Podcast Transcript - Episode 0026 - The Power of Storytelling with Sophie Lee

Welcome to the Professional Drinkers podcast, brought to you by Choosesunrise Co. UK. I'm Janet Hadley and this is for you. If you're an HR professional, a business owner or a leader who'd like to explore the drinking culture in your workplace, I'll bring you lived experience, stories, expert views and tips for creating an alcohol safe workplace without killing the buzz. Hello and welcome back to the Professional Drinkers podcast. How are you all doing? And can you believe that we're already past that first half term of the year? For those of you who've got children at school, they've only just gone back from Christmas. How did that happen? It's interesting, isn't it, our perceptions of time and how they seem to vary. For me, it's the very last year of having any children at all in school, although obviously university is calling and so I don't think it'll be the last of the half term and school holiday terminology that we use. Although I am very much looking forward to being able to go on holiday outside of school holidays, which is going to be super exciting and save me a fortune. Can't wait. And yeah, as we kind of look forward and think about the days getting a bit longer and spring being just around the corner, we're thinking about our guest for this week who really reminds me of spring and sunshine and daylight and colour.

So I'll tell you a little bit more about Sophie, our guest, in just a moment. Before I do that, I just wanted to mention our plans for alcohol Awareness week. We have taken so many bookings now. I'm so excited that we're going to be delivering live events as well as webinars. We're going to be doing line manager training and we're going to be doing one to one screenings to help find people who might just be a little bit afraid of putting their hand up and asking for help in the workplace. So we're doing lots of confidential work as well with people who work for some of the UK's largest employers. So we are going to be super busy over the next few weeks and one of the things that we'll be doing with these employers, of course, is sharing our stories. Not just myself, but other associates who work for choose Sunrise will be going out into the workplace and sharing our own stories to sobriety. And that is the single biggest thing that I think we can do to start breaking down stigma in the workplace. And I'm super, super excited to be part of this movement and leading the way, really, for others to find their voice and to share their stories and to reach more and more people.

Which brings me neatly onto Sophie. So, Sophie Turton is the director and founder of brand storytelling and social impact agency. Wait for it. Electric Peach. What a name. Isn't that fantastic? And you'll find out in this episode where that name came from. So watch this space and you must google electric Peach and have a look at Sophie's website. It is beautiful. It's an absolute work of art. It's stunning. So, Sophie is a mental health and a recovery advocate, she's a coach and she's a mentor and she sits on the board of recovery connexions, which is a lived experience recovery organisation. She's super, super passionate about the power of storytelling and in her words, stories unite us in our differences and create positive social and environmental change. Could not have put that better myself, Sophie. I should actually apologise. Sophie's surname is no longer Sophie Turtin, it is Sophie Lee. Sophie has got married since she completed this form. So congratulations, Sophie. You'll find Sophie as Sophie Lee now on social media and on LinkedIn. And, yeah, like I say, give electric peach a google. It's definitely worth a few minutes of your time. So, my guest this week is the lovely Sophie, Sophie Lee.

She was known as. She is now, Sophie Turton. So you might see her on go.

The other way around.

Oh, gosh. Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought it was. Oh, Sophie Lee is your new name and Sophie Turton is your old name, so Sophie Lee is fantastic. Oh, I have to make sure I get that right. And Sophie is the founder of Electric Peach, which is kind of a marketing agency, but it's with a very big difference. It's really all about storytelling. It's a storytelling agency, is that right? Yeah, you tell us.

I don't really like marketing, but it kind of is a marketing agency. It's a brand storytelling agency and essentially, we use the tools of marketing and advertising to do good in the world on behalf of SMEs and purpose driven organisations, B corps and social enterprises.

Fantastic. That sounds so lovely. And we're definitely going to hear a bit more about that. Let's go back in time a little bit, though. Let's start at the beginning and perhaps maybe we can hear a little bit about your own drinking story. And when did you first get introduced to the wonderful and not so wonderful world of alcohol?

The first time that I had properly, like, a proper amount to drink, I think I was 14, and me and two of my friends had squirrelled away little tiny parts of our parents alcohol cabinets for a couple of weeks and then decided, because we didn't really understand alcohol, so we didn't know that what it did, that it did something massive. For a long period of time, we thought that we would get away with drinking all of these. And it was spirits as well. While my mum was out and she was coming home at, like, ten and we thought we had loads of time. And she came home to find me absolutely paralytic, covered in puke. So it started as it went on.

What was your mom's reaction then? Was she okay? Did she take it in a stride or she upset with you?

She was really angry. Well, she came home to find my friend trying to make a cup of tea with the tea bag inside the kettle. And that was when she was first like, what's going on? And I was like, totally passed out. She let me sleep it off and then she woke me up at, I think, something like two or three in the morning and made me go and clean up.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

She's quite brutal. And she's not really a drinker. She's one of those people who can have, like, a thimble of wine and then be like, oh, that's me done.

Yeah, interesting.

I don't understand that wizardry, but, yeah. So that was the beginning. And then I just, from that point on, used alcohol as everything, really. It was every single social occasion, every single opportunity to drink, I would drink and it very quickly snowballed.

Yeah. Like me, it sounds a bit like I loved alcohol from the beginning, even though it made me ill and I loved what it did. And as soon as I got drunk the first time, I just wanted to do it again and again and again and. Yeah, you're nodding. I do think that one day they will discover some kind of gene that means that you have, or, like, there's something about some people that just makes them fall in love very quickly with alcohol. And so many of the people I've met in the sober space had that.

And I don't want to in any way pathologize anybody, but I undiagnosed, very much relate to a lot of the traits of ADHD and neurodivergence, and I certainly think that for me, it was that lacking dopamine, that had that dopamine hit was really, like, more overstimulated my mind, my brain, more than maybe what other people did. That could be just like. That is just the theory and it's not something that's necessarily important, really, but it's just interesting. To think that those same people often have either got undiagnosed ADHD or late diagnosed ADHD, or dealt with a lot of mental health issues before alcohol came along and provided them with a very toxic long term fix for the feelings that they were experiencing.

Yeah, I know I could think and talk about this all day, but, yeah, there's probably a combination of circumstances and physiological elements to it, but for whatever reason, you and I both fell in love with booze and then fell out of love again with it. So tell us a little bit about your drinking career and let's talk about the workplace as well, within this and what role the workplace had.

It played a massive role, actually. So I had periods of. I went through that period where it was, like, ridiculous even to think that I wouldn't drink. I was one of those people that thought if you didn't drink, then you were really boring and why would you do that? Of course you're not going to do that.

I was a real sober shamer, actually. I was like, oh, God, don't be so boring. Come on. Yeah, I was terrible, awful.

I look back and I'm like, I was always the biggest shit show in any situation as well. I don't think I was like the pin up of how to be cool.

No.

But I definitely thought I was at the time.

Oh, God. Yeah, I did.

Then I went to university and it got more and more and more and started to do drugs really regularly and it was always felt recreational, but looking back on it, it was certainly the beginning of potentially a big issue.

Yeah.

And then when I was 21, I moved to Prague early 2009, recession, had a degree in English and creative writing. What else do you do? Go and teach English as a foreign language. And that was like kryptonite. Prague is a city of booze. There's nothing really. Well, that's not true. It's stunningly beautiful. There's lots to do. In my mind, there was nothing to do but sit in these really cool old pubs with my ex cat mates drinking excessive beer. And this is the thing. In the Czech Republic, in Prague, there are bars that are hooked up to computers that have and screens that have beer pumps in the middle of the tables. And it's a competition to see which table can drink the most. And so you're sitting there and it's gamifying the process of drinking. Star Praman.

Wow.

And it's like, that is normal, that's the culture. Like, there's a huge alcohol problem in that part of the world.

British expats sorry, I said, that's really interesting. I mean, I thought alcohol advertising was out of control in the UK, but I think the UK would draw a line at that. I would have hoped. I don't know, though.

If there's a market for it.

Gamification of binge drinking, to be fair, be a pong, whatever. Yeah, to be fair, it happens all the time, doesn't it? But, yeah, that's quite extreme.

That was the norm. And at one moment I had a realisation that I really needed to do something to snap myself out of this. What I now look back on as sort of the beginning stages of alcoholism, because that was my entire life was spent teaching English or drinking or recovering. And then I decided that the only thing that I could do that would snap me out of this, and this is when I was 23, was to move to Shanghai because China really scared me. So I thought, oh, if I do that, then it will snap me out of it. Rock up in Shanghai.

I was going to say I spent a lot of time in China in those times because I was a buyer on Easter all the time. It was very boozy.

Yeah, it's not the same kind of booze either. It's definitely a different chemical compound entirely. In China, you can pay the equivalent of ten pounds to go into a club and have free drinks all night.

Yeah. And they don't have any measures. Everything's kind of free poured, so you don't have got no idea how much you're drinking. I've lost hours and hours of my life in China. Terrifying. Actually. Who knows what might have happened? I probably only got one kidney.

Well, actually, this is when I had my first kind of proper shock. I went out one night. It wasn't just alcohol, but I would have been able to tell that I'd been spiked if I hadn't have been drinking. And I woke up in a warehouse surrounded by chinese men and they were holding my bag and I sat on a chair and I was just like, they're going to kill me. It was like a real is. It was very bizarre because I can't remember it very well at all. And then the next thing I know, I'm waking up again and I'm running away and I'm in the outskirts of Shanghai. No idea how I got there, no idea where I am. Totally, like, not non compass mentors. And ended up being able to flag down a cab and get to my friend's house. And that was obviously. And luckily nothing happened. They didn't do any of the things that you might think could be the thing. So, yeah, it was like absolutely terrifying.

That is terrifying. Yeah.

And then I at that point, just decided, oh, I really do need to take a break and do something about this. Because even though I'm sure it was a case of being spiked, I would have known that something was off if I hadn't had been drinking. And I would have felt the kind of early onset of that peculiar feeling. And I was in China on my own at 23. It's like totally unsafe. So I did. That was my first time stopping. And I started to get into running. And I felt for the first time in my life, I stopped smoking. And I felt for the first time in my life, like, actually. Oh, okay. Life is actually a lot easier. And after that point, I then came back to the UK and felt like ten. Then I was like, I've done this and I don't drink anymore. And all this. And very, very quickly got pulled back into drink culture here. And then another six years of drinking and heavy drug use all the way through building up my career. Which brings to the workplace. I worked in agency, a creative agency, which was so normal to go out after work and drink way too much on a school night and do loads of cocaine and.

Oh, lol. I had 2 hours sleep, but I'm here for my client meeting. It was like the norm. Nobody thought, that's actually really worrying.

No, it seems like that particular. I mean, there's other. It's not just creative agencies, like people who work in recruitment, anyone who's been in the military, actually quite a lot of teachers, there's doctors, surgeons, there's a lot of people who've come on this podcast who've said the same thing. It is quite normal, isn't it, in the workplace culture for people to bond by basically staying out all night drinking and taking drugs? Yeah, it's just not that unusual.

And that was. That was the whole culture of it. By the time I left that, I was the head of my department and we would have members of my team would be coming in in the morning and throwing up in the bin, and again, we would laugh about it. It would be just like, what do you like? And usually I'd been out with them until two or 03:00 a.m., yeah, I.

Was that boss as well. Plying the drink with shot, the team with shots and telling them not to worry about the morning and everyone would be in, but you just open your laptop, sit there for a few hours and close it again. To be honest, it's just no work was done. Yes. Crazy, isn't it? Absolutely crazy. Why would you want to employ a team like that? Oh, dear.

No idea. And then when you stop, it's such an anomaly that you get so much abuse for it. It's part of the culture and it's really especially rife in creative agencies.

Yeah, I'm sure it is. And in marketing in general, it's quite. Work hard, play hard, isn't it? Really tight deadlines, big budgets, plenty of money sloshing around, lots of expenses, accounts, dealing with clients, entertaining clients. It all adds up to the perfect place to hide an alcohol issue in plain sight, really.

Yeah, exactly. And in my case, it was an alcohol and cocaine problem and it went on for so long as well. I think, in hindsight, with talking to people who I'm still good friends with, who worked with me at the time, it was like, no, it really was obvious. We knew that you had a problem, but we didn't really know what to say about it or how to deal with that, because I was always the one that would go too far, always the one that was like, one more, just one more. In hindsight now, and hanging out with my friends as well, I realised, like, oh, actually, no, you're actually quite moderate. It's me that was a revelation for.

Me when I stopped drinking. I was like, oh, first night out with my mates, they're all going to be absolutely shit faced and I'm going to be sober. And what I realised was that everyone else just doesn't drink anywhere near as much as I did and that it's actually fine being sober with them because they've only drunk a little bit. I was like, oh. And they were like, yeah, it's loads more fun going out with me now because we don't have to put you in a taxi at 09:00, so, you know. Yeah.

Not crying on everyone.

Exactly, yeah, I had that recently.

I had a few friends around for dinner and they bought with them a couple of bottles of wine. I think they bought, like, four bottles of wine and it was just the two of them and me and my husband, and I thought, oh, God, this is going to be annoying. And they're quite new friends. They didn't know that I didn't drink, but they had just like a bottle and a half between them and they were like, oh, gosh, it's been a hard week, so we've really gone overboard. And I was looking at it, thinking, if I was drinking, we would have gone through all four of those bottles. And I'd be back at the shop.

Definitely.

That's moderate to me. You only had one and a half.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I would think nothing of having half a bottle of wine. It would easily be one. If I'm going to sit down and drink, I'm going to drink.

Which, again, I think comes back to that interesting point of the dopamine hit, because to me, it was like just having one or two wasn't actually enjoyable. No, I didn't really like the taste. I didn't really like the feeling when I was having just a bit of a messy head. It was like it had to be all or nothing.

Me, too. Exactly. I drank to get drunk. And I think there are pockets of people up and down the country who are in this category, and whatever the root cause of it is, at some point you're going to run into some kind of difficulty with this. And I do think that employers are uniquely well placed to spot and act upon this and just to provide an environment where it's normal to talk about it and there's good quality signposting in place. If you'd have gone to your creative agency and said, I'm worried about my own drinking, what on earth would have happened? Do you think you would have had any support?

I think I probably would, because the CEO had gone through a similar situation and he was too social.

Interesting. Yeah.

I think for me, it would have been more helpful if someone had come up to me and said, I'm worried about you. Are you okay? Because actually, I was so not okay. Everything about my life at that time was full of abuse, was in an abusive relationship with the person I owned a flat with and with myself, which was far more important anyway. And I think it would have been really obvious, and I'm sure people talked about me in the office behind my back.

Oh, yeah, me too.

But never thought, let's actually find out what's going on here. And that, for me, is why it's so important to move through the stigma around addiction or abuse, substance use disorders and mental health, to get to a point where we are comfortable, as comfortable to say to somebody, I really don't think you're okay. What's going on in the context of mental health as we are. You seem really ill. You're coughing all over me. You need to go home. With physical health, it needs to be something that's so normal.

It does. It really does. And it's the stigma that stops people from seeking help because, well, tell me, how long was it from you thinking, I might need some help to actually going and asking for some help or to doing something about it.

Years and years and years. Yeah, I remember once, the first time since I've moved back from China, I did sober October, and I lasted for two weeks, which I was really proud of, but did cope like three times in that time and didn't occur to me that, well, that's not really being sober. I told everyone, I've done two weeks. I've done two weeks, just so please. With it took. It took like a lot of similar to being kidnapped in China stories for me to be like, okay, I'm out of control of this situation, and if I don't do something, I'm probably going to wind up dead. Like, as much as that sounds dramatic, it really was that kind of extreme situation. And, yeah, it took me years to get to a point where I was like, okay, I'm going to do this and actually do it.

What did make you do it? Could you pinpoint what made you decide to change?

Yeah, I had a really awful experience with this really awful man. Use your imagination as to what that kind of situation could be and couldn't really remember it, but I knew something really bad had happened and that was really scary. It was like, I've put myself in this situation in my own home as well that I can't remember, but I know in my higher consciousness self that something bad has happened. And I was just like, this isn't enough is enough. Like, I have to do the work now. It was unbelievably painful to go through all of the trauma that I had been drinking to forget and the trauma that I had created for myself in the cycle of being, this complete liability and self abuse was just so painful. So painful. But honestly, when I did so much work on myself and so much healing of every kind that I could possibly do and was dealing with mental health issues that I've had ever since I was a kid. And I think they're related to childhood trauma and alcohol as a symptom rather than the cause of it. But then became a never ending cycle.

And I just remember after maybe about a year into it just being like, why did nobody tell me how beautiful the world is? It was like suddenly I could just see everything and was like, trees are really cool. Did you know that trees are really cool?

This is so relatable.

Yeah, it was really odd. It was like the first time, I think, in my entire life I'd ever experienced actual joy and was just like, why did no one tell me that this is what living is like, what this is like to just exist.

Yeah, I know. Isn't it just the most fantastic thing? And this is one of the really my favourite, favourite things to do is when I work with employers, I quite often do a talk called sunshine sobriety. And all it is, really, is telling people all the things that have got better in my life since I stopped drinking, as well as telling them a bit about my story. And I love it because it doesn't have, like, an immediate effect. Nobody goes home and goes, that's it, I'm going to go sober. But I get emails all the time from people who say, oh, I heard your sunshine sobriety, like, two years ago, and now I'm three months sober, and now I know what you mean, and it just plants that seed and I think it just gives, you say it was years and years till you did something. That's where employers can help, because they don't need to tell people what to do, but they can provide inspiration and they can provide normalisation of the choice not to drink, and they can provide signposting of resources to things like books and podcasts and groups that people can join and all this sober universe that's out there that you don't know about as a drinker and just point people in that direction if they choose to go down that path.

No one's going to force people to stop drinking, but just put it in front of them and see who takes it up. You'd be surprised at the impact it has. And I just wonder what would have happened to you if in those years and years, you'd had a little bit more inspiration, some sober role models.

I think that is definitely it, because what took me to that point was definitely role models and people in my life that I respected a lot. Stopping drinking who was like a drinking buddy with me and seeing how they glowed and seeing how much happier they were and being able to relate to their stories and reading. For me, a big game changer was reading Catherine Gray's the Unexpected Joy of being sober and being like, oh, my God, her story is my story. That's really horrible because she obviously ended up going really far down the road to addiction. So, yeah, I think all of those things would have been really helpful and also even just like. And this is something that I really want employers to think about. When you're organising group get togethers, they almost always revolve around something to do with alcohol, or even in a space where alcohol is the main feature. Like, okay, yeah, you can have an alcohol free option in the pub, but it's still a pub and that's the norm. And I just think it's so difficult to go down the road to stopping drinking and being bombarded with alcohol culture everywhere you go, not having any support from your peers or your workplace, and then every single social opportunity is also surrounded by alcohol.

Of course, people don't go and take the first step, or of course people end up falling off the wagon again.

Yeah, I know. Which just incredibly unhelpful. Most workplaces are an incredibly unhelpful environment for someone who is struggling to stop drinking. And I know dozens of cases of people who've relapsed on work nights out and with various different consequences, ranging from getting back on the wagon the next day through to getting divorced and losing their job. So it's dangerous territory. It really is, it really is.

It's no joke, I think, because we've got such a normalisation of these things and it's like, ha. Lol. I was outside a pub a couple of years ago overhearing a conversation and my ears always prick up when people start talking about alcohol. And these people were talking about how hilarious it was that one of their friends fell through the shower screen the night before. And then. I'm not judging because I'm sure I thought all sorts of ridiculous things were funny.

Yeah, no, I know I did. We used to laugh about the most dangerous of things, really. And I suppose there's a comedy element to some of the stories. Of course there is. But I think it's only since I stopped drinking that I see them in a different light and they just seem so dangerous and out of control and self destructive with my sober head on. Yeah, I just think, wow. And the laughter is just masking what, you know, deep down, is actually something much darker.

Yeah, exactly.

What would you like to see from employers, then? What kind of initiatives do you think employers should be doing more of? So you've already mentioned events and thinking about being a bit more inclusive when it comes to organising events. Anything else?

I think facilitating opportunities to have conversations around alcohol, around mental health. It's so closely linked as well, creating safe spaces for people to talk about when they're feeling concerned about their own stuff. Yeah, it's really about a culture of inclusivity and I'm a trustee of a lived experience recovery charity and one of the things that we talk about a lot is, like, addiction or substance use disorders are not listed as a protected characteristic.

In fact, they're specifically called out as not protected, which is just wild.

As somebody who's dealt with an awful lot of different mental health issues, that was the hardest one to deal with.

Yes, I agree. It's not fair, really, is it?

No, it's not fair. And it's almost like people are set up to fail, actually. And I think we have a weird culture of perverse satisfaction when people do fail, and without realising that that failure could cost somebody's life. And that is not a joke. And I think that, for me, is the thing that I wish employers understood is that this is something that is so much more serious than just choosing to imbibe a liquid or not. Like, it's not about the liquid as much as it is about the impact that that has on absolutely everything. And also, I know for 100% sure that I was nowhere near as effective at my job when I was surviving on an hour's sleep on a cocaine and alcohol comes out. Surely you want someone not surrounded by crisps and different forms of hydration, staring at Facebook for you the entire day.

Exactly. I know. It's incredible. It is incredible that I run a business that's based on sobriety. I think it'd almost be a recruitment criteria for me to say that. I don't think anyone would apply if they weren't sober, actually, to be fair. But, yeah, I mean, it's just the productivity that you get from sober people. It's worth it just for that, isn't it? There were some great stats from someone who I interviewed who is based in the US, and they talked about the loyalty of people in recovery and how if you can employ someone who's been through a long term alcohol or drugs problem and they're in long term recovery and you employ them, how much more loyal they are as an employee than a regular, average employee, and they'll stay longer, they'll work harder, they'll be more engaged. It was really interesting data, actually, and I can really understand that.

Yeah. I think my genuine perspective is that there isn't anybody more heroic than somebody who has come through the other side of substance use disorders. Similarly, I would put mental health in that entire cat within the mental health category, but specifically that, because.

You have.

To fight to get out of that hole. And to me, that says everything about someone, which is another reason I think it's utterly bonkers that there's any kind of stigma around it. People should be coming up and, like, high fiving you. How did you do it?

Yeah, I totally agree. I know. There's so much stigma. And you're right, these people have fought mental battles that some people have not even started and they know themselves really well. They're standing in their authentic selves and they've reclaimed their own power. It's like someone described getting sober as a radical act of self empowerment. And I just thought, yes, that is it. That is what it is. That was Carl Considine, by the way, who has the love from bar in Manchester. Yeah, what a brilliant quote. I love that. I keep using it, but I do.

Credit him, but it's also a radical act of rebellion. It is, because it's saying to the status quo, like, I am prepared to stand outside of the pack and say, no, I don't want to be in this anymore. I'm plugging myself out of the matrix and dealing with the consequences of that. Which for a lot of us, especially those of us that drank to fit in in the first place, is hugely triggering. Hugely triggering to feel like you're an outsider. And that's why I'm so grateful for the community that exists in the UK and I know in other countries as well, where it's just the most supportive place that you could possibly.

I agree, I agree. It's fantastic. And it's really good to hear your perspective from that creative marketing industry. I wonder how much things have changed since you've been out on your own. To be honest, I think not that much from what I hear.

Not at all. I know that because I go to events where I do a lot of facilitation and I'll facilitate events and at the end of the event there's like, here, have a glass of prosecco.

Yeah. I wonder who the first marketing agency will be to become an alcohol safe workplace. Let's find out.

I'm going to help you find them and get choose sunrise and your alcohol free, safe. It's alcohol safe workplace, isn't it?

That's the accreditation. Yeah.

Come on, agencies.

I know there must be someone out there who thinks, you know what, that does sound like a good idea. We're not saying that you can't drink anymore, by the way. We're just saying that we have a culture of inclusion where it's okay not to drink as well.

We're looking at you agencies.

We're looking.

Come on, someone step up.

Yeah. You still have the opportunity to be the first in that industry. So, yeah, I think it's quite prable as well.

And you know that there is nothing that marketing agency likes more than a bit.

Yeah, exactly.

Monochrome and PR. There we go.

So before we wrestle, I've got a couple more questions. So I always ask all of my guests to tell me, what is your favourite book and why in the world or quitlet? Oh, in the world, any book. It's a tough question, isn't it? Especially for a you.

I know you're a reader.

Well, tell me a good.

For different reasons, but I can tell you my favourite poem.

Oh, yes.

Which inspired the name of my business, electric Peach. And it's the love song of jail for proof rock, which is by t s eliot. And it is a really long, rambling poem about getting older. And there's a line in it that says, do I dare to eat a peach? And for me, that line has kept me going in so many situations and I've got mantras around my room which says, yes, I do dare and my friends buy me peach related things, even before, way before I named my company. So the peach for me is a symbol. I actually had it tattooed on my wrist.

Oh, wow. Yeah.

When I first stopped drinking. So, yeah, the peach is a symbol of daring and pushing for a more extraordinary life and not looking back like jail for proof rock and wondering whether it was for anything at all. So, yeah, that's my favourite poem.

I love that. What? Brilliant. And I've just got a little insight into where your electric peach name came from, which is exciting. And that was going to be my final question was, how do we find out more about electric peach and how do we find you?

So you can find me on Instagram. I'm never on Instagram. You can find me on LinkedIn. Sophie Lee now. And you can find electricpeach at Electricpeach. Co. UK. We're also on Instagram, but I don't use it very often.

Well, fair enough. Yeah. Go and visit the website. It's extraordinary. I love it. It's wacky and, yeah, I absolutely love it. Fantastic. So thank you so much, Sophie, for being my guest and I wish you the very best of luck with your storytelling.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Sophie, for being my guest and for being so vibrant and colourful and adding a splash of colour into this wintry day for us. It's been fantastic to meet you. And Sophie is also a very active member of our Sober business networking group, which, if you're listening to this and you're a sober coach, an entrepreneur or anyone who owns their own business and you happen to be sober, come and join us. We have such a warm and welcoming networking community. We're at soberbusinessnetwork. Co. Uk and we would love to welcome you into our group, so give that a little cheque out for everyone else. For the HR managers, the diversity and inclusion people and health and safety amongst you, we have our monthly webinar series continuing, so that is on the first Friday of each month and you can sign up for those either on LinkedIn actually or head choose Sunrise Co. UK and go to the accreditation section so the alcohol safe workplace section and you'll see a big yellow button that's got all the live events behind it so you can sign up for there. They're all free and I'd love to welcome you and see a little bit more of you guys in there.

So thanks so much for listening and I will see you next time. If you'd like to learn more about creating an alcohol safe workplace without killing the buzz, visit choosesubernize Co. Uk and head to the HR services page. Let's end this stigma because nobody should feel afraid to ask for help with alcohol use.