Roger: And he was just like, well, you know, you can do what you love for a living, you know that's possible, right? That conversation has completely shaped the rest of my life.

Alex: If I were to tell you that Roger Frampton spent years working as a model ...

Roger: I've pretty much modelled for every British brand.

Alex: … and that he lives in a cottage in the countryside …

Roger: I'm out in Gloucestershire. I live in a small village. Like I’m definitely the youngest person here, and I'm nearly 40.

Alex: … you’d probably make a few assumptions about Roger.

You’d probably think he had a posh upbringing.

Roger: People look at my face and they assume, he– I'm a public school boy.

Alex: And that he went to an expensive university.

Roger: you know, Oxford or Cambridge.

Alex: But actually – – you would be wrong.

Roger: They don’t realise, right, I left school with no GCSEs.

Alex: Roger left school when he was 15. And he didn’t grow up in a big country pile.

Roger: Both my parents live in council houses.

Alex: Roger’s mum is from Chile. He’s one of eight kids.

Roger: Everyone always asks why I eat my dinner like at 90 miles an hour. When you have a few older brothers sitting around the table, you eat your meal as quick as you can. Because otherwise, they're gonna get it.

Alex: Roger is a movement coach.

Roger: I teach people how to move their bodies better. And this is all about, like a lifetime of mobility.

Alex: Roger’s TED talk,, about why sitting down is bad for us,, has been watched almost five million times.

His journey from a kid with no education to public figure was not straightforward. And instead of one consistent role model, it was two key conversations that changed the trajectory of his life.

Roger’s parents divorced when he was 13. It changed everything. He moved from a small village in Northamptonshire – – to urban east London.

Roger: I literally went from a school in a village to a school where we were getting scanned for knives and guns. It was quite scary, as a kid because I didn't know what I'd walked into.

Alex: Roger didn’t like school. He left during the year that he would have taken his GCSEs.

Roger: Instead, I went to be a carpenter. Like, the fact that I could work with my dad and make money rather than sit there and learn about stuff that I wasn't really interested in … that route seemed a lot more appealing.

Alex: For five years, Roger worked as a carpenter alongside his dad. He was a brilliant role model when it came to work ethic and discipline.

Roger: At first it was really annoying, right? Because we'd be working on this project. And you know, he would start cleaning and working behind stuff that you couldn't even see. And I was like, Dad, no one's ever gonna see that. It doesn't matter. And he was like, it does matter. Like it really matters, right? And I never got it. And I was like, no one sees it. Who cares? It's behind me and it's behind a wall. Or it's behind the washing machine. No one ever pulls the washing machine out. But he was very like, methodical about his work. And so I've definitely – that's a characteristic that I've taken from him.

Alex: This is where Roger’s story veers off from the typical left-school-at-15-to-become-a-joiner path. In the pub one day, he was scouted by one of London’s biggest modelling agencies.

Roger: That seemed a lot more appealing. Right? So I was like, Oh, hang on a minute. You mean I can travel to New York, Paris, Milan, have people taking pictures of me. Or I can just sit here and you know, graft my way through life.

Alex: Roger went on to have global success, modelling for the likes of Calvin Klein and Aquascutum. But going from castings to shoots and back again – – it wasn’t satisfying.

Roger: I wasn't doing what I loved. And also with, with modelling – it's just based on your face, you can't change it, you can't control it, you can't get better at it.

Alex: He was itching to do something else. At the time he was spending his downtime between modelling jobs exercising at the gym – that was what he really loved.

It was around this time that Roger had a pivotal conversation - with his uncle Campbell.

Roger: Campbell, like the soup.

Alex: One afternoon the pair of them were chatting in Roger’s grandmother’s house. She had a little flat in Chelsea: think patterned 60s wallpaper, kitsch furniture and a yellow ceiling.

Roger: My nan was an absolute chain smoker. She probably did about 40 to 60 Silk Cut every day.

Alex: Roger confided in Campbell that he didn’t know what to do with his life. That he wanted a real career - and he didn’t see modelling as a long-term option.

Roger: He kept asking me what I love. And I was like, yeah, no, I love going to the gym. But you know, that's my hobby that, you know, that's different. And he was just like, well, you know, you can do what you love for a living, you know that's possible, right? When you're down the gym, you're always helping people out, people come up to you and ask you because you're there all the time. You know what kind of routines that you do. You could be a coach, you could teach people. That conversation has completely shaped the rest of my life.

Alex: It opened Roger’s eyes. He’d never considered pursuing a job that was also the thing he loved.

Alex: And so he studied, got the qualifications, and set up a personal training company, called Remodel Me. A play on his past as one of the fashion elite.

Roger: I was running around London, coaching people as a personal trainer. When I say like running around London, it's got bits of positive bits of negative. At some points yeah, literally running from one client to the next. So I trained someone in like Knightsbridge, and then you know off that I've meet the next client at the park, and I’d meet another client at Paddington Rec. And I did this for years, and the time just went

Alex: But as the years passed, Roger noticed more bits of personal training that he didn’t like.

Roger: When people are being coached, they don't necessarily like it, they don't necessarily want to be there.

Alex: Staying active didn’t always seem as important to the Remodel Me clients as it did to Roger.

Roger: And that becomes frustrating because you realise, you know, you love it, and it's your passion. I'm doing this so I can move better when I'm 60, when I'm 70, when I'm 80. This is really important work for me, this is essential.

Alex: He got itchy feet again. And it was one of his personal training clients, a businessman named Dominic, who helped him see his next career step.

During a training session, Dominic was blunt. He said…

Roger: I can see you've got this name, Remodel Me. But it doesn't make sense. Because your name is Roger, you've done all this. You've done all these extra courses, and you're very specified in terms of what you do. And it just seems all a little bit all over the place. Why are you not putting your name to this? Why is this not called Roger Frampton or Roger Coach?

Alex: Roger realised he had been hiding behind the name Remodel Me.

Roger: I was maybe a little bit embarrassed to put myself out there. And he was like you need to, you know, be true to who you are, you need to own who you are. And, you know, say to people, I'm Roger Frampton, I’m the person that has done all this.

Alex: It made Roger think back to not getting his GCSEs, and feeling ashamed about that.

Roger: It was this story that I had created in my head where I was essentially like not good enough, or not smart enough or not qualified enough.

Alex: But in that moment with his client Dominic,, Roger felt proud… Proud that he’d made the right decisions - to leave school, to try out different careers, to pursue his passion.

Roger: Because instead of getting qualified in something that I wasn't really interested in, I've then gone on to study things I really am interested in.

Alex: Dominic suggested that Roger go on a three-day course, designed to change his mindset.

Roger: Basically throughout the course they force you to phone people and have conversations with people that you've had arguments with in the past, and to clear up any stuff that you've got going on, any hatred or any anger towards other people.

They had this sentence, it was like “You are of your word”. And you know, everything that you say it's, it's about… it's about meaning. So really be true to yourself.

Alex: Roger took those words to heart. He channelled everything into his TED talk, and his public career took off from there.

Roger: My objective is to help people to move their body better. And really, this all starts with, you know, the movement of the spine, the movement of the joints. You know, this movement is not about strength, you have to have a base of flexibility.

Alex: He wrote two books and has a popular online community where he encourages people to stretch and move together.

Roger: During the pandemic, when I set up the whole online thing, when gyms were closed, Dominic called me, and was just saying how proud he is, you know of what I've done that I've put my name to it, that I'm not hiding behind, you know, a brand. But I'm more doing what I love, putting it on video and allowing other people to you know, try it and see how they get along.

It really is about the power of conversation.

When you're with someone, really be with them, really be present, really listen to the words that are leaving their mouth, because those words can be gold dust. And you could be looking back on a conversation in 10 years’ time going, oh I really needed to hear those words.

Alex: Listening to Roger’s words, it’s clear that he realises the value of a conversation comes not only from what is said but from what is heard and acted upon. Clearly Roger has been open to hearing what others have had to tell him. Many people find a lane in life, which they will automatically stick to. Following influential conversations with others, Roger has been willing to push boundaries and take on new experiences and they have taken him to memorable places. As unconventional as Roger’s journey has been, it very much appears that it has been the right one for him. As someone myself that grew up on a council estate, I was very surprised when Roger wasn’t the guy that I thought he was and he wasn’t from a privileged background. He’s had to graft for everything he’s achieved and remodeled himself many times over. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. He has taken on each opportunity as it has arisen and he has used the advice and example of others to navigate his success.