Healthier men one moustache at a time Adam Garone
I think the beautiful Mullen put it
perfectly every man deserves the
opportunity to grow a little bit of
luxury ladies and gentlemen more
importantly Mo Bros and Mo sisters for
the next 70 minutes I’m going to share
with you my Movember journey and how
through that journey we’ve redefined
charity we’re redefining the way
prostate cancer researchers are working
together throughout the world and I hope
through that process that I inspire you
to create something significant in your
life something significant that will go
on and make this world a better place so
the most common question I get asked I’m
going to answer it now so I don’t have
to do it over drinks tonight
is how did this come about how do you
Movember start well normally a charity
starts with the cause and someone that
is directly affected by a cause they
then go on to create an event and beyond
that a foundation to support that pretty
much in every case that’s how a charity
starts not so with Movember Movember
started in a very traditional Australian
way was on a Sunday afternoon there was
my brother and a mate having a few beers
and I watching the world go by had a few
more beers and I had the conversation
turned to 70s fashion
and how everything manages to come back
into style a few more beers so there has
to be some stuff that hasn’t come back
then one more beer was whatever happened
to the mustache why hasn’t that made a
comeback so there’s a lot more beers and
then the day ended with a challenge to
bring the mustache back so in Australia
mo is slang for mustache
so we renamed the month November
Movember and created some pretty basic
rules which still stand today and they
are start the month clean-shaven rock
and moustache not a beard not a go to
your mustache for the 30 days of
November and then we agreed that we
would come together at the end of month
have a moustache themed party and award
a prize for the best and of course the
worst mustache now trust me when you’re
growing a moustache back in 2003 and
there were 30 of us back then and this
is before the ironic hipster mustache
movement
it created a lot of controversy so my
boss wouldn’t let me go and see clients
my girlfriend at the time who’s no
longer my girlfriend hated it
parents would shuffle kids away from us
but we came together at the end of the
month we celebrated our journey it was a
real journey and we had a lot of fun and
in 2004 I said to the guys that was so
much fun
we need to legitimize this so we can get
away with it year on year so we started
thinking about that we were inspired by
the women around us and all they were
doing for breast cancer we thought you
know what there’s nothing for men’s
health why is that why why can’t we
combine growing in the stache and do
something for men’s health and I started
to research that topic and discovered
prostate cancer is the male equivalent
of breast cancer in terms of the number
of men that die from it and diagnosed
with it but there was nothing for this
cause
so we married growing a mustache with
prostate cancer and then we created our
tag line which is changing the face of
men’s health and that eloquently
describes a challenge changing your
appearance for the 30 days and also the
outcome that we’re trying to achieve
getting men engaged in their health
having them have a better understanding
about the health risks that they face so
with that model I then cold-called the
CEO of the prostate cancer foundation I
said to him I’ve got the most amazing
idea that’s going to transform your
organization and I didn’t want to share
with him the idea over the phone so I
convinced him to meet with me for coffee
in Melbourne in 2004 we sat down I
shared with him my vision of getting men
growing mustaches across Australia
raising awareness for this cause and
funds for his organization
I needed a partnership to legitimately
do that and I said we’re going to come
together at the end we’re gonna have a
moustache themed party we can have DJs
we’re going to celebrate life and we’re
going to change the face of men’s health
and you just looked at me in laughed and
he said said Adam that’s a really novel
idea but we’re an ultra conservative
organization
we can’t have anything to do with you so
I paid for coffee that day and he’s
parting comment as we shook hands was
listen if you happen to raise any money
out of this we’ll gladly take it so my
lesson that year was persistence and we
persisted and we got four hundred and
fifty guys growing moustaches and
together we raised fifty four thousand
dollars we donated every cent to that to
the prostate cancer foundation of
Australia and that represented at the
time the single biggest donation they’d
ever received so from that day forward
my life has become about a mustache
everyday this morning I wake up and go
my life isn’t about a mustache
essentially I’m a mustache farmer and my
season is November
so in 2005 the campaign got more
momentum was more successful in
Australia and then New Zealand and then
in 2006 we came to a pivotal point we
was consuming so much of our time after
hours on weekends that we thought we
either need to close this down or figure
a way to fund Movember so that I could
quit my job and go and spend more time
in the organisation and take it to the
next level it’s really interesting when
you try and figure a way to fund the
fundraising organization built off
growing moustaches let me tell you
there’s not too many people interested
in investing in that not even the
prostate cancer foundation who had
raised about 1.2 million dollars for at
that stage so again we persisted and
foster’s brewing came to the party and
gave us our first-ever sponsorship and
that was enough for me to quit my job by
consulting on the side and leading into
Movember 2006 we’d run through all the
money from Foster’s would run through
all the money I had and essentially we
had no money left and we’d convinced all
our suppliers creative agencies web
development agencies hosting companies
whatnot to delay their billing until
December so we’d racked up at this stage
about $600,000 worth of debt so if
November 2006 didn’t happen the four
founders well we would have been broke
we would have been homeless sitting on
the street with mustaches
so we thought you know what if that’s
who I think that happens so what we’re
going to have a lot of fun doing it and
taught us the importance of taking risks
and really smart risks then in early
2007 a really interesting thing happened
we had Mo Bros from from Canada from the
US and from the UK emailing us and
calling us and saying hey there’s
nothing for prostate cancer bring this
campaign to these countries so we
thought why not let’s do it so I cold
called the CEO of prostate cancer Canada
and I said to him I have this most
amazing concept it’s going to transform
your organization I don’t want to tell
you about it now but will you meet with
me if I fly all the way to Toronto so I
flew here met down on Front Street East
and we sat in the boardroom I said right
he’s my vision of getting men growing
mustaches all across Canada raising
awareness and funds for your
organization and he looked at me and
laughed and said Adam sounds like a
really novel idea but we’re all true
conservative organization I’ve heard
this before I know I know how it goes
but he said we will partner with you but
we’re not going to invest in it you need
to figure a way to bring this campaign
across here and make it work so what we
did was we took some of the money that
we raised in Australia to bring the
campaign across to this country of the
US and UK and we did that because we
knew if this was successful we could
raise infinitely more money globally
than we could just in Australia and that
money fuels research and that research
will get us to a cure we’re not about
finding an Australian cure or a Canadian
cure we’re about finding the cure so in
2007 we bought the campaign across here
and it was it set the stage for the
campaign it wasn’t as successful as we
thought it would be we’re sort of very
gung-ho with that success in Australia
and New Zealand that stage so that you
really taught us the importance of being
patient and really understanding the
local market before you become so bold
as to set lofty targets but what I’m
really pleased to say is in 2010
Movember became a truly global movement
was just kept at the post in terms of
the number one fundraising campaign in
the world last year we had 450,000
mowbray spread across the world and
together we raised 77 million dollars
and that makes Movember now the biggest
funder of prostate cancer research and
support programs in the world and that
is an amazing achievement when you think
about us growing mustaches and for us we
have redefined charity our ribbon is a
hairy ribbon our ambassadors are the
Mowbray’s and the most sisters and I
think that’s been fundamental to our
success we hand across our brand now
campaign to those people we let them
embrace it and interpret it in their own
way so now I live in Los Angeles because
the prostate cancer foundation of the
u.s. is based there and I always get
asked by the media down there because
it’s so celebrity driven who are your
celebrity ambassadors and I say to them
last year we’re fortunate enough to have
450,000 celebrity ambassadors what what
do you mean it’s like every single
person every single mo bro and mo sister
that participates in Movember is our
celebrity ambassador and that was so so
important and fundamental to our success
now what I want to share with you is one
of my most touching moment moments and
it happened here in Toronto last year at
the end of the campaign I was out with
the team it was the end of Movember we’d
had a great campaign and - we’d had our
fair share of beer that night but I said
you know what I think we’ve got one more
bar left in us so we piled into a taxi
and this was our taxi driver and I was
sitting in the back seat and he turned
around and said where you going
I said how that is an amazing mustache
and he said I’m doing it for Movember
and I said so am I and I said tell me
your Movember story and he goes listen I
know it’s about men’s health
I know it’s about prostate cancer but
this is for breast cancer I said okay
that’s interesting he goes last year my
mum passed away from breast cancer in
Sri Lanka because we couldn’t afford
proper treatment for her and he said
this mustache is my tribute to my mum
and we sort of all choked up in the back
of the taxi and I didn’t tell him who I
was because I didn’t he was appropriate
and I just shook his hand I said thank
you so much your mum would be so proud
and from that moment I realized that
Movember is so much more than a mustache
having a joke it’s about each person
coming to this platform embracing it in
their own way and being significant in
their own life for us now at Movember we
really focus on three program areas and
having a true impact awareness in
education
survivor support programs and research
now we always focus naturally on how
much we raise because is a very tangible
outcome but for me awareness and
education is more important the funds
were raised because I know that is
changing and saving lives today it’s
probably best example by a young guy
that I met at South by Southwest in
Austin Texas at the start of the year he
came up to me and said thank you for
starting Movember I said thank you for
doing Movember I looked at him I was
like I’m pretty sure you can’t grow a
moustache
and I said watch Movember story and he
said I agree the worst miss - ever but I
went home for Thanksgiving dinner and
pretty quickly the conversation around
the table turned to what the hell was
going on and we talked I talk to them
about Movember and then after that my
dad came up to me and at the age of 26
for the first time ever I had a
conversation with my dad one on one
about men’s health I had a conversation
with my dad about prostate cancer I
learned that my grandfather had prostate
cancer and I was able to share with my
dad that he was twice as likely to get
that disease and he didn’t know that and
he hadn’t been getting screened for it
so now that guy is getting screened for
prostate cancer so those conversations
getting men engaged in this at whatever
age is so critically important and in my
view so much more important than the
funds we raise now to the funds we raise
and research and how we’re redefining
research we fund prostate cancer
foundations now in 13 countries we
literally fund hundreds if not thousands
of institutions and researchers around
the world and when we looked at this
more recently we realized there’s a real
lack of collaboration going on even with
institutions that alone nationally let
alone globally and this is not unique to
prostate cancer this is this is a cancer
research the world over and so we said
right we redefine charity we need to
redefine the way these guys operate how
do we do that
so what we did was we created our global
action plan we’re taking 10% of what’s
raised in each country now and putting
it into a global fund
we’ve got the best prostate cancer
scientific minds in the world that look
after that fund and they come together
each year and identified the number-one
priority and that last year was getting
a better screening test so they
identified that as a priority and then
they’ve gone and recruited now 300
researchers from around the world that
are studying that topic essentially the
same topic so now we’re funding them to
the tune of about five or six million
dollars to collaborate and bringing them
together
that’s a unique thing in the cancer
world and we know through that
collaboration it will accelerate
outcomes and that’s how we’re redefining
the research world so what I know about
my Movember journey is that with a
really creative idea with passion with
persistence and a lot of patience
for mates for mustaches can inspire a
roomful of people and that roomful of
people can go on and inspire a city and
that city is Melbourne my home and that
city can go on and inspire a state and
that state can go on and inspire a
nation and beyond that you can create a
global movement that is changing the
face of men’s health my name is Adam
groaning and that’s my story thank you