When business is tight and you owe six people money you can't pay, it stops being a merry-go-round and becomes a spiral. Andrew Lindsay knows and in part two he tells us how he got off it.

Andrew founded Mod Shoes and the 66 Clothing label, has served over 100,000 customers, DJs, plays in bands, and has been through the kind of business pressure most men never talk about. This is the part where it gets real.

In this episode of Inspired Men Talk, hosts Gary Johannes and Peter Ely talk with Andrew about:

• Why moving house, changing your workspace, or simply getting dressed for work can shift your mental state
• The "race to the bottom" how to recognise a financial spiral before it takes you down with it
• Pride, and why it stops men asking for help until it's too late
• Using AI as a sounding board when there's no one else to talk to at 2am
• The family story of a grandad, a transistor, and why dismissing new technology is a mistake
• Music as mental health, why The Beatles, punk and a dancefloor full of strangers still matter
• Andrew's advice for anyone looking out the window and seeing clouds on a sunny day

If you're a man running a business, carrying debt, or just carrying too much on your own, this one's for you. You're not broken. There is a way forward.

Haven't heard part one? Start here:

Find Andrew: 66clothing.com | modshoes.co.uk

Inspired Men Talk is brought to you by Inspired to Change. Gary Johannes is a solution-focused hypnotherapist, senior lecturer and founder of Inspired to Change. Peter Ely is an ITC associate practitioner specialising in men's mental health.

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Timestamps
00:00 Welcome back
01:00 Moving house, changing scenery, and why physical movement matters
04:00 Live to work or work to live?
09:00 The grandad, the transistor, and AI
13:00 Every generation thinks the old days were better
18:30 Music, The Beatles and why it brings people together
22:45 Advice for men when business is hard: "get off the spiral"
26:30 Pride, friends, and talking it through
28:15 About 66 Clothing and Mod Shoes

#MensMentalHealth #InspiredMenTalk #BusinessStress #SmallBusinessUK #ModShoes #66Clothing #MentalHealthPodcast #SolutionFocusedHypnotherapy #MenTalking

Andy Lindsay built Mod Shoes from a search term into a business turning over millions during lockdown. Then the sales fell off a cliff, the rent and rates didn't, and for six months he thought he was going to lose everything.

In Part 1 of this episode of Inspired Men Talk, Gary Johannes and Peter Ely sit down with Andy, founder of Mod Shoes and 66 Clothing, to talk about what that time was really like behind the brave face.

The duck paddling like mad under the water. The six weeks where, in his own words, he "wasn't in a good place." And the moment things started to shift.

We get into:

• Why you can't see the wood for the trees when you're panicking, and what happens when you step back
• "Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity" and what running a smaller business actually feels like
• Adapting to change instead of fighting it, from the internet to AI
• Using AI as an 11pm thinking partner when you can't ring a mate
• How physically moving cleared out the mental baggage too
• Why dogs, routine and getting out of the house matter more than you think
• The one question Andy asks himself when everything feels like it's going south

This is a conversation about business, but really it's a conversation about men's mental health. Because whoever is holding it all together needs a clear head to do it, and nobody gets one of those by pretending everything's fine.

Part 2 is out next week.

Inspired Men Talk is a podcast about men's mental health that sounds like real life. Real people, real stories, and the one thing we've seen time and time again: there's always a way back.

Gary Johannes is a solution-focused hypnotherapist and founder of Inspired to Change. Peter Ely is a clinical hypnotherapist based in London.

Find Andy at 66 Clothing and Mod Shoes.

#MensMentalHealth #InspiredMenTalk #Hypnotherapy #SmallBusiness #MentalHealth

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:00 Meet Andy Lindsay
04:30 From web design to Mod Shoes
05:45 "There were some awful times"
08:00 The brave face and the paddling duck
09:30 Adapt or get left behind
13:30 Finding your magic
17:00 How Andy got through the six months
18:30 AI at 11 o'clock at night
19:30 Six weeks in a bad place
20:00 Moving house, clearing out
22:00 A little bit of shine

YouTube show notes

Part two of our conversation with Nathan Hinckley.

In part one we heard how Nathan got here. In part two we get to the harder question: why is he still doing it?

At 21, Nathan ran 12 marathons in 12 days. It started as proving something to people who'd made him feel rejected. Then somewhere around day ten, running on empty, he worked out something most people take another thirty years to learn, they congratulate you for a week, then it goes quiet, and you're back where you started.

So he stopped running for them.

This episode is about what replaces external validation when it finally stops working. Nathan talks about day five: 106 laps of a 400-metre track, five hours' sleep, throwing up all morning, alone at a track with nobody watching. And what broke him open, a short video from the charity telling him to keep going.

He also says the thing we didn't expect a fitness guy to say: he learned more from talking than from any of the runs. His advice to anyone still trying to prove themselves is to have the conversation first, not the extreme challenge.

Gary and Peter add their own versions of doing it backwards, a £250 bet and a bike ride across Vietnam with no training, and an Ironman signed up for on Facebook before Peter had even looked up what one was.

Bloody-mindedness gets you to the start line. It doesn't get you well.

In this episode:

• 00:00 — What's actually driving you now?
• 00:52 — "They congratulate you, and then it all goes quiet"
• 02:26 — How to find out what you actually enjoy
• 04:30 — Talk first. Run later.
• 05:06 — Gary's Vietnam bike ride and a £250 bet
• 06:00 — Peter's Ironman: post first, Google second
• 08:17 — Young people, peer leaders and a dedicated mindset
• 10:24 — When the plan you built your life on disappears
• 12:10 — Day five: 106 laps and nobody watching
• 13:28 — Why being cheered on changes what your body can do
• 14:15 — The lonely chapter
• 16:02 — Run club: two people, every Saturday
• 16:42 — Where to find Nathan
• 17:55 — Paris to London — 100km a day, three days, for Movember

Find Nathan:
Instagram: @nathanhinckley_ | @hinckleyfitness
Hinckley Harriers run club - Wednesdays 7pm, Saturdays 9am
Personal training at [gym name / location]

Next challenge: Paris to London with Louis O'Farrell, 100km a day for three days, raising awareness for Movember and men's mental health.

Inspired Men Talk is hosted by Gary Johannes and Peter Ely — two hypnotherapists having the conversations men usually avoid.

If this one landed, subscribe and share it with someone who's still trying to prove something to people who aren't watching.

#InspiredMenTalk #MensMentalHealth #Running #Movember #Hypnotherapy #MentalHealthAwareness