Kayla Itsines reveals all: selling for $400m, starting a new chapter & pregnancy after loss

And I actually have a question that wasn't one of my planned questions that I was going to ask, but I just, I just remembered that at the time I was obviously like 18, like I was freshly 18 when I started these guides and I, or like I looked at the scale you were reaching.

And one thing I really respected, and I don't know if it's something that I respected because we didn't have the Instagram culture that we do now.

And therefore like, sponsorships weren't seen in the same way or whatever but I feel like at least from an external perspective at that point you were everywhere like you were international you were in person you were doing these boot camps you were had millions and millions of followers there was this cult-like following and at the same time you didn't seem to take huge sponsorship opportunities.

I feel like you double down on building your own thing, which I don't think is the natural thing to do at that point.

As you say, you were on all of these massive shows in the US.

You were literally everywhere.

I went to one of your boot camps and there were thousands and thousands of women.

And so... what made you at the time concentrate on doing your own thing and really building your own thing when I have no doubt that like the Nikes the Adidas is the like down to the apples down to all of this like surely they would have been jumping to work with you and to like sponsor you and to have a big deal and I just I mean maybe I missed it I never see I never saw that coming through and it was so interesting at the time because it was the early days of sponsorship and like People were doing a lot for 20 quid and it usually had something to do with skinny meaty and like that type of vibe.

So I'm kind of like almost astounded that you in that era were just like, actually, I'm going to double down and just concentrate on me and my thing rather than I can imagine what it would have been very lucrative deals elsewhere.

Yeah.

Listen, the thing is, alongside, the only way I can explain this is alongside being an absolute perfectionist, all I care about outside of that is family.

And not even direct family, but like, for example, my best friend or someone that I've even just met feeling like they have a family.

And I think that's what resonated with the community.

And this is going somewhere, I promise.

That the community, and I don't know if you felt this, felt like you had like a family, a bunch of sisters around you, people that wanted you to do well, women that wanted you to do well.

And so with that, only caring about a sense of family, when brands would approach me you could kind of instantly feel that it was what can I get from you, not what can I do for you.

It wasn't like this relationship where you felt like a family with these brands.

And because they're so big and they're so quick and they're so fast to jump at you, it felt like you're almost being used.

It was like a...

Toxic relationship.

But that's why I never really sort of partnered down with anyone because nothing really resonated.

Nothing really felt quite right.

It felt like you felt like a little bit of a sellout when the partnership wasn't quite right.

Again, being a female in the industry, it's really hard because a lot of the people that you're having discussions with about partnerships, and there was a lot.

Behind the scenes, there were a lot of partnerships with big, huge brands, many of the ones that you just mentioned.