never even you know

be the best at it i also heard about

hercules 300 you were you're on yeah i

mean it's crosstalk i mean you're always

going to be

asked to do stuff like that just from

the physical element of

the way i look and

you know i'm going to be a part in it

but it wasn't anything i was

i've been you know and that i got my

being bonnet about the instagram in and

where what i wanted to achieve in this

so

there's there's always i said there's a

couple of roles that i would play and i

would drop everything to go and play it

and there's just a couple of stories

that i love i've even which ones

one of them is about winston churchill's

bodyguard

uh walter thompson i even found out who

owns the riots to the to it all

and just the most incredible story and

he was originally from epping in

essex

and

yeah winston churchill asked him to come

back in the second world war he used to

be his bodyguard then he stopped and he

came back

and just the most incredible diary you

mentioned the diaries of being winston

churchill's bodyguard wasn't easy yeah

of course fascinating because of course

winston churchill

that uh i can't whether they called his

episodes the black something or other

which we now probably know as bipolar

yeah you know and walter thompson was

the person that protected everyone or

protected him from everyone seeing that

wow so uh yeah just kept everyone away

from seeing

seeing those episodes that no one would

have realized

speaking of um mental health disorders

then um you've you know you're an

ambassador of a men's mental health

charity

we're working with yeah and we're also

working with calm and um

others for the new brand yeah oh amazing

and um your new brand has a

big sort of theme

around men's wellness

and um what does it what i guess the

question is why why did that matter to

you

and this is also why i asked the

question around anxiety because

for you to make it a kind of mental

well-being let's say a central part and

mental wellness are essential part of

your brand

and your mission

one would assume that you've had an

experience with it close to home because

i think

that's one way that people typically

generate a ton of empathy towards the

subject matter is feeling it feeling the

pain of it whether within themselves

within loved ones so what was it for you

that made you care so much about that

i've never suffered from depression

as when i'm very fortunate from as badly

as other people

have and i've witnessed it because i've

dated people

that were then diagnosed with bipolar

and i've seen the extremities of

mental

you know

mental health um

me myself

and i admit it's it's not happened for a

while would go into dark periods

knowing i would snap out of it

eventually

but they were dark but nothing would

nothing would suffice nothing would

cheer you up just

quite in a dark place wanting to be on

my own just not around anyone

wasn't triggered by anything

but just one day i just knew i'd wake up

and it was gone

just a chemical a chemical reaction in

your brains basically

what what it is

and yeah so i've i do understand and i

can spot it in other people as well what

were the symptoms of it for you those

dark periods

the symptoms as a as i said was was just

nothing would make you

you you couldn't snap out of it was

nothing could make you happy or cheerful

you

know you didn't like anyone you didn't

want to be around anyone

um

it's hard to

the feelings are hard to explain

and it was it never got to any point of

seriousness i mean i've seen people

bipolar that will be in a room

for hours on end for days on end

watching the same tv series because that

their safety is watching that tv series

and makes them a little bit happy you

know because of just that safety for

some reason so i've seen i've seen

the real dark side of it and

i've also

from me

dating someone like that

of how hard it is to deal with it

because you always want to try and make

that person better

and you can't in in many many ways

it's you can talk and you have to be you

know it's about just being patient

and listening to people

and trying to get them you know help

professional help there is an element we

you know

i i can only talk about certain around

the point and then it comes to an expert

help that that they have to talk and

that's what calm does you know it's it's

it's allowing people to talk to people

um and there are people that are far

better

people need to listen to people that's

that's the point of it i think there's a

lot of people who

even if

they are talking to people they're not

listening

fortunately

it's never been that bad but i do

understand it do you sleep well no i

heard you hadn't slept well for almost

two decades no never slept well i didn't

sleep when i was a child

but i did was the other way around went

to bed early got ups you know went to

bed you go to bed early and then my

parents just left me being the end i

think they were just so sick of trying

to get me to go to bed because i just

didn't sleep

and i would be doing my homework at

midnight one o'clock in the morning

i still work now i was up till two

o'clock in the morning working last

night and that's another thing when

people go it's grafting or hard work

most people seem a lot of people are

sitting down that half past eight nine

o'clock in front of a tv race go to bed

half past eight i'm going to the gym get

back up online do the shopping on the

way home cook myself some dinner go it

doesn't stop in between is

working on the phone

carrying on you know they'll you know

pop us 10 or open the laptop and get

them with some more work

if you're always grafting as you call it

and it's and you said it doesn't stop

how does one

become happy if they're always striving

if they're always in the future or

did stop jim pandemic

you so you sorry it did stop during the

power during lockdown right yeah you

couldn't my my

behalf the business is my business the

modelling is traveling pretty much at

the end of the day you have to be in

locations

yeah it made you happy when it all

stopped

to financial

you know it affected me financially yeah

and we'd already been infected quite

heavily in this industry by

um you know say the brexit isn't it

the blame of brexit now

it was the uncertainty of brexit so a

lot of brands were not spending money

not marketing money not having not

having budgets

not working with the uk all this stuff

different things also on certain brands

with social media

now of

old school campaigns versus digital

which still hasn't quite fizzled out yet

they don't brands don't quite know where

they are within the marketing world on

how to how to market to people how to

target people so

it's been affected by it

and

you know that all kind of brexit

got signed january whole different world

it was sort of that december january of

what 2020. i was off to milan i was then

going to spain i was then going to

greece i was then going to new york i

was saying back to well i had the

schedule like it used to be going off

out to russia and i've been to russia

was really excited about going to russia

for the first time

in the pandemic yet

everything got cancelled

and you're saying you were happier

during the pandemic probably shouldn't

have been it's not unfortunate i'm very

very fortunate and the fact is that yes

it affected

me financially

but it slowed you down i've invested

well and i've you know it

there's reserves to yeah yeah point this

out but um nice card collection yeah

exactly that's an expensive thing to be

honest um

there's a time probably the only time i

actually probably truly switch off and

there's a week between christmas and new

year

and that's when everyone i mean everyone

virtually everyone

is

not doing anything during that week yeah

and that's a week where

i probably switch off the most

and we always sort of go away a week

later after that because because it

takes time for people to get back and

i suppose there's it's not fear of

missing out it's fear of other people

working and i'm not working i should

always be working and during the

pandemic no one was working how can you

how can how can one be happy with with

their brain saying those things that

that kind of constant nagging to be

doing something or doing more or to be

striving how can that sounds like the

the thief of happiness to me the thief

of happiness that's a good i should be a

book

um probably is

listen i haven't got the answers to that

would you consider yourself to be a

happy person

a positive person

why did you avoid the word happiness i

don't know

completely honest that's something you'd

probably have to ask her

ask a psychologist i don't know happy

person

i'm a positive person and i suppose i am

a happy person in many ways

yes that's right but i so it's just a

definition of what's positive what's

happening is it all the same thing

so in many ways in what ways do you

think you might not be a happy person

again good question i i mean

i am

i'm happy

[Music]

i put myself listen when

i'm in control of what i do now

that's why i always wanted it

anybody my control fair i don't know

the hard work that's

where we've got to has allowed me now to

to be in complete control of what my

destiny of what i want to do

if i want to renovating interiors huge

passion love doing it looks like a

nightmare hard work for other people but

i strive on it

renovating classic cars the same thing

as i said to you earlier

you're halfway through you think why am

i doing this why didn't i just buy a new

car or you know a new

bui the

accomplishment is worth it to me

you know that sense of achievement

that's what i'm striving for

does it ever feel as good when you get

there

yeah it does not for that long but it

does

i can take this

couple of days

yeah it's it's the same feeling as

you know when we if we're going to shoot

light blue or something else and

you have to work hard

you know in the gym to get i'm always in

pretty decent shape but that's

hard work to get in that shape and it's

getting harder the older i get

and

you dedicate a lot and you sacrifice a

lot to

look like that

and then there is that point of we've

shot it we've seen through the pitch it

looks incredible you've achieved it and

there is this

evening

of enjoying that

it's then on to the next thing you know

it's what are we working on not next but

you know one of the other projects that

i'm working on at the time

do you have you found that in your

career

dark episodes where you're where you

feel down sometimes follow high episodes

because there's this really fascinating

thing that i was reading about about

gold medal depression where up to 80 of

um olympians regardless of outcome

regardless of whether they win or they

don't come back from the olympics after

training all of that excruciating effort

and they come back and 80 percent of

them report sort of depressive symptoms

i've read that i don't know where i was

i don't know where i've read that i've

read the same thing and i could actually

resonate with that in in many ways

sometimes actually achieving what what

you want is

a bit it's sometimes the journey is the

exciting bit

which is a weird thing to say

it's we are on this journey of well

where david ghani the brand at the

moment and it is

so much hard work

um tell me about that

that whole inspiration the journey why

why the brand yeah

because it was what i've wanted to

achieve for so long

is have that to me to have your own

brand and i didn't know what it was

going to be

i am a brand you know that's i say that

and it makes me sound like a bit of a

dick no but you are but it is a brand

and that's where people have to realize

you know when i say only sometimes

that that's and then

i would probably say it's 10 years i've

thought yes that's where one day i'd

like to not saying i'm always going to

achieve it but yes from the creative

side to being in control of that brand

i'm always in control from

by other brands even if i'm

collaborating with a brand there is

still an element of control that

that brand has

and

i always thought yeah to be in complete

control complete creative control and

that's a risk i never wanted people to

think because i have a name because i've

been in the fashion industry for so long

i could start a brand now people do now

you know they use social media

one of the one of those elements is you

can start something you can sell it

immediately you've got

fans followers buyers

it's made the marketplace a very

different place so i went back to really

what i did for modeling observation

putting myself in

the situation where i could learn and

that was m s

the collaboration with m s we saw the

david gandy loungewear no one was doing

loungewear this was

what are we talking about the concept

it was about six seven seven and a half

years ago seven years ago lounge lounge

where it wasn't a big concept it wasn't

it wasn't something that people thought

about um and of course we did sleepwear

and t-shirts and everything else but it

was loungewear that really took off and

became the third biggest lounge in the

country and was successful

and it had

you know

60 to me in that brand as in what i

wanted to achieve on that brand but of

course you couldn't get that last 40

because that was mns and i knew where i

wanted to go i knew what needed to be

done

but i couldn't

push it any further than i sort of could

so that ended and then the pandemic

hit and and locked down

and one of my greatest friends charlie t

who has listened to me

talk far too long about wanting to start

my own thing and

he started his own branding

agency

to do exactly what i wanted

and he said well listen i've started

this now you can be our first client but

we're not talking about this anymore

we've got the time i've you know as my

best friend who knows i'm never really

around it's i've got you here

we work together i've gone i've got you

in the country we've got time let's

start it what's your long-term vision

then for

well where

what's that what's the term what's it

gonna become five ten years from now

i'd never really tell people where i've

got in my head where something is going

hopefully going to be and there are

small steps just you know to where we

haven't even you know properly launched

yeah yeah the first ship and goes out on

22nd of october um

but we wanted to do something different

with well where we wanted to

to the essence of me it was

understanding and we're calling it sort

of well we're well-being

why clothing why does some clothing make

you feel positive and confident

why do some not

and we looked at

we the studies done by amsterdam

university and i think it was a

scientific you know element of

if we put

students in comfortable confident

clothing they're confident that's

comfortable and soft their results are

better than other people who are in

uncomfortable clothing and they don't

feel as confident at all that's going in

the same with business

it was now why the banks the big banks

are saying you don't have to wear suits

anymore because actually a lot of people

are more positive they're a lot more

open to work with they're a lot calmer

it's oxytonin it's the same thing as

feeling

the ridiculously you know soft pillow or

puppy that softness that soft jumper

can't you know that that thing you hold

on to is oxitone it's released into your

brain it's a positive positive move and

that's what we wanted to do with and we

looked into this and

you know there was a side to me that was

fascinated by the element of it but i've

always wondered why do i

why do i hold on to that pair of jeans

until

my ass is falling out the end of it and

i would try and find that pair again

when i can't find that pair

and

why am i wearing those sweatshirts

because

well it was

one for comfort and that is an element

of lots of things in the materials

the breathability the style you still

gotta look stylish in it it makes you

feel confident the fit

that's why at the end of the day

that's why it was never to me about

being trendy it was being confident and

so many guys said to me

what do i do what do i wear here what

are you confident in

and then we've thought about every

element

of the sweatshirts and the hoodies and

the t-shirts of comfort level of style

of fit of quality of well-wear breathe

well wear care we've

put these elements into um

they're washed into the clothing that is

aloe vera so pyjamas are moisturizing

you whilst your sleep anti-inflammatory

we've got well-wear breathe and you know

sort of anti-bacterial elements of it

which is

another element of

we're looking at fast fashion

fast fashion can be an addiction and

people don't realize this addiction

that you get a buzz from shopping but

actually you can be

hugely affected knowing the impact of

fast fashion on the environment actually

when that clothing lasts a week

two weeks i was exaggerating it last you

know but it can do some some people wear

it once and chuck it away yeah it's

actually it can negatively impact you

okay so there's a new

segment to this podcast we do

what we do is we ask our previous guest

to leave a question for our next guest

and um i've not read this question yet

but i've just read it then as i said

this um so i'm going to ask you this

question asked by someone that was sat

in this the chair before you okay

they told me to ask you

what do you promise to do

to make our world a better place

okay can i have an easier question

let me hit this right yeah yeah two

weeks before yeah

just uh yeah let's let's take it back to

hopefully

promise to do um

there's a number of things i do for

number charities but we won't talk about

that and they're not promises but i

suppose the promises from well where to

make people smile yeah

to bring to bring back some

the positivity that i think is needed

somewhere and i think we're with in this

polarized world that we are in

is just to

say [ __ ] it we're just going to make

people smile

and and and have a laugh with everything

that we do and and i think you uh you

can't put a magic value on that so

that's what i promised to try and do

over the years of well we're perfect

amazing thank you so much and you're

gonna have to write in the book now as

well okay a question for someone else

but listen david thank you so much for

your time it's such an incredibly

inspiring and twisting story of yours

and to see where you are now and taking

on this this next adventure in business

i find incredibly exciting the

entrepreneur me is fascinated by by that

and i understand the challenge of that

so

yeah well thank you for having me

i wish i could have yeah you put out

some good some good questions i probably

might need to no i could answer that's

what i think i want to do i just always

want to pry but i pry because i'm

curious and because i'm like fascinated

by those topics myself it's like there's

nothing written down here that's telling

me to speak on those terms but yeah it's

so fascinating and you also your level

of self-awareness i think is just really

inspiring for a lot of people

i i think it's something it's just

there's a therapeutic thing to

talking of course i mean men don't do it

we're useless um

that's mental health they wanted to know

is people asking you talking yeah that's

what i'm saying a lot of people don't

actually listen yeah um a lot of talking

about yourself a lot of people talking

about themselves at the moment so

there's a therapeutic side to this yeah

exactly for me as well you know that's

what that's actually how it started it

was like it was like therapy for me

because i was doing on my own going

through my diary and just you know but

um it's it's honestly amazing and thank

you so much for giving us that story

because it's um such an inspiring one

thank you thank you

quick one as you probably know by now

i'm trying to make my life a little bit

more sustainable and i consider myself

to be on a bit of a sustainability

journey in the same way that i'm on a

health journey and it's a privilege to

be able to share that with all of you

and you you'll know if you've listened

to the last podcast that i traded in my

range over sport in for an electric

bicycle which is now my only vehicle and

next year hopefully i'll have my

electric car too if tesla hurry up with

a cyber truck and that's where my energy

comes into my life and my sort of

sustainability journey it makes your

life if you are on that sustainability

journey 10 times easier this is one of

their if you can't see this i'm holding

in my hand if you're listening on

spotify or apple this is one of their

renewable energy products if you're

watching on youtube you'll you'll see

this this is called the harvey it's this

very clever little device that allows

the zappy and the eddy which i've talked

about before on this podcast to be

installed into your home without hard

wiring or without batteries or without

those um god-awful transformers that a

lot of people have in their house it's

basically a tiny device that's going to

save you both time and money and for

someone like me who doesn't have loads

of time on our hands it's a real life

saver if you're looking to make a

conscious switch and you need a quick

fix that's going to save you a load of

time then head over to myenergy.com to

see this product and many many more

[Music]

[Music]

you