ROCHELLE HUMES: My Mum is the Reason I’m Fearless | GREAT MOMENTS

This week, I’m revisiting my conversation with the singer, presenter and all-round grafter, Rochelle Humes. From S Club Juniors and The Saturdays to launching her hugely successful family brand, My Little Coco, Rochelle has never been afraid to try something new. Rochelle puts her fearlessness down to one person - her mum. In this Great Moment, Rochelle shares what her mum has taught her about hard work, self confidence, and never being afraid to ask for what YOU want. Listen to the full episode HERE! If you enjoyed the show, you can also follow us: Instagram-@greatcompanypodcast https://www.instagram.com/greatcompanypodcast/# TikTok -@greatcompanypodcast https://open.acast.com/networks/611e511b4ec6dc00134bced2/shows/65d737dfdc02e00016c413b2/episodes/www.tiktok.com/@greatcompanypodcast And if you've got thoughts, questions and comments, you can email us at: [email protected] THE CREDITS Producer: Helen Burke Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins Video: Josh Bennett Social Media: Laura Coughlan Exec Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Business is booming. Is your fulfillment ready for peak season? Switch to ShipStation now and handle more volume with confidence when it counts. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop and over 200 more integrations with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Right now, qualified shippers get a real dedicated person to get you set up and switched over for free. So when peak season hits, you're ready to go. Switch today at shipstation.com code AUDIO.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  MOD.com is changing the way people battle excessive fatigue. Ever hit a wall in the middle of the day and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore? Here's what's actually happening. Coffee only briefly blocks adenosine, the chemical that tires you out. When it stops working, your system is flooded and you crash. Medafinil is a prescription treatment that works in a completely different way. Medafinil works by stimulating multiple receptors in the brain associated with wakefulness, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, histamine, glutamate and orexin. It's a more complete solution that gives you 10 to 12 hours of steady focus and energy. To learn more, go to MOD.com.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Fill out your intake form, meet with a licensed provider, and if approved, Modaler ships straight to your door. Go to MOD.com to get started. That's M-O-D dot com.

• 1:35Jamie Laing?

  Hello, everyone. I'm Jamie Laing and this is Great Moments.

• 1:41Jamie Laing?

  Hey, everyone. I hope you're well and welcome back to Great Moments. Now, if you're new here, this is the place where I'm going to bring you a standout moment from one of my favorite Great Company conversations. These are the moments that have stayed with me long after the recording and I hope you can take something away from them. Now, if today's conversation leaves you wanting more, you can find the link to the full episode in the show notes. So sit back, settle in, and here it is.

• 2:07Jamie Laing?

  When we were younger, when I was younger, right? Being a pop star, being famous, being like that was just like...

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Off the charts. I know.

• 2:17Jamie Laing?

  But you did it.

• 2:18Speaker 03

  I know. And do you know what? I just, it's so, basically, we, we used to watch CBBC at home when we're little, did you?

• 2:25Jamie Laing?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:26Speaker 03

  And it was an audition and it was called S Club Search. And the actual audition was to support S Club 7 at Wembley. And it wasn't for a group, it was just to go and sing at Wembley. And that, that's what I thought I was entering. These were like the days when it was pop idol kind of era.

• 2:44Jamie Laing?

  Yeah.

• 2:45Speaker 03

  Thousands of kids queuing around the block at Wembley Arena. And we went and we auditioned. And I actually went to the audition with Frankie.

• 2:55Jamie Laing?

  Did you?

• 2:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, because we went to the same weekend dance school. So we went together, we queued together.

• 3:00Jamie Laing?

  No.

• 3:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, with our parents and...

• 3:04Jamie Laing?

  Are you nervous or when you had, are you thinking, I'm going to get this?

• 3:07Speaker 03

  I just, this is a great day out. Like, this is unbelievable.

• 3:11Jamie Laing?

  What was the audition process like?

• 3:13Speaker 03

  It was just really fun. There was a few rounds and each time it was like, you know, if you don't get it, you know, and at the time I'd like audition for like West End musicals and stuff. And I was in one before and I remember auditioning for Lion King. Oh, how mad is this? Marvin and I both auditioned to play Simba and Nala in the same year for Lion King.

• 3:34Jamie Laing?

  No.

• 3:35Speaker 03

  But then when we went back, because they, they obviously have so many kids on rotation.

• 3:39Jamie Laing?

  Yeah.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  I then grew too tall for the Simba and then he grew too tall as well.

• 3:45Jamie Laing?

  No.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  So we could have played Nala and Simba together as like 11 year olds.

• 3:50Jamie Laing?

  Soulmates.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  Could you imagine?

• 3:51Jamie Laing?

  Yeah, but the life didn't allow you to do it.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  No, because that would give me the ick.

• 3:54Jamie Laing?

  Yeah.

• 3:55Speaker 03

  When I look back, it's cute, but it would have also been a little bit cringe.

• 3:59Jamie Laing?

  And but what was it about, what was it about the stage? What was it about being in that limelight that made you excited?

• 4:06Speaker 03

  I was, you're not, never going to believe this, but I was a really shy child.

• 4:11Jamie Laing?

  I don't believe it.

• 4:11Speaker 03

  No, just bear with me.

• 4:12Jamie Laing?

  Okay.

• 4:13Speaker 03

  So I had a really bad stammer when I was young. So I went to speech therapy and my mom sent me, they advised her to send me to dancing because I was that kid that hid behind my mom's legs and was very, and I suppose probably because it was just me and my mom, I was very sort of like obsessed with her, like, you know, that kid that's just like, oh, mommy, mommy. So that was me. And then I had a bad stammer.

• 4:38Jamie Laing?

  How bad was the stammer?

• 4:39Speaker 03

  Bad until I was probably eight, I'd say.

• 4:43Jamie Laing?

  Wow.

• 4:43Speaker 03

  So I would go to speech therapy and then that obviously worked. And they said to send me to, for my confidence, to send me to dancing. And, you know, that was an expense for my mom. So she was like, was working hard to send me, bless her. I suppose it was the worst thing she could have done because she couldn't shut me up. But she's like, she's gone from going, come on, talk, talk, talk.

• 5:11Speaker 03

  Like some West End Wendy all of a sudden. So, yeah, so I think that, that was the real reason that I first started. But then I just instantly had this, I felt like a completely different person when I was on stage and just loved it and then became really obsessed with it. And I think such good character building when I look back, like the resilience it taught you.

• 5:37Jamie Laing?

  Explain that to me because that, because in a parent's mind, they're going, oh, my God, your kid is going there and you're exposing your child to lots of different things and it's crazy. But, but what are the positives that come out of something like that?

• 5:48Speaker 03

  You're so, so your yeses are so, are so few. Like if you, you'll go on an audition and you'll get sent for one because, you know, if you're just on an agent's books, I go, oh, go on then, you try this. But really, when you get there, and I never forget, somebody saying to me once, when you arrive, it might not be about anything that you've done. It might be that actually you arrived and they were looking for someone with blue eyes or they were looking for someone that's a certain height. And it just became about like, let's just give it a go. They might be after someone with curly hair today, or they might be after somebody that's my height, or they might be, so it became no. And I think when you're younger, you're so, what I felt, my experience of the industry

• 6:33Speaker 03

  as a child, thankfully for me, and I think all of the juniors would say this, I'm confident they would, is that we, I felt that we were really well looked after, like there were no horror stories. I didn't, you know, we were really well protected. Our parents were really involved and I think they were so protective and they wanted to be part of that journey.

• 6:53Jamie Laing?

  What do you think you've taken from your mom's parenting into your parenting and what haven't you taken?

• 7:00Speaker 03

  My mom, and still now to this day, is the sort of mom that I could call her at 4:00 AM and she'll be there in two minutes. Like, I remember when I'd first moved out and I, I woke up and I threw up and I didn't know what to do. How bad, like, I had this like phobia for a long time of being sick. And I remember just randomly caught a bug or I'd eaten something. And I called my mom at 2:00 AM, I was like, mommy, you need to come here. And she arrived with a bottle of Jif and a cloth at my front door and got in bed with me. And that's the sort of parent that she's always been, and she still is. And I do, I think I definitely take that from her, that like, if my phone went now and it was the school nurse, best believe this conversation's done, you know?

• 7:43Speaker 03

  And that is the sort of parent I am. But I just, I think she's the reason that I'm like weirdly fearless. I will just take a chance, I'll take a risk, I'll try something new. But I definitely, that is from my mom. There's no two ways about it. She really raised me as like, her thing was always like shy kids don't get sweets. And, you know, that like, if you don't ask, you don't get, don't take no for an answer. And she really sort of, I suppose that sort of tenacity and that willpower is definitely from her. Like, when I think about it now, she raised me and my sister solo and that worked every job under the sun.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  And we didn't have any, like, you know, she had me in a hostel. And then I remember we got a council flat and that was like such a win. And then we got a council house and then she worked and she bought the house off the council and it was like, we were letting off confetti cannons, you know? That was like winning the Euros. So I think, yeah, when I look back now and I, I see not only the financial privilege that we now have, that, yeah, of course I've worked my ass off for, but she works her ass off and our finances are very different. But when I look back now and I think not only financially, because that's only half of the battle, but what she did as a single parent, I'm like, I sort of, when Marv's away for the weekend, I'll be in a mood with him.

• 9:12Speaker 03

  And like, why? Yeah, I'm like, yeah, it's all right, you're at work, you're having a lovely time, are you? Is it great DJing and I beef? How good? Hope you're having a ball, you know? And I'm like, Aggie, just because he's away. And I think like the kind of the love and the fight that she put in, but I never knew.

• 9:30Jamie Laing?

  When did you recognise that? Because there's a moment, right, when you suddenly get a, you realise, you go, oh, wait, hang on a second.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  I think probably not until later, as in like probably just before I had my own or just. I think one thing that I'll always give her credit for is I never knew that we didn't have a lot, as in like. Life wise or financially, I never knew. I kind of, the only thing I was ever aware of is that I stood in a different queue. When we used to queue up for school dinners, because I used to get mine, because she, I didn't pay for my school dinners because she had help with that. So I can't, that's the only thing that I knew that was different is that I, and I used to be really embarrassed about.

• 10:09Jamie Laing?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, what did it make you feel?

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, I used to be really, really embarrassed about standing in the queue. But it's weird, I don't, they never do that now, I don't think. I mean, I don't actually know because. My children aren't in that situation, but I can't imagine now that you'd be in a different queue if you got help with the school lunch. I probably, but this is where I have, like, I'm delusional with how positive I am. I probably thought I was a VIP in the other queue, like. Okay, don't worry about me, guys. My name's on the list. I was like, cool. Until someone flagged that it was because my mum couldn't afford to and it's because she doesn't, her dad's not around.

• 10:44Jamie Laing?

  Do you remember that moment?

• 10:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, I do remember those conversations. I remember which is actually so cute. My best friend. Used to be really jealous that I had, my mum was dating someone at the time. And then there was a period of time where my dad started seeing me for the odd weekend. It was only very short. And I, this is how kids can be also really cute, that she went home to her mum, who is. My mum's, still my mum's best friend to this day. And she said, I can't believe Michelle gets two dads. So unfair. She had, you know, parents who'd still be married like thirty odd years now, and she just thought it was so rude that I got two dads.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  And obviously for me, it's, that's how kids can even be so beautiful or so awful, you know, and I think. We do such a job in dictating that.

• 11:35Jamie Laing?

  You know, your dad wasn't around.

• 11:37Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 11:38Jamie Laing?

  And he left when you were one?

• 11:40Speaker 03

  He left when I was one. And so I don't really have. Any memory of him. I remember a sort of, there was a short window where I did see him. At the odd weekend, but then that ended quite quickly because I remember waiting for him. And I remember then that then being like, oh, he's not coming today.

• 12:00Jamie Laing?

  Where were you waiting?

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Literally on the sofa by the window. And it's so weird because. When I think about it now, I, there were so many years that I was like, I'd be really upset about it or really angry. And the day that I, it's like you now, in this era for you, so the day that I sort of had a layer. And we're in those first few months of that bubble, I instantly had zero curiosity about ever getting to know my dad. But also knowing that I don't think I'd ever. Respect him as a person, as he wouldn't be someone that I'd choose to spend time with. So I think.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  I instantly became less upset. When I think of the little me, I think, oh, God, that's so sad. Like, I think of my children. I think, oh, my gosh. Even if they wait for me and I'm in a traffic jam for five minutes at the school, I'm like, oh, God, I'm like, ooh, I don't want them to be left. So I think. Yeah, I just, I, weirdly, as a kid, I did find it quite hard. And I think. He went on to have three other children who, who now are like. My right arms, you know, I'm like, we're obsessed with each other. But I found it really hard that. The way that I saw it from the outside, that it was that he was parenting them and not me.

• 13:20Jamie Laing?

  Who filled that space, the space for your dad growing up?

• 13:23Speaker 03

  My uncle, my uncle Paul Big Time, yeah. He would be like the one that would. You know, if something happened or. He was, he was kind of that male presence in my life. But really.

• 13:35Jamie Laing?

  Because that's important.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  It is, yeah, it is. But do you really, I think my mum just wore so many hats that I just didn't know any different. So I felt so special. My uncle Paul would come and he played football, so he was. Playing for England and my friend, my, all my friends thought that was really cool because he was Paul Ince and he was like this huge.

• 13:56Jamie Laing?

  Sorry, hold on a second.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, so, yeah, I know. So he.

• 13:59Jamie Laing?

  Sorry.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  Oh, you didn't know this? I thought that's why you asked me.

• 14:02Jamie Laing?

  No, this is not in the notes. This is not in my research.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  I don't think people really know about this, actually. But yeah, so he's, so my mum. I know. So he's, so he's close, he gave me away at our wedding. Imagine Marvin had to ask Paul to marry me. That's another story in itself.

• 14:21Jamie Laing?

  Can't wait. This is, this is.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, so, so that was really exciting. So we'd, I'd get taken to West Ham every weekend and. I always think that's also why I don't like football so much because it was such, I just had to go and sit and watch.

• 14:33Jamie Laing?

  Because you were forced, wasn't it?

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just remember we'd be just doing colouring and stuff whilst we were watching. So they, he really was that like. Male role model that I looked up to, that was like there for his kids, that was.

• 14:45Jamie Laing?

  Wow, and a lot of other men looked up to as well. Paul Ince is a real icon.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  I didn't know that until I was older, until I was like at secondary school and, you know. Boys thought it was cool. Like, I didn't actually realise that. I just knew that he was, and I think I really saw their life as. So Claire, his wife, and my mum are best friends. They grew up in the house next door to each other. He's not actually my blood uncle, but he. Was instantly, my mum was the first one in the group to have a child. And that was it. He just became like.

• 15:16Jamie Laing?

  What a great guy.

• 15:17Speaker 03

  Oh, he's incredible. And he's just.

• 15:20Jamie Laing?

  A big responsibility to take on.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was just around and he was just always that person for me, always is, always will be. They both are.