Man Up / Man Down

Marc Convey’s story is one of the most inspiring tales you are likely to hear – it certainly was for us. Despite suffering life-altering injuries from a devastating fire, at the age of 14, when he was given a 3% chance of survival Marc's strength and determination have turned him into a beacon of hope worldwide. He shares his story and insights as a powerful speaker, promoting mental health,...

This is a topic that David and Volker have discussed quite a bit in private, so felt it was finally time to record a conversation for the podcast. We discussed how you deal with your “babies” becoming young adults. David’s youngest child starts secondary school in September, so he’s busy checking out local schools. It’s a stark indicator that the children are growing up fast. Volker’s sons are now...

John-Paul Davies is an experienced therapist running a full-time private practice from his home in Cobham, Surrey. However, he made this change having worked as a solicitor in the City of London for the first half of his career.   While working in the legal profession, John-Paul began experiencing severe anxiety, so decided to seek therapy. Discovering the positive effect it had on him, John-...

This was a special episode as it was the very first time David and Volker had recorded an episode in the same room. But we also had four guests. With us were Nathan and Gavin who run Talkclub in Haywards Heath. Talkclub is a about getting men together to talk and listen. This is an organisation that was set up (by another Gavin) after one of their friends committed suicide. Often, suicide can be p...

Ruth Devlin's career in the health and wellbeing sector started over 30 years ago as a registered nurse, training in Edinburgh. She is passionate about taking a holistic approach to health, which is reflected during talks or when giving treatments as a reflexologist.   She founded Let’s Talk Menopause in 2012 and works across all sectors providing informative talks. She is the...

Dan Flanagan is the Founder @ Dad La Soul - an award-winning social enterprise that exists to orchestrate a revolution in the way that the stories and struggles of the 6 million dads in the UK are seen, heard, and supported. Dans’ career spans 20 + years working across a range of start-up and multinational media agencies, creating campaigns for brands including Barclaycard, LG (UK), The White Stuf...

Gill Caleary's career spanned 18 years in the highly competitive realms of retail and airports. Throughout her journey, she worked in senior commercial position for various organisations such as M&S and group owned and independent UK airports. As a female professional, she often found herself as the only woman at the table. However, at the age of around 39, Gill experienced unavoidable internal tu...

Hello all, After a (we think) well deserved break, we are back with season 2! A very exciting journey ahead, with lots of interesting guests and solo episodes lined up.  Thanks for over 4,000 downloads of season 1. First guest episode going live next week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the wrap up of Season 1 of Man Up / Man Down. Thank you to all our guests. We had a lot of fun, and we now have big plans for Season 2. Enjoy this episode and hear you again in September for Season 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Albertina Fisher is the co-founder of Revive Sex and Relationship Therapy. Albertina specialises in psychosexual and relationship therapy, working with people from all backgrounds, sexual and gender orientations, relationship types, and disabilities. She helps individuals and couples with sexual concerns and relationship issues. Albertina has particular skills in working with sexual problems, incl...

We met Matt Pattison when he put a post out about a course on mindful eating on Leapers . Matt is the founder of TEN - The Experience Network / Anatomy HCD & MeetingProof. He describes himself as: A Mentor/Consultant to many - mid-tier Managers to Vice Presidents/Board members. Primarily on matters of Design, Strategy and Entrepreneurship. A Chartered Human Factors specialist. A Presenter and Docu...

We welcome experienced founder and CEO, Ollie Henderson, who pivoted his career while juggling the pleasures and pressures of raising a young family. Living in North London with his 3 kids and family, he used to run a digital agency. That’s how Volker and Ollie got to know each other. Finding he needed a change, he exited the business in 2020. Not knowing what he wanted to do, he started writing a...

Charlie Bethel is Chief Officer of the UK Men's Sheds Association, an organisation that supports community spaces across the UK for men to 'Do Stuff'. What does ‘Do Stuff’ mean? Woodwork, metal work, electronics... basically making, fixing, upcycling. What does this achieve? 96% reduction in loneliness 75% reduction in anxiety 89% reduction in depression   With over 1,000 “Sheds” in the UK, the mo...

In today’s episode we welcome Benjamin May, the founder of the charity The New Normal. Another highly inspirational tale for a number of reasons. Ben didn’t have the most positive start in life. He was expelled from school at the age of 10 and ended up with a criminal record. Ben’s parents were getting a divorce and one of his teachers cruelly told him that “parents who get a divorce, don’t love t...

Mick is the founder and CEO of Yodel Mobile, one of the world's leading app marketing agencies.  Despite founding several successful businesses and winning industry awards, Mick was diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD at the age of 54, back in March 2022. Back when he was in school in the 1980s, he was tested for behavioural ‘problems’ by the local authority, but didn’t receive a diagnosis other than...

This week’s episode was a special one for a number of reasons. Mainly because we welcomed Louise Chunn, the founder of our sponsor Welldoing .  Secondly, we wanted to mark the fact that it’s Mental Health Awareness Week. And obviously we talk about mental health on here A LOT!  Thirdly, David was in Portugal for a stag do, so was living the digital native dream. Recording from Home 2, the nicest c...

In this episode we welcomed Joe Horton from Guild of Dads. Joe set up the Guild of Dads podcast and brotherhood for dads in 2020 after he went through a period of great personal change and upheaval in his own life after his dads’ passing.  He now coaches and mentors other professional men and dads who are at the midway point of life - to navigate this tricky time with greater balance, purpose, and...

This episode was recorded back in February, the day before David and his family visited David’s dad. Sadly it was the last time David’s wife and children saw him. However, on that day, which was the last opportunity for David to have a coherent conversation with his Dad, following some suggestions from Steve, David got to know a few things about his father’s childhood, which helped strengthen thei...

This week we were joined by Andy Delderfield, the founder of Alcohol Free Runners. Although Andy and David only met a  little over a year ago through one of the co-founders of Oner Year No Beer, they immediately hit it off and made a firm  friendship.  Andy’s story is that having travelled and finally settled in Spain, he began to enjoy the ex-pat lifestyle a little bit too much - spending the wee...

Jason is a former CMO of a multi billion dollar global media business who decided to completely change his life as he approached his 50th birthday. Fed up with his lacklustre energy and lifestyle Jason embraced health & fitness. In a remarkable personal transformation, Jason lost 20kg in weight, while self correcting several ailments and gaining a lust for life he hadn’t experienced since his teen...

We welcomed Roei Samuel who founded two companies, RealSport which got acquired and then Connectd. RealSport grew to a community of over 8 million monthly unique users across UK, USA & Australia and was acquired in 2018. After spending time as an investor, he realised that  many of the frustrations he felt as a founder were also true as an investor and start-up advisor. There was a distinct lack o...

This episode was definitely a sensitive subject to touch on but one that our guest, Andy Barham, dealt with, with grace and humour.  When we started the podcast, the goal was to raise awareness of topics that men are embarrassed to speak about. Erectile Dysfunction is definitely one of those topics. Andy Barham was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Thankfully he caught it early and beat it after hav...

Beau Marksohn joined us for an episode on body dysmorphia and eating disorders. He was born and raised in NYC and grew up in a household of severe abuse and neglect. As a result of this he struggled from the age of five from feeling insecure in his body.  He was always scared as a kid growing up, never felt safe, never felt any sense of consistency and never felt loved. As a result of all of this...

We are all over social media, and feel like we have to be. FOMO, the fear of missing out, we are constantly connected and compare ourselves with others. Volker had been on a social media detox for a few weeks at time of recording. However, he went back to ‘stalking’ others and finds it rather boring now to scroll other people’s images and show offs, if deliberate or not. At time of recording he sa...

In this episode we spoke to William Porter who is the author of Alcohol Explained and other books on addiction. We recorded this episode just before Christmas, when you couldn’t avoid the advertising and association of alcohol to fun and celebration. Similar to Volker, William started drinking and smoking when he was 14 years old which escalated during his military and law career. But why would yo...