Original subtitles

David, it is wonderful to see you.

You and your smile make my day always.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

I wish we could be in person

but this whole Zoom set up is pretty amazing

and I’m going to take advantage of you real time.

I’m going to ask you a number of questions and gain some insights

and also to “fire up the force”, if you will, from our brand ambassador.

How are you today?

Where do we find you today?

Well I’m here in the UK, I’m in the countryside,

we’ve been here for the past 11 and a half weeks

so we’re very lucky to be obviously out of the city

but we’re learning to do new things and I think that’s one of the things that

I’ve been telling my kids and also the other Zoom calls I’ve done over this time.

You know, it’s about being creative,

it’s about doing things in a different manner than what we’re used to.

We always say that it’s great to be next to each other

when we’re doing these kind of things

but this is something different and this is something

that we’re reaching out to over twenty-thousand of our family,

and that’s something that is different but it’s actually quite exciting to be a part of.

So yes, I’m here in my house in the UK and the kids are already doing their school work

so they were up this morning early and I’ve set up them so they’re all set up and working away

and now Daddy’s got to do some work as well.

So David, you mention, you used the word “family”, which is key because at AIA our agency force is our family,

AIA is a family, you are an intrinsic member of our family,

so let me ask you: what is it like for you to be part of the AIA family?

You know I’ve been really lucky throughout my career, I’ve been part of some great teams,

with some great managers and great fanbase

so I’ve always been part of great families over my career

and obviously I retired from playing football 7 years ago

and I’ve been very lucky with the partners that I’ve had throughout my career and throughout my life

and they’re all long-term partners

and that’s something I’m very proud to have, you know, great businesses.

So when obviously we first joined AIA or even had the first conversations,

one of the things I was aware of from the first moment was that it was a big family,

you know it was a big family that wanted to do amazing things,

and for me to be part of the AIA family

I felt very proud of that and I feel very proud of that

because I know that we’re all trying to do the best

and to be positive with everything that’s going on.

To be part of that and to step into another great family for me,

I’m very honoured, I’m very honoured to be part of that.

I see it all the time,

whenever we’re travelling around Asia, whenever we’re doing AIA events,

and the scale of these events are nothing like I’ve seen before;

you know the energy, the passion, the agents that I’ve met over these years,

they’re incredible people that are trying to do incredible things

and that for me…it makes me honoured and proud to be part of an organisation

that is doing so much but still feels like it’s a real family,

a tight family knit organisation and that’s what I love about it.

Well, we love you, and as you said, in a way the role as Ambassador is complex

and it is evolving during these times - having the opportunity to do the traditional market visits,

to get close to our agents, our customers and our AIA family,

we can’t do that right now,

so really using digital tools and being able use this type of technology to get

to still be able to get up close and personal is really important,

so how do you see the role evolving over time?

I think that we just want to continue to grow the business

to help people in any possible way.

And I think now more than ever you really realise how much family

need support and need help and need positivity.

And I think we have always tried to do that.

Whenever we have come into market,

whenever we’ve met the different agents the different customers,

now more than ever we need to take care of our families,

of our children, of our parents, of our grandparents.

I’ve always said and I’ve said it many times before,

sometimes the little changes are the biggest changes that people make in their lives,

and that’s the one thing that I’ve always done so we want to continue to grow the business

we want to continue to live healthier, longer, better lives

and the way of doing that, is sometimes just the smallest changes

within your lives, within your families.

So David, at home then in the Cotswolds with your family,

if I may, how have you handled it?

How have you been able to as a team, as a family, pull together during this extraordinary time,

and what are some of the things you’ve learnt going through this?

I think, one of the things that I‘ve learnt, especially that family time,

which I’ve always believed is the most important time,

family time is really important and especially now.

The one thing that me and Victoria said right from day one of lockdown is,

yes the schooling is important and yes we have to keep up to date,

but more importantly we want to make sure that our children are happy

and coming out of this time and coming out of this lockdown thinking,

“wow” do you remember looking back on it at being a happy time instead of an anxious time?

which like I said, everyone is going through this.

So it’s important that we take walks every day because the children are fit, are healthy,

they like to work out, they like to go for walks,

but this time is more important than ever that you take your time to do

and you take your moment to do things like that - family time

- sitting down and watching a movie, going and kicking a football around or throwing a tennis ball around for a while,

those things really have been more important than ever.

So, agreed, and what we’re seeing across Asia now at AIA

is that the interest in protection, the interest in life and health,

given everyone’s experiences, is now increasing so we see an opportunity to serve needs.

Actually, many people David, who wouldn’t have considered insurance before,

are now open and interested to learning more about financial protection as well as health protection.

How do you see as Ambassador these opportunities

or changes in the way consumers are thinking and feeling,

as an opportunity for you as a role you can play as our ambassador,

to help inculcate this message of being able to life a healthier, longer and better life?

Well I just think that obviously we all have to be creative in different ways.

I think families are struggling, businesses are struggling,

businesses are trying to come up with different ways of staying a business which is more important than ever.

It’s about people coming together being positive, being creative.

Myself as a father, as a husband, as a business man,

you are more aware of it that now than ever before.

We want to come out of this situation, we want to come out of this lockdown and this pandemic,

kinder, happier and also to make changes to our lives that

we didn’t even think about probably 6 months ago.

So people are being forced into making changes that they never thought they would probably have to make

and I think that businesses are doing exactly the same thing.

So David, let me ask you, you reference making a change,

but I have to then ask what is perhaps the most significant change

that you personally will make coming out of this?

I think the most significant change for me is, the majority of my business now revolves around travel,

revolves around being in different parts of the world.

That’s been a big change for me in last part 3 months.

I don’t think for a long, long time I’ve had the opportunity to spend this amount of time

in one place with my family, with my children, with my wife,

and actually it’s been really amazing.

Someone said to me the other day, they said, what is the one thing you would take out of this situation,

this terrible situation that’s gone on, what’s the one positive?

And the one positive is I’ve got to spend more time with my family than I’ve ever spent before,

and absolutely loved it.

But I think more than anything, I’m a fit person,

I’ve always tried to eat the right things, drink the right things,

but I’ve noticed more than ever that the fresh air,

getting out, walking with the kids, no devices,

they’re walking they’re talking they’re spending time with their brothers, with their sister,

and that’s been the biggest change for me personally.

But you know we all have to make these changes in our lives

and we’ve spoken about it when we’ve been in these conferences

with these events that we’ve done about making little changes,

those little changes have become slightly bigger now and people are aware of that.

And David, and any big lessons learnt coming out of this?

I think the lessons learnt are sometimes you need to slow down.

Especially when you’re in business when you’re travelling,

sometimes you need that moment where you need to take care of yourself in different ways

and I think that’s more evident than ever with something like this.

I’ve tried to obviously personally reach out to AIA customers

which I’ve done in the last few weeks,

to just find out and to just get tips on what they’ve been doing at home, what I’ve been doing at home and get them thinking creatively,

to just find out and to just get tips on what they’ve been doing at home,

and that’s what we’ve tried to do, particularly some of the things that I’ve done with Harper like painting, drawing, arts and crafts,

it’s just about trying to do things to keep them happy but also to keep us creative as well.

Well the ping-pong balls into the mugs that was definitely creative!

I also just want to thank you for the incredible work that we did with Tottenham.

In the way that the marriage between yourself and José Mourinho, the impact, the reaction has been incredible,

I mean just the sheer magnitude of views and engagement has been terrific;

I mean the content, and how authentic the two of you were and showing that vulnerability;

you touch a lot on mental health and mental resilience.

How do you underpin your own personally mental resilience and mental strength, given who you are, what you do and all the challenges that we all face in our lives?

I think my mental resilience came from a number of places and from a number of people.

To have to move away from home at 15 years old to go and live in Manchester to play for the team that I’d always wanted to play for.

To go through some of the ups and downs that I had from early on in my career,

to be told by a coach at 15 or 14 years old that I would never represent my country because I was too small, because I was too skinny,

so there were certain things that I went through throughout my career that were a challenge, but it was also a challenge to set me up for the future,

so on the mental side to go through things like in 1998 when I got sent off, certain things like that set me up in life to be stronger as a person on the field and also off the field,

so it’s important to understand that it’s good to talk, whereas 20 years ago when someone was to say,

you know “I’m not feeling great”, the answer would’ve been OK just get on with it, you’ll be fine.

Whereas now, kids, children are understanding that they can say “I’m not feeling great today” or “I want to be better at this”,

I think that that’s more of an understanding now so to be able to sit with someone like José with his experience with his knowledge,

that was a really an insightful afternoon for me but an enjoyable one as well

and it was an enjoyable one because I was able to put my perspective across of how I was

when I went through certain difficult times and tough times and José was exactly the same.

So if I may, just a little bit more, we have our top agents gathered here today and I want a call to action,

I want to rev them up and fire them up, and give them the “wind under their wings” to continue to do incredible things for our customers.

If you can frame a message to our incredible people in the field across Asia, coming from you, our Ambassador, David what would it be?

I think my message to all of our family, our agents, our customers, is our business and our purpose is so essential in this world

and it’s important that we have the positivity.

So my message to our agents, my message to our customers, is continue the great work that we’re doing

because we’re very proud of that, we’re very proud to be in the position that we are, we’re very proud to have the people that do this day in day out,

every minute every second of the day and now more than ever is the time to be positive,

now more than ever is where we need our agents, our customers and the energy that they bring, and I’m proud of them.

David, an amazing call to action.

I’m giving you a massive digital hug.

United together always, to enable healthier, longer and better lives.

David Beckham, thank you so much.

Stuart thank you so much, and here’s to healthier longer better lives, and I don’t think I’ve ever done a call with so many people,

so to over twenty-thousand of our family I want to send my love, I want to send my love to you guys, to your families and your friends.

Stay safe, stay healthy and I cannot wait to be back in Asia, I miss you all and I love you all, thank you.

Lots of love David, thank you.