Krissy Cela On Finding Your Vision, Mission and Why
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Why are you setting yourself up to fail when there's so many people in this world already trying to do that for you? There's one of you in this world. You're in this world for a very short period of time, whether you think it's long or not, it's short. Do something magical in it. Hello and welcome to Deep Dive, the podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover their journeys towards finding joy and fulfillment at work and in life.

My name is Ali and in each episode I chat to my guests about the philosophies, strategies and tools that have helped them along the path to living a life of happiness and meaning. In this week's episode of Deep Dive, I chat to Chrissy Cheller. Chrissy first started posting fitness videos on Instagram and YouTube in 2017 while studying for a law degree. Fast forward four years and Chrissy has built a health and fitness empire with the mission to empower women across the world. There's a huge problem in the world.

where women lack confidence. Like I perceive that as a problem. Chrissy is co-founder of the Tone and Sculpt app, fitness clothing brand Honor Active and an internationally respected personal trainer. In the episode, we have a very honest conversation about the foundations of leading multi-million dollar brands, how to find your why and her book, Do This For You. Do This For You to me means prioritizing yourself and taking care of yourself and not putting yourself bottom on the list. And I think that

people tend to really prioritize other people their needs how other people perceive them that you tend to kind of neglect what how you perceive yourself and where you prioritize yourself um and it's not even to do with other people it's also to do with things like students always prioritize their studying before themselves and their health right moms prioritize their children over themselves so

people prioritize their job more than themselves. And it's like, you come bottom to the list. And then by the time you want to do something for yourself, you're too exhausted. Yeah. And there's a real sense of martyrdom almost in a way where I think parents feel good that they're prioritizing their kids and students feel like it's, it's almost a badge of honor to have pulled an all nighter and to be prioritizing your studies for whatever reason. I guess, I, I guess there is a balance there, right? Like, or how, how, how do you see,

for example, for you, I imagine your business is fairly top of mind and you're thinking about it a lot. But also there's the taking care of yourself aspect. And do you ever find that the two are sometimes conflicting for that top spot? I think I've found a balance now. I've found a balance where, like I've said to my entire team, you know, I've said to my personal assistant, like no meetings before 10 o'clock.

And I've made that very clear to everyone. And I've said, I wake up at 5.30 in the morning. I'm waking up at 5.30 in the morning to prioritize my health and myself. So I'm in the gym at six o'clock in the morning. I'm there training an hour, sometimes dependent hour and a half if I really have the time, but maximum one hour in and out.

you know I'm eating my breakfast I'm going through my emails I'm reading some sort of book in the morning so when I get to the office I'm ready to give you my 110% attention because had I not done all those things I'm then going to have this constant battle of oh my god I haven't trained today I haven't prioritized myself I haven't done anything for myself and

And then by the time I do go home, I'm so exhausted. I'm so overwhelmed. I just want to lay on the sofa and watch Netflix. And that's not really doing something for me to bettering me. Yeah. So I guess you've got those four and a half hours in the morning to do the you stuff and then you can focus fully on the business. Yeah. Like even my commute is an hour, sometimes an hour and a half.

So in my commute, you know, I tend to take my dog Buttons with me. So she's always on the train with me and, you know, it's quite nice doing that together. But I'm always either reading something, listening to some sort of podcast. I'm getting myself mentally prepped for my team. My companies, as much as people think my companies are about me, they're not. My companies are about the people that drive the mission and the vision, right?

Um, it's about the employees every single day coming to the office, working from home, dedicating their time to make this vision come true. So if I'm coming into the office expecting everybody else to be on their A game, I have to be on my A game and I can't come in and be angry or emotional over, you know, just, just not be myself. And there has been too many moments I've done that.

And it's caused a really big division in the company. It really has because I've come in thinking I can be the way I want to be. Well, no, I'm a leader. I have to be collective. I have to be calm. I have to, you know, prioritize my team over my own emotions. And I've learned that the hard way. Oh, interesting. Any, was there one occasion in particular that helped you learn that lesson? I don't think enough leaders actually speak about this. I think...

There's so many entrepreneurs and CEOs, leaders, whatever. And they come across like they have their shit together, right? Like they've just like, they're the calmest people in the world. Like they've got it all figured out. And the truth is every leader is different. There is no handbook to be given to how you should be as a leader. One thing you should always have is empathy for the team that you're working with. And one thing you should always have is patience, right?

And I was never patient. Okay. I, when I started tone and sculpt or honor active, I was never, ever patient. Um, I was actually way too emotionally connected to both brands that I used to take everything personally. Okay. And now as the years have gone on, especially with tone and sculpt, because it's older than honor active, um,

I have to take a step back and I have to go, this has nothing to do with me. The mission and the vision is so much greater and bigger than any emotion I have. You talk a lot about vision and mission. When did you figure out what your vision, mission and stuff was? And how did you figure that out? Because that's a big question. Like it's a question of what do you want to do with your life? Yeah, I mean, look, it's not been till very recent that I'm...

110% focused on that vision and mission now. At first I was a bit like, what is it? I know I wanna do something here, but I can't put my finger on it. I couldn't put my finger on it. All I knew and was certain on for years was I wanted to help women. Like I was certain on that thing. How did you get certain on that? Cause that's also quite a, it's not so specific, but it's like a, it's a very specific kind of dream. Yeah, yeah.

The reason being is when I started my Instagram and my YouTube, I was doing this for myself, right? Okay. And then I was...

connecting with all these women globally saying I don't have time to go to the gym I don't know what I'm doing I feel so rejected so neglected I feel like I'm just letting myself down and I realized there was such a need for women to come together and there was such a need for fitness to be in women's lives it was like it was it's a need like there's a there's a huge problem in the world and

Where women lack confidence. Like I perceive that as a problem and I perceive tonus sculpt as a solution to that problem. So to me, I don't like the fact that there's so many women out there who are not body, body confident, who are not mentally confident. I don't like the fact that women don't know what to do in their fitness journey and feel really left, left out or alone. That's a huge problem to me because your health is,

is the key to any form of success. I cannot stress that enough. Like if you are not mentally and physically okay, it will transpire into every aspect of your life, your relationship, your work, your passion, your vision, everything. It will cloud you. That's why I say do this for you and prioritize yourself first and then bring your best foot forward for everything else. So that's why I knew I wanted to help women, but I didn't know how I was going to do it. So when I launched the tone of sculpt up with my business partner, Jack,

sat down and I just said this is it we are gonna make a fitness hub that is Community orientated first then fitness led secondary. Oh, okay. So That's why community is our vessel. It's our heartbeat. It's our core Okay, we'd every decision we make we ask what would the community need and want first and

Our core values, none of our core values hold a profit-led value. Our core values for Tone and Sculpt are actually the following. So long as there's women in the world, our business to make women feel confident and better their lives is not done. The second one is actually more team-led.

So it's we have to treat each and every single team member with integrity and honesty and accountability. Everyone's accountability for is with each other and with themselves. Third one is community led. So our communities are driving force to everything that we do. So if they do not like something, then we won't do it. It's as simple as that.

Fourth one is customer support. And fifth is innovation. Okay. So profit is not even in our list. Profit is like the last thing we actually think about. And that's genuinely, we don't really, we don't even shove numbers down our employees' throats. We say, okay, there's women in this world. Your job here isn't done. So I'm trying to build an organization, not just a social hub. Yeah.

Interesting. I want to ask you more about the values thing in a moment because we're literally going through that sort of value stuff with our team now because we've got

Like this week we hired seven people. So we're now on 19. Wow. Congratulations. Huge. Yeah. But every people are like, you know, you make YouTube videos. Why are you 19 people? I'm like, well, you'd be surprised when you, when you draw the org chart and you see all the holes that you're like, um, but before we go there, uh, I want to ask about the early days. So you were posting workout, workout videos on, on Instagram. What was the growth like? How did, how did things start growing in the very early days before you knew that this could become like a career for you? Yeah. I mean,

Huge growth, huge growth. And like I said, no one was really doing what I was doing and a handful of creators were doing back in the day. And if you go on YouTube about 10 years ago, it was heavily biased.

bodybuilder orientated so you had people trying to be bikini bodies and and people were genuinely selling bikini body guides and they were selling bikini programs and it was heavily based on being on stage as well and being a professional bodybuilder

And I just didn't fit in because I was like, oh my God, I just want to go to the gym to escape my reality. Like literally, I'm so sick of my life. I just want to go somewhere and do something for myself. And that's when I started posting and all my captions were like, hi, like I went to the gym today and I did a few squats and I felt so much better. How about you do it too? And it was very like, it was very premature and it was very like, it was...

It was very like vulnerable and it was very authentic. It was genuine. Yeah.

And I remember when I was growing, I was a waitress at the time and a law student. And I grew to about 120,000 followers and Women's Best approached me. Women's Best is the biggest female supplement brand in the world. They're huge, absolutely massive. Now, like I think their evaluation will be close to a billion. So they're massive. Yeah.

And they approached me and I got an email saying, hi, we love your Instagram. Like we'd love to work with you on a collaborative basis. And I said, I've never really tried your supplements. I'll give him a go and I'll see what's what because I'd never done a collaboration before. So I didn't know how it worked. I've never had a manager. To this day, I don't have a manager. So they sent me supplements after three, four months of testing them.

seeing what I like, what I didn't like, giving them honest feedback. My problem is I'm a bit too honest for my own good. I need to zip my mouth sometimes, but hey-ho. And I was like, yeah, I really like it. Like this is, you're onto something good here. I like it. And I was finding myself having the supplements more often than I would because I enjoyed it.

And it was there to supplement the diet I'd already had, right? I didn't rely on it. And then Women's Best gave me enough funds monthly to quit my job. I still remained a law student. When I start something, I need to follow it through. I'm just like that. And I started posting more often. Like they supported me, you know? And at that time, I'd reached about 600,000 followers and Gymshark came knocking on my door. And

I actually rejected the first contract. I didn't want to work with them. I didn't really understand it at the start. And then when I got to know the brand a bit more and then I got to know, you know, that they had a vision too, you know, they had a mission too.

I started, I started working with them. It was short lived, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity. I'm so thankful that they gave me the opportunity to travel the world with them and meet so many community members. And I'm so thankful for the learning, so thankful for the opportunities that they gave me with photo shoots, with meeting other peers, with meeting such incredible minds and

Even though it was short-lived, every opportunity is an absolute blessing. And it makes me so happy to see brands genuinely succeed at the rate that they have when I started when they were quite small. So...

It just, it's inspiring because it's like, if they can do it, we can do it. That's the way I perceive it. Yeah. And yeah, the growth was substantial. I hit a million followers within, I think, two years. Then straight into 2 million followers a year after that.

Now I'm to 2.5. The growth is definitely different because the market is utterly saturated now. And TikTok is obviously just coming from God knows where. But that's why I can't stress enough that I'm not chasing the growth. I'm chasing the fact that there is only one Chrissy Cheller.

Didn't know what I'm trying to say. Like, I'm going to share with you my own thoughts and my own vision. If you like it, great. If you don't, that's no problem. But I'm not going to follow trends anymore. It's too draining for me. In the early days, let's say kind of going from like, you know, zero to 100,000. Was it a case that you were sort of just

just sort of posting stuff because you felt like it or did you feel this like... Yeah, I felt like it. No, no, I felt no pressure. Okay. No pressure. I felt like it. I really enjoyed it. I was posting daily. I was posting every day at five o'clock. Everyone knew what they were getting. It was a workout video or it was a picture. It was some sort of food as well. Everyone knew what they were getting. Like they knew what they were getting. I was posting regularly. I still post regularly now. I've never stopped not posting regularly. And

But it was just very authentic. Okay. It wasn't chasing some kind of numbers or thinking, I could get to a million if I did more videos or not. Not then. Right. It wasn't until I probably hit about 300,000 followers where I was like, Hmm, like there's substantial growth here. I think at one point I grew, I was growing like 10,000 a day. Yeah. It was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. It was honestly ridiculous growth. And, and,

Yeah, I mean, I was chasing the growth then. So then some of the decisions were very growth-led instead of authenticity and being true to myself-led. Okay, such as? Such as like, oh my God, there was a phase where peers would ask each other to repost each other's posts.

pictures on their stories game or followers or like for like on and you would ask like big accounts to post you it was very heavily numbers driven and I lost sight completely because I was just like the bigger I am the more brands will want to work with me the more guess what I don't work with any other brand but my own and women's best and I've been working with this for five years um

I don't do any paid collaborations. I've even told my PR team, don't give me paid collaborations. I don't want to do it. I'm not interested in it. Even if they give me a million, I'm not interested in it. Unless it's a brand that I've like lived by for like five, six, seven, 10 years of my life. In those early days, you know, you go from being kind of waitress plus law student into suddenly having this enormous following on the internet. Yeah.

And it's within the field of like being a woman and doing the fitness stuff. That's got to be a lot of... Pressure. There's got to be a lot of baggage, pressure. Like what was that experience like? Because you're like a normal university student who seemed to have stumbled into this like incredible growth. I think it's a lot of pressure because I was young. I still am young. But, you know, when it all started, I was early 20s, like an early 20-year-old kid.

is like doing things they'll regret when they're 30 or you know what I mean or talk about when they're 50 and laugh about it with their friends and at uni I was a bit of a loner I was a bit of a loner I had probably like one or two friends and

I remember this girl called Juliana. She was so lovely and like always so welcoming, but I just kept myself to myself. I was working full time. I was trying to get my law degree. And if I wasn't working full time, I was trying to grow my own personal brand and, you know, trying to grow my community. So I was so focused because it didn't feel like work. It felt like a passion and

University to me was actually almost like my escape from the career I was trying to build and the platform I was trying to build. It was a lot of pressure, but I'm so thankful that everything has happened the way it has happened. I'm so thankful for the mistakes I made with Tone and Sculpt in the early years. I'm so thankful for...

you know, being in a relationship with Jack, who is my business partner still till this day. And I was with him for five years. We were engaged. It didn't work, but we still sustained tone and sculpt together. And we have so much respect for each other. Like he, he is one of a kind, you know, and yes, it didn't work romantically, but we share the same vision and mission. So our emotions come secondary for one another because we have a bigger role in this universe. Yeah.

Were you ever worried about what your uni friends would say about the fact that you're posting workout videos and posting yourself on the internet? No, I didn't give a shit. Sorry. How did you? I didn't give a shit. I was like, I'm not even going to lie. Like, I don't care. I don't care what, I didn't care what my team thought of me when I was a waitress and posting Instagram videos. I didn't care what my team,

professors thought of me, what my university friends thought of me. I didn't care. Like I loved it so much that I didn't care. My dad is Balkan, right? My dad comes from Albania. He's a strict dad. When you're around my dad growing up, you couldn't be wearing mini skirts and you couldn't be like doing things like that. Right. So for my dad to go on Instagram to see his daughter in shorts, like Nike pro shorts, squatting and

it was a bit much for him. Like it took, like he hated it. He sat me down. He goes, you need to stop. Like this is, this is not good for our, for our family. And I was like, no, I don't care what anyone has to say. Like I'm so sick and tired of people trying to dictate who I'm going to be. And for so long I let,

my previous boyfriend do that, like the one that cheated on me for so many years dictate how I felt, who I was going to be, how I should be treated. Since then, I thought, no way it happened once. I'm never letting that happen again. Not by friends, not my family, not my coworkers, not by partners, not by nothing.

That's a pretty remarkable level of confidence to be able to do all of that. I've reached that level where I'm like, if you don't like me, that's no problem. If you do, phenomenal. Let's get dinner together. The bottom line is we should never, ever, ever judge someone for trying to put good in the world. Like I wasn't doing anything wrong. I'm genuinely trying to put good in this world. I'm trying so hard daily to

to build two brands that prevail women's confidence. That when you put Honor Active on, you're like,

Shit, I look good. I feel good. I look good I'm trying to build a platform with toner sculpt where a woman's confidence just skyrockets I'm trying to put good in this world. I'm not doing anything wrong So if someone wants to judge that that's on them not me. So you said earlier on that One of the issues that you want to kind of solve is women's underconfidence. Yes, I

I imagine a lot of people in your community are in that sort of beginner stage where they can't imagine having that level of confidence where you can just, I don't know, post a workout video and not care what other people think. What do you think are sort of the, and you've got a chapter in the book where you talk about this, but what would you say are the steps for someone to get to that level of confidence where they're comfortable putting themselves out there in that capacity? Yeah.

And I guess I'm asking because a lot of people who watch this channel and listen to the podcast, they're interested in becoming creators in some capacity. But the number one question when we ask people, what's your biggest challenge with being a creator? It's I'm scared of what my friends and family will think. I'm scared of what my mom's going to say. Scared of what my cousins will think. Scared of what people in school are going to say at uni or my job. I'm scared I'm not going to get a job 10 years down the line when people discover my YouTube channel. All of these fears around what other people will think.

How, yeah. Any thoughts? I think if you automatically doubt what you want to do or you want to put fear as your main driven emotion to what you're doing, you're setting yourself up to fail. Like you've already kind of just, it's almost like when people start their fitness journeys, right? They go,

oh yeah, I'll try it, but I know it's not going to work. Yeah. Like you've kind of, and then when it doesn't work, because for whatever reason they go, I see, I knew, I knew it wouldn't work. So yeah, this is how, there's no point in me doing it ever again. You're already setting yourself up to fail. Like why are you doing that to yourself? Why are you setting yourself up to fail when there's so many people in this world already trying to do that for you?

Right. There's already other people in the world judging you. Why are you going to add more unnecessary pressure to yourself? Right. There's one of you in this world. You're in this world for a very short period of time, whether you think it's long or not, it's short. Right. Do something magical in it. Do something so extraordinary that it makes other people want to do it too. That makes other people want to go crazy.

damn, I want to give that a go because she did it or he did it. And yes, you're going to have judgment. So be prepared for it. Like people will say, what are you doing? And my own dad sat me down and was like, what are you doing? Like, it's embarrassing. I'll never forget that conversation. Now he's living his best life because I bought him a home and new teeth. Like, like,

You just have to go for it. You have to go for that leap. You have to get that passion in you and drive yourself forward because it's such a waste if you don't. And also like, what would you tell your kids? Like if my daughter came to me and was like, mom, I'm going to start posting on Instagram. I don't know how it's going to go, but I'm just going to give it a go. I'd be like, go for it.

Do you want me to go record you? Go for it. And people are forgetting now, like there's TikTok stars making millions a year and making careers for life. And there's YouTube stars like literally going to, you know, the Met Gala or whatever it's called and sitting down with some of the most influential people in the world and

these are now jobs like they're real jobs people unfortunately don't want to become lawyers anymore they want to become a trainer online helping with millions of women so speaking of the law thing so you so you finished your law degree yeah um but you decided to not do the lawyer thing because you had all this other stuff going for you um was that a difficult choice that you made at the time no to see this thing okay

I was so, I don't know where this confidence comes from. One day someone's going to come knock it the hell down. But I was so confident. Yeah. I was so like, this isn't what I want to do. Like, why am I even entertaining it? Like my job on this planet, my duty on this planet is to help women. Okay.

that's that's that's my that's my driving force to help women so I'm not going to entertain anything else like I haven't entertained anything else I'm so tunnel vision so okay so it's it's it's the early days the Instagram account is great is growing you've got the deal from women's best yeah and how how did you decide the next step was to do tone and sculpt I gained my personal training qualification because I thought to myself if I'm putting this out on social and I'm

essentially telling people how I live my life I want to be able to advise people further and be well more educated and rounded so I got my level 2 and my level 3 qualifications so I was all qualified in that field and the thing is with me I'm quite addicted to learning so

So even outside of school, I was actually a pain in the ass in school. No teacher liked me but one. So no, they actually never thought I'd get to uni. So yeah, here I am. But whatever, I did it to myself. But anyway, I was always addicted to learning, but in my own way. I never liked being told what to do. So I hated that. So I always liked learning though. I really enjoyed it. So I started learning about

and how the body works and nutrition and just was so intrigued by it that I was like, you know what? I'm going to build an app. I'm going to build an app. Did you have like a coding background or anything like that? No, no, no, no, no. How did that? So at the

So at the time- - It's a pretty random thing to just decide to do, right? - Yeah, no, we had PDFs. So we started PDF, then digital platform. - We're gonna take a very quick break to introduce our sponsor for this episode, and that is Brilliant. I've been using Brilliant for the last two plus years. They're a fantastic platform for learning maths, science, and computer science with engaging and interactive

online courses. And the great thing about Brilliant is that they really teach stuff from a very first principles based approach. It's almost like the way that we were taught in places like Oxford and Cambridge, where you learn a concept and then you apply the concept to an interesting problem rather than just being spoon fed stuff like we initially learned in school. My favorite courses on Brilliant are the computer science ones. As some of you guys might know, I was torn between applying to medicine and computer science. I went to medicine in the end, but I always had an affinity to computer science.

that taking the courses on Brilliant, like their introduction to algorithms and their introduction to Python, really helped me get more of a grasp of computer science than I've ever had before. It's also great for learning how to code, which is an incredibly useful skill to have, especially if you wanna start a business. And I attribute like 98% of my business success to the fact that I learned how to code when I was in secondary school. So if you wanna check out the courses on math, science and computer science, then head over to brilliant.org/deepdive

And the first 200 people to sign up with that link will get 20% off the annual premium subscription. So thank you, Brilliant, for sponsoring this episode. I built my app with a third party. Oh, how did that go? Yes, with a third party. And they tried to fuck me over big time. Oh. So they tried to take the app away and basically say that they own everything and that I only own the content. Okay.

Who wants to own a content on an app? Yeah. You want to own the data and the code. So if you're out there building an app, data and code and interface is the most important thing that you can have, not just the content you put in, like the pretty pictures and the workouts, you know?

So after like 50 grand in legal fees and one relationship broken, mine and my fiance's, the app was officially ours. So mine and Jack's because it's completely owned by us now. Yeah. What was that like when you first found out that they were? There was no official contract. And when the contract was given to me with my background as a law student, I read through it and knew this was wrong. Okay. And I just would not agree to the terms. This was after they made the app already? Mm-hmm. Oh, interesting. Okay.

The app was already made, already launched. Okay. And then they give you a contract saying, oh, by the way, we own all the intellectual property and you own the content. Yeah. And I said no. Okay. What happened next? Well, the app wouldn't have survived if I didn't promote it, right? Yeah. So the app is mine.

Just because you build the coding no problem. I'll pay you for that But you can't tell me you're gonna earn my app for the rest of my life That means like all the new trainers we've brought in hundreds and thousands of women subscribe to the app You're telling me you own all that. Yeah, that wouldn't also make the community feel comfortable That would make the community feel really uncomfortable knowing that this third party had all this information like no and

Now it's 100% owned by Tona Scott. We are self-funded. We're not with any other parties. We own everything. We protect everything. We protect our community. It's in our hands. So if we mess up, it's our fault. It's nobody else's fault. I can't run to someone and blame them. It's my blame. So is that why you decided that, okay, you know what, we need to fight this. We're going to embark on this like messy legal battle type situation. 100%. I was happy to go down 10...

50, a hundred. I was ready to sell my house. Like I genuinely was ready to sell my house. Hand on my heart. I know my mother's life. I was, I looked at Jack at the time and I said, I don't care. I'm not losing this app. I will sell this house. I will sell our car. We will go live back with your mom and dad, but no one has taken this thing away from us because this is purposeful. Like we have something as we have something so legitimately powerful.

powerful for this world i'm not giving that up like are you crazy never okay so yeah how did you win the win the battle in the end balance probability it was more towards my favorite my my um

towards favoriting me than the other party. Okay. So were they like, did it go to like a jury and all that? No, we settled eventually because I just said, look, I'm ready to sell my house. I'm ready to get the best lawyer there ever is. We did really genuinely have the most amazing lawyer. He still is my lawyer, but yeah. And I think it's important for people to hear this stuff because a lot of people think it was just like happy days and more happy than bad, of course. But yeah,

you know, like a lot happens behind the scenes that that's why I'm so passionate about tone and sculpt. And if anything, my passion's grown more. Um, and it just, I'm so consistent in the same goal. Like I'm consistent in believing the same thing. It hasn't changed since day one. Okay. Awesome. So you've got the app now and then you launched the,

honor active sportswear brand was it about a year ago yes a year marks in september 21st it was a year so what was the story behind that how did you decide that the next step after after the app the community was your own your own clothing line so the next stage after that for me was okay so i'm a woman in fitness i train every day i have a community of thousands of women training with me

Let me make them also look extraordinary. Okay. Like I'm helping you feel extraordinary. Let me make you look extraordinary. And I thought it was really powerful to have a woman, you know, create clothing that women want to wear. Okay. And I thought there was something really powerful behind that. And I thought that there was something really clever behind that. And every decision we make at Honor Active is really, um,

yet again, community led, but it's also our core value is to make products that make people feel extraordinary in performance and day-to-day activity. So how do we do that? How do we make people feel extraordinary? Is it the colors we choose? So internally I've built a formula called the color formula. So we ensure that every color palette we use compliments every skin tone in the world.

And like there's a huge project going on behind the scenes where we're even going to bring in a skin specialist to tell us what colors we should never go for.

So regardless of me dying tomorrow, I've said in stone that these colors should never be used, but you can go towards these colors. So that means everybody can feel extraordinary in the colors we use. How about the fits? Okay, so it's our duty to ensure that we have a fit for everyone. How do we do that? Well, I'm really like proud to announce that in December, we're going to launch our first XXL event.

range so it helps even more people feel extraordinary so loads of the decisions we make are hugely calculative and hugely based on our core value how do you figure out what these core values were um you just have to ask yourself the questions of why are you doing this like it's very easy when you ask yourself why are you doing this like you sit yourself in a room and you go

Why did you feel like Tony Scott was needed in this world? Why did you feel like there wasn't enough already out there? And then you start listing all these things and you're like, yeah, those are values. Like, why did I feel the need to create Honor Active with my business partners? Like, why did I feel the need to do this? And you start really seeing it all come to life.

There's insane brands out there, brands that genuinely inspire me daily. I just think the bottom line is I'm so community orientated and I want to listen to women's and potentially one day men's needs to just give them what they need and what they want. In the book, I think it's one of the early chapters. You talk about finding your why and you reference Simon Sinek's book, Start With Why. I wonder...

When it comes to sort of new entrepreneurs or people starting out in entrepreneurship or being a creator, to what extent do you think it's important to start with to start with that mission or purpose? Because it's very important. It's so important. It's so important if you are.

starting a brand if you want to start a brand like if you don't know your why just don't do it like i can't stress that enough if you are starting a brand to make money oh like i don't know okay no you should never start a brand to make money if your core if your if your core ideology is profit if your core value is we aim to make

100 million in the first five years if that's your number one core value i'm not saying it shouldn't be a core value i'm saying if that's your number one core value you're going to plummet because every decision you make will be profit led not mission led there's a complete difference so you need your why you need to know why you want to start why you want to start what is the reason and it's a very big question to ask yourself because you'll start understanding

That it's deeper than what you first perceived. When women come to me and go, I really want to lose 10 pounds. I go, why? Yeah. Why do, why tell me why? Cause I really want to know why. Oh, cause I know I'll look better. Okay. But why, why does that matter? I know I'll feel better. Okay. But why, but why, but why truth is I,

That bride that wants to lose 10 pounds for her wedding day, it's not that she wants to lose 10 pounds, it's that she wants to feel confident in her wedding day. So actually, it's not about the pounds she loses, it's the effort she's putting in daily

to feel confident on her wedding day. There's a complete difference. So that why is gonna keep her driven longer than constantly stepping on the scales and seeing those numbers not shift. - Yeah, I think it's similar on the, let's say if someone wants to start a YouTube channel, if you do it for the sake of wanting to make money from it, it's really hard to keep that motivation going to sustain that. If you do it for the sake of chasing views, it's really hard to keep going. But if you do it for like-- - You're gonna get really sad.

You're going to get really upset. You're going to think you're not good enough. You're going to cross compare. You're going to just never be satisfied. I've been there. Like I can genuinely speak from experience and you're going to completely and truly fuck your mind up. So one thing, one thing I was, I was intrigued about sort of your, one of your sort of life philosophies, that sounds like a grandiose way of putting it, but one of your life philosophies is that you don't see, you seem not, you seem to not care about goals.

And that really resonates with me because I also think goals are a bit overrated and it's more about the journey rather than about the destination. And that's something I've been, I've been like spieling on my YouTube channel for the last like four years. And then I read that in the book, you said something along that effect as well, that like, you know, it's, it's, it's less about the destination. It's not about like the motivation. It's not about the goal. Yeah. Elaborate on that. Yeah. Motivation is so overrated. Like. Right.

Why? Oh, she's just like jarring and just like shut up. Like I hate her. She comes one day, she leaves another day. She's there in a moment and then I'm like, where is she gone? And then it's just like, I can't be bothered with it. And I can't express enough how you need to stop relying on motivation and start relying more on building consistency and discipline in your day-to-day life.

motivation is not something that you can sustain for the rest of your life because there's going to be moments where you don't want to get out of bed. There's going to be moments where you want to eat your favorite pizza and watch Netflix and skip the gym. Totally fine. There's going to be moments where you actually don't want to come to work, even though it's your biggest passion because you're tired, you're drained, you're exhausted mentally and physically. But consistency is what makes you go. I'm going to go to the gym.

But I'm going to come back home also and eat my pizza and watch Netflix with my partner. I'm going to go to work, but only for two hours. You know, it's, it's, that's what consistency is to me. Okay. Because most of like showing up, showing up. Yeah. Because motivation to me is either or. Okay. Yeah. I'm either motivated to go for that five carat. Oh, I don't go to bed and like, yeah. Yes. Okay. Consistency to me is either.

If I don't want to do it one day, I'll go for a little bit. Okay. I'll give it a go. Yeah. If I don't want to show up, fine, I'll take my meetings from home. It's more flexible. Okay. It's more understanding. And I see these components as actual humans. That sounds really weird, but I see motivation as like this sassy diva.

She sometimes wants to go on stage and give her best show, but sometimes she just wants to tell a team to go away and she's not going on stage. Then I see consistency as like this really like humble, genuine person that wants to help you. And I think people need to start perceiving certain elements as personas because it will make you kind of distinguish which one you want to aim for more, which one you want to build a relationship with more. Interesting. Okay. So it's,

So you wake up in the morning, your alarm goes off at half past five and you're thinking, oh, I'm feeling a bit tired today. What do you tell yourself? This was the other day for me, actually. My alarm went off at half five, ironically. And then I was like, it's cold. It's dark. I'm in England. Like it's too cold now. It's like nearly November. And I was like, I'm so tired. I don't want to go to the gym. And then I said to myself, right, listen, Chrissy, go to the gym today.

if you'd feel like this tomorrow give it a miss that's what i said to myself like and i did today i didn't go to the gym i didn't go to the gym i was still so tired i gave myself an extra two hours sleep instead and that's what i needed yeah but if i'm doing that every day that's not good um one thing i wanted to ask you about is you talk about how we should move towards um and steven bartley talks about this as well kind of

health being your foundation, do it for you, that kind of stuff. But realistically, I mean, certainly for me, the reason I go to the gym, like I would love for it to be for my own health and for myself. But a big part of it is because I want to look better. I want, I don't know, I want girls to be more attracted to me, that kind of stuff.

To what extent do you know that what that's your driving force then fine. Like that's not a bad thing. I just want to I just want to I just want to say something because I think a lot of people think that it's a bad thing to have a physical goal when it's not like it takes roughly three months to incorporate a consistent habit into your life. Right.

If your goal for the next three months is to look a certain way because you want a bigger chest, chiseled abs, six pack abs, whatever.

Great, but guess what? And behind the scenes, whether you like to think it or not, you're building that consistency. So when you get those abs, you're still gonna go. It's gonna be part of your life now, right? So if it is a physical goal that's driving you, no problem, but behind the scenes, you're still building that consistency. The only thing I would say is if you're not getting that result that you want to see, or when you're stepping on the scales and you're not seeing the number shift,

And then you're doing a 360 and completely giving up. That's a problem because then you're not taking the time to build that consistency. And I can't stress enough that if something is not sustainable in your life, you shouldn't be doing it. So if you're pushing yourself to do two hours in the gym every single day and that's not sustainable for your life, stop doing it.

If you can only train at home with a set of dumbbells for 30 minutes, do that instead. Yeah, because it's not really about the short intense bursts that last like a week because that's actually not going to have any impact at all. Exactly. Consistency rather than intensity. Always. Yeah. Interesting. There was something you posted on Instagram. I think it was in the last week or so where it was like a screenshot of your body a few years ago versus now. Yeah. And you were highlighting some of the comments you got around that.

I looked better before. And I think you talked about in one of the videos or in one of your stories about how men don't really get that. Like, you know, if a guy posts before and after, no one's commenting, oh, bro, you look better before. What does that kind of feel like from your perspective? And like, what...

I just want to try and understand what it's like being a woman in the space. Because you're dealing with that side of things that men just don't deal with. Yeah, I mean, look, there's a concept called billboard bodies. And it's almost like if a girl has a six pack and then they're selling a six pack guide, that six pack guide would do really well because there's a billboard to prove that that's what the product you'll get, right? Yeah.

Men use that a lot in this industry. So a lot of the really like chiseled guys, incredible physiques use their bodies as a way to promote their product. That's what I do. That's what I have done. You know, everybody in the fitness industry does that, but I can't stress that enough that that's just one aspect of it, not all aspects of it. So when you look at those before and afters, that's why in the caption, I was saying that before I was actually mentally exhausted and

I was not okay. I was not happy. I felt just not great. But the after is a byproduct of the years I've put in to not only better myself physically, but mentally as well. No one reads captions. They're looking at two pictures side by side and going, you look better before. You know? And that's fine. That doesn't affect me. Like, no, it doesn't. No way. It used to, not anymore. But I think for females...

I can sit here and say, oh, it's more difficult for women than it is for men. But the bottom line is I could always also use the fact that I am a woman to a huge advantage. Okay. As in? As in the community I've built of women. Can a man build a community like that for women? No. Like I've used the fact that I'm a woman to make other women feel really confident in my space. Okay.

to make them feel at home, to make them feel like they're part of a family. And I'm so thankful that I am a woman because in my industry, I was able to do that. Interesting. So you've got this like, although it is harder in that sense, in that you're dealing with these comments, which dudes might not deal with, you also have that kind of unfair advantage as it were of being able to build this like fantastic community. I don't mind people telling me that they liked my before. I'm just happy to see a woman living

lifting weights and like the tags I see every day, like I see every single Instagram tag. I go for all of them.

And I replied to them and I love seeing them. I see women in the gym. I see them with their best friends. I see them with other Tony Scott community members. And I'm just like, this is it. I love it. Nice. Um, I want us to end by talking about the book a little bit. So, um, how did, what was the story behind the book and like how you got the book deal? And what was the story? Like, what was the story there?

So look, the book is one of those things where it's a reminder. Like when people open up, do this for you, I want them to end this book with a reminder to do this for themselves. And I give you loads of analogies. I give you loads of like...

you know it's very much so i i point something out and then i give you an example so if you're if you like reading stuff like that it's great so i point a situation out and then i give you an example of that situation to to help you further kind of expand your understanding and if you have read it before i can't encourage enough to go back and start making notes okay

Because each and every single chapter will force you to think. And I see so many people in this using this book and I see post-it notes everywhere because they're just thinking out loud and they're like, oh yeah, what about this? What if I do this? What if I do that? It's a, it's a thinking book. It's not a book where I'm telling you what to do for, for seven days, how to eat, how to train. It's a book where I'm telling you to think about your why in your fitness journey and to remind you of your why.

Yeah. Nice. So when did the publisher like approach you for it or did you decide? Yeah, they approached me for it. How did that work? I never thought I'd write a book. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, I'm actually a little bit dyslexic. No, a lot dyslexic. So I find it very easy to speak, but find it really hard to write. Actually, the person that helped me write this book was a community member. Oh, don't worry. So her name's Zahara. Yeah.

Oh, she was in the acknowledgements at the end. Yes. She was one of the original Tony Scott crew community members. And I met her because I invited her on set and we just connected. She's complete. She's one of a kind. Like I've never met a person like her. And I knew my strengths were the skeleton of the book. I know her background is teaching and her background is like writing and

So I said to her, help me write it. You know my voice. You know my tone of voice. You know who I am and I know who you are. So we did it together. And I'm so happy we did because I got her perspective on it as well, like how a community member would perceive it. And then me as a trainer, how I would write it. Yeah. And I guess you're writing the book for your community members. So that's like a match made in heaven. This isn't a biography, right? The beginning is a bit. This is a...

This is me trying to help you. What was that process of getting all the ideas onto the page and figuring out, okay, these are the, I don't know, 12 chapters that we want. Like how do you-

It's things I always discuss all the time. So it was nothing out of the extraordinary for me. Like, you know, chapter one, find your why. You lose your excuses. Maximize your time. Form healthy habits is what we discussed. Shift your perspective is what we've discussed. Believe you can. We've discussed it. Find your tribe, which is your community. All these things mean you have discussed. So it comes very natural. It was just about making them fit in.

in the book. How did you do that in the thing of making them fit? Because it would be very easy for it to turn into sort of a messy, a messy Buzzfeed listicle kind of thing, which there's not any. But as I was reading, I was like, oh, one point, it like flows, it flows really nicely. Because every

point is kind of the same okay if you think about it like finding your why and not making excuses they sit hand in hand your first thing you need to do is find your why like why are you doing this the second thing to do is right now let's drop all the excuses behind your why right third thing is okay let's find the time to execute your why yeah so everything goes back to the why okay your tribe who is your tribe and why are they your tribe yeah

So everything always goes back, back, back to that why. And that's why I do wish my book was called Find Your Why, but there's only a book out there called Find Your Why. So yeah.

Was it much of a struggle coming up with the title? No. No, come on. Do this for you. Yeah, it just fits so nicely. I mean, so I'm writing a book at the moment and it's been such a struggle to figure out what the hell the title is going to be. It will come to you, but you have to find your why first. Yeah, that's the thing. I would sit, you know what? I would take a day off work. Yeah. Like just tell your team, you know what guys, crack on with work. I'm going to just, don't contact me.

And I would just go sit in a coffee shop wherever you feel comfortable. Don't do at home. Um, it gets too comfortable at home and I would just list all your wise. I'd list all your wise, why you want to do this, why you want to be here, why you want to put this out in the world. And you'll start just right. You'll start free writing. Like it will just be so natural to you. And then by the time you realize it, two hours have gone by. Yeah.

Then you're like taking compartments, brainstorming concepts. By the time you realize four hours have gone by, the next day you've got your title. Give it a go and send me a picture. Okay. I want to see if you actually do it. I'll actually try that. Give it a go. The why exercise. Because I spend so much time sitting in coffee shops thinking what's the title going to be. But I've never really taken a step back to think. Yeah. You need to dissect it. You need to really be like, why am I even writing a book?

What is the reason behind this book? Yeah. Why am I even here? Because when you start asking yourself, you're like, big questions. Yeah. But they're really great questions because they start getting your mind to think some of the decisions we have with Tony sculpt and honor active. I always go to team. Okay. Why?

And they don't realize that I'm asking them a really big question because of the way I'm saying it. So I'm like, okay, why? Yeah. And I just drop it in there. And then they go, oh, because of this, this, this, this. Imagine I go, tell me the why. They're like, oh, shit. Yeah. That sounds like a bigger deal. So I'm like, yeah. Okay. Tell me your why. Like, why? Why are we doing this? Yeah.

And then they don't realize that I do it every single day to them. Okay. They don't realize like I go to my design team, by the way, sometimes I know the answer and I'll go to my design team. Why are we doing that? That line there? I know the answer. Yeah. I just want to hear how they perceive it. Okay. So,

I sort of sometimes do this with my team and occasionally team members will get frustrated that I'm not trusting them enough and I'm questioning their decision when I'm asking, you know, what's the rationale here? Why are we doing it that way? Do you get that sort of thing at all from your team? Why are they getting frustrated over you asking why? That encourages conversation, that encourages you to collaborate together, that encourages you to share each other's thoughts.

That shouldn't be offensive to them. This isn't you trusting, having a trust issue with your team. This is you just genuinely wanted to understand their thought process. I always sit and talk to my team. Actually, sometimes we over collaborate, like sometimes a little bit like guys stop now. But it is so beautiful when you see people come together. Like my favorite thing in the world is,

is when a can of worm is opened up in the office and a question's thrown out and I'm like, guys, what do you think about this? And I do it on purpose. I go, guys, what do you think about this? I'm unsure. I know the answer. And they're like,

And they start talking and then they start deliberating and then they start constructively arguing. And I'm like, amazing. This is it. When you bring people like-minded with the same vision and mission in one office and

And they're just at it in a healthy way. They're at it in a very respectful, constructive way. And you come out with the best possible outcome. If your team doesn't challenge you, there's an issue. You should challenge them and they should challenge you. I've had so many team members before. My team does not kiss my ass. I can't express that enough. My team will say no to me.

I'll say no we need to do this they go no we need more time or they'll go no we can do it sooner and I'm like no we need more time and I'll go they'll go no your team should be able to do that with you they should be able to see you as someone that they can collaborate with not be afraid of yeah I guess when you when you started building a team you probably didn't have much experience of managing and leading and stuff how did you learn that stuff over time

And I guess, what mistakes did you make that you kind of learned from in that? So many mistakes. Like no one tells you that people are going to be your biggest problem, are they? No one tells you that. No one tells you that staff is going to be your best reward, but your biggest issue as well. I've learned on the job and I've literally faked it till I made it. Like I've not, I don't have a mentor. I don't, um...

have like this hidden handy book. I've learned as I go along, but I can't stress enough to you that the team you have are people. They're not machines. They are people and they require empathy. They require respect.

and they require to have purpose. Like you have to treat your team like people. And so many corporations forget that people want weekends off, forget that people have children.

And I'm so thankful that it's very rare for me to ask an employee to, to do more than they should, but they want to, they want to do more because they believe in what we believe in and what I believe in. They genuinely like believe it so much that they get emotional if it's not done. So like the other day we were picking colors for 2022 and,

And Lisa, head designer on her active has a child. And I said, go home. Like what are you doing? Oh no, no, no. It's fine. I'll, I'll just stay. Yeah. Like she genuinely wanted to stay. Not because I was there, but she was so intrigued by what we were doing. Yeah. And that's because I've shown her so much respect.

And I've shown her so much integrity and transparency. And I've said to her, like, I don't fucking understand this. Can you teach me it? Or I've said to her, like, Lisa, what do I do? I trust you. Can you help me? You have to give people purpose. You have to say to your team, I trust you to do it. Go do it. Let them make mistakes. Okay. I guess I just learned along the way. I don't know where I got it from. Were there some things that you did very wrong in the early days? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Of course, I made so many mistakes.

Like some of the mistakes I made was I got too involved with my team. Like saw them more as friends, less as employees. One of the mistakes I made was, you know, just taking things too personally and,

One of the mistakes I made was also like my reactions to things. Like I remember, especially during this whole legal battle and my ending of my relationship, which is no excuse, but to put it in perspective, I would sometimes have major outbursts and I would shout and that's not good. That's not good at all. You know, and I've come to the, to the realization that it's not about me.

And it has changed over time and it will continue to change. And I have some really great people around me to come into my office and say, maybe deal with things differently next time. Oh, nice. Interesting. My team does not kiss my ass. They might laugh at my joke once in a while. Do you do like goal setting and like metrics and stuff for the team?

Right now, Tonus Sculpt is way more structured than Honor Active simply because it's got more years than OA. Honor Active is in a very transitional period right now. Like we're hiring a lot of exec department team leaders, which will come in and put KPIs in place.

We're in a period as well where we've had a lot of growth. So we're trying to catch up with that growth with the right team members. So the first year we made 10 million revenue. So to have to make 10 million with a team. Yeah, 10 million revenue with a team of five people. Yeah, that's insane.

That's also not good. Yeah. It's a bit scary because it's like we need more processes. We need more team members. We need more suppliers. Yeah. So right now the team is more focused on building more relationships with suppliers that have great ethical processes and we want to work with them. Building more of their internal team. So we hired a great head designer. She was actually head designer for Sweaty Betty for 10 years, which is incredible. Yeah.

So she's come to Honor Active, which is huge success for us because she's absolutely amazing at what she does. So she's now building her team. When she builds her prices and her team, she will then build KPIs and goals and whatnot. How do you think about for like executive leadership positions, promoting from within like the five people you got started with and sort of making them the exec team versus bringing in people from the outside?

Everyone you hire should be great. Like everyone you hire should be so fucking good that they're able to come in one day to your office and go, I'm leaving because I'm going to start my own brand. And I go, off you go. That's how good they should be.

And I can safely say that with both brands, we have great people. Okay. And, you know, great people that will get huge promotions going forward because I don't want to just bring someone else in because they've been great in another brand. Okay. Sure. That might work for some people, but for us, it's like,

no, we have some great people here we can nurture. And if we have great people that maybe require one more year extra to be incredible, let's just wait a bit. Okay. So you wouldn't hire someone in a position kind of above them. You would give them that time to develop into that position? Yes, I would give them that time to develop in that position, but it depends who they are. So for example, right now for Honor Active, we're in a process of hiring a creative director. So that creative director is going to be

An exec. That's a huge, big exec role, right? So they will come in, but they already have kind of a team built underneath them. Yeah.

But then, you know, I have an operations manager at Honor Active who I see as my right hand. And one day I do see her as an incredible exec role, you know, that could lead a team without me there. Okay. So it depends who it is. It depends who you have internally right now. Whereas we have a graphic designer OA as well, who I see beyond the graphic design. I see her more as an art director, you know? Yeah. But I need more from her. I need to test her a bit more. Okay.

I need to give her a few more fires to take out and see how she handles it. But I know she's capable. I don't want to just bring it, bring people above other people. I want to give them time to prove themselves, you know? Okay. Because then your team just feels like there's no ladder. There's nowhere to progress. There's nowhere to go with the brand. And they just feel stuck and you don't want people to feel like that, especially not your first hub of people. Interesting. Okay.

So with Honorator, for example, the brand is growing like ridiculously fast. Presumably when you got to that point of 10 million revenue with five people, I imagine you would have been like, oh crap, we need to hire all these people all at the same time. No, no, we already had the process. So hire very, very, very, very slow. Hire slow, fire fast. Right, yeah, people say that. Hire slow. Yeah. Take your time.

understand people like when I hired my head designer I it was COVID time so I couldn't meet her but I just had a call with her face to face and we spoke for about two hours and then I and then when restrictions were a bit okay I said come to the office like come and see what the team is like the entire team was there and I was asking her to fit me okay throw them in deep and see how they react

It's a culture thing as well. Do they fit in your culture? Because my culture at OA is nuts. Like the team is crazy. Crazy as in? Like just a bunch of wild bitches. Like they're just...

They're just a big family. Like they just love the brand. They love the community, love the ethos. But we are, you could see we're like, we're family. Like it's a bunch of cousins. It's, it's so bizarre. It's like we respect each other so much, but we also can go and have a crazy wild night out and have the best memories. And if someone comes in and can't really fit that culture, it's going to be a bit hard on, on the rest of the team.

There's different personalities. We have introverts, extroverts. We have people who like working alone, people that like working in a team. But our ethos is the same. Our cultures are quite similar. So how do you assess for culture fit before someone is part of the team? I throw them in the team. Okay. So me and my operations manager were actually discussing this and new processes of hiring. And from now on, when we interview someone, we want to interview them first.

in the office pretty much like we have an open plan so they're not they don't go to my office they go to the sitting room wherever the team can hear oh interesting what does your hiring process look like at the moment so right now at the moment we're headhunting a lot of people okay but because we need to really accept roles um but right now like we've taken interns on as well and we've thrown interns and deep end and we've been like you wanna you wanna work with us

Let's do this. Let's go. Everybody's paid. Like we don't take interns on and not pay them. Like we don't believe in that sort of stuff. Everybody needs to love the job and needs to love the brand and they need to believe in the brand. If you do not believe in the brand and you're just here for a salary, I will suss that out. I will suss that out.

Okay. It's very easy to suss out when you've got a great team. So with Tone and Sculpt, I imagine in the early, because with Honor Active, it sounds like you've already built a business once. And so maybe you had some of the processes in place that you could like copy and paste. Whereas, okay. Everyone thinks,

thinks this everyone thinks that it's like oh you've got one brand so it's just like bring that completely different brands completely different brands what honor active has toners got blacks what toners got has honor active blacks okay so what i mean by that is the processes toners got has and the infrastructure on our active doesn't have currently so we're building that we're starting we're baby like yeah we're one years old like jesus give us give us time you know but uh

But with five people and 10 million revenue, that's like ridiculous levels of growth. It is and it's scary. It's not the best thing when you grow that fast. Trust me, because you can go up and you can go down. So it's better to be a bit more steady. But Honor Active has a lot more, I would say, creativity and more focused on the mission.

And then with Tonus Gold, because there's more of us, there needs to be a reminder because there's like triple the people there. So you have to more actually. Yeah, there's going to be at the end of the year, end of next year will be about 60 people at Tonus Gold. So you have to ensure that the execs of that company filter through to the rest of the team, the core mission, the core vision, and it can't be forgotten. But because OA is so small,

You can't forget it because you're speaking about it every day in an open plan office, you know? And how do you split your time between the two? So I actually have a three-story office. Honor Active sits at the top and two floors are tone and sculpt. Okay. So I'm up and down. Speaking of time management, we're going to take a very quick break to introduce Rise, who are sponsoring this week's episode. Rise is a desktop app for macOS and Windows that helps you understand where your time is going while you're browsing the internet by automatically tracking the time you spend on apps and websites.

They've got some pretty sick features too, like smart break notifications that let you know when to take breaks based on your activity. And they also give you in-depth analysis of how you're dividing your time between deep work, meetings, and all that jazz, so you can find out where you can reclaim your focus, optimize your time, and be more productive. If you fancy trying it out, I've got a cheeky promo code where the first 1,000 signups will get a 25% discount off of their first three months. Just type in ALIABDAL in caps. Rise also offer a 14-day free trial so you can test it out beforehand, so there's no reason not

to give it a go. So thank you very much Rise for sponsoring this episode. Now let's jump back into the conversation. So what is like your day look? So you wake up at wake up at half five, do the gym, training, breakfast, commute stuff until 10. It's the office at 10. First meeting is at 10. Okay. So yesterday, for example, I had meetings 10 till six. Okay. No break. Right. Do you like that? I like to eat for 10 minutes. Yeah.

But yeah, it's like one after the other. And it's like, I cannot be late. You have that time with me. Tell me what we need to do. Tell me what we need to work on. If you go over my time, sorry, I've got to go. I have to be very like...

Cutthroat. Okay. Unfortunately, even though the conversation is great, I've got places to be and people to see. So is that what most of your days are like? Sort of back-to-back meetings, 10 for lunch type thing? Yeah, back-to-back meetings or if I have anything like out of my ordinary schedule like this, for example. But it is back-to-back. And then I have a 9 till 10 p.m. slot where I review documents in the evening. So I'll get home early.

So I'll get to the office at 10, then I'll leave the office around about 7 now. And then I get home about 8.15. And then I'll eat, say hello to my partner. 9pm, I'll crack on with more work until about 11. Rest, back at it. Wow, that's quite the schedule.

So you get like six and a half hours of sleep each night. Six hours, yeah. Six hours. Do you find that works for you? Yeah. Nice. On weekends I sleep more. Okay. But it works. It works. It works really well. It depends. Like I'm a woman as well. Like time of the month I need more rest, you know? Yeah. But yeah, it works well. I do have a, I do crash. Yeah.

3 p.m. Okay. And like, I'm like, oh my God, where's my caffeine? And like, I, I, I do actually find myself laying on the sofa and the team has to have meetings with me laying on the sofa sometimes because I, we actually bought a little sofa bed downstairs at Tony's Culp. It's like a big bed. So sometimes like with Tony's Culp team, I'll tell them to sit there with me. And sometimes I do shut my eyes and I'm still listening. Okay. But I, I listen, I take everything in and,

Um, but I have a rule like emails can't be too long. I can't, I can't sit there and read emails all day. Uh, meetings can't be longer than I try to keep meetings 30 minutes at time. If they're really important, one hour. Um,

I also tell Terry, my personal assistant, like I have to have Fridays as a creative day where I think. And I go to the brands and I look at the roadmaps and I shift things around. I change things. I work on weekends as well. I tend to have Saturdays off by work Sundays. Okay. And I guess you live your life by your calendar. Yeah. Do you like wake up and be like, okay, cool. That's what I've got. Yes. Or is it a case of, oh shit, that's what I've got. No, no. I wake up and I go, right, this is what we need to achieve. Great.

Let's go.

Wow. Yeah. You don't run two companies by having free time. Yeah. But like today, for example, you know, it's been a little bit more relaxed. It's been a bit more, my mom and dad were home. So it was a little bit more chilled. And I, I had my meetings at home in the morning. I had three meetings and then I had, you know, to revise a few contracts on the train. And then I came to the office. We did a, another meeting and then I, I,

product review with the team now here okay but I do have an hour appointment today so that's great a bit of free time that'll be good are you going to review contracts while doing that or I said to have me when I have no appointment so there's every time I go to the hair salon um

my hairdresser that I've known for about seven years. Yeah. He, he's like, I've got your charges ready for you. Oh, amazing. He knows the deal. Like, I'm sorry. I'm trying to, I'm trying to run like two incredible brands. Time is like money, honey. Like I gotta go, go, go. Hustle, hustle. Changing gears a bit. I was listening to your interview with Stephen Bartlett, which was just under a year ago. Oh yeah. And in that interview,

I think you were single at the time and you both talked about how you're difficult to date. And then I saw a YouTube video from a few months ago where you kind of revealed your new partner and things. And I wanted to ask, like, it sounded like when you were talking to Stephen, you were kind of struggling with the dating thing, feeling like work was the priority and stuff. But now, at least from what I've seen on YouTube, it seems like you're thriving in this new relationship. Work's always a priority. Okay.

Work is like, you know, I am so happy in my relationship. Like, I am so happy I've met Brett and he's just, he is everything I, he is everything that I could want. Okay. He's patient. He's calm. Yep. He calms me. He makes me laugh. He's understanding. He has never once said to me, babe, can you get off your phone? Okay. He's never said that. Yeah.

He understands that I have a job to do and I have a purpose to fulfill. And at the beginning, it was a bit hard to explain that to him.

He doesn't have social media. He has a PhD in chemistry. Like he works in a lab all day. He's a very like his home family man. Like that's what he's like. He loves his family and he loves like being with his brothers and his mom and his dad and, you know, being at home with me and my dog. So yeah.

He didn't understand the complexity and the velocity of how important these jobs are and what my role was. So what I decided to do was bring him on set. Okay. So I brought him on set and I, you know, brought him around the team and then he would spend like a day with me and kind of see how my day was. And he was like, whoa.

And he realized how intense it was because at first instance, he thought I posted selfies all day. He was like, oh, so what'd you do? Like post selfies all day. And I was like, yeah. I mean, it seems like he's in a very different industry to you. I mean, apart from that, his arm's absolutely huge. Yeah, he's got good arms. How did you guys meet? In the gym. Oh, good. I saw him and I was like, oh, he's a bit of me. He's all right. He's a bit handsome. And then...

One thing led to another. We got speaking. He wasn't interested in me. Okay. At all. He was so focused on his PhD, completing it, that he was not interested in anyone. And I was like, okay, no problem. We won't talk. I'm not chasing. And then we didn't speak for three months. And then we kind of, our paths collided again. And then we got speaking. Yeah.

he fell in love with me no joking we both like fell for each other hard really really really hardly yeah and yeah we've been together now about a year and a bit but when i was speaking to steven it was a three month gap oh oh that's what okay got it yeah so it all makes sense now oh interesting so um yeah yeah yeah brett is just he just puts a smile on my face he makes me happy he puts a smile on my face he's

He's very, very, very just sometimes like, where's the common sense? But then you can't have both, you know, book smart and common sense. Like, come on, you gotta give him, you gotta give a guy something. Okay. So yeah, he, he, he's great.

Um, how did you, so if he doesn't have social media and stuff, how did, how did you navigate the whole sort of, to what extent you wanted the relationship to be public versus private? I asked him, I said, do you feel comfortable with it? If you don't, we, I never need to showcase you. I can tell people I'm taken, but we don't need to publicly announce it. He was like, no, like,

If you want to, we can. He goes to me, but if I say like maybe no to videos, just respect that. And I said, of course, like I'm not going to shove a,

Sometimes he's a bit difficult and I'm like, Oh my God, just be in it. And then he's like, don't want to be in it today. And I'm like, okay, no problem. But then there's other moments where he's like, let's take a picture. And he like gets into it. So he's, he's really chilled. He is, he's the guy that really puts, he puts me first. He doesn't put himself first. He puts me first. He knows that if I need to be on my laptop working, he doesn't disturb me.

He knows that when I am giving him attention in the sense of when I'm not on my phone, like that's genuine quality time because I don't give a lot of people that. And I have to be honest, like I don't give people that quality time because I don't even have it for myself. Yeah.

I don't like I am giving it to my brands. So he respects that. And a lot of guys wouldn't respect that. Okay. A lot of guys would be like, get off your phone or you never spend time with me or you're not texting me back. Like I think we text in the morning and a few times in the day and that's it. I'm on my phone to work.

I don't socialize on my phone. I don't have time to socialize. Very rare. Yeah. And I don't want it to change. Like, I love my life. I don't want to go out clubbing and drinking every single weekend. That's not for me, you know? Okay. So, I've been dating someone for a few months. You? Okay. And she is very concerned about the whole public spotlight potential thing. Oh, she's a bit nervous? Yeah. Yeah.

Have you had any like negative repercussions from being semi-public about the relationship or relationships in the past? No, I think...

I think because a lot of people saw my relationship with Jack, they were a bit, they were really upset when me and Jack did part ways because they felt like so connected to me and Jack. Yeah. But then now they've seen me and Brett, they, they're like, I'm so happy for you. I think don't do anything that puts pressure on her, but I think three months is very soon. So just like, yeah, give us some more time. Yeah. And I think,

why not bring her to one of your work days? Why not let her like kind of sneak peek into your, like your genuine work? Because it will make her feel more comfortable and confident. And just be open with her and say, hey, like no pressure. But the reason I want to publicly announce you is because, you know, I think you're the one. So why not celebrate that? Okay. Interesting. Did you feel like,

given that yours and Jack's relationship was was public was there more pressure to keep it going even when things weren't working yeah okay yeah 100% we I had checked out in my head a long time ago and I think Jack had to yeah Jack's in a really happy relationship now he's so in love with his new partner and you know we haven't met yet but I really like when we do meet

I just want to say to her, listen, honey, you got nothing to worry about. I know it's a bit awkward. I get it. But I just want him to be happy. Okay. And I know we weren't happy with each other anymore for a while. And we were really just like trying to make it work.

So his happiness to me is absolutely everything. And I guess that's one of the risks of having a public relationship. It's sort of like, it's harder to break up with someone once you moved in with them because there's like an extra layer of pressure. And you own a house and a company and you own a car, you own a dog. It was a lot, but yeah, no, we were very, very, very respectful. There was no bitterness. There was no aggression. There was no,

nastiness there was you're still part of this brand this is still your home if you want your share sure if you want to sell it we'll sell it together like it was very amicable amicable amicable

I can never say that word. Amicable. Amicable? Amicable, yeah. That was good. I told you, sometimes I just mess up words. But yeah, we're very respectful to one another. We have blowouts here and there for work. But you're going to. You have pressure. You have a team of 30 people and employees to pay and salaries to pay and everything.

you know, these people are putting food on their, on their kids, on the table for their kids. It's a big responsibility to have people's mortgages to pay. It's mental. Do you ever worry about like security? Cause you're like on the train and stuff. And I imagine. Never thought of that. Okay. I mean, for the office I did because we have a lot of stuff in the office and I want to take care of my employees, but,

Like personal security and stuff? No. I've just been hearing a lot of horror stories. From who? Usually from YouTubers in America, actually, where they're like, if anyone gets a whiff of what their location is or where their office could be or even something in the background of one of their stories, people will figure out where they live and come to the house and it's all like... And I've been like, oh, shit. No. I'm not at all concerned about that. No, I have alarm systems and security in my house. Yeah. Okay. But...

I'm comfortable getting on trains and yeah I don't think anyone wants to hurt me okay well I hope not I don't need to put the thought in your head but damn now you've really got me thinking but no I'm I'm okay I'm okay amazing um I've just got a few kind of rapid fire questions sure if you're if you're down for that number one I'll say yes or no is that is that this kind of thing uh potentially maybe one-liners fine no problem okay what advice would you give to your younger self

Be patient. Excellent. Who's had the biggest influence on your career? The community. Nice. What's one tip for someone looking for success? Don't make it profit driven, make it vision driven. Nice. What does the first and last hour of your day look like? You really want to know? First hour, waking up and heading to the gym. Last hour, checking my tag pictures for my community. Nice.

um what material item under 100 pounds could you not live without oh god my honor active excellent uh what book other than yours would you recommend to anyone built to last oh interesting i haven't read that i'm gonna read that tonight if you lost everything how would you start a business again with my vision and mission and my why amazing what quote or mantra do you live by do this for you excellent and finally journey or destination journey

always the journey i was thinking holidays then and i was like i'd be fine but no uh journey always amazing chrissy thank you so much for coming on thank you for having me thank you so much open and honest and then about everything always a bit too open and honest but i hope everyone enjoyed it but thank you so much for having me yeah thanks for coming on and uh yeah links to all your things will be in all the things everyone check the book out

It's very good. The tagline, how to be a strong woman from inside out. I sort of chuckled a bit when I posted that on my Instagram story, but it's like genuinely, I mean, there's a little bit about pregnancy and trimesters and stuff. Yeah, but we can get that bit if you want to. It's all very gender neutral. So...

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's it for this week's episode of Deep Dive. Thank you so much for listening. All of Chrissy's links are going to be in the show notes and the description if you're watching this on YouTube. Thank you again for tuning in. And if you did enjoy this conversation, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts so that more people can discover the show. I'll see you later.