Everything that people said, well, you're lucky to work with Dolce and Varna. And I can say, I wasn't luck. It was strategy. What's that imposter voice saying is going to be found out? Good question, I suppose. Do you have inscuracies? Yeah, of course I do. Has that ever had an impact on you?
I never believed my own height. Very easy once you see yourself in articles and winning awards and everyone's telling you how amazing you are. But I suppose I never really did. I didn't fit in particularly well and I've seen the extremities of mental health. Me and myself going to dark periods where nothing would suffice, nothing would cheer you up. If you haven't got a thick skin, you shouldn't be in this game.
David Gandy. At one point he was one of the highest paid male models in the entire world. A beautiful, beautiful man. And so hearing that and seeing how beautiful he is would understandably make you assume a lot of things about him.
But what you're going to hear today is that those things are wrong and that you should never judge a book by its cover. How is it possible that someone that looks like David Gandy can describe themselves as having imposter syndrome, being low in confidence?
and waiting to be found out. He's now become an entrepreneur. He's focused on launching his brand new brand, David Gandhi Wellware, and he's taking on a completely different industry. It's crazy, because when you open people's diaries, you never know what you'll find. And what I found in David's today was truly fascinating, unexpected, vulnerable, and extremely, surprisingly relatable. So without further ado, I'm Stephen Bartlett.
And this is the Diaries CEO. I hope nobody's listening. But if you are, then please keep this to yourself.
There's a lot of very beautiful people in the world, right? But they don't manage to achieve what you've achieved across multiple disciplines, whether it's within your modeling career, which is incredibly competitive space to play and one with shrouded with huge amounts of uncertainty, or whether it's now in business with what you're doing with your brands there and your investments. So my question is, what is it about you in your sort of self-diagnosis that has made
you rise to the top in those pursuits. That's it. Good question. And also, where did it come from? These, as one says, is probably the modeling one to start off with. And that was, I questioned why men weren't in the same position as the female supermodels. And you had the equivalent of the male supermodels at the time, and you always have that. But they were never to that level.
of fame, of, you know, sort of financial rewards of, as the female supermodels. And I questioned that, that was all. And thought, is there a possibility? Is there almost, I suppose, a gap in the market? The first five years, no one actually realized is that, I really didn't do that much for the first five or six years. It was, you know, of course we didn't struggle when it was a lot of, you know, sort of, catalogue work.
Earning really good money wasn't what I wanted to do, but they got to work with, you know, like Sir Chrissy Jones and Naomi Campbell and those people and I literally just observed them and asked them questions and sort of got the answers that I wanted and I realised that it was a business for them.
They had great teams. They had great agencies. They had PRs and PAs. It was run as a business. And then you had the guys who were the top of the fashion at the time. It wasn't a business for them. It was a lovely way of making a living. And they would feel very fortunate to be there.
some of the time, not even admitting that they were models, they were in advertising or marketing. There's a lot of people we used to say. And I just used the female platform and I went to head of my agency, Tandy Anson, and said, I don't want to do this commercial work anymore.
It doesn't satisfy me. It's not when she said, what do you want to do? I said, if I'm going to do this, I want to be the best at it. And she said, right, literally from tomorrow, say this million times, you have to stop all that commercial work because you have to be perceived then as in a total different light to get to where you want to be. So every bit of that work. And I said, we're in very good money.
Just quit everything. We said no to all the campaign, no to all the catalogs. And she said to me, in a position, that's what most models are dreaming of, earning what, not dreaming of. But they see yours as an enviable position. I said, it's just not what I want to do. I'm not happy doing it. So to me, I had nothing to lose because I wouldn't have carried on.
So we then started building up this other perception of me within the fashion industry, not the catalogue model, not the commercial model, but editorial, a bit more sort of fashion based. And that's when we instigated a meeting with Dolce & Gabbana. And that's when I did their campaign, the campaign led to light blue. And light blue was to me a tick in the box for them to achieve what I wanted to achieve.
And it was phenomenal success, and it still is. But that was what I needed. That was the platform, pretty much from there. And then we could put the team together to say, where do you want to be in three years? Where's the next three years after that? Where do you want to achieve them? I'm a big believer in having goals. Not always having to achieve them. Things change.
I'm a big believer in having goals, so you know roughly where you want to end up at something. And then game is a life is like a game of chess and you're moving pieces to get to that checkmate to where you want to be. And often it diverts and you have to have different tactics, but you have to have the ambition to know the exact point to where you want to be. Of course, and you get there and being a
maybe an entrepreneur or a typical person I am, then I'm on to the next thing and not particularly satisfied. I've achieved that, so what's the next achievement? Where do you go from there? What role do you think luck has played? As you view your journey in hindsight, everyone, especially very successful people, will always have a different relationship with luck. What role do you think luck has played in your journey and however you would define luck?
annoys me if someone says, you're very lucky. And I feel like I have to go on this statement and go, hang on, let me just tell you about that. You haven't seen the hard work that's gone in it. And I realize that gets you nowhere. So listen, I was fortunate to be born like I am six foot two in the frame I have with the way I look. And people perceive that as
They, the way they do and it's, you can make money from that. Hugely fortunate. But as you said before, there are a lot of good looking people. There are a lot of beautiful people. I have admitted myself against my agency. There are 25 better looking guys on that board. There are 50 better models. I've just cast 10 of them for my brand. They're better models than me. They're better spokespeople than me. I was fortunate to be in that position, but then you say, you make your own lucky,
maybe you do. So everything that people said, well, you're lucky to work with Dolce & Gabbana. And I can say, well, let me tell you how the story of how we went to meet Dolce & Gabbana, how we instigated that. That wasn't luck. It was strategy.
And it was not my, I think at the time, everyone's going, you are a man, you are a raffler, and you are a man, you are a raffler. And it was Tandy Anson who said, you are dulching a man, you are dulching a man, and they didn't listen to anyone else. You are dulching. It was her genius that said, and then instigated this meeting with them.
And then through that, and working with Tan, and working with Select, everything we've achieved is strategy. It's gone out. It's like, think, what do you want to achieve? What's your goal? And it just doesn't just happen. Yes, there's certain opportunities that come around that people approach you. But we approach a lot of people with our ideas, and we approach from people who would love to do this. You know, M&S. It was us who wanted
to do that collaboration. And I wanted to do it with one of the biggest British institutions that everyone knows and everyone has a great thing that I wanted to do with M&S. We had lots of different brands approach us. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to do it with M&S.
And that, again, looked at, we didn't start off by adjusting in collaboration and, you know, a huge deal. It was, I had to model for two years with them, prove that I could sell, prove that I could work with MNS. Then we talked about collaboration, then we would move on and, you know, then they trusted me. But it's not a finger-click, you know, it's... Yeah, it's because the way that luck, those moments, the amazing collaboration, that amazing email that comes out of nowhere in hindsight, because it appears to have come out of nowhere,
Um, it always appears in hindsight, like look, and I've got my own story, you know, examples from my story where when I was 18, 19 years old, I went on LinkedIn and typed in investor. The first person like came up, I emailed him and invested in my company. People think, you know, they say you got lucky, right? And I'm like, well, you know, again, it's what, to what you said about the story, well, look at the email, it was sent at three a.m. And I show it on stage. I'm like, I then remove the timestamp and I'm like, I was up at three a.m.
thinking about emailing people. So for me, action and what you describe there is that smart strategic work is just increasing probability that you might get what people call luck. And in that moment with Dolce and Cabana, when you form that partnership with them, how pivotal was that for you and the trajectory of your career in real terms? Light blue is the reason I'm here. The famous commercial.
But again, you could look back to that that when I came into modeling the circle of the fashion world at that stage of what was seen as fashionable was the small androgynous skinny guy. Now I'm over six foot two. I was quite skinny when I came in, but I built up and I just got bigger. And everyone else said, you need to get smaller. You need to fit in. You need to, you're too big. You're getting too big.
But that's where I was happiest. I wasn't doing it for a reason. I was always playing sport. I want to continue. I couldn't play sporting once. I was in the gym and it was, you know, to have a good physique and be healthy was the way I was happiest in my head, in my well-being.
That's what I did. And in a way, I just looked at the models in Titan, betquests in Titan, Blue, and Paul Skoll for, and all these different people that were the Levi's guys, the famous Levi's ads that we used to look at, and the Ralph Lauren guys, I was like, they're all big, muscular, classically handsome guys, and they were the biggest in the industry. So I just thought, this has got to come around at one point.
So when it actually came round to that creative for light blue, of course, there was a smaller pop, because everyone had followed each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there was me and we'd just done the campaign with Dolce & Gabbana and then we went to do light blue. But that the day it came out, it just changed everything. I mean, literally changed everything. And I hate when people say that.
was went from that campaign going out in the afternoon, phone not stopping. And I think I went to New York and my agencies caught up and just said, we've got the telegraph, the times, the mirror, they all want to speak to, they all want to have an interview with you. And we didn't have PRs at that point. And this was, I was like, okay, how does this work? Very green about it all, but exciting. So that changed.
So you're talking about lifestyle, how digital lifestyle change and I want to know about like
how people treated you and friends and, you know, romantic potential partners. When that, that blows up for you. The phone doesn't stop ringing. How does your world shift from a, like a very personal perspective? Friends have never changed. Great. I'm still, you know, on all on WhatsApp groups and see each other. I don't see them as much. They all live closer together. And, and that's a shame, really, but it's just never changed. I get the absolute roasting, roasting all the time. I'm just an easy target.
I know I had so many pictures that go opening online. I can't really say much about that. And that's it. And I love that. No one takes themselves too seriously. And I think hopefully that's what I didn't do too much. As I always said to people, if models ever come up to me now and say, what made you different or how did what did you learn? I said, I never believed my own height. It's very easy once you see yourself in articles and winning awards and everyone's telling you how amazing you are to believe that. But I suppose I never really did.
Do you have imposter syndrome? Yes. Yeah, yeah, of course. Absolutely. And what does that mean in practical times in your mind and your thoughts? You're always waiting to be found out, I think, at the end of the day. You're always waiting for, you know, sort of go, okay, like, come on, if you've had a really good inning. You've been years in. Yeah, you're still thinking about 2020, 20 years in, when you've had a good inning, you know, I'm still thinking that today to be found out. You do that by putting yourself at risk at something as well, like,
I suppose there is the risk and reward. So everything I do, there has to be a slight risk. Otherwise, it's not sort of worth, I suppose, me doing it. So there's always got to be that risk of failure in many ways. And I don't mind failure. I've learned more from failure than I have from success, to be honest. And that risk element of Vanity Fair asking me to write an article. I mean, I'm not a writer.
to do that is scary. And I won't have anyone write it for me. I have to do it. We're going back to integrity thing. I have to do it. And that goes for sort of the fashion game to collaborating with brands, to investing, you know, as you know, it's, you know, it's a risk. There was an element of risk I take into I suppose everything. And I suppose it makes life exciting. What do you think when you say be found out? What's going to be found out? What's that imposter voice saying is going to be found out? Good question, I suppose.
Have you bitten off too much than you can chew? But no one can be as harsh a critic to me as I am myself. I will beat myself up in something failed as I will beat myself up if I don't do the best job. So no one can affect me like that by actually saying anything because I'm my worst critic. So yeah, that's actually a good point of what that voice is going to say to me. Just a whisper of doubt, I guess. That may be
Well, the way that I typically think about imposter syndrome, or at least I've seen it in my business, there's a couple of like top level of execs in my business that talk about imposter syndrome a lot. And it sounds like, yeah, exactly what you described there, like biting off more than you can chew. And are you really capable and experienced enough to be at this level doing this thing? Do you really have the skills? Yeah. There's other people that are smarter and better and that have, you know, one more awards or, you know, experienced.
something like that. There's also the side that, and it's not about money, it's about success. There's a lot of people that actually don't particularly want other people to do well. And most people, they will try to bring you down in many ways and put doubts in your mind. You know, it's like the sort of the backhanded commentizer, as I always would have called it, it's it's hard for someone. And I
I've learned, you know, sort of that from other people's comments and what they've said to me and I'd make sure I never ever do that. And I always just encourage people and if I can help, I will help them. And that's probably where my investments have come from. In many ways is I've had this opportunity and I haven't borrowed a penny in my life to get to where I was. You know, when I first went to New York for modeling, I used to go around and couldn't afford to eating nice places. So every time I'd go on, like casting as I was walking around all day and going to shoots,
I would then go past a like a diner and they would have a special deal on to it, be like a burger fry and something else for $5.95 and I would write it down and go, I've got to remember to come back here because it's $5.95 plus taxes, I suppose I can have a beer and it might be $10. That's why I used to have to think because I just didn't have anything. Then I've always wanted to then I think I'd never really had any help but I would like to help people.
talking about helping them helping people and then other people tearing people down with female models. I think we can all quite easily believe how nasty comments would affect them. But there's something in, I think, the public perception or within society where we think, oh,
if you slag off a male model, if you criticize them, say nasty things about them, well, that'll be fine. If you go on Twitter, for example, it's totally OK, just people will tweet at Piers Morgan all day saying you're a fat. But that people would never do that to, well, they would, but it would be much, it would be considered much differently if they were saying that to a woman, I believe that to be true. So I guess my ultimate question here ultimately is like,
have strangers criticizing saying nasty things on the internet about you how you look or whatever has that ever had a impact on you in this business anyway if you haven't got a thick skin you shouldn't be in this game you've got to have a thick skin and it's what I understood and I've probably only actually understood this from having to cast myself for people to represent my brand is that
You're not being horrible to someone. Someone doesn't fit what you have perceived in your head, and that could be for any reason whatsoever. The attitude you bring into it, the charisma, you come into that day on that casting, the way you look, and it could be anything. That person's too skinny, that person's too tall, that person's not being anything. And you have to realize that when you were
The casting is they weren't, it wasn't personal. It was almost business. No, you just don't fit the creator that we want at the moment. That changes when you have a name, that changes when you have a brand, because they're buying into your brand, they're buying into your engagement, your fans. That's different. But when they first look at your face value,
And there's different people, you know, there's been castings where they're on the phone and they don't say anything to you, you put the book down, they go through two pages and they hand it back to you. Now, that is a bit demoralizing, but hey, you know, like I've always made sure, and I quite often compensated that because I've been on the other side of, you know, casting, casting other people, as I probably get there for the two long and just chatted and everything else. So internet trolls though, like someone on Instagram or in the DMs just, you post something and they just,
I'm very fortunate that my fanbase, which is a very organic fanbase, actually, on social, are massively kind and positive. And that's the way of always per social. I'm not a big lover of social media.
I've stated it before. I see the brilliance of it. I see the negativity from it, especially for young children. I've spoken out about that. Yes, do things fit. Yeah, of course. You'll probably know this is that you might see 100 comments.
All positive, and then 101 comment, 102 comment is negative. And you'll remember it. You'll remember those two comments. So you can't remember the other hundred that are positive. And it's a really weird thing. So it's like dealing with people. You deal with the nice ones. You don't deal with a negative. And that's what we've tried to do really.
And again, another sort of social, I guess, not maybe stereotype, but sort of misunderstanding would be that someone that is, you know, makes their career out of modeling, someone that's very, you know, attractive, like yourself, surely they can't have insecurities, surely they realize that they are, you know.
Surely they can't have self-doubts like us muggles who are GQ, are you up to call? Doesn't everyone have insecurities? I can't believe that there's not a person that doesn't have insecurities. Do you have insecurities? Yeah, of course I do. Absolutely. Is it called insecurities? Of course I do.
How do you say something about your, if your nose and your, your nose. My nose, my eyes got any big, my nose, my ears got any bigger, which they do. The only things that came were like, I just look like the BFG. Also, I think something that, going back to the sort of trolling and Instagram that is this thing about age now, age is used to the weapon. You're a so old, look at all your wrinkles. It actually sort of makes me laugh when people say, my God, you like,
That makes people have positive comments, but they can say, oh, you're getting older. Yeah. Everyone is. I've been in this game for 20 years. If you're comparing an image from 20 years gone, I'm not going to look the same. But it's almost like it's a negative thing. And that's, I've noticed that increasing over the last couple of years is this age thing is used as a weapon, as if it's a bad thing. Does that bother you? No.
I always thought I've always been quite an old man in a young man's body anyway. So, I'm sure I say mature.
No, you grow old at the end of the day. You grow a little bit wiser. You calm down a little bit more and you accept yourself for who you are a little bit more as well. 20s and 30s, 30s less, but 20s can be quite tricky for everyone and quite know who you are and you're trying to find out where you are in the world. You then I think you get a bit more confidence in your 30 and that's where my 30s sort of came from to why you're trying to be something else or trying to fit in.
And I never fit in. I've never fitted in ever, anywhere really particularly well. Or felt I haven't particularly fitted in. You're in the fashion industry. I've never felt I fitted in. I was telling a model the other day actually we were working with. And we always to go off to New York for this big casting, two weeks, try and get the jobs, all the big agencies. And you would go in a group of probably about 10 guys.
and you'd have a list. Back in those days, you would have a fax, believe it or not, but to never mobile phones, it was a fax. So it got you fax in the morning, you had all your appointments, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, all the way through.
Everyone used to go down to the subway or walk and we'll go together and there's this very pack mentality. And I was never into that pack mentality. It was quite a whizzer. I see a much more sort of individual sort of loner. So I used to look at the facts and I used to let them go around the corner and I would virtualize upside down and do the opposite way. So those nine guys would go to the nine o'clock and I would go to the six o'clock.
and I would just turn up at the office and go, I know I'm supposed to be around nine o'clock, but is John someone in? Yeah, he's here. Can I see him? You take the opportunity where you've got, imagine going through seeing nine guys, speaking to nine guys looking, but by the third person, you're like, they're going to be bored and you take the opportunity. So I did that all the way around. And that's what I did kind of all the time. It was thinking constantly of outside the box, of doing something different.
Yeah, it's amazing how these small things can create such significant like it's such a marginal thinking creates such a big gain and most people are obviously they don't even try and think outside of the the script and so they end up you know competing in a very saturated way for a limited amount of rewards but one slight innovation in the process I think can deliver such an exponential return in the industry of modeling one thing that
I think is probably, I don't have any data to support this claim, but I think is probably rife because of the nature of the business and what I know about the subjective mental health and mental wellbeing is anxiety. And I just, I've just seen amongst my friends, the women that I know that model, high levels of anxiety for a variety of reasons. Have you ever suffered with anxiety yourself at any point in your career?
I'm naturally a shy person, but shyness is not anxiety. So I can't say that. I mean, if I probably gave someone symptoms of stuff I've had or things that have happened, they might say, well, that's anxiety. My anxiety, if I still think of, you know, there's, there's a weird thing of when I hear the music to the Antiques Roadshow on a Sunday night, I still have anxiety that I haven't done my homework. And I have to go to school next day. That's how much I hated.
I didn't hate to score up to a certain point. The sixth one was great with my friends that I still have. But that was the point of I still have that today. When I hear that music, I literally stop and I'm like, oh, I don't have to go to school tomorrow. What was it about at school?
I didn't fit in at school. That was basically it. It wasn't all good friends from that school, but it was just a certain time before I kind of met those people. The group of guys I called and girls I used to hang around with. And there was bullying and there was, I just didn't fit in. That was all it was. So you're believed in school primary school or secondary school? Secondary school, yeah. Primary was quite fun. I enjoy primary school. Secondary school is just something different.
They went to the wrong school. Maybe you made the wrong choices. It was me. I'm not blaming anyone. I'm blaming anything. I was quite steadfast on not fitting in. I didn't fit in particularly well. I wasn't going to change my way of fitting into everyone else. In what way didn't you fit in?
a bit like the same, I'm still like it. I'm still in the fashion. That example of not being in that group, not being that pack, not doing the same thing everyone does, exactly the same thing. I didn't want to be in that. I saw things differently and wanted to do things my way. Maybe that's it. Maybe it was doing something my way.
And, and I've always looked at that, that, that goes on for, that, that can go into, if you look, go and go into styling is like, well, no one's wearing suits or I'm going to wear suits. And no one's, you know, why don't you do this? It's like, you know, people still take me out of me because I do not own a pair of sneakers or trainers. And the people, like now, everyone, that's all they're wearing. I have one pair and I go to the gym and I have a running pair. But, and everyone sort of looks at you as if, but I love that fact, you know, it's just me being a little bit different.
But it can also lead to, you know, being a bit a little bit stubborn that you take that to a little bit far, I've not ever relinquishing that. You want to be sort of different, like all the time. You want to, I don't know why you do it. Was that physical, but was that bullying because of physical things? They were, they were saying that you were physically different? What was it? Physically different, no. You thought? Maybe it was the way I thought. If you think about that, no, yeah. It's just because
I do find this still now in the world that everyone likes to pigeonhole. Everyone likes to, you are put in a certain category. And if you don't fit in...
then you're strange, you're a strange person. Why don't you like the same stuff? Why don't you wear the same stuff as us? Why don't you think the same way that we think? And of course it's now got to, it's like very polarized when we have different opinions as they attack each other now. It's like, you see the left or right, there's nowhere in the middle. And it was, I think that element that I've always just, I suppose I've been got an individual thinker in some ways, which kind of, and that might put me in good stead for the business we're in.
But yeah, the anxiety thing, maybe it's...
And confidence, again, when I was confident into going something, I was absolutely fine. You know, I just wanted an opportunity. That was always what I want to be able to, you know, people would say, why have you not gone into acting? Why are you not confident? If there's anxiety, give me a script to learn, try and put me in front of a camera and you'll see that's where I'll probably be anxiety. Although I've done that and I achieved and I quite loved it. So it was a scary side of it, but it's not something I'm naturally good at.
Isn't that, you know, people would, people, again, talking about naivety, right? People would never guess that you would say you weren't confident. And it's almost like the conversation I have with Ben Fogel. You would just, it's just not what you would expect based on like stereotypes. One would expect you to be an extrovert, you know, super confident, some kind of, you know, very loud, you know, braggadocious, boisterous guy, but you appear to be the opposite of that. And especially on the point of confidence,
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say I've got a lack of confidence. There's lack of confidence. Well, I think I know my limitations maybe. But I also like pushing those limitations to see what I can get to and see what I can achieve and learn. But the confidence, I mean, the GQ Awards we went to two weeks ago and you set up your... I didn't get an invite by the way. Got the red. I'd sort us out with GQ.
You're on the red carpet, done it a million times before. It's still dread filled with dread to getting on that red carpet and having the pictures taken. It's just not a natural environment for me. And I was thrilled that there was a
You know, a huge long queue because everyone wanted to be on the red carpet. Everyone wanted their pitch take and everyone wanted to be in the papers and put it on their Instagrams. And I went too long. I'm not, you know, I'm going to swerve that one. So I swerved it and went upstairs and went into an environment where I was much happier where actually I needed to speak to a few certain people for a few certain reasons and went to go and hunt them down and go and speak to them.
What was the sort of psychological discomfort you feel when you think about going on the red carpet and doing that? Because you described going upstairs to a place where you were happier. So what's the unhappiness of the red carpet for you? It's just not a natural environment for me to be. When you're on set,
When you're employed by a brand to create what is in, it's their vision, you're playing a role. Like blue, I'm a Mediterranean guy in Italy in small white speedos. It's not me. It is me, but there's a role you're playing. I know there's actors as well, I've spoken to them about it. They love being in character.
After those characters they don't want the limelight, they don't want fame, they don't want to speak to anyone, they don't want to do press junkets, they hate the red carpet. Exactly the same. So when you're on set, you're almost playing someone else. And there's an element as well of.
There is this david gandy and i talk about in the third person because that's the brand sometimes i have to talk about that's the name so you you yes you are walking on to a set almost being something else. Well i'm acting in the different.
And then there is, and the red carpet is just not that environment. I can probably hide behind a character or hide behind a role or something. What I'm playing on that date, that's me. It's just not something that is strangely weird. Training.
Yeah. My other half, Steph, love to go out, love to go to events. She gets, you know, such a buzz, such gets enthusiasm for her, actually, like, you know, she doesn't do it. And she honestly probably thought that was me, when we first met.
I go to an event, I'm drained from people. I'm actually naturally a loner. I could, you know, we saw a joke with Steph when we first went, she would give me a silent treatment and I was like, Steph, I'm going to tell you now, I'll win at this game because I can go off, I can go on for days, not talking. I'm used to it, you know, I've, I've travelled, you know, I travel the world, don't speak to people for days. So it was always kind of a joke between us.
So, when you're naturally the complete opposite of being alone, I love taking dogs to walk, I love walking for hours and then if I ever ever get sort of proper time to do it, with no one around me, the exact opposite of that.
is the red carpet to me. And your life is put you there because of your success, right? And you must get asked to go to red carpets all the time and events like that all the time. Yeah. And there's nothing the actual event.
I mean, again, like presenting, presenting an award, reading off an auto cue to present it. I mean, it's an honor to do it. I know it's an honor. I know I have to do it. But the whole night, whenever you're presenting is me on that table, not enjoying that evening, because I know there was one point that I've got to go up there and be in front of everyone. And I've done it a million times now, and it still doesn't get any easier. It's very, very strange. But, you know, there you go. It's easy to accept an award, of course.
It's very interesting. Again, again, it's just a real, I think for most people it would be a real surprise that someone who is very out there visually. Yeah. No, absolutely. It makes no sense. I understand that myself. I tell people it makes no sense. Have you ever spoken to a therapist about that or anybody about that? Probably should do. No, it would be quite interesting to know why I was, and actually might help me overcome some fears when it comes to my anxiety.
And it does sound very strange. Even when I say it makes no sense. And it's probably why maybe I've, you know, there's been sort of striving for not to be in front of the camera, especially with my own stuff is to be behind it. You know, I've been creative director to quite a few brands now and advisor. And I've gone and helped to just been on so many shoots. So I just said, I'll come on the creative director. I need to be paid. I just want to, I just love being that creative element to it.
Jen Smith-Jenner asked me and the RAF and Brailing asked me to direct a RAF film. Loved it. Absolutely loved not. I wasn't in front of that. And it was. They were like, no, no, we want you to be in front of us. I was like, absolutely not. I'm direct to it. No, I cast someone else for who I think is perfect for us. I'm not perfect. I'm not good enough for that. You know, not good enough. But I just don't suit that role. So I need someone else in it. Again, people look at me and go, why would you not want to put yourself in that? Because I'm not the right part for it. Why?
Just because the concept I've come up with in my head is not me for that role. I see someone else. It's casting. You think of the greatest role. If you think Top Gun, you think Tom Cruise, what if they had put someone else in that? Would that have been the success it would be? Probably argue no. You got asked to do 50 Shades of Grey, right?
I got, it's a room, kind of a room. I met the author and she said, we would love to send you the script, because we think, and I think in why I got sent, and I'd never read the books.
Yeah, I mean, they had, I mean, Jamie Dornen is an awesome actor. Yeah, he was a model. I mean, he was one of the biggest models, but he wanted to go into acting. And he's a great actor. He's a very, very sad.
there, you know, if I ever went, you know, I won't go into acting, but looking at that, I was like, I'm not, I couldn't beat Jamie. I couldn't be as good as that. He's very, very good. And then you look at the other levels of, sort of, of other actors and you just think it's not something I was, I could, I could learn, I could, you know, sort of learn to be quite good at it. But I could never, you know,
Be the best at it also heard about Hercules 300 you're yeah, I mean first course I mean you're always gonna be asked to do stuff like that just from the physical element of the way I look and You know it gonna be a part in it, but it was wasn't anything. I was Mm-hmm been you and I got my being bonnet about the industry. I mean and where I wanted to achieve in this so
There's always, I said, there's a couple of roles that I would play and I would drop everything to go and play it. And there's a couple of stories that I love that I've even... Which ones? One of them is about Winston Churchill's bodyguard.
Walter Thompson. I even found out who owns the rights to it all. It's just the most incredible story. And he was originally from Epling in Essex. And yeah, Winston Churchill asked him to come back in the Second World War. He used to be his bodyguard, then he stopped and then he came back. And it's just the most incredible diary. You've mentioned the diaries of being Winston Churchill's bodyguard. It wasn't easy, of course.
fascinating because, of course, Winston Churchill, that they called his episodes the Black, something or other, which we now probably know as Bipolar. Yeah. You know, and Walter Thompson was the person that protected everyone or protected him from everyone seeing that. Wow. So, yeah, just kept everyone away from seeing those episodes and no one really realized. Speaking of mental health disorders, then, you've, you know, you're an ambassador of mental health.
charity we're working with you and also working with calm and others for the new brand yeah amazing and your new brand has a big sort of theme around men's wellness and what does what i guess the question is why why did that matter to you and this is also why i asked the question around anxiety because i was.
for you to make it a kind of mental well-being, let's say, a central part and mental wellness, a central part of your brand and your mission. One would assume that you've had an experience with it close to home because I think that's one way that people typically generate a ton of empathy towards the subject matter is feeling it, feeling the pain of it, whether within themselves, within loved ones. So what was it for you that made you care so much about that?
I've never suffered from depression, and I'm very fortunate that as badly as other people have, and I've witnessed it because I have dated people that were then diagnosed with bipolar, and I've seen the extremities of mental health.
Me, myself, and I admit it's not happened for a while would go into dark periods, knowing I would snap out of it eventually, but they were dark, but nothing would suffice, nothing would cheer you up. Just...
quite in a dark place one to be on my own, just not around anyone. Wasn't triggered by anything, but just one day I just knew I'd wake up and it was gone. It's a chemical reaction, a new brain basically, what it is. And yeah, so I do understand and I can spot it in other people as well. What were the symptoms of it for you, those dark periods?
This incident, as I said, was just nothing would make you, you couldn't snap out of it, nothing could make you happy or cheerful. You didn't like anyone, you didn't want to be around anyone.
The feelings are hard to explain. It never got to any point of seriousness, something I've seen people with bipolar that will be in a room for hours on end, for days on end, watching the same TV series because their safety is watching that TV series. It makes them a little bit happy because of just that safety for some reason.
So I've seen the real dark side of it, and I've also, from me, dating someone like that, of how hard it is to deal with it, because you always want to try and make that person better.
and you can't in many, many ways. It's, you can talk and you have to be, you know, it's about just being patient and listening to people and trying to get them, you know, help, professional help. There is an element where you, you know,
I can only talk about surgery at the point and then it comes to an expert help that they have to talk and that's what calm does. It's allowing people to talk to people and there are people that are far better. People need to listen to people. That's the point of it. There's a lot of people who, even if
They are talking to people they're not listening. Fortunately, it's never been that bad. But I do understand it. Did you sleep well? No. I heard you hadn't slept well for almost two decades. No, never slept well. I didn't sleep well when I was a child. But I did with the other way around, went to bed early, got up, went to bed. You'd go to bed early. And then my parents just left me being the ender. I think they were just so sick of trying to get me to go to bed because I just didn't sleep. And I would be doing my home worker.
Midnights, one o'clock in the morning. I still work now. I was up till two o'clock in the morning working last night.
And that's another thing when people go, it's crafting a hard work. Most people, a lot of people are sitting down at half past eight, nine o'clock in front of a TV, redscoats bed, half past eight, go into the gym, get back a half a line, do the shopping on the way home, cook myself some dinner, go, doesn't stop. In between is working on the phone, carrying on, you know, they'll, you know, half past ten, open the laptop and get them a simple work.
If you're always grafting, as you call it, and it's, and you said it doesn't stop, how does one become happy if they're always striving? If they're always in the future or a... It stopped during pandemic. So you, so... It did stop during the pandemic. Oh, you did? During lockdown, right? Yeah. You couldn't. My, my, my, half the businesses, my business in the morning is traveling pretty much at the end of the day. You have to be in locations. And did that make you happier? Yeah. It made you happier when it all stopped.
to financial, you know, it affected me financially. And we'd already been affected quite heavily in this industry by, you know, say the Brexit hasn't, you know, the blame of Brexit now, it was the uncertainty of Brexit. So a lot of brands were not spending money, not marketing money, not having budgets, not working with the UK, always to do different things. Also on certain brands with social media,
now of old school campaigns versus digital, which still hasn't quite fizzled out yet. They brands don't quite know where they are within the marketing world or how to market to be able to target people. So it's been affected by it. And that all kind of breaks it.
I got signed January whole different world. It was sort of that December, January of 2020. I was off to Milan. I was then going to Spain. I was then going to Greece. I was then going to New York. I was then back to Milan. I had the schedule like it used to be going off up to Russia. And I've been to Russia. I was really excited. I was going to Russia for the first time. And the pandemic hit. Everything got canceled.
And you're saying you were happier during the pandemic? Probably shouldn't have been. It's unfortunate. I'm very, very fortunate. As a factor as that, yes, it affected me financially.
when it slowed you down. I've invested well and I've, you know, there's reserves to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want this out. Nice car collection. Yeah. Exactly. That's an expensive, yeah, but it's honest. There's a time, probably the only time I actually probably truly switch off and there's a week between Christmas and New Year. And that's when everyone, I mean everyone, virtually everyone, is not doing anything during that week. Yeah. And that's a week where I probably switched off the most.
And we always sort of go away a week later after that because it takes time for people to get back. And I suppose it's not fear of missing out. It's fear of other people working and I'm not working. I should always be working. And during the pandemic, no one was working.
How can one be happy with their brain saying those things that kind of constant nagging to be doing something or doing more or to be striving? How can that sounds like the thief of happiness to me? The thief of happiness. That's a good way to be a book. Probably is. Listen, I haven't got the answers to that. Would you consider yourself to be a happy person? A positive person. Why did you avoid the bad happiness?
I don't know. I don't know. Something you probably have to ask. I don't know. Happy person. I'm a positive person. I suppose I am a happy person in many ways. Yes, that's right. But I thought it's just a definition of what's positive, what's happy. Is it all the same thing? So in many ways, in what ways do you think you might not be a happy person?
Again, good question. I mean, I'm happy. I put myself, listen, when I'm in control of what I do now, that's why I always wanted it. I'm on my control for you, I don't know.
The hard work that's the way we've got to has allowed me now to be in complete control of what my destiny of what I want to do. I want to renovating Interior's huge passion. I love doing it. It looks like a nightmare hard work to further people, but I strive on it.
renovating classic cards, the same thing. As I said earlier, you're halfway through, you think, why am I doing this? Why didn't I just buy a new car or a new building? And then you go over, the accomplishment is worth it to me, that sense of achievement. That's what I'm striving for. Does it ever feel as good when you get there?
Yeah, it does. Not for that long, but it does. I can take those. Couple of minutes. Couple of minutes. Yeah. It's the same feeling as, you know, when we, if we're going to shoot light blue or something else and you have to work hard, you know, in the gym to get, I'm always in pretty decent shape, but that's hard work to get in that shape. And it's getting harder the order I get.
And you dedicate a lot and you sacrifice a lot to look like that. And then there is that point of, we've shot it, we've seen it, but it looks incredible. You achieved it. And there is this evening of enjoying that. It's anyone to the next thing, you know, it's what are we working on? Not next, but, you know, one of the other projects that I'm working on at the time. Have you found that in your career,
dark episodes where you feel down sometimes follow high episodes.
because there's this really fascinating thing that I was reading about, about gold medal depression where up to 80% of Olympians, regardless of outcome, regardless of whether they win or they don't, come back from the Olympics after training, all of that excruciating effort, and they come back and 80% of them report sort of depressive symptoms. I've read that, I don't know where I've read that, I've read the same thing, and I could actually resonate with that in many ways. You're sometimes actually achieving what you want is
a bit. It's sometimes the journey is the exciting bit, which is a weird thing to say. We are in this journey of well where David Ganny, the brand at the moment, and it is so much hard work. Tell me about that. That whole inspiration, the journey, why? Why the brand? Yeah.
because it was what I've wanted to achieve for so long, is have that to me, to have your own brand, and I didn't know what it was going to be. I am a brand, you know, that's, I say that, and it makes me sound like a bit of a dick. Yeah, but you are. It is a brand, and that's why people have to realise, you know, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that, when I say that,
And then I would probably say it's 10 years, I thought, yes, that's where one day I would like to. I'm not saying I'm always going to achieve it, but yes. And the creative side to being in control of that brand. I'm always in control from...
buy other brands. Even if I'm collaborating with a brand, there is still an element of control that that brand has. And I always thought, yeah, to be in complete control, complete creative control. And that's a risk. I never wanted people to think, because I have a name, because I've been in the fashion industry for so long, I could start a brand. Now, people do now. It's social media. One of those elements is you can start something, you can sell it immediately. You've got fans, followers, buyers.
It's made the marketplace a very different place. So I went back to really what I did for modelling, observation, putting myself in the situation where I could learn, and that was M&S, the collaboration with M&S. I mean, so the David Gandhi lounge where, no one was doing lounge where, this was what we talked about, the concept.
It was about six, seven, seven, half years ago, seven years ago, loungewear wasn't a big concept, it wasn't something that people thought about. And of course we had sleepwear and t-shirts and everything else, but it was loungewear that really took off and became third biggest loungewear in the country and was successful. And it had, you know,
60% of me in that brand, as in what I wanted to achieve on that brand. But of course, you couldn't get that last 40% because that was MNS. And I knew I wanted to go. I knew what needed to be done. But I couldn't push it any further than I sort of could. So that ended. And then the pandemic.
hit and locked down. And one of my greatest friends, Charlie T, who has listened to me talk far too long about wanting to start my own thing. And he started his own branding agency to do exactly what I wanted.
And he said, well, listen, I've started this now. You can be our first client. But we're not talking about this anymore. We've got the time. As my best friend, he knows I'm never really around. He said, I've got you here. We went together. I've got you in the country. We've got time. Let's start it. What's your long-term vision then for? Well, what's the long-term? What's it going to become? Five, ten years from now?
I never really tell people where I've got in my head where something is going hopefully going to be. There are small steps to where we haven't even properly launched. The first shipping goes out on 22nd of October.
But we wanted to do something different with well-wear. To the essence of me, it was understanding and be calling it sort of well-wear well-being. Why clothing, why does some clothing make you feel positive and confident?
Why does some not? We looked at the studies done by Amsterdam University and I think it was a scientific element of, if we put students in comfortable, confident clothing, they're confident that's comfortable and soft, their results are better than other people.
who are in uncomfortable clothing and they don't feel as confident or going in the same with business. It was now why the big banks are saying you don't have to wear suits anymore because actually a lot of people are more positive, they're a lot more open to work with, they're a lot calmer, it's oxytonin, it's the same thing as feeling the ridiculously soft pillow or puppy, that softness, that soft jumper, that thing you hold onto is oxytonin, it's released into your brain, it's a positive positive mood.
And that's what we wanted to do with. And we looked into this and there was a side to me that was fascinated by the elements of it. But I've always wondered, why do I...
Why do I hold onto that pair of jeans until my ass is falling out the end of it? And I would try and find that pair again. I can't find that pair. And why am I wearing those sweatshirts? Because, well, it was one for comfort. And that is an element of lots of things. The materials, the breathability, the style, you still got to look stylish in it. It makes you feel confident to fit.
That's why, at the end of the day, that's why it was never to me about being trendy. It was being confident. And so many guys said to me, what do I wear? And what are you confident in? And then we've thought about every element of the sweatshirts and the hoodies and the t-shirts of comfort level, of style, of fit, of quality, of well-wear breathe, well-wear care.
We've put these elements into the clothing that is aloe vera, so pyjamas are moisturizing you whilst you're asleep. Anti-inflammatory, we've got well-wear breathe and antibacterial elements of it, which is another element of we were looking at fast fashion.
The fast fashion can be an addiction, and people don't realize this addiction, that you get a buzz from a shopping, but actually you can be hugely affected knowing the impact of fast fashion on the environment, actually, when that clothing lasts a week, two weeks, I'm exaggerating. It lasts, you know, but it can do. Some people wear it once and check it away. It's actually, it's where it can negatively impact you.
OK, so there's a new segment to this podcast we do. What we do is we ask our previous guest to leave a question for our next guest. And I've not read this question yet, but I've just read it then as I said this. So I'm going to ask you this question asked by someone that was sat in the chair before you. OK. They told me to ask you.
What do you promise to do to make our world a better place? Okay, can I have an easier crush?
Let's take this back to, I actually promise to do. There's a number of things I do for number of challenges, but we're going to talk about that, and they're not promises. I suppose the promise is from well where to make people smile. To bring back some, the positivity that I think is needed somewhere. I think we're in this polarized world that we are in, is just to say, fuck it, we're just going to make people smile.
And have a laugh at everything that we do. And I think you can't put a monetary value on that. And that's what I promised to try and do over the years of World War. Perfect. Amazing. Thank you so much. And you're going to have to write in the book now as well. A question for someone else. But listen, David, thank you so much for your time.
It's such an incredibly inspiring and twisting story of yours and to see where you are now and taking on this next adventure in business, I find incredibly exciting. The entrepreneur is fascinated by that and I understand the challenge of that. Well, thank you for having me. I wish I could have had some good questions. I probably might need to.
No, that's what I think I want to do. I just want to pry, but I pry because I'm curious because I'm like fascinated by those topics myself. It's like there's nothing written down here that's telling me to speak on those terms. But yeah, it's so fascinating. And also your level of self awareness, I think is just really inspiring for a lot of people. I think there's a therapeutic thing to talk in. I mean, men don't do it. We're useless.
Um, that's mental health to one of these, you know, people asking you talking. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. A lot of people don't actually listen. Yeah. Um, a lot of talking about yourself, a lot of people talking about themselves at the moment. So there's a therapeutic side to this. Yeah, exactly. For me as well, you know, that's what that's actually how it started. It was like, it was like therapy for me because I was doing it on my own, going through my diary and just, you know, but it's, it's honestly amazing. And thank you so much for giving us that story because it's such an inspiring one. Thank you. Thank you.
