Moment 12 - Krissy Cela on How She Discovered Her Self-Confidence

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Krissy Cela wasn’t always the sassy, confident woman we all know her as today. In fact, like many other successful people, there was a period of time in which Krissy struggled. This is the story of how the ‘foreign girl with a moustache at school’ discovered her self-confidence and in turn, discovered her true self. Episode 57 - https://g2ul0.app.link/tEZovAdYvhb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:05Steven Bartlett?

  When I watch you on Instagram, the feel that I get from you versus pretty much everybody else, other than one other person, I've got to be honest, and he's sat in this chair and he's actually coming back, is Joe Wicks. Like when I met Joe Wicks, he is the guy you meet off, off, off air or whatever, is the same guy. And he's so fucking genuine. And all he cares about is like genuinely helping people. But the reason, I said to Joe, I said, I think the reason you're so successful is because you are yourself and you will share it all. And when I, when I was watching you on Instagram and watching some of your videos, you cater to the 99% of people's lives, which is the real shit.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:41Steven Bartlett?

  I saw your video this week, you did on your story, you waking up and you saying, listen, I don't want to wake up today. And most people don't admit that because, you know, a lack of perfection is sometimes perceived as weakness. So I wondered how that resonated with you in terms of the importance of your success originating from Chrissy being her truest self.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're, you can only be the best version of yourself, right? And I think if you start trying to be something else, soon enough, it will come out. Or you'll start to fall through the cracks, or it will slip, something will slip. And you can only uphold that image and, you know, that presence for so long before it really just fucks up. So the only thing you can do is be the best version of yourself. And this is what I tell people all the time. It's never been about other people's perceptions of you. It's always been what you think about yourself. And if you truly, truly believe in yourself, you won't want to be anybody else. You want to, you won't want to be fake. You wouldn't want

• 1:40Speaker 01

  to be trying to please everyone. My job isn't to please everyone.

• 1:44Steven Bartlett?

  Were you always at that point?

• 1:45Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:46Steven Bartlett?

  Tell me about that.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Oh my God, no. I mean, I remember when I was in a relationship, I was 16 years old. I was like, I'm going to marry this person. I'm so in love. Like, this is it. And then he cheated on me. And I was like, oh shit, this is not it.

• 2:00Steven Bartlett?

  What's his name?

• 2:01Speaker 01

  No. He does not deserve the airtime. I'll tell you that much. But I was heartbroken and I was trying so hard to please this person. You know, I was trying so hard, even in school, I know it sounds petty, but I was trying so hard to fit in all the time. All the time. I remember like this is so, this is not cute on my end. I'm gonna be honest with you. I remember being at school and I'm foreign, okay, like I'm Mediterranean, we're hairy, okay? And I had a m- no, I had a moustache and the girls used to rip me for it. And I was so sad. I was like, oh my God, why am I not like these pretty English girls?

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Like, I don't understand. Like, I used to feel so shitty about myself, constantly trying to like fit in. And then when I got cheated on, I was like, oh my God, it must be because I'm not pretty enough. It must be because I'm not sexy enough. Fuck that. That's draining. What do you mean? I constantly have to be something else for someone else. I'm never gonna be happy. And I, I wasn't happy for such a long time. So, yeah, I just, I just fully like exposed my moustache story there.

• 3:12Steven Bartlett?

  That's fine. So let's take us from moustache to, to self-confidence.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Um.

• 3:17Steven Bartlett?

  What was that journey and what, what changed your, your, your self-esteem and your self-confidence? What helped you get that confidence in yourself?

• 3:26Speaker 01

  I think for me it was.

• 3:29Steven Bartlett?

  Can we just, I think that should be the podcast title, Moustache.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  No, no, seriously, even Sarah doesn't know that. I used to have a, no, guys, I'm gonna be honest with you, okay? Like, I don't give a fuck. I had a moustache growing up, okay? And all the girls used to rip me the fuck up. They used to be like, eh, your man, your boy, like, honestly, bitchy shit, man. And I ate my school dinner for six months in a toilet because I didn't have any friends.

• 3:57Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think that experience is part of the reason you are who you are today?

• 4:01Speaker 01

  One hundred percent. Like, honestly, it's pretty impossible to, to break me. And when you've broken me, understand that you've really like broken me down because it takes a lot now.

• 4:15Steven Bartlett?

  Was that, we talk about the mustache, moustache thing as if it was this sort of trivial thing, but I'm guessing what you're saying is you were bullied in school.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, but at the same time, it's not like I was constantly bullied. Like, I think, I don't know. A lot of us go through awkward stages in school, trying to make friends, trying to be with a cool gang, trying to do this, trying to do that. Then you almost become like mean as well because you're so hurt by everybody else that you only, yeah, so.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  I think, you know, like, I remember walking into sixth form one time and a lot of personal things happened in my life and no one wanted to be around me at that point. And I just hated everyone around me and I was full of anger, constant anger and hate.

• 5:00Steven Bartlett?

  Hmm.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  You know, and I didn't want to be that person anymore, especially after being cheated on. I didn't want to be that person anymore. And I remember being on the train one day, because I used to work in Potter's Bar at the time, um, in this little men's boutique, like retail shop, and I was coming back home. And I remember like the penny dropped and I was like, I can try so hard to be sexy and cool and all this stuff for other people, but I'm not doing anything for myself. And that's where the quote, do this for you comes from. Because I signed up to the gym that day and then I walked straight back out and didn't go back for two months. I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna lie to you. I signed up and I was like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I know what to do.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Signed up, didn't come back for two months. I was like, fuck that shit, I ain't going back, I don't know what to do.

• 5:49Steven Bartlett?

  Why didn't you go?

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Because I was scared. I was like, who, I was like, who do, who do you think you are, Chrissy? Trying to be like a fitness girl, you don't know what you're doing. You know, this was like six years ago. You don't know what you're doing. Go back home, relax, right? Relax, chill, go to work, study, relax.

• 6:09Steven Bartlett?

  At some point you must have changed your mind.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did, I did. And I did, and I was like, uh, okay, no, I need to do this. Like, what am I doing? I'm so lethargic, I'm tired all the time, I'm not strong. I was never like, um, overweight or underweight, I was just tired all the time and drained, especially mentally. So when I got into the gym, I remember looking at the leg press machine and I was like, what is this transformer? I don't know what the fuck to do with this machine. And everybody else around me seemed to kind of know what to do. And then there was like men there and the women were on the cardio machines and the men were at the weights. I didn't care about the cardio machine, I was so intrigued by the weights. It's like, what, why do men go there?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  What is it about men that go there and women go there? I want to go there. And I didn't know how to use weights. I didn't know what I was doing. I was training. I didn't have anything, like no one was on Instagram at the time. No one was teaching the way. Social media has literally opened up a book full of information and free content. And we didn't, I didn't have that at the time I started, you know?

• 7:19Steven Bartlett?

  Hmm.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  I didn't know what I was doing.

• 7:21Steven Bartlett?

  So how did you?

• 7:22Speaker 01

  I learned.

• 7:23Steven Bartlett?

  You learned?

• 7:24Speaker 01

  I just learned. I just was like, you know what? I'm just gonna do this. And I kinda, I kinda got addicted to the feeling of how completing a workout made me feel. And I started going again and again, and I started learning because.

• 7:40Steven Bartlett?

  What was it doing for you going?

• 7:42Speaker 01

  It was giving me my therapy.

• 7:44Steven Bartlett?

  Therapy from what?

• 7:46Speaker 01

  From life, from my reality, from the fact that I was so depressed with who I was and so angry at the world and everything the world had done to me. And the only time I felt like I could escape was at the gym, which is so crazy. Cause the gym is like a chore for people. It's, oh, I've got to fucking train today. But I went there and I escaped.

• 8:14Steven Bartlett?

  Hmm.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  It was therapy. And no one could take that feeling away from me. Not an ex-boyfriend that cheated on me, not a mean girl at school, not a horrible boss, no one.