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Nina Davies | Martin Yelling | Byrd
62 Plays3 years ago
In this episode joining us is Nina Davies and Martin Yelling to talk all about Byrd.
Byrd’s - a running app that wants to challenge how we measure progress and support a less judgemental, less competitive approach.
Byrd have recently launched their new app and you can find out more about them www.byrd.run
You can connect with Nina on Byrd on:
You can connect with Martin on:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to UK Run Chat & Bird.run app
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the UK Run Chat podcast. In today's episode, I speak with Nina Davis and Martin yelling all about bird.run. Birds are running an app that wants to challenge how we measure progress and support a less judgmental, less competitive approach. Bird have recently launched a new app and you can find out more about them on www.bird.run.
00:00:22
Speaker
Enjoy the podcast, any comments you have, you can email them in to us on info at UKrunchat.co.uk or message us on our social channels. Have a great week and see you on the next episode.
Nina and Martin's Running Background
00:00:35
Speaker
Welcome Nina and Martin, how are you both? Thanks Jo, very well indeed. Yeah, excited.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm all right, Joe. Thank you. It's been a long time since we've had a decent catch-up. It has been a while. Yeah. Thank you for coming on. I've been a bit nervous, Martin. I've been the king of running podcasts coming on my little old podcast here. Don't be daft. I think you were sat in my kitchen like a few years back and we were putting the world to rights, weren't we?
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah and now here we find ourselves, tables turned. Here we are. I'm all yours Joe Williams. Thank you very much. Well I did just actually say before you came on to Nino I said that we're here to talk all about bird today. I know that marathon talk's coming to an end and I did want to say a personal thank you to you because I know you've supported many many people in the running industry over the years on marathon talk and I was definitely one of them so
00:01:31
Speaker
thank you very much yeah you're welcome and thanks very much it's been a been a good road you know to have traveled on I've really enjoyed it but as my wife said to me not that long ago the world's moved on babe
00:01:49
Speaker
You always get the truth from the other half. Tell it how it is. It's really important, isn't it? I like a bit of truth. I like to be able to
Bird's Philosophy on Running
00:01:58
Speaker
listen. It does resonate with a lot of the way in which Bird represents what it means to be a runner. It's really important to listen and it's important to have courage to adapt to changing seasons and changing circumstances in your own running and in your own training. A really important part of that is
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, listen and listen and know when to respond and what that response should look like. So yeah, this is just a part of that action.
00:02:26
Speaker
Very good. So as I said in the intro, birds are running out that wants to challenge how we measure progress and support a less judgmental, less competitive approach. And we had some great chats in the hour on Sunday night, didn't we Nina? Which I'm sure we'll cover some of that later. But first Nina, will you remind us your own story and what running means to you, please?
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Jo, because I know we chatted a few months ago after we'd done our first Sunday night chat. Yeah, I mean, I've been a runner all my life, if I'm honest.
Nina & Martin's Personal Running Journeys
00:02:59
Speaker
And funnily enough, one of the comments in the chat on Sunday night reminded me of when running was really first started to be on my horizon. I used to help my dad train for his marathons around the lanes with his Casio watch and his Silver Shadow shoes. Remember those, high tech Silver Shadow?
00:03:16
Speaker
but anyway yeah I mean that was probably you know 35 years ago I now do all sorts from part runs round the blocks with the kids to social runs and more recently kind of mountain ultras to be honest and I've just been loving that that whole sense of exploration freedom it's a totally different type of running that is
00:03:39
Speaker
definitely not measured in PBs and performance and judging yourself against other people and last time, it's an adventure with a whole bunch of people that are just loving being outside. And I guess all of these new experiences in my running have been what's led me to be so inspired about being part of Bird and what we're doing there. And it becomes that real kind of cornerstone of your wellbeing, I guess, for me,
00:04:09
Speaker
It's almost as important as sleep and fresh air, and it's part of my essential toolkit for life. Yeah. The mountains and trails, that's another evolving part of running, isn't it? It's become so prominent over the last couple of years. People switching it up from the road to these mountainous and more grassy areas.
00:04:35
Speaker
It's fantastic, isn't it? I mean, it's lovely to see people finding more confidence and, you know, some of these kind of more experiential places becoming more accessible. It's fantastic. Yeah. Martin, so tell us why you're here with Nina and talking about Bird today.
00:04:54
Speaker
Well, you know, look, I think Nina's story's brilliant and it resonates with so many runner stories, you know, and Joe, you through the UK run chat community will see just what running means to so many people. And that's one of the things I'm lucky, like,
00:05:12
Speaker
running has walked and run with me since I was seven years old. I'm 50 next week. So, you know, for 43 years. And throughout that time, yeah, throughout that time, you know, I've been an elite international competitive runner, recreational runner, a coach to, you know, probably
00:05:34
Speaker
Well, probably hundreds of thousands of marathon finishers over the time I've worked with people like the London Marathon. So I've seen all sorts of ways in which running supports people, physically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, in all sorts of stages and events and circumstances in their lives. And what's become really, really clear to me, Joe,
00:06:03
Speaker
is that we need to be able to understand and speak about running in new and exciting ways. And when you've been around the running world for a long time, you start to see patterns and trends emerging. And it's very rarely that something
00:06:26
Speaker
kind of sticks up as being different.
Cultural Shift in Running & Mental Health
00:06:30
Speaker
And so with Bird, my interest was spiked around a curiosity for seeing the way in which we can progress and receive support and engage with running slightly differently and incorporating a narrative about being a runner
00:06:55
Speaker
which I think is much more in tune with where we are culturally and from a societal place of growth and just like human being and being human. And so I think that we will see people continue to engage in running in new ways and what bird
00:07:21
Speaker
is doing and will continue to build different ways for people to have experiential priorities through digital engagement for their running to help them be more healthy, improving ways in which they would like to improve, not ways in which they're told they need to improve, to be happy and to be healthy, which are complex
00:07:50
Speaker
phenomenons, both of those things, you know, and Nina was explaining how running supports her life. And I'm hopeful that, you know, getting involved with with Bird and supporting their journey will enable more runners to connect with what that really means for them personally, you know, so much more than stats and much more about you. And that
00:08:20
Speaker
that opinion and that kind of whole brain outlook towards running, that's really evolved over the last 10 years, isn't it? It kind of has, Joe, and it hasn't. For many people, they think running is a certain thing and they've got to engage in it in a certain way and it will bring about a certain set of benefits. And certainly for some people, I can't believe I got a sentence with so many certain in.
00:08:49
Speaker
But for many people, that is the case. But that's quite a traditional way of looking at running and navigating your running.
00:08:58
Speaker
In my work now, I work much more in mental health and emotional wellbeing. And although that's always been fundamentally important to me and the self-care that moving can provide, actually, I've never felt that there's a route to do that well. So although you think, actually, it's more in people's psyche right now,
00:09:22
Speaker
Well, it is, but actually the practicalities of being able to do it are not. So you can have the rhetoric, oh, running's really good for your mental health. But then when you look at that in practice, in an application, how do I really do this?
00:09:39
Speaker
you can often be challenged, particularly within the digital sector. And so, you know, we have a responsibility, I feel, you know, I have a responsibility as a, you know, somebody that works in running to help support change and movers and people that are going to shape how runners engage with their running in the next 10 years, you know, and that's in new and exciting ways. And I feel that there's a potential with Bird to do that.
00:10:07
Speaker
Excellent. It's really interesting, Martin, you talked, you know, obviously the growth in tech to support running over the last, you know, decade. And it's incredible. And, you know, we're massively supportive of so much of it, you know, the social sharing, the quantified self has all helped the sport to grow. But it's funny, you know, in actual fact, it's kind of
00:10:34
Speaker
worked against people really listening to their own bodies anymore and really, you know, taking that time to connect with themselves. And, and as you say, that, that human side. So, you know, for us, that's, that, that's a really key point of difference. Nina, I know that you and your extended team are runners of all sorts of different experiences. What, what does that mean for what you were doing at Bird?
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's related to, to, to what we were just talking about, you know, we've, um, we're, we're a small team. It makes extended team. It makes sound, it makes it sound like there's loads of us. We're still only eight people. Um, and we're all different types of runners. You know, I talked about doing the longer mountain and stuff. Edva founder is a, is a primarily, you know, up to now has been a road marathon, um, a faster road marathon runner. Then we've got kind of five Ks, half marathoners, people just coming.
00:11:29
Speaker
back to it. So I guess we are able to look at it from a human point of view. And I think I talked about earlier that the tech, the AI, what the computers can do is incredible. But we're only ever as good as the people that code it and curate it and think about how they want it to work. And I think for us, that's a really important point of difference. We're just everyday people sort of
00:11:58
Speaker
juggling families and life and a new business and everything. We're not elites. We're not coaches like Martin. We're not naturally gifted athletes. I mean, God, we all have it. There's days when we don't actually even think we're runners or don't feel like runners. And I think that's really important. It means that
00:12:20
Speaker
We saw that there was a gap for all the people that are like us that want to take a more holistic, non-competitive, realistic
Bird App Features & Approach
00:12:28
Speaker
approach to their running. They're not the sort of people that are out there trying to smash PBs all the time and to win races. They want running to give back to their lives in a whole host of different ways.
00:12:43
Speaker
us just being those same type of runners is enormously helpful when it comes to building the code that sits behind it. Nina, I think you're exactly right. Although you say those things about you and about your potential audience, isn't it so important? I'm a huge fan of the process of
00:13:07
Speaker
taking part in something and often when you do the process really well on marathon talk we often we harp on about trusting the process you know when you do the process really well those other outcomes that you talk about will come
00:13:22
Speaker
You know, they can just arrive in different ways. So although we, you know, that the bird has an appeal to people who want to get more and experience running differently and perhaps reframe a narrative around what successful running looks like.
00:13:39
Speaker
It can also bring about shifts in improvements in other more traditional goals. We're in a challenging space post COVID at the moment, and there's a lot in the marketplace to try and help people's wellbeing. Mental and emotional health are really critical.
00:14:07
Speaker
I would argue, you know, as or more important than physical health, you know, I work a lot in children's resilience and it's, you know, people bang on about response back ability and kids not having enough resilience. But actually, when the factors that surround a child's resilience, for example, their self care, they're able to
00:14:29
Speaker
to give themselves the self-worth they feel, how valued, how they know they matter. Without those other really important fundamentals of their mental wellbeing being in place, it's really hard to be resilient. You can't, it's difficult.
00:14:49
Speaker
Finding something from running that will draw your mental and emotional health to a place in which you feel really good, that's going to have really positive impact on your physical health as well. You must have seen that in your testing around digital running and how to bring bird to fruition. We absolutely did, Martin.
00:15:18
Speaker
I'll be honest with you, where Bird started two years ago when I first met Ed was in a different place and it probably was a little bit more about using the smarts of computers to help people progress better and over the last two years and through talking to hundreds of runners and
00:15:39
Speaker
non-runners to be honest as well, because let's face it, we don't want to always be preaching to the converted, you know, the opportunities to really help the people that haven't found those benefits yet. But yeah, what we found is exactly that. And I guess exacerbated by COVID, you know, all of a sudden people, there were no races, there were, you know, the whole attitude to our self-care was really put under the spotlight.
00:16:05
Speaker
um and and you know i think that that has changed i think that whole that whole kind of sense of i don't know glorifying the grind as i think it used to be called or type you know type two fun you know there's a time and a place for those things but actually you know enjoying the moment of what you're doing and having that that moment of appreciation and gratitude for what it's
00:16:28
Speaker
what it's bringing to you, how it's enabling you to feel in that moment, we feel is way more sustainable than trying to get people to a faster marathon. So Nina, what are the key things that Bird is doing differently in the app to help achieve these kind of outcomes?
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'll try not to gush too much or to lose people. I guess there's kind of three things that I would probably talk about as key differentiators. I think one is, and we call them recommended runs. So we don't, if you go into bird and you put in what goal you might be aiming for, whether that be a specific event or whether it's just to
00:17:16
Speaker
get out more of that week and be more active. Bird doesn't create a static plan to get you there. It will look at where you are now and where you want to go and it will create recommended runs. There's a whole load of science going on in the background over a billion variables that get crunched every 15 minutes to make sure that that's meeting you where you are. But essentially for us it's that
00:17:43
Speaker
creating recommended runs, runs that you might want to do, not runs you feel you have to do, to give you space to go off-piste and enjoy that moment if you need to do, but know you're heading forward. So recommended runs, I think, would be one.
00:17:59
Speaker
We also talk about a guide, a guide within the app. And it's really the little kind of the running buddy that's by your side that's keeping you motivated. And for us, it's that layer that sits above all the stats. It helps to bring meaning to those stats, to talk in a much more human way, to give you sort of jargon-free kind of feedback, really, and to keep you motivated and celebrate your runs in a more human way.
00:18:28
Speaker
And then the third thing is quite new and we're really excited to see what feedback we get but it's what we call the wilds open for debate. I'm sure it will change. But it's essentially an area in Bird where you see your progress expressed through seeds and undergrowth and
00:18:52
Speaker
nature thriving in the wilds and that idea of like, whenever you go running, you collect and discover birdseed along with other experiences and those help to cultivate your wilds within the app. So it's a way of bringing up, really showing a kind of lived experience and expressing progress in a more meaningful, holistic way.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, and in a visual way for you to see on the app that you're creating this beautiful place via your running.
00:19:25
Speaker
And I think that is the other thing I think, you know, overall of that, those might be some key sort of features, but actually over it all is hope, the whole tone, visual representation of bird and your running journey is very different to what's out there. It's, you know, it's more wholesome. It's, we hope, more human, more personality, more inclusive. So, yeah, it looks very different from beginning to end.
00:19:53
Speaker
And the recommended runs is, what so often we see, we'll see people online saying, my plan says, I've got to do this today. I've got to do it. So I've got to go out and do it, but I don't feel right or I'm too stiff or I'm tired. So the fact that it's adaptive like this is, it's what people need. We heard a lot in the research and we heard people talking about, you know, I miss a few runs on my plan and I don't know where to go yet. And I think it's part of that.
00:20:21
Speaker
that natural human sort of, you know, we have a barrier, there's barriers to running in some ways. Yeah, you kind of like we have this fear that we're going to get left behind, whether that be in joining a social run or on a plan or anything else, because, you know, life gets in the way or we don't have enough, we don't have confidence in our running. And I
00:20:43
Speaker
We love this idea of like, bird will never, will never leave you behind. It will always kind of meet you where you are. And, you know, for us, that's an extremely supportive, kinder approach to running. So Martin, from your experience, what do you think is really interesting about bird and what would you like to see them focus on?
00:21:04
Speaker
Well, I hope I can have some input into that actually, you know, Joe, because Nina's raised some really important points. I've been out on many a run, many a run with many different people over the years and, you know, found myself walking or jogging at the back with somebody perhaps who's been along to that run for the first time. It's really important to offer
00:21:31
Speaker
people running in a way that works for them. And that doesn't necessarily mean here's a session. You know, it can mean here's a type of running that we know you like.
00:21:48
Speaker
And really importantly, here's a type of running that we know you will benefit from today. And that's thinking about running and particularly training in a different way and through a different lens.
Relational Coaching & Data Utilization
00:22:00
Speaker
Often when I coach people now, I think about the person and my coaching philosophy is really relational. And so I think about what does this person need?
00:22:13
Speaker
How will the running benefit them today as a human? What is it that they will get back and they will be thankful that they completed that run? And sometimes that's a session, you know, it's a bang on work out that they can go and, you know, rinse themselves over and then come back loving it.
00:22:33
Speaker
And sometimes it's just about relaxation and detachment or escapism or exploration or connecting with nature or you know going somewhere they don't know or being with a friend or having a social conversation and it's really important.
00:22:52
Speaker
that digital technologies learn to embrace the way in which humans interact with the many other benefits that moving can bring. And so I think it would be static
00:23:08
Speaker
of technologies to stand still with that, you know, they're going to fall behind. And so what I like about Bird is to have the opportunity to explore not only the physical, the kind of training plan, what do you do, but also the messaging that you get, you know, the style, the tone, the support.
00:23:31
Speaker
The the reason for you going for that run because it's wrapped around so much the type of training it's wrapped around The run that you'll do it it links explicitly to the benefits that you get it also links to your ability to You know be a sustainable lifelong runner and to keep coming back rather than an outcome focused performance kind of orientated runner who will do an event and
00:23:58
Speaker
fix their target on that event. And when that event's done, that's it. And they lose focus and they kind of forget and they lose motivation and they fall off the running wagon until they enter another event.
00:24:10
Speaker
And that's not sensible for long-term growth as a runner. So being able to get that across in an accessible way and to adapt, I think that's really important. Digital spaces are hard in running and to offer something new and to offer something that is changing and to offer something that is
00:24:34
Speaker
personal to a person's running journey is really important. That's what I think I'm really looking forward to, you know, getting involved in getting involved in the messaging, the data and, you know, the training and the coaching so that running feels like something people really understand a little bit more. Yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
Nina, this all sounds very exciting. If someone just wants some help with what to do and see what they did, is that there as well? Yeah, we've been talking about lots of big, lofty, important stuff, but that is important because it is what drives us at Bird.
00:25:24
Speaker
And underneath the hood, the engine that helps us create those recommended runs that helps us listen to the feedback from individuals that helps us understand what it is for sort of running that they want to do is of course all the data that we're collecting.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yes, there is all the usual splits and duration and all the data that lots of people might want to see when they come back from their runs. We collect about 300,000 data points for every half hour of running as individuals. That's what we make. So there's an awful lot there to work with.
00:26:07
Speaker
And yes, you know, I talked about it before, you know, goals are important. What we, what we want to do at Bird is expand the type of goals that those could be so that they're not just performance driven goals, that they are more lifestyle driven, more focused on what you're bringing, what you're running can bring to you as Martin's talked about. But, you know, if someone wants to enter and does have a specific event in mind, they can put that in and that's what we can focus on.
00:26:36
Speaker
So yes, I guess the day-to-day tracking, seeing the best run to get there, seeing your progress played out against that, that is all absolutely there in Bird as well. So whether it's your first ever 5K or your life-changing 100 miler, it can go with you on that journey.
00:26:59
Speaker
Cool. Okay. Martin, are there other things that we haven't talked about that have struck you about what Ed, Nina and the team are doing at Bird? I think there's also a really important like design element to this. You know, and like I've used all sorts of different running apps over, you know, over the years since before they were around. And often data is presented
00:27:29
Speaker
in a bit of a dull way. And so, you know, let's be brutal here. I would call myself a running...
00:27:37
Speaker
enthusiast, I guess, you know, a runner, I like running. I'm not like a super uber geek, but people looking at me from the outside who didn't know me would think, Oh, he must be a running geek. Right. And yet, when I, you know, when I use some, some of the traditional kind of data, and it's sort of shared with me, and I think,
00:28:01
Speaker
it's a bit boring isn't it like tables and graphs and charts and I've got to be a proper stato to truly engage with it and I probably engage with very little of the top-end pro geekery whereas actually when something is digestible and accessible and interesting to look at and it also
00:28:26
Speaker
kind of sows other seeds for me about what my running does through that imagery and representation. And I've got the potential to contribute through my running to other more meaningful, impactful things.
00:28:41
Speaker
almost certain that I'd love to see Bird going down that route more and more of finding ways to keep utilizing your running to impact not only your life, but also the lives of other people in very tangible, meaningful ways, and doing that both digitally and in real world. So there's two things there, Joe. There's the kind of
00:29:08
Speaker
creative element of representation of bird, and then there's also the way in which bird can connect you to something which is bigger than the running that you actually do. I think I commented on Sunday's hour actually, the actual branding and presentation is, as Martin just said, it looks fantastic. The team have done a superb job on that.
00:29:32
Speaker
Joe it's really important and Nina I absolutely agree and I'm not being harsh here but
00:29:38
Speaker
You know, that's really easy to do. What we have to do is ensure the engine is under the bonnet to complement the design. You know, and that's really vital because we can see so, you know, you see so much glossy plush, you know, and it's just surface shine. And what I hope, you know, Bird World will continue to do is to ensure that, you know, the engine matches the design.
00:30:07
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. There's no room for Emperor's new clothes here at all, is there? And I think, you know, I guess, you know, the other thing to say is that we will also commit wholeheartedly to being transparent as well with where we're at with that, you know, and we, you know, we launched yesterday, there were some things that we didn't expect. We learn from them, we'll fix them, we'll move on. Yeah. And we'll always be transparent about that.
00:30:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think Martin mentioned earlier on about the journey you go through in the best ones. There's going to be bumps in the road, which I think everyone expects. If you could roll back time, Nina, would you do anything differently?
Lessons Learned & Future Aspirations
00:30:58
Speaker
Oh, loads of things. This is all a learning exercise for all of us, but we mentioned it then. Testing more, I think, is probably what so many startups, particularly tech startups, would say.
00:31:20
Speaker
it's nerve-wracking putting it out there yeah you want to kind of hang on to it until you feel that everything under the bonnet is working absolutely and you've tested every scenario but there's no way we can test every scenario until we get it out there because we're all outliers yeah no two human beings are the same and that's completely you know very true in the running world we all run
00:31:44
Speaker
completely differently and the beauty of something like Bird is that it's going to be something that enables people to really find their own personalised journey. That is complex and hard and computers are great with things where you can write a standard piece of code, where you can be sure of the outcome, where there's no room for emotions,
00:32:11
Speaker
But we want to challenge that and we want to change it and that is going to be complex and it is going to be difficult. We've learned that we probably should test more and we'll keep on taking that approach. The roadmap of features and things that we want to focus on and some of the things that Martin was starting to talk about and really starting to
00:32:37
Speaker
triangulate what we hear from runners and the feedback they give us to make their experience more tailored. You know we'll be testing, learning, fixing, testing, learning, fixing all the time and I think that's yeah we've learned that holding on to something and not getting feedback for as long as we did is
00:32:58
Speaker
high risk and you know we're taking on a lot of risk and we're probably just slowing down the process so yeah here we go. Trust the process Nina. Yeah totally. You asked about some feedback and you also asked about an app wishlist on Sunday didn't you? Did anything stand out?
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah, we had some amazing things on that. I don't know, Joe, whether you agreed. There was some, yeah, your community's so full of lovely ideas. I guess, I mean, there was a couple of things that struck me. One was just how many people talked about something that would help them measure the other benefits of running measure or track or help them connect with.
Community Feedback & App Availability
00:33:43
Speaker
So, I mean, that's all great news for us, that sense of, you know, how can I,
00:33:49
Speaker
How can I check just how great this has been for my headspace? You know, all those things that will help that will remind me. And so we're excited that we're taking a step towards that. And I know that that's an area that obviously, we can continue to expand on. People talked about and actually, Martin just alluded to this about how
00:34:11
Speaker
motivating others, you know, helping others, helping the community is a clear motivator for a lot of people. So I think, you know, being able to work with that catcher, I mean, I guess it's the ultimate as well.
00:34:24
Speaker
partner and started with the volunteering piece here so we now know there's so many different ways that our running can live back to our lives and so kind of expanding to capture some of those things and I think just building on that whole personalization piece someone talked about you know I'd love it if it could remember
00:34:48
Speaker
the runs that I really liked and why, and then start to tailor my experiences. And that's exactly where we want to work towards. And those are the things we talked earlier about what comes first, the outcome or the process. Do we build habits or do we just enjoy the process first? And that becomes then a consistency and more of a habit.
00:35:13
Speaker
These are all some of the ideas that we were chatting about on Sunday night. Definitely all feed into that. It's exciting. Yes. When will Birdview be available? How do we try it? Where do people connect with you? Remind us.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, so it is available on the Google Play Store and the App Store now. We're calling it version 0.2.2. It's a good solid first version for anybody that's
00:35:47
Speaker
wants to try something new that's curious to see this really different approach that is keen to help us iron out the bugs and come along for the ride. Hop on now and have a look. For people that want a slightly smoother transition into it, I would probably say wait a week and then come on.
00:36:07
Speaker
But it's there, it's available to download. Very simple process, 14 days free trial to have a look around, hopefully enjoy it, understand what it could do for you and see whether it will benefit you. And then from then on it's a 9.99 monthly fee, no annual cost upfront, just hopefully value in what you're using. Thank you.
00:36:32
Speaker
Martin, if you were going to sum it all up in one sentence when you're telling your running buddies down the pub, what would you say? Yeah, I thought about it. I don't know. I thought about this, Joe. And actually, you know when you meet someone for the first time, and for me, a really dull question that they ask you is this. It goes something like, so what do you do? And over the years, I've made up all sorts of different things.
00:37:02
Speaker
because I find like it shapes the way they see you. I've been an accountant, you know, I've been like a driving instructor. So instead of saying, what do you do? Like I'll always say, what do you enjoy? So all we're doing is adding the word enjoy. And it's amazing because it changes the words that you get back. And so I think what I'd love to see with Bird is, you know, what is it you enjoy about running?
Success Stories & Impact of Bird
00:37:33
Speaker
because when you can get into that conversation, then you'll know, you'll be able to go, oh, that's great because birds can do that for you. Nina, what will success look like for you?
00:37:51
Speaker
I think for me that the first nugget of success will be getting those positive reviews, that it's making an impact on people's lives, that they're feeling good using Bird. I mean, one of our most loyal testers, actually, is a runner down in Sidmouth, Dave, and he's been running with Bird for over six months now.
00:38:16
Speaker
And he said to me the other day, he said, you know what, Bird's given me hope. And that just sort of stirred something in me. I mean, he says he's running more than he ever has. He's enjoying it more, to Martin's point. A year ago, he was like told he had arthritis in his knees and he was really demotivating. And he says, you know, Bird has given him hope. And so when you hear things like that and you hear him saying that he believes Bird will keep him running,
00:38:43
Speaker
and enjoying his running forever, that feels incredible. So, yeah, more people like Dave, hopefully. More Dave's. That's incredible. That's amazing. That's brilliant feedback from him. And I think that we have a discount at registration delivery for UK run chat followers.
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah. As I said, you get the first 14 days for free, so you don't have to register until you've had a good look around. But when you get to that point of registration, if you put in UK run chat 20 in all lower case, that will unlock a discount for the first six months.
00:39:20
Speaker
Brilliant, thank you. Well, Nida, Martin, thank you ever so much for coming on and chatting all about Bird. I've really enjoyed, we've been chatting the last six months, haven't we Nina, and I've enjoyed following the journey and the app is finally out now and out yesterday and I'm looking forward to using it myself. Martin, thank you very much for coming on. You're welcome, Joe. Thank you both.
00:39:46
Speaker
Thanks Jo, Martin have a good birthday. Yes, happy birthday Martin next week. Thanks very much. Yeah.