Man Up – Man Down

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 Stuff, Cancer Research UK, and Disney.  Having spent the last seven years in the not-for-profit sector, he is now a respected thought leader in the men’s mental health and fatherhood field and was awarded Judges Choice at The Social Entrepreneur of the Year Index.  Dad La Soul has invested more than ten thousand hours in partnering with tech innovators, co-working spaces, local authorities, university research teams, youth music charities and social housing providers to help tackle these issues from the inside out.   Dan

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 turmoil marked by questioning, confusion, disconnect and a sense of suffocation in both her professional and personal life. Overwhelmed by these emotions, she reached a breaking  and calmly decided to deploy the emergency slide, exiting her established path, with no whistle, life vest or light for attracting attention. However it wasn’t the instant relief she expected. She then totally fell apart – emotionally drained, burnt out, and mentally battered. In this episode we discussed her journey – how hitting 40, resulted in her questioning what she was doing

    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!

Wow. Wow. Wow. David and I have done it. We made it through 30 episodes in season 1 and are well on track for recording of season 2. We recorded some fantastic episodes (if we may say so), and great guests. Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support, love and taking the time to be on our podcast. Thanks also to Welldoing for being a partner and sponsor. We couldn’t do it without you. We will be taking a short break in the summer and we are back in September. Watch this space!

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, including: Relationships where sex has stopped. Where there are differences in levels of desire. Conflicting sexual interests. Problems relating to sexual functioning, such as vaginal pain or erectile difficulties. These issues often arise due to life changes, such as pregnancy, birth, bereavement, illness, and ageing. However, sometimes couples do not have any such specific problems, they just want to have better sex! From Albertina’s point of view, it is better to discuss sex in correlation with a relationship, and have both partners in the therapy room at the time room. Usually there is something that doesn’t work, and that’s why men

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 Documentary film maker. An accomplished speaker for audiences of 50-2000 and stuff like that.  David and Volker went through his programme to slow down their eating. The course, Slow the Fork Down, can be booked on Matt’s website with a 50% discount for Man Up / Man Down listeners.  Just follow the link. Take control of your relationship with food. No diets. No punitive rules. You are how you eat [not just what you eat]. Matt works a lot in design for medical devices and does consulting for bigger

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 about what his life should look like. Having had several burn-outs, he decided that his life needed to be more balanced. But that was easier said than done. The more Oli explored it, interviewing over 1,000 people for his book, Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, he realised we can’t balance work and life. But that’s not what we should actually be aiming for. A bold statement.  Oli believes that work and life

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 movement helps challenge loneliness for men and women across the UK. Although many of the meeting spaces aren’t actually sheds – with venues varying from disused morgues, to chicken farms to abandoned industrial sites. So what is the theory behind the sheds? As Charlie explains – if you put six men in a room and ask them to talk, nothing really happens. However if you put a broken lawnmower in the middle of the room and some tools, it’s not long before the conversation is

  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 their children”.  Ben was obviously upset and planned his revenge. He waited for a little while, called the teacher at home, and left threats on her answering machines, in a voice that he didn’t think the teacher would recognise. Unfortunately she did, and 10 year old Ben was arrested and put in a cell. At that point he was told that he doesn’t have any hope in life. The minute he went to secondary school, everyone knew

g   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 ‘just having problems’. Mick always had challenges with spelling and writing from an early age but just accepted it and tried to work around them. When his son was diagnosed with dyslexia 7 years ago, Mick felt that he could relate to a ot of the symptoms. As a result he had an assessment himself and was diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD. For him it was a huge relief, understanding why there are certain elements of life that he