Your Mind Matters – Alfie Ruffell, Ethical Business Entrepreneur

Welcome, I'm Dr. Maria Kempinska, and I am delighted to be able to talk to a young entrepreneur today. As anybody who knows me will know that I am not only a doctor of psychoanalysis and practicing psychotherapist, but also I'm an entrepreneur myself. And I— what I love about young entrepreneurs today, and you know, so my guest is a young entrepreneur, is that they are very much more aware of the social impact of the work they do, and they feel they have a moral obligation plus a social obligation, and they can make a big social impact, and that makes such a difference in the world today. However, it doesn't mean it's any easier. It doesn't mean you get more support either, um, and there is a big competitive world out there, and the big corporates know that without young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general, the wheels of fortune don't turn effectively. So without going into any more, we'll start our discussion with my guest today, who is Alfie Ruffle. He has created his own business called RioVitalise. So welcome, Alfie, and great to see you again as always. Yeah, well, thank you for having me on, Maria. Great. So can you tell us what is RioVitalise? So RioVitalise, uh, we're a wellness brand. We specialize in CBD products. Um, we're looking to change the landscape of modern-day wellness through the powers of cannabis, essentially. Okay, so cannabis has got this— there was a big fight over cannabis, wasn't there, a few years ago? You know, can it be brought in under the medical system? Is it healthy? Does it really help? All this controversy because you've got then the plant, which is a weed, which is seen as a drug. So let's put that to bed before we start. Tell me about cannabis. So, you know, listen, there's a huge, huge bad stigma around cannabis, and that essentially dates back to, you know, my nan and granddad's generation, essentially. Now, cannabis has been used for various different reasons for the last sort of 5,000 years, actually, when it was first discovered. It was only until about around about 1950s is when they decided to make a big movement about cannabis and how it can— there's some ridiculous stories out there, some very racial-driven stories as well, which was backed by the media back in those days. And as if— well, there's one story where, um, a young boy killed his whole family after having a toké, a joint. And these are, these are stories going out on the front pages, and people, people didn't know else to believe other than what the media was feeding, feeding them. So, and I think it's really stemmed from then, and then, you know, the last sort of 50, 60, 70 years of real hate on this plant. Now, this plant has over 100 cannabinoids and one of which gets you high, which is psychoactive, which is the THC. And understandably, there needs to be regulation, there needs to be precaution when taking that, that cannabinoids. But let's not disregard all the rest of the cannabinoids. CBD. Right, so we're going to talk about that. So let's just put the drug side, take that out of the conversation by saying that if people, and it has been known that if they smoke too much too regularly, It changes their brain mechanism. But we're talking about the drug. You're talking about the, you know, separating that. So the drug itself in the extreme can have psychotic effects on people if they have that sort of brain. And this is the problem. If you have a certain type of brain, that sort of drug can affect you and drugs can affect a certain type of brain. And, but that's not what you are talking about. What you are talking about is that you have extrapolated the good bits, basically the healing parts. Of them. Exactly. But however, um, so not a lot of people know this, but for CBD to work, you need all the other cannabinoids working synergistically in order for it to bind to the receptors within the body and in the brain. Now, what's happening and what you're seeing across the UK at the minute is that high street retailers— let's, for example, Holland and Barrett— You go into Holland and Barrett and there's a really cheap CBD oil there, but what the problem is, is that it's an isolated product, which means it's just CBD on its own. Now, like Holland and Barrett and like all the other high street retailers, that is what they sell, is the isolate. Now, we wouldn't— I wouldn't sell that isolate because we believe in full spectrum, because we know, and through many, many different testimonies, and there's a lot of research around it, that you need all the cannabinoids working together. Together. So THC is actually, although it's psychoactive and it can get you high and, you know, too much of it and high doses and doing it frequently, yeah, there will be a negative effect. But that goes for most things in life. Everything's about balance. But with traces of THC, with the legal limit, with the 0.2%, that is what helps the other cannabinoids actually get to work within the body. So I would never ever ever disregard THC, but what my business is, we, we focus on the other cannabinoids, which is your CBD, CBG, and as more research comes and, and we have more of a foundation for it, we'll be looking to step into the other cannabinoids like CBC, CBCA, CBGA. They all have their own unique natural healing properties, So we're just scratching the surface of the cannabis industry. I don't like to call it CBD industry because that's just talking about one cannabinoid. It's the cannabis industry. And, you know, there's so, so much to be discovered in that area. So, yes, what I want to make clear to everybody listening is exactly that. There's so much to be discovered. You've done a lot in the background and you have to follow regulations. So when somebody buys one of your products, it does follow regulations. So let's go back. How did you start? Because you're only— how old are you now? You're only, what, 27? Are you 28 yet? 28? Yeah. Getting old, mate. Yes. Yeah, that's it. Over the hill, that old thing. So when did you start? A few years ago, didn't you? Yeah, it started a few years ago, back in 2020. You know, I was running a business prior to Revitalise. It was a company called TRAC Finance, which stood for Take Responsibility and Control of Your Finances. I created a course which had to educate young people in money management, credit management, and just like sort of the financial wellbeing side of things. My business come to a complete standstill when COVID come about. Just because I needed to build case studies doing face-to-face courses. Well, that couldn't happen anymore. So I ended up going on and working on the railway. But in this time of running Track Finance, my dad fell seriously ill. He was given a 2% chance of survival. He was given 6 months to live. He was told he'd never be able to work ever again. He wouldn't be able to walk 250 yards a day without having to have a lie down and go to sleep, essentially. And once he was told that, we— him also has a very strong mindset, and he was actually in denial of what the doctors were telling him because he didn't feel nowhere near as bad as the way that they was going on. So he always had this mindset of, 'Doctor's got this wrong. He doesn't know who I am. You'd have to have a bullet to stop me,' that sort of thing. That's great. But with my dad, the reality of it is, you know, he was got, he had a doctor there and who's had 7 years of study and all this, all his experience. He's actually one of the leading heart specialists in the world. His name's Dr. Selim. He works out of St Thomas' Hospital. And actually my dad sort of got past the 6-month stage and was like, yeah, smash that target. I'm going to walk into his office and he's going to tell me that we can put him under for operation. Now he got himself all suited and booted, he walked into St Thomas' Hospital, he walked, he actually got a wheelchair to the door, then hid the wheelchair and walked through and said to Dr Seddon, right, I've passed the 6-month stage, right, what, what can you do for me? Dr Seddon turned around at that point and said, there's nothing we can do, there's no doctor in the world or surgeon in the world who would put you under the knife just because the reality is you're more than likely going to die. So Dad had to walk out of there sort of, you know, head in your hands sort of thing, thinking how he's going to come back and tell us like what he's just been told. We all expected that he was going to go for an operation and that we'd get everything resolved. So we come home and, you know, he was very sad and down about it all to start with, but we just, we decided that, right, Dr. Seddon and all the doctors before that said that he was going to die and he was going to, he wouldn't be able to walk 250 yards, he wouldn't be able to work, and he, he overcome everything they said in the first 6 months. We decided, look, you know, we needed to get him onto CBD oil, we needed to do not just CBD but just natural alternative medicines and just natural alternatives, so natural alternative therapies. So we started off, we sort of created a plan, we made We, first of all, it was a course of cannabis oils, and it was a Rick Simpson oil, which I don't know if people don't know what that is. It's RSO is the terminology, and it's essentially 1:1, so that's THC and CBD together. It is illegal in the UK. However, some of the testimonies that come off the back of RSO, we had to try it. We also got the CBD and the CBG oil which I actually sell now. We connected with a guy from, originally from Portsmouth, now has a farm out in Spain, or did have a farm out in Spain, and he was supplying that oil, and alongside the cannabis oils, I then put sort of a mental health and a physical health plan together on what we can do, so that was like affirmations, gratitude, visualization, We would get him, right, only walk 250 yards a day, so let's start down the seafront. Fortunate enough to live by the sea, and then, but we have benches going all the way up, so it would be, right, start at one bench, when you can't go no more, we stop, we sit down for 20 minutes, and we progressively build up, build up, build up. Dad's now doing 20,000 steps a day. It's 4 years later, the cannabis oils, we believe, saved his life alongside having such a strong mindset and a will to survive, which I think is very, very important. But prior to that, just smashing the 6-month mark, it, it, for me, I see for myself the proof was in the pudding. This product works. The phone reached out to me and said, look, entrepreneur, do you fancy a bit of a side hustle while COVID's happening? I had nothing to lose, I was working on the railways, so I decided let's do it. Quickly, I sold a lot of oils to a lot of people who was in a lot of need for it. And the results, some results within a few days, some results in a few weeks. And sorry, I lost you, I lost you there for a minute. Who approached you? Sorry, um, it was, uh, the farmer who was supplying my dad the oils approached me and asked, would you like to start it as a side hustle? And it was a no-brainer for me, you know. I was only working on the railways anyway, so quickly I, um, sold a lot of products and got a lot of unbelievable results, which— so let's talk about the results for your father. Okay, yeah, go into your business. Obviously, you know, sort of, you're now running a business. You started it and, you know, they've been— it's not been an easy journey, you know. So there's always complications, aren't there? But what did it do? What aspect of your father— what helped him heal? So not only did you have you and your brothers helping your father, and this is— let's put it— let's be clear about this. He tried everything medicinally that he could with normal medicine and they did everything they could. So it's not against that. It's just this is the last resort for you, wasn't it? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And if I'm honest, from what I know now, if anything, this happened to me, God forbid it doesn't, or anyone close to me, natural alternative would be the first resort as opposed to the last resort. Yeah. As opposed to the last resort. So, so what did it do for my dad? Well, One of the scans showed that my dad had grown his own, it was like a false aorta which would actually help pump blood to his limbs and to his brain. Now, none of the, no one's ever seen that before. He's actually only one of, I don't want to get this wrong, but it's probably one of, I think it's like one of 5 in the world to be able to survive the severity of his aortic split, and for him to form a new organ essentially that would help pump blood around the body was quite incredible. And doctors don't know what to say about it. Doctors actually said not to do the CBD because it was, because it was to do with the heart and it thins the blood. Now, Dad went against that. I think once you've been told something by the doctor that you, you won't survive this long and you won't be able to do this and you won't be able to, and you prove them wrong anyway, then they come at you and say, look, you really should be taking that. You're already, your mind's made up. You're going to do what you're going to do. And I also think with medicine, it's not one glove fits all. Everybody's different. We've all got different body types. So a lot of the time, let's say for mental health, for instance, because that's very good example is you go to a doctor, you wait for a few weeks, you get seen, they give you a box of tablets which really, have they looked into your body type? Have they looked into the specifics of what's going on? So I think going back to my dad now, that was his mind made up. I'm going to do me and I'm going to, if you're only saying I've got another 6 months, then I'm going to do 6 months on cannabis oil. You know, my dad started the RSO after 6 months, and he survived the 6 months. He decided to come off of the RSO oil because it was actually getting him high, and he was having, uh, psychoactive, um, sometimes nightmares, but trips. And, um, he didn't like it, but it got him to— it got him so far. And we then changed and just done a CBD and CBG oil, and If you see my dad now, you wouldn't think that he should be dead. I know, it's great, isn't it? So, and it was— the proof was in the pudding, as you say. There couldn't have been a more extreme example of life prompting you into starting this business. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it really, for me, you know, I was in a business that was all about education and this business, it can't be any different to education because the problem that we're facing is you don't— people don't know what to believe anymore. And I think there's been such a bad stigma of cannabis through older generations that it does filter through to the other generations, but my generation's starting to wake up. So my idea of my business is but let's educate the young people because the young people are more susceptible to learning this, they're more open-minded on this, and they all have mum and dads or auntie and uncles or cousins or family and friends that are all— they've all struggled with different ailments, whether it be Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, all have these problems. So if somebody that they love, just like I did for my dad essentially, then we can educate such a more broader audience with the young people. I think what a lot of CBD companies are doing, they market into the over 40s and 50s because they are, they've got more ailments and more conditions, so they're, and they've got more, more money, and they're also more health conscious at that age understandably what a great audience to target. But for myself, I'm looking at my business as a more generational business and how can I make more of an impact? And I think if I go and talk to the people who, the target audience that I relate to, more similar age group, like more sort of working class people, then I'm going to be able to have more of an effect to be able to educate, inspire, motivate them them to take oil, also their loved ones to take the oils as well. So, um, what was your first step? You started representing the business? Yeah, in doing the business. So, you know, you'd already purchased this and used it on your dad. You were given this offer by the farmer. Then I got a new opportunity from the farmer, right? That was to invest into the farm and essentially become a shareholder of the farm. And me and my business partner at the time— he is no longer, it's just myself in the business— but we at the time, we just sold our previous businesses. We had a bit of money there. We thought, you know what, COVID's happening. There's not a lot going on right now. We can— we've got a chance to invest into this and we'd actually have our own oil, which is grown on our own farm. What an amazing brand story. So we decided to invest into the farm and didn't go to plan. Not like most things in life, if I'm honest with you. We invested just over 40 grand and all the seeds got held up in America, which meant that we couldn't put the seeds in the ground until late June when it should have been going in around about late May. And the result of that is that the roots burnt out. So rather than having like 4-foot plants, 4, 5-foot plants, we was having like a foot plant and with barely any flower on it. So that year was a failure, disaster, should I say. But we believed in what we was doing, and we knew that we was held back by things that was out of our control, essentially. So then we decided, right, and the farmer then got in touch again and said, right, we want to go again, but we, because we haven't got the cash flow from last year's crop, we need to raise more money. But in doing so, if you help us, we'll give you 25% of the farm. Now, 25% of this farm, this farm is the most unique farm in the world, and I'm, I'm confident in saying that because, reason being, it's built on a biosphere reserve. So the only cannabis farm that's backed by UNESCO, a global government. You have to be organic and natural, so there's no pesticides, no fungicides, any agricultural chemicals being used whatsoever. We've got a river that runs parallel to the farm and feeds all of our crop. We've got that water which is free to us till 2060 and also one of the most purest rivers in, in the whole of Europe. It's a 200-acre farm. We've got loads of different botanicals growing on there. We was like, right, we need to make this year work. We raised a quarter of a million, me and my business partner, between us, brought a lot of people to the table, a lot of people from Portsmouth, and crop was going really successful. The farm was underfunded. The project was underfunded. We made it work. We had a— we didn't really have a proper drying facility, so we had to make, um, make a few things work. We had to partner with somebody else and use their facility. Long story short, to sell the flower, to get the best, to get top money for the flower, you have to trim the flower. So you have to make it look presentable, take the leaves away from the flower, take the stalk away from it. And that is what everyone does around the world. Now Spain, for whatever reason, I'm not going to get into the bureaucracies of it all, they decided to change the law once they knew all these small farmers around Spain had done exactly that, took the— which is where the farm is, which is where the farm is, sorry. Yeah, so we've done that, law changes, and they said if you take the flower and trim it and take it away from the stalk, then that we're going to look at this as if you're manipulating the the plant in order to sell it on the black market. Right. So we're sat there with like a ton, just over a ton of flour, which now is being deemed as in the Spanish law that it's THC and it's highly illegal. Well, that is a huge problem. It meant we had to skip all the flour and store it in one facility and keep it there hidden essentially, and we need to get that now cold pressed into an oil, which then we can sell legally, of course, regulated and all the GMP certificates and everything else. So that was again another disaster, um, and we're actually— I've just raised a load of money to get a cold press extraction machine. We've got the facility, we're just literally processing that as we speak. So where I'm getting to with that is, so your first question was what happened next when you started your side hustle. We invested in a farm. We spent till— I actually spent myself the last 3 years on the farm working there. I've done like a month on, month off sort of thing. I had my retail business in the UK. My business partner was meant to be sort of running things and keeping a hold of things in the UK. But out of nowhere, he sort of pulled the plug and said not for him. He wants to go back to the construction industry. So I was left in a position where, right, I have an opportunity here where I can either stay on the farm where I'm a 25% shareholder or can go back to the UK where I'd be 100% shareholder and retain all my shares with my ex-business partner. And I decided to go back to the UK. Reasons being is because there was a lot of stuff that was out of my control on the farming side. However, a new opportunity has arisen from the farm. Now, it had its failures. So now, the farmer had gone and taken over, taken over the facility where our flour is now, and he's left the farm. So the farm's back up for sale, and I'm in the process of looking to take that over and being all revitalized where we will have a sort of a vertically integrated business, 360-degree model, seed to shelf. And I'm going through the processes now of, um, of, of taking that over. So, but also you did have, um, some— wasn't it a pod or something in Portsmouth where you were selling? So, you know, so, you know, you're not just doing this as a producer, you actually know that it sells and you get the feedback from that. So what did you sell and where was it? So we live in Portsmouth, um, and the seaside, um, South Parade Pier is just so busy in the summer. And walking by one morning with my dad actually doing his exercises, and I see there's just a little turret kiosk, 6 foot by 6 foot, and I see it was open, but arguably the busiest footfall in the whole of Portsmouth. I inquired about it and decided quickly, right, let's— because of the stigma around cannabis and CBD and the unknown and people just not being educated on it, I decided, right, if we turn this kiosk into a smoothie bar, but we add CBD to the smoothies, when people come for a smoothie, we ask them if they want CBD. Majority of the time they don't know what CBD is. Then you go, CBD comes from the cannabis plant, and then you see the face drop, and then you start to, then it's a perfect opportunity to start to get the conversation rolling and start to educate in and build an awareness, not just for the brand, but awareness on just cannabis and CBD and how it can help anyway. That was really successful the first couple of years, and it, it was again, it was during lockdown. So at that time, everyone was— no one had nothing else to do other than walk up and down the seafront. So we really honed down on that opportunity. And the first 2 years, like I say, during COVID it was amazing, amazing business move for us because it raised our profile. We got lots of followers, we earned good money, and essentially picked up created a community, which is, I think, that's the most important thing about this business. It's curating a community. And down that kiosk, we've done that. We also, we've done a lot of, like, fitness classes, meditation classes, breathwork. And we were sort of promoting the whole holistic health and wellness, not just CBD, but for everything. Which gave us a good name for ourselves. But I've recently decided to shut the kiosk down and now hone all my time and energy onto the online stuff because I just know that we can make more of an impact online, reach more people, inspire more people, and motivate people to live a more healthy, balanced lifestyle by building video content as opposed to just having our plot in Southsea, if that makes sense. And, um, that's where you are today. So that's your business life, which has its stresses and strains. What about your personal life? You helped your father through an incredibly difficult time, you know, and getting the focus on that. How did you manage to keep both of those going in your head? Just having the mindset of it's all part of the process. This is life. You have your ups and downs and, you know, shit hits the fan. Oh, sorry for my language, but, you know, it hits the fan. Proverbial 'hits the fan,' that's right. It does. And, you know, things can be going great and out of nowhere a tragedy can happen and it just knocks you off course. Now, For me, with my dad, I think it was the first 6 months was the hardest because every phone call or every missed call on his behalf, you've quickly jumped to, has it happened? Has Dad gone? You get a phone call from Teresa, his other half, and you think, oh shit, why is she calling me? And you constantly have that worry and the doubts and is he gonna After that 6 months, you start to come to terms with things. And then you start to realise, right, he's beat that mark now. Whatever time comes after this, we're just lucky to have him here. And you start to build that mindset. But that's one thing that happens. But that's one thing that happened in my life sort of building the business. But as we're sort of 2, 3 years into it, Something that was really hard for me was, you know, my business partner leaving out of nowhere, having to go back to Portsmouth, leaving that dream and vision of what I thought was happening at that time, having to leave that to go back to Portsmouth to then have to run a team of people and also having a quarter of a million pounds of investment there I'd raised that I felt like because my ex-business partner had left, I felt like it was all on my shoulders. And it was a lot of people in Portsmouth, a lot of young people. I felt like a lot of the word was getting out. And I felt people, and it's probably more so in my own mind, but felt people were talking. And I started to, I started to develop social anxieties. Listen, I come from a big family in Portsmouth. We know everyone around town, so every time you go out, you're bumping into people, and it's always a common question, 'How's business going?' or 'What's going on with the farm?' And it got to a point for me, it was getting so bad, I didn't even want to, to go out and leave the house, really. And then I started developing my own mental health problems, I believe, and at the time, I wouldn't have liked to call it depression, But I actually seeked out advice and got with a therapist, somebody who I'd actually known for years. So luckily enough, I was, luckily I was fortunate enough to be able to connect with someone on a real personal level who understands me and who I have a lot of respect for and love the way that they sort of present themselves and how they articulate themselves. So, because I know in that world of sort of trying to find a therapist, I hear that you have to kiss a lot of frogs. Oh, from my own circumstances, I didn't. And I had a guy called Brett who really helped me out and made me realise and take a step back and realise what it's all about, how to manage my own mental health and my own thought process. And that is really of recent, just before launching my business. So couple of months ago, I was in a place where, you know, I'll openly say it now. And the reason why I'm open to say it, and I'll come on to that in a sec, is because it needs to be spoken about, is that I was struggling so much that I found myself in a place where I had literally, I felt like just giving up. And I'd be on the edge of my bed, head in my hands, and I'd actually have a tear. And usually it's, you know, it's hard for me to say this now and articulate it as a man and as sort of the environment that I've grown up in. I was told to go cry in the shower. That's where you do your crying. And that was essentially, and I always had that for me. And if I was upset, even saying that, I'd go in the shower and I'll maybe sort of let my emotions go. Now building this business and when I have a focus on mental health, I understand more how important it is for us to be able to just speak honestly about our emotions and about how we're feeling about at that time. So just prior to launching this business, I had my own little ups and downs. Finances cause huge stress when you're building a business. You've got no cash flow, you've got bills coming in, you've got people moaning about investment. It all comes on top. So I got through that, and now we've relaunched the business. And then the day I relaunched, I had a major operation on my shoulder. So that was meant to be me out for 2 weeks. Me being me, stupidly was like, yeah, no, I don't need 3 weeks. I'll have the weekend off and I'll be back in the office and I'll be back working. And that actually cost me becoming more ill because my immune system was overworking to try and heal my shoulder. And then I'm trying to work and trying to do too much at once, not giving myself enough time to recover. I then picked up a virus which then put me in hospital, which they believed that I had sepsis at the time. But it turns out I had some sort of bacterial virus in my wee. And yeah, I was out cold about 2 weeks. So I had a month where I've launched a business, but I'm not actually really working the business. So that was hard in itself. And then last week, just over a week ago now, really good mate of mine who I grew up with, Mason Peddle, God rest his soul, committed suicide. And this is a boy in town who, arguably one of the most loved boys in town, knew everyone, absolute character, one of the funniest people I've ever met. He's compassionate, he's successful, he's good-looking, lads, he's got a good body, not You know, he had everything. Why is an answer that we're never going to get. And yeah, that, that for me was really hard because, you know, trying to focus my business on mental health and having this new focus on, on the business and because I know I've had my own struggles and then for that to happen was like, made me really realise how much of a problem it is, especially for young men. And since Mason's committed suicide, 5 other people have committed suicide in Portsmouth, and all of them being men. And whether Mason gave these people the confidence, I'm not too sure, but Is it coincidence that they all died within a week from suicides? I don't know. But yeah, it's— how's it affected everybody around? It's your friends, because you had a big group of friends, didn't you? It's crazy. You know, Portsmouth is— it used to be one of the most dense populated cities in the world. You know, so it is a very close-knit community. I always say, if you fart, someone will smell it. So it's that sort of community. People hear about— we won't bottle it, don't worry Alfie, we won't bottle it. Everyone's got together, everyone's heartbroken, you know, friends who I haven't seen for so long. And something that eats me away is Mason was meant to come around my house a couple of weeks before, around my around and talk about my birthday because I wasn't going out the house because my shoulder and everything else, and he didn't pop up. And then was, you know, you rearrange plans and you don't quite get around to it. Me living in between Spain and England and focus on business, I've sort of distanced myself from all the people growing up really, and it's such a sad thing to not be able to have that connection with him for the last few years. Do you think a lot of you I deal with a lot of suicides. And, you know, thank God that during COVID I was able to help people through that. And I was a Samaritan at 18. So, you know, and I wanted to find a way through that thinking, because it all— it sometimes all it takes is that moment. And I've done various interviews with people who've said, that's it, I was just gonna do it, and my dog woke me up, basically, or my dog nudged me, or something happened that stopped them. Do you, do you feel like that? Do you feel the responsibility? Had you been around, you could have stopped him? 100%. You always think that, and you think, you know, like I say, I've been so distant from everyone. I, I haven't been on, like, been talking and communicating with people, meeting up with them like, like you do with your friends. Um, so in that sense, I have— I wasn't around enough to be, but if I had been, then yeah, I'd love to think I'll be able to, to be able to point in the right direction, get them on the CBD oil to help find a bit of clarity in the mind, point them in the right direction to somebody like Brett or somebody like yourself, Maria. 100%, I feel like a responsibility, and I feel like there's even more of a responsibility for me to do that now at this moment. And you know, I love that, you know, so this is what I mean about having that social and moral mission that goes with your business, because the business opens the door. You've got the medicine, but also your approach. And, you know, it's terribly sad, it's heartbreaking actually, to hear that people want to get to the point in their lives that they don't want to continue. But also, from what you can do, is to open the door to people that can help. And it isn't an easy journey for people to actually make that step. No, no, listen, when, when your head is completely elsewhere and you're having the thoughts of suicide and then someone like myself pops up and, and tells you, right, you've got a decent label, it's not realistic for somebody like a young male to say, oh, you need to start doing yoga. There needs to be so much more around, say, around advising that person. I think we need to be educating and promoting people to check in on people more so as opposed to just the side of you've got to be doing this, get up and listen to— because, and I was doing this as well because a lot of my customers, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, CBD, it works amazing for these types of things. But what I would also do is like, I wouldn't put it down to like a real health plan, but it was more tips and tricks, what you can do, some books that I'd recommend you to read, some positive material to listen to on YouTube. Okay, can I ask you something? Do you think though also that people are very isolated? So that was triggered by COVID. I always said the biggest mistake COVID ever did in dealing with people is to isolate them. And do you think the majority of the people that have taken their own lives were isolated? And had somebody been with them— I'm not saying they could have done something because it doesn't always work like that, and we know from various people who have taken their lives that somebody, all they need to do is step outside the door and it happens. But do you think it's less likely I think, yeah, I think it would be less likely if he wasn't so isolated, 100%. But we talk about COVID and COVID, don't get me wrong, we were isolated, we were put, we wasn't allowed out of the house at one point, but these phones is what's isolating us, you know. We're living, we're living on our phones nowadays. We've all picked up addictions to the little dopamine hits you get when you're scrolling scrolling. And the problem that comes with it is, and the reason why I say like the word isolated is because your life feels isolated compared to somebody else's when you're seeing them who actually from the outside, yeah, it looks amazing and they're going on holidays and they're doing this and they've got a great picture with their other half. But you don't know what argument they had that day. You don't know really the ins and outs of other people's lives, but everyone puts a front on social media. So there could be times where you're feeling isolated to even your friend group, friends group, because they're out doing this and they're out doing that and you're watching everything going on. And yeah, I think it's a multitude of things, and I think isolation is a big one. I think the stigma of men not being able to talk up is a massive one. Oh, okay, that's always been the case, so why now? So when you say why now, as in why now, why now, why? No, because men have always had that, you know, get on, stiff upper lip. It's the British way, you know. I mean, I grew up in a council estate and, you know, sort of, mind you, men nor women talked specifically about their hardship because everybody was in the same boat, you know. Everybody just got on with life. Yeah, can I tell you why I think why now? Um, and people question this and probably challenge it as well, but I think just our generation coming through are a lot more soft. Reason being, Maria, your generation didn't have all the luxuries that we, that we have now. We've got everything at a fingertip. You know, if your mattress is uncomfortable, go get a mattress topper and put it on and then be comfortable. Your generation would have to go and cut wood, go and find coal, would have to do the chores around the house, would have to come up against adversity and have to be able to deal with it in front of it. Our generation can hide behind a screen. Our generation can't be told off by a school teacher. Our generation has become soft and we've, we've come, what comes with that is you haven't got that mental resilience. We haven't got that mental toughness like that you brought up, that you brought up around because that seeps down into your subconscious. You become mentally tough by coming up against challenges. If we have no challenges, if we don't come last in a race which makes us realise 'Ah, we wasn't that good at that, we need to try better next time.' Our generation, everybody, everybody who comes first, everybody gets a trophy. Where's, where's the mental challenge? Where's the stimulation in trying to be better, progress in life? That's why I think now more than ever we can't be telling people to man up because we're not like the men of your generation, and I don't like— I wouldn't like to call myself that, but I think, I think you've got to be realistic in, in what the environments that we've grown up in against. So do you think, because you've got 3 older brothers, do you think that makes a difference for you? I think it makes a difference for me, definitely. Yeah. Um, I was speaking to my friend the other day, he's only 21, and, and I was saying to him, because he's got 6 brothers all older, and he's very much similar to that age group because they've been in that environment. Um, so yeah, definitely, for sure. So I, I mean, you know, sort of the people that I see nowadays, you know, a lot of women are to blame here as well. So it's not just a man thing, but this cosseting, this mollycoddling that's going on, and it is being influenced a lot by America. Over to us. But that whole thing, and maybe women need to look at that as well with their children, because if they're being brought up in the safety of their home, that's where they can make mistakes, and that's where they should be, you know, going down the slide and they hurt their knee, will get up and do it again. You know, we can't do that. I mean, in my family, I had two older brothers as well, so, uh, we all just got on with it, as you say, you know, you just get on with life. And I was working at the age of 11. Which you can't do now. Well, that's the thing with myself as well. I was also working at the age of 11. I was actually working— my uncle's got a yard where he's got all sorts of different businesses there, but we'd always go there, and as youngsters, my dad would make us work on the yard. And then by 12, I had a paper round. I was always grafting, I was always doing something, and I'm luckily enough, you know, that's essentially probably what's moulded me into the person I am today with my ambitions, my dedication, discipline. It probably stems from that. Now, like you said, you couldn't find any 11-year-olds working. You can't find 18-year-olds who actually really want to go and work. You don't. You can't find it. And the fact is you got more opportunity of becoming an influencer and earning money that way than going and doing the hard work. So, and there's— yeah, but if you, if you, if you do talk about influencers, they still have to get up every day, they still have to do the work, they still have to make sure, you know. So on one hand it's a little bit of a game, but on the other hand you still have to do the work. Of course, you know, so it's, it's actually choosing to do something. So you are a self-motivator, you're a self-starter. You're the only one in your family that runs a business, is that correct? Yeah. So where did you get that from? A lovely lady called Zena, who I deem as my second mum. I moved into her house when I was 13. Mum and dad broke up. Things at home were a little bit unstable at the time. I just absolutely love the ground she walks on, just an incredible woman, first chairwoman of the Navy, chaired Ofsted, chaired NHS, someone who— I come from a family with the Ruffles and that we're commercial and plant machinery dealers essentially, and when I stepped into her world and she really encouraged me and said, look, you're really bright. At school, I was, I was a down and out really in school. I missed all my classes, didn't really go, didn't get no GCSEs. And she was the chairman of Ofsted at that point, and I was living at her house, and I wasn't going to school. And she, anywhere she goes, she treats me as her own. And yeah, she She just inspired me and showed me a different world. She brought me to London and said, right, I want to introduce you to 5 different people. One's an architect. One's a property developer. We've got stocks and shares. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And she was like, what are you going to do? Right. I want you to get a map out. And she was like, right, I'll leave you at the train station. You're going to find your way around London. You're going to meet every single person. This is at the age of 16. And it blew me away just looking at all these big buildings, walking into somebody's office. And I was speaking to one of the because she had the connections and put me in touch with somebody who had an office made out of glass. You touch a screen and it all fogs up. And I was like, wow, this is, this is what I want. I want a taste of this life. And, and Zena really just, it was just all she'd done was encourage self-belief for myself and help me grow my own self-esteem. And I think that goes, goes for anybody. But don't you think it's, I'm sure, I'm sure your parents loved you and you know, saw how great you were as your brothers did, but somebody who's got different type of experience can recognize where you can go. Is that mental from somebody who's got that ability? So I, a lot of my clients that come in, their parents, they get on well with their parents or whatever hardships they've had, they're willing to overcome. But sometimes parents can't see the road for them. Because they haven't been shown a different road and the road that they're on isn't the right one for you. So that's what she showed you and also showed that you could actually do it. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I think that's where it stemmed from really. She— one of the guys was a property developer, his company called London Newcastle, and he was— he just said straight away over the table, he said, go back, get your maths GCSE, and go get a year or two's worth of experience in estate agency and by the time you're sort of 18, 19, you can come work for me. I was like, wow, I've got it already and I've started. So went straight back home. I'd done my maths GCSE and I got a year or two in estate agency. Whilst I was doing that, I wanted to show more and I've done an entrepreneurial course and And I completed it. I passed it. And once I'd done that, I also got headhunted to go and work for another company. And I was only 17 at the time. And they headhunted me to go and work for a company called the car finance company. And they had a separate thing called the World of Cars. Went there. They moved me to Manchester when I was 17 to go and train with one of the largest and and biggest-selling subprime car finance company. And done really well with them. And then the guy who owned the car finance company asked me to come down and manage basically anything below the Midlands. And I was only 18 at the time and it was a great opportunity. And this guy called me up and was like, right, your 2 years is up. You've got your stage, you've got your maths. And then I said, yeah, well, I've also been headhunted for this and I moved to Manchester. And I've done this entrepreneurship course. And he's like, you're not coming to work for me. I said, why? And this is Chris Phillips. And I love him as well. And I still speak to him today and he still mentors me. And he said, you're an entrepreneur, Alfie. You're not an estate agent. You're not going to come work for me as a property developer. I want you to go and start something on your own. And with that, I started a business in Yeovil. Started my own car dealership. And messed it all up due to naivety and inexperience. Yeah, but that's the, um, and probably a little bit of grief. That's the nature of the sort of the fool on the journey, you know. That's the beginning of any hero's journey. The hero inside ourselves is that person that takes our own life and makes it happen. But also, um, did you have— because, you know, when you grow up with brothers and I really believe this, or with other people like that, that you do have to fight for your space and it gives you that strength to sort of say, right, you know, I have a right to be here. You know, I'm gonna take whatever, you know, we get on with. And that's the great thing actually about growing up, you know, and this masculine element of forward thinking, that feistiness about life. And the masculine goes in women as well. You know, it's that drive. That, that energy that moves you forward is such a great thing that you've got. And do you recognize that with your brothers, that they helped you get there? Definitely. When you talk about fighting your way through when you're growing up, both, all three of us, always so into sort of self-defense, boxing. I've done martial arts and Sonny done Muay Thai for a bit, then Sonny done the UFC, and we grew up fighting in that. The house and it was always gloves on, it was always fighting and me being the youngest and them two being a lot tougher than me, I was always— but you have, you just got to stand up for yourself and take what's yours and if you know you're going to get a bit of a hard in, probably built up a lot of resilience young age, to be fair. Yeah, yeah, it's resilience, but also you build up— there's a bit of resentment, but that goes, you know, and all those things that can go wrong in a family, you know. So unless it's too extreme, and sometimes that is— can be extreme, but just that fact for fighting for your space in a family can be quite healthy. And that's where sports come in as well. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we So when I moved in with Zenna, there was a period of time after I left Zenna's and my dad basically, he had a property and said, 'So I'm moving in with my girlfriend, you three can live there all together and have one, be under one roof together.' Well, it was a very nice kind gesture from my dad. But it wasn't gonna happen. It was all going through PB, we've all got huge great big bunches of mates and we actually ended up becoming a little bit famous in town for having the rough dog parties. So if I wasn't throwing one, Charlie would, if Charlie wasn't throwing one, Sonny would. It got a little bit like, right, we need to get out of this house now. But now you're settled, you've got a partner? Uh, I haven't actually, no. Oh right, you did have a partner. So I did have a partner. Does it make it difficult on relationships? 100%. Yeah, that's something I wanted to touch base on. We're talking about entrepreneurship, we're talking about startups, talking about it with being in a niche industry. It's a lot of time and energy that needs to go into it. Can you be a great successful entrepreneur, a great loving partner, a great friend, a great family member to picking up the piece. You can't do it all. You can't be it all. You can't please everyone. And it's what's most important. Of course, family and friends are really important to me. Of course, my girlfriend was important to me. But as selfish as it sounds, the business is the most important thing right now at this priority in time of my life. Not saying I would, if I had to choose over family or business, it's a no-brainer. It's always going to be family. But where am I going to dedicate my time and where can that lead to is I made a conscious decision, very recent, that I can't be the, the loving boyfriend that she needs and give her that attention. And then in terms of, you know, family and things that you need to be able to prioritise time and everything else, but where is this business going to take me? How can that help my family? How can we make an impact on millions of people's lives? It's through this platform, Rio Vitalise. So do you want to tell everybody how they get hold of Rio Vitalise? So it's what, www. Yes, www.rio, which is R-I-O, hyphen, vitalise, V-I-T-A-L-I-S-E.com. Um, check us out on website, but also come and check out on social media. So we're on Instagram, uh, @riovitalize, so no hyphen, and that's across Facebook and Twitter, and we've just started going live on TikTok as well. So yeah, come and check out what we're doing. We're doing all positive sorts of things, educating and supplying some of the best, um, high-quality oils. Do you also have the facility to, um, do the analytics behind it? Do you get feedback from what works and what doesn't work? Yeah, for sure. You know, CBD, again, it's a natural alternative medicine. It's not one glove fits all, so dosages, they change from person to person. There's actually a study out there that there's 5 in 100 people will have a side effect from CBD, which may be diarrhea, it may be sleeplessness, less, maybe feeling tired. Um, so there can even be some liver problems as well. But until you know what, and until you try that out for yourself and whether it works for you, then you will never know. So yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, it's a great alternative, isn't it? It is. And you're working to make it as safe as possible, as nobody knows what they're going to take Ultimately, whether the medicine works, but medicine has its place as well. But yeah, can they talk to you? Can they get feedback? Can you give them advice? Yeah. So my email address is Alfie@Rio-Vitalise.com. More than happy for anyone to drop me an email with questions. I'm also doing free 15-minute telephone consultations which can be booked in. Where I can explain how CBD works, how it works with that specific type of ailment. So I think actually understanding what's going on in the body, and when you take the oil and you can actually visualize where that oil goes, where it binds to, what signals are being sent where, it actually makes you realize and understand that it's working. And then you, then once you have that, you've got the self-belief of of this is all going on and working in the body. So consultations are really good, but some people don't like talking on the phone, so you can DM us on any social media platform. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. And, um, for instance, yesterday I was speaking to somebody with Parkinson's. They have never taken CBD, heard lots about it, a friend has taken it, probably got it from high street retailer because of that reason. But, um, But I just— because he didn't want to chat on the phone, I just put a document together, right? How does CBD work? How does it work with Parkinson's? He's read through the document, now he's all guns blazing. He wants to take the oil. Alfie, you're definitely somebody to watch. One way or another, you're going to be successful, and I know you're going to make a difference. And I love the fact that you're also thinking on that social and moral basis. And I think anybody who needs advice should come to you. So Alfie Russell, Ruffle. Ruffle. R-U-double-F-E-L. Alfie Ruffle. E-double-L. You spell it for me. R-U-double-F-E-double-L. Please, please don't stop.