← The Diary Of A CEO

Trinny Woodall: How She Went From Drug Addict To Building A $300m Business Empire!

Episode 2023-09-112023-09-11English

Guests: Trinny

Trinny Woodall: How She Went From Drug Addict To Building A $300m Business Empire!
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§01Transcript — part 1

00:00Hello, I'm here during the lunch rush with Janice, who owns her own food truck.

00:04Best cheese steaks in town.

00:05Janice traded up to Geico Commercial Auto Insurance for her food truck business.

00:09We're here where she needs us most.

00:10They sure are.

00:11We make it so easy for her to save, with customised coverage that grows with her business.

00:17Sorry, I just get so emotional talking about saving folks money.

00:20Not this onion I'm chopping.

00:21It's just so beautiful.

00:24Oh, yeah, nice to meet you.

00:25Get a commercial auto insurance quote today at Geico.com and see how much you could save.

00:28It feels good to Geico.

00:30I look at your skin and I'm going to come over now.

00:32Oh, no.

00:33Oh, f***.

00:33Then I go around here.

00:35Trinny Woodall, beauty queen of the screen, founder and CEO of Trinny London.

00:39From 10 to 134 employees in just three years.

00:43Have a great day.

00:44I went through phases in my early 20s of not knowing who I was and turning to drugs.

00:49I went to rehab.

00:50I heard that you'd been kicked out the first time for playing a porn video.

00:53Yeah.

00:53It backfired.

00:54Rehab was a huge beginning of the change in my life.

00:57And I went into a whole new world.

01:00Following a 20-year career in media, the train took a left turn in the makeup industry.

01:03Here we are, $250 million later.

01:06Welcome to Trinny London.

01:08A lot of people have this stigma that you can't start a business at 53.

01:12Crap.

01:13Age is just a...

01:15Number but you need energy passion perseverance i sold my house hardly earning any money but i thought i'm never going to give up ask yourself how much do you want to be successful what are you prepared to give up you strike me as someone that's incredibly driven what's the cost very big question

01:29probably

01:30Oddly.

01:32You had a partner who was unwell.

01:34Yeah.

01:34And the thing you think will never happen, happens.

01:38He died by suicide.

01:39Yeah.

01:40Where do you get to in your brain when you are so worried about your children that you can convince yourself that the best thing is that you're not in their life anymore?

01:52How does that change things in your life?

02:05Trinny, you've got a very distinct personality.

02:10Yeah.

02:12And you know that.

02:12You're well aware of that, right?

02:16I know who I am.

02:18But your personality is very, you're very straightforward.

02:23Yeah.

02:24And all of these sort of defining traits of your personality.

02:26And I'm wondering if that was when that personality was formed or when it started to emerge.

02:33Things happen in your life that...

02:36That begin to, you know, fine tune and define who you're going to be.

02:40And I went definitely through phases, you know, I went through phases in my late teens, early 20s of turning to drugs just to not being happy with who I was, not feeling, not knowing who I was.

02:53Sometimes people turn to drugs because they just don't know who they are and they want to...

02:58You know, they have an inner lack of confidence.

03:00And I definitely had an inner lack of confidence.

03:02And outwardly, when I talk to people and I look back at the time, they might say, you just were this very mesmerizing person.

03:10And I just remember that internal sense of feeling so lost, so profoundly lost.

03:20So when I got clean at 26, 27, that was a huge beginning of the change in my life.

03:28I was so relieved that my 20s were over.

03:31So relieved.

03:31Because it, you know, it was like that was the beginning of that.

03:35Wash that away.

03:37And that was a big moment for me to begin to.

03:42Work out who I was.

03:43That was the first moment, probably.

03:45You're using drugs at 16, I presume, was quite a recreational thing.

03:48Yeah.

03:49I think we all dabbled at that age.

03:52When did you realise that it wasn't a recreational thing anymore and that it was an addiction?

03:59I think I was about 22 and

04:06I felt my life didn't have direction and my family were very frustrated with me.

04:11They felt I'd changed.

04:13And like any family where they have a child who has addiction, they can, if they don't know, they just see change and they think, why is my child changing?

04:22You know, so I think they saw that and.

04:26It was a relief to say, you know, I use drugs.

04:31And I remember my dad said, well, now you've told me, you can stop.

04:34And I remember my brother saying, I think it might be harder than that.

04:38So I went to rehab and I then left the rehab after a period of time.

04:48You left the rehab while you were...

04:49No, I was kicked out of the first rehab, but I then went to meetings.

04:54And there's one thing about recovery is that when you first get in recovery, you need to let go of your old friends who you've been with, who you're using.

05:06And you're about to make new friends.

05:08So that moment is...

05:11Loneliness can take you back to old habit.

05:13After about, I don't know, maybe six months, I missed my old friends and I hadn't made enough new ones and I saw them and then, you know, I relapsed.

05:27And then I went back to meetings and then you're in this horrible little in-between place.

05:32When you know about recovery and you continue to use, it's not so, there's something about an ignorance of recovery.

05:43You know, there's a kind of sense that you don't know there's another way, so you don't feel guilty every time you do.

05:50And so what it brings is it brings guilt every single time.

05:54I had three really, really good friends and we were all using one night.

05:58And I said, let's all make a pact.

06:02We'll go to rehab tomorrow.

06:04And two of them had been and one of them had never been.

06:06But we made this pact.

06:09Late night, you know that thing.

06:10We're going to do this.

06:11We're going to conquer the world and we're going to go to rehab.

06:13So then the next morning.

06:16I woke up and I still had that feeling.

06:19Which is rare.

06:21So I called a therapist that I knew and I said, I need to go, but I have a window of opportunity, which is so small.

06:28I need to go literally in the next two hours because I am scared for myself that I'll change my mind.

06:33So he got me in somewhere and stayed there for five months and I sold.

06:40What I had to pay for it.

06:43Some very tragic thing happens in that time.

06:45And one of the people died.

06:47And then...

06:49One of the people that said they're going to go to rehab with you.

06:51Yeah.

06:52And then I went to a halfway house in Western Supermare for seven months where you kind of live off...

06:59Eight to ten pounds a week, which pays for your fags.

07:02And I worked at an old people's home.

07:05And then I came back to London, a very different person.

07:08And then in that following year,

07:12Another one of them died.

07:14And then by the end of two years, they'd all died.

07:19I think I always had this feeling, whatever I might do, you know, I might do many things again, but I will not take drugs again.

07:30And you do that in recovery, you do it a day at a time.

07:32And since that day, I have never taken a drug again.

07:37That's probably the biggest shift I had at that age to really think, now I have this second chance.

07:44What do I actually want to do with my life?

07:46You know, not what I feel other people expect me to do.

07:49To do.

07:50If I was a fly on the wall in your life, when the addiction had you the most, what would I have seen?

07:57You wouldn't have seen anything that I was feeling inside.

08:01Because that's what I was very good at.

08:04So outwardly, you would kind of think, you know, I worked in the city, I was trading commodities, I was...

08:10I held down a job.

08:12You know, you would see this person who seemed to be running around doing a lot of stuff.

08:17You would see that.

08:20Yeah.

08:20So mine wasn't jacking up in the street, not being able to function on a daily basis.

08:30But it was one where...

08:34Appearances were so important compared to, you know, so that matching your inside to your outside is probably my biggest journey, you know, of how can I, what I feel inside is how I share with you now.

08:48And, you know, I am 59 and that's where I've got to.

08:51I have a lot more to do, but I, it took me a journey to get to a place where I

08:56feel very comfortable in that feeling and in that belief.

09:02Matching the inside with the outside.

09:04So the outside, I would have seen someone who was very busy and apparently, you know, professionally successful in the city.

09:10Not feeling it, but sort of acting it.

09:12You know that.

09:12I mean, my God, we know that one.

09:14Fake the CV, act it.

09:16You know, be kind of big up the job that was actually smaller than it was, all of that shit.

09:21And then on the inside.

09:23Feeling.

09:25Feeling.

09:28You know, I hate to say the word because I hate, I hate labels.

09:32Imposter syndrome is the worst.

09:34Can I just say it's the worst label?

09:35It's the worst label ever because what it denotes is that you are an imposter for how it's used for now.

09:42So to me, imposter syndrome is more that you haven't yet learned enough.

09:46And if you learn something, you won't feel so much of an imposter.

09:49This.

09:51Is what imposter syndrome is, what I'm referring to.

09:55It's that feeling where you are so different on the inside from what you project on the outside that you are an imposter inside your own body.

10:05And that to me is what I think imposter syndrome is.

10:08What's the cost of that?

10:11That at some stage, you can't keep doing it and something has to give.

10:18And something always has to give.

10:20And it's which path you're going to take, you know.

10:24Because there'll be a lot of people listening now that are in a job or a situation where they have that feeling, that niggling feeling that they're in the wrong place.

10:32Yeah.

10:33They might be held there by social groups or...

10:37Expectation from their parents or whatever it might be, but something's holding them there.

10:41Yeah.

10:41Maybe fear of uncertainty.

10:43I would say if somebody is listening to this and they're thinking, do I have little bits?

10:47Just ask yourself, you know, do you love what you do?

10:51The job you're in, if we're talking about work, do you love what you do?

10:53Do you like this environment of where you work?

10:56Do you feel people make a better contribution than you?

11:00You know, is that what's making you feel insecure?

11:03If so, what do you feel when people have meetings that you don't know?

11:09Go and fucking learn it.

11:11Go and learn it.

11:11Go and listen to some podcasts.

11:13Go and read some books.

11:14Just learn it because knowledge is powerful.

11:19And when you have knowledge and you walk in a room, you automatically think I have so much more to contribute.

11:25If I answer one of those, I challenge myself and I go, I don't like where I'm working and I don't like it.

11:30Yeah.

11:30And I'm, you know, a commodities trader in the city, for example, and I just, I hate it.

11:34Yeah.

11:36Leave it, but have a plan.

11:38But leave it.

11:39Like, if you hate what you do, we spend 16 hours a day between commuting or if you're in a higher position thinking about the company, working.

11:48We spend much more of a day working than sleeping.

11:51So you've got to love it.

11:53You've got to love it.

11:54You know, I was like, in my early 20s, I was one woman, 64 men on a trading floor.

12:00And I hated it.

12:01And I dressed in men's clothing.

12:03And I went to Rosetti and got the men's shoes.

12:05And I got the tailor to make me a suit.

12:07All the men would drop their trousers on the trading floor.

12:09But I'd go in the ladies'drum and get, you know, I'd pretend to have a deep voice.

12:13I was on the phone selling Anglo-American funds.

§02Transcript — part 2

12:15So my clients thought I was a man.

12:17I mean, you know, I did all this stuff.

12:20I hate it so much, Stephen.

12:22And I would go, I would take the tube to Tower Hill, the World Trade Center.

12:26In London.

12:28I'd have the Financial Times on the outside and the Daily Mail on the inside.

12:31That was my full extent of who I was.

12:35And, you know, I left it.

12:38Were you an attention seeker, more generally, in life?

12:41Because when I heard that you'd been kicked out of rehab the first time for playing a porn video,

12:46Yeah.

12:46I thought.

12:48That was a funny one, but not funny in the end.

12:56It was a terrible rehab.

12:58I was with somebody last night in New York.

13:06And we were going to this funeral of this friend of mine who was like 43 years sober.

13:11And I discovered I'd been to the same place with her.

13:16Rehab, same rehab.

13:17Yeah, but at different times.

13:19And she just said, you know,

13:23It was the most fundamentally shaming place ever.

13:26You know, rehab now are very different, but it was a very, very shaming place.

13:34It will be closed down now.

13:36It wasn't, it didn't have a good way of dealing with things.

13:39So in that whole scenario,

13:43There was definitely that feeling that you're thrown in with people you don't know and you reveal your life.

13:50And it was a time when...

13:53You would write down your life story.

13:55And then in rehabs nowadays, because I visit friends in them or whatever, you would kind of, people help you navigate why you did things in your life.

14:06But in this one, they did the stuff where they would get 20 people to critique how bad your life had been in a room.

14:14And judge you for it.

14:16And it was, I mean, just like looking back on it now, at the time, that was the only way recovery worked in rehabs in the UK.

14:22But it was just, it was kind of fucking appalling.

14:26And she reminded me last night.

14:27So when you bring up this thing of that, of that,

14:31porno film and I think it was that sense of let me just do something that people will find funny because we're having such a shitty time here and it backfired and it was just you know I was chucked out what I haven't been able to pinpoint is the because

14:44at least from the outside looking in your life was you know you had a great job

14:47you had this addiction which didn't seem to interfere with your work.

14:51So, you know, when I sit here with someone like Macklemore or Russell Brand, or even I remember speaking to Steve-O, they talk about their addictions.

14:58And, you know, he was on a, I don't know, four or five day heroin binge.

15:03drove a car, he said he was going to, he drove a car through a house and then was threatening to jump out the window when, you know, he ultimately ended up in rehab.

15:10But it didn't seem, I can't identify the symptoms that drove you to go, I can't do this anymore.

15:17I think we have, everyone has a different story.

15:23Externally of I did this and I did this and there's a bit of I did even more than you you know there's this whole thing in that you know addicts maximize their using and alcoholics minimize their drinking

15:38right and that's why

15:42Alcoholics can take longer to get into sobriety and addicts can take shorter because also drugs can kill you quicker.

15:49So there's that kind of, you know, and I think also,

15:54I don't know.

15:55It's different.

15:59Maybe I don't talk so much about the crazy things I do.

16:02Oh, okay.

16:03Yeah.

16:05Because I think we all do crazy things.

16:07Yeah.

16:08We all do crazy things.

16:09And, but I...

16:12I feel that I have a daughter who's 19.

16:16Sure.

16:16And I wouldn't talk about crazy things I did.

16:19Yeah.

16:19Okay, so we move on from that.

16:21And then the next sort of 10, 15 years of your life, you have this media career.

16:24How aligned were you at this chapter of your life?

16:26So when I did TV and writing, I really loved that.

16:32I think what was very nice is we developed these women who found us a breath of fresh air.

16:38I love the fact that people would say, you know,

16:43I read your book and it's changed how I think about myself.

16:46And at the time when we look back at What Not To Wear, it's a very divisive show.

16:50At the time, it made a lot of women and women that I meet now who watch the show at the time tell me the impact it had on them.

17:01To think about themselves differently.

17:02But I enjoyed it.

17:03I enjoyed traveling around England and making over women and having that journey.

17:09And over, you know, over a week, you saw the metamorphosis of a person you work with.

17:13And you saw them at the beginning and at the end.

17:15And then we kept in touch with many of the women.

17:17And then you would hear about their marriages and their babies and their life changing.

17:21And you knew there was a tiny contribution you'd made to that switch in them.

17:26Turning the switch on to feel different.

17:29Why did it end at the show?

17:31We'd gone from doing a series of that ICU.

17:34with ITV a year and writing a book a year to doing three or four shows.

17:39I took on average about 55 flights a year.

17:42I left London on a Sunday night.

17:43I came back on a Friday.

17:45I had a seven-year-old daughter and I had a partner who wasn't always well.

17:53So

17:54It was just at a stage where I thought I need to readjust how my personal life is.

17:59And I need to think, what can I do now?

18:01Because this doesn't work.

18:04I had a partner that wasn't always well.

18:05I remember reading a line in your book where you said 99% of the things we worry about don't happen, but that 1% happened to us.

18:13And he said it to me.

18:14Is that what he said to you?

18:15Yeah.

18:17He would always say it.

18:17I mean, I always remind Lila what did Ada say when she's worried about stuff.

18:23And he said, he's the one that said the 99% of things we worry about don't actually happen.

18:26Yeah.

18:28I had a partner who was unwell.

18:30Unwell in what way?

18:31Addiction.

18:32He was addicted to...

18:33Yeah.

18:35And you met him when you were 35, right?

18:40No, no, I met him when I got clean.

18:43I met him when I was 27.

18:44Oh, you got married when you were 35.

18:46Yeah.

18:47And he was in recovery.

18:49Oh, okay.

18:51So, okay, when you were younger, you...

18:55Went through recovery.

18:56He went through recovery as well, but then relapsed.

18:58He had a motorbike accident and he was very badly hurt and he took painkillers.

19:07And got addicted to the painkillers.

19:10What is that like?

19:12Because people think of painkillers that don't know addiction to painkillers.

19:15They think of paracetamol or something.

19:17My only experience with painkillers is taking a paracetamol maybe four years ago.

19:22I think when you're in a relationship with somebody who has a form of addiction, there's an unpredictability and an inconsistency in how they turn up every day.

19:40And I think in any...

19:43Times when it's not great.

19:46You end up to an extent having the crumbs off the table.

19:51It's like you're so holding on to those moments when everything's good that you try and ignore what isn't working.

20:02And at the same time, I was thinking about, well, you got married in the year that you were starting your business, your tech company.

20:07It's a lot to deal with.

20:08If you've got a partner at home that you're married to that is struggling with addiction, you're starting a business.

20:13Yeah, but they were well at that time.

20:15Okay.

20:15Yeah, they were well at that time.

20:17They had periods definitely through our marriage where they were well, really well.

20:23The relationship breaks down.

20:25Yeah.

20:25You get divorced.

20:26Yeah.

20:28You go your separate ways.

20:30You remain close.

20:31Yeah.

20:33And then Johnny ultimately passes away around the time when you finish, before you start Trinny London, but around the time when you finish What Not To Wear.

20:43And you separate from Susan.

20:44Yeah, I separate from Susanna.

20:46And I started working on...

20:49I'd started working on Trinny London.

20:51Yeah, but I was still filming abroad.

20:53I was still doing telly shows abroad, but I was also working on the business.

20:58And you were close to him still, even though you'd separated.

21:01Yeah.

21:03We spoke every day on the phone.

21:04Every day.

21:04Yeah.

21:09He passes away when you're 50.

21:11Yeah.

21:13How does that change things in your life?

21:21Biggest change is you become a single parent.

21:30The thing you think whenever happen happens.

21:33So it's a wake-up call just for...

21:37Life and how you see life.

21:48It took me a long time to grieve because he left a mess when he died, which I had to kind of deal with a little, yeah.

21:58Financial mess.

21:58Just, yeah, just a mess.

22:01And so it preoccupies you to not then actually just think about what you miss in somebody.

22:10You know, it just, you focus on what you've got to do.

22:13You go on to autopilot.

22:15You think of the kind of things you've got to deal with.

22:24Probably oddly.

22:29I moved in March, and that was the first time I remember.

22:34Lila went away.

22:36And it was the first time in 35 years I'd been on my own in a house.

22:44And I grieved for Johnny.

22:49All these years later.

22:55Did something trigger that?

22:56No, I think it's just you need...

22:59Sometimes you need space.

23:00You need to...

23:02I knew he died.

23:03There was a mess.

23:04I then, starting the business, I was living in a house I couldn't afford to live in.

23:09I had to sell it for lots of reasons.

23:10One of them,

23:13you know, for that reason.

23:14And...

23:16There was so much I was, so many sort of fires I was dealing with.

23:23And then I was, you know, trying to start the business, trying to guide Lila to, you know, be okay.

23:32So there was a lot of years of that.

23:34And then another life change of just deciding I want to live on my own.

23:39Then brought up in a way.

23:43To be able to just feel some things that I hadn't really let myself feel.

23:48And I think sometimes in life, we know we're not in that part of that strong enough to feel that feeling and move forward.

23:58And we have to be in the right situation and give ourselves that right breathing space to be able to feel the fullness of that feeling.

24:05Without judgment or guilt or remorse, you know, because all the other ones are so connected to situations externally.

24:15And it's very difficult to get to a situation where you're not bringing all the external factors in and you're just feeling how you feel about somebody.

24:26What was the fullness of that feeling in that moment?

24:34I think, um,

24:43There was nothing, there's nothing better.

24:47In anyone else than the bestness of Johnny.

24:52If that makes sense.

24:55And I missed it.

25:02The circumstances of his death are particularly complicated because he didn't die by natural causes.

25:11He died by suicide.

25:14And having sat here and spoken to people who've lost a partner or an ex in such a way,

§03Transcript — part 3

25:21the feelings from what I've seen are much more complicated.

25:28I think anyone dying, who dies unexpectedly, whether from illness or anything, it's...

25:39Somebody is gone.

25:40You know, that's the biggest fundamental of anything.

25:43The circumstances.

25:48Drive how differently people deal with death.

25:51So, you know, some members of his family wanted to believe there was a conspiracy theory.

25:58Some, you know, you suddenly have 101 kind of

26:05views on things and stuff that really confuses and complicates the fact that somebody has gone.

26:12You know, they've gone.

26:13Nothing is going to bring them back.

26:14They have gone.

26:18but it leaves more questions.

26:20And then you look at,

26:23your part in something, you know, and that's,

26:29Every person who has had somebody commit suicide at some stage will say, was there anything I could have done to stop it?

26:37You know, that's the first thing.

26:39For sure.

26:41If you love somebody.

26:44And the more I have learned about suicide, the more that you know that when people talk about wanting to kill themselves,

27:00I'm not saying it happens less frequently than people who don't.

27:03But once somebody makes a decision that that's what they're going to do, they don't talk about it.

27:13And you'd like to feel you'd pick up on it.

27:17But I think it's the harshest lesson to learn.

27:21But when you then come across people where you feel,

27:26that you now pick up on those not saying things, that there's a lot of internalizing going on and should you be reaching out and just,

27:40talking, getting them to talk because

27:43People get themselves to a stage where they feel it's the only solution.

27:48And what's staggering is Johnny had hypervigilance around his children because he'd been in the Israeli army and he was a paramedic.

27:58And he had a really, it was a really tough situation.

28:03And he had from it post-traumatic stress disorder, which wasn't acknowledged.

28:09You know, it wasn't diagnosed until about 20 years later.

28:12But one of the things was his hypervigilance around his children.

28:15So he was always so, you know, worried for their welfare.

28:21So you kind of have this thing of...

28:24Where do you get to in your brain?

28:27When you are so worried about your children.

28:31That you can convince yourself the best thing for your children, who you love profoundly, is that you're not in their life anymore.

28:43And that...

28:56Is something that...

29:00It's so important that we can help people who get to that situation, that they don't get to that final part of that situation.

29:10And it's understanding what to recognize.

29:12It's understanding, you know.

29:15And it's very hard to recognize.

29:17You know, I didn't recognize.

29:20And there were lots of...

29:32Could have really upset me, you know, of things that...

29:36Were done wrong.

29:37Just were just like police stuff that was done.

29:40You know, lots of things which you could hold on.

29:42You can hold on to lots of things.

29:48But you kind of have to let go.

29:49When I see people who have family who have died and they want to hold on to things or get this thing, you know, and it's like,

30:00All those things you might hold on to will prevent you to go through the process of grieving.

30:07Because it will hold you in this place and time and you will just be sitting with that.

30:12You know, and you won't be able to work through.

30:13And, you know, when somebody dies, you need to work through these stages and acknowledge these stages, but not get stuck in something which eats you up.

30:24So even though there were all these things,

30:27That kind of could have eaten me up.

30:31I sort of knew, and I had a very good...

30:34There's a wonderful one called Julia Samuel, and she wrote This Too Shall Pass, and another book called Grief Works.

30:40I don't know if you've ever had her on your podcast.

30:42She's an incredible grief counsellor.

30:46And I saw her straight away.

30:50She came to my house when...

30:54When I knew, and I hadn't yet told Lina.

31:03Because the first thing is you need to find the words of what to say.

31:10She was a friend of my sister and she gave me words.

31:14It's like you just feel so...

31:18Like this.

31:22I'm at a good place with it now.

31:23And I think that final thing was,

31:26The moment I had by myself when Lila went off for a week and I just, I thought, okay, I'm very, I'm totally, you know, this is eight years later.

31:38Paying extra for tire care is BS.

31:41You know, bad service.

31:42So at Midas, we're rolling out our BS-free tire guarantee, included with paid installation and tax on every purchase.

31:49You'll pay nothing for flat replacements, nada for flat repairs, and zilch for tire rotations every 5,000 miles.

31:56That's $0 for all that.

31:58So with this limited lifetime tire guarantee, you'll pay a whole lot of nothing compared to what the other guys charge for tire care.

32:04That's the BS-free tire guarantee.

32:06Only at Midas.

32:08When your cat is acting weirder, or your dog is being louder, your turtle moves slower.

32:18Hello, Ted.

32:19Your cat seems thirstier.

32:22Whoa, slow down, buddy.

32:24Or your puppy is acting clumsy-er.

32:28Day or night, if you don't know what's wrong, know where to go.

32:33Veg ER for Pets.

32:34This is Kate.

32:34Veg.

32:35The better, kinder ER for pets.

32:39But things take time.

32:42So interesting with how the process of grief, those first sort of eight years where you kind of compartmentalize or it's not the right time to address it yet because there's other things going on.

32:52And then eight years later, how it can show up in a moment of solitude and in a moment of space and come out.

32:59It's interesting because I think there's so many of us, whether it's the grief of losing someone or the grief of some other form of trauma that we have it compartmentalized and it might be impacting our lives in ways we don't understand.

33:12I hear this a lot when I speak to people about, you know, their mood or, you know, they were a slightly different person through that period.

33:18But until they were able to kind of sit down and confront it and go through the process of grief, they didn't realize that it changed them in some way.

33:28Eight years later, you have your moment.

33:3353 years old, you start.

33:35Trinny.

33:36Yeah.

33:38Big smile on your face.

33:39Mm-hmm.

33:42You know, starting a business like that at 53, a lot of people have a like a stigma or a stereotype that you can't start a business in midlife.

33:51You know, you shouldn't be doing that at that point or that, you know, you won't be able to raise, you know, all of those kind of stigmas around starting a business in midlife.

33:58Crap.

33:59Crap, yeah.

34:00Total crap.

34:01I started a business at 16 called, what was my first business?

34:05Bows Unlimited.

34:05When I was at school, I sold hair bows.

34:07I know.

34:08And then I started business at 53.

34:10So it's like, there's no other way to put it, that age is a number.

34:15It is just a fucking number.

34:18And you can either mention that number endlessly, or you can look at...

34:23What energy do you have at that moment in time to execute on your dream?

34:29That's all you need.

34:32Energy.

34:33All you need.

34:33Well, you need a lot, but you know, you need to feel that.

34:36You need energy, passion, drive, relentlessness, perseverance, resilience.

34:43Pick yourself up and just get fucking on with it.

34:45You need all of those things.

34:46But you need the energy so that you jump out of bed in the morning and you are on it.

34:54Did it take time for you to cultivate that in the passing after Johnny had passed?

34:58Was there like a, do you know what I mean?

35:00Because I did, I did already two before.

35:03And for that, I was, you know, I did 18 hour days for.

35:06Two and a half years.

35:07It's like, you know, it's in me that.

35:10I've been

35:10You know, grafted for quite a long time.

35:12You'd been mulling this idea for many, many, many years.

35:14Yeah.

35:16And then you finally put it into action.

35:18I heard you say, I started pitching in 2014 and it took me three years to launch.

35:22Yeah.

35:24I started pitching in 2013, I think.

35:27And what were you pitching?

35:28I was pitching.

35:29What was the elevator pitch?

35:30The elevator pitch was to create portable.

35:37cream-based, personalized makeup for women, 35 plus.

35:44And how was that pitch received?

35:46I did 48 pitches before one person bit.

35:49I must have sent 300 emails.

35:52What kind of negative feedback did you get?

35:54Oh, I had lots.

35:55I had...

35:57I had, you don't have enough followers.

36:01Fine.

36:01I had like, I think, 50,000 followers then.

36:04I had your two old startup business.

36:07I had who's going to really run the business.

36:10Classic.

36:11Oh, that's a nice little backhanded.

36:13I love that one.

36:14You live in this Neverland.

36:15It's not like it's never going to happen, but it's never going to happen.

36:17But you don't put words to either.

36:19You sit like this place.

36:20And I had that feeling.

36:22I thought...

36:23Are people ever going to get it?

36:24But I thought, I'm never going to give up.

36:26So they both sat side by side, really struggling.

36:28Why didn't you give up?

36:30Because I knew it was a fucking good idea and I knew it would work.

36:32I just had to find the right people who would get it.

36:35But everyone's telling you no, everyone's telling you to...

36:37I don't care if everyone's telling me no, I know.

36:39And I know enough and I believe in my...

36:40myself enough to know, I know it's a good idea.

36:43I just know it.

36:45I just got to find somebody who has the vision to understand it.

36:47How do you know it though?

36:49Because I know women, because I've made over 5,000 women in my life, because I know what women miss.

36:57I know the frustration they feel at the beauty counter.

37:00I know that some of them don't want to admit they don't know how to do a smoky eye.

37:03I know that some women feel stuck, but they don't know how to articulate, how do I do it again?

37:08Because I don't want to seem silly in front of my friends.

37:10I know that some women feel just...

37:15They could never do that.

37:16Was it expensive to start the business?

37:18Yes.

37:18What were the personal sacrifices?

37:21There are financial ones and there are friendship ones.

37:25Did you have to sell any tables?

37:27Let's start with the financial.

37:28No, but I sold my house.

37:29You sold your house?

37:30Yeah, I sold my house.

37:31And I kind of...

37:32Why?

37:33Because I couldn't afford to stay in it.

37:36I had debt.

37:36I had a big mortgage.

37:37I had kind of, when I'd separated with Johnny, I'd wanted to get this house that I bought that would enable me to walk my daughter to school.

37:45I just wanted this thing, okay, like desperately.

§04Transcript — part 4

37:48So I bought this house with a really big mortgage and I did a loan and I did it from scratch.

37:55And it was my dream, every single little element of this house I built.

38:00Did that make you sad, that realisation?

38:02Because it seems like...

38:02The idea that I would have to leave the house was something I thought about every single day for six months and thought, what can I do to prevent it?

38:10Because I've worked this hard for so long to have this house.

38:15I've always wanted to own a house, you know.

38:19But once you let go of it, it's just a fucking house.

38:27And you think there's a bigger picture.

38:29And the bigger picture, maybe you could buy me five houses, but the bigger picture is that there is a bigger picture.

38:36Not even to look to the stage where you might be able to buy a nicer house, but it's like, I was on a mission, Stephen.

38:42I was on a mission.

38:43I thought...

38:44I've got to make it happen.

38:45I can't not do this.

38:47There was no turning back.

38:48I couldn't not start the business.

38:50So then it was, what did I have to do to start the business?

38:52Because first of all, I sold all my clothes.

38:55I did the sale and I went on to Emily's List and I...

38:59Emily's list is this.

39:00And I was renting out the house, so I didn't care who came to my house.

39:02I had like a thousand people coming in my house buying clothes.

39:06So I raised in two sales 60 grand.

39:09Because I used to follow Gary Vaynerchuk.

39:12And Gary was always like, what the fuck can you sell in your house?

39:14You know, you can sell your trainers.

39:15You went and spent a fortune on those people who were saying, oh, whinging to Gary.

39:18And Gary's saying, sell something.

39:20Everyone has something they can sell.

39:23Well, how much do you want the business?

39:25How much do you want to be successful and start the business?

39:28What are you prepared to give up?

39:29Look at the long-term gain.

39:31Was there any doubt, even a whisper of doubt?

39:34I say this in part because I look back on when I started my business, I was keeping diary entries.

39:38Yeah.

39:39And I was, I felt, I felt.

39:40You're the same as you.

39:41There was no going back.

39:42There was definitely not a plan B.

39:43My parents weren't speaking to me.

39:44There's no plan B.

39:44Yeah.

39:45I'm shoplifting pizzas at this point to feed myself.

39:47I'm like, I can only go forward, right?

39:49Yeah.

39:49I haven't paid my rent in three months.

39:51My rent is only £150 in Rush Home.

39:53Yeah.

39:53But then I, so I recount that moment of my life as I zoom in on the tenacity and the certainty and this conviction.

40:00Yeah.

40:01But then I look at these diary entries and on this day.

40:04I'm like doubting myself a little bit.

40:06It didn't last.

40:07Yeah.

40:07But there was a day where it was like a rocky...

40:09For sure.

40:10You know, and that's...

40:10For sure.

40:11It's not all like...

40:12The thing is, the overarching theme is, I can't go back.

40:16Yeah.

40:16It shouldn't negate the fact you're going to have doubt.

40:19You're going to question...

40:20You know, it's like...

40:22There's the thing, somebody will believe in it, but there was like...

40:25Another 10 meetings and nobody has.

40:27You know, you think...

40:28Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:29And also at the end of an investor present, when you present to investors, the real questioning of your integrity over your idea is how much you decide what was...

40:43The last meeting they had in the room, which they brought that advice to your meeting on a totally different business to kind of talk about the market.

40:50I mean, the amount of times I've talked about like, you know, it's about growth.

40:55It's not about retention.

40:56It's about 70% new customers, 30% retention.

40:59And I was always saying, no, it's 60% retention, 40% growth.

41:03But saying this when Casper Mattresses was going high fly was like, nobody want to listen.

41:07I know now then why they didn't invest because their whole thing.

41:10Was growth, retention, fuck it.

41:12You know, and it's like retention is everything.

41:14You've got to down or grow.

41:15You've got to have new customers.

41:16But if you don't have the bedrock of retention, the kind of classic, you know, like companies that don't do any publicity, like Five Guys or some companies that haven't done much.

41:28publicity, they're relying on the customer loving it.

41:31They're relying on getting new customers from their customers.

41:34You know, they're relying on the most classic word of mouth moment.

41:38But you've got to build a company on cement.

41:42And I felt at the time, these guys looking around, they're building it on quicksand.

41:47You've got to then leave that investor meeting and think,

41:50What do I take away that's good advice?

41:54So the advice I took away to myself was, if I'm in a room of predominantly men, I want to go in and a female trait to me is you want to paint the entire picture.

42:03You want to bring somebody into your universe and you want to show them everything.

42:08So they don't have one thing they can hone in on to make.

42:12Sense of your business and join the dots.

42:14You don't give them the dot joiner.

42:16So therefore, the thing I learned was to go in and say, look, we're starting with this.

42:24And from this, I'm going to give you this.

42:27And then we'll get to that.

42:29And they're like, okay.

42:29And it's not men are slow and women are faster.

42:32It's like,

42:33There is a fundamental difference in how people need information delivered to them so they can absorb it, go, yeah, that ticks my box.

42:40then be ready to listen to the next bit of information.

42:42And that I didn't know.

42:43I didn't know into the 10th pitch.

42:45And then in the 10th pitch or whatever, halfway through my pitching, I kind of thought, actually, what am I not doing right here to convey?

42:52Because if I believe this is a good idea, if I believe it has legs, what am I not getting through to them that I need to?

43:00And that's the vision of the future, kind of.

43:02It's a bit of a vision of the future.

43:03It's like there's a real classic that if you are a woman,

43:08Generally, men, if it's predominantly males, they will ask, how do you protect your downside?

43:12And if I'm a man sitting here, they will say, how do you maximize your upside?

43:16It's a classic, all right?

43:17So when...

43:19So just to explain for people that don't understand, downside is basically like...

43:24How do you negate your risk?

43:25Yeah.

43:25So, you know, how do you protect your risk?

43:28You know, what happens if you have a problem with the product?

43:30What happens if you can't find the customer?

43:31What happens if blah, blah, blah?

43:33And maximizing the upside is how you're going to scale, how you're going to make that business bigger.

43:38So...

43:39I thought to myself, okay, all right.

43:41So then when they would start to get to that little thing, I would say, you know what?

43:47These three ways, like any business, is what I'll be doing.

43:49Now, let us focus on how I'm going to maximize the upside.

43:54And just kind of gently, not insultingly, sometimes I was a little bit, you know,

43:59So you became aware of their prejudice and would counteract it before they kind of had a chance to use that as a way to kind of declare themselves.

44:07Yeah, you kind of want to bring in a conversation.

44:08Well, it took me a while, Stephen.

44:10It took me a while.

44:10Me, because I had never gone to, you know, when I did investor presentations in 99, I did five and I got it, you know, in those two of them invested.

44:19It was a very different time and pitching a concept.

44:22How did you counteract the prejudice that you knew was existing in those pitch boardrooms?

44:30Or did you?

44:31How did you deal with it?

44:32Because there's a part of me that thought, like I went to one and he said, I love the idea, but it will only be successful if you do it for millennials or Gen Z.

44:44Because they're the only people who are going to buy like that because women of your age don't know how to buy makeup online.

44:50Okay.

44:51And at the time, 26% of people bought beauty online, all right?

44:55And of that 26%, maybe 15% were in the demographic that I said.

45:01But I said, I'm providing personalization that will make a woman, and I will talk to women in a way of a language they understand.

45:09To think, actually, maybe if I went online, I'd be better diagnosed than if I went in store because she has this personalization.

45:16And then when it launched and those very first few people who had never shopped for makeup online did it and thought, this is better than me going to Peace Jones, it was like...

45:28Spread the word, spread the word.

45:29And it built on itself.

45:30But at that time when the man from this VC was saying that, and I was like, I left the room and I thought, I actually would not want this person to invest in my business.

45:40My business anyway.

45:41So there is that maturity you can get of thinking, because you've got to also, you know, when you're going for money, you very much feel the powers in their hands.

45:49And there's got to be something you bring into the room where you think, do I want these people to invest in my business?

45:54And to get to a stage where you're the one in a way on the back foot because you're wanting the cash.

45:59How can you then say to yourself,

46:01Turn it around.

46:02You know, do I want these people in the business?

46:07Have they got something to contribute?

46:09And asking them questions like, what will you contribute?

46:13What do you do for your other VCs?

46:14I've spoken to a few.

46:16You know, you have this big thing saying that you get the CMOs together and whatever.

46:19But do you actually do that?

46:21And how does that happen to you?

46:24How much is this business worth in your perspective?

46:27Don't give out valuations.

46:29I read 180 million online.

46:32It's doing well, though.

46:34Yeah.

46:35What can you tell me about the scale of the business, just to give us an inclination?

46:39We've, you know, grown.

46:43Over 100% a year.

46:45How many years?

46:45Over five years.

46:46Five years.

46:47Yeah.

46:48We did 50-something million last year.

46:53We sell in 180 countries.

46:57We started skincare a year and a half ago.

46:58It's now 38% of my revenue.

47:03So it's growing quite quickly.

47:04It has the highest retention.

47:06So when I look at the business and I look at retention of products, for me, the value...

47:10you're the business and look at what product bases there are.

47:15So that to me is an exciting place the business is going to.

47:21We're localizing in different countries.

47:23So there's one thing to be sold internationally, but then when you localize, it takes a lot of,

47:32personalization across different countries.

47:34Yeah, it does.

47:34And so we did it when we're about 50% in the UK and then we're about 23% in Australia with 10% in America.

47:43That is a fantastic business.

47:44Yeah.

47:45And I would like to invest.

47:46When you think about your character traits and what you bring to the business,

47:50What is that and how has that led the business to become successful?

47:53Because I think in founders, we talked earlier about focusing on the thing you're good at.

47:56Yeah.

47:57What is the thing that Trinny is good at in this business?

48:00I think I'm good at understanding how women react to things and what they want and how you speak to somebody so they can hear it.

48:08I think.

48:09That's probably what I know better than anyone else in the company.

48:14How do you speak to someone so that they hear it?

§05Transcript — part 5

48:17Well, years ago I did Oprah, and Oprah taught me a lot.

48:20And she is an amazing woman.

48:23But when I used to do her shows,

48:25We would tell her stuff because we'd just done a book and it had become a number one times bestseller in America.

48:30And it was like she helped us do that.

48:32But she would tell them stuff, I'd said, and then she would repeat it three times within that half an hour.

48:38She'd just repeat it, repeat it.

48:40And I said,

48:40After it was over, you always repeat.

48:42She said, because it registers, they get reminded, they remember.

48:49So that sense of you say something and you say it three times in maybe three different ways.

48:58So that by the end of that conversation, somebody walks away with a new thought in their head.

49:03So there is that.

49:04And I don't consciously do that anymore.

49:07I think at the beginning I probably did because I remember what she said and then it got into a habit.

49:14And it's also remembering who you speak to.

49:16Because when you speak, when I do...

49:19My contribution to Trinny London of On Social.

49:24I could be speaking to many different women.

49:25I could be speaking to a nurse on 18 grand a year who saves up every month to buy one thing.

49:32And I could be speaking to somebody who could buy 10 things and choose to spy us.

49:35Okay.

49:36So it's quite a broad remit.

49:38But they all...

49:40Realize because of what I was talking about, the importance of actually buying things that really work for your skin and not wasting your money and not putting things on that are bad for your skin.

49:51I don't mean bad like green.

49:52I mean like don't do anything for your skin or just understanding what you should use is not what your best friend should use.

50:00And because I had very bad acne.

50:02I mean, like when you talked about your turning off the light.

50:05Okay.

50:05I used to decide what restaurant do I go into.

50:07Like if I was going out as an 18-year-old.

50:10And I have this lighting.

50:12I would literally say, can we go to another restaurant?

50:14Because you would see my acne pustules coming down.

50:17And I would go like, I'd be like this for dinner.

50:21So that obsession with my skin and the effect it gave on my confidence and...

50:27Was a lot of what I put into when we look at what ingredients are we going to use and how are we going to use them.

50:32And we have a lab in England.

50:33I'm proud of the fact we have a lab.

50:35We make things from scratch.

50:36We're not like, hey, let's put a label on here and say Trinny London.

50:39Are you proud of the business?

50:41Very.

50:42Are you proud of yourself?

50:48Yes, I am when I remember to be.

50:50I mean, I get...

50:51When I remember to be.

50:52No, like...

50:53You've crossed your arms.

50:53Look at the body language.

50:54No, I...

50:56I am.

50:57I don't...

50:59It's very easy to...

51:00Well, I never get to a place of conceit.

51:04Many people are proud for me.

51:07And I sometimes find that challenging.

51:10It's like I want to move the conversation on.

51:12Why?

51:13I don't know.

51:14I can't answer it.

51:15And it's just a thing.

51:17But I'll have good friends of mine who've known me a long time who will...

51:23Just say, you know, very lovely things about having grown the business.

51:28I often, I'm going to have to.

51:29How do you feel on this one?

51:30Because we got to discuss it together because we must go through the same stuff.

51:33I'm asking questions, but I can relate.

51:36Okay, so give me your feedback first.

51:37Well, when someone gives me a big compliment, at the same time, they're also reminding me of everything I could lose.

51:43And so I think my natural way of dealing with things is to, as you've kind of described, is that forward motion.

51:48That forward motion makes me feel stable.

51:51So whenever someone comes to me and gives me a compliment about something I've achieved, it's, I always say like,

51:57Chaos is stability and stability is chaos.

51:59It's a moment of stability that I don't like.

52:01Like just the idea of accomplishment creates a stability that I don't like.

52:05I want chaos.

52:06I need that forward motion to feel stable.

52:09It's a weird one because it's like a lot of people would disagree with what you're saying in terms of, you know, sort of a self-worth.

52:16guru who's saying you've got to, you've got to, you know, take a step to, a lot of friends who say, Trinny, you need to take a moment to acknowledge how far you've come.

52:27And I think what you're saying is, I'm just trying to grasp exactly your thing of the chaos and stability.

52:33And I think...

52:34I can explain it better.

52:35Yeah.

52:36So when Olympians go to the Olympics, they come back, even if they've won a gold medal and they fall into a depression, I think they call it gold medal depression.

52:43The stats around it are alarming.

52:44I read one article where it said up to 80% of Olympians post the Olympics feel that way.

52:50I think that humans, most of us anyway,

52:53maybe that's why we're in these buildings with these amazing technology, have it within us to need to, it goes back to what I said before we started recording about progress.

53:01We need a sense of forward motion.

53:02We don't, the opposite of, what we don't want is completed goals, abundant resources and nothing to strive for.

53:09So maybe because I'm particularly, I was particularly insecure as a child, I need, I get my worth from the sense of forward motion and accomplishment.

53:17The thought of stopping and being done is a form of psychological chaos.

53:22It's a form of purposelessness.

53:24And so I think stability is actually the forward motion, the chaos, the uncompleted goals, the striving.

53:31That's when I feel most stable.

53:33Okay.

53:33And when you remove that, something to strive for, I feel, I feel, which people would call stability, I feel chaos.

53:38Yeah.

53:39But also, I think for me and you,

53:42There is something where our work is, I know it for me anyway,

53:47Is inherently linked at deep, deep level to our sense of self-worth.

53:50Yeah.

53:51And so, um,

53:54Yeah, it's quite, I feel deeply uncomfortable when I get a compliment about the work we do or when people say that to me, oh, you need to pause for a second and just think about how far you've come.

54:04Yeah.

54:04It's robbing me of something.

54:07Yeah, it's like, it is.

54:11When will enough be enough?

54:16I don't know if enough should never, ever be enough.

54:18I don't know if you should always have a little bit.

54:21I don't know.

54:22Because you see, you live in chaos.

54:24So I ask you that question, when will enough be enough?

54:27When will enough be enough for you?

54:28There's that Hamilton song, I will never be satisfied.

54:30I always think about that.

54:32Well, I go back to what I said.

54:34I hope there's no such thing as enough in my mind.

54:37Yeah, so when will enough, answer your question, when will enough be enough?

54:40It will never be because enough is always going to mean forward motion.

54:45So, and progress.

54:47Enough.

54:48Yeah.

54:48It's going to be enough.

54:49Success to me is forward motion and progress.

54:52So success can't therefore possibly be any destination.

54:55It is the forward motion and progress.

54:57It is forward motion.

54:59It is challenge.

55:00It is autonomy.

55:01It is a meaningful goal to strive towards and it's doing it with people I love.

55:04Yeah.

55:04That's success for me.

55:05Okay.

55:06And so I need challenge.

55:07I need forward motion with people I love.

55:09High degree of self-control.

55:11Yeah.

55:11It's your life breath.

55:12Yeah.

55:13And then I'll die someday as I'm doing it.

55:15Yeah.

55:16It is life breath.

55:17Yeah, it really is.

55:19What is success to you these days?

55:20Like, what is, what does success mean for you?

55:23People ask me that all the time as well.

55:25But I mean, it's such a, when you hear that question, you're thinking, oh, fuck.

55:28So make it specific.

55:31It's too generalistic.

55:31So what's, if I, let's look at the next decade of your life.

55:36Okay.

55:37If I say, if we meet again in 10 years time and you say to me, that was a successful decade.

55:41All right.

55:42That's a good way.

55:42Okay.

55:43Next 10 years, successful decade.

55:46The one thing, this is the only thing where I will bring age into it, right, is I am...

55:5459.

55:55So when I'm 69, do I want to be working so hard that I sort of miss friends'birthdays and don't get to, you know, take part in life of things outside my work?

56:09Because that's a big one.

56:10Like when you're in your 20s and 30s, you can kind of like, all your friends are doing that too, you know, and in that same space.

56:18So it doesn't matter if you say, look, in a month we'll get together or go for a weekend somewhere because you're all doing it.

56:23So it's like you're on this thing together.

56:25But when you're me, probably of my friends, maybe 80% of them, their life is slightly different from what I'm doing right now.

56:33So, and that element of that friendship and this connection with people is fundamentally crucial to our feeding our soul, you know, and there's...

56:46always that, you know, guy who, not the head of American Express, but he's like, you know, will I be remembered for how hard I worked, you know, on the gravestone?

56:54There's that classic corny thing of like, well, they remember how hard I, you know, it's like, they won't.

56:58But whenever I read that, I think, but they just had a nine to five job and this is a passion.

57:03You know, I always say that.

57:04I think this is so different because this is,

57:07Because if I, if it was just a job, I'd probably say, you know, I should slow down a bit, whatever.

57:13But I travel the world.

57:15I help a lot of people around the world.

57:17I meet a lot of people.

57:18I was in Birmingham.

57:20What about work-life balance training?

57:21Yes, but this is the thing.

57:23It's like...

57:25I don't see my job as job and then there's work-life balance because there's areas of my job which should be sociable things.

57:32I meet people, I have conversations with women every day.

57:35You know, on this, you know, social media thing, which is now a few million people, I have...

57:43These women who know me really well, it's so interesting how you think, oh, but I haven't seen, you know, I have my friends who have known me since I've been in my teens, but I have these women who are part of the Trinny tribe.

57:55They could be anywhere in the world, but they know me so well that like I might do a little live and they'll DM me, say, Trinny.

58:02I sensed this this morning.

58:03Are you okay?

58:04Do you need to take a breath?

58:06And then when I shared this, you know, that John had died.

58:12And so, you know, they sent thousands of messages.

58:17And I read everything people send because if people make the effort to write a message, and on my Instagram, I respond to everything.

58:25You know, we have a team of 11 people.

58:27We have like 12,000 comments a week for Trinity London stuff.

58:30But I do all my Instagram because that's the beating heart of the women in my life.

58:36And the feeling people are feeling.

58:40You know, whenever you have a business, you need to understand what is the feeling people are feeling.

58:45So in England, we have a big cost of living crisis.

58:47I still want to give people quality products that are premium.

58:51So with all these things going on, how do I...

§06Transcript — part 6

58:56Sense check this thing?

58:59How do I adapt the conversation so that it still is relevant to their life?

59:08They're just...

59:09So going back to this work-life balance, like, they helped me to sit for a second and, like, one of them sent this message three days and said, Trinny,

59:20you have to remember to feel what you're going through right now because you don't usually.

59:25You just...

59:26Russia it.

59:27And you need to do it.

59:28It's one I've never met before, ever.

59:30Okay.

59:31But they're just incredible women.

59:34And so my, when you, when you talk about a business, right.

59:37And you talk about starting a business.

59:40My business is this passion for these women to feel.

59:46Great.

59:47And are sort of, you know, you always have these, what's your vision board and what's your mission as a company?

59:52But it's literally to leave a woman feeling better about herself.

59:56Than before she came into contact with me, with Fearless, with the podcast, with Trinny London, with whatever.

60:01So that's my mission.

60:02I am here for a mission.

60:04I know that sounds like whatever, but I am.

60:07I know I am.

60:08You know, I know I am.

60:09I know that when, like, I know that during COVID, when there were people feeling in a full...

60:15Family of people fundamentally so alone as women.

60:20I knew how important it was that we should get out and we should chat to each other.

60:25I knew it was just to like really chat, really like share the shit, share the feeling so they could go, me too, me too, you know.

60:35So at 69 then, you're saying that you're going to slow down and retire and have pina coladas on the beach?

60:39No, I didn't say that at all.

60:41Did I ever say that?

60:43So 69.

60:44No, so you just said to me in the next 10 years, and what success looked like, it's that this community grows because the more women who feel like this would tell more women.

60:51And I would like, at the moment, maybe we have a million women.

60:54And I would like that to be in the next 10 years, 15 million women, actually.

60:58So that I'm going to put that number out there.

61:00I'm going to now remember it.

61:01I'd like that many women, because if you can get to that many women.

61:04But then how are you going to...

61:06I said that because you talked about changing the balance a little bit so you could be there for your social connections a bit more.

61:12Yeah.

61:12Your friends.

61:13Yeah.

61:13If you've got a goal of 15 million women.

61:16So how my girl.

61:16growing this business where I have people in place who can do things that I can do better than me.

61:24So that you can go and do...

61:25So I can do even more of what only I can do.

61:28Yeah, in the business.

61:29In the business.

61:29In a personal context.

61:30Because at the moment, I did this thing the other day and I...

61:33Did this thing with my CEO and a board member and I did like 365 days a year all right and we divided up because we need to like see because people it's very difficult to get meetings in with so he's like okay

61:46there are six full days a year I do board meetings there are 12 days a year I do investor stuff so we added a little laugh or whatever and

61:54it ended up to more more than the days of the year okay because I haven't taken that much holiday so Jane says to me lovely Jane she goes Trinny this we have to change

62:04So she said, okay, what do you not have to do?

62:08You know, how could we move to a place slowly where you don't do this, you do this, and you do this so much better?

62:15It's like, you must talk to tons of people about when you have your best ideas.

62:20All right.

62:20We have our best ideas when we are...

62:23Not far from the chaos because you love this chaos, but we're removed enough that things have the room to bubble to the top.

62:30So I do Michael's car map every morning.

62:33And I just started doing this other one on the one with the half bowl in a something.

62:37You know that really good one.

62:39And there's this guy, David G.

62:41And it was discussed at Massachusetts State Hospital.

62:44They did some research that you listen to his.

62:46meditation for 59 days and it changes your neural pathways like ketamine might.

62:52Okay.

62:52It's really, I'm anyway, I'm day 43.

62:54Okay.

62:55Quite into it.

62:56But when I give myself that little space, the really good ideas for the business come up.

63:03And the more I'm just doing running the business, running the business,

63:08the less we're going to have of those.

63:11And I need to give the business the best of me.

63:13So at 69, do you think you're going to be working less?

63:16Differently.

63:17Differently.

63:18More space for more creativity.

63:20Yeah, and, you know, just saying, yeah, I'll take a Friday off and go and go for a weekend somewhere and things like that.

63:27Yeah, because, you know...

63:28And would you be able to go for a weekend without thinking about the business?

63:31Yeah, I did actually.

63:32Can I just tell you, for the first time in five years, I went away for five days, two weeks ago, and I only did like eight emails, which was just great.

63:45You wrote this wonderful book, Fearless.

63:47It's really, really surprising.

63:49It's surprising.

63:50Did you read any of it yet?

63:52Yes, I went through it.

63:52Oh, you did?

63:53And I read the entire section on life.

63:54The other sections about beauty and style are a little bit more tricky.

63:57But I read everything in the life section about, that's where I got some of those quotes from and the stuff about imposter syndrome and self-belief and all of those things.

64:04It is a...

64:05A life advice book.

64:06It is a beauty advice book.

64:07It is a style advice book.

64:09And it's just a gorgeous coffee table style book.

64:12Have you seen?

64:13The thing is, this is me, okay?

64:14You want me to pass it to you?

64:15Yeah, because I...

64:17I hate looking at pictures of myself.

64:19So the whole point of doing this book was to say...

64:21You hate looking at pictures of yourself.

64:22I hate fucking looking at pictures of myself.

64:24Why?

64:24Is, I just do.

64:25So this is the book you'll have on your coffee table.

64:27Ah.

64:29You see?

64:30So nice.

64:31Like, just, it will make you pick it up more.

64:34Because it's biased to have my face on the front.

64:36This is not biased.

64:38Ah, no, that is beautiful.

64:40And it's a nice little message as well.

64:42Yeah, exactly.

64:43To have a statement about yourself.

64:44Yeah.

64:46You know what?

64:46It's funny.

64:47When people come on the show and they have a product, I often try and spend some time talking about their products and stuff.

64:53But the thing in this case is having got to understand you,

64:59and what drives you and having felt how authentic and deep your passion is, there is no need that the products is just a byproduct of exactly that, what we've just experienced.

65:08So it's funny because I hear how deeply passionate and obsessed you are about your mission, as you call it.

65:15And I just believe the product.

65:18Because I know where it's coming from.

65:19And that's the most important thing.

65:21It's coming from a deep sense of mission that is so unbelievably authentic.

65:25That starts, sounds like in your childhood with a battle with your own skin issues and acne.

65:30And the byproduct of that authentic mission is these wonderful products which are taking the world by storm.

65:35What have I got in front of me here?

65:36Okay, so...

65:38Every part.

65:39I'm just giving you, I'm going to give you the quick headline so you can go back to your girlfriend and you can have knowledge.

65:43Let's just close off on this.

65:44The book is available in September.

65:46Yes.

65:47Fab.

65:47So everyone can go pre-order that now?

65:49Yeah.

65:49Wonderful.

65:50Great.

65:51So.

65:52Highly recommend everybody goes and pre-orders it because it's a beautiful book.

65:54Thank you very much.

65:56So, fundamental skincare, whatever age you are or skin color you are or anything, is you should clean your skin properly.

66:05Okay.

66:05You should wear SPF every day, whatever your melanin levels.

66:10Yeah.

66:11Cancer being the primary cause, but other aesthetics as well.

66:15You should do something that regenerates your skin and retinoids can do that.

66:21And exfoliants can exfoliate your skin.

66:23And you should keep your skin even, so vitamin C.

66:27So those kind of me are the showstoppers in a routine.

66:31What if I don't?

66:32Because I'm guilty as charged on all above counts.

66:34If you don't, genes might make you think...

66:37I don't need to.

66:38I'm fine.

66:39But I look at your skin and I'm going to come over now.

66:41Oh, no, don't call me.

66:42Oh, fuck.

66:43Because what I'm going to do is I do this, look at me, and I close my eyes because I need to feel your skin without judging you by looking at you.

66:52Okay.

66:52So what I do is I just have a feel.

66:54And I feel, so the first thing I feel immediately is the congestion you have here, right in the centre.

66:58A lot of people, like women, will have congestion here because they don't like to get their hair wet when they wash their face.

67:05You have congestion here.

67:07Sure, it's not muscle or something?

67:08It's not muscle at all.

67:09I know the difference, darling.

67:10Okay.

67:12And this is not like that's beard, you see, but this...

67:14Is congestion under the skin because you have an oily

67:16So you have a sebaceous gland that can sometimes get blocked under the skin.

67:20It doesn't become a spot, but it's congested.

67:22So that's there.

67:23All right.

67:23So exfoliant, you're going to use.

67:25I do get a lot of spots there.

67:26Okay, well, then you're going to use Find Your Balance.

67:28In fact, we've got to get you Find Your Balance.

67:29Then I go around here.

67:34And I feel your lymph.

67:36Whenever you're feeling blocked, doing this tiny movement here releases your lymph nodes and you go around the back.

67:44She's massaging my face for anyone that's listening on audio.

67:46It feels really good.

67:47I'm not massaging your face.

67:47I'm going round your ears.

67:49I agree to disagree.

67:50Okay.

67:50And then you go down.

67:52And you want to kind of go down to your clavicle and release.

67:54This is all like a channel for all your limbs.

67:56So if you ever get a blocked face or you get dark circles, you do this kind of getting it down.

68:01Ah, that's why women always do that thing on Instagram with the stone.

68:05So you're oilier here.

68:08Thank you.

§07Transcript — part 7

68:09You've got a slight dark circle.

68:11Yeah, it's unslept, yeah.

68:12And you've got hydrated skin but blocked skin.

68:15So for me, the best thing you would do for your skin is you would exfoliate your skin because you need to slosh off dead skin cells and you need to clarify your skin.

68:25You need to get your pores, get the congestion out.

68:29So that means drinking water.

68:31It means having an exfoliant, a liquid exfoliant.

68:34Do you sell an exfoliant?

68:35We sell Tiptoe in there.

68:37You don't have sensitive skin.

68:39So you would use one called Find Your Balance, which I'm going to give you.

68:41Okay, thank you so much.

68:42And then afterwards, use a moisturizer called niacinamide.

68:46It's called...

68:46Energize me.

68:47It has something called succinic acid in it.

68:49Succinic acid is like, it's an ingredient that goes into your cell and goes like this.

68:54So when you put that on, your skin will wake up.

68:57You'll feel an alertness to your skin.

69:00And then you'll feel, you get off a flight and you'd feel, I don't look tired because you haven't learned.

69:04You need to touch your face.

69:05A lot of people just don't touch their face enough.

69:07You need to get the oxygen to your face.

69:10You know, you go to the gym and the oxygen goes around your body and your lymph system works and you get this feeling of aliveness.

69:17But we just leave our face alone.

69:19So you do this.

69:20You go and do it with me.

69:21Just do it with me.

69:22Get your fingers like this.

69:24Yeah.

69:24Like that.

69:25So it's like you've got a scissor.

69:26And do friction like this.

69:28Up, down, up, down.

69:29Then go left and right.

69:33Up, down like that.

69:34Okay?

69:35And then you want to get your hands here.

69:37Yeah.

69:37And you want to lift your cheekbones like this.

69:39Fast.

69:39One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

69:42Feel the energy.

69:4311, 12, 13.

69:46Okay?

69:47Just let go.

69:47Now, do you feel this movement, a rush in your face?

69:51Yeah.

69:51That's your lymph.

69:52Your lymph is like your hose pipe around your face.

69:57And if you put a sort of foot on the hose pipe, it stops.

69:59You need this to move around.

70:01If it's moving around, it's releasing the toxins, taking them down here at the moment.

70:04It's leaving them on your skin, under your skin.

70:06So it's cleaning out my face.

70:08Yes, you want it to be moving.

70:10If there was just three things then, so tell me this.

70:12So if you had three things you would use.

70:14Yeah, three products I would use and then sort of three.

70:16principles towards good skincare.

70:18Okay, you use Better Off, which is a client's own one.

70:21You go in the shower and you put this on your face.

70:23Yeah, done.

70:24It's AHA and PHA.

70:26It's got gentle exfoliating acids.

70:28Okay.

70:28Okay.

70:29Then find your balance, which is an exfoliant, which is not there, but we're going to get for you.

70:34I don't know what we're going to get for you.

70:36And energize me, which you don't have.

70:37Those three things is what you're going to use.

70:39Okay.

70:39Your girlfriend...

70:41We use a longer routine.

70:42I don't know what she looks like or her skin tone, but she'll probably have the retinols and she'll have the vitamin Cs and a few other things.

70:49But you just need three things.

70:50So that's the products.

70:51And then in terms of the personal routines, you said drink water, sleep.

70:56Sleep.

70:56And then like massage my face.

70:58Yeah.

70:59Got it.

71:00Okay.

71:01I'm looking forward to it.

71:03I've always kind of procrastinated on like skincare routines and stuff.

71:06I know, but if it's easy, if it's really easy, you'll do it.

71:08If it's by the sink, I'll pick it up.

71:09Yeah, okay.

71:10We'll just like, we'll cement it down with Blu-Tack.

71:12Cool.

71:13Okay.

71:13So we have a tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest and not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for.

71:18Yeah.

71:19The question left for you is,

71:20What's the one thing that gives you the most healthy pleasure in life and how can you commit to

71:29Harness more of it.

71:31Going down a ski slope at 83 kilometres an hour.

71:34But the thing is, I just feel a responsibility now that I can't do that anymore.

71:39Why?

71:39Because it's very dangerous, you know?

71:43It's like I...

71:45But it is, it's a guilty pleasure because I love it.

71:47I love the speed.

71:48I love the like, I'm just in control.

71:51Went through my hair.

71:53You know, it's the only sport I know how to do.

71:55I'm shit at every other sport.

71:56Sounds like the way you live life.

71:58Yeah, probably.

71:59In control, high speed.

72:01Yeah.

72:01Win through your heart.

72:03Probably.

72:04Good man.

72:04So I can't leave one for somebody else now.

72:06Yeah.

72:06Thank you.

72:07Thank you so much.

72:08Thank you for the inspiration.

72:09You truly are an inspiration.

72:11Tremendously, tremendously so.

72:12And I'm going to make you feel uncomfortable.

72:13You should be so proud of how far you've come.

72:18You must be so proud.

72:19Take some time to just breathe it in and enjoy it, Trinny, because you're going to regret it.

72:24Shut up now.

72:25I appreciate you so much.

72:26Thank you for being here.

72:26Thank you for coming and doing this.

72:27And thank you for creating a real business that's inspiring so many people just through its existence, but also inspiring them to be better and to feel better about themselves through the wonderful products that you've made.

72:37And I highly recommend that everyone goes and gets this book.

72:39It's more of Trinny, the Trinny that I'm sure you've loved in this conversation.

72:42And these products, I mean, they speak for themselves because as I said, you know exactly where they've come from.

72:46So thank you.

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— A LITTLE MORE TO THINK ABOUT. —