its ok to tlk: an interview with lewis warren of takona
Mental health is a topic that used to be considered very taboo, especially amongst men who were simply taught to ‘put up and shut up’ or that it wasn’t masculine to share your feelings with others. Thankfully, those days are long behind us, and whilst there are pockets of society that still look upon mental health with a dangerous attitude, there are people such as Lewis that are fighting the stigma around men’s mental health, and reminding us that it’s ok to talk.
Utilising cars as a catalyst for conversation, Lewis describes the concept of Takona as “creating a cultural difference through brand awareness, seeing [Takona] clothing, stickers, hats, lanyards etc. means you've spotted someone who believes that it's okay to talk. The more the brand grows, the further our message spreads.”
Whilst Takona is not a charity in itself, 10% of all profits from merchandise sales go to mental health charities, whilst regular collaborations with big names in the industry such as Mission Motorsport, REVS Limiter and more both bolster the brand name and awareness, whilst helping those in need through established charities and foundations.
Having been featured by the likes of Top Gear, EVO, Toyota and more, we’re delighted to have sat down with Lewis to discuss the origins of the brand, challenges he’s faced, and what the future holds for both him and Takona.
Image via Takona.co.uk
[SHIFT] Lewis, thank you for agreeing to be a part of our behind-the-scenes interviews with brands, creatives and individuals within the automotive scene. To start off with, tell us a little about yourself - who are you, and what is Takona?
[Lewis] Its’ a pleasure; I’m not used to being on the receiving end of that question! I’m the founder of the Takona clothing brand, which I started to help break down barriers around mental health using cars as the catalyst for conversation.
[S] You mention that you came up with the Takona name as a child - has owning your own brand always been the dream for you even from a young age, and did you ever imagine that the brand would grow to the size and popularity it is/enjoys today?
[L] The name came from an imaginary car company I created as I wanted to be a car designer. It was something I’d never really thought I could properly pursue, and when life got somewhat in the way I pretty much dropped the dream. Having a brand wasn’t on my radar of possibilities until I started Takona really, I hadn’t set out with a plan, just an idea and a hope that people would engage with it to do some good around the car community.
“I hadn’t set out with a plan, just an idea and a hope that people would engage with it to do some good around the car community.”
[S] From clothing to events, bespoke works and even a podcast, is running Takona a full-time enterprise for you, or do you manage it alongside another job?
[L] I still work 4 days a week while Takona grows, it’s not quite big enough to be a full time thing for me yet. I’m fortunate that the place I work allows some flexibility in what days I’m there and I can often move things around to cover everything. It was much more challenging before when I worked a 9-5 corporate job and I was constantly cautious of burnout and stretching myself too thin. One thing I’ve learned in my time doing this is that having time to enjoy your passions and the people you care about is much more valuable than a bigger pay check and better bonus, you can’t get time back.
I’m lucky that I have a fair degree of flexibility in things in my life, partly by design in choosing where I work and having clear communication with the team I work with about moving time around, etc. I’m also very fortunate that my family time is quite flexible, it may be less so in the future when I have kids etc, but for now I can manage things quite smoothly with a good bit of calendar management.
Image via Takona.co.uk
[S] When you were starting out, did you make any mistakes or have any ‘learning experiences’ that you still think about to this day? If so, how did you deal with them and learn from them?
[L] I have, and still do, make a lot of mistakes, it’s how I learn best.
Not being scared of failing is probably my biggest asset, I try new things and learn from them when they don’t go as well as I hoped. It is however one of the biggest challenges as everyone always wants their ideas to succeed and it still stings when they don’t. The lesson I’ve probably learned most from is about taking time to do things with more focus on quality and know when to stop if things can’t be good enough.
When I started the clothing wasn’t close to the standard it is now, and although I should have learned how to do it better, I probably wouldn’t be doing it at all if I hadn’t started off by doing it badly. I now know enough about what I’m doing to have a better eye for what’s good and what’s not, but again that comes from making these mistakes and learning these lessons.
[S] Flipping the previous question on its head, you’ve held some amazing events and worked with a plethora of famous faces, what would you say that your ‘highlight’ moment with the Takona brand has been so far?
[L] One of the highlight moments for me was when one of our Coffees and Cars events had taken over the whole village and I’d spent the morning running around managing traffic and getting cars parked up; having that many people turn up to something I’d worked with friends to create was incredibly rewarding and really solidified a lot of the work I’ve been doing over the last few years. It means more than the moments meeting big names and famous faces, it feels more well-earned.
“Focus on quality and know when to stop if things can’t be good enough.”
[S] Do you ever take time to stop, take it all in and think about how proud young Lewis would be of where you are now?
[L] From time to time I make an effort to reflect and appreciate things, it’s a valuable tool that helps keeps me grounded when I’m finding things tough. A few years back I was hardly involved with something I’m passionate about, I wasn’t going to events or meets, I’d somewhat gotten caught up in life and cars weren’t my thing like they had once been. Fast forward to now and I’m somewhat known for what I do in the automotive world, having spent time with people that make up the industry that inspired the young me to want to be a car designer all those years ago. I’m very appreciative of the experiences I have and the things I’m fortunate enough to do, and I think young me would be proud too.
[S] You define the purpose of Takona as promoting talking about mental health, in particular dealing with the stigma for men to talk about their emotions and struggles. Evidently, this is an issue close to your heart, but what was it that pushed you to create a brand with this purpose at its core?
[L] Mental health has been pretty close to my heart since my teenage years, firstly from having to battle the darker sides of it, then from working within psychiatric healthcare helping others go through those battles, when I was creating the idea for Takona I had a realisation that I could combine my passion for cars with my passion for mental health and use the cars to help with making conversations easier to start.
When I was going through some darker times my car gave me an escape and a way to make friends, it helped me get though the tough times, I had first hand experience of the benefits of the idea. It was that experience along with my time working to get people to talk about what they were going through that made the connection to using cars to get that conversation started.
I had spent some time working in logistics sales and realised that if cars became the subject of conversation it made things flow so much more easily, if it could work in that scenario, why couldn’t help get people talking to each other. The clothing is the merely the tool to let the other person know you’re a car enthusiast, and the brand lets them know mental health isn’t taboo.
@takona_official
[S] Moving away from the brand for a second, you mentioned on a recent Instagram post that you believe in ‘making your own luck’ - what does this mean for you and the way you approach day-to-day life?
[L] I’m a believer in creating your own luck, and not in a destiny kind of way, more of a “if you pursue things your passionate about, and are open to doing things that scare you, you’ll end up in interesting and exciting places”. To give an example (from the instagram post above to be specific), Derek Bell recently handed me the keys to his 924 GTS at an event. I had gone to the event as a photographer friend was there, and had gotten a ride into the event in a Maserati Bora being driven by another friend. This all came about because I’d agreed to go see a different friend about a different event, something that could have been a phone call but I like an excuse to see friends in person. These things all came about because I’m not scared to talk to strangers, chat over a shared passion, or in the case of Derek Bell, wander up to a racing legend and just say hello. I try and live a lot of my life around the idea of “what’s the worst that can happen” and if I can manage with the worst case scenario, I’ll give it a go and see where things end up.
This happened again just this week, I was wandering around a small town in Italy whilst on holiday and spotted an Alfa Spider, I stopped to take some photos and the owner (who spoke no English, and I speak no Italian) was interested in what I was doing, a bit of stumbling through some back and forth resulted in him offering me a ride to get coffee in the car, which we did, and it was brilliant. I couldn’t have gotten a more authentic Italian experience if I’d paid for it, and it’s because I wasn’t scared to see what happened after figuring out what the worse case scenario could be.
“If you pursue things your passionate about, and are open to doing things that scare you, you’ll end up in interesting and exciting places”
[S] From an outside perspective, the popularity and reach of the Takona brand is astonishing - even including an interview with Toyota - but on a personal level, how has running Takona changed your life and affected your mental health?
The journey I’ve been on with Takona has its fair share of highs and lows, as I have probably put a bit too much of my personal value into it so when things don’t go as well as I’d hoped it can hit pretty hard, fortunately I’m surrounded by amazing people thanks to Takona and those low points are often washed away quite quickly by something interesting happening.
As I’d touched on earlier Takona has taken me from somewhat outside of the car world to right in the mix of it all, meeting people I’d only ever seen on tv, or heard about in magazines, and doing things I’d never really dreamed would happen. Being able to make a difference in a community that’s around me has been a hugely rewarding part of this, every so often I’ll hear of a story that’s happened around Takona and it makes all the tough times worthwhile. I’m fortunate to do what I do and I hope I can continue doing it for a long time yet.
@takona_official
[S] Putting yourself out there as the face of a business is a big step for many; how do you find it being a ‘figurehead’ for both the Takona brand and also for campaigning for men’s mental health and telling us ‘it’s ok to talk” - What sort of response have you had from talking to people about the brand, and has anyone ever given you any negativity or push-back?
[L] Initially I had thought I could present Takona as a brand without a face, existing to be a tool for others, but I learned pretty quickly that the personable side of Takona is what gives it the character and encourages others to talk. I found that I hold myself more accountable to the values by being the face of what I do, and I try to be as genuine and authentic with it all as I can be, often having to have a word with myself for being a hypocrite when I hold things in when I’m not in a great head space. The only real query I receive from people is “is this a charity?” Which takes some explaining to clarify what it’s all about.
I’m fortunate that Takona has been well received by pretty much everyone so far, the only negativity I’ve received has been from people seeing the car on the motorway and not liking being encouraged to get out of the middle lane, emails often start with “what you stand for is amazing, but I didn’t like you pulling from lane 4 to lane 2 ahead of me”. This has happened frequently enough that the GT86 now has a sticker on the side saying “keep left unless overtaking”.
“I’m fortunate that Takona has been well received by pretty much everyone so far, the only negativity I’ve received has been from people seeing the car on the motorway and not liking being encouraged to get out of the middle lane!”
[S] Do you have any big goals or plans for the year ahead that you’d be happy to share with us, whether those goals are specific to you as the ‘man behind the brand’ or as goals for the Takona brand itself?
[L] I’m still working towards Takona being my full time thing, if I could achieve that in the next year I’d be a happy man. We’ve just reached 8 coffees and cars locations, getting to 10 would be a good target to hit, especially if we can find a partner near London as it’s the location I’m asked most about.
[S] We’re coming to the end of our interview, but as a final question about Takona, what is the best piece of advice you could give to anyone looking to start out as a business or as a brand owner?
[L] If you can, have a go and don’t be scared to fail, learn from the mistakes and do it better next time. Unless you have money behind you that’s demanding results, the worse case scenario is often that you have to try again anyway.
[S] Spread the love - shout out three people/brands/groups that inspire or support you.
[L] Sure thing…
Illustrator maker - a good friend who does amazing automotive artwork, and very kindly prints my artworks for me, someone who doesn’t see the light he shines on others often enough.
I have a group of friends within the automotive world, who have been hugely instrumental in me having energy in the tough times and keeping things going for things like coffees and cars when I’ve not been able to. I owe a lot to these people and there’s too many to name.
I am constantly inspired by the work of both Mission Motorsport and Revs Limiter, having spent time around both, the work they do is incredible and they help so many people in a variety of different ways.
Image via Takona.co.uk
[S] Last of all, if anyone reading this is struggling, or knows someone that’s having a hard time, what would your advice to them be?
[L] Firstly, use the helplines that exist, they aren’t connected to you or the challenge you face and can have no real world ramifications on you for using them, especially helpful in times of real crisis, but not the only time to be used.
If you can afford to, talk to a price counsellor, there are a few services out there aimed at lower budgets. The NHS is stretched so thin that it’s hard to suggest using it with any real sincerity at the moment, it can’t hurt to see your GP and try to get referred for NHS support, but it’s a long waiting list and unreliable as a resource (Coming from someone who’s on a three year waiting list for an ADHD assessment).
If you feel comfortable enough to do so, talk to your friends, they care more than you might think. Just think how much you’d want to help if they said they were struggling, that’s how they feel about you.
[S] Thank you so much for your time Lewis. Please plug any social media / sites that you’d like to share:
[L] All things Takona are @takona_official Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are our main three, and give the Takona Tlks Podcast a listen, I’ve had some cracking guests on!