GYM GIRLS LOCKER ROOM - The ultimate gym girls podcast: who's Sydgrows and what is the GGLR community? EP. 1

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

EP 01 - hey besties. join syd and ellis on the first episode of the Gym Girls Locker Room Podcast, your new comfort podcast empowering you to find your strength 🫶 they chat about the sydgrows origin story, the evolution of the Gym Girls Locker Room community, syd's issue with waitrose (yes, you read that right) and how syd got signed with Gymshark. WATCH the full episode on YouTube: www.youtu.be/zZuAD08MjyA 💘 join the GGLR community: INSTA - @gymgirlslockerroom FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE - www.facebook.com/groups/503766901595066 TIKTOK - @gymgirlslockerroom 📲 find syd on socials: INSTA @sydgrows TIKTOK - @sydgrows GYMSHARK - 10% off code: SYDNEY

Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of Gym Girls Locker Room podcast presented by me, Sydney Cassidy, alongside... Are you going to introduce yourself? Ellis, hello. Ellis and as well as I'm sure some, well I know, some very excited guests in the future. Today this is a little intro episode, a little get to know, get to know Gym Girls Locker Room. Why you're starting this podcast. Why we're here, what we're hoping to achieve.

I'm going to be so real with you. We did, we did just film. Basically like half an hour. Basically like half an hour of the episode. And then I sort of just had a wandering sort of eye and I thought, that camera doesn't look like it's rolling. And surprise, surprise. Well, actually, no surprising.

No surprises. I was literally about to say like, this would happen. Yeah. This literally would happen. But it's fine. It's the first episode, so I feel a bit more warmed up now. Let's take it as a practice run. Yeah, for sure.

First of all, thank you so much for joining us. This is so beyond exciting. Kind of emotional. Like, for that 30 minutes we were rolling, I was just disassociating the whole time. So I was struggling to talk because I just could not even believe what was going on. For our audio listeners, we are sat in the most badass set.

We got some lockers behind us. We got some lockers. We're in a real life locker room. And yeah, this has been a really, really long time coming. I just cannot believe we're actually here right now. No, I can't. So I wonder how many episodes it's going to take for us to actually deep it. Like 100 episodes in. Oh my God, I still can't believe it. how many episodes it's going to take for us to actually deep it like 100 episodes in oh my god I still can't believe it no it was crazy I feel like first

off we should probably introduce ourselves yeah did I did we just yeah we did just literally like you didn't give background yeah so um I'm Sydney although content creator um I post gym videos encouraging women to get like into the gym I do very like fly on the wall content um and I feel like I kind of show people that there's like really nothing to be scared of um I kind of just bring everyone along, you know, my own journey. I am also the founder of Gym Girls Locker Room. So that's me. Ellis is my darling sister. I also work, I guess, behind the scenes with Sig Rose and Gym Girls Locker Room.

Yeah, Sig Rose, Gym Girls Locker Room, everything in between. She's been a real one probably since she was born so um i guess that's how it works with sisters doesn't it but um yeah no so she's gonna be here kind of behind the scenes but for the for the episodes when it's just like me i don't know about you guys but i prefer to have somebody there to like i don't know i just think it's like a nice listening experience to have someone bouncing off another person in the conversation i don't really want it to be like a diary entry i mean if you guys want that then i don't know but honestly yeah i feel like that would be the nicest vibe we're

also gonna have um guests we have some incredible stay tuned yeah stay that's all i gotta say that's our period um but yeah we've got some really sensational guests scheduled we are also going to go for a range of guests like it's not just going to be personalities it's going to be like professionals uh people that can really like teach us and shed some light on all things health fitness uh wellness I think it feels like a really right time to have a podcast uh well it didn't it did about nine months ago when I initially thought of it um and now more so than ever so gym girls locker room if you don't know is a if you don't know no um no gym girls locker room is a beautiful community of women um it

started as a Facebook page that I set up in 2022 I was just like kind of just oh hey guys on my instagram stories i was kind of like i we have i have this vision where we have like a little safe space a private page where women can kind of connect with each other interact ask for their favorite gym clothes how the sizing comes up um you know between the brands uh what their favorite supplements are you know that kind of stuff um and it just took off we named it gym girls locker room as a community uh i asked my own followers and we had some incredible suggestions we had like power buff girls yeah that's the one that really stands out i can't remember the other ones i mean We had some incredible suggestions. We had like Power Buff Girls. Yeah. That's the one that really stands out. I can't remember the other ones.

There were so many. It'll be so funny because you can literally look at Sid's story highlight and you'll see all the videos. Yeah, literally. Oh my God. I have this idea or like the name's been chosen, Dream Girls of the Room. And I remember at the start you were like, I don't know how I feel about Dream Girls of the Room.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about it. We were going to go for Power Buff Girls, but it was already, we couldn't go for it in the end because it was coined. And yeah, so that's how we arrived with the name. Honestly, for about a year and a half, it was just literally like growing from strength to strength. Women from all across the world would be joining this page. And to be honest, I wouldn't be so real with you. I wasn't even checking. It was just in the back of my mind.

I was like, oh, amazing. Like there's, you know, a few thousand women on there. And I'd just bloody look and it'd be like, oh, now you have 10,000. Now you have 30,000. Now you've got 45,000. And it just kept growing exponentially. And Ellis has been working for me full-time now for quite a while but at the

time was just working for me part-time and i just remember saying to her oh ellis can you work on approvals and poor ellis would literally be there like tapping approve approve decline you know like if a man tried to join or whatever so it was just like this thing that kind of just kept growing and growing by itself. And I feel like Gym Girls Workroom has always been bigger than me, I guess, in ways. It wasn't until this summer, 2023 summer. Yeah, it wasn't until this summer. I think it's nice to start at the beginning, especially as this is our introduction episode. I'll start, you know, and I'll tell you guys all about like my history.

Just because I think it really adds like context from like an understanding of the kind of place that I'm coming from. But what I will say now is that, you know, we're two years later, we've been on a UK gym tour. We have about 150,000 women in the Facebook page, 50,000 on our Instagram. Run run club we have two run clubs that run regularly and we have the most insect we have an office we have

the podcast we have we now have a podcast um and we just have very exciting things very excited the way she's looking at me right now um but we yeah we have like a just an unreal year planned and i feel like now it really feels like the time to have a podcast and have a space where we can have some really like open and frank and candid conversations as women because although you're not with us actually you know physically you are you are you are with us wherever you are doing the dishes on the cardio running machine on the way to work driving or just watching us on youtube watching us yeah i think like i feel like there isn't a space in the kind of way that we're hoping to create with this podcast um for the gym girlies and so i'm really looking forward to it i think we're gonna be able to make some real like

movements honestly um we're gonna laugh we're gonna cry probably everything in between i just think like there's just not anything out there i don't think currently you know also if for the um people that are watching um on youtube how incredible is our set we built it with our very own hands like that's the funniest part like it's so funny but it's also not so funny like it's been hell it's honestly like my family we actually i don't know if you know that i say this to people but we've been blessed and cursed with the do-it-yourself gene oh yeah like i didn't need to build this nor did i need to do it myself yeah i did yeah you did i've really been out here like building in the trenches i've been in them are we swearing on it are we i've been here in the trenches um i've been building i've been

sanding um no sorry sorry i just got so sorry go on the memory of my mind sam me jay sid all with sanding paper violently scrubbing rubbing like let me paint the picture okay so we've got a set it's got white three white walls we've then got blue lockers with stickers and polaroids and then we've got like posters around the set and we're sat on a sofa um it looks honestly sensational from what we we really had to work with like we i am a diy second hand thrifting queen i'm not buying anything new if i don't have to so um we got the the walls the walls we literally made these walls out of tiny pallets uh or like i don't even know what you call them like segments from my boyfriend's work um we got the lockers off of a woman from ebay and it's just been a real labor of love i we yeah it's it's been trauma but it's also been

so fantastic and i'm really pleased with it and like it feels so rewarding to to feel like it's like a grassroots thing like June Girls.com as a brand is like we care so much like I think everyone thinks that we're this like fat brand you know we have loads of like budget behind us like it's literally me Ellis and then we have two graphic designers Meg and Emily and then we've got sam who we love who just actions everything and then we've got emma our producer and that is literally it that is the extension of us so i don't know it just feels like really special and it feels very on brand for us to have sure been in the trenches building one big family i feel like definitely for sure um yeah and like even just like the little like bits

and pieces we have on the posters like they're all like special moments that mean a lot to us and just like yeah i don't know it's just really exciting also we're gonna like take photos of every guest and like stick them on the wall i feel like that would be so freaking cool yeah i love um but yeah okay so anyway that Gym Girls Locker Room in a nutshell. Basically, stay tuned, join us on the ride. Find us at Gym Girls Locker Room if you guys are interested or you don't already follow us. We put a lot of our events and activations and giveaways and all that fun stuff over there and on our stories so yeah um but yeah i feel like maybe perhaps i should start right at the beginning yeah for sure um because you know i i have

certainly mentioned my story um how i came to be you know so passionate about the gym how i came to be like a content creator but i don't feel like I've ever really like gone in depth in a place where like I feel so comfortable to be able to like really go in in the way that I want to I guess just like how did you get into gym yeah well I did want to just start off by saying context I was always a sporty child. I always did like, gosh, honestly, like every sport you can imagine. Go on, name it. Okay. Well, I was actually recording this the other day for something. But anyway, I was thinking, gosh, what did they ask me?

What did you do? And I was like, well, I did climbing. I did swimming. I did gymnastics. I did dancing. I mean, I'm not saying I was good at them. I know, like, I actually get teased so hard by my mum and my sister because these girls out here, they're just, like, dancing, like,

woo, on stage. I just was not blessed with that. I actually can't even feel. Is it? Do you feel rhythm? I guess. Feeling it in your body? Well yeah well anyway i don't feel it definitely don't like you just clapped a song you're like is this it yeah um but you know we

all have our strengths uh i did cycling i did running i did i'm literally like all kinds of i did all of the kinds of athletics um no i did netball um shout out becky shout out to my dog shout out to my main girl becky literally one of my netball players friends um well she's also my bestie oh god sorry i'm digging a hole i did a lot of sports i'm sure there's some that i'm not really forgetting but anyway it's fine i think you get the hint did you do javelin i did i did multiple forms of athletics oh so cross country i said running anyway um i definitely exercised a lot and I did it because I was really

I found it fun my parents very much encouraged exercise as a means to de-stress and as a means to make friends outside of your school friends and um yeah so it was never really like pushed on me I never had to do anything I didn't want to it was always seen in a positive light yeah always super healthy always super positive and always like empowered like kind of low-key feel like my parents have like blind confidence in me which I love mum and dad thank you thank you but um yeah it was like i was always championed i never really had like a negative association with exercise little known fact about me i don't think many people will know this that i am a stress head i have always been like i don't know if the word would be like highly strung what do you think honestly i don't know do you know what that means i have no knowledge of that

kind of topic okay well anyway it doesn't matter um but i've always been like super anxious super like nervy um some little anecdotes for you always used to cry at the side of like every sport that i would do um when i was much much younger you know swimming i would cry on the side of the pool you know not wanting to leave my mom until like play time at the end and then i'd go in for like five minutes so i've always been like someone that is just I'm a feeler I'm very anxious anxious yeah did I mention I have anxiety I'm a sensitive person so I feel things quite deeply so if something would upset me it would upset me quite a lot the reason why I'm saying all of this is because my parents growing up really encouraged using exercise as a way for me to kind of get out

all of that anxious energy and that like you know those feelings inside of me and so it was always kind of encouraged to kind of get endorphins flowing and that sort of thing so I feel like that's really necessary for what I'm about to explain and it just gives you a bit of context for like me as a person and like the kind of character I am so I would say my fitness journey started in November of 21 I had just finished university we were coming out of like COVID I was really feeling the effects of that found out literally the other day that like some people have had like the most pleasant pandemic. Really?

Well, like in terms of lockdown, mine was like rough. Ellis and I were sharing a room. Oh my God. Look, let's not bring, I mean, we can, we can go there, but we don't need to. I feel like maybe that's a whole separate like growing up and yeah the traumas not like I don't know it's just like but yeah so I was feeling that I was going I'd just gone through like a big breakup from someone that I'd been with for a long time um I'd lost a lot of my friends and kind of I was just I think if I was gonna label it now I would say like I was depressed I found it hard to like get out of bed and I was very far from the

kind of person that I wanted to be uh and I kind of knew that but also not um I was very lost I remember feeling very lost and I remember just having like brain fog all the time I mean I also was battling like an addiction as well so you know I was dealing with a lot and so I kind of give myself grace now when I think about it but you know I was really struggling from all different directions from all different directions from all different directions like my reality had really shifted at that point but I feel like if I am gonna just make a little note on that like rock bottoms for anyone that is going through that like that was definitely a rock bottom for me but like they are so beautiful because you hit that bottom and you like literally

it's like hitting the bottom of a swimming pool you know on the bottom of the seabed you like bounce up from it you learn so much as well like you like being at the lowest of lows you just i don't know so much yeah and there's no way up the only way is up yeah like when you've hit your bottom your rock bottom you don't have a support system you've lost your friends you've lost like your partner well you just don't know who you are yeah you like can't I'd quit my job and I was really really unhappy and like really struggling like there really is no other way than like up and so yeah I started exercising because I'd had I just I remember thinking like you know what I was talking about earlier of like endorphin my parents say you know Sid endorphins are so almost like they were kind of whispering you know my way like remember how good it makes you feel you'll never have a time you know you'll never have a session when you've exercised and you'll regret it you literally won't

like you that will not happen and so I had stopped exercising all throughout my teenage years, all throughout my 20s. And I very much used very unhealthy coping mechanisms for my stress that had just like that is just who I am. I am just like I'm a highly sensitive person. I feel a lot. So that's always going to be me and so my kind of throughout my teens and my 20s I just used other means to sort of cope with that um and I guess maybe I kind of had reached a point where I was like enough is enough like I can't I've got to do something about this so as well as like seeking help through therapy and um you know distancing myself from people that weren't lifting me up to be the best kind of person that I knew I could be which I'm sure will be a whole nother topic yeah um I did also just start going to the

gym and I went by myself I had really no no real experience certainly not with lifting I'd been in gyms before I'd worked in a gym as a receptionist and I had kind of wandered around like the cardio area or I'd gone to classes but you know most of my experience was like drinking coffee and the gym bars and stuff like that. So, yeah. And then. When I started, I kind of was just going really. There was a lot of things I was running from, if I'm honest, like going to the gym, I was running from a lot. I was trying to stop smoking. I was trying to like, I found home life really difficult as well. Definitely transitioning from being a university student coming home.

And I didn't really have people to hang out with in the evenings. So there was multiple reasons why I was just like, okay okay let me just go to the gym as a distraction um and I started exercising and pretty much instantly I kind of connected with it and just felt like it was something to focus on when everything was looking so dark and looking so like bleak um and when I felt like I had so little guidance and direction I felt that going to the gym at 8 p.m after like my little part-time job you know shift that was like enough to kind of get me through, you know, everything and give me enough direction. So yeah, that was like where I started. Did you, sorry, I don't know if this is going too forward, but did you start filming like straight away? So yeah, I, well, no, so I didn't.

And God, I would not have even had enough confidence to do that what actually happened next was that I kind of for a long time I would just kind of be in the cardio section then I'd kind of I migrated over you know to the cables which in my gym wasn't on the same floor as like the weightlifting section the part I was terrified of going to but I think like I'm always someone I think I kind of enjoyed the being outside of my comfort zone and the challenge and um I kind of knew that that was like a goal of mine I didn't know what I was doing the whole time so I remember you know gym social media wasn't as big as it was then as it is now um so there was like the main big names I remember Lisa Fit she's like been posting for years and I remember I would like literally hold my phone

like right by my face and I'd be like okay right she's doing that and I'd type in like hashtag dumbbell only you know workout and so that's what I would do and I guess over time I just like grew in confidence and I was patient with myself I didn't have any expectations of what would come you know I was just like oh you know whatever um and then it was only really that I met some I met some guys there that just like really, I don't know, I feel like they found me at like a time when I really needed them. Just nothing more than like friendly faces that I could say hi to in the gym every day.

And they were the ones that kind of really like broke that barrier for me of like stepping into that unknown you know no man's land of like the weightlifting room um because I was with these guys that were really experienced it was like it gave me permission to just kind of relinquish control and head over there with them and so they really like I think another reason why I'm really grateful for them is because they really like championed me being strong and that's something I'd always felt a little bit of shame about like I'd always been more muscular than like other girls at school and I'd always had like when the trend was like

skinny girls like yeah like when it was like heroin chic and like it was all about the thigh gap and stuff like that so it always been like a little bit of shame around that for me and obviously at this point when I'm starting at the gym I was not at all aware of like the gym or like gym aesthetics or you know I was not even going there was not even an ounce of me that was going for aesthetics um so I wasn't really aware of that but like they really like championed me and you know sort of I guess I was really unlearning in those moments like how special it is to be like strong and you know but yeah so and it kind of just snowballed from there I really felt safe there and I found it just it just it found it became my like home

and it became my safe place and a place where I then began to like go to de-stress and I just over the course of like let's say the period of time we're talking about like that next six months I just threw myself into it I was still working as a nanny part-time but I just watched myself just like bloom and just really grow in confidence and in self-respect and kind of in like getting health healthier stronger boundaries with myself and I really was able to see like you know people that are into the gym are so incredible. Like I think to be someone who's like disciplined and like wants to take care of themselves like that. It's just a certain kind of person. I don't feel like I've really been around that for a lot of my life.

And so I kind of learned a lot of things about friendship and yeah so that was like kind of how I got into it to answer your question about like filming coming from a creative background I always tell tell people I always felt like I had an itch that I needed to scratch I had studied fashion at university I'd gone and studied in the states for it and in London I went to like one of the top schools it was my life anybody that is like decent in the creative industries will know that you really have to like throw yourself into it you have to want it it's really cutthroat and you really pour your heart and soul into everything that you do and so it had been like honestly since such a young age I'd known I'd wanted to do something creative ever since I

can remember like yeah like watching is into fashion yeah she wants to be a fashion designer yeah like watching project runway watching project catwalk my whole family would sit down on the sofa and I would be on the floor and we'd be like there my parents would print out like um you know like line drawings of women and I'd be answering the briefs drawing do you remember that no I don't but that's really cute I must have been too young yeah so I yeah because I was quite young doing that and like it was just my world and I think I I'd studied that in university and then I went into working in the industry and I was completely like shocked and this is at the same time that I'm really struggling I've graduated from university I got a job um in the fashion industry and I just I just it just

completely took the wind from my sails I could not believe I mean respect to like anyone that works in those industries and I know they're not all the same but it was a real shock for me and I very quickly realized like that was not for me. So I quit my job around. I mean, I quit my job, I think also because mentally I was really struggling. But I also quit my job because I hated it there. I remember. Sorry. Go on.

You have a checklist. Oh my God, I so did. And how many, what was it? Was this for your internship? And it was like 60 30 days whatever every day you'd take it i had a month's notice to like leave and i had written in my journal a checklist like i'd literally boxed drawn box 30 boxes and i was ticking off every goddamn day that i had to work there I just really it was

made I was just I was just miserable and you know when I made that decision which felt so it felt so like finite to quit and like to say not only am I quitting this job but I'm quitting everything I've worked on you know like everything that I've put my heart and soul into I remember my friends and family being like no are you sure really and I would say yes I am sure because I don't want to be somewhere where I'm overworked undervalued and underpaid you're no part of that no I don't want none of it I think it was just crazy because it's like that was that was your identity I feel like at the time yeah certainly I think if we like bounce forward on the timeline a bit um I'm gonna just jump to like now

quickly and then I'll go back again but if if we actually reflect on that, that was a really profound moment in time. That decision I made had such an impact on like where I am now. And like that was such a leap of faith. But I really in that moment made a decision of like there's more to life and I want to be somewhere where I'm valued I want to be somewhere where I'm like you know paid for paid decently for my time and I want to be somewhere where I like yeah I just want to go I want to follow my heart and my passion and like it was a really big decision but I really felt like that was the first time I'd kind of actually been really honest with my heart and like decided like no this is not what I want to do and it came at a time when I was

exercising a lot and I think I don't know perhaps there's some sort of like relationship there between the two I don't know but yeah going back the reason I has said mentioned about like working in fashion is because I always despite the fact that I was just working as a nanny just to earn money make ends meet I feel like I had this like creative itch that I needed to scratch and so for that reason I started just filming I mean aside from the fact that I'm a perfectionist and that if I'm gonna be lifting I need to be lifting perfectly and when you start lifting you I think the word's called like proprioception I think that's the word it might not be um but it's basically this kind of awareness you have of your limbs so when beginners, they really aren't in touch with where their limbs are.

And they don't know, say, when they squat, they don't know where 90 degree. If I told you squat to 90 degrees, you wouldn't probably know because you're not in tune with that. Right. So me being a perfectionist, I wanted to film myself and I'd record form videos and I'd really subtly film because I was so nervous and like filming was not a thing then like now it's very normalized to go in with a tripod set up with the intention of even posting it that was not a thing at all it was like you'd feel everyone's eyes burning on you so that was like not a thing so i just kind of set up in the corner but around that time people were posting on gym were posting gym videos very aesthetic very kind of like layered to a dramatic audio that kind of vibe motivational

yeah like that sort of thing and i definitely was like interested in that I was like oh this is so cool like for me consuming that kind of social media um the fitness kind of thing it really I don't know I feel like it was helping me just kind of like make fitness my world and like really embrace it you know um when I'm outside of the gym and so I just kind of I think because I wasn't doing anything creatively I was just like why don't I just you know why don't I just like what's the harm in putting my form video with some like sick audio and like post it and so I did so and because I was training so much because I literally had no one else to hang out with or nothing else to do I was training a lot and therefore I just posted

every day and then what happened was one day I was just about to film my clip and one of the girls in the gym who I still like love and see all the time she asked me hey are you gonna be in the gym next time will I see you and she was like my first like gym friend one of my first gym friends I'd found it's like this older lady love her um but yeah and so I turned around and I for some reason I just thought oh my gosh that's actually a really sweet encounter so I named it I posted it and I named it wholesome gym encounter and I put like the captions on the screen and there really wasn't anyone I mean this is like 22 there was really not anybody doing gym encounters like that that kind of like fly on the wall there was no mics or anything like that it was just a really chance interaction that i posted and it went viral and it went like super viral your first one

it what the first what gym encounter yeah wow and it went super super super viral and um it was really healing for me and i'll tell you why because um people had people were like flooding the comments gym shark were messaging me saying like we'd love to post this i was like oh my god this is insane um but what i loved and what i really kind of now i reflect on it really like value the most and i think what i found so healing was that my all of the comments that were like flooding this post were just saying were being so complimentary of me and i this this clip was a chance clip right I wasn't being anything other than my true authentic self and people like loved it and so it was this real moment where like

I kind of realized oh I don't have I don't have to be anyone but myself like I I don't have to people love me as I am and like I'm enough and all these sorts of things and I know it sounds like really like dramatic whatever but it was a real it really sticks out in my mind it's like a moment where I realized like oh I'm enough as I am so I remember thinking like oh well if this is what people want from me just keep doing it. Well, then I'll just keep on doing it. So then that's when I just kind of left the cameras rolling. And I think that's where like for anyone that just naturally happen in the gym that

say perhaps you weren't very familiar with the gym environment you wouldn't know actually takes place but there's this like phenomenal community in the gym and it's just like there's such lovely encounters and interactions I've been lucky enough to like you know capture and share with the world and um yeah so it's just kind of been sort of that that I've continued to do and I guess over the past few years I about well about six months that that and that whole situation I've just spoke about that was probably about around March 22 by that point I'd been doing gym for six months so I felt more confident I'd made a few more friends I'd started posting on Instagram and TikTok and then it done it done quite well by the August I quit my job and I was able to go

full-time I think perhaps by the end of that year I had you part-time did I yes I remember it was such a risk for you to quit your job I remember it was like this massive thing but you were just like you know what screw it yeah but that was August yeah and I started working part-time with you just like three hours a day yeah in the november yeah you did three hours a day every day uh yeah really or every other day oh yeah uh yeah because i was working at a supermarket so iconic ellis was working on the meat and fish counter hates meat and fish um oh my god like it was hell hard out there but she went through i kind of actually enjoyed it it was i don't know we always used to like as a family like my family are massive foodies and

we'd always be like ellis so ellis used to work at waitrose now if you're from any other country it's like a bougie ass it's like's like the queen. Oh, rest in peace. The royal family shop there. Like, that's the level. Yes, exactly. And Ellis would always go there and she'd always say, oh, yeah, there's so much we had to, like, give away to everyone. We were like, Ellis, like, give it to us.

And every time she'd come home from a shift, we'd give her a grilling because she'd be like, oh, yeah, I gave that to the customers for free. Or, like, someone else gave that away. And we'd be like, dude, like, we want that slab of meat. Give it to us. Give it to the Cassidy's. But, yeah. I was just a shy little girl.

Yeah, you were just like, oh, I don't really care. No, but also. You'd bring back bread. Of all things. There'd be, like, lobster and prawns and like massive i don't even know what they're called like hunks of meat hunks of me is that what you call a man absolutely not no wait wait wait a hunk of me a hunk of a man wait is that what you said i don't know i'm confused i like a joint yes no but that okay not that we're gonna get onto the waitress law of ellis cassidy but

i went to two different stores the first store didn't care they were like take whatever the hell you want the second store they're a lot more strict they were like you cannot take from the counter and i would say to ellis i would literally prep Ellis because like, you can't tell me not to do something that I believe in. So I'd literally sit Ellis down and be like, listen, Ellis, if they have a policy that you can't take it, tell them that there's people starving. Like, I just feel like it's, sorry, I'm really going off topic, but I feel like I really just have to like, I have to preach it right now.

Okay. Yeah. Listen, if you're listening and you're a manager of waitrose i just need you to know any supermarket of any supermarket i just need you to know that like that is so fundamentally wrong that you are binning like food bins bins full of food i think it's so wrong and like anyway i'm really going i'm just going off but let me just run okay my friend callum shout out callum from uni he is like me he doesn't let shit like just fly like he worked at waitrose and he told his like waitrose um in bristol that they like needed

to do something about it so they actually reached out to a charity and so they would like give all the food to the people that actually need it yeah that day i just think it's so wrong anyway let's go back um to the topic that was such a hey let it run it's a podcast like let it oh so then ellis yeah so ellis was working for me oh yeah it's been like i don't know i want to throw it to you like what what's your experience being like because you did you did you think of much like what did you think when like all this started happening to me people it's so funny like people always ask me like it must be so weird seeing your sister like blah blah blah i'm just like i don't know i feel like maybe i've been

desensitized by it you've been on the journey from the very start and also i feel like you're my big sister and like you've to me you've always been this like really confident like she knows what she's doing i know and it's so funny to like know and like see what you thought you were and like obviously you're six years older than me you were just like I want to be her like that's what I was like to you yeah but that was that was a bit of a tangent but um I don't know from I don't know I guess because I've always worked for you I have seen it slowly develop I feel like the more crazy things are like things like this, like the podcast, like Gym Girl Soccer Room, like, I don't know, more like business-y side of it.

I'm just like, what the hell is going on? Yeah. That's the thing that's crazy is like it just started. Like, I just feel like I fell into this. Also, I feel like maybe it is just like meant to be like it just it seems right all of this yeah the thing that's so funny about like me as a child saying like oh I want to be I want to work in fashion and I want to do this and always really having a really strong idea of like what I wanted to do no I'm not doing that now but i'm actually in ways doing that yeah

like i always wanted to be like i always like when i was a kid i wanted to be a doctor and i wanted to be a doctor because i wanted to help people i feel like i do that now and like huh that's awesome so awesome i'm bad um but like and then you know I wanted to be a radio host oh goddamn podcast no joking but like I always you know there's so much like you know I wanted to be a designer and in ways I do a lot of like the creative direction you're very hands-on I'm very hands-on with like everything that I do and like all the projects that you guys are going to see unfold this year it's really been from my heart right so it's like funny to actually see that it kind of all did work out in the end but I definitely like when I talk to people I definitely say that I really feel like this was absolutely like this life and just like the whole thing the good the bad the ugly like it was all meant to find me

and put me on this path to help like this many people going back to the being at your lowest of lows just I guess to anyone out there like seriously do not give up because this this won't just happen to you like it will it happens to everyone yeah like there's nothing there's truly nothing out of the ordinary about me like I guess in ways maybe there is but then also in other ways like no you know this is so possible for anyone you just like really need to like connect with your like truest most authentic self like if we do now go back to like that that year and like move on a bit farther further forward from that um kind of ellis is working for me full-time i'm just getting a lot more brand deals i've been able to go like full-time myself self-employed the word of the year for me i remember and this is in one of my earlier like earliest YouTube videos the word of the year

for me was authenticity like I would say that so much to everyone like I just really wanted to show up as my most authentic self I'd spent so many years like in unhealthy relationships in an unhealthy relationship with myself like hanging around the wrong kind of people that like I'd become so alienated from the person that I wanted to be I you do it I'm happy again to talk about this more in depth but I won't today but like I did so much visualization so much manifestation and I just really got like really like honest with myself like who do I want to be like you know am I someone where I look in the mirror and I'm like proud and happy of like who I am and so everything started slowing into

pace when I started doing so um and yeah so that year 22 was just about kind of like growing my socials and uh Ellis was helping me with like more kind of just like actioning stuff and i've never really been good at like admin and that sort of thing and you know i have a lot of admiration for people that do it all themselves like it's a lot there's a lot more behind the scenes than you think and you know a lot of it's just been winging it and it's just nice to have someone to bounce off um but yeah so that happened and then in the new year of 23 I um decided that I wanted to go solo traveling I've never really I've come from a family where like we've had we've always had food on the table we've always been able to like do clubs and that sort of thing and like sports and that sort of thing. But we've never really been able to like travel properly or like, I feel like we're like, we're a working class family, right?

And so I kind of thought, wow, how fantastic. Like I'm in a position where I could actually go traveling and I was living at home at the time still and so I decided that I wanted to go to Southeast Asia so in April of 23 I went to Thailand I had intended to do more of Southeast Asia however I literally fell in love with Thailand so much that I just stayed there for like five weeks and then I ended up coming back early because I had a very special opportunity come from Gymshark and so I came back for that because I just got my visa extended was loving life in Thailand I don't think you'd come back I was like this is hell yeah um and then I literally got like an email from Gymshark

and I'd always I'd had a kind of relationship with them they'd always gifted me stuff um like because they reshared a lot of my content and that sort of thing but it's actually quite funny to this day whenever ellis and i get like a big opportunity come through we have a shared email bot email and whenever we get like a big opportunity ellis just goes like she just texts me or she just shouts sid and then i'm like what she's like email and like we just even this morning and it's like i went email email look email because it's like she knows i i want to don't ruin the surprise so um yeah so it said like gymshark x sydney and i was just like no freaking way you filmed the reaction. You knew by my tone.

Yeah, I knew. I knew. I remember that. I came downstairs and I was just like, is this something where I should be filming? It's like, yeah, definitely. Just to interject, but like you filmed every part of your journey. I know. Like not for it to end up being anywhere, but I don't know.

You filmed everything. Yeah. not for it to end up being anywhere but I don't know film everything yeah well it's funny because um I do take photos and videos of everything but I've always been like that I've always been I love taking photos I love looking back looking back and just capturing moments I find it really special and beautiful and um that's like another thing where it's just like oh it's funny that this is what I'm doing because it's actually something I've always been like so passionate about but yeah so then we're kind of getting into like Gymshark era it's now 2023 I've come back from traveling and um I went to Lyft Manchester um is that right yeah lift manchester was april i'm pretty sure yeah so i went to lift manchester um that was completely surreal i've certainly battled with like imposter

syndrome my whole life but i would say that was like a new level and you know it's funny because now i look back and i'm like no shit no shit i dealt dealt with imposter syndrome to this day i still haven't experienced something like lift manchester you know that was in that was your that was really intense i don't know like just for again like for more sort of background for me and to get to know me like I don't have a manager and I don't really go to like quote-unquote influencery my word I use events just because it's just not my thing like it's not I like I love this world I'm in it's crazy but like I love to retreat back to me and the core of yeah who I am and that's not really who I am so I've not really been still to this point haven't really had many encounters with that kind of life and I'd somehow been invited with all of the athletes you know these people that about four months prior were people that like I watch daily

still watch daily and like completely idolize and you're telling me you want me to go and just chill with them in the hotel by myself and like not fangirl and it was just completely and utterly surreal so I were I struggled with that you were really struggling like that was definitely like a I've gone back to being six years old I'm crying on the side of the swimming pool how could you possibly expect me to go alone um and it's like I always tell people growth comes outside of the comfort zone because it really does it really does i don't experience that now because i've done it so much i've pushed myself out of my comfort zone so much like where i don't yeah so i go i meet like my freaking heroes i'm just chilling with them like in like a private cinema

to watch like Ross Edgley's like premiere I'm like texting my family the whole time like guys this is mental I'm freaking out I'm in a huge hotel room in like a five-star hotel I then go to the event I'm in the truck with like all of the athletes a truck I don't know why I said truck I'm literally not in a truck I'm in a coach I'm in a truck with like all of the athletes a truck I don't know why I said truck I'm literally not in a truck I'm in a coach I'm in a coach with all the athletes everyone's going Sid why are you here you're not an athlete I'm like I don't know either wink wink nudge nudge um I go there there's literally lines everyone's screaming I've not experienced anything like this before at the time i didn't really have people like come up to me so much in public like it was just completely you know alien we go there

we're in like the backstage room green room i'm still just freaking out freaking out they asked me to go on like my i was there for a panel talk with like Annalise Cruz, Brittany Lupton, um Maymar and I'm there and they're just like there's hundreds of people watching us and it was just utterly surreal like that was that will still just be like something I will hold on to like for the rest of my life completely so after that I become a Gymshark athlete I um take my community away we go to Bali and pretty much since then uh then I moved to Manchester got a puppy um that was all very quick that was all very quick um very quick but since then I kind of grew a team and I guess Gymshark were really like the kind of people that gave me the push with Gym Girls Locker Room they really said like you've got something special here

like you've got a really engaged community like what are you gonna do with it like we'd love to help you like potentially have like a tour or something like that and they really helped me kind of see shout out adam adam we've got a photo of him we have a photo of like we have like the moments really special moments in like our the gym girls locker room history on the set but bar like a few people one of which being sam who works with us now um adam was like someone who really kind of made me believe in like myself and like you know with adam like who i don't know if i mentioned was the my gym shark manager he would say like reach for the stars and i'd tell him like my biggest biggest dream and then he'd be like yeah and what and what next

and more like how how can you push it even further and so this like madness that we've created like when what was it two years ago I was like depressed working earning like £700 a month, like just really, really struggling. He was like a really big character in like making me believe in myself. It's just wild and like we've gone from strength to strength now and now I feel so far from that girl that I was. And yeah, I feel like that is hopefully a nutshell well a big nutshell a messy nutshell yeah and all over the place nutshell but like that is me and like yeah now where we're at is that like I would definitely say it's funny because I'm in a position now where like there's so much going on

with Jim Carrey's Ocar room so much that like you know i always feel like a bit of a cop-out when people say like like creators especially go like i've got so much coming but like we actually have so much coming it's just that things take time and it's not worth spoiling how long did this take nine months um but my oh my it was what like my oh my boy oh boy it was worth it um but yeah like we've got really really special things that I'm working very hard at it feels like this is like a real big like movement and so it's funny because actually content creation for me has taken a little bit of a backseat it's still like a big part of my life and like my daily like all weekly tasks and whatever but

um yeah I would say like the position I'm in now feels like more of kind of like a director like a kind of captain leading the ship it's a lot of meetings now a lot of planning and I don't know like idea generating and it um like going to going places and it's just like a really special place to be in and I feel so like deeply grateful and appreciative that like I've been you know given this opportunity like I really don't take it lightly I'm I just I just I just thank my like lucky stars like every single day because I just think like gosh life could be so different and I realize that like yeah I am in such a fortunate position but like I do feel like I'm doing good and i feel like gym girls locker room is like what a lot of women need and like yeah i'm really excited to see where like this goes and like how

not just like i'm so excited for the podcast but like just like so many things like the plans we have like you said it's really annoying saying all the plans yeah but like yeah i agree i feel like gym girls locker room is really gonna help out with a lot like help a lot of people yeah okay before we leave you we have a fun little segment it's called locker room confessions um basically this is something that we'll probably do like i would say probably every episode but it might change um we've got a few segments this will be the first one we'll do for you um and it's basically where you guys send us in um funny embarrassing silly little stories voice memos voice memos you know just chats with the girls but yeah this is our first one i haven't listened to it if you guys want to send

a voice memo or ask any questions follow jingo's um instagram because we'll be posting the stories yeah feel free to send through voice notes we have people on dms all the time checking so um don't share anything that you don't want putting on the podcast um obviously we'll keep it anonymous all right first ever locker room confession So don't share anything that you don't want putting on the podcast. Obviously, we'll keep it anonymous. All right, first ever locker room confession. Hey, so I've got a really embarrassing story to tell. So one day I was at my local Pure gym doing a back session and I'm wearing my new sports bra and my new sports leggings.

Leggings are fine. The bra kept slipping down. So the gym was super busy and as I pulled for the back grip my nipple come flying out and there was a guy standing right opposite me and seeing everything obviously I rushed at this point and like took my nipple back in my bra um had an absolute meltdown ran to the toilet cried a little come back and he was still there so i don't know whether he was waiting for round two or something else to happen but i think he was just like we were both so in shocks like i just ended up and like going and i left it just left oh my god wow that is hilarious you know i actually did that like no no i didn't fish a

nipple but like oh did i no i didn't but like the minimal bras i love them from gymshark but like they're a big slay they are a big slay but they're also a big concern i literally took my top off and i thank god the gym was empty it was about 11 a.m so no one was there but like yeah it's a real concern oh my god that was actually so funny what do you do after that situation i need to put my nipple back in oh sorry it's always did she say she was doing a lap pull down i can't remember if it was it's always the lap pull down everyone's just like you like they always position it where you like have to like face someone no i think it was that yeah oh no that's brilliant um no so please like if you guys

have any locker room confessions for us please feel free to send them in um again don't put anything in the voice note that you don't want list like put on the pod but yeah um wow high five um thank you so much for listening i feel like that was a fat monologue but i guess that's what a podcast is honestly like yeah just be prepared for tangents like meat and fish counter you know other things like that um please do us the absolute honor if you got this far into the pod and give us a big five star review on apple or spotify or give us a like on youtube um it just helps us out massively and pushes us out to a wider audience you know and um

you'll also just be my best friend if you do so like you're you're a real one and i will love you forever um but yeah thank you so much for listening we have a very exciting second episode for you it's a guest i cannot wait possibly um you know what i not going to say any more than that but just buckle up and be ready until then find us at Jim Coslough Room

alright then bye bye