TRINNY WOODALL: I Wish I Knew THIS in My Twenties | GREAT MOMENTS

Great Company with Jamie Laing

In this episode of Great Moments, Jamie Laing interviews Trinny Woodall about her early career struggles and personal evolution. Trinny reco

Key takeaways

• Trinny Woodall worked on a commodities trading floor in the late 1980s where she was one of only a few women among approximately 60 men.
• To fit into the trading environment, she adopted masculine clothing, including her father's coats and Fratelli Rosetti men's brogues.

Main topics

• Commodity trading
• Gender dynamics in the workplace

Notable quotes

There's drains and then there's uppers. What is the uppers?

Conclusion

The episode highlights the importance of authenticity and resilience i

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Ruby, how do you take your tea? Speaker 2 (0:02) Steaming, piping hot and spilled with my best friend. Wednesdays Speaker 1 (0:06) has Speaker 2 (0:06) entered a new era and the tea is better than ever. Join me, Melissa Tattam. And me, Ruby Adler, every Wednesday and Friday as we dive into friendship, pop culture, modern relationships, wellness and the chaos of navigating life. Speaker 1 (0:18) We are best friends and for us, nothing is off limits. Celeb stories, Speaker 2 (0:22) life milestones and your juicy dilemmas. We're here to share it all with you. So fancy joining us? The Speaker 1 (0:28) kettle's on. Speaker 2 (0:28) Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 3 (0:36) Hello, everyone. I'm Jamie Lang, and this is Great Moments. Speaker 3 (0:43) 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 Comedy 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. Speaker 3 (1:09) There's drains and then there's uppers. What is the uppers? Speaker 1 (1:12) I don't know. Speaker 3 (1:13) There's a drain and Speaker 1 (1:14) then there's... Speaker 3 (1:14) Okay, look it up quickly. There she is on the laptop. There's a drain and then there's something. But you're the opposite of a drain. You definitely bring people up. Have you felt those low moments? Yes. Speaker 1 (1:22) Or Speaker 3 (1:22) do you not allow yourself to get there? No, Speaker 1 (1:24) I Speaker 3 (1:24) have felt Speaker 1 (1:24) those low moments. Speaker 3 (1:25) You have? Definitely, yes. Lots of times. Radiators. Radiators. Radiators. Speaker 1 (1:30) Drains or radiator. That's it. So I had that moment. Susanna and I had worked together for 10 years. Where did you guys meet? Susanna was working for the Telegraph writing about women's cricket. She just had an affair with Imran Khan for a few years. Or is she still with David Linney? I don't know. Something happened. Yeah, something happened. Something happened. Speaker 2 (1:58) And she wanted to do something else. So then there Speaker 1 (2:00) was me and I was trying to do business. And I hated business. My dad was a businessman. I was just trying to do it. But I had no qualifications, nothing. I always felt a fraud. I felt so fraudulent. And it wasn't working. What, because you didn't understand it or you felt out of place? I was so out of place. It was me and many men on a trading floor. I was trying to fit in, so I kind of swore like a trooper. And, you know, we were doing puts and stops and butterflies and options and commodity trading, the arse end of things, really. It is the arse end. Commodity trading can be the arse end. I did physicals and then futures. Just Speaker 3 (2:33) quickly, out of how many people were you? Were you the only woman? Speaker 1 (2:39) There was a secretary in the front room, and then there was me in the sales team, and then there were about 60 men. Yeah. How Speaker 3 (2:47) do you hold your own in that scenario? Speaker 1 (2:50) You develop this sort of skill of just becoming one of the boys. In that environment, the only way I thought I could succeed was to become one of the boys. So they were all loutish. Imagine the most loutish of your friends, and that was this collection of people. I'm in my 20s, and I think I've got to dress like a boy. So I raid my father's wardrobe. I come into work in the winter in his covert coat. I get my suits from Miss Selfridge, but I go and take all the buttons off and I go to the button queen in Marylebone Lane and I get livery buttons on my suits. I then buy, you know, with my salary, I buy Ferragamo men's shoes. No, Fratelli Rosetti men's brogues. And I Speaker 3 (3:33) just become a boy. Speaker 1 (3:34) It was the only way I felt, because I had never felt sexy, feminine, booby girl. All right. So I couldn't lean into let's be ultra feminine in this male world. That wasn't me. And I always felt more comfortable to be