Meet the Mancunian - Talking Ukraine refugees with Jez Myers

Meet the Mancunian: Jez Myers (Season 4, Episode 4)

Intro

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Meet the Mancunian Podcast, Season Four. I'm Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, your friendly host. On the streets and nooks of Manchester, my inspiring Mancunian guests tackle their causes with their grit and passion, they are leaders, worker bees, and community hosts, and they share their stories to inspire you all through the season.

Relax, grab a brew and listen to the Meet the Mancunian podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, or any of your favourite podcasting platforms. You can also check out all the episodes on my new website, www.meetthemancunian.co.uk.

Looking to help the local community. We hear from Jez Myers, Co-founder, Reddish News and Chair, Spirit of Manchester Awards in this episode.

Episode 4

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I am delighted to introduce my guest, Jez Myers, Co-founder, Reddish News and Chair, Spirit of Manchester Awards in this episode. Thanks so much Jez for joining me today, and I'm really excited to hear about all your experiences in the community over the last decade.

Jez Myers: So it's a fantastic, absolute pleasure to be here.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Great, Jez. How do you find your passion for helping the local community? You talked about a clean-up Manchester campaign some years ago, so maybe start there.

Jez Myers: Yeah, so, it was a warm August evening back in 2011 and riots had been happening all over the country that they started out in Birmingham and London and then spread all over the place.

And it is kind of, I don't really talk so much about this cause it's almost like how do you accidentally find yourself in the middle of situations. And so, I sat at home and watched it on the news as I think everybody was. And I got a phone call from a friend of mine who was involved in the organisation of the London clean-up.

And he was like, Jez, how'd you feel about getting involved in organising the Manchester one? It'll take a couple of hours of your time. So I thought, okay, no problem. And I set it up and I set up the Twitter. I linked in with Jen who was running the Facebook one and it was organised and we were going to meet at Piccadilly Gardens next morning, and it just sort of spiralled.

And the things that we don't sort of say is I didn't really know how to use Twitter particularly well at all, if at all. At the time I had a Twitter, but I didn't really understand the purpose of it. So I got thrown into the deep end at having to learn Twitter and having to learn how to message people and learn what was going on.

And yeah, I started I think about six o'clock that night. And the two to three hours of helping that my friend had told me, turned into me being awake until 2:00 AM organising it. And then the world's media descended on it. And I was up at 5:00 AM with the first interview of the day for BBC World Service.

I don’t know whether any of your guests have ever spoken about BBC World Service, but they always operate where they get you to do interviews, what you would consider the middle of the night in the UK. So you are always really bleary-eyed and they go, can we do an interview with you? You go, yeah, sure, no problem at all.

And to go, breakfast time goes, Sure, I go. 5.30 AM? Like, that's not breakfast time at all.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: But it is breakfast time, somewhere in the world.

Jez Myers: Yeah. And, and it is BBC World Service and I guess if you're on central European time, it sort of, yes, that is breakfast time. It's just not my breakfast time.

And so I sort of do that and then head into Manchester City Centre, Piccadilly Gardens, armed with a brush and wait and kind of hope people turn up. And a few people start turning up and then more, and then more and then more. And, by the end of it, there'd been about a thousand people that showed up.

And, it was absolutely fantastic. But equally because the Council had had an inkling that there were going to be riots and there was going to be trouble the night, they actually had had staff working through the night. So what you actually found was a thousand people showed up, with brushes and bags and wanting to tidy up, and, and they did, but the actual riot-damaged areas were almost already cleaned up. The windows had already been boarded up, the glass had already been swept away.

And so Manchester City Centre, Piccadilly Gardens basically got a thousand people. Coming together to give, give the city centre a spruce up. And, it was absolutely fantastic because it was one of the first things where I learned a lot about the power of community and, and about how proud people are of Manchester.

And I'm sure every city says that about where they're from. But you know, to get that many people on, I think it was a Thursday morning in the middle of the working day. On the way there, people coming up to me saying, look, I've got to go to work, but I wish I could be there to help you more. You learn a lot about that and you, and you learn a lot about how people interact and ultimately, you know, it's very cliche, but, but we have more in common than that that which separates us and, and.

In times of, I wouldn't like to use the word tragedy, but I can't think of anything better to use right now. People come together and, and they band together for, for their central, you know, love of the city. And that's, that's great. That, that's something that I will always love about Manchester, and I'm very proud of it.

My friend has since admitted that he knew it wasn't going to be two to three hours, and he got me to do it, because of my love of the city, because he'd known me for years and knew how much I love Manchester. And also, he knew that the press would descend upon it and, and that I'd be able to give good interviews. I just wish he told me that in advance.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: No, but it sounds like your friend did the right thing for you. He knew you better than you knew yourself at that point, I guess. And that sounds like a really great cause.

And it's the mark of a great city. When people rally together and answer the call of their own city.

This so reminds me of being in Mumbai as a college student sitting and sorting clothes, which had come for riot victims, all the donations that had come through and there were mounds of them and working for them for hours. So, yeah. I think volunteering is always good for the heart, isn't it?

Jez Myers: It is. And I think it's, it's quite an interesting one because I was very, very fortunate that off the back of it, I won various awards and got to attend events. And volunteering's an odd one, particularly if it's successful or if you part of a big project because I'm one person. I went out there and I organised and, you know, I was going to sit with a brush and I hoped that other people would show up, and of course, they did. But really they're the ones who should get the credit. I had to turn up, I was the organiser. But if I'd have turned up and nobody else did, it would've been a terrible story. It would've been a terrible news event.

And so, so when I get these, got these awards and, and you know, I won some money or whatever and I was immediately saying, but I don't want this… I feel awkward having to sort of go, you know, I'll donate it to the Lord Mayor's charity, or I'll donate it to whomever because you know, this is the people's money.

It's the citizens of Manchester, it's their money, it's their award. Yes, of course, everyone goes, well, they didn't all set it up. You did set it up. But, you know, ultimately, you know, like in true sort of almost politician style, I do it for the people. I didn't do it for myself.

And that's what I guess volunteering's about is, is you go and you do stuff to, to help others and to show your spirit that way.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think so, if you believe in the cause, you'll find the time even though however busy you are. And that's what some very amazing guests like yourself do.

So tell us about Reddish News. And there's an interesting story there as well, isn't it?

Jez Myers: So, following the riot clean-up stuff. I was being invited s quite regularly to Manchester Town Hall and meeting with politicians and, and certainly, in the local areas. And they were saying, so where do you live then?

And I'd say, well, I live in Reddish. They're like, where's that? And I, I sort of was very concerned about this. Reddish is five, six miles outside of the city centre. It's, you know, it's got 30,000 people. It's got two train stations, although technically one has a Jubilee train and it has one train in one direction once a week, I think on a Friday morning. It used to be on Saturday morning, but people should know about it. And, then it made me look around my own and I was like, so much goes on in Reddish, but nobody knows about it. And if nobody knows about it, nobody can attend it. And if nobody knows Reddish exists, how do we expect businesses to move here and how do we expect the area to thrive if people don't know it exists?

Jez Myers: You know, well, I can get to the M 60 in 10 minutes. I can get to Manchester City Centre in 20 minutes. We have Reddish Vale Farm here.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And a lovely country park as well.

Jez Myers: Yes, as well. And we have so much going on, but nobody really knows about it. And it's, in the last few years it started to, to come more. There was a phenomenal Sicilian restaurant called A tavola, which has now, following a disagreement with their landlord, moved over to New Mills. But they came in because they knew the area, and they did that and that then attracted other restaurants to the area. And now we've had a couple of bar openings. I'm not necessarily completely pro-gentrification, but there's certainly an element where you want people and you want your area to improve and you want people to be proud of the area that they're in, and you want people to invest in that local area.

So I noticed that. This sort of thing didn't exist. And so with a couple of friends of mine, we set up Reddish News, which was basically to be very pro Reddish, to talk about what was going on and to say hi, we actually exist. This area exists. This place exists.

And unfortunately, I think, in the last sort of six months, I haven't had so much time to devote to it and I really should do more again.

But with the advent of Heaton's Post which is a hyper-local newspaper and that's doing phenomenally well, I contributed to this sort of the starting period of that and then dipped in and out again with as, as time sort of allows and dictates.

(Note to listeners, you can listen to the episode featuring Mel Page, Co-founder, Heaton’s Post https://www.meetthemancunian.co.uk/meet-the-mancunian-mel-page/)

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that. And it sounds like Reddish news was required at a time, you know, to give that voice to the local people at the local businesses. And that's great. And hopefully, you'll find the time again at the right time. I'm sure it'll come into its new avatar, whatever that is.

Jez Myers: We still do it. We still run it. It's just not as frequent and as focused as we would like it to be. There are other, groups and there are people talking. But ultimately it's like anyone who lives in, in any area of Manchester if you are in a great area, people always come there. Businesses want to be there because they see there's, there's an element of wealth and they go,t here's some finance there. I can be part of it, and you'll find that restaurants then don't necessarily become great restaurants. They just become an exercise in getting people through the door and they play the numbers game.

And the other side of it is you have the bottom end where you go, well, we're not actually bad enough to get the council funding for investment and regeneration. So if you're somewhere, anywhere, you know, in the middle sort of 50%, you become quite anonymous and you have to kind of find ways to, to pull yourself up.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Yes, I can, I can understand that.

I'm also going to switch slightly and probably give you an opportunity to talk about the support you do for Ukrainians settling into the UK as well as if you'd like to talk about your experiences. You know, I'm going to leave this one open to you. Jez, I don't know how much you want to share, but we are trying to keep this episode at about 30, 40 minutes and the aim would be to talk about the community, talk about your efforts in the community.

Jez Myers: So more, more recently I've rejigged my failed media career from appearing to do riot stuff to accidentally finding myself in Ukraine at the start of the invasion. There were hundreds and hundreds of articles about my partner Maria and I fleeing the war. Maria is a very well-known journalist in Ukraine. So, you know,, we had lots of interest in our story. and so, your listeners can absolutely find out all about us online.

I would definitely go as far as saying that, I wouldn't recommend finding yourself caught up in a war zone even accidentally. There's absolutely nothing fun about waking your partner up at seven in the morning to say that they've dropped bombs everywhere and you need to pack your bag and flee the country.

There's even less fun about having to phone your parents who are on holiday in Malta. Say hi. You know how you thought I was in Poland? Well, actually I came back to Ukraine yesterday and now I'm having to flee the country and it's even worse phoning your ex-partner up, the mother of your child. And having to say, don't worry, I'm going to be getting out of the country safe. Whilst she is absolutely furious at you for potentially leaving your [child without a father. So we got out and we came back to Manchester and since that point, we've been trying to give back as much as we possibly can to the community.

Jez Myers: Manchester has a fantastic diaspora community. There's a huge center in Cheetham Hill called Dnipro centre. There's also smaller satellite places in in Bolton and Ashton, and Stockport.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What's it called again? Dnipro?

Jez Myers: Dnipro after the city Dnipro in sort of southeast, south-central Ukraine. Great city, would highly recommend going there. We went and there's a genuinely fantastic Israeli restaurant I think called Moses. It was wonderful there.

So we have issues in the entire country in terms of Ukraine refugees, we are trying to help them. So Maria and I stumbled across an idea to try and make them feel more welcome.

Many, many months ago when she'd been, had a friend visiting her, and she'd been up in Manchester, they used a group called Free Manchester Walking Tours. And, and these people, you know, there are several groups in, they go every day and they'd do a fantastic job. And Maria and I said, well, why don't we speak to them and see if we can volunteer Maria's time?

I felt it was wonderfully kind of me to volunteer Maria's time rather than my own. And Maria goes over and she's now held tours for over 400 Ukrainians who have come to the greater Manchester area, and it helps them to understand where they're moving to. Helps them understand the surroundings a bit better, and helps them to meet other Ukrainians.

So we do that. We have successfully matched a significant number of Ukrainians who are who wanted to come here. And we've kept in contact, and we run WhatsApp groups and we run advice sessions for them. And, and the main thing we do now is we just keep talking. They say that, you know, today's news is, is tomorrow's chip paper.

And we've sat there and watched as in the opening sort of months, we could write any story and, newspapers would be falling over themselves to publish it and magazines would, would be fighting over these articles. And then what happens is is, people become numb to it. And unless you have a new story, then there isn't the same interest.

And, horrifying to hear where you go. I have a story about a woman who, was raped in, Ukraine and the papers turn around and go, we've already run the same story, several times the readers don't want to read about it anymore. And so as, as the war's gone on, we've found that it's dropped down the news cycle and it's only when a missile hits a shopping centre or even so over the last few days, Russia's been sending over Kamikazi Iranian made drone. You know, the centre of Kiev has been hit. But it's not until something major happens that it kind of springs back into the news cycle again, and then it drops off.

So, we have to be very mindful that, that we have to keep talking about this because, you know, Maria loves being in Manchester but it isn't her home. And at some stage, she'd really like to go home. And the only way she's able to go home is when it's going to be safe.

And I think I get asked at the moment, once every other day by various sorts of people and say, so when do you think you'll go? And, and they don't understand that you know, you'll be walking down the street and the air raid sirens will go off.

And if you're not quick enough or the air raid siren comes too late, you, you only need to be wrong once, and you find yourself, you know, in a whole world of trouble. I can guarantee there's, absolutely no way I'll get permission from my son now to visit Ukraine any, any time before the all-out war is over.

So we go and we talk to the community and we talk to groups and we feed back. We're very lucky. We feed back to councils and MPs and the cabinet about Ukrainians and tell them what's working and what's not working. And the cabinet obviously does that thing where they ignore us. But, we keep banging on because we have to, we have to keep it coming. We have to show our support. We have to show our love.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that. And unfortunately, what you're describing is human psychology and like the new cycle, right? When it's new and shiny in a terrible way. Like in India, CNN took off when they had the Iraq war.

So it is, it is that initial period where everyone's just glued and not doing anything else. And then after a point, it becomes, people get, like you said, numb to it or you know, let's call it, you know, almost just becomes deja vu. It's happened and they're not taking it as seriously. But I do hope there is a day when we can say that this is, this truly terrible period is behind us and it's never going to happen again because it's not right what's happening.

Jez Myers: I think for us it is just all-encompassing. It absolutely dominates your life. And, and, you know, I'm British. I'm a step away from it. We often do these public talks, and over the months we’ve changed the content and changed the message.

Now we talk about luck and how lucky we are because, you know I'm lucky because, because I'm out of the country, Maria's lucky because she's out of the country. We know, they don't send you an email saying congratulations. But we know that Maria, who was a prominent journalist and had produced a magazine called ‘How We Will Get Crimea Back”, which was exposing Putin's war crimes and handed out to 47 UN leaders. You know, we know she'd be on the Russian kill list for that, but she's out of the country. We know that we've got friends and we've got family and we had financial support and we had a house to come to, and Maria knew the language and, and we had tremendous support of our MP, Andrew Gwen and of the media bent over backwards to help us.

And you know, we've been incredibly, incredibly lucky. I'm lucky because I've had friends of friends who've been killed, but no direct friends. Maria has been less lucky. A very close friend of hers, Max was killed. And when I say killed, I actually mean that he went into the forest to retrieve a drone, and Russian soldiers captured him and tortured him and executed him at close range.

So we are, we are very lucky that we are here and, and so every morning we wake up and we go on Twitter and we check the news and just, you know, check in with people and hope that everyone's alive and safe and well, and has power, and has water, and has heating. At the moment, Russia's really sort of pushing to hit the critical infrastructure in the run-up to winter. And as, as of at the moment, you know, Ukraine's lost, I think 30% of its power supply, so, it's very tough coming into the winter period there.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that. I guess the question I'd ask is, you know what impact would you say you have made, and I'm happy for you to take, if you want the Ukraine one or if you want to talk in the wider community over the last decade that you've been involved with the community.

Jez Myers: I think in terms of the impact, it's quite a strange one because I sit here and go, what have I done? What have I done? And, the honest answer is, is not enough, not what I should have done. And, and it's, it's great for me to sit here and go, I did this one-off event and I got a thousand people together and it's great to talk about the awards and it's great to talk about how I'm the chairperson of the Spirit of Manchester Awards which is the largest voluntary awards in, I think in the Northwest. And, and it's a fantastic thing. And it's great to look at what I do for Ukraine and, and stuff like that.

But the answer is that I want to do more. I feel I can be doing more as, as I've gotten a little older and fought maturity tooth and nail, but sadly, you know, it always catches up with you and you kind of have to grow up a little. My skillsets have improved and my approach to things has improved. And I kind of almost miss having that youthful exuberance and passion that I used to have. And whilst it's great where I get to be much more controlling over things and manage things and manage processes and you know, give back that way and, and have more of a general overview. I think it's absolutely fantastic when I look at these people, particularly with the spirit of Manchester awards who have dedicated months and years of their lives, hours and hours every single week to their absolute passion project. And I think when I look at my own impact, I think I'm not there yet.

Jez Myers: And Yes, I've done some great things and some very silly things, but I want to do more. I, kind of almost feel that, you know, like, like a lot of people, you know, you want to be able to, when, when you look back at your life, go, I made a difference here and I made a sustained difference, or I meant, oh, I did something that was so widely impactful that everyone would go, aha, yeah, I know that guy. He did that in a really positive way for my community. My community is, is really the Manchester community.

And who knows when it's safe to go back. I'd love to go back to Ukraine and do something meaningful and impactful in terms of rebuilding the country there. And I think ultimately that's, that's where my future will lie in the next few years.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that. I don't [quite agree with you that you haven't made a lot of impact. I think you have, you've inspired a lot of people, but yes, I hope your story continues to be written. And there are a lot more chapters to come. I'd love to hear about them.

How can interested people reach out to you or learn more?

Jez Myers: I love talking to people. I'm sure this conversation could go on for hours and hours and hours. Obviously, through Facebook or Twitter at 'jmyers' or on Facebook, 'jmyers'. It turns out that I'm not really very creative when it comes to social media handles.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing those. And I'll definitely include probably your Twitter in the show notes as well so people can find you easily.

What advice would you have for people who are looking to start something similar in their local community? And again, feel free to pick the theme you want to talk about when you're giving the advice, but just to get the community involved.

If you talk more broadly, you know tomorrow you, somebody wakes up and they want to get the local community involved. How do they start?

Jez Myers: So many, many years ago when I was thinner and had a bit more hair. I, I used to get involved, with the DIY music scene in Manchester. And I'm very lucky. I've got lots of musician friends, as a result of it. And then I started putting on shows for small bands and some of those small bands went on to be very successful. But I started putting on for small bands. Occasionally I got requests from other bands saying, oh, you're putting on this band, can I, can we be the support act for it? And these were bands that I'd never seen or heard at any of my shows. And I was like, well, you don't support the scene. You don't come out, you don't show your face. Why would I possibly give that slot to you?

And so if somebody wakes up to mine, goes, I've got this great idea of this community initiative, then turn up in the community. Show your face, and volunteer your time. Build those networks. Because you can't just go, I've got this great idea, and expect everybody to go, oh, well you've had this great idea. We're just gonna all fall in line behind you and do everything we can to heat praise on you and, and help you with it because there's a vast number of great ideas.

You know, for the spirit of Manchester, I see 150 to 200 of them every single year. And that's just within the Manchester City Council area. But what you need to do is you need to get out there in your local community, speak to your local councillors and say, look, I want to get involved, volunteer meet people, show up for your community, and then say, look, and I've had this idea. You are the right person for me to speak to. Because, you know, and people will listen to you because you'll have a reputation, you'll have a name for yourself at that point. You can't just sort of start from nothing. You've got to almost give back before you start taking or trying to take. Even if your taking is for an altruistic purpose.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That is such a good tip because like you said, you need to build that relationship, that community stake, and show that you care. Before you say that, let's rally around my idea. Really, really great tip. Thank you for sharing that.

An opportunity now for you to share anything you want to talk about in the next few months. What are you focused on?

Jez Myers: Yeah, I think, I think for me, for the next few months, And, and again, I suspect for the next few years now, my life is, is very much going to be Ukraine. I don't know when this show is going to be coming out but right now coming over our shoulders very, very quickly is a major problem for Ukrainians who have come to Manchester, Greater Manchester and come to the country in general. There is a distinct lack of hosts and those hosts who agree to do six months or eight months or nine months are starting to get to the point where they need their properties back. The government has fobbed off responsibility for finding alternate accommodation for Ukrainians to local authorities without providing local authorities with the additional funding that it requires to be able to find alternative accommodation.

A lot of people come over in the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which means that they're in nice areas. They're, they're in your Chorltons and your Didsbury and, in Stockport, they're in your Bramhalls. And they're settling in and, you know, they're basically being told, well, your chances of renting privately in these areas are zero. There's just nothing there.

So, yeah. And so, so we have this issue where Ukrainians, they're in nice areas, they want to stay. They've fled a war, some of them with absolutely nothing. They've come to Manchester, they've come to, we'll say Bramhall and they want to rent somewhere and they've got a child, and a child's in school and they're putting the trouble behind them and they're making friends.  And the councils are turning around going, well, you, you can't live in Bramhalls because there's no money to support you to live in Bramhall. And it's very, very tough when they've been here 3, 4, 6 months and they're just setting up their lives. They're just putting their support networks in place and they're being told to move on. And I think more people need to be talking about this because ultimately if they can't rent privately and, and they don't have money for a deposit, they don't have three months or six months rent upfront. They don't have a guarantor. So even if they can find somewhere that they're really, really struggling and it's a situation that the government is burying its head in the sand. The councils are turning around and going, to be honest, we kind of thought the war would be over in two to three months and everybody would've gone home in some format. So we haven't really got a plan in place and we don't have the funding for it.

And you are finding that Ukrainians now are having to register as homeless, which is a whopping financial burden on the local authority when really it needs the government to turn on and go, you know, we are giving you, as councils a bunch of money to continue to support Ukrainians in their accommodation or in alternate accommodation or to up the payment to host so that they're kind of feeling like they're getting better value for money, because they do get money, but the cost of living has meant that that money doesn't feel like it goes nearly as far as it used to.

We are doing what we can to, support these people who are here and really, you know the next few months for me, I think in, certainly in the UK, is going to be helping Ukrainians to find alternate accommodations, keep settling, and on a wider level. For Maria and myself, we are busy trying to write a book on what it's like to flee a war and the decisions that you have to make and what it's like to, well, for Maria, certainly to say goodbye to your family, knowing that you may or may not ever see them again. And then off the back of that, we'll also hopefully going to do a documentary on returning to Ukraine and meeting those people who stayed, meeting those who left reuniting with Maria's family, and finding out how we can support them. How a country goes about rebuilding itself post-war, because that's going to be another challenge. Many, many challenges, many things for me to get my teeth stuck into.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing all that. And in fact, we've had many homelessness charities, including yesterday. I interviewed the CEO of Barnabas, so I understand that itself is a big problem. And then if people are being, you know they're losing their accommodation and or their short-term accommodation and going into homelessness. That's just adding to the problem. And I can understand it's like a second crisis, isn't it?

Jez Myers: It's an additional burden. There's already a crisis in terms of accommodation, housing support costs, rents are going through the roof. That then is not sustainable. A complete dearth of social housing. I was told today that there's a waiting list of 7,000 in Stockport. And then, you know, because of the way the system's setup, because Ukrainians have come not through the asylum process where they would get accommodation at the end of that if they're accepted as refugees, but through the visa system. So it is just going to be another group of people. So in, in Manchester, you've got 450, 500 Ukrainians in the council area. If half of those end up or even a quarter of those end up in, in, you know, the homelessness system, it's just going to be yet another burden on that. And it's just, it's, it's something that, you know, ultimately all of these things can be avoided by the government putting a hand in their pocket, but they're currently hell-bent on removing services and reducing services and cutting services rather than realising the wider impact, because that doesn't get them the headlines.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm going to now switch gears and go to my signature questions that I ask all my guests. So the first one is, can you describe the Mancunian spirit in a word or a phrase?

Jez Myers: Yes, weirdly there's a Mancunian artist called Mancsy, and I don’t know if you've ever heard of Mancsy. But this is somebody who goes around doing very much pro-Manchester prints and, ever so often they auction them off, but often they just print them out and then put them up around Manchester.

And many years ago, I was asked to give a quote off the back of winning the Manchester City Council Pride of Manchester Award. And it appeared on a poster alongside actual genuinely famous Mancunians. So it was quite weird because there were all these famous Mancunians and, and Peter Hook and Liam Gallagher and, you know, Busby, whoever, and then me.

And I just simply said, Manchester - justified arrogance. and I stand by that Manchester's a great place and we know it. And there's nothing wrong with being arrogant about how great Manchester is because it is a great place.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that. That is a unique one and thank you for sharing that. It is a lovely place. It is even somebody who's been here a year definitely feels like the community has embraced me in some small ways. So, thank you for sharing that

Jez Myers: Which is wonderful to hear.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely. Can you share a Mancunian who inspires you and tell us why and could be living or dead?

Jez Myers: Generally, I prefer my Mancunians to be living. So we'll go with that. I think for me and not actually Mancunian technically, but an adopted Mancunian. And I will grant her this. There's a lady called Ruth Ibegbuna, and she was a school teacher, and then she founded a charity which was absolutely fantastic and it did a huge amount for inner-city children. But more recently she's founded the Rekindle School and it's based in the Manchester Museum. It's all about providing alternative pathways to education and improving education, giving opportunities to those people who wouldn't normally get them. And the school's just launched and, and she inspires me because she gets things done.

You know, she has an idea and she follows through, and she's just an absolute powerhouse of a woman. And you know, we've met several times over the years, but every time I just kind of have stood there, you know, and just go, honestly, you are just great. I just wish I had your passion and your strength and your focus and your drive.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: She sounds like a great guest for Meet the Mancunian podcast. Hint, hint. It'll be great if you can introduce me once she's a little free.

Jez Myers: Certain, certainly I'll connect you.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That’ll be lovely.

What's the most important life lesson you've learned?

Jez Myers: Honestly I think there's two, one life often really, really, really sucks. And it's not a life lesson that you like to learn. But, everybody, everybody has it. Everybody has something that happens in their life that comes out of nowhere and knocks them for six. You know, it happens to everyone, whether it's an, you know, an unforeseen breakup or for me I, I will never forget the day when I got a phone call from my ex-partner telling me that my son had a bit of a rash, but it was nothing to worry about. She was going to get it checked out and she called me back a couple of hours later and said, yeah, you need to get yourself down, to Birmingham Children's Hospital tomorrow morning because we think he's got leukemia. And you never forget those things, and everybody has them. And, I don't think anybody sails through life without having something.

And, it's learning to deal with that. So, really it's learn to deal with emotional challenges, but I think for me, the bigger life lesson is to learn how to structure an email and a letter and a complaint. And I know that, that, you know, off the back of me talking about emotional stuff and I'm sure your guests talk about really important life lessons.

But honestly, if you've got people who are listening here. Everybody wants to complain. Everybody wants to write a letter. Everybody wants now to get things done. And there's no wonderful, scary, surprising science about it.

But if you structure conversations in a way which are, you know, what is the problem? How did it impact me? and what I would like you to do about it? It's absolutely fantastic. So, I get requests for speeches or talks or interviews or whatever. And people start and they give me a long rambling backstory to it and I'm like, just tell me what you want and I'll tell you whether I can do it or not.

I find that when I'm dealing with people, if I structure my emails  saying, look, this is the problem. This is how it's impacted me. This is what I'd like you to do about it. 

And, it works for everything. You know, this is the event I'm running. This is what it's for and when it is, and I'd like you to come and do a talk for me. And, I think the more people that realise that, I don't need life stories. And other people don't need your life story. They just need to know what you want from them.

And people are very, very shy, particularly when complaining. They'll say, oh, well my laptop's broken and it meant the kids can't use it and all that. But they don't actually say what they want you to do about it. Do you want it replaced? Do you want it repaired? Oh, this company's treated me badly. Okay, so, so you wanting money from it. What, do you want out of this interaction?

And I think there needs to be more people who realise that, you know, if, if you if you want something, you need to be prepared to ask it. But you need to ask for it in a structured way, which is, this is the problem, this is how it's impacted me. This is what I'd like you to do about it. And I think that's my life lesson for today, you know, follow that mantra and you can apply it to pretty much every conversation and you know, then you can have your expectations managed.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think t that's a really practical tip and you know I'm thinking already about how many applications there are of it. So thank you so much for sharing it. I'm sure listeners will really appreciate that as well. And I guess you make it easy for people to help you or not by making it clear what you are asking for, because otherwise, if you are indirect, people, the other side guesses? And that may or not be what you're looking for.

Jez Myers: Yes, and I think I built it up off, off the background of somebody once saying to me many, many years ago for conversations, they said, rant, advice, solution. And, I live by it, and it's something that just makes so much sense to me, which is when somebody comes to you.

I've perennially been awful at relationships, I really hope Maria isn’t listening to this, but I’ve been awful in relationships because my communication wasn't effective and it wasn't effective because people came to me wanting to rant. A partner came to me and they wanted to rant. They had a bad day at work, and I offered them a solution, but they didn't want a solution. They just wanted to rant. Or sometimes they wanted advice. How do I go about solving it? and sometimes they wanted a solution. But if you are not clear about what your expectations are from, from that from, from somebody asking you that then, then it's very, very hard to manage the conversation, to manage expectations.

And the number of times and I'm sure you are the same and, and you'll know many people there. The number of times I get a phone call from my mum. And she goes, well, I was just thinking about this problem that you have and maybe you could try doing this. And I'm just sort of sitting there on the phone and gasping going, but I never asked you for advice, on this situation? And I certainly don't want you to be providing solutions. Why are you phoning me up and wasting my time with that? And, and, you know, it's, indicative of poor communication, which is, you know, if I wanted a solution from you, I'd say, hi, what do I do about this?

So, it's learning that pathway. I think I learned from that, the pathway to clear and effective or clearer and effective communication (I’m still learning).

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Great tip, as we said.

If you could have one superpower, what would that be?

Jez Myers: That is a wonderful, wonderful question. I don't know. You've got to kind of go, well, the, of the obvious ones are being invisible or time travel. But I think that, that if you, if you're talking about genuine sort of superpowers, most of them are, you know, you, you kind of want to go. How can I use my superpower for good? What can I do to benefit? Because superpowers, when people are asked that, they go superpowers, I can do something really selfish. I can go back in time and change that. Or I can go back to the future style where I can buy a sports album and I can predict, predict future results, and get loads of money or I can be invisible so I can harass people. And I think that would be brilliant actually. I think being invisible so I could just harass my friends and make them think there's a ghost. And ultimately it would be me. That would be brilliant.

But again, I think it comes down to, I think for me, the communication, which is the ability to, I wouldn't say read people, people's minds in an intrusive manner. But just to kind of find out what do people want and therefore, you know, again, you can help people so much by understanding what they want, what their problems are in doing that. So, I'd like some sort of weird pseudo-mind-reading thing, but one that could only be used for positive purposes.

Failing that, it's not really a superpower, but I'd have loved to have been in Quantum Leap. I don’t know if you've ever seen the TV show, but that'd be brilliant. It's a man who goes back in time and he leaps into the body of somebody who's got a problem and he has to solve the problem and make a different decision to the one they would've made so as to not have a massive negative impact on their life. And it was an old [nineties, old nineties TV show and it's just had a reboot, which hasn't come out in the UK yet, but I may have seen a couple of episodes, and the reboot's rubbish, but the original is absolutely brilliant tv. And so not really a superpower, but I'd love to be in Quantum Leap.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much, Jez. It's been a real pleasure to talk to you.

Jez Myers: Yeah. Perfect. Perfect for that.

Outro

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Jez, thank you for talking to me and my listeners. I really enjoyed learning about helping the community today.

Dear Listener, Thank you so much for listening to 4^th episode of the Meet the Mancunian Podcast, Season 4. I hope this episode & the podcast itself encourages you to follow your passions, inspired by the amazing Mancunian guests who feature here. Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode or log onto www.meetthemancunian.co.uk to listen to all the episodes and learn more about my podcasting story.

Next week, on Tuesday, 20th December 2022, the Meet the Mancunian podcast talks to Ruth Downs about financial well-being.

Please do leave a review or a voice message on my website www.meetthemancunian.co.uk. It takes only a few minutes. Thank you.