Ep 28: How Krissy Cela built a fitness empire from Instagram

0:12Today we're joined by a powerhouse in the world of fitness and entrepreneurship and female empowerment. From sharing her workout videos on social media during her university years to building two global brands, her impact goes far beyond her workouts. She's redefining what it means to be a modern day entrepreneur. Please welcome to the podcast, Chrissy Chela. I'm so pleased you're here. I feel like we have spoke on Insta and I'm like trying to pin you down. When can I see you? When can we get together? that and I'm so pleased that we could make this work because I've wanted to talk to you for such a long time I always think it's so important to start way back when because I just think the start of someone's journey is so integral to where they are now so let's let's go back to your childhood I want to know who Chrissy was back then whenever anyone asks me that I'm like make sure you don't cry make sure you don't tell people all of your trauma but I think it makes you who you are absolutely you know um I mean it all started off gosh if I really think about that question I think about immigrating to the UK in the back of a lorry full of bananas and that was like the probably the most pivotal moment that I can think of in my childhood and I think one of the most traumatic moments because now being a mom I can't imagine putting my child in the back of a lorry full of bananas trying to flee a country where there's a land of opportunity and keeping them safe like could we imagine doing that now but that's very much the reality for a lot of people till this day um but I do think that was one of the most important thinks that ever happened to my life because I wouldn't be where I am today if that didn't happen and you know immigration is a very touchy subject but for me it helped me have the opportunity to go to university be where I am today and also feel safe um so that's probably the start and how and how old were you at that time I was five to six years old wow and do you and do you remember a lot of that yeah or does it feel so sort of you know as you grow some things get lost but I suppose that being so pivotal can you remember that I remember aspects but not everything and I think I blocked a lot out but I remember immigrating I remember to me it felt like exciting because I was a five to six year old kid thinking where are we going what are we doing but now I look back and I'm like oh my god that there was nothing exciting about that but I've definitely blocked a lot of things out right especially moving here not knowing the language not knowing how to speak an ounce of English figuring out a new way of living new culture um battling between two cultures like my Albanian household and then my British side going to school you know what people did in school wasn't necessarily what I did in my household and vice versa so trying to understand how to balance both of those I think I blocked a lot of that out and I suppose in that trying to figure that out and how to navigate I suppose both sides of your life you're also a young woman trying to find yourself yeah so that is because it's it's tough anyway those those kind of years of like late childhood early teens trying to find who you are and you know evolving as a as a little human is a tough it's an awkward day those are awkward ages aren't they but trying to do that when you your life is almost split in two how does that look I mean I knew I always wanted to achieve something I don't know there was this feeling and inside my belly that I always wanted to achieve something big right and in my household with Albanian culture they always tell you you've got to get like the best grades in school you've got to go really far you've got to be like really resumated you've got work the hardest in the room and then I feel like British culture kind of there's this whole thing of poppy syndrome like not to be the not to be like the loudest in the room and not to like shine the brightest and you always got to stay humble so I constantly battled with that and I was like how far can you take this like how loud can you be without obviously being uh she's too full of herself she's got too much to say she's yeah so I was like there's a conflict there there's a huge conflict there because fundamentally when you strip it all back you're just a human being whether male or female trying to figure out your feet in this world and then you've got these two conflicting views of how far do you take it without being too arrogant but then is arrogance and ambition like i didn't know which one was where do you draw the line and how are your like parents around that because obviously you immigrate you're here you're in the land of opportunity and like you say you put your and we all do this this is how we sort of quantify any situation you put yourself in it now and me thinking of a mother of three children doing that for the better for the greater good for them but actually landing myself as an adult in a whole new world how did they sort of navigate their beliefs and kind of their culture that they want for you but in this kind of this different world it was a it I was constantly rebellious right like I wasn't an easy teenager so in my household you weren't allowed to like wear short skirts tight clothes my dad was my dad was exceptionally strict right um and my mum was exceptionally ambitious so there was a bit of a conflict there because my mum always told me reach for the stars and then higher and you know when someone says you can't you work harder whereas my dad was always a bit more like don't get too comfortable you're getting too cocky you know so it was very much like I mean you could call that balance it was balance but I think my dad my dad definitely adopted a much stricter approach i wasn't allowed to go to sleepovers i wasn't really allowed to have many friends over uh they'd have to be kind of vetted beforehand which is fine and i get it like being a mum now i totally understand it more than i did when i was a teenager of course we all we all go okay i get why they did that yeah the penny drops yeah and i'm like you know what i feel bad for being such a bitch sometimes you were just trying your best i was just trying my best but they because they didn't allow me to do certain things go to parties go to sleepovers etc it made then creating friends at school a bit more tough right because they didn't get it they were like what do you mean you can't sleep over that's bizarre and i'll and to explain hey my parents don't feel comfortable and this and that and that it was just a whole it was just too messy so i'd always just make an excuse what that like for some reason you couldn't come i couldn't come or whatever you know because it was just a bit easier but my parents did their best you have to think about it right they were let's say in their 30s they'd already adopted their morals they'd already had like their culture conditioned in them so to also come somewhere new and then completely change whilst i was changing at the age of five changing at the age of 30 it's a bit tougher yeah oh of course of course yeah so that then takes me on to your kind of then progression so you're finding your feet you go for your rebellious phase you were studying law at school yes yeah so I suppose what I'm getting at is being an entrepreneur owning two fitness companies probably didn't seem like it was on the cards at that point never never in a million years I had in my head I was going to go to university make my mom and dad proud do this for them not necessarily for me and I was going to you know get my degree which I did and then I was going to practice law that that was what we all had planned right when I say we I'd say my family decision the family decision was you're going to do that and then you're going to marry a nice Albanian boy and you're going to be done you know that's your life and that's amazing that's amazing but my path led me somewhere else and it would have been a bit criminal not to explore it it would have been a disservice to myself if I didn't explore that other path that's also very brave though yeah when like you say that's kind of in essence why your family took the risk and they brought you here and they wanted that life for you to then kind of not conform as it were and go actually this is where my life's taking me it's a brave thing to kind of I mean for want of a better word like rebel against that and push back that's also brave I mean I think I've always been the one that you say no I say yes I'm getting this vibe yeah um it's I've got to sometimes just like calm down but I just think you have one life you're given an opportunity you've got to grab it with both hands because you don't know when that opportunity is ever going to come your way again so true and if you don't do it even if you're scared even if you're not experienced even if you feel like someone else can do it better than you that opportunity has landed on your lap for a reason yeah so you can't just be like I'm not ready yet I'm not experienced yet no there is no better time to do something than now and that's kind of what happened when I was at university studying law as a side hustle I was recording Instagram content okay and at the time no one was making money off Instagram we're talking 11 12 years ago I was waitressing as well that's how I was making my money I was waitressing student loans at university and I started recording the gym and this was for at the time like for what purpose for was it like zero purpose just because you quite liked it the the real reason was I was 17 to 18 years old and I had just got my heart broken right I thought this is the guy for me I'm gonna marry this guy he's gonna be like the love of my life and it turned out he just was the best thing but worst thing that happened to me best think because you learned some lessons I learned the best lessons in my life and also it pushed me to the gym I was really self-conscious and I really didn't like the way I looked I didn't really like the way my body was so I thought I'm going to change everything if he doesn't like me for who I am I surely must be the problems that I'm going to change I know it's what it's how we are with women we're always apologetic so step foot in the gym signed up didn't go back for two months i was like what am i doing it or no and then i went back and i started training and i started just going on the cardio machine because that was the safest bet right and then i was always intrigued by the weights i was like why is it always men going to the weights why are no women there fundamentally i know there's differences between men and women but everyone really should be moving a certain way to better their heart rate better than muscle density all of these factors so why are women not doing enough of it so i started educating myself about strength training how to lift how to move your body etc and i started doing it for about a year and i started noticing changes oh i've got a bit of a booty i've got a bit of abs i was like oh my god i'm starting to feel myself and i said to my best friend can you just record me like go low and record that angle stop in my head I was still thinking about that guy I was like I want to post this because if he sees how exactly how good I look yeah you're gonna regret it we've all done it girl yeah we've all done it like I was thirst trapping to say the least that's what I was doing so I love this the headline how did you build your first trap first trap first trap and it worked but it didn't get his attention it got women's attention right make it make sense doesn't make sense so I was like it does because who if I'm looking at people on Instagram I'm not I'm looking at the women you don't follow me I don't follow me no like I follow a handful just because we're friends yes but I don't care what you're doing I want to see what the women are doing and how their results look on their bodies and what they're wearing and how they're shopping yeah so and again remember 11 years ago no one was really posting on instagram no one thought i'm gonna post to make money well we didn't really get that instagram was going to become a staple yeah of life for businesses we didn't yeah we didn't that way that was we were way too kind of new to this right so i started posting and all of a sudden i was just getting women comment like from all over the world and then i was like i'm getting a bit addicted to this so i started posting all of my workouts my recipes my smoothie recipes still at the time i was you know waitressing going to university and it just blew up it just blew up and was was there that one moment that because you're like you can see kind of the growth and like you say you kind kind of get addicted to that, like, God, this is growing.

14:30And that sort of landed well. And that, you know, people reacted to that in a good way. Was there a particular video that you can look back and remember that you thought, that's when everybody kind of engaged with me? Yeah, there was one video, I think I was, oh God. I think everything just made sense. The song, the workout, my outfit. So there was so many parts that people were discussing in the comments. Like, where's your outfit from? where's this how did you do your hair it was just all these things and again at the time we're talking about a time where women weren't really going to the gym to strength train it wasn't really a thing um there wasn't much education around it it was always skinny as what what you need to be you're not strong it was all kind of sort of diet culture versus like empowerment yeah it was just there was not wellness it was just being as skinny as you can like a vs model and just and I was I'm never gonna look at that I'm five foot four and I've got ass and tits like I'm just I just like it doesn't make sense so I was like you know what I want to build I want to build I want to grow I want muscles I want to feel strong that's what I want to feel because I've spent so much of my teenage life feeling weak mentally physically always feeling weak always feeling like someone's controlling aspects of my life and my happiness and I don't want to feel like that anymore so that's why the gym I always say to this day is and will always be my safe haven will always be the place where I can shut off and just do something for me and no one can take it away not the kid not that not the partner not the business it's your friends it's mine it's my control you know and I was posting and it blew up and then I was like at the time I had a incredible boyfriend who we also co-founded my first business with who's an incredible business partner and at the time I looked at him and I was like I'm gonna get my PT qualifications and I'm gonna start doing like workout programs and he was like um just finish your degree and I was like no no I'm gonna finish that too but I think there's something here right I think women are really looking for a source of help and how to like strength train properly form exercises sets reps what to do and that's exactly what I did I used my uni laptop to launch my first pdf program it's just it's just so brilliant and I suppose obviously the the way that engagement starts escalating that's when you really know that you're on to something but to kind of but I suppose this is ringing true to everything so far to know that you should actually take the leap and build from that again is brave you're supposed to be doing the thing that the family wants you to do and finish the degree and continue that life that they'd set up for you but it's actually kind of pivot in that way and pivoting is my favorite thing to do by the way I say that as as the biggest fan of the pivot what what I find interesting is having the support of a partner in that start so I want to talk about this because you founded your first business together I've spoke to so many different women and Emma Greed is in business with her husband Jo Malone is in business with her husband and often it does start accidental I mean it didn't work for me no No, but this is why I'm so interested because for them, they are like, I couldn't do it without them and they are such a big ally to them and they let them go off and be in their creative zone and where they hold that side down or however that might look, whatever their role or responsibility is.

18:26I can't imagine me and my husband work together. We host TV together, but it's very much on somebody else's time and terms. And we kind of like that and it isn't like pressure as such. Of course, we have to do a good job and host the show. But it's not like, OK, when push comes to shove, we are in this together. I kind of like that I go home and I can relay everything and he's my safe space. But I think I'm with you where I would probably find it hard to do life and marriage and that level of heavy lifting together. Yeah. So I'd like to I'd like you to elaborate on that a little bit, because you if founding something together but having your relationship break down but then keeping the business partner still going and the level of friendship to respect each other girl that is like and when i finish a relationship i want to block delete and buy but when this is your baby and this is your business it's a baby your co-parents your co-parents how like tell me tell me everything about this because this is kind of i really admire you to keep the professionalism when you kind of just want to scream the reality is when you're in business with someone you you have a deeper contract with them than you would with your boyfriend agreed because you are legally bound to someone however irrespectively of that there's ways out whether it's messy or done in a respectful way there's always a way out right but we didn't want a way out because the reality is it just we romantically didn't engage anymore we weren't we weren't at that level anymore and it was a mutual respectful decision that we didn't want to entertain that path of our lives together anymore however we had still built something that we truly believed in and we still wanted to keep that going of course there was a phase where it was a bit sticky and difficult just like any relationship in the world but one thing i will say if anyone wants to launch a business i firmly believe until this day i believe it it's so much better to do it with someone than alone right that's what i feel like as a as a founder of you know multiple businesses i love the dynamic of you being great at something and someone else being better at something like you are not going to be great at everything i don't know how to say that in a nice way i just have to say it yeah you know but we've all got our strengths and weaknesses and that's where you let each other shine i suck at back end things like i don't understand how certain things work and although i know integral parts i don't want to know everything because it clouds me i'm so with you you know what i mean yeah and he is so great at certain mechanics and then he lets me be great at the things that I love yeah so it works and I think we both had that clear understanding and we use logic over emotion and I think in business you have to use way more logic over emotion to be like it makes sense keeping this working on it together are you going to be okay with that yes are we going to be okay with that yes and that's what business is about whether you were in a relationship before and you started something and now you want to move away from that it's being two adults who are unemotional making a logical decision about a business and financial decision and that's essentially what we did and it takes a lot to do that i was gonna say like it's not as easy like that yeah yeah yeah it doesn't just happen and also now you're kind of so in the rhythm of how this works and it's kind of your way past no there was tears yeah there was deep convos like you know all of that stuff but it's a very it's a very like I'm sure you can look back in hindsight and think actually it's very mature yeah and like you and I was 23 but exactly that it's like yeah it's a very mature thing like I said not to block and delete and say girl bye yeah but we didn't do anything to each other either i think had it been messy it might have been more it'd have been different you know what i mean if something crazy had happened but do you think it the kind of the breakdown in the relationship was because of the business yeah massively do you yeah so interesting and it's it what's funny is my fiance now who have who have my baby with you know he has his own business i have my own business businesses and we do that exact same thing you just said you go home and you kind of load off to each other and you talk about things and oh I did this and I met this person and they they speak about their interesting aspects I couldn't really do that with the person I was always with 24 hours seven days a week with all in 24 7 and you can't kind of I suppose I don't know this is my opinion I don't I can't no I'm the same as you make a market because I've not actually been there but I feel like I couldn't like separate the two.

23:44No, I couldn't. You're kind of all in and you don't have that respite from it. Yeah. I'm the same as you. I just couldn't separate it. Yeah. I had no boundary. It was like 11 p.m. And you're supposed to be sexy with each other. And I'm just like, well. Talking logistics. Yeah. And it's just like, I don't know. It just didn't work for me. For some people it works really well, which you've seen. But for me it just didn't work. So that didn't work out. but one thing you do incredibly well together is run a business and that is kind of undeniable obviously it started with the social media which then went to youtube which your pdf and then then what happens how do you then drive i suppose the community that you've built accidentally almost like out of pure kind of self-love and your own kind of journey how do you how does that kind of translate into a business I never came into this thinking I was going to build anything out of it again it was like a self-indulgent thing where I just wanted to show off what I built for myself and it was almost like an online journal to express myself at the time and then I found that there were so many women that were on the same journey they were just trying to better themselves and again when an opportunity comes your way you should really just go for it and that was the opportunity that was like when the penny dropped and I was like we can do something from this and build something great from this I mean there's businesses that have been built from worse things you know when people sell cigarettes and they sell fast food you know so I was onto something here you know what I mean like we can build something that actually offers women aspect to be confident or you know I was even posting on YouTube where you know the content you you can have it for free so if you couldn't afford the PDF or if you couldn't afford the app where you get a more personalized um program for yourself you could use the YouTube videos and that's why I kept posting even after the programs went live and the transformations were happening and I could just use those I kept posting and posting and posting one to push the business but two because I knew that it was helping someone and you could see how many people were saving it so I was like and I could see that people were saving it so I was like it's clearly helping people out there so we're going to keep on doing this thing and we were selling pdfs at the time but I was like that's not where the future's going you download it once and that's it you can't add more to it you can't adjust it once you've got it you've got it so at the time there was barely any fitness apps out there so i said to jack my co-founder we have to launch an app and he was like we don't know anything about apps i was like who cares like who actually cares you're not if you don't know anything about apps i don't know anything about apps we'll learn no one knows anything about anything until they learn you know everything is an unproven theory until it's not you know um and then we started kind of understanding the industry where it was heading looking so what's your first kind of port of call here so if you know nothing about apps i'm there thinking jack your co-founder is like an app guru no right so you know nothing about apps where do you start we done a lot of data on the direction of where apps were going first of all in the market so i think if you're going to launch a business the first thing you need to do is is i know a lot of people say oh you have to solve a problem yeah no it depends you know because sometimes you create something that creates more of a problem so it's more about if you're passionate about something you know that you can maybe do it better or you can offer a better service sometimes it's just that and do all of the research look at where the market's going so we know that the wellness and and health market is just booming it's just only going to get hotter and hotter and hotter and that's because people are getting more educated yeah on the importance of what they put in their body and how they move their body so if the market is growing and then you look at what's available so what's in demand it's people want to learn and people want to be taught so there was at the time not a lot of resource around that so with those two ingredients you had a recipe for potentially successful business that paired with a community that you've nurtured over time and a community that you you haven't sold bogus to like I wasn't selling fat burning pills and this and that and crazy stuff I was honestly just posting myself in cute clothes and I suppose the app was then only kind of like an elevated version exactly of what you were already kind of providing so you then deep dive into the world of apps you're like we've not done this before but I feel passionate about this is where this is moving and building an app then is no mean feat is it you know so much money just a little little task so how did that then look the we went to agencies right and we went to experts who engineered apps knew how to write code etc etc and we actually paired up with the wrong people to begin with and we really trusted these people and we really trusted that they had our best intention and I remember lawyer hat on they sent me the contract of the partnership and it basically said that we own all the data we own all of the coding you just own the content and I was like I've already got a YouTube, thanks.

29:35I was like, I'm not freaking signing this. So you're telling me I'm building a business, I'm putting all my money in that I've been like saving from waitressing, working with other brands. At the time I was working with like a supplement brand that I was saving all my money to launch this app with money off the PDS. And I don't even own my own product. You have to own your own intellectual property. You have to own all of your data because that is what's yours and that is where it's like cash, you know? Yes, of course. And I was like, no, I'm not signing this. But at the time, the app had been developed.

30:14Oh, okay, so then what happened? I'd done all of the promo, everything. And I was like, I'm not signing this. And they were like, well, we're not giving you the app. And I was like, no problem, I'll take you to court. You know, if you want to box me, I'll box you back. Like sometimes you've got to fight. Fight fire with fire. you've got to fight fire fire so so what so what happens then so you aren't going to sign this contract they say okay so sue us i think the the most important thing out of this is make sure you don't start something without a contract so again i was 23 i didn't know and you've not done this before even if you're 33 it doesn't matter about your age it just matters about your experience of course and you know i was a little bit naive i was like oh they sound really nice and like we're all buddies we've all been there we've all been there everyone's friends until it goes wrong until it's not so so what happens then you're about to launch this app you've done the promo you've shot the content it's ready went live right the app went live and you're still in this kind of still in this battle behind the scenes and i was like the app went live within 10 within sorry one week 10 000 subscribers okay so you've already got a business this is a business now like you know and problems came coming in apps crashing disaster and i was like oh my god and because you're now the face of the brand you have to be the one it's you like you've got to be responsible for everything and it's like i'm calling people like what's happening what's happening this um and that's when i got like it was the first time i'd seen a side to myself where i was like Like, even I'd be a bit scared of me at this point.

31:56Because I was like, I will fucking sue you. No. Because you can't do this. People are working. They're paying for subscription. They want a service. And we're not providing them the service that they deserve. Right. And it's because you're not equally being honest. And I have to take responsibility. And you're saying that you own everything. And I don't own anything. And even though I've pumped hundreds and thousands of my money into this. Like, no. so it did go far it did lawyers were involved and we ended up winning and taking the app back and that's when we transitioned and moved everything in onto our platform with engineers that were in-house on a salary you know we had developed a team around us and we transferred from one server to the other and we have control so hard when you're doing this for the first time to be caught up in a legal battle and like you say it's really when you take responsibility for your customer which of course you do this is this is your business your baby your face your name your kind of character is responsible for this and for everyone to not be able to have control for someone else's mistakes or for the way they're doing business that you behind the scenes really don't agree with and you're trying to but to front it that's like the anxiety that's given me right now is is stressing me out for you i have i never really speak about it but i have incredible high function anxiety like to the point where it becomes quite crippling at times right but i never really this is actually the first time i actually spoke about it in any podcast the reason I don't really speak about it is because I put myself in that situation by taking the leap and becoming a founder to be honest and also I don't think people empathize do you not no I don't think people empathize with with what the fact that you would have anxiety that's it i think it's very hard to i this is me just being like completely honest i think it's very hard to have empathy for someone who has a life that a lot of who looks like they've got it all yeah yeah and i understand that and like how dare i complain about the life i have when there was a moment where i was in the back of a lorry you know what i mean so that really just reminds me to put things in perspective but at the same time I am still a human being with a lot of responsibility and everything's relative to you like you have crippling anxiety sorry but guess what there's no kind of privilege when it comes to anxiety don't just go okay I'm only going to show up for this person you have anxiety it's something that humbles and levels everybody because guess what we're all now in the same play playing field when it comes to mental health it doesn't kind of there's no discrimination for sure but then there is if it's for someone else you know what i'm trying to say i totally know what you mean and you're but what i'm saying is don't go hard on yourself for that and not being you know not speaking on it because actually of course you're always going to be thinking of the girl that's on the back of the lorry and and the families that have to do that now and everybody else that isn't in the situation that you know we all have a level of privilege but it doesn't mean that it always looked that way yeah No, it didn't.

35:23You know, and you know that. So I think you just, you have to go easy on yourself. You're allowed to say that you have anxiety. Maybe. Oh, I'm sweating. It's okay. Let's just level that there because it doesn't, anxiety, mental health, however you want to label that, it doesn't discriminate. If it comes through, it comes through. And it's something that everybody can kind of. No, you're right. I think I just, I don't know what it is. I just truly believe women are so apologetic. like we always have to explain ourselves have you not noticed that like when there's a mistake you've got to jump on and explain yourself you've got to explain stuff i don't feel like a lot of blokes feel like they need to do that as founders i don't know no that's just no i agree but i also think that's in life we we become very even like like we spoke about this before we started recording and i said i'm gonna do your intro and your outro when you leave and you're like thank god I can't bear it when someone introduces me and I have to listen to it because what because we're scared of hearing some compliments like I think it is it's a female thing but I think it's also a British thing yeah we get a little bit like we said at the start like you have to play everything down and dumb everything down yeah guess what you're allowed to fill your fields yeah you're allowed to fill your fields she's right um I want to talk about the day-to-day running of the business because obviously we know that it's it's moved around a lot since the day that it was born what is your role now and what was it because as businesses brands grow and obviously you can speak from two different hats because you've got product and a service-based business which is a which are two completely different beasts yeah um what does your day-to-day runnings look like across your businesses because when they when it starts you have to do everything by default and we always joke that the ceo is the is the least sexy role because everyone it sounds like i'm a ceo and this is like amazing and i'm a boss bitch and i walk into my office and i'm wearing a suit and power heels and it's like actually it's a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of jobs you don't want to do and you're making it all happen yeah um what does how did it look like at the start to now so two businesses two completely different services like you said one's tangible one's intangible you know which one's harder i think they both come with a level of territory that is they're both tough like the app could go down it could crash someone's in the middle of a workout you're fucked you know someone you could your production could go wrong with your product you know quality control all of this there's two whole different problems and they count each other out when I first started the I think the reason why it's a bit more complex is because I was also online so I had to do all of the promotion as well as all the back end as well with the team so for example with evolve you my fitness app it was I was the lead trainer writing all the programs vetting all the programs bringing all the new trainers on board uh thinking about all the creative concepts marketing checking every single instagram post every copy the website thinking about all the events right now there's a team around that right so we have a credible team around it with honor active um my fitness apparel brand it was very much the same but a thousand times more right because it was product led so I became overly obsessed with product so obsessed to the point where I went and bought all the textile books and I was like how does seamless work how what is cut and sew what is the right stitching for this and it just became like this hobby and with honor i became more at the start a ceo right okay and i soon realized that was a role i never want to do again i never want to be ceo of my own companies i've said that so many times and i stick by it maybe one day i'll change my mind but the ceo handles all the people problems they handle um all of the strategizing around the company internally like how do the teams operate and how do they work they handle a lot of the issues whereas you know my role now is creative director so it's creative best it's the best i I mean, we can kind of...

40:10I love it. I feel like we're in the same brain here, but I think you're either... It takes one part of you or another, doesn't it? Like some people just buzz off logistics and numbers and moving parts. No. And I sit in those meetings and I just think, get me out of here. But of course I'm in and I'm absorbing it because it's my baby. Of course. But all I want to do is... I love marketing. I love creative direction. I love... That is the buzz, the detail, the execution. That is like what I live and breathe. and that sets my soul on fire but everything else sets your soul on that on the opposite of fire it puts it out yeah literally puts it out you're in those meetings because you have to be in those meetings to like you said absorb all that information know exactly what's going on so even you can chime in and be like well that doesn't sit right with me all that needs to change but when you're creating it's what you're great at you know yeah and guess what without the creative attribute and the vision there is no brand but without the logistics and the finances and and the incredible teams that we've built there is no brand either there's no business there's no business period you know yeah an idea can only go so far it'd be like a great community and a great aesthetic that's it honestly that's it so that's that's kind of my kind of it is my role now so everything you see everything you touch everything you'll eventually smell because we want stores one day you know um all of the events the concepts the vision the feeling that the brand gives you that's essentially what I'm responsible for and is it always on for you yeah because you you're having to split your time across businesses where you're equally important it's not like one you're fully taking a back seat or they are still your kind of babies and your children um how much does it take of you are you always on do you get I can feel where this is going already but do you kind of get a little are you good with your schedule I wonder this because I do lots of different things and sometimes you're you're spinning so many plates that you're like okay I don't know how this has happened but we made it through the week do you dedicate time for different businesses or are you just always on for everything I'm always available I mean I was on vacation last week and I was always available you know like working in the sun working in the sun and I was like no I'm here whatever you guys need I'm always here um I would say that I don't really have a schedule because not only am I split across businesses I'm also split across being a mum and a partner and a friend but I'm also split across two different continents so in America and in the UK to put it in perspective I gave birth to my son 24 hours later I was texting my team and that's not something that I am proud of or I say that because I'm like oh yeah look at me absolutely not it's just sometimes a sacrifice you have to take because you your business are equally your baby too it's very hard to explain yeah and you know sometimes you need a quick approval sometimes things can be done without you but sometimes they really can't be done without you sometimes someone needs to say yes or no and that's the final decision so the way I see it is I always ask myself what is the priority of the day right because I think that really helps me every not everything is a priority I know everyone says oh everything's a priority but no it's really not can something really wait and then i push it down down down to the next week or the following week what is the priority today that if i don't do this thing it's going to make all the other things have a domino effect so that's the first question i ask myself every single morning whether it's an approval whether it's a meeting i desperately need to have etc the other thing i do is i always start really early to prioritize myself so that's the first thing how early we're talking uh five it's 5 30 so i wake up in the morning and i either move or i either have my coffee with my partner those just sort of start your day properly and it almost protects a part of your day for you for your life before for the love of my life you know yeah exactly because the mistake i also made in the past i didn't equally prioritize my personal relationships in my life and I wasn't the best girlfriend and I wasn't the best partner because I was so absorbed into honor and evolve you and making it as incredible as I possibly could that nothing else mattered yeah I might had like blind shutters and I was like focused so now I make such a conscious effort to prioritize my my child my partner then my businesses and equally myself it was never like that it's so interesting how your when your family are born that instantly it's like weighing scales isn't it that everything just goes ping yep and as long as they're okay I think that's why genuinely because I have children very young I got pregnant with a layer at 23 and I was the first out of my friends and that was all kind of at the time it was so different but I actually think that's why I went into baby products yeah because it meant that that it's everything is so linked so my family and my you know we're all kind of have a role to play in the business they're my favorite products as well by the way not just saying that they actually I actually use them on myself ah me too um but I always think that it kind of flows really well because my family are my number one so I feel like if I'm in business it's kind of it's all kind of along the same line if that makes sense but it's it's so interesting and for you so for me I sort of had the business in reverse to the family yeah so so I kind of built this business with my family already existing and that being a big part of my life but for you having it and then having the family how much has it changed you in business you know it's so interesting because i i really struggled with my relationships and i really struggled having a personal life foundation i call it like i didn't have a foundation right i would sometimes go home and i'd work i just work work work work and i realized like that's just is this what you want in 10 years time you know and that's not really what i wanted i had i had some moments of waking up and I realized how important it was to have someone you get to go home to and especially being a business owner I realized that you know if you do want a child make sure that you are as present as you possibly can whilst running company but also making sure that they equally understand that they are the priority you know and again I never had that concept I always thought work was everything my career was everything my business my community was everything anything else doesn't matter now it's definitely changed and I prioritize my family so much more but since having my son I would say me personally it's made me so much more patient you've got to be patient when he's screaming and you know he's a baby he doesn't know he's just like i'm hungry or i'm wet i've got salt coming but it's a good quality to bring out to you to be able to apply then at work i was not patient no but nothing will test your patience like a screaming baby when you're like okay is he wet yeah does he need this is he hungry is it when you're trying to that process of elimination you do that tick that ticklish are the teeth hurting this is happening when the last time he went to the toilet do you think he's hungry do we need a bottle doing it like that little parent tick list and then they're still crying after you've done all that no do you know what i don't know i've just sometimes been like do you know what just cry just cry what am i supposed to do you're just mad at me today yeah that's all you can do but before you start losing your head it's so true i mean it's taught me so much patience i i didn't realize how impatient I was but then I kind of did because I just built things yeah I was just like always that will humble you yeah humbled like nobody's business yeah I was like you know what this is something that I'm not necessarily the best at so patience and I would possibly say empathy yeah so much more empathy on mothers that I didn't have before I don't think you realize how much mums go through until you become a mum yourself and i don't care what anyone says about oh no i've always had empathy until you genuinely become one and you're going through all these feelings postpartum hormones your body's changing yeah then oh my god you're losing your hair postpartum then oh my god just skin all these things whilst keeping a little human alive you realize how much empathy you have for mothers and for mums and for new time mums as well because i feel like the second and third you're kind of like ah it's crying it's fine yeah oh the difference is like wild i saw this meme and it said um it really made me laugh because it's me to a t like the first one um the baby at something that they shouldn't have and you're like rushing to a and e the second one you're like oh okay do you think oh maybe they'll be all right let's see how they're in a minute and then the third one they eat something off the floor and you're like okay do they still need dinner yeah yeah the way that you're it's so interesting but i never thought that it would be that way but it is you kind of do you know what it is you trust yourself too i think you take on so much outside noise and opinion and advice because you've never done it right and you just want to do the best by this little human but second time you're like oh oh, I've got this.

50:38I know I'm thriving. I'm in my own. But you were so young as well. Oh yeah, I would like, like also the age, not even, I just remember being like to my mom, what do we do for this? And just not trusting myself because I just kind of thought, I don't know, I'm supposed to be in the club. All my friends are. Yeah. You're supposed to be shaking your ass in the club. Exactly, my friends are like beef up. You're shaking bottles instead. Baby bottles. Literally, literally. But it's the same with business. like starting evolve you and honor now if i was to go into a third business i would have so much more confidence and i would know yeah don't do that don't do that don't say that don't you know what i mean don't be emotional here because that's all right yeah it's just business like and it's like anything in life exactly using the two examples it's the experience you can only kind of you make better judgment when you've got the experience and that's why they say fail fast right if you're gonna do it just get on with it and then you won't make the same mistakes the next time um i want to do the rocket round now because this is my favorite so this is supposed to be quick fire but i feel like we like a chat so it might be hard for us what do you believe are the non-negotiables for launching a business having a contract in place wise getting all of your um things trademarked so your name your slogan etc make sure you get trademarked in the UK then in the US it'll be easier tip making sure that you have a very clear reason to the why behind launching this business if it's not clear to you won't be clear to anyone else and the final one I will say is making sure that when you are launching a business even if it's tiny take out just a small salary just to cover yourself because it's very important yeah smart when did you first realize that you truly launched what was the moment where you thought gosh this is this has really happened you're gonna think i'm delusional when i say this but honestly not till this year and i'll no no no i'll tell you why i'll tell you why okay because I was I was in my office I'd just given birth I flew with my newborn I was in my office and I looked around and no one needed me and I was like what I was like I'm I'm available and everyone was like no you can go away no one needs you anymore and I realized at that moment that the brands are totally fine with or without me and that as a business owner you will know that is the most exciting delicious feeling in the world where the team is so incredible you've hired incredible people who are so much better at something you ever will be you know what i mean that they're like piss off that's when i realized that's like a proud mom moment yeah like my kids are doing fine they're off to uni that's it they're doing great you go wow that's yeah that is a feeling what's the first thing that you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before you go to bed the first thing i do when i wake up is kiss my partner and i super cringe and is that like before that you pick your phone up before anything yes yeah for anything i roll over i say good morning i give him a kiss love that yeah and then i'm on my phone yeah me to yeah but sometimes I'm like I asked you that because sometimes I actually think in myself and I actually probably check the time I've had a scrum and I go morning that's bad isn't it no no it is comfortable with each other no I know but it is bad it's like when you actually look at what you've prioritized a like on it liking some pictures before your man's gonna listen to this like exactly it's terrible but if he's asleep I just think I'll kiss him in a bit that's different no but I should just do it first all right now you're gonna do it forever exactly that's right uh the last thing is i am guilty of this but check my phone yeah yeah i just do set my alarm check my phone and do you sleep with your phone next to you yeah me too what i've started putting it the other side of the room really yeah but i'm hanging off my bed i'm like really like commit i'm like that with it yeah because i just i'm trying and i went through a phase of being really good at this and then i lost my way again but I just think it's over there and I'm going to sleep yes because I feel like my sleep is a lot clearer okay because even if I roll over and I because I like to look at the time so I'll look at like three and then I'm like oh just look at my phone for a minute I will go back to sleep but I just think for some it gives me a lot more clarity okay it is good and then even like when my alarm goes off I then have to get up to it and then you don't snooze yeah do you snooze bad snoozer really yeah but when i'm like i give my i set my alarm with buffer time how bad is this like a good half an hour window then i want to actually be up just because i'd have to slowly wake up but it's bad it's better to just get up and yeah but i just like human i think i like to trick my brain by setting it half an hour earlier i was having this conversation last night with my husband he's like your snooze it's just ridiculous get up i'm like no is he a get up yeah yeah he can yeah he can set his alarm and just ping but i think i like to feel like i've tricked the system so i think if i give myself half an hour i'm actually laying there and i'm feeling like i've got more time in bed than i have but i don't so what's the point so yeah we just had this these this chat last night and he was like you know that you're not tricking anyone you're just making yourself get up if you just said it then yeah yeah yeah silly um one piece of advice that you wish you hadn't listened to the worst piece of advice would would probably not that i necessarily had bad advice i think i just listen too much to people's opinions about how i should do things yeah and but that's a tricky one because sometimes that's a great thing but for me i let the opinions of too many inexperienced people that haven't done or they haven't been where you're trying to go yeah not even launched a website no but for real and then now you're like trying to tell me how i should have done things and i'm like but you don't know until you're in my shoes yeah to know how i how you would have actually done things you know so i think that's what i would say don't listen too much to people who have never done what you've done or trying to do what you've done yeah and it's that's the easiest way to streamline it because we're so open at the start aren't we but if you're gonna think i'm trying to do this the advice that i should take is from somebody that i'm kind of looking up to or i'm kind of interested in what they have done yeah and that's how you should because i think sometimes we open up the kind of realm of okay let's take on the advice from family and let's do you think that's a good idea or do you but actually take advice yes because you need it in abundance but from people that have done something that you want to do done it been there done it you know if i if i want to get advice on someone that's wholesaled i'm going to go to someone who's done wholesale exactly not someone who's still an independent business you know what i mean yeah get it what is one skill that you'd love to learn i would love to learn how oh my god it's gonna sound crazy but i'd actually really love how to learn how to code oh I know I just think um I don't know if you do this but in my head I'm I'm such a weirdo I'm like if I learn how to do a bit of everything then everything's going to be okay if someone doesn't do it we just have a bit more of an understanding don't you like because I sometimes think I would I always say that I would love to learn graphic design because I know exactly what you want but i find it so hard to keep i go through so many rounds of articulating it yeah it's there in my head so if i could do it myself like a scribe yeah but then i also think i'd never switch off so it's probably good that i don't know do you know what yeah do you know what it means probably good but coding i find really interesting too because my like nieces that are older and my daughter they now learn coding at school do they yeah is it part of the And you can do like a club and like, yeah.

59:10And it filters through to like, what was I suppose, IT. Oh my gosh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Which I love. And then they're like, can I join coding club after school? I'm like, yes, you absolutely can. Yep. Tech genius. Yeah, I know. You can come and work for mummy. Mates rates.

59:31What was one thing that you wish that someone had told you before you started your business? Oh, great question. I wish someone had told me to hire an ops manager first. Oh, okay. The reason I say that is because one of the first people I hired wasn't an ops manager. And then there wasn't someone to help me structure better who the next employee would have been and why we need them and how we need them. You know what I mean? So I think an ops manager, 100%. And the other advice I would say is 100 % own everything possible. Like, don't just think everyone's your friend. Yeah. Because I've made that mistake.

1:00:21You learnt the hard way, right? I learnt the most sour way. So just make sure that you have clarity, you have a piece of paper, you're protecting yourself, you're protecting your rights, and you're protecting what you've invested in. so that's what I would say those two pieces that's good advice oh I love this one what would be the dream collab oh for your brand you know like we see different brands coming together and we swipe out Nike and Skims and like what would be the dream collab for you I think for me my dream collab would be a person and a brand so the brand would be new balance i think on our ex new balance as a shoe because we don't offer shoes that would be amazing so a lifting shoe for women i don't think there's any cute lifting shoes out there as such and all the lifting girls wear either they put socks on so we made grippy socks so they don't slide yeah um this needs to happen i just think it makes sense um all the girls wear new balances but imagine you actually had like a really good looking lifting shoe that was functional so i think that's new balance so if you're listening to this no this is that's this is in the universe now this is it put it out there so my dream person collab would be simone biles um only because i just think she represents And everything that Honor Active is in a nutshell, you know, young woman trying to make it not conform, you know, super strong.

1:02:02And it always comes back to that strength with you, doesn't it? Everything strength, mental, physical strength. I love women that are just strong mentally, physically. And I also like women that make me equally feel a bit uncomfortable because it means I need to grow. I don't want to feel comfortable. And do you know, I love that you say that because as women, I think when we're not quite sure how to take a woman, we get really intimidated. And then that intimidation can then sometimes turn into like, we're going to find a fault in them and we're going to be a bit bitchy about them because they've made us not feel, they've made us feel uneasy.

1:02:38But I know what you mean. It's like, I love that feeling. I kind of like, I'm attracted to them women because they really interest me. Yeah. I'm like, there's something that I can't put my finger on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I've had it even on, when we've had guests come on the podcast and I'm like, I don't know how to take you yet. But by the end of this, no, it's not you. By the end of this, you're going to be my friend. That's how, you know, when you're like, oh, you're not giving me, I'm not getting warmth. But now I'm going to dig away to find out more. And I love that. But like you say, sometimes as women, we get intimidated for the wrong reasons.

1:03:12We do. And that's when all the richness happens. Exactly that. But I don't know. there's something i love like obviously we was both at emma's dinner how amazing are those dinners i love i love it i love it i'm like make me feel a little bit uncomfortable make me realize that there's more potential make me realize that i could go further yeah i really feel like if you're in a room full of people in your career where you feel so comfortable and you're not inspired and motivate get yourself out of that room and go and feel a little bit uncomfortable and go and put yourself in a position where you're like i need i need to work a little bit harder i need to do a bit more if you like feeling comfortable sure but for me you just always want to feel inspired i want to i want to be inspired i love when women create and do when egg each other on and in the right way if you're going to sit there and feel like utterly insecure over someone else's success and try and find a fault and then bitch, that's you.

1:04:16Yeah. That's on you. That's not on them. So don't try and bring them down, you know? It's so true. That's my worst kind of room. No, no. Worst kind of room. Worst kind of table to be sat at. If you could choose one female figure as a mentor, past or present, who would that be? Oh my gosh, you're gonna think this is so weird. Elizabeth Taylor. No, I love that. That's not weird. I love her. That's incredible. Everything about her, like, confined the norms had so many husbands like everyone was judging her everyone was overly sexualizing her everyone was trying to think she only got there because she was just sexy and talentless and it's like you don't get there if you're not smart you know what i mean you just don't get to where someone is if you're not smart and i just i love her everything she represents everything she does I think she's great and I think she just went for it yeah you're so right and I'd much rather be remembered as the girl that just give it a go you know what I mean boring boring um each episode I get our guests to leave a tip one piece I mean you've literally talked in tips for an hour um so we're very thankful but I like I like to get one piece I suppose of like tangible advice that you would give to a lady looking to launch what do you think that would be please don't be apologetic like just just do something for you you have one life and some people are going to love you some people are going to take you the wrong way sometimes you're going to mess up so many times especially if you're a young woman listening to this in your early 20s you may think you have it all figured out but you just don't allow yourself to learn allow yourself to make those mistakes and along the way just learn to be a little bit less apologetic when you need to be and just to really allow yourself to just do something without overly having to explain yourself yeah you know it's like giving yourself that grace that you would give somebody else you're like if you walked in and said oh sorry about today I've had this on I'd be like babe it's fine it's fine don't worry come in you've got this that same energy you need to kind of reflect that onto yourself too and we just don't and I do think as we said before I think that's a female thing because you have to keep going and you're you shouldn't complain because everyone's going to think yeah you know they have a certain opinion of you but yeah we need to give ourselves a bit pretty I know be quiet what have you got to worry about it's going all right you know and it's giving yourself the same grace that you give everybody else it's so so important I promised myself when I did this that I'd ask everyone the same question and it actually ends up being my favorite I like to know how you spend your lunch hour it's so silly but it honestly is my favorite part because I feel like we learn a lot about about each guest every time.

1:07:26I'd like to know how you spend your lunch hour and what's your go-to lunch order. Where are you? What are you eating? Oh, I mean, I don't really have a lunch. I said this to you guys. I said, I don't really have a lunch. I just keep going. Yeah. And I'm probably spending my lunch in a meeting. Right. So you don't take that time to switch off. No. I just don't. No, I'm with you. my days look very different so sometimes we're just like eating going through what we've got on for the afternoon or you know we haven't had one yet today no i haven't had lunch either i'm starving yeah we're all hungry but um i haven't i i don't really take a lunch i always have it in meetings or i'm always walking or someone's stopping me with like my lunch in my hands and i'm always eating some sort of protein okay every meal consists of protein please ladies so either steak or fish and most likely sweet potato and most likely broccoli so that would be if you were gonna stop and go okay everyone's gonna sit down today and we're gonna work in half an hour let's just eat our lunch you've got some sort of i could imagine you having protein yeah you're a girl that lifts come on you're not gonna have protein in that diet and water i'm super basic or a diet coke with a lime lots of ice bougie sorry you've changed and a straw but yeah that's I'm super basic I love to keep also things very familiar and repetitive because it saves me time yeah well and that's one thing that I learned from Emma she was like I don't want to be making small decisions no I eat the same sort of thing I don't want to when there's a lot and it and I actually really relate to that because when you've got so much in your brain the things that you don't really need to think about you shouldn't because there's so much else going on I don't think about any of that stuff I don't think about what I'm gonna eat I don't think about like how I'm gonna do my hair I try so much every single day to eliminate as many small life decisions as possible yeah nail color same see this this is where I'm going wrong because I've got it down to like Like you say, I know what I'm doing.

1:09:42It's just easy. But food is always my thing that I come back to. I'm like, oh, guys, so what are we going to have for lunch today? That's probably what you enjoy. I do. Whereas with me, I'm like, oh, I do that with episodes, like series. Right, okay. No, I really look forward to it. Thank you so much. You have been the dream guest. We've learned so much and lots of takeaway. And everyone thinks you're incredible. When I did a call out to say, who would you like to be a guest on the podcast? your name was very frequent in the Q &A box oh thanks guys no no it really was it really was so we made it happen there you go thank you so much for having me thank you I love that

1:10:23don't forget to follow us on Apple and Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss out because next time we're going to be talking to another incredible lady who launched if like me you're a watcher then don't forget to follow us on YouTube and please don't forget to like and subscribe Finn