How Takona Began: Cars, Community and Mental Health

A passion for cars, years of finding community through them, and a belief that brand awareness could carry mental health awareness with it.

I was 18, and the car was a classic Mini. It was old, honest and a little tired, and it was entirely mine. I had left it in the car park at DW Sports in Derby, and when I came back there was a Porsche GT3 parked beside it.

That was no chance. The owner, a grown man with a business of his own, had chosen the space because he liked the Mini. Before I had reached the door he was asking about it. He wanted to know about the chrome windscreen wiper arms, the little details, the sort of things only someone who really looks at cars would notice. I don't remember how long we talked. What I remember is that, for those few minutes, the gap between a business owner in a GT3 and a teenager in an old Mini simply disappeared.

I didn't walk away and start a brand. It was years before Takona existed. But that afternoon was one of many like it, and they built up quietly over time. When the idea finally came, it rested on that experience.

For those few minutes, the gap between a business owner in a GT3 and a teenager in an old Mini simply disappeared.

The car as an escape

I had a difficult time growing up, and the Mini was my way out. It was something to drive and something to work on. It was something to look after when looking after other things felt harder. It taught me how to use a spanner, how to listen to an engine and how to read a road.

It also gave me people. An old Mini gets you invited to car things, and it gets strangers talking to you in petrol stations and car parks. I learned early that a shared interest does something a direct question rarely can. It gives two people something to look at besides each other, and once the ice is broken, conversations tend to go wherever they need to.

2019: the pieces fall into place

By 2019 I was an account manager at UPS, covering Brighton and East Sussex. Before that I had spent three years, from 2015 to 2018, working in secure psychiatric healthcare. Mental health was never an abstract cause to me. I had seen it at work, and I had known it at home.

Then the pieces lined up. Friends in the car world were talking about making some clothing, and through my work I met people who could help make it happen. The car scene, the hospital wards and my year with the Mini came together in one idea: a brand that uses cars as common ground and clothing as a signal, to start the conversations that are hardest to begin.

That was the start of Takona.

Leading by example: Coffees & Cars and Takona Tlks

There was never a single moment when Takona became a community. Building spaces for people was part of the thinking from the beginning. A message printed on a tee can tell people that talking matters, but it cannot put them in the same car park. So we decided to do that ourselves.

The first Coffees & Cars took place in March 2020, in the car park at Fuel Coffee House, just days before the country shut its doors. The idea survived lockdown, and the meets have run ever since. You can read that part of the story in Six Years in the Making.

The podcast came about in much the same way, almost by accident. In 2021 I was a guest on the Motormouth podcast and found that a long conversation with cars as its subject could wander anywhere, and usually did. Takona Tlks began with car stories from people I knew, then grew into longer conversations with well-known names from the automotive and mental health worlds.

The format is the point. Each episode starts with cars and ends up somewhere else entirely: work, family, hobbies, the harder parts of life. Nobody has to announce that they want to talk about mental health. It just comes up, the way it did over a Mini's wiper arms in Derby.

Why ITS OK TO TLK

The name was chosen with care too. TLK is "talk" with the A taken out. "It's OK to talk" is a phrase plenty of people use. ITS OK TO TLK is ours.

A hoodie in a queue

The best answer to whether a brand can stand for something came from someone I had never met.

They had gone alone to a live recording of the Smith and Sniff podcast, the show hosted by Johnny Smith and Richard Porter, both of whom have since sat down together on Takona Tlks. Standing in a crowd where everyone else seemed to know someone, they felt lost. Then they saw a Takona hoodie.

They knew what the logo meant: the person wearing it believed in connecting people through cars. That was enough. They walked over and asked if they could stand with them for a while. By the end of the evening, two strangers had become friends.

That is the whole idea in one queue. The logo did what the GT3 owner did for me years before. It gave someone a reason to cross the gap.

The logo did what the GT3 owner did for me years before. It gave someone a reason to cross the gap.

What comes next

The podcast is moving to video alongside the audio, so more people can see the conversations as well as hear them. Beyond that, the focus is on the people who make this what it is: more ways to get involved, more of their stories told, and more of the community celebrated as the heart of Takona.

We would also love to grow Coffees & Cars by bringing new venues on board as partners, and perhaps try standalone events and drives. None of that is confirmed yet. It is a direction we are working towards.

So, can a brand be built around making a positive impact?

I think it can, provided the impact comes first and the brand follows. Takona started with an 18-year-old, an old Mini and a stranger who took an interest. Everything since has been an attempt to give other people that same afternoon.

Frequently asked questions

When did Takona start?

Takona was founded in 2019 by Lewis Warren. The first Takona Coffees & Cars meet followed in March 2020.

Why did Lewis Warren start Takona?

A lifetime of finding community through cars, three years working in secure psychiatric healthcare, and the belief that cars can start the conversations about mental health that are hardest to begin.

What does TLK stand for in ITS OK TO TLK?

TLK is "talk" with the A taken out. ITS OK TO TLK is Takona's own version of the phrase "it's OK to talk".

How did Takona Tlks start?

After a guest appearance on the Motormouth podcast in 2021, Lewis started Takona Tlks with car stories from people he knew. It has since grown into longer conversations with well-known names from the automotive and mental health worlds.

Keep reading

Read the Takona story, whether branding can be built around a positive impact, or why cars are the universal leveller. Then come and find us at a Coffees & Cars meet.

Cars start the conversation. ITS OK TO TLK.