Trinny Woodall tells Chris Evans about improving self-confidence with her new book Fearless

Virgin Radio

14 Sep 2023, 10:35

Trinny Woodall joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about her advice-filled book, Fearless.

Speaking about Fearless, which is out today (Thursday 14th September), the fashion stylist and presenter told Chris: “Some people don't maybe have that confidence or the fearlessness to say, ‘I'm gonna go for it’. 

“It's like, how can we take away some fears?”

She added: “I want people to just think of each thing that could be something that's maybe stopping them getting to where they want to be.”

Trinny explained: “I lived my life for many years where I felt I was living on quicksand. I would feel that, if I fell, I'd fall 20 feet. But now I probably feel I'm living a foot above the ground and some days, five inches above the ground. And if I fall, I’ll trip. And it's how do you build that foundation so that when you're having really tough times, you don't let yourself fall off the cliff?"

The book is divided into four sections: identify, life, beauty and style, to help readers transform their self-confidence, to look and feel great. While talking about some of the topics in the book, Trinny spoke to Chris about “the 99 percent”. She explained: “The 99 percent is something that my ex-husband told me and it was 99 percent of everything you worry about doesn't happen.”

This led to the CEO of Trinny London talking about journaling. “I heard this thing once that when you are an hour away from something you remember 95 percent of it, when you're a week away from something you remember 50 percent factually of it, when you're a year away from it, 25 percent, probably. So our perception of what has happened will be directed by how we're feeling currently. 

“My daughter’s just gone to university, and I said to her, ‘Why don't you just get a gratitude journal?’. And so she started writing this stuff down. And it enabled her in that moment of fear, five days in, to look back and think, ‘Actually, for the last few days, I've been feeling okay’. Whereas when she was in that fifth day, feeling fearful, she felt, ‘Maybe I've been like that the whole time’. But you go back and you read and you think, ‘Actually. ease up a bit. Yeah, it wasn't so bad’.”

Trinny also spoke about the quadrant. “I have a CEO coach. It sounds weird, but he's fantastic,” she said. “And he introduced me to this, because we can have these lists in our head or on our iPhone or whatever it might be. And it was just putting them in these boxes. So the quadrant is for you to kind of see where everything is in your current life. So, you write everything down in Urgent & Important, Urgent Not Important, Not Important Urgent and Not important & Not Urgent.”

Regarding friendship, the What Not To Wear star said: “For me, it's about where’s the give and take? So, I ask people to put arrows on the different types of friendships. So, do you have friends you've had from a long, long time ago, and you see as an obligation... you maybe dread seeing them? And it's having the courage to say, ‘Is it time to let go?’. You might have friends who always sap all your energy and you leave thinking, ‘They never asked me one question about myself and, and I'm always there for them’. And you feel that obligation, but what's it doing for you?”

There is also plenty of fashion and style advice in the book. Regarding skincare, Trinny said: “I had acne from 13 to 30. So, when you have really bad skin, you're on a mission, you will try everything. I literally tried 1000s of brands, because I wanted the thing that would work. So on that journey, I sometimes was drawn in by brilliant marketing campaigns, but actually I was buying false gold.

“I think if you know what ingredients will work for you, it really helps you. And many women have amazing skin. And then they wake up one day at 40, 50, and they go ‘What has happened?’, and then they go in at the deep end. But they might rush in, and because they haven't had a little bit of training for a while, they'll just buy anything. And I want to give people directions as to what's important to think about.”

Fearless is out now.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.