In this episode of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we chat with Milly Bannister, founder of ALLKND, a charity dedicated to supporting youth mental health through its free, online Good Mate Training program.

If you want to know how you can be a good mate for your loved ones and especially young people, or you’ve thought about what it takes to start a youth mental health charity, this episode is for you!

Milly also shares how ALLKND reaches young people directly via platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and shares insights into creative partnerships with brands to amplify their impact. The session delves into Milly’s origin story, branding, visibility, and the importance of strategic, creative partnerships in raising awareness for youth mental health support.

At the end, we share an exciting event we’re hosting to take our entire Shine from Within community, including you, through the Good Mate Training together!

REGISTER FOR OUR GOOD MATE TRAINING DAY ON SUNDAY 20TH OCTOBER 2024 HERE.

 

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Sound bite

[00:00:00] At the end of the day, a really great byproduct of doing good mate training and self educating is developing this level of compassion for other people who are going through different mental health challenges.

[00:00:12] And this Compassion for yourself as well, um, because once you kind of apply a language structure and you’re able to identify and label things, um, it kind of creates this distance between you and the experience or your mate and their experience. You’re no longer, you know, um, two in the same, you’re just another human being experiencing certain weather.

Podcast introduction

[00:00:37] Hello and welcome to the youth mentor podcast. This is your short burst of inspiration tips and research about teens for parents, educators, and mentors. I’m your host, Amanda Rootsey, founder of teen personal development school Shine From Within and coach to incredible youth mentors all over the world. From psychological insights to really practical advice, this is your moment of inspiration, motivation, and a few laughs amidst the ever changing world of teens and tweens.

episode introduction

[00:01:04] Founding a peer to peer mental health charity with Milly Rose Bannister. In this episode of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we chat with Milly Rose Bannister, founder of AllKind, a charity dedicated to supporting youth mental health through its free online Good Mate training program. Good Mate training was developed with developmental psychologist, Amy Kate Isaacs, who we’ve had on this show many moons ago.

[00:01:27] And with contributions from the university of Queensland. And it focuses on peer to peer mental health aid, covering topics like panic attacks, self harm and suicidal ideation. Um, as you’ll hear in this conversation, um, in her discussions with Amy Kate, uh, it was clear that a lot of young people come into therapy sessions, really stressed about what’s going on for their friends and wanting some tools on, on how to support their friends.

[00:01:52] And so that’s how good mate training came to life. Milly also shares how Allkind reaches young people directly via platforms like TikTok and Instagram and shares insights into creative partnerships with brands to amplify their impact. The session delves into branding, visibility, and the importance of strategic creative partnerships in raising awareness for youth mental health support.

[00:02:16] At the end, we share an exciting event. We’re hosting to take our entire shine from within community, including you through the good mate training together. So stay tuned for that. I’m so excited to all sit together on zoom, go through the training. It’s only an hour long. The training, our session, I’m sure will be a little longer so that we can have.

[00:02:35] little breaks and moments to process together and connect together. But, um, yeah, I want to get as many people as possible through the good mate training. And as you listen to this episode, you will hear why it just, it sounds amazing. And it’s, , it’s an incredible, incredible program. I’m so thrilled that I get to introduce you to Milly here.

[00:02:53] Enjoy the episode.

main interview

[00:02:55] Yeah. Welcome Milly thanks for joining us on the Youth Mentor Podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It’ll be really a real pleasure to chat to you and your listeners today. Thank you. Um, I’d love to hear more about ALLKND. Tell us, tell us about it. Yeah. So, um, ALLKND started really during COVID.

[00:03:19] Um, I had just come back from living in the States for a few years where I was attempting something similar, online, , with young people, but it was mostly just focusing on females. And then, During COVID, when I came home and kind of went back to the drawing board, , using my learnings from kind of this first iteration, , that’s when I sat down properly with our now board director, Amy Kate, who is a psychologist, , at the Mindful Collective in Paddington, Brisbane.

[00:03:49] She’s exceptional. And so is her team. And, , we worked together to look at what. , is currently out there for young people in Australia in terms of resources, , and, you know, programs, , and products that, um, benefit them In their wellbeing mostly and their mental health.

[00:04:10] And then, you know, we kind of started from there and, you know, being a psychologist, she, you know, sees young people every day, in her clinic. And, , so we had this kind of pulse report of like, what’s, you know, on the ground, what is happening right now? What. Psychologists being presented with when young people come to see them.

[00:04:29] Um, and you know, their parents, , put them on a wait list and then they, well, they have to get a referral first and then, you know, they get into the clinic and it’s costly and it’s like, you know, what is it that they’re. Talking about once they get in that room. And interestingly, she noted that a lot of the time it was, , young people coming to her and asking how they could make sense or help with a situation of their friends. So, um, it might’ve been eating disorder related or self harm related. And as, you know, someone who cares about and loves this person that’s going through this challenge, What does that do to you as someone who is not equipped or trained to safely be able to provide support?

[00:05:17] , and I went through that exact experience when I was 15, with my best friend at the time, and it was a really, really isolating, challenging, frightening, Uh, time for me and my development, and it, you know, it shaped who I am today. And I would do it again in a heartbeat because that’s what you do for people that you love.

[00:05:38] But I would much, would have been much better off if I had, had some sort of kind of peer to peer training, um, on how to effectively support my family. loved one during that situation. Um, and so that’s where Good Mate Training was born. And, uh, it is a certificate in peer to peer mental health first aid.

[00:06:05] And it’s, been written for young people, by Amy Kate and her research team and some help from the University of Queensland and their psych students and, , a research team. And it’s all been really, really thoughtfully put together. , with a lot of lived experience lenses applied over the top as well, um, from neurodivergence, , to, , Indigenous, , understanding of mental health and well being.

[00:06:31] Um, and so we’ve kind of iterated along the way and it’s been what, like, Three years in October, , since we actually launched, you know, the brand and the training, , and we’re only kind of finally just at a point where we’re like, okay, cool. We’re happy with this now, um, until a new lot of research comes out and we need to kind of iterate it once again.

[00:06:57] But that’s the nature of, education and, um, Including, you know, wellbeing, stats and research and ensuring that everything’s evidence-based. Um, but yeah, that’s what we do., all kind is a charity now as well. Um, and, um, our only product is good mate training. Um, I really was conscious of wanting to go an inch wide and a mile deep instead of going, you know, a mile wide and an inch deep.

[00:07:26] Um. You know, doing a million different things at once and trying to cater to everyone. When you do that and you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’re actually speaking to no one. And so recently, we adapted our strategy to start basically forgetting schools and moving away from Using our resources and our energy to try and knock on these doors that just would not open for us given the subject matter of our training, um, the system, I guess, and the institution isn’t quite ready for, as a generalization, it isn’t quite ready for, you know, the kind of just plain language that, um, you know, we would like to be talking about, um, mental health with, unfortunately.

[00:08:15] And so we decided to be social media first because we know that when we upload a video on TikTok, for example, um, that’s going to reach X amount of young people. ,and we know that for a fact, whereas, you know, going through schools, um, you have no. Certainty around the amount of energy that you’re putting in.

[00:08:36] Um, and that really affected our tone of voice and our language and our look and feel. And it enabled us to kind of find our kind of special zone and our niche, um, to be able to really own that space. And instead of trying to feel, I guess, polished and corporate and appease parents, teachers, donors, um, policy makers, our only kind of audience that we serve and aim to please is young people themselves.

[00:09:08] And so that, I guess, kind of paints a picture of, um, what all kind looks like and how we talk and, and what that experience kind of feels like for young people in our community.

[00:09:19] Oh, thank you for sharing all of that. It just, it’s, it sound, it does sound really deep. It sounds like you, yeah. There’s so much backing it and it’s, and it’s been, um, evolving over time and I certainly get that vibe from it straight away as well.

[00:09:34] That it’s, that it’s, um, , you’re going directly to that community that you’re impacting. Right. And for so many youth mentors, for so many people working in this space, they have to think about. The person that pays them. And so the length, like the language and everything you just said, then so much of it has to be directed to the schools or to the parents.

[00:09:52] Um, and so you’re, I feel like you’re one of the only ones that are getting to kind of communicate and connect directly with the impact community, which is, which is the young people and it comes across so beautifully and so fun. Um, and. I feel like you’ve got so much experience in this too, like I know, I know that I’ve been following you for a long time and you’ve got such a great following and, and, um, and voice and brand yourself, that personal brand.

[00:10:20] Do you feel like that? Oh, thank you. You’re welcome. Yeah.

[00:10:24] No, I think, I think it’s, um, It’s hard to do, and you have to be in the right position to do so, because like you said, if you’re relying on funding from politicians or schools, for example, then you have to make sure that your channels, um, that are reaching them are appropriate for them , whereas our funding comes from crowdfunding, so like community and corporate philanthropy and sponsorships and partnerships. Um, and so I guess. As we build our brand and we build our audience, um, we build as well at the same time, the amount of eyeballs that are on our brand as well. And then so you can kind of start leveraging that and saying to brands, well, and this has taken such, such a long time to get to it.

[00:11:14] It feels like a really privileged position to be in once you kind of. carve out your brand and you have some credibility around you and you have kind of this strong, I guess, um, confidence in who you are. That’s when you can kind of, um, put your offer on the table. And if a partner doesn’t align with it, then you can go to someone else.

[00:11:37] and that’s obviously just from a partnership perspective, um, whereas if you’re relying on a certain type of funding, then you have to be, you know, a lot more mindful of that. But I do think there’s probably some ways, like, I know there are some ways that you can kind of segment your audience across different channels as well.

[00:11:56] So we already do this with LinkedIn and Instagram, for example, and. The content that you’re speaking about right now is more of that Instagram and that TikTok. And that’s where we’re really able to, um, kind of show our personality and our true tone of voice. And then I would say LinkedIn is still very true to who we are.

[00:12:18] But it’s different types of content. So instead of doing a weekly meme roundup on LinkedIn, we would post something that’s a little more relevant to the industry or to our marketing campaigns or founder related content. So I still think there’s a way to do it. I think, um, you just have to be intentional about where, who are your market segments, where are they hanging out and what is appropriate for them and what do they see value in?

[00:12:45] Um, because. You can pull apart parts of who you are as a brand and a personality and all your different product and service offerings as well. And there will be something for everyone. You just have to find the balance to make sure that you’re not, um, you know, overcompensating and also missing out on the demographic that is probably the most important as well, like young people for us.

[00:13:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah, and I love that. Um, I love that it’s free too, the Good Mate trainings. Yeah, it is free. Yeah. Yeah, we kind of,

[00:13:25] well, yeah, we, we, we, it was originally 25 to do, um, and that was more when we were approaching schools so that we had a bit of a, Offering to take schools and go, okay, well, it’s 25 per person.

[00:13:39] Whereas if you package it up like this, it only costs 15 per person. And we’re kind of playing around with that. And also the idea of perceived value as well, because, you know, schools and even us as individuals and professionals, we see free courses and, you know, um, PDFs and eBooks and stuff. We see content all the time for free.

[00:14:01] And often when we. associate zero value with it monetarily, we also associate zero value with it content wise. Not all the time, but I mean, that’s just how our brains work. And so I was worried that people would associate no value with our training. Um, but now that we’ve kind of removed this middleman in terms of, you know, parents and teachers, we never wanted our end users to pay for it anyway.

[00:14:31] Um, so yeah, we kind of had no option, but to make it free and we’re a charity as well. So yeah. That’s an entirely different business model to someone who needs to generate revenue through a product or service, whereas we’re able to accept, um, you know, donations. So again, kind of a privileged position to be in.

[00:14:53] , and it also forces us to get a bit creative about how else we, um, drive revenue outside of fundraising, because yeah, you don’t, I guess, As a charity forever want to just be relying on the generosity of the general public like you kind of want to be self sufficient in some ways, which is why we’ve kind of gone more down the route of these creative and strategic partnerships and that’s honestly been my favorite thing that’s kind of come of the last 12 months with all kind is the.

[00:15:23] You know, finally finding our footing in who we are enough so that we kind of had this level of confidence, um, that people started to go, Oh, okay. They actually look like they know what they’re doing now. How can I kind of get in on that? And, you know, when you, I guess, outwardly tell people who you are, what you do and why you’re really good at it, people start associating you with that thing.

[00:15:50] Um, and so when we kind of. brand ourselves as this Gen Z led, um, peer to peer mental health community and, education, um, program. Um, there’s a few buzzwords in that, that people kind of pick up and go, Oh, actually I was looking for a mental health speaker. That’s the founder of all kind. Let’s go to her.

[00:16:14] Or like, Oh, we, we really wanted to get involved with events that, young people attend. Maybe Allkind does something like that. Um, and that obviously just comes with time and, you know, the iterations, as I said, and then also just posting about it all the time as well. And that’s where platforms like LinkedIn, can be really useful.

[00:16:36] And also the personal brand thing. Um, Like just being really, really consistent in putting content out there, um, as a founder. And I’m a huge fan of the founder content, the founder story, employee content. We’re seeing a lot of, um, you know, even commercial brands that we buy, you know, skincare from, um, or clothing.

[00:16:59] We see a lot of behind the scenes content now on, um, In spaces like Instagram and TikTok, and it builds this kind of affinity with a certain brand or product or organization because you feel an investment is in them as human beings, especially a founder, because you know that, you know, they’ve done X, Y, and Z to get to putting this event together.

[00:17:24] And then, you know, this amount of people showed up and you get to kind of share in these wins as well. So yeah, there’s a number of factors that, um, I guess. go into that. And I have answered your question in a very roundabout way, but I’m also just trying to think about, you know, how, I guess I can add value to, to other people’s stories, um, who might be listening right now as well.

[00:17:46] Um, to kind of, yeah, make sure that you’re building this kind of strong, um, brand, I guess, because that’s kind of. And what I come back to most is, is telling the story of, um, you know, your brand and then also the humans behind the brand as well.

[00:18:03] Yeah. Yeah. I know so many people, uh, so many of our mentors loved your session about this particular topic in the youth mentor conference earlier in the year too, because it’s so fun.

[00:18:14] Yeah. It’s fun. And it’s so important. You know, we, we just, um, we just finished up another round and in that marketing outreach kind of. Module. I talk so much about putting yourself out there in the beginning because the media will jump on it too. When you’re just sharing this story of why you’re getting started and it can feel so scary, but you are such a fantastic representative of what it can look like.

[00:18:39] And I think you do, um, even PR you do PR so well, like it, it’s not just Instagram or TikTok. Like you, yeah. There’s so much depth to it. And, um, I just love seeing everything you do.

[00:18:52] Oh, thank you. Yeah, I’m really, I guess, just trying to stay, as visible as possible. Um, and I think it’s really important to make yourself visible, as you said, even when you’re only just getting started.

[00:19:07] , the concept build in public, um, is one of my favorite kind of content series that people do because it’s like, you know, I love it. There’s nothing more relatable than, you know, another human being really passionate, being really passionate about something and saying, Hey, I have this idea and I’m really, you know, scared and I don’t know if it’ll work, but I’m going to just bring you along for the ride anyway.

[00:19:32] And then, you know, you get to share in those wins with me. It keeps you accountable because it’s like, Oh, I don’t know. I know that there’s, you know, some people in my community want to know how that went or what’s next. And I said, I would launch this by August and now I have 10 people on the wait list and I can’t let them down.

[00:19:49] You know what I mean? Like it’s, even if it’s only a few sets of eyeballs, like it’s still other human beings that care about your story and your mission and your, your purpose in, in building whatever it is that you’re doing. Um, and yeah, it can tie in really nicely with, PR opportunities and I, I just go through, um, I made it, uh, I was really intentional, um, kind of over the past couple of years, of trying to, um, add, um, My voice to certain stories, um, that would appear in the media.

[00:20:24] And I just did that by a source bottle, which is like this free, you know, PR site that you can sign up for and get alerts for. And I would just like keep pitching myself and, you know, things would come through occasionally and then, you know, Now I kind of have a few people who see stuff that I’m in and then they come to me now.

[00:20:40] So it’s kind of just like, you’ve really just got to, I guess, keep pushing on the content front. And when I say content, that could be anything from videoing yourself, , you know, packing orders or running a, um, me filming myself doing this podcast, for example, and, and publishing that on YouTube. Different channels wherever your audience is, um, or it could be, um, writing guest articles, um, or blog posts or, um, posts on threads, , which is like the Instagram version for Twitter, um, or LinkedIn, and I would definitely encourage, I’ve seen, um.

[00:21:19] I guess a lot of growth in terms of my network on LinkedIn over the past 12 months as it’s become a higher priority for me. I think that’s a good element of personal branding. And I think it’s something that we all go, yeah, that can probably go a little further down the pile of priorities. But I do think that staying visible on LinkedIn, especially as a founder is really important.

[00:21:46] Um, Yeah. I just, I just think people are used to that kind of content on LinkedIn. So it’s, if it’s something that you’re testing out, um, and you’re, you’re not, you’re not feeling ready, to expose yourself on Instagram or TikTok or wherever it is, I would probably test the waters with your story on LinkedIn.

[00:22:03] And it’s also a great place to ask for help as well. And that’s also something that I’ve tried to do more of this year. Um, and I’ve just been like, Hey, I haven’t asked, you know, Does anyone know a graphic designer or whatever it is? And then you can also be helpful to other people too. So it’s kind of like this nice ecosystem in which you can build your personal brand, but, um, whatever it is, like just, yeah, stay as visible as possible.

[00:22:27] I love that. Yeah. Keep stretching.

[00:22:30] Yes. It gets easier every time. Do

[00:22:34] you have an example of, uh, you talked about You’re focused now on creative partnerships. Do you have an example of that that you can think of that you could share with us? Yeah.

[00:22:45] So, um, Hmm. Um, the last one that we did, um, was this weekend on Sunday.

[00:22:54] , we have been talking to Frank Boddy, the, um, personal care brand, um, for a while now. They came to us and that’s kind of, you know, A perfect example of us saying, you know, even just little things like our bio Gen Z mental health so that when they type in Gen Z mental health charity, we come up, um, and, you know, we have this history of content that they can scroll through and they can vet us and then, you know, send us a DM.

[00:23:21] That’s how it happened. And they were like, Hey, Let’s, um, I’d love to, you know, jump on a call with you guys. We have this kind of op. Um, and at that time they, um, were interested in something different. The conversation moved over into their new, um, line, which is kind of this Gen Z genderless, skincare range.

[00:23:41] That’s, a more accessible price point stocked in Coles and Priceline. And so it’s very kind of, um, it’s a good match for our audience. Um, And they wanted some mental health content for a resource hub on their website and they wanted to do an event alongside it. And so we said, okay, cool. We can definitely help with that.

[00:24:02] Um, the brands are very aligned. Um, we really, you know, can kind of, you know, Appreciate your values as a brand and how you operate and what you want to do the vision. And here’s where we can contribute. You know, we have the subject matter expertise in terms of the mental health content and we have, you know, this kind of, I guess, also expertise or specialty in the Gen Z, um, kind of the Gen Z led content.

[00:24:31] So, um, you know, our team is Gen Z. So we. you know, ultimately know from our audience research and our own lived experience, what is appropriate for Gen Z in terms of, you know, marketing collateral and things like that. Um, and then we also had this opportunity, to build out an event series at all kind, um, where as one of our core pillars being connection, we wanted to take that offline and start up this event series called good mates doing good.

[00:25:00] Um, and so we said, okay, cool, we’ve got this event series. Would you like to? jump on board as the partner for, um, the first event. Um, and they were like, yep, cool. Sounds amazing. And then, so we went away and we were like, okay, cool. This event, we have the overall theme, which is, you know, our community coming together and doing some sort of hobby, um, or Gen Z interest, um, Alongside this kind of rise that we’re seeing in, um, run clubs and, um, board game re emergence, um, and coffee shops and just young people wanting to, , be in the same room as each other and find an excuse to do so.

[00:25:42] Um, and so that’s what we were trying to replicate, , and so we had. You know, the format, , but we had to find an idea that kind of tied in with Frank Boddy’s, um, or Every Day is their range, um, their, their whole personality as well. And so that’s where we came up with the idea of going, okay, cool. This event specifically could be the volunteering edition and we’re going to get 25 of our community members.

[00:26:07] In a room on a Sunday, Ava for a couple of hours and we’re all gonna pack personal care boxes for, , you know, people in need and we’re gonna donate them to food bank. Um, and we pitched that back to them, um, just in like a one page PDF with like some visuals. And I love doing all of that kind of stuff.

[00:26:25] And putting that together, and just really making it easy as possible for them to just be like, yep, done. That looks great. We really wanna be a part of that. Please go ahead. Tell us what you need. And that was exactly what happened. Um, and I think it’s not that hard to do if you understand, you know, um, I guess their values, um, their kind of objectives within their business.

[00:26:48] They were trying to, you know, , partner with someone in the mental health space that was Gen Z led tick, tick. Um, and then, so yeah, on Sunday we, , , uh, packed, um, Personal care boxes all together, and we actually drove them out there to Foodbank this morning. Um, and yeah, it was kind of this like nice community moment, where young people had this free event that they could come to.

[00:27:10] Um, Frank Body kind of sponsored the event, and everyone like the, like, got to be here. Personal care boxes were obviously filled with, you know, um, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and a bunch of Frank body product, um, and then everyone at the event also got to walk away with a little, um, um, a little, um, co branded, um, For people who are listening, I’m showing Mandy this, , little cosmetic bag that we got co branded.

[00:27:38] , and it says just everyday good mate kind of stuff and it’s got our logos at the bottom locked up together and everyone left with one of these and, um, you know, of course we have our, um, ALLKND of socks. And we have some Frank body product as well. Um, and so it was just this kind of nice cohesive, um, two brands coming together to tell both of their stories at the same time and elevate certain values within their businesses.

[00:28:05] Um, and also, um, Um, make 25 community members, um, smile and have a good time and walk away with this kind of brand affinity of both when they think of ALLKND, it’s like, Oh yeah, I went to this great free event with my friend on the weekend. And same with, , you know, uh, the everyday product, they’ll see it in calls and go, Oh my gosh, I tried that because of the event.

[00:28:28] Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Amazing. Um, so that’s a good, That’s an example of a creative partnership. And I guess we call them creative partnerships because, , they’re very marketing heavy. Um, and so the objectives or the KPIs of these aren’t to make money. They aren’t to specifically get new customers. It’s more just around that kind of general brand love, general brand awareness, and it gives us great content for our.

[00:28:53] Um, channels, so we can, you know, we can milk this for months. Like we got amazing photos back from our photographer today. We got some amazing videos. We did a bunch of kind of Vox Pop recordings with the microphone and, um, yeah, it just really kind of brought the brand to life. It, it brought both. Brands to life in a really nice way that, , involved the community.

[00:29:16] So I love doing those kinds of things. I’m a creative and I’m from a media background, so that’s all fun for me. Other people might not find that so fun, um, but it is a really great way. It meaning collaboration and partnerships, to tell, um, two brand stories at the same time and bring something really cool to life together because without, you know, us, um, Frank Boddy, um, you know, wouldn’t have reached the same audience and gotten the same content or conversations out of it.

[00:29:48] And without Frank Boddy, we wouldn’t have the resources to pay for all of the products and the space and everything like that. So, um, Yeah, finding ways to share value, , is a really nice way to collaborate. , especially if you’re able to kind of let that live after the fact on social media as well.

[00:30:08] That’s kind of what we call like a really nice holistic partnership, um, where everyone gets, everyone wins.

[00:30:16] Um, yeah, it sounds like you, when you do anything like that, you really think about how you can, um, leverage it for, for a while as well. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Right. It sounds so fun.

[00:30:28] It is fun. Yeah. It is really fun.

[00:30:30] Yeah. So we want to do more of those.

[00:30:32] Yeah. Cool. I can imagine that they would pay a fair bit to do it too. Like to make a donation to all kind or something along in those, Those situations as well.

[00:30:43] Yeah, exactly. And, you know, we’re not making any money out of it. We’re not charging for tickets. And, um, that’s also, you know, a way that we can kind of work around.

[00:30:54] Getting those resources as well. So people might not be in the same situation, but, if you’re making it kind of accessible for your end user, um, yeah, there are ways to kind of borrow value from other people. And you can kind of just be really transparent about that as well. And that’s something I’ve had to grow comfortable with really quickly.

[00:31:13] And, um, you know, you can just do the math as well and be like, okay, well, it’s going to cost this, this and this. If we’re going to make it happen, this is how much we need to make it happen. And, and here’s the, here’s the ROI on that as well. It’s very measurable. Um, which is great.

[00:31:28] Yeah. Amazing. Oh, thanks for sharing that.

[00:31:31] It’s so cool to get the behind the scenes of what an example of that looks like. Yeah.

[00:31:36] Yeah. It is fun. And where that was our first one as well. So, um, we, we kind of. Go away now and, um, do a bit of a one pager report as well and go, here’s the value that came out of it and send that back to the partner. Um, and you know, write down our learnings as well.

[00:31:55] And then, yeah, next time it’s also building, um, I guess a case study, like whenever you do something for the first time as a business, that’s a case study for the next time. So that you can go to people that you need to bring on to the experience or the opportunity and go, here’s what happened last time.

[00:32:12] We’ve already done it. Yes. We might not have done this, this and this so well, but But this is what we’re doing to safeguard the next time that this happens. Um, or this is how it’s going to be bigger and better, um, as well. So that’s the nice thing about having the first one, um, behind us. Um, now we can, now we’ve proven it and we can go and it makes it even easier for us to approach a new partner as well for, , another creative partnership, because we have the proof that it, that it works, um, and maybe it’ll just get bigger and better.

[00:32:44] Yeah, it’ll start to be easier for you to, I imagine you’ll have templates in place and that’s exactly right. Yeah.

[00:32:52] Yeah, exactly. Yep. Spot on.

[00:32:56] Well, I’m really excited to be, um, kind of teaming up together for a bit of a collective good mate training with the shine from within community.

[00:33:05] Uh huh. And I would say this is.

[00:33:07] More of a strategic partnership, although we can kind of cross over into creative as well, in, you know, looking at how we can, um, promote that on social media as well. So, yeah, another lovely partnership opportunity.

[00:33:20] Amazing. Um, would you mind telling us a little bit more about what is covered in the Good Mate training?

[00:33:26] Yes, yes. So, um, the training, um, from the very, very beginning, the first conversation we had was that it needed to be digital because it needed to be accessible. Um, and then it also needed to be, , as engaging as possible and it also needed to be. uh, as fast as possible. Um, uh, yeah. , and so essentially it takes around an hour to do by yourself, or probably about 45 to an hour.

[00:33:59] Um, and it’s split up into three parts. , and of course there’s a bunch of really kind of interesting contextual information at the start that kind of, eases the participant into things and it touches on a, a few different, um, I guess reminders, um, and dives into a bit of context, um, that helps set up the, um, the tone and the structure for the rest of the course.

[00:34:25] Um, and it’s video based. , so we were lucky enough to, um, head into the Instagram HQ here in Sydney, um, and use their studio and their stuff and film this, um, in a few hours, um, after it was, you know, written months and months and months and years of research, and then kind of went into this script format.

[00:34:49] And then that’s what we took to Instagram on the day. And there were three of us and we sat in the studio and we spoke to camera. So we ended up with these. Beautiful polished videos. Um, and so that’s been split up into no more than about max four or five minutes at a time. Um, and there’s only 12 videos.

[00:35:07] Um, and some of them are really short. And then between that, there’s, , you know, some Kind of initial self reflection, like how much do I know about this? What would I do if? And then you kind of go through and then it guides you into a scenario based multiple choice as well, using the information that you’ve just learned and the action steps that it’s taught you.

[00:35:28] And then it kind of repeats three times for three different subjects. Um, And so the first is panic attacks and then it goes into self harm and then it ends with suicidal ideation. And so by the time you’ve finished all three, you have action plans for all three of those. And there’s some similarities between them.

[00:35:49] Um, but there’s also some different, uh, different moving parts, depending on which situation you’re dealing with naturally. Um, and then at the end we kind of wrap up and you get your certificate and then, , you’re also encouraged, um, to keep using the app if you’ve, um, if you’ve done the training on the mobile app.

[00:36:07] Um, and if you haven’t done the, uh, mobile app and you’ve done it on a desktop computer instead, then, um, you can download the app as well, um, because there are the 14 different crisis lines, um, linked in there. And it also has a page where it kind of, pulls out the action plans as well so that you can review them in real time if, you know, you’re in an actual situation.

[00:36:30] Um, so we’ve really tried to keep it as simple as possible, like as short and as sharp as appropriate. We wanted it to be that because everything else out there is long and we feel that if this is what someone is across at their minimum, um, then this could potentially save a life. So. that was always the goal to, to make it accessible and to make it engaging and as short and simple as possible.

[00:37:01] So, um, yeah, I’m excited for everyone to go through it together. We’ve never actually done a kind of mass group training before. So I think it’s a really, really amazing idea, um, because you can split up the course into those three parts and you can kind of pause, um, you know, after the self reflection and maybe also check in with each other and be like, You know, I actually, I actually don’t know what to do yet, which is exactly why I’m here to do the training.

[00:37:27] and then, you know, once you’ve, um, kind of downloaded that information, it’s like, Oh, you know what? I actually never thought about that. Or this was a misconception that I had. And did anyone else kind of think that about panic attacks? Because I certainly didn’t know. And, um, you know, this was the experience that I had, like, there’s a lot to kind of unpack.

[00:37:45] And I think these conversations are a huge.

[00:37:48] Part of the experience in doing the training, because at the end of the day, a really great byproduct of doing good mate training and self educating is developing this level of compassion for other people who are going through different mental health challenges.

[00:38:03] And this Compassion for yourself as well, , because once you kind of apply a language structure and you’re able to identify and lay, uh, label things, um, it kind of creates this distance between you and the experience or your mate and their experience. You’re no longer, you know, um, two in the same, you’re just another human being experiencing.

[00:38:27] certain weather.

[00:38:28] Um, and so it’s, I think it will be really interesting to see, um, and hear the conversations that kind of come out of this and, , also debrief as a group at the end as well, because, you know, in a normal situation, someone finishes this, they get the certificate and that’s kind of like it.

[00:38:45] Um, and obviously we’d love for people to talk about it and we, we try and do that on our social media, but, um, as a group, I think it would be really beneficial to, to, um, yeah, just kind of be like, How are you feeling after that? Because, you know, it can be a bit heavy, but at the same time, I feel, you know, increased confidence and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

[00:39:02] So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a really good idea.

[00:39:05] Oh, thanks. And thanks for being, uh, open to it. Yeah. I think it’s going to be fun too. And it’s such, such important topics. And, um, it sounds like it’s going to be really, ah, it’s going to be like digestible and it’ll be nice to kind of, Um, yeah, do it together.

[00:39:25] So you’ve got the accountability to kind of sit. Let’s all do it. Let’s talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I know I’ve asked you this already on, on email, but, um, I know that there’s quite a few of our teens are really keen to do it, but I suspect there’ll be parents and mentors and educators that are listening to this, that would love to do it too.

[00:39:44] That’s okay for them to come and do it too, right?

[00:39:46] Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, we wanted to. Obviously exist for young people and write our content for young people because there’s not a lot of it, um, out there, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not applicable or helpful or useful to all ages. Um, we just kind of.

[00:40:09] Make sure that, you know, everything that we put out into the universe is for young people first, and then anyone else who resonates with it, like, go ahead, like, come and join the community, like, there’s no exclusion or, um, rules or, um, limits. It’s, um, it’s, it’s definitely, um, helpful and interesting to all ages.

[00:40:29] I think it will help us too, to have kind of the, to pick up on the right language or, you know. Yeah. Relevant language. Yeah.

[00:40:37] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, it’ll be really good. I’m excited. The more the merrier.

[00:40:42] Yay. Me too. I’m excited as well. Um, well I’ll pop a, I’ll pop a link and some info for it for people to kind of register for the collective day.

[00:40:52] What should we call it? Mass day of training. I don’t know.

[00:40:56] I’ll think on it.

[00:40:59] Um, I’ll pop some info about it under this, under the podcast in the description. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. Is there anything else that you want to share with us today? And where can we find you?.

[00:41:12] Yeah, I love talking about, you know, building a for purpose kind of business or mission and I love branding and personal branding.

[00:41:23] So if there are any other questions after this, like, please feel free to DM me on Instagram at Milly Bannister. Sorry.

[00:41:32] Milly

[00:41:32] Rose Bannister. Milly with a Y as well. Um, you’ll find me, but, um, all the, ALLKND of stuff is linked, , under there as well. Um, but yeah, I’m very, very open to conversations. I love talking about all this stuff.

[00:41:45] I could do it for hours.

[00:41:48] Oh, thanks. Thanks so much for sharing your time with us and wisdom and, um, passion for this. My pleasure. My pleasure.

[00:41:56] No, it’s been, it’s been good. I always love a chat.

[00:42:00] Thanks, Milly.

outro

[00:42:03] How inspiring is Milly? Reflecting after this chat, I love how Milly collaborated with others right from the start. You know, she didn’t have to be the expert herself, but could bring in lots of wisdom and evidence while focusing on her own strengths to launch ALLKND. Yeah, I don’t feel like I shared that enough with Milly in this, in this chat and um, gosh, so generous to share about the different iterations of it before it became what it is today.

[00:42:27] Such an inspiration. Okay. Check the notes for this episode for links to join our mass shine from within good mate training day. Still not sure exactly what we’re calling this. And, um, I’ll also include a link. Directly to the good mate training, which of course you can take any time. And so if you’re listening to this episode quite a while after we actually recorded it and published it, then, of course you can take that training anytime, but I’d love to do it with you.

[00:42:52] So I hope to see you on zoom as we go through it together. It’ll be, it’s totally free. And, um, yeah, it’ll give us kind of a community to process it with and accountability to actually go through it. And, uh, hopefully we’ll all be feeling a little bit more confident in supporting. Our friends and family, , whether they’re young or whether they’re adults, , through mental health challenges and, uh, as always, thank you for tuning in and see you in the next episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Milly on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/millyrosebannister/ 

• Connect with ALLKND on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weareallknd/

• View her website here https://allknd.org/
• Register for our Shine from Within Good Mate Training day on SUNDAY 20TH OCTOBER 2024 here: https://sfw.securechkout.net/goodmatetraining 
• Connect with Shine from Within on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/shinefromwithinhq/

• Jump on a 15min call with me to talk about your own dreams of starting or growing your youth business at https://shinefromwithin.pages.ontraport.net/letschat
• Join our award-winning Youth Mentor Training at https://youthmentors.shinefromwithin.com.au

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