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