An interview with Alex Clapp

Imagine a workplace Christmas party with no alcohol. For today's guest, Alex Clapp, it has become a mission to show the world that we don't need to drink to have a good time.

In this podcast, Alex, a recovering alcoholic shares his journey and explains why the business he set up to organise non-drinking events, Claritee, is attracting so much attention.

In this interview Alex:

• shares his personal transformational journey with alcohol
• explains how and why Claritee events are so much fun, despite being alcohol free
• highlights that he doesn't support a prescriptive approach - it's the principle of offering people a choice that matters
• gives his predictions on the speed at which attitudes towards drinking will continue to change

Claritee was founded to fill a gap in the market for non alcoholic corporate events and training that focus on well-being whilst being fun, entertaining and challenging. It's the first company of its kind to focus on hosting events that prove you don't need alcohol to have a good time.

Interviewer: Sometimes life throws us a curveball that can end up being one of the best things that ever happened. An opportunity for transformation and change, and even a chance to make a real difference.

Today I'm joined by Alex Clapp, the founder of Clarity, a leading alternative corporate events and speaking provider for non-alcoholic events, inspirational talks, live events, and bespoke packages. Clarity's aim is to challenge the mindset of the corporate world and help each individual gain clarity of mind to achieve their full potential.

Alex, you are able to turn your own struggle with alcohol into an inspirational story that's enabling you to help with a cultural shift in the corporate world on attitudes to drinking at social events. To put all this into context, there appears to be a tangible shift taking place in society when it comes to attitudes about alcohol.

Thank you, Alex, very much for joining us here today. Can you please share the key milestones in your own journey and how it inspired you to launch Clarity?

Alex: Yeah, firstly, thanks very much for having me. It's a pleasure. I would guess some people would describe me as a natural entrepreneur. I set up my first business when I was 20, and I'm now 45. A lot of my previous client relationship building was all focused around alcohol and what I would describe as the old culture. As you just touched on, things are shifting.

In terms of my own personal journey, about six or seven years ago, I started having some problems with my eyesight, which transpired into the fact that a couple of years ago, I lost 95% of the sight in my left eye. At one point, I was preparing myself to go blind. That was quite a scary place to be, especially when it's an unknown cause and there is no prognosis.

It wasn't as if I knew what was causing it. It wasn't as if I knew a prognosis, and I didn't actually know how to get my head around what was actually going to happen. So yeah, about two and a half to three years ago, I was beginning to prepare myself to go fully blind. That meant I was setting up various different things on my laptop and phone, using voice recognition software, thinking about what I was going to have to do.

During this time, which lasted a couple of years, I chose to pretend to the outside world that absolutely everything was fine. I would make jokes about my sight, I would make jokes about not being able to see, I'd constantly walk into things and have accidents. I found it very difficult to come to terms with it, and I chose to run away from all my problems. I became a full-blown alcoholic, utilizing alcohol to run away from all of my problems and hide from the outside world, effectively numbing the pain that was going on inside.

It took me a lot of time and work on myself. I ended up going to three different rehabilitation centers around the world, and I spent a total of five months in these centers over three different occasions to work on myself, to stop, take a reset, and look at myself internally.

I came out of my final rehab and said, "I'm going to do something. I'm going to go and show the world that we don't need alcohol to have a good time and that we are all enough just as we are."

Some of my inspiration came from the actual connections and time I had with so many individuals within rehabilitation. When you take away all the alcohol, all the drugs, all the outside world distractions, and just put a group of people together and allow them to connect fully as their authentic selves, the connection, the bond, and the fun you can have is amazing.

It took me back to some of my childhood, where you actually had what I describe as belly laughs, the real fun, and engagement. That's where the inspiration for Clarity came from�"creating opportunities for people to connect on a much more personal and non-judgmental level. The focus is on people connecting, socializing, having fun, and enjoying being together without the influence of substances. It's just about allowing people to be their authentic selves and connect with other like-minded individuals.

We've just reached our two-year anniversary for Clarity, and we're beginning to make some big inroads. We've had a couple of thousand people come to our big corporate nights, and we've gone on to further set up Club Clarity for individuals, offering a place for people to come, connect, socialize, and have lots of fun on a regular basis without alcohol. It's actually very powerful to see the difference between going to alcohol-fueled events and non-alcohol events.

Interviewer: Goodness, quite an incredible journey. One of the things that I picked up there was that you mentioned that previously, when you were a serial entrepreneur with these different businesses, it was quite normal to, in a social work environment, have a drink or a few.

There are certainly those, I think, who would still argue that there are positive aspects potentially to alcohol at corporate events. But as you've highlighted, this is also problematic.

Alex: Yeah, and I think you make a very good point. I actually try and get the point across that for me, it's all about trying to grow as an individual. So if I feel that I always needed to have a drink for Dutch courage, unless I'm willing to step outside of my comfort zone and challenge myself to be able to go to something and challenge myself to not have to have a drink and actually see how I get on, then I'm never going to grow as an individual. I'm always going to stay in that comfort zone of resorting to needing a drink or thinking I need a drink, and never going to challenge myself to grow as an individual.

I've spoken to a lot of people about this, and for me to have grown as an individual, I sometimes have to step out of my comfort zone because that actually empowers me. Personally, I believe that those little bits of working on ourselves actually help our development and help us become better, more confident, and a more rounded person.

I'm not saying it's easy all the time, and you may feel uncomfortable, but sometimes it's about perseverance. If you feel uncomfortable the first couple of times, I'd like to think by the third or the fourth time, you actually feel comfortable and quite confident.

The growth of self-development and personal awareness, the learning journey if you like, is a very important aspect of working life. HR and learning and development professionals obviously see this as absolutely critical, not just for the personal development of the individual, but also for the company as a whole.

Interviewer: Can you tell us a bit about how you think corporate events can be used to help shift corporate culture around drinking, and how can this act as a catalyst even to open up conversations to help improve the health of the workforce?

Alex: Yeah, I think it's very, from what I've seen over the last couple of years of what we have done and what we continue to do, so a lot of our events, we take a table of 10, for example, and we create a team leader or a head of the table. We have different games that people can play, and it's all about inclusivity.

There might be a strength game, there might be a mind game, so basically there's something for everybody. Then you have a discussion around the table, and you agree on who's going to do which game. You go around as a team, and you watch and encourage all of your teammates.

So, just by creating this, you are creating a bond and you're creating discussion, inclusion. You're bonding people together, and then you're creating an encouraging environment where everybody wants each other to do as well as possible. They encourage each other and support each other.

Then there's obviously points and prizes, and we make it a bit of competition and fun. But what it does is it creates the opportunity for people to discuss with others who are there and connect. You know, “Oh, have you done that game? Have you done this?” It almost opens the door for people to start engaging, and it takes away a lot of people's perception of wanting or needing a drink.

Our whole ethos is that we realize that to take away alcohol from where it's been so prominent, we needed to keep the events quite upbeat, quite engaging, but also to resolve or deal with bringing together different ages, different age groups, different cultures, and everything else.

How did we do that? We did that by having an all-inclusivity event. That's what we've created, and the feedback we've had has been phenomenal, where people have come as a company and gone away. The feedback's been, “Oh my god, you know, I got to know my colleagues a lot better. I really had good fun. It was so engaging, so much fun doing it together. I found out more about them on that night out than I knew after working with them for three years.”

All of those positive bits of feedback have stimulated me even more to say we are definitely on the right path, and we are definitely providing and offering something that is so new, but so much needed.

Interviewer: For sure, and for corporates, phenomenal feedback from their people is absolute gold dust. Is there anything in particular you can think of that provides an interesting insight into how and why these employers are finding these types of events so beneficial?

Alex: There's loads. Because effectively, you've got to think about all the different cultures, all the different ages, and to find something where one size fits all is never going to work.

For example, you might have 50 people�"10 people like rowing, 10 people like canoeing, 10 people like bike riding, and so on. You're never going to find something that everybody likes and everybody connects with.

Whereas, because our events have something for everybody, whether it be live entertainment, whether it be inspirational speakers, or an all-inclusivity gameplay opportunity, there's almost something within the whole night that's there for everybody.

The inclusivity of having the connection with like-minded people, with no mind-altering substances, is so powerful. So, so powerful.

The only thing I would say is that there's still a lot of the older-fashioned culture of feeling like you need to have that boozy environment to basically have a work and work do.

There is still a lot of that culture. It's just, like I say, when you say to somebody it's a sober night, people still have that stigma that sober is boring. It's almost like “snore bore.”

To shift the culture within the UK and around the world, it's going to take time. It's not going to just happen overnight. And that's the harder bit�"getting companies to realize how important and powerful this is, and how much the new generation is buying into it. How much the connection is so much better and so much more powerful from these events.

Interviewer: Yeah, I was just visualising that as you were talking�"someone perhaps in their 40s, 50s, or even 60s, who is still part of that culture, receiving an invitation to an event without alcohol. I was also thinking about ways in which you might do something that resonates with that particular segment of the workplace.

Are there any of your tools and tactics that you've found work better with people who are perhaps already starting off from a viewpoint that it's not going to be as much fun as it would have been if there was alcohol?

Alex: Yeah, listen, I think you are understanding the hard bit. Change will not happen overnight, and there will always still be the old perception that a Christmas party or a staff gathering needs to be centered around alcohol. And that's been the way for so long that it's going to take a while to shift. It's about allowing people to sample it, to come and try it, and to keep on basically talking about it. The shift is definitely coming, and from what we've seen with the thousands of people we've had come, we haven't had one bit of negative feedback. Over a few thousand people that have attended our events so far, I think that's phenomenal, and I'm very pleased we're getting this exceptional feedback.

I would guess that change can only happen from the top. So it's the people at the top who have to be willing to sit up, listen, think about it, and give people the choice. It's allowing people the freedom of choice. If you're finding that you've got one view�"that you think it should still be all alcohol-related�"but then you've got 30-40% of your workforce that would rather do something different, then it's being open to offering both. Maybe it's got to be a step process: you might choose to do an alcohol event and you might choose to do a non-alcohol event. Then maybe you take the data and the stats and look at how many people attended each. You may be surprised to see that a lot more people might come to the non-alcohol event than the alcohol event. Then, you've got to take that information away and start going, “Well, actually, just because I prefer one thing doesn't necessarily mean it's right for everybody.”

Yeah, that's a very good point. I was thinking about senior leadership and the perhaps slightly different role of alcohol there�"for instance, thanking a top team by taking them out to a leading restaurant where they can be offered a very fine glass of red wine. But going back to the time frame, as you say, leadership from the top will be critical. We do seem to be in a bit of an acceleration window around this alcohol awareness issue. Can you take a guesstimate as to how long this might take to, let's say, start to become the norm rather than the exception?

My personal opinion is that, from what I've seen in our first two years, over the next two to three years, more people will be trialing it. More people will be testing the water, effectively listening to feedback, listening to the staff, and people's choices. In the next two to three years, we'll see a large increase in people trialing it, and probably within five years' time, it will become a lot more of the norm. That's my prediction. Over the next five years, we're going to see a seismic shift.

Interviewer: I just want to flip back to your comment about senior leadership taking them out for a lovely meal and offering a few glasses of special red wine. Again, I would pose the question to the person who's choosing to take the senior leadership out for this exclusive meal. I wonder how many of those senior leadership people would prefer to be given a spa day, a night away with the family, or something of equivalent monetary value rather than being taken for a meal and given wine that they may not choose.

It's always been perceived that that's what everybody really wants, and I challenge that. I challenge it because, if we're honest, it's just going back to what was always perceived to be the norm. You know, if you got taken for an exclusive meal and given some very expensive wine or champagne, that was a treat. But in reality, I challenge that. I would say that some of my senior leadership team within my businesses would much rather be gifted a family day or a spa day, or something very different to the old perception of what would be a treat.

Yeah, a couple of observations there. The time frame we're talking about�"if you look at traditionally how long change and transformation takes in the workplace, even in an accelerated environment, is hugely fast. The second thought is that, as the founder of Clarity, challenging organizations is, of course, one of the key ways that you can make a difference.

Yeah, if I take a step back and think about my own personal journey and the darkest place that I got to, a lot of that was embedded in me from a drinking culture�"a very old-fashioned drinking culture and probably an old-fashioned perception of a male culture, where you did not speak about your feelings. I was brought up in an older era where I did not speak about my feelings. I did not communicate how I felt. I kept everything to myself, and that's another story, isn't it? What I am trying to do is challenge the old ways in the hope that we can stop as many people as possible from getting to a stage where it becomes a problem.

There is so much information and research around alcohol and the importance of drinking sensibly�"taking away all the learnings about it that wasn't available to me when I was younger. Certainly, this is my belief as to why so many Gen Z are choosing not to drink or are choosing to drink very limited amounts compared to my era. And I think that's it. It's challenging the old ways.

It's challenging what people's perceptions were, what people's perceptions used to be, and bringing us to the modern ways. You know, in 2025, it's perfectly acceptable for people not to drink, whereas if you go back 25 years and said you didn't drink, you would have had a very different perception.

Interviewer: Yes, indeed. Earlier, you outlined some of your plans for Clarity in 2025, and I thought it was interesting, given the speed of acceleration, to hear what you think the landscape might look like in 2030. Can you give us one example of something that you think is possible in terms of this shift of alcohol awareness at work?

Alex: Yeah, I truly believe that by 2030 we will be having company family days all alcohol-free. I truly believe there'll be the availability of alcohol-free festivals. When I came into recovery, I said I was going to show the world that you could do anything you wanted without alcohol, whether that be a family festival or a club night in Ibiza. By 2030, these things will be happening.

I can totally see that. If you think about influencers, for instance, you can see that influencers can play a part in highlighting that you can go out clubbing and have fun without alcohol. I don't think your predictions are too far-fetched at all.

And I tell you what I found fascinating: I was looking at your website and there was a photo of a corporate event. It was the typical shot you get where everyone's on stage, they've got their awards at the end of the evening, and they all look so good. It just felt different.

Do you know what? They do feel different, though. Honestly, I cannot tell you. Some of the feedback we've had, we've got some testimonials, and people are shocked by how they feel. Nervous. A bit uncomfortable when they find out it's alcohol-free. They have that little panic about needing Dutch courage, and then they go away from the whole night and they're like, "Oh, this was amazing. This was amazing. I feel so good. I've woken up the next day and I'm not hungover, and I had such an amazing time." It's like getting those messages that drive me forward because I think to myself, "I know what we're doing is totally right, and I know what we're doing is an amazing thing." It's just going to take a little bit of time to change the old perceptions because it's so embedded. Changing something takes time as it is, but changing something that's been embedded into a country and a world, a society, for so long, it's going to take a little bit of time. And I've got to be patient. I can't expect things to change overnight.

The biggest key thing for me, though, is I'm not telling anybody not to drink. All I'm doing is creating a choice for anybody and everybody because I truly believe that if you try and tell somebody what to do, they're not going to listen. It's about allowing people the freedom to choose. We're all in charge of our own destinies, and we all choose what's right for us as individuals. So, allow people to have that choice to come to an alcohol-free event and allow them the choice to decide whether they want to come again or whether they want to go to a boozy night out. That's their choice. But it's about allowing people to come and sample it, to make that choice, isn't it?

Interviewer: Yeah, and to your point, yes, waking up with no hangover the day after, or having to take the day off work or the morning off work, and being able to share photos where the real you is shining through.

Alex, it's been such a fascinating conversation. This certainly isn't going to go away. Thank you very much indeed, and the best of luck with your goals for 2025.

Alex: Yeah, no, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Let's hope that a few more people come and try some of our events, and then they can make their own choices, can't they?

Yeah, exactly. As you say, this isn't about telling people, "You've got to do it this way or that way." It's simply about offering people alternatives and making it okay to be authentic and to be the real you.