Unpacking the ‘personality type’ obsession

0:08This episode of Stylish is made for summer, not sun damage. Let's stop normalising sun tanning and end the trend.

0:21This is Stylish, the podcast for all things fashion, brand, business, beauty, dick straws, brides, hen parties. Yes, today I am joined by Annika Joshi-Smith. Hello. And our soon-to-be wedded Joanna Fleming. Whoop, whoop, whoop. Now, you might not know this because this is a podcast, but you can probably tell by my voice, I have absolutely had a glass of champagne. We are in the studio, dressed in, quite frankly, the most ridiculous bachelorette-friendly paraphernalia I've seen in some time. The most heinous things you could imagine. Oh, Jo's like having allergic reactions. There are sparkles. I don't know if the pink sash is in her colour palette, but she's wearing it.

1:04It's not, but here we are. You're honestly like rocking the look so well. Thank you. She's like the hottest little bride to be cowboy rodeo queenie. Our senior producer, Kate, surprised us with all of the hens merch. Yeah. Yeah. She brought it all out, unpacked it all, and we've just gone with her. We've really gotten into it today. We've got the dick straws out in our champagnes and we're ready to go, ready to party. I feel like one of our best episodes is when I got engaged. We had the champagne out. Jo, I'm laughing because this is a stark contrast to, I know the rules and regulations that were provided to your friends and family.

1:38My actual hens. Planning hens. Tell us, how was the hens? We want to hear everything bridal. I mean, every detail place. The hens was great. I did mention on two weeks ago, I think I said about breaking in my shoes, which I'm wearing again today, actually. I wanted to get another wear out. We love a cost per wear coming down. Yes. So the hens was really good fun. My friends did a fantastic job and my sister-in-law of organising it. So probably a key thing to mention is I'm not having a bridal party. So I decided that very early on. Didn't want a bridal party. Didn't want to have to worry about anyone else.

2:10I've obviously got a lot of, you know, very close friends and my sister-in-law that I would have had in my bridal party. Of course, us as your bridesmaids, naturally. And you're wearing the veils and the tiaras today for it. I think that that would say that we're bitches because we thought we were the brides. No, I wanted you to wear a veil again. Don't. We set off air. We were outside popping the bubbles and I said, oh, not my first time wearing one of these. And I went, Jo goes, say that on air. And I said, no, I can't because people will think that I'm trying to, you know, be like all cynical.

2:40And Jo's like, no, but I know that it's funny. And I was like, all right. So if Jo says yes, you can all back off. It's fine. But obviously not having a bridal party, it's like, well, who does your hands? But my friends just took it on board. I love that. We love that. They made it happen. So I had my hands at a restaurant in Melbourne, a very popular restaurant called Pepe's. It's an Italian restaurant. They have a private room out the back. I had about 25 people there. So I really wanted it to be like a little lunch and then whatever from there. So I actually didn't know the details of my hens.

3:14It was all kept a secret. So I didn't know anything that was happening. I just knew that it started with a lunch. So I obviously knew it started at lunchtime. So I had to book my makeup for, you know, the morning to have it done, which I almost, I did not realize that it was Derby Day, because I don't personally go to the races. So I didn't realize until a few weeks beforehand that I was like, oh, my God, all the makeup artists are booked. Oh, shit. So I almost did my own makeup. I did do my own hair, though. Your hair. Great. Yeah. So my friends organized a really beautiful day. We started at Pepe's.

3:46We went to a rooftop after that. They brought in a pink hummer, which was against code. I did specifically say no tacky paraphernalia. I don't want a sash. I don't want dick straws. You need something. I don't want any of that. But then they were like, you know what? We've got to have something. And I loved it. That limo ride, the Hummer ride, was probably one of my favourite parts of the day. We had all of the bangers going. Everyone was, you know, drinking. Everyone was having a really good time. Everyone was singing. That was really fun. There is something about putting on a great playlist and driving suburban straights that really sets you alive.

4:18Yeah. It really did. It really set the tone. It's the ultimate throwback. Like, get some bangers going. All of, like, I think Ashanti. Like, it just takes me there. I don't know why. It's also just for, like, the prom time we never really got. Because it's not really a thing here, but I don't know. There's something about every teen movie I've ever watched. Oh, my God. I actually had a hummerzane for my – we didn't have a prawn, but, like, whatever. A hummerzane. Is that what you just called it? Yeah, a hummerzane. I've never heard that. I also think she just called a prom a prawn.

4:46Okay, Jo, we are five days out. Mm-hmm. And by we, I mean you. Annika and I are also going, so we are five days out. How are you feeling? Good. You're feeling good? Good. I will say the last few weeks before are a little bit stressful, but I would say in tying into the theme of this episode, which we will get into, being a type A person, this is probably the most chill I've ever been about anything in my whole life. I feel like, I don't know, it's one of those things I'm just so sure about it. I have nothing to be concerned about. I'm like, well, if it rains, whatever, can't control that. There's an indoor option.

5:20What am I going to do? Love that energy. Yeah. What are you most... Wait, is that type B personality coming through? It could be. Is it in there? It could be. He's giving up. Well, you know how I feel about this. We'll get into that. But Jo, what are you most excited for? I am most excited to see Adrian at the end of the aisle. I'm most excited to be at the end of the aisle ready to walk down. I'm most excited for that part. Oh, my God. I just got goosebumps and tears. I'm sorry. Now people are going to know I've got feelings. Guys, every time I go to write my vows, I'm not a crier. You need to know this about me.

5:51It is very hard to make me cry about anything. That doesn't shock me at all. I probably cry once every six months to a year. Like just not a very emotional person. Oh, actually, sorry, I do cry at a few TikToks. But every time I've gone to write my vows, I bawl my eyes out and I'm trying to get it out of my system so that I don't cry on the day. Oh, my gosh. I reckon you're going to cry. I think so, too. I'm preparing myself. Like, let's pick tissues. You and I will cry. And I'll be weeping. A lot of people have said that. A lot of our friends are like, oh, I'm going to bawl my eyes out. I'm like, oh, okay.

6:21I'm going to be like Melissa McCarthy and bridesmaids being like, look away, look away. I thought you meant with the Labradors. I took nine. Oh, that too. Okay, well, Jo, I mean, it's safe to say if the paraphernalia doesn't say it enough and the champagne giggles, we are so excited for you. It's no secret Arnica and I are Adrian's biggest fans. Biggest. We're just going to do a little in-studio cheers. Let's do a little cheers. But, Jo, we adore you and we love Adrian and we wish you nothing but health and happiness. Dare I say it, no rain, perfect hair. Most of all, we just hope you have the best day and the most fun.

6:57Thank you so much. Because you guys deserve it. It's going to be perfect. Thank you. A little chin-chin. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Woo! I'm just pretending to chip. Okay, but this isn't the Bridal Offset series, so we will get back to regular programming. There will be one, though. Oh, yeah. It's coming. Don't worry. Giving you a little pre-teaser there, guys. One Shab's brain and she's sleeping secrets. But we are back with opinions, please, today. And this time we're answering a listener's query about how much to spend on a baby shower gift. God, we're really doing all life's milestones today. Then we're talking all things personality types, including where we fall, even though Jo gave a precursor.

7:38Type A, type B, C, and one that I didn't even know existed, D. Before we do that, though, let's get into the swap. Jo. So today I am swapping in something that I have been gatekeeping from everybody for a number of weeks slash months. I actually told you about this early days, Mads. I just pretended I was shocked. You were one of the special people that I personally told about this particular product. So this is a skincare product. Yeah. It is from the same brand that do Redurin. So this is Redurin Skincare. They have a turnover, ampule and sheet mask. I have been thrashing both of these things pre-wedding.

8:16I feel like they're really good. Also, Jo's eyes just animated. Like she had just, she was like a three-year-old that just saw a show bag at the Royal Melbourne show. Well, I get gifted a lot of skincare. This is my job to try the best shit and tell my clients about it and be like, I think you should be using this. I think you should be using that. If you've ever got leftovers, we're here. Noted. But I have specifically bought these products because I was having a treatment and the therapist doing my treatment was like, hey, have you tried the Redurin skincare? Because I was saying how I was getting a third Redurin under my eyes before the wedding.

8:44And I was like, no, I haven't. I didn't even know they had a skincare brand. And she's like, I tried their sheet mask. It's really good. You have to get it. I ordered it immediately as I was lying on the bed. Ordered it immediately. Ordered the ampoule. Have been using them for probably three months, I would say. Got my sister-in-law onto it. Got my girlfriends onto it. Got you onto it, Mads. Yeah, I know. I was saying I'm going to have to buy it ASAP Rocky before this episode goes live. I can't believe I just said ASAP Rocky. I know. Specifically why I was gatekeeping it because I didn't want to sell out for the wedding.

9:13But I've got backups. Okay. So I'm okay. Now, important question, how much is it? Oh, it's like 60 bucks on Amazon. I was actually telling my facial therapist about wanting to get like the salmon sperm under my eyes. Sorry, don't know the real name. And she was the one. She just said it. That, that. I swear I'm not drunk. It's like secondhand. But she was telling me about this exact product. And she was like, Annika, you need to get this. Like, let's start here. And so now I'm literally going to go and add to cart, buy it all before you bitches get on there after the show. All right, well, we could do a group order and you don't have to steal from.

9:44Oh, my God, Christmas present. We are doing bad Santa in the shameless media team. Oh, that'd be a good one. Yeah. We've got a$30 budget, though, so maybe decant half into little sample. Yeah, you might have to. Or just do one sheet mask. Oh, yeah, nice. Although they're quite affordable. What I will say, you will not get the same results topically as you will from an injectable product. I need to make that very clear to people, have realistic expectations. But this particular product or the ampoule and the sheet mask, they have the CPDRN in it, which is basically like the topical version of what they do in the injectables, but it's not really the same thing.

10:19So this is a marine-based growth factor. It's the salmon DNA. It's in a serum or sheet mask version. And it's, you'd want it to be marine-based. So this is more of a reparative ingredient topically. So it's really nice for texture. I've found it great for hydration. I really feel like my skin's agreeing with it. My skin feels really smooth, really calm. I do use a lot of other skincare to be honest, but it's one of the only things I've really stuck to the last few months and osmosis rescue. I've really tried to kind of pare back the actives because my skin just wasn't really agreeing with everything that I was using.

10:56So I've been really like careful about what I've used so that my skin's in like perfect condition for the wedding. And this is one of the things that I've been using. Can I ask how early did you start using this and your skincare prep and lead up before the wedding. It was only like three months ago. Okay, that's good. That's achievable if someone's listening to this. Yeah. I can't stand when people are like, and when you're 12 months out, it's like, well, what if you get on the train too late? What's left? I have this conversation constantly. And yes, you do need a lot more lead time. I'm sorry, but we've got to be realistic about what we can achieve.

11:25Okay. Okay. You do need nine months. All right. Don't come and see me three months beforehand and want me to transform your skin. I can't do it. Takes nine months to grow a baby and nine months to get your skin ready for a wedding. Exactly. There you go. All right. Who's next? Annika, do you want to go? So I have been going to the little company actually ever since my wedding. And so that must be like, what, three years ago now. And they tailor-made my skincare. They actually, I had eight weeks prep time. So we really did some hard and fast stuff. Yeah, not enough. Not quite enough. But I've got to say I look quite nice on the day still.

11:54You've got beautiful skin anyway. Thank you kindly. But their in-house line, it's the Living Skin range. and they stock everything from like Sadachi to some other really beautiful brands. But they incorporated their oil cleanser into my skincare routine. And it's something that I absolutely love. I was so late to the bandwagon of double cleansing. Like I actually can't believe how it took me so long to start double cleansing, mainly because I'm lazy. But I love the feeling of putting on your oil cleanser, massaging it into your face and you actually feel everything lift. Like that's one of my favorite things to do in the evening.

12:28And this oil cleanser does that. It's$58. It's actually on sale at the moment with all the Black Friday sales and everything going down, so jump on board. But it melts everything away. It even gets like tubing mascara off, which sometimes I really struggle with. It's the perfect base for when you want to then do your second cleanse or you could probably just do as is if you wanted to. But I love this product. I mean, I love the range. Love a double cleanse. Love that. Look, guys, mine's not like happy and jovial, but I'm going to give it because it's an important one. I know that at the moment everyone's talking Christmas party, right?

12:59there's a lot of Kris Kringles flying around the girls group chat might be having lunch you might be doing family Christmas maybe you've got to work one I'm working with a brand at the moment and we're doing a Christmas party and I was like no one needs$30 worth of junk sorry you just don't so we are going to do the Kmart wishing tree and if you haven't heard of the Kmart wishing tree you go in you can buy a toy for a young child you could buy a grooming pack for an older gentleman and you pick how much you want to spend obviously you attach it to a gift tag and you put it in there so it's in collaboration with Salvation Army do you know what we all laughed about my mum and the g-string story we did ever but I spent a number of years with my mum being a single mum and every Christmas we would go to Kmart and mum would let me pick something for a little girl my age and we would always have to pick an older gentleman because that is often the most forgotten age group and we would go and buy two gifts and leave them under the Kmart tree.

13:56I really love that my mum did that tradition for me and I'm going to take my niece and nephew Christmas shopping and I'm actually going to go and make sure that they buy something for someone their age as well. Like I know that a$30 gag gift is so fun but do you actually need it and can your$30 be spent better or can you just go to Kmart and maybe spare$20 this Christmas season? That's really pulled on my heartstrings. I'm like your emotional wedding prep like that in itself is just so sentimental and beautiful and like you always hear about it but like sometimes I think after the holidays people go on spring clean and they do all these things after Christmas but do it now get rid of those old toys get rid of all the old things that you don't even have donate them it's a really good point because yes there's the Kmart wishing tree but also if you've got old toys books do that all before Christmas because a lot of people go to op shops yeah and opportunity centers to go and collect items to repurpose and package up for Christmas.

14:49So I just think, do you need another $30 Girls KK? You know. Great swap. Next, we will be exploring our obsession with personality types and how it's playing out online. But that will be right after a word from today's sponsor and after a top up from Kate. Yeah.

15:09As a serious sun safety enthusiast, you won't catch me without my daily SPF 50. But if you're not as dedicated as me, here are a few facts that might just help you form the habit once and for all. Did you know that two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime? How about that a whopping 80 % of visible aging is due to sun exposure? We're so lucky to live in Australia, but our sun is so damaging. The silver lining though is that you can start protecting yourself from the sun today, literally right now. Sun protection should be a non-negotiable part of your self-care routine, one that helps you avoid skin cancer and premature aging because let's be real you can have the best skincare regimen in the world but if you're not applying slip slop slap seek and slide your skin is at risk it's especially important when the uv is three or above so a great hack is to check this daily and slip on a long sleeve shirt slop on sunscreen slap on a wide brim hat seek shade and slide on a pair of sunglasses together we can end the trend of skin cancer thank you so much to the cancer council and the australian government for making this episode of stylish possible

16:19you might have seen videos on social media lately where people usually women reveal whether they're type a b c and d and the things that they do that relate to their personality type i actually didn't know that a c and d existed i thought it was just type a and b but here we are often the videos are type B women sharing the type B things she does that would send a type A person into a coma or vice versa. We've actually got an example we're going to play from a type B person just in case you haven't seen this trend playing out online. Number one, when I lose my debit card, which is about once a month, I don't cancel it.

16:52I don't even usually look at the bank account. I know it will show up within the next like day, weeks. It'll show back up so I don't cancel it. Next, I don't charge my phone before I go to bed. I just forget. So usually every morning I start my day off with about my phone percentage at 13%. I do not delete photos of my phone. So I currently have 50 ,692. So if you aren't familiar with these personality types, I'm just going to summarize them for you so that we know what direction we're kind of heading in. So type A, a normally competitive, ambitious, impatient, highly organized people. Type B, tend to be relaxed, patient, easygoing, adaptable.

17:32Type C are conscientious, detailed and logical, but they may have a bit of difficulty expressing emotions. And type D are dependable and trustworthy, but often anxious and dislike change. Our obsession with personality types, I think, speaks to a broader obsession we have with categorizing ourselves, whether it's our Myers Briggs personality type or our star sign, which Mads and I personally both love. Myers Briggs for me, star signs for you. Let's get that straight. Relax. We have a strong desire to attach ourselves to a specific label or group, or just to understand ourselves more. We actually have another clip to play.

18:09This one is from Amy Poehler's podcast, Good Hang, where she interviewed comedian Kate McKinnon, and they really summed up this fixation on self-categorization. What is your sign? Virgo. Got it. Capricorn. Oh, of course. Good. Finally. Finally. A reasonable person. And your Myers-Briggs? ENTJ got it good what's yours good INFP yes you're a definite I good and also your Enneagram four wing five of course you're a four what are you I'm an eight why does that sound like an episode of Stylish I know that's me and Mads going back oh yeah of course do you know what I have seen that clip I've only seen the star sign portion of that clip that's clearly been cut down yeah Amy and I are the same eyes bricks this may be the best take my life.

18:56I love her so much. She's iconic. So are you. There we go. Now I'm getting emotional. I think we know what personality types we are. I think we know. We've worked together long enough that we know. Annika is a type B. Madison is a type A. Okay, agree. Yes, type A. But I definitely have a type B rising. Yes. And I've got to say, I'm definitely type B in my personal life, but professionally, way more type A. How are you? Yeah. Okay. It's crazy. You're obviously an off the charts type A, Jo. Yeah, but I've just learned that there's type C and D now. Now I'm like, oh, actually. A, B, C, D. A, B, C.

19:35Yeah, and type C, maybe. But see, I'm a type A, but I have a mess room at home that is just full of crap. And I can't bring myself to organize it because I don't have time to do it. I need that to just be my area where it's allowed to be out of control. Yeah. Everywhere else needs to be tidy and organized. Yeah. Otherwise, I can't function. So I can't live in mess. I will have like a breakdown about it. I actually spoke to my psychologist about this and I remember when I was like in the thick of just having the shittest time of my life and I was like I cannot keep my house clean. I am so clean and tidy I define as two different things.

20:08Yeah. You can be tidy without being clean like you can put things away but you don't clean. I was clean I was untidy is what I would say. I get it. Anyway my psychologist had this really interesting thing because I was like I'm just so organized and like I just can't get my shit together here and she was like, you are operating in a really high pressure job. And I was at the time. I love how I said I was. I still am. Unfortunately, I really look forward to the day that I'm not high pressure. I think even in the nursing home, I'll be on the social committee feeling the stress up here. But honestly, she was like, your brain needs reprieve at some point and it's finding it here.

20:43And I think I really struggled with that because to me, to have that kind of tendency felt lazy or disorganised or chaotic and I don't ever want to be described as any of those things. I think a lot of people would call me chaotic though just as an energy. But I was like I don't want to be those things and I think that's why I was like eye-rolling a little bit at this because I think if in a job interview someone said, oh, what type of personality do you think you are? And you said I'm type B. That is you never check your emails, you never know where anything is, you know, and I'm like you're allowed a junk drawer.

21:16You're allowed a junk room. You can be someone who's perpetually three minutes late and still be an incredibly organized, goal-oriented, your life and your shit is together person. Yeah. Which is, I call myself out on my BS here because I love Maya Briggs. So I love putting you in one of 16 categories. But I think where I struggle is when we define people more closely and you're one or the other. Yeah. And I know the irony is that Maya Briggs, you are one or the other for, you know, one of four categories. but it kind of forms a whole being rather than going you're an extrovert or an introvert.

21:52See, I think this whole trend online is about people wanting to position themselves in a certain way without bragging about the things that they like about themselves. Yeah. So I see this as like type B, like I'm so chill and relaxed and I don't care and I just go with the flow. Like that's what a type B wants to be like in this trend. That's what they want to be perceived as and a type A wants to be perceived as I have my shit together I know exactly what I'm doing I'm like better than everyone else yeah my calendar's color-coded yes like that is the vibe of this trend is like I'm better than you because I am xyz and I'm a type B or I'm a type A are humans really that simple like we're such complex creatures I'm like how can it really just be like that simple you're this or that yeah which is kind of like what I don't like about it and even when we were off mic like guessing or not guessing saying what we think each other are it's like there are so many synergies between all of these different a b c d's d's didn't even know existed not that d but anyway that d exists too speaking of d's what do you think james's uh type is oh my god he is so type a okay with soft type b tendencies right oh my god you got a friend Jim Me.

23:07Yeah. He is an empath. Like, everything. He's such, like, a empathetic thinker. Everything is, like, so considered thoughtful. Okay. And, like, how he operates, though. Like, this man, like, if he is cooking, he will step away from the stove. The house will be on fire and he will have a deep, connected conversation with you. And I'm, like, in the background, like, dude. Alarms are going. Like, let's wrap this up. Yeah. Cannot multitask to save himself. Interesting. Adrian? Yeah. He's a type B, for sure. Really? Yeah. But the man cooks and does the grocery shop. This man has never exercised an ounce of haste in his life.

23:42I thought he was about to say exercise and I was like, our firefighter. No, no, no, no, no. He does like never rushed anywhere in his life, never felt anxious about anything, just never been worried. He does not know what that feels like. He's just the most, oh, it must be lovely. I say to him all the time, like, you must be the only person that has never experienced these feelings. Ultimate chiller. Do you know what, though? I sit back now and as a point of self-reflection kind of as you say that, I think Monday to Friday I'm still super type A. I really, really have done a lot of work to really be able to have those type B tendencies of just being able to be relaxed and if someone changes a plan or says they're not up to it, that I'm not like, oh, my God, my whole weekend's in disarray and I've planned everything around that and now I'm too late to book into the bloodies.