Our mind needs to be our best friend, not our worst enemy
Ben Bidwell - aka The Naked Professor – had, in his late twenties, the perfect ‘Instagram’ life: a high-flying corporate job and a party lifestyle befitting someone his age. The various trappings of success though, alongside an underlying personal issue, left him on modern-day autopilot and led to a seismic career shift. His experience is now one he uses to help others.
Our mind needs to be our best friend, not our worst enemy
Ben Bidwell - aka The Naked Professor – had, in his late twenties, the perfect ‘Instagram’ life: a high-flying corporate job and a party lifestyle befitting someone his age. The various trappings of success though, alongside an underlying personal issue, left him on modern-day autopilot and led to a seismic career shift. His experience is now one he uses to help others.
Interviewing Ben Bidwell is a rather disarming experience. At a time when the world has not so much shifted on its axis as almost collapsed - and on the back of a social media propelled distortion of what does (and doesn’t) make us feel fulfilled - his raw honesty isn’t just refreshing, it’s cathartic.
There aren’t many men who would have opened themselves up in quite such exposed terms as the guy dubbed ‘The Naked Professor’ (more of which later). And, at a time when suicide remains the biggest killer in males under the age of 45, the path he’s chosen has to be applauded.
At the age of 28 Bidwell had a successful corporate career along with all the benefits – material and status – that brings. But with it came the feeling none of it was enough and he was just going through the motions, something that began to take its hold and tighten its mental and emotional grip.
“I’m not sure what I think of the term ‘toxic masculinity’ but I guess I may have been guilty of it,” he says.
“I was fitting into one of those boxes we’re supposed to occupy at certain stages in our lives – successful job and having plenty of ‘fun’ and then on course for marriage and 2.4 children – but without actually feeling any of it was feeding my soul or inspiring me. I was ‘showing up’ but it wasn’t the real me ‘showing up’.
“I didn’t treat women badly, but I suspect I didn’t treat them especially well either, professionally or personally. It was all about quick wins and conforming.”
It was the latter he confides - and here comes that raw honesty - that led him to a process of reevaluation, not to mention ditching the job and embarking on a new path.
“I had a sexual problem that I’ve spoken and written about extensively. The upshot was relationships were difficult and life was unfulfilling, not just in that respect but in other areas too. It was almost certainly because I wasn’t being truthful to myself or acknowledging I had work to do on my personal development. It was all fine in my 20s but, as I hit 30, I knew I wanted to change.”
Leaving the nine-to-five behind, Ben launched a tech start-up with a friend, but it was a chance encounter with a therapist and counsellor that was really the launch pad for the position he occupies today as a qualified coach, writer, corporate and public speaker, and mental health campaigner.
“I shared a flat with a rugby player who was having therapy following a serious injury. He was always late - for everything! - so more often than not I’d end up making the counsellor a cup of tea while she waited. One day I plucked up the courage to ask her about my challenges and we began working on the obstacles holding me back.”
Fast forward six or seven years and with a feeling he wasn’t able to take the tech business in the direction he was capable of - or indeed even wanted to – came the next step change.
“The methods I apply in coaching people through personal and emotional issues apply equally to professional ones. It always goes back to being authentic and listening to your heart. People invariably respond with huge positivity to honesty and you’d be surprised just how empowering and fulfilling that can be.”
“The methods I apply in coaching people through personal and emotional issues apply equally to professional ones. It always goes back to being authentic and listening to your heart. People invariably respond with huge positivity to honesty and you’d be surprised just how empowering and fulfilling that can be.”
“Having qualified as a coach I started writing a blog about mental health and how it applies to masculinity. But I knew - like everything else these days - I had to build a ‘brand’ in order to gain traction and nurture a following that would enable me to help others. What I didn’t want was the same old social media style image of me looking moody over a laptop!”
And so ‘The Naked Professor’ was born but, as with most things to do with the eminently likeable Bidwell, there’s a story.
“I was on holiday in the States with a friend. We were in Yosemite and boys being boys (sorry!) we stripped off for a photo which, of course, got more attention on social media than anything else we posted the entire trip. I just thought maybe I can do something with this, in terms of the work I aspired to do around mental health but also – and crucially - in stripping away the mask of masculinity.”
A series of photos (“tasteful and professionally taken,” he’s quick to point out) did the trick. The all-important social media presence grew and his following increased as did podcast appearances and invitations to talk about his work at events both in the business world and public sector.
There has also been a stream of media work with the likes of The Independent, Grazia and Forbes as well as an appearance on ITV’s This Morning that garnered headlines, not for any reasons of daytime television titillation but because of Bidwell’s fearless honesty (you’ll find it on YouTube).
He has now worked with corporates such as HSBC as well as with prisoners at Pentonville and at events such as the Mind Body Spirit Festival to help change the stigma around mental health and encourage men to open up emotionally while retaining their masculinity.
“I’m not quite sure where Ben Bidwell and ‘The Naked Professor’ meet these days but what I want to do is touch people’s hearts and inspire them to connect more,” he says.
“I think we’ve been living in a society where people (at least before the pandemic) were on auto pilot – go to work, have lunch, go the gym, come home – and life can almost pass them by because they never really stop to connect; they stop listening to their heart and don’t ask, ‘what am I really doing; am I doing things that inspire and fuel me?’
“We’re so wrapped up in our heads with what society wants and expects us to do. That’s why so many people get to 35, 40, 45 and think I don’t really feel like I’m alive. We choose short-term happiness fixes rather than long-term fulfilment and we forget the bigger picture. Our mind needs to be our best friend, not our worst enemy.”
What does he feel he’s learned from his work and what it can tell us about our careers, especially given events of the past 12 months have probably changed the workplace forever – while also presenting us with opportunities anew?
“Many people have, by default, transitioned to an area of work that’s taken them away from the very reason they went into a profession in the first place. Some may realise they’re a better operator and more comfortable in a large business or that their creativity is better suited to a smaller firm. Or they may want to go in a different direction or add another facet to an existing career path. But, as I so often hear, they ignore what their heart is telling them.
“The methods I apply in coaching people through personal and emotional challenges apply equally to professional ones. It always goes back to being authentic and listening to your heart.
“People invariably respond with huge positivity to honesty. You’d be surprised just how empowering and fulfilling that can be.” You can follow Ben on Instagram @thenakedprofessor.
To find out more about his work and corporate speaking engagements visit the Ben Bidwell or The Naked Professor websites. Ben also has a podcast – The Naked Professors – with TV presenter and mental health ambassador Matt Johnson.