The man on a mission to inspire health and happiness [inside my journal]

Following struggles with his own weight and wellbeing, Kieron Gough now helps others get healthier and happier. The stationery-lover talks about growing up in rural Wales, why he started his own company, and why he travelled all the way to paper republic’s Paris outlet, just to feel the leather…

Where are you from and where are you based?

I live right in the heart of what's called ‘The Valleys’, in south Wales, UK. It’s very mountainous and beautiful, but the area was hugely impacted in the early ‘80s when the coal mines closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs and it left the area economically deprived.

It’s a really small, close-knit community; a land of moving curtains. When something happens in the street, everybody knows about it. It is a lovely place but I love cities too, so I try to escape as often as I can. City life is obviously more dynamic and more fun. I love home but you get to a point in life where you see there's more out there than the place you grew up; the world is a very big open space. 

You now run Grow With Kieron, a company that helps people lose weight and be happier. What’s the story behind it?

Over almost all of my adult life I have struggled with weight and weight loss. One of the underlying reasons was my sexuality. I make no bones about that. It was tough growing up in a small, rural place. I self-medicated with food and gained weight. 

But eventually I wanted to live more freely and live my authentic self. I wasn't able to do that because of how I looked. I realised I needed to become healthy and I went on a bit of a health kick. I joined the UK’s leading slimming organisation and lost 10 stone (63.5kg), then ended up spending eight years working for them. I developed weight loss groups throughout my region, became an area manager, then a national trainer at their head office.

But after a while, I felt there was something missing. I felt that the big weight loss companies where just money-making machines. It was all about numbers and not about the individuals. 

In parallel to this, in 2019 I took part on a UK TV show called ‘This Morning’ which were doing a segment about people losing weight. I got flown to Crete, put through my paces with their therapists and did lots of exercise and activity.

Because although I had lost ten stone (63.5kg) previously, by then I had regained it. That’s the thing about weight. When you're working on it, it stays off, but if you don't change your lifestyle, your behaviour, or your thinking, inevitably, at some point you may gain it back.

It was during the filming of this TV show, having suffered with my own mental health issues, that I knew people needed more than self-help guides and diet plans. I realised that what you really need, is other people: a community.

That’s where the spark for Grow with Kieron came from. I wanted to give people support and enable them to change their habits, through in-person groups. Because without a community, you can get the best advice, read the best books, have the best therapist but it can so easily all fall apart. 

You went all the way to our Paris outlet to buy your first journal. Why?

I have always, even as a child, loved stationery. There is something about the touch of paper I like. I've always bought really lovely notepads and I collect Mont Blanc pens.

A few months ago, I stumbled on paper republic and thought: I need this. I don't know why. Perhaps it was the feeling of the community who were using them in so many different ways. And I loved how the leather cover was reusable and how you could change the note pads and paper inside.

But even though I loved the look of them, I didn’t buy one online. Because for me, touch and smell are really important. I wanted to feel the leather first.

So, I googled your stores and discovered that the closest supplier was Papier Perjac in Paris. One weekend, I was in London with my husband, and I said: “Fancy a trip to France?”

We visited the store and loved it. I am very particular about my paper, because I use fountain pens. I can't deal with bleeding and feathering, but I got to try out different paper and it just all worked seamlessly. I’d gone in planning to buy a small grand voyageur but left with an a4 portfolio!

How do you use your journals for your personal and business life?

I like my journals chunky. I don't like them all slim and pretty. I like them to be full of stuff. I also have a pocket portfolio, and this has become my favourite. Anything and everything goes into this. It’s my inner circle. I write about what's been positive each day, what was bad, what didn't happen, etc, then that gets filtered into my other two journals. And I just love it. It has given me an ecosystem to protect my thoughts and feelings and remember the really good stuff.

I like that paper republic notebooks are so minimalist. You can use them any way you want. That allowed me to dump my mind without somebody telling me it had to be done a certain way. I started with simple writing, then I started adding photos in. Because, although I often forget an event, a photo can provoke a memory.

I realised quickly that I needed another portfolio for my business as I wanted it keep things separated. So guess where we went? Back to Paris, just for the day!

Unlike many from the paper republic community, I didn’t want the leather to ever age! I bought a tub of le baume leather crème and I was rubbing it in every week because I like everything to be perfect. 

I've got 28 collectible Mont Blanc notepads that I've never used. But none of them have brought me the connection that I have found with paper republic. 

What’s the most satisfying thing about running Grow with Kieron?

I'm really proud of what we’ve built because I can see how much we’re helping people. And if we can help one person, it creates a ripple effect across their community, through their families, through their friendships and beyond, and the impact is magnified. 

For example, someone in one of my groups will say: “I've lost two stone, but my husband has also lost a stone, and he didn't even want to!” 

I see this all the time because they've changed the way they've cooked. They've changed their habits and we've influenced their whole family's health. 

We've just hit over 1000 subscribers a month, so it seems there’s a real demand for the community support that we offer.

What is it about paper public that makes you feel a connection?

The quality. It's sensory. The paper is not rough, not too waxy. I like that it’s not branded. Lots of other notepad brands have their name on each page. I don't need that. I want it to be plain. This is my page now, not yours.

I also love The Dybdahl  Co. illustrated book refills. I love the fish. That just makes me laugh. I open it up and it provokes a thought. 

The first portfolio I bought was so beautiful and well made, that I couldn’t help but get more. I just felt like there was this trust and authenticity in the product. And it brought me into this community that I didn't know I needed in my life.

For people out there who want to make a lifestyle change and get healthier but don’t know how to start, what’s your advice?

Find a community that you can relate to and that can support you. Be prepared to work on yourself, and be prepared, over time, to unpick all the things that need to be unpicked. 

Also, make a list and break things down into small steps. You must decide what you want to achieve first, no matter how ambitious your goal might seem. Then cut it into smaller, achievable steps, find your community and get the support mechanism that's going to allow you to reach your goals.

Learn more about Kieron’s work at GrowWithKieron.co.uk