#244 Max Skinner - Naked Skydives, Serious Causes, Real Results

In this episode, I visit with Max Skinner, Senior Manager of Community Development for Movember. Men’s health needs more than awareness—it needs action people can see, measure, and join. Max and I explore how a global mustache movement has evolved into a U.S.-anchored engine for impact, funding programs that tackle prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and the growing crisis of men’s mental health and suicide prevention.

We dive into Mind Moves, Movember’s mental-wellness program tailored for collegiate student-athletes navigating performance pressure, identity shifts, and the new NIL reality. Hosted on a platform that reaches more than 150,000 athletes, Mind Moves teaches students how to spot warning signs, start real conversations, and use campus resources—turning education into prevention.

We also unpack the Real Faces of Men’s Health Report, a first-of-its-kind U.S. analysis offering state-by-state data, demographic insights, and policy recommendations that move the conversation from slogans to strategy.

The numbers are stark—60 men die by suicide every hour worldwide, and three out of four suicides in the U.S. are men—but the solutions can start small. Max and I talk about meaningful check-ins, building shared rituals that keep friends connected, and why growing a mustache still works as the perfect conversation starter.

If you want to help, it’s easy: grow, move, host, or “Mo Your Own Way.” Link your miles with Strava, use free templates and guides, and see where funds go through clear U.S. reporting.

Ready to turn a mustache into momentum?
Sign up at us.movember.com, join a team, or donate to support programs and research that save lives. If this conversation moves you, subscribe, share it with a friend you care about, and leave a review to help more people find it. Your next check-in might change a life.

Skydiving Naked

 👉 Donate to my Mo Bro page and help me hit my goal:
https://us.movember.com/mospace/13009249

Chapters

• 2:01 Catching Up And Big Life News
• 4:13 Movember 101 And Core Causes
• 5:13 Where The Money Goes In The U.S.
• 5:54 Mind Moves For Student Athletes
• 7:17 Building Research Credibility
• 7:56 Real Faces Of Men’s Health Report
• 9:42 The Sobering Suicide Statistics
• 11:34 How Men Can Truly Check In
• 13:22 Shared Rituals That Keep Friends Close
• 18:53 Creative Fundraising Stories
• 21:33 Transparency And U.S. Funding Breakdown
• 23:30 How Anyone Can Get Involved
• 25:10 Tools, Apps, And Templates
• 27:10 Sign-Up Details And Contact

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:02

Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show, brought to you by Beats O Man Productions.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10

Max. Hey Scott, how's it going? Good, and you? Doing well? Awesome. Busy as ever, but all's good.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18

That's great. All right. Well, uh, got yourself something to drink, uh, got everything set. All good, man. Ready to roll. All right. Turn my phone off here. Vibrate. And if you see me looking down while we're uh talking, I'm not being rude. I'm just uh I'll I'll think of a question or you'll say something that jogs something. So I'm gonna write it down. So if you see me doing that, I I'm not uh playing Candy Crush or anything while we're interviewing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49

It'd be all right if you were, but yeah, no worries, man. How have you been? I've been good. Um been a while, two years, I guess. Has it been that long? Yeah, I thought we did this last year, but maybe you're right. Um yeah, been good. My wife and I are expecting our first in a few weeks here. So between that and the November campaign, a lot going on in my world. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01: 2:13

That's awesome. Um uh November's a good month to be born. I was born November 3rd, so okay around the corner here.

SPEAKER_02: 2:21

Due date's November 19th. So hopefully for my wife's sake, it's the the third, but how are you?

SPEAKER_01: 2:30

I've been doing great. Um I did some Movember last year, uh got sidetracked with where I'm working, and so this year I decided to jump back in with both feet. So I'm really glad that you uh accepted the invitation to come on and talk about what's going on with Movember. And so, yeah, Max Skinner, the senior manager of community development. Is that right? Yes, sir. From Movember, and uh tell us a little bit about yourself, and yeah, we've we we already know you're having a baby. What else is going on?

SPEAKER_02: 3:06

What uh yeah, um, on a you know, on the work front, a lot going on in our world. Obviously, the Movember campaign is in a few days here on Saturday, Mo 1st. So just gearing up for that, getting all our ducks in a row, making sure our our top fundraisers, top corporate teams have everything they need to run a successful campaign. Um we've launched a few amazing uh new projects this past year in the US. And I think that's kind of one of the biggest, um one of the biggest questions our community comes back to us with is you know, where's this money going? Uh as a global, global organization, obviously based out of Australia, we fund a lot of different global initiatives and projects. And I think more now than ever, um our community members here in the U.S. want to see those funds stay in the US and be localized. And I'm I'm I'm proud to say we, you know, uh with the support of our community and how much they've raised for us over the years, we've been able to launch and fund a few um local local initiatives and projects here in the U.S. Um, first one being uh this new mental wellness program for collegiate student athletes called Mind Moves. And we launched that last year, um, kind of saw or recognized um that a lot of collegiate student athletes were struggling with their own mental health, um, especially with the whole new NIL landscape and kind of some of the external pressures and factors that come from inheriting these giant sponsorship deals. And that comes with a whole lot of stress and pressure. And um, a lot of these student athletes don't really know where to turn or how to seek support, who to talk to, or how to even recognize signs in a teammate or or um a friend. And um, the whole idea with this mind moves program was to better equip these these student athletes with the right tools on how to spot their own signs and how to talk to a teammate and where to seek support on campus. So um really proud to be part of that initiative. We launched Mind Moves around this time last year, um, and after kind of an initial pilot phase, um we partner with this uh NIL platform called Open Doors, and they have a whole kind of educational platform where the program actually lives, and we have access to 150,000 college student athletes that can take the the Mind Moves program for free. Um, so that was a really cool kind of mental wellness initiative we launched last year that I'm super proud of. Uh earlier this month, um, we launched um let me back up here. So about last year, we we hired a whole research team here in the US. Um, because I think over the years, November's been kind of lacking credit credibility in the research, research world. You know, we've we've built a great brand, a great community. We've raised over a billion dollars for for men's health since 20 uh since 2003. Um, but we've kind of lacked like data-driven or data-backed research. And our country director, Tim, kind of recognized that, hired a fellow research team uh about this time last year, and they've been working on this this research project called the Real Faces Report, Real Faces of Men's Health Report. And it's a comprehensive look at kind of the state of men's health in the US, um, with some you know, policy recommendations to local governments, um, different stats and facts about certain demographics, certain, you know, state by state, um, kind of just you know, comprehensive, high-level overview of the state of men's health in the United States. And we launched this report about three weeks ago, had a big launch party in New York. Uh, Prince Harry actually came out to speak on a panel for us um announcing the launch. So it took a you know, got a lot of uh media hits. I think we generated like two billion impressions from from that media launch, which is cool. Wow. Um, but it it the report's a total game changer for the for the industry.

SPEAKER_01: 7:24

Um Is there some place where a person can see that report?

SPEAKER_02: 7:28

Yeah, it's it's on our website, and folks can download it directly. I'll I'll send through I'll send you the link if you want to share that with your audience. But yeah. Um it's kind of first of its kind, and we're we're super proud of it. Our research team has done an amazing job, and um, it's just a more granular, granular look. Um, again, that's kind of the local and national level in terms of like what we can be doing about men's health, uh, policy recommendations to local governments, and um, there's some really interesting findings and and research that have come out of this. Um, we've we found that uh I forget the percentages, but men um, I believe it's 51% of men don't live until the age of 73. And forgive me if I'm butchering this, but that's 73 isn't just a random arbitrary number we pulled. It's um uh an indicator of uh early stage um early stage deaths. Um and so basically the majority of men aren't living to their full capacity. And so, anyways, there's a bunch of amazing nuggets and research uh in this report that um that I'll share with you.

SPEAKER_01: 8:43

What's uh just just so for everybody that uh might not know the one or two people out there that might not know about Movember, can you give us just like a 35,000-foot view of what Movember is all about?

SPEAKER_02: 8:55

Yeah, probably should have started there, but no, that's fine. Happy to happy to give kind of the the rundown. So uh Movember is uh a foundation. We're a 501c3 charity um based out of Melbourne, Australia. So it's uh a global global uh global charity. Um started in 2003, and our whole mission is to help men live longer, healthier, and happier lives. Um, we found that on average men are dying five years younger than women, and mostly for preventable reasons. Um and so we we focus on three uh key cause areas um being testicular cancer, which is the most common cancer amongst younger generations, prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer amongst older generations, one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives. And then as of 2018, um we introduced mental health and suicide prevention for men as one of our key focus areas. So those are the three causes that Movember raises money for. And every year, uh during the month of November, um, we have a whole peer-to-peer fundraising model. So uh we rely on our community members, our partners, our corporate accounts to go out on our behalf and and fundraise for those three cause areas. Um on average, we globally we we raise about 60 million uh around the world. In the US, we raise about 12 to 13 million on average. Um, and 90% of that takes place during the month of November. That's kind of our bread and butter. Um and people know us for our mustaches. That's kind of our our logo, our walking billboard, our icon. Um, and so during the month of November, people you know, men grow out their mustaches to raise awareness, raise funds, and to start conversations. And so that's kind of November from uh a high level.

SPEAKER_01: 10:53

So uh I haven't mine's coming in. It's not looking, we can't even see it right now, but you and me both. Yeah, I'll be uh I'll be rocking the stash here in the next several days. Uh of all the stats, you know, the from testicular cancer, prostate cancer, mental health, suicides. I think the one thing that's uh kind of staggering, the statistic were 60 men commit suicide every hour. Did I get that right?

SPEAKER_02: 11:26

Yeah, every hour around the world, um, which is sobering, alarming, speaks to um why this work is so important and kind of the leaps that we need to take, especially in the US, like three out of four suicides are made by men, which is just unacceptable. Um and I think we're kind of reaching this access point in this country where um men's mental health is kind of at a crisis point, um, especially given just everything that's going on in the world and how divisive and toxic the world seems to be, uh especially in this country right now. And without getting too political, I just think there's a lot going on. And um but to try to be positive, I do think that narrative has shifted and mental health has become a little more universally acceptable to talk about. Men are starting to open up a little more, I've seen. Um, but you know, the the data speaks volumes, and unfortunately the suicide rate amongst men continues to climb, even um even with that kind of narrative shift, and that there are more resources and tools readily accessible. Um, so it's it's on the unfortunate truth, but why Movember exists and why we really rely on our community to help fund these types of projects to combat that.

SPEAKER_01: 13:24

I mean, I guess there's a lot of reason reasons why um men at 60 an hour are committing suicide, but uh it's the uh not being able to talk things out, maybe, or you've been grown you've been taught to keep your mouth shut, put up, don't, you know, boys don't cry, and uh probably all kinds of reasons why there's that bottling up of emotions and and they don't quite know how to handle it.

SPEAKER_02: 14:03

Yeah, no, I I think you're spot on. And unfortunately, um as men, I don't know if we're wired to think this way, but um you know, we we don't really we're not very vulnerable. Um, I think there's a lot to learn from our our female counterparts in terms of being proactive about our health, you know, seeking support when we need it, um, and just just talking, you know, checking in on your buddies, like really checking in, not just talking about sports or fantasy football or golf or whatever, like checking in on them. Like it's it's funny. Sometimes I'll go golfing with my buddies, and you know, someone I haven't seen in a while, maybe they're going through a divorce, or you know, something's up in their life, and I get home from from golf, and my wife asks me, like, hey, how's uh so-and-so doing? Like, what's going on with his his divorce or his new child or who whatever? And we didn't even talk about it on the golf course. Yeah, it's it's kind of a such a like a catch-22 because you when you're on the golf course, it's a nice escape. Yeah, um, you know, but fun, get away, yeah, for sure. But I I think there's something to that where, and this is something Movember does a good job of is like meeting men where they're at, where they're most comfortable, and what better setting than a golf course uh to have an honest conversation with your with your buddy? So, anyways, I think it just comes down to like checking in and being more proactive.

SPEAKER_01: 15:36

I had a friend of mine the other day, something that just rocked me on my heels. Uh he said, uh I he said, you know, if I died, I don't think anybody would know for probably about a week. And I said, Why is that? And I know him really well, you know. I was like, no, no, that's not right. And he goes, No, really, seriously. I mean, I really don't have nobody calls or stops by that often, you know, maybe the postman, but uh, you know, other than that, so I was like, Wow, really? So I called him the next day and I said, So you still alive? He's like, Yeah, I'm still here. I said, Okay, just checking in on you. So I thought, yeah, that's probably a good idea. I I hadn't even thought about it, but I mean he was it was a pretty sobering uh thought, uh comment he made.

SPEAKER_02: 16:35

Yeah, geez. I mean good on you for for checking in on him, but like as silly as that is, like sometimes that's what it comes down to. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:46

He and I were talking also about uh I like the story of Carl Reiner and uh uh Mel Brooks as I got older. Um I guess Carl Reiner would go over to his house every night and they would eat dinner and watch Jeopardy or something every night. Just the two old guys, you know, getting together and just doing a thing, you know. Yeah. I thought that was pretty cool actually. Um I guess they're both widowed, but and then Carl Reiner's passed away since then. But I don't know. I just thought that was kind of uh touching that uh two guys would get out and reach out and and and and just have a thing, you know, watch Jeopardy. Totally, man. I mean golf, Jeopardy, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 17:32

A shared experience. Yeah, my college buddies and I just um we celebrated our our 10-year college reunion last year, and we decided to do a golf trip in in Pinehurst, North Carolina. And um if it wasn't for that trip, we wouldn't stay as connected. And now it's kind of an annual thing, and it's it's awesome, man. It's just a great way to to reconnect with with your pals. So, like, yeah, shared experience, shared hobby, it goes a long way.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

That's cool. You know, one thing about Movember is uh it's it's you know it's guy driven and it's kind of fun, it's kind of crazy. It's uh when you think about it, Movember, uh it's you know, to raise awareness, guys just do silly, nutty, funny, crazy things, you know, to raise awareness, grow the mustache, raise money. Do what were some of the there's some challenges out there? And I think your website has a good well, here it's uh mow your way, yeah. It's got a lot of good uh examples, templates, ideas on how to raise awareness, how to how to raise money for this. Um what are some of the crazy crazier challenges you've heard of, or got you know, some of the stories that stand out that people do to raise money and raise awareness?

SPEAKER_02: 18:59

Yeah, no, it's it's funny because um you know our our community members really get creative and and unique with how they they fundraise or raise awareness for us. Um couple things stand out. A few years ago we had the skydiver who owns the Guinness Book of World Records for most times skydiving naked. And how many times do you think uh he skydove naked in one day to break the record?

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

I mean, uh 24 hours a day, and so there's gonna be like he probably did it like 10 times.

SPEAKER_02: 19:42

64 times. 64 I think it was around there. Um, yeah, 60. And uh this man just jumped out of an airplane with nothing but a parachute and some baby powder, and it was all to raise awareness for November. He had lost um one of his buddies, uh also a skydiving instructor, to suicide earlier that year. And he did this absurd, you know, challenge as a way a way to honor his buddy, and you know, it picked up a lot of press. ESPN did a hit on it. Um, but those are kind of some of the ways that people get very outside the box with how they fundraise for us, and it's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_01: 20:27

Yeah, I thought I would uh I'm gonna try to podcast uh every day for the month of Movember and just every day pick a topic or talk about some aspect or something about Movember the you know uh there's a lot there's a lot to talk about and uh and try to raise some money, you know, we'll see how it goes. I'm glad to hear that the money is a lot of money is staying in the U.S. Is there any way to know how much is going to the US?

SPEAKER_02: 20:59

Yeah. Um so again, we raise around 12 to 13 million in the US year over year. Um 78% of that will be donated to our community health partners. The other 22% goes towards, you know, administrative costs, legal fees, insurance, my fat salary, you name it. Yeah. Um we do have, but we also keep some of that money in reserve to fund future projects. So it's not all allocated at once. Um we try to be as transparent as possible. There's a tool on our website where you can see you know our financial reports, and um, it's tricky being a global organization, like we'd love to fund every local initiative market by market, city by city in the US, but it's just not feasible, um, which gets a little tricky sometimes. We want to show you know, someone in Seattle, we you know, we funded this program at the University of Washington with your funding, but we have like a whole restricted giving policy, just gets a little complicated. Um, but regardless, you can see our financials on online. I'll send you um, you know, for your own Mo Your Owen Way challenge, podcasting every day, I'll send you the men's health report, and there's a ton of good nuggets from that that you can speak to, a lot of talking points. Um, so hopefully that'll give you some some inspiration.

SPEAKER_01: 22:22

Yeah. Um okay, so someone's listening and says, I'm in. Let's do this. How do they how do they get involved? How can they get involved?

SPEAKER_02: 22:35

Yeah, so there's a few different ways that folks can get involved, both men and women. You know, this isn't a boys' club. Um, we always say that uh, you know, these causes affect everyone. It's kind of a trickle-down effect. Um, healthier men means healthier families, healthier communities. Because at the end of the day, you know, when when these men are battling prostate cancer or dealing with mental health struggles, their care their caretaker might be their spouse or their daughter, right? Or who knows, their girlfriend. Um, and that takes a toll on them too. So, you know, it's all it's all a trickle-down effect. So, anyways, there's different ways that folks can get involved. I mentioned growing a mustache, doing a fundraising campaign on uh Movember.com. Those are kind of the lowest hanging fruit ways to get involved next month. Um, we have a couple other different products and offerings for women that want to get involved. We have a whole endurance challenge called Move for Movember. And so folks are you know encouraged to walk or run 60 miles for the 60 men we lose to suicide every hour around the world. Um, you can host an event, you can mow your own way, like we talked about any earlier, which gives you kind of carte blanche to fundraise or raise awareness however that however the hell you see fit. If you want to jump out of an airplane naked, go for it. Um, but yeah, just go on over to us.movember.com, sign up, register with the Movember page, and even if you don't plan on fundraising, you'll be entered into our communications funnel to receive information about our causes and some of the local programs and initiatives that we're funding.

SPEAKER_01: 24:13

Yeah. And yeah, I thought it was interesting that you can hook up your fitness tracker to uh uh the website, or I don't know how that works, or your mobile app, whatever, to track.

SPEAKER_02: 24:24

Yeah, we we have kind of an integration with Strava, which is like a fitness band, and um it'll automatically log however many miles you're walking or running next month, and it'll sync it up with your Mo page. Um, there's a lot of cool tools and kind of feasibilities within our website, and we have a mobile app as well if you want to download that. Just the mobile app.

SPEAKER_01: 24:44

Yeah, I got my mobile app going. Love it. Love it. I know you noticed your website too. Uh, there's uh free graphics templates. Uh Canva has some free uh marketing materials that you can grab and use on your website, uh social media, whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 25:02

Yeah, great shout out. Um we we try to uh we try to equip our community members with everything they need, um, whether that's creative assets, social media templates, um, fundraising guides. If you're starting your fundraiser for the first time and you don't know how to start, where to start, we have a guide for you, uh, resources, key messaging, statistics, whatever y'all need to kickstart your campaign. We got you.

SPEAKER_01: 25:30

It's a sober subject, but it's uh there's a lot of guys, gals having a lot of fun. It's kind of the way guys do things, you know, uh, to uh raise awareness, raise money, help uh you know, bring the rates of suicide and and cancer rates on testicular and what's the other one? Uh testicular and uh and prostate prostate cancer, yeah. Yes, sir. Uh so yeah. So if anybody wants more information, uh wants do they contact you? Where do they go to uh sign up or whatever?

SPEAKER_02: 26:04

Yeah, you sign up at us.movember.com. There's a big sign-up call to action button top right of the screen. Um, or you could join Scott's team or donate to his Mo page as well. I'm sure you're you'll share the link with your with your audience. And right. Um, yeah, you can also email me at max.skinner at movember.com if you have any questions on how to get started. Uh, we're we're here to support. So appreciate you, Scott. Thanks for driving awareness and thanks for your uh to your network and your audience for for supporting the cause.

SPEAKER_01: 26:36

Oh yeah. Thanks for being on the show and congratulations on the newborn coming up and uh all the best with that. Uh yeah, that's that's a being a father is a great thing. All right, well, for Max Skinner, this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for watching, listening to the Scott Townsend show. Have a great day. Everything's gonna be all right, and we'll talk to you later.

SPEAKER_00: 26:58

The Scott Townsend Show is a D So Man production. For more episodes, visit the Scott Townsend Show YouTube channel, listen on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.