ed sheeran - green friday - why climb everest?

wow.

that was a big week.

lots of exciting bigmoose shenanigans, including two public talks, in london and cardiff, and betty has started eating solids.

her first taste of anything other than her mummy’s milk was sweet potato, blended smooth, and she took to it like the proverbial duck to o2, i have alerted oxford and cambridge universities, she’s obviously bound for one of them.

i’ve also got back writing my book, which i started five years ago, and haven’t written a word for three, that’s pretty big writers block right there 😂 but inspired by my mate craig from kinging it i dusted off volume one and typed, not a lot, but i typed, which is psychological as well as physical progress.

then there was yesterday, and two talks, one in the morning in london, and one in the evening in cardiff, a slightly challenging prospect, for a number of reasons, one being the amount of emotional energy i seem to expend telling the bigmoose story to audiences is exhausting, and to attempt to be able to recover, drive back from our central london venue to basecamp, bigmoose coffee co, was always going to be challenging, and if i was advising me, i would categorically say don’t do it.

but i often push myself hard, not to see if i break, but probably as i self diagnose here (is that couch free? 😂) to see what i can cope with, and this morning feels like the morning after a big ice hockey game for me, where your mind and body are somewhat battered, but the result has gone your way, making you smile on the inside of your face.

london was an audience of roughly twenty five, all ceo’s and md’s which my trawling of linkedin resulted in me spotting some extremely big fish, which heightened the self induced pressure, but i chose to spin it that the bigger the fish the bigger the opportunity, to tell our story, and possibly move them into taking action to join us on our adventure.

i started my newly updated slide deck, sprinkled with pictures of mountain porn and the aroma of freshly baked statistics wafting across the room, and they made the fatal mistake, they laughed at my jokes, and as i write this my mind drifts back to dusky school classrooms, and sweaty ice hockey dressing rooms, where i used humour to, let’s be honest here, probably get attention, and man if you laughed we were off to the races, classic behaviour for a single parent child the therapists among you nod in unison like eminem as he sings will the real slim shady please stand up, please stand up.

anybody that talks to an audience of any kind will know that keeping them entertained and engaged is paramount, and smiles and knowing nods at the appropriate times show that things are going ok, so as i finished my almost 90 minutes of storytelling with the last slide showing the number of referrals, graduates, and people saved from suicide this year (271, 102, 16) there had been no sleepers or sneaky or blatant looks at phones, which is always good, and i felt a warmth from the faces that looked back at me, and as i packed away my mini apple store i was approached by a young man, who wanted to donate a thousand pounds to project 1 million, which was extremely generous, and was a very raw way of measuring whether with words and pictures i had managed to connect on an emotional level with him and the room.

i have this morning woken up to two emails wishing to discuss how these captains of industry can weave bigmoose into the fabric of their businesses, and this is the really exciting bit, building relationships, from a zero start, which with some energy and passion can go and grow anywhere, exciting huh?

thank you stephen waddington for trusting me, and giving me this opportunity.

as dawn breaks this crisp winter morn, so the bins do call, i’ll be back.

sorted.

so, as i bid farewell to the city that brought me up, and head to the second city i’ve lived in, i listen to the high performance podcast, with angela ruggiero as their guest, which is a very interesting listen, for me especially as she is a former ice hockey player, and lots of her stories resonated, and she talks a lot about focusing on the process not the outcome, which helps alleviate fear i find, and i use regularly to eliminate becoming overwhelmed by the big stuff, give it a try.

as i cross the bridge, i am nearly home.

pit stop, hoover up some carbs, hydrate, and back on it.

the bigmoose coffee shop is a home game for me, so in theory it should be easier in the comfort of a home crowd, in a familiar environment, but theory ain't reality.

i share the bill with amy wadge, and her husband alun, who are the main course, and i am pragmatic enough to know that the reason this event sold out weeks ago wasn’t to see and hear this 59 year old, bald raconteur, i was merely an hors d’oeuvre, savoury nonetheless.

what a great epitaph.

amy is a songwriter, and has written with a who’s who of artists, including winning a grammy with ed sheeran for the 2015 song of the year 'thinking out loud’ her wiki is literally astounding, please be astounded with me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Wadge

to heighten my senses even more, we had at least six referrals in the audience, which challenged my sensitivity, but also played a role in what i felt ended up being a somewhat surreal, but very successful evening, our tiny backstreet coffee shop never fails to amaze me with what it manages to do, and as one of our graduates messaged me today, it’s “magical”.

as i head off to navigate another black friday, if you want change the colour to green, maybe subscribe to our monthly donation plan, and a huge thank you to the people that signed up last week and the week before, your generosity is helping pay our therapists, the results of which are phenomenal, thanks team.

https://www.bigmoosecharity.co/donate-monthly

as i think about signing off today, i think about george mallory’s famous quote when asked why climb everest, to which he replied simply “because it’s there”, and using a similar formula i just questioned why people want to help others, and think the answer is simply “because we can.”

have a great week ahead, make a difference, and enjoy the adventure,

thanks for reading,

blue skies,

jeff