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Georgie Stevenson's Back Flip · Outspoken the Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:05
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Amy Torver. I'm Kate Torver. And I'm Sophie Torver. And
0:12
Speaker 1: coming up on today's show, Georgie Stevenson apologises over tone-deaf
0:18
Speaker 1: fuel flex, Sam Guggenheimer is accused of begging to go
0:21
Speaker 1: to Coachella, and Ashy Bynes is under fire for encouraging
0:26
Speaker 1: panic buying. But first... Justin McKeon has fronted the Melbourne
0:30
Speaker 1: Magistrates Court for the first time after being charged with
0:33
Speaker 1: more than 100 counts of fraud. Investigators allege Justin stole
0:37
Speaker 1: almost half a million dollars over a three-month period while
0:41
Speaker 1: working as the head of finance for a pharmaceutical sales
0:44
Speaker 1: business called Rocket Brands in 2024. Now, this charge comes
0:48
Speaker 1: after a mammoth 15-month investigation into By Yarra Crime Investigation
0:53
Speaker 1: Unit detectives. Yeah, not good news at all. Victorian police
0:57
Speaker 1: have confirmed Justin was charged on summons, not bails. So
1:00
Speaker 1: that means instead of arresting him, they issued him a summons,
1:03
Speaker 1: which is like a legal notice telling him he actually
1:05
Speaker 1: had to go to court on a certain day, which
1:07
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting considering he didn't show up to court
1:09
Speaker 1: many times for the civil proceedings. The person I feel
1:12
Speaker 1: really sorry for right now is his ex-wife, Olivia Rogers,
1:15
Speaker 1: because her name is being dragged through the press right now.
1:18
Speaker 1: I'm going to read you some of the headlines. Olivia
1:20
Speaker 1: Molly Rogers ex fronts court charged with stealing 500K from employer.
1:24
Speaker 1: Ex-husband of Miss Universe in court accused of fraud. The
1:29
Speaker 1: reason I feel terrible for Olivia is the fact that
1:31
Speaker 1: she's set to give birth next month. Not great timing. Look,
1:35
Speaker 1: I do feel really sorry for her and the timing
1:37
Speaker 1: isn't great, but I can completely understand from a journalistic
1:40
Speaker 1: perspective why they are including her name in the story.
1:44
Speaker 1: They are providing context. Yes, it's probably not fair to
1:47
Speaker 1: to run with it in the title. But at the
1:49
Speaker 1: end of the day, they're trying to sell papers. They
1:51
Speaker 1: know that her name unfortunately sells. Well, also it gives
1:54
Speaker 1: context to who he actually is, because if he wasn't
1:56
Speaker 1: married to Olivia Rogers at some point, this wouldn't be
1:59
Speaker 1: making the headlines that it has been, would it? Georgie
2:17
Speaker 1: Stevenson has publicly apologised for her tone-deaf comments about Australia's
2:22
Speaker 1: fuel crisis. Over the weekend, the wellness entrepreneur shared an
2:26
Speaker 1: Instagram reel of her sipping on a coffee with the caption,
2:30
Speaker 1: some people choose to complain about the cost of fuel.
2:33
Speaker 1: Other people chose to build their own success, co-own three
2:36
Speaker 1: companies and buy a Porsche at 28 years old. I'm
2:40
Speaker 1: other people. Now, as you can imagine, the backlash was swift.
2:44
Speaker 1: We discussed the criticism and and our own thoughts about
2:47
Speaker 1: Georgie's post in depth on Tuesday's show. So if you
2:50
Speaker 1: haven't listened yet, I suggest you pause this episode and
2:53
Speaker 1: check that out first. Yeah, and on Monday night, just
2:56
Speaker 1: as we finished editing that episode, Georgie posted a public
3:00
Speaker 1: apology to her Instagram story. So in the statement, the
3:03
Speaker 1: entrepreneur claimed the video was a trial reel that was
3:06
Speaker 1: posted by an external agency without her approval. Now, for
3:10
Speaker 1: those listeners not familiar with trial reels, it's a way
3:14
Speaker 1: for creators to test how content performs without fully committing
3:17
Speaker 1: to posting it to the Instagram feed. It's a strategy
3:21
Speaker 1: often used by creators and agencies to test out hooks
3:24
Speaker 1: and caption styles and topic angles. Sometimes influencers will actually
3:29
Speaker 1: post multiple reels with almost identical content with the only
3:32
Speaker 1: difference being the hook that appears in the first one
3:35
Speaker 1: to three seconds and So then they determine which hook
3:38
Speaker 1: actually will stop consumers scrolling and then reuse that style
3:41
Speaker 1: across future content. So it's clear that Georgie Stevenson is
3:46
Speaker 1: very strategic when it comes to her content. Now, the
3:49
Speaker 1: results from this trial reel were very clear. People didn't
3:53
Speaker 1: like it. So in her apology statement, Georgie wrote, over
3:57
Speaker 1: the weekend, a trial reel was posted that didn't align
3:59
Speaker 1: with me and my beliefs. She went on to say,
4:02
Speaker 1: I realize how serious this is considering it's my account,
4:05
Speaker 1: my face and ultimately my brand. The messaging behind the
4:08
Speaker 1: post completely missed the mark and it was out of
4:10
Speaker 1: touch and incredibly insensitive. However, catching it was my job
4:13
Speaker 1: and I failed to do so. I took action to
4:16
Speaker 1: remove it. She then explained since returning from maternity leave
4:19
Speaker 1: that she has been trying new systems and processes. So
4:22
Speaker 1: she said she was disappointed the post appeared on her
4:24
Speaker 1: page and was deeply sorry if she hurt people or
4:27
Speaker 1: made them feel less than. She finished up by writing,
4:30
Speaker 1: I'm conscious this might seem like just another apology from
4:33
Speaker 1: an influencer, but please know this has been a wake-up
4:35
Speaker 1: call and something like this will never happen again. Feedback
4:38
Speaker 1: is great for growth and I'll continue to listen, respond
4:41
Speaker 1: and learn along the way. This apology did nothing to
4:44
Speaker 1: stop the backlash. If anything, it seemed to ignite the
4:46
Speaker 1: situation further, which forced Georgie to share another Instagram post
4:51
Speaker 1: reiterating just how sorry she was. She's still yet to
4:54
Speaker 1: talk directly to camera, but she instead uploaded a series
4:58
Speaker 1: of photos which she wrote updates on. So she wrote,
5:01
Speaker 1: I want to be really clear. This is not something
5:03
Speaker 1: I would have ever approved. The person who created slash
5:06
Speaker 1: drafted it is younger without children and not struggling like
5:10
Speaker 1: so many Australians right now. It would have never been
5:12
Speaker 1: approved if it went through our usual processes, but it
5:15
Speaker 1: was posted on my platform and I take full responsibility
5:18
Speaker 1: for that. I'm truly sorry. My TikTok algorithm is full
5:23
Speaker 1: of people responding to Georgie Stevenson's fuel flex. It has
5:27
Speaker 1: really struck a nerve with people. The sorts of posts
5:30
Speaker 1: I'm seeing are very reminiscent of 2020 when people had
5:34
Speaker 1: such fury for influencers, which was really spurred on by
5:37
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Yeah, my TikTok feed is the same. People
5:40
Speaker 1: are really mad and I understand why they are. I
5:45
Speaker 1: think essentially people are looking for someone to blame because
5:48
Speaker 1: it is such a difficult time at the moment and
5:50
Speaker 1: influencers aren't really helping themselves out by waving a red
5:53
Speaker 1: flag with this sort of content. Yeah, as you said,
5:56
Speaker 1: we saw it with the pandemic and it seems like
5:58
Speaker 1: history is repeating itself. And the timing of this post
6:02
Speaker 1: going out was just absolutely terrible for Georgie Stevenson. Now,
6:06
Speaker 1: she is clearly trying to shut down some of these
6:08
Speaker 1: narratives that are appearing online. One is that she comes
6:11
Speaker 1: from a wealthy family, which she said is not true.
6:14
Speaker 1: She comes from a working class family. Her dad was
6:16
Speaker 1: a plumber and her mum was a stay at home
6:18
Speaker 1: mum to four children. She also shared that her two
6:21
Speaker 1: older brothers are a plumber and a farmer. And she
6:24
Speaker 1: finished up by saying she isn't going to hide. She's
6:26
Speaker 1: going to continue showing up on social media. However, she
6:29
Speaker 1: is going to be tightening up her processes with external
6:32
Speaker 1: contractors and her team to ensure an era like this
6:35
Speaker 1: never happens again. Unfortunately for Georgie, the general consensus online
6:39
Speaker 1: was that this apology was a cop-out. I have seen
6:42
Speaker 1: so many mainstream media publications running with this story. For instance,
6:47
Speaker 1: Sunrise reported, influences grovelling apology for out-of-touch fuel crisis posts.
6:52
Speaker 1: I mean, the fact that one of the largest morning
6:55
Speaker 1: shows has picked up on this story is showing how
6:58
Speaker 1: much this story has impacted just everyday Australians and how
7:01
Speaker 1: angry people are. A lot of people felt like Georgie
7:03
Speaker 1: was trying to shift the blame and not take accountability. Yeah,
7:07
Speaker 1: originally I found it difficult to believe an agency would
7:11
Speaker 1: post a reel like that without getting approval because I
7:14
Speaker 1: previously managed social media accounts of various brands at a
7:17
Speaker 1: marketing agency and we had such a strict approval process
7:21
Speaker 1: and I assumed it would be the same at other agencies,
7:23
Speaker 1: particularly those who are managing personal accounts of influencers. I mean,
7:28
Speaker 1: of course, everyone is human and mistakes are made, but
7:30
Speaker 1: surely when you're posting something so divisive, you would be
7:34
Speaker 1: triple checking it, particularly when one of the big reasons
7:38
Speaker 1: influencers utilize agencies is because they're experts in the field.
7:42
Speaker 1: I mean, it's more likely an agency would be the
7:45
Speaker 1: one warning an influencer against posting something like what appeared
7:48
Speaker 1: on Georgie's account rather than creating it themselves and accidentally
7:52
Speaker 1: posting it. My other thought was if this was a
7:55
Speaker 1: genuine accident, Why hasn't she named the agency? Because if
7:59
Speaker 1: it was me, I wouldn't be protecting them, particularly when
8:02
Speaker 1: my livelihood is at stake and I have a successful
8:04
Speaker 1: business that I'm trying to protect. And why hasn't this
8:07
Speaker 1: agency taken any accountability? If this genuinely happened, this is
8:12
Speaker 1: a massive stuff up on their behalf. And I would
8:14
Speaker 1: assume as part of the crisis management process, they would
8:17
Speaker 1: be publicly having to back their client and hold up
8:20
Speaker 1: their hands and take responsibility for what happened. Well, fortunately,
8:24
Speaker 1: we have been able to pose those questions to Georgie
8:27
Speaker 1: Stevenson ourselves. So we actually interviewed Georgie on one of
8:30
Speaker 1: Outspoken's Christmas episodes, I think six years ago now. So
8:34
Speaker 1: since then, we have DM'd occasionally and she slid into
8:37
Speaker 1: our DMs off the back of Tuesday's show and said
8:40
Speaker 1: that she was more than happy to answer any questions
8:42
Speaker 1: we had about the incident. So I asked if she
8:45
Speaker 1: would be naming the agency and if the agency intended
8:48
Speaker 1: to publicly take responsibility for the post. I also asked
8:52
Speaker 1: her how the mistake was actually made. So Georgie clarified
8:56
Speaker 1: it was actually an independent social media contractor she works
8:59
Speaker 1: with rather than an external agency that made the mistake.
9:03
Speaker 1: So the social media manager was on a trial at
9:06
Speaker 1: the time when the post was made. Awkwardly, the woman
9:09
Speaker 1: is someone Georgie knows personally. It's also someone Georgie said...
9:13
Speaker 1: has followed her for quite a number of years and
9:15
Speaker 1: she felt confident that this woman understood the tone of
9:18
Speaker 1: her posts.
9:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:20
Speaker 1: And this social media manager in question has apparently offered
9:23
Speaker 1: to go public and say it was her mistake. But
9:26
Speaker 1: Georgie said she doesn't see the point of naming and
9:28
Speaker 1: shaming the woman when she is young and just starting
9:30
Speaker 1: out in the industry. She said ultimately it's her account
9:33
Speaker 1: and she has to take responsibility for what was posted
9:36
Speaker 1: on it. It kind of makes more sense because if
9:38
Speaker 1: this was a large agency that you would probably feel
9:41
Speaker 1: more inclined to want to publicly call them out. Whereas
9:44
Speaker 1: if this is a young woman who's starting out fresh
9:47
Speaker 1: in the industry, it's probably not a good look. I
9:49
Speaker 1: think where this apology fell flat is I read it
9:52
Speaker 1: as if there was this big external agency that was
9:55
Speaker 1: managing Georgie's social media. And I was like, well, hang on,
9:58
Speaker 1: there's no way. that a professional agency would have stuffed
10:03
Speaker 1: up like this. There are so many protocols in place
10:05
Speaker 1: to avoid this happening. And also the fact that usually
10:08
Speaker 1: they manage an influencer's strategy. They understand their personal brand
10:12
Speaker 1: inside and out. But it does seem like this person
10:16
Speaker 1: was fairly new to the industry and And their role,
10:19
Speaker 1: according to Georgie, was just to strictly post trial reels.
10:23
Speaker 1: Apparently they had posted 10 reels for Georgie previously. They
10:26
Speaker 1: were all fine. They had to make a couple of tweaks,
10:29
Speaker 1: but she was pretty happy with them. Now this post
10:31
Speaker 1: has happened and Georgie said that the social media manager
10:34
Speaker 1: completely missed the mark and mistakenly made it live without
10:37
Speaker 1: her approval. Apparently they worked from this shared document and
10:41
Speaker 1: Georgie said she has gone back and double checked and
10:43
Speaker 1: she had not approved this content to go out. Now,
10:47
Speaker 1: she went on to explain to us that the whole
10:49
Speaker 1: incident has been a massive wake-up call for her. And
10:51
Speaker 1: she said since the incident, she's been having a lot
10:53
Speaker 1: of productive conversations with her community in her DMs, and
10:57
Speaker 1: she has learned a lot. She also admitted that she
11:00
Speaker 1: has had a lot of help with her social media accounts,
11:03
Speaker 1: so she can spend time with her two young daughters,
11:05
Speaker 1: but she will no longer be letting anyone external work
11:08
Speaker 1: on her account. I do find it interesting that Georgie
11:11
Speaker 1: said that this is a young woman who has been
11:13
Speaker 1: following her content for a number of years. and felt
11:16
Speaker 1: like she was across the tone of Georgie's content and
11:19
Speaker 1: thought that this was an acceptable thing to post. Obviously,
11:23
Speaker 1: she thinks that this is in line with the sort
11:25
Speaker 1: of content that Georgie has shared in the past. Yeah,
11:27
Speaker 1: and I think that's why a lot of people aren't
11:29
Speaker 1: buying the apology because they're like, well, this content is
11:32
Speaker 1: on brand with what you normally post. Georgie Stevenson is
11:36
Speaker 1: known to post content that pushes the boundaries in terms
11:40
Speaker 1: of flexing about wealth. And there is a goal at
11:42
Speaker 1: mind with that because She wants to sell her manifestation courses.
11:46
Speaker 1: You know, she has to show I have this enviable lifestyle.
11:49
Speaker 1: So that's why a lot of people were like, hang on,
11:51
Speaker 1: you might've just pushed it too far. And now you're
11:54
Speaker 1: backpedaling and saying, oh no, it wasn't me. We pointed
11:57
Speaker 1: out in Tuesday's episode that Porsche was spelled incorrectly in
12:00
Speaker 1: Georgie's reel. It almost makes sense if this was a
12:04
Speaker 1: young contractor who has created this post and that that
12:08
Speaker 1: spelling error could have been a legitimate mistake by them? Well,
12:11
Speaker 1: particularly because her Porsche has been front and center recently.
12:15
Speaker 1: So in rather awkward timing earlier this month, Georgie launched
12:19
Speaker 1: a giveaway for her supplement brand and new harvest. Ironically,
12:23
Speaker 1: the prize is Georgie's personal Porsche that was referenced in
12:26
Speaker 1: that trial reel. So it appears Georgie may have actually
12:30
Speaker 1: had assistance from some type of agency because The competition
12:33
Speaker 1: is set up as a very sophisticated sales funnel. So
12:37
Speaker 1: entrants have to comment my car on Georgie's giveaway post
12:40
Speaker 1: on Instagram to gain access to the entry link. Now
12:44
Speaker 1: at the time of recording, that post has had over
12:46
Speaker 1: 16.4 thousand comments. From there, entrants then receive an automated
12:51
Speaker 1: link into their Instagram box to enter. However, in order
12:55
Speaker 1: to actually enter, you need to place an order with
12:57
Speaker 1: a new harvest. So each purchase gives you one entry.
13:00
Speaker 1: So the more you purchase, the more entries you get.
13:03
Speaker 1: You also have to tell them in 50 words or
13:05
Speaker 1: less what you love about NU Harvest. Plus, you get
13:08
Speaker 1: bonus entries if you follow NU on social media. Now,
13:12
Speaker 1: despite Georgie stating that the logic behind the giveaway was
13:15
Speaker 1: to invest money into her community rather than on meta ads,
13:20
Speaker 1: Ever since I engaged with Georgie's post, the ad has
13:22
Speaker 1: been following me around on every social media platform. So
13:25
Speaker 1: clearly there's a big ad spend involved too. It's ironic
13:28
Speaker 1: because this giveaway is being sold as an act of
13:30
Speaker 1: generosity from Georgie. But in reality, it's likely that NU
13:34
Speaker 1: Harvest is making far more than the cost of the
13:36
Speaker 1: prize because you literally have to spend money on their
13:39
Speaker 1: product to enter. So the nature of this competition encourages
13:43
Speaker 1: bulk buying and also creates a sense of urgency. Yeah.
13:46
Speaker 1: I mean, if you do the math, say 10,000 people
13:49
Speaker 1: enter the competition and they spend around $ 100 in store
13:53
Speaker 1: because you get a free postage when you spend $ 100.
13:54
Speaker 1: The protein's around $ 54. So just say $ 100 each person.
13:59
Speaker 1: That's $ 1 million of revenue. So essentially, this is a
14:03
Speaker 1: very clever marketing strategy for Georgie because she is trading
14:06
Speaker 1: in a two-year-old Porsche that she says is worth $ 150, 000.
14:10
Speaker 1: but potentially $ 1 million in sales. She's also getting a
14:14
Speaker 1: lot of viral exposure, a massive spike in brand awareness
14:18
Speaker 1: and a bolstered database. However, it is unfortunate that this
14:22
Speaker 1: competition is running alongside this negative story that has been
14:27
Speaker 1: posted about Georgie because it makes her look even more
14:29
Speaker 1: out of touch, the fact that it's like, I'm giving
14:31
Speaker 1: away my Porsche for free, even though it is actually
14:34
Speaker 1: a very clever business move. Yeah, I think that the
14:36
Speaker 1: good work of this giveaway has all been undone by
14:39
Speaker 1: this social media post. I have also seen a lot
14:41
Speaker 1: of comments that a Porsche isn't a great prize because
14:45
Speaker 1: European cars often cost a lot of money to run
14:48
Speaker 1: and maintain. That, of course, then links to this conversation
14:51
Speaker 1: about fuel prices and being tone deaf about it. Now,
14:54
Speaker 1: this competition is set to be drawn on the 31st
14:57
Speaker 1: of May, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
15:00
Speaker 1: The T's and C's state that the competition can be
15:03
Speaker 1: modified or cancelled at their discretion. If they decided to
15:06
Speaker 1: pull the pin on this competition, that would just create
15:09
Speaker 1: even more backlash because people have had to spend money
15:11
Speaker 1: in order to take part in this competition. Yeah, but
15:14
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that are currently boycotting a
15:16
Speaker 1: new harvest. They're saying, look, I don't want it anymore.
15:18
Speaker 1: I saw a TikTok of someone pouring their protein powder
15:21
Speaker 1: into the bin and The whole point of the competition
15:24
Speaker 1: is to drive sales, but a lot of people aren't
15:26
Speaker 1: wanting to actually purchase anything from NU Harvest. So if
15:29
Speaker 1: they don't get a lot of sales in, you know,
15:32
Speaker 1: it might not be worth their while giving the car away. Yeah, well,
15:34
Speaker 1: they've already had 16,000 people comment to find out more
15:38
Speaker 1: information about this competition. So it's safe to say that
15:40
Speaker 1: they've probably already had a lot of people enter. It
15:43
Speaker 1: is interesting to see how this incident has affected Georgie's following.
15:48
Speaker 1: At the time of recording, she has lost 1.8 thousand followers.
15:51
Speaker 1: since her controversial reel went live. To put that number
15:54
Speaker 1: into perspective, she has 404,000 Instagram followers. So it hasn't
15:59
Speaker 1: hugely impacted her just yet. While those numbers might not
16:03
Speaker 1: reflect it, I think this has been really detrimental to
16:07
Speaker 1: Georgie's personal brand and her businesses. So it's going to
16:10
Speaker 1: be interesting to see how she comes back from this.
16:14
Speaker 1: I mean, I definitely think She will come back from it.
16:16
Speaker 1: We've seen Anna Paul. She was cancelled globally after Michaela
16:19
Speaker 1: Testa called her out and she still is making a
16:21
Speaker 1: lot of money on social media. Everyone still follows her.
16:24
Speaker 1: So there obviously is lots of room for redemption, but
16:27
Speaker 1: it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
16:32
Speaker 3: So I'm getting really stressed because I'm like, I need.
16:36
Speaker 1: To go to Coachella. Sam Guggenheimer has been accused of
16:40
Speaker 1: begging brands for a free trip to Coachella. In a
16:43
Speaker 1: video posted to her backup TikTok, the embattled influencer admitted
16:47
Speaker 1: she already has all her outfits picked out despite not
16:50
Speaker 1: having a ticket.
16:53
Speaker 3: I have literally planned all my Coachella outfits on a
16:57
Speaker 3: like keynote PowerPoint with links and everything.
17:02
Speaker 4: Do I have a ticket to Coachella?
17:04
Speaker 3: No. Do I have an invite to Coachella? No. Is
17:07
Speaker 3: Coachella in just over a month?
17:10
Speaker 1: Yes.
17:10
Speaker 3: Will I keep manifesting and hopefully it'll work out?
17:13
Speaker 1: Yes.
17:14
Speaker 3: So if you have a Coachella ticket and accommodation that
17:16
Speaker 3: I can stay at, happy to pay, happy to chip in,
17:21
Speaker 3: let me know because a girl really needs to see
17:23
Speaker 3: JB and a girl really needs to pull off these
17:25
Speaker 3: outfits because I fear I've ate.
17:27
Speaker 4: Like, I've really ate with these.
17:30
Speaker 1: Now, Sam went on to say that she's good at
17:32
Speaker 1: meeting and mingling with new people. I'm guessing they have
17:35
Speaker 1: to be thin though, Sophie. If people don't know what
17:37
Speaker 1: Kate is putting down there, this is in reference to
17:39
Speaker 1: a story we covered a few weeks ago where Sam
17:42
Speaker 1: was criticised for uploading a video to her TikTok where
17:45
Speaker 1: her best friend Bill Barker made a fatphobic slur. I mean,
17:48
Speaker 1: I would have thought she would be on her best
17:49
Speaker 1: behaviour after that all happened, but the backlash on this
17:54
Speaker 1: new video was just as swift, causing Sam to delete it. However,
17:58
Speaker 1: the video resurfaced in burner accounts across TikTok where the
18:01
Speaker 1: criticism of Sam continued. One person wrote, dry begging brands,
18:06
Speaker 1: times are tough. Another said, should have paid for a
18:08
Speaker 1: ticket like everyone else instead of assuming she would be
18:11
Speaker 1: invited again. Now, Sam ended up commenting under one of
18:15
Speaker 1: the videos, I said I was happy to pay for
18:16
Speaker 1: the tickets. but they're sold out and accommodation near the
18:19
Speaker 1: festival is hard to secure. I only recently decided I
18:22
Speaker 1: want to go because I was living in London and
18:24
Speaker 1: didn't know what my plans were. It feels super unfair
18:27
Speaker 1: that anything I say gets twisted. Something as simple as
18:30
Speaker 1: talking about outfits has turned into fake accounts for posting
18:33
Speaker 1: videos to bully me. I think this video just really
18:36
Speaker 1: demonstrates how out of touch Sam is with the general
18:39
Speaker 1: public at the moment. It's very tone deaf in this
18:41
Speaker 1: current climate to be acting like you're hard done by
18:44
Speaker 1: because you didn't get your usual free tickets to Coachella.
18:47
Speaker 1: As if we're supposed to feel sympathetic because she counted
18:50
Speaker 1: her chickens before they hatched and she's already picked out
18:53
Speaker 1: all of her outfits. I mean, yeah, particularly off the
18:55
Speaker 1: back of the fat phobic drama that we saw a
18:58
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. I mean, at the time she
19:00
Speaker 1: took a short hiatus from social media to apparently reflect
19:03
Speaker 1: and learn from the situation, but it seems like not
19:06
Speaker 1: a lot of inner reflection actually took place. I just
19:10
Speaker 1: wonder why she posted it. I mean, in the video
19:12
Speaker 1: she said that she no longer feels like she can
19:14
Speaker 1: post random vlogs of to her main channel, but she
19:17
Speaker 1: just felt like she was in a chatty mood. I mean,
19:19
Speaker 1: playing devil's advocate, is it that bad? Do you think
19:21
Speaker 1: she could have genuinely been asking to buy a ticket
19:24
Speaker 1: from someone perhaps? Well, no, because the interesting thing about
19:28
Speaker 1: Coachella this year is that it's actually been one of
19:31
Speaker 1: the slowest ticket selling years. A few years ago, the
19:34
Speaker 1: tickets used to sell out within hours, but in the
19:36
Speaker 1: last couple of years, it's actually taken weeks and this
19:39
Speaker 1: year around a month to sell out. So it's not
19:42
Speaker 1: a case of Sam not having the opportunity to buy them.
19:45
Speaker 1: It's clear that she arrogantly thought a brand would take her.
19:49
Speaker 1: I mean last year she was invited by White Fox
19:51
Speaker 1: Boutique and Slick Hair the strange thing is she said
19:54
Speaker 1: she has already picked out all her outfits and normally
19:57
Speaker 1: when an influencer goes to Coachella with a brand the
20:00
Speaker 1: brand dresses them so last year she was dressed by
20:02
Speaker 1: White Fox Boutique I'm wondering if she was promised a
20:05
Speaker 1: trip to Coachella by a brand And now they've suddenly
20:09
Speaker 1: pulled out over all this drama. To add insult further,
20:13
Speaker 1: it seems like brands have actually sided with her former bestie,
20:17
Speaker 1: Isabel Armitage, because last week Izzy said this on TikTok. Okay, guys,
20:22
Speaker 1: great news. I'm going to Coachella again this year and
20:26
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Like I'm so blessed and excited to
20:29
Speaker 1: be going again. I'm guessing that Sam originally was on
20:32
Speaker 1: the invite list, but since her public falling out with Izzy, Armitage, Sofa,
20:36
Speaker 1: Dofa and their clique, It seems like brands have had
20:39
Speaker 1: to choose a side. I mean, she's leaving it pretty late.
20:42
Speaker 1: It literally starts in less than three weeks. Do you
20:44
Speaker 1: think a brand will reach out to her off the
20:46
Speaker 1: back of this TikTok? I think if a brand took
20:48
Speaker 1: one look at the comments under the video, they wouldn't
20:51
Speaker 1: be wanting to take her on the trip with them. Yeah,
20:52
Speaker 1: I think this video in particular has elicited such vitriol
20:56
Speaker 1: online because everyone is just so sick of seeing the
20:59
Speaker 1: same influencers invited to every event. I think a lot
21:02
Speaker 1: of people felt vindicated that she is actually going to
21:04
Speaker 1: experience what it's like to miss out on an event
21:07
Speaker 1: that everyone wants to go to, especially off the back
21:10
Speaker 1: of the recent backlash over the road event. I mean,
21:13
Speaker 1: Sam is one of the faces we see at nearly
21:15
Speaker 1: every big event in Australia. She was, of course, at
21:18
Speaker 1: the road event. She went to the tennis. She even
21:21
Speaker 1: went to the spring racing carnival event. And she claimed
21:24
Speaker 1: she didn't go to the F1 because of that fatphobic backlash,
21:27
Speaker 1: but later a reel of her actually surfaced at the event.
21:30
Speaker 1: So there's not a lot of people who are going
21:32
Speaker 1: to be feeling sorry for her that she's missing. Now,
21:34
Speaker 1: one influencer who isn't having to beg for Coachella tickets
21:37
Speaker 1: is Tammy Hembrough. So she announced the news that she
21:40
Speaker 1: was attending the festival in a Get Ready With Me
21:42
Speaker 1: video last week on TikTok. She said she hasn't been
21:45
Speaker 1: to the festival in years, but this is her yes year.
21:48
Speaker 1: It was clear her excitement quickly faded to apprehension when
21:53
Speaker 1: she said this though.
21:54
Speaker 2: I can't wait though for all the freaking mum police
21:59
Speaker 2: to come.
21:59
Speaker 1: Out and be like, oh my god, you left your kids.
22:03
Speaker 2: Come on people.
22:04
Speaker 1: Despite calling out the mum shaming that's been going on
22:07
Speaker 1: with her, it seemed like she still felt the need
22:10
Speaker 1: to defend her decision. So She explained that the timing
22:13
Speaker 1: of Coachella works perfectly as it aligns with school holidays
22:16
Speaker 1: when her older children, Wolf and Saskia... visit their grandparents.
22:20
Speaker 1: So those grandparents are actually the parents of her ex-fiance,
22:23
Speaker 1: Reese Hawkins. She also added that their father, Reese, might
22:27
Speaker 1: visit then too. I love how Tammy's always having to
22:29
Speaker 1: defend herself. I mean, their father lives in a different country.
22:33
Speaker 1: It was interesting because Tammy didn't reference where Posey will be,
22:36
Speaker 1: but I think that's fairly obvious. Her dad, Matt Paul,
22:39
Speaker 1: and stepmother, Annalise Oatway, seem to do an absolutely fantastic
22:42
Speaker 1: job with her and always look after her when Tammy
22:45
Speaker 1: goes away. Tammy also felt the need to remind her
22:48
Speaker 1: followers that she is a single parent and the provider.
22:51
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen.
22:52
Speaker 2: I think some people forget as well that I'm A
22:55
Speaker 2: single parent.
22:56
Speaker 1: Yes, I have so much help around me.
22:58
Speaker 2: I have, you know, the co-parents and I have my family,
23:01
Speaker 2: like my mum and my sisters.
23:03
Speaker 1: I also am the provider.
23:05
Speaker 2: Like, I need to work. If other people work, like,
23:08
Speaker 2: the other parent usually has the child. And for me,
23:12
Speaker 2: if I need to work, like, if I need to
23:15
Speaker 2: go to work or go to Sydney for work or
23:17
Speaker 2: go to Melbourne for work or go to Coachella for
23:19
Speaker 2: work or even just go on a holiday or anything, like,
23:23
Speaker 2: I don't have... the person that you usually have, which
23:28
Speaker 2: I'm fine with, but I do have to work. I'm
23:30
Speaker 2: also the one that pays for my kids. Like I
23:32
Speaker 2: don't have to income.
23:34
Speaker 1: Tammy then went on to say, I've also got a
23:36
Speaker 1: life I want to live and to have fun. I
23:39
Speaker 1: thought the comment around the finances was interesting because it
23:42
Speaker 1: almost made it sound like, oh, the dads don't pay
23:44
Speaker 1: child support, which clearly that is not the case with
23:47
Speaker 1: Matt Paul. He and Annalise look after Posey a lot.
23:51
Speaker 1: They Was this a pot shot at Rhys Hawkins or
23:55
Speaker 1: was she trying to say, oh, well, I support myself completely?
23:58
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a pot shot at Rhys Hawkins.
24:00
Speaker 1: They seem to be on good terms. I just think
24:02
Speaker 1: she's trying to be relatable to other parents and say, look,
24:05
Speaker 1: I am a single mum. She's missing out on the
24:07
Speaker 1: fact that she's not your ordinary single mum. She's rumoured
24:11
Speaker 1: to be worth, is it $ 30 or $ 40 million, whether
24:14
Speaker 1: that is an accurate figure or not. we're not sure.
24:17
Speaker 5: Yeah.
24:18
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think money is a concern of hers.
24:20
Speaker 1: I know her activewear brand Saskia shut down recently, but
24:24
Speaker 1: I think that was more cutting dead weight from her businesses.
24:27
Speaker 3: Exactly.
24:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the reason that people are having
24:31
Speaker 1: a go at Tammy is because of the people she's
24:33
Speaker 1: choosing to spend her time with. So people understand, yes,
24:36
Speaker 1: influencers need to go to Coachella and they get paid,
24:39
Speaker 1: but it's her trips to see her boyfriend, Grayson. I
24:43
Speaker 1: think that's what's pissing people off. And you know, she
24:45
Speaker 1: was going back and forth to see Bailey Smith as well,
24:47
Speaker 1: which I have no issue with. Like she's allowed to
24:50
Speaker 1: go and live her life, but that is why there
24:52
Speaker 1: is this sentiment online from people because they're saying, well,
24:55
Speaker 1: why aren't you spending time with your kids? Why are
24:56
Speaker 1: you wanting to hang around these 22 year old guys?
24:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
24:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't agree with the mum shaming at all,
25:02
Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't think it's as black and white
25:04
Speaker 1: as Tammy as making out in this instance. I think,
25:07
Speaker 1: as you said, a lot of the negative commentary is
25:09
Speaker 1: coming from The fact that she is spending time with
25:12
Speaker 1: this 23-year-old guy who is clearly bad news. I mean,
25:15
Speaker 1: he posted this awful reel of him running the other
25:18
Speaker 1: day with a caption that said something like, oh, this
25:20
Speaker 1: is the cardio I'm having to do because the cardio
25:23
Speaker 1: I want to do is on the Goldie. I'm like, oh.
25:26
Speaker 1: But he's just trying to use, like, I know he
25:28
Speaker 1: didn't name Tammy, but he's clearly using the relationship as
25:31
Speaker 1: clout now on TikTok. And it's really not working. He's
25:34
Speaker 1: got like a thousand followers on there. Yeah, it's just
25:37
Speaker 1: cringe and a massive red flag. each to their own.
25:41
Speaker 4: But when you've got children, I don't think there's anything
25:43
Speaker 4: wrong with just making sure that you're a little bit prepped.
25:46
Speaker 1: Fitness influencer, Ashi Bynes has been accused of sparking panic
25:50
Speaker 1: buying amid growing concerns of an oil shortage due to
25:53
Speaker 1: the war in the Middle East. Now, Ashi shared an
25:56
Speaker 1: Instagram story asking her followers if they were prepping in
25:59
Speaker 1: case of a potential lockdown. She then showed her and
26:03
Speaker 1: her podcast co-host, Tiana Bundelow, Wandering the aisles of their
26:07
Speaker 1: local supermarket as they stocked up on food and toilet paper,
26:11
Speaker 1: let's take a listen to some of what they said.
26:14
Speaker 4: What are we doing, babe?
26:15
Speaker 5: We are prepping in case things lock down.
26:18
Speaker 1: Yeah.
26:19
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys have seen. It's maybe
26:21
Speaker 4: a little bit controversial, but fuel prices, the rumors are
26:24
Speaker 4: that we're going to run out and then we're worried
26:26
Speaker 4: that transport stops and all the food goes. We're just
26:29
Speaker 4: prepping some dry food and some toilet paper because we
26:32
Speaker 4: all know what happened a few years ago. It was
26:34
Speaker 4: very stressful.
26:35
Speaker 5: I feel like my parents are so deep in this
26:36
Speaker 5: rabbit hole. So they're like, it's never a problem to
26:39
Speaker 5: just have a little bit of extra stuff at home
26:41
Speaker 5: just so that if something stops or transport stops or whatever,
26:43
Speaker 5: then it's like, you don't have have to get into
26:45
Speaker 5: that real anxious energy that everyone got into.
26:48
Speaker 1: The pair then said that they'd picked up extra nappies,
26:51
Speaker 1: toilet paper, tinned fruit, beans, tuna and rice. So essentially
26:54
Speaker 1: non-perishable items like people bought during COVID. This post from
26:59
Speaker 1: Ashley just infuriated me so much because we're already seeing
27:02
Speaker 1: some Australians hoarding fuel. And now these sorts of posts
27:06
Speaker 1: are just going to encourage people to panic by and
27:09
Speaker 1: think that we're running out of food and that we're
27:11
Speaker 1: going to go into some lockdown. It angers me enough
27:13
Speaker 1: that this, as you said, is encouraging others to do
27:16
Speaker 1: the same, but it's also fear mongering. Like people are
27:19
Speaker 1: concerned enough and then we're seeing these influencers posting about it,
27:23
Speaker 1: as you said, as if it's some kind of fun
27:25
Speaker 1: trip to the store to like, load up on tuna
27:28
Speaker 1: and beans. It actually has a very detrimental effect as
27:31
Speaker 1: well because it drives up the price of food. I mean,
27:33
Speaker 1: the only people who are winning here are the supermarkets
27:36
Speaker 1: because they're going to make even more money off people
27:38
Speaker 1: panic buying. The thing that also doesn't make sense in
27:40
Speaker 1: my mind is that we're going through this cost of
27:42
Speaker 1: living crisis where people can't afford groceries as it is.
27:46
Speaker 1: So let's put even more financial stress on families and think, oh, well,
27:49
Speaker 1: next time you go, you've got to stock up on
27:51
Speaker 1: even more stuff that they already can't afford. Yeah, it
27:53
Speaker 1: kind of rubbed me up the wrong way because they
27:55
Speaker 1: were like, oh, you know, you could just chuck a
27:57
Speaker 1: couple of extra items in each shop. It's like people
27:59
Speaker 1: are struggling to actually just purchase what they need for now,
28:02
Speaker 1: let alone in the future. Yeah, but we also need
28:04
Speaker 1: to stop having this mentality of me, me, me, like
28:07
Speaker 1: I need to stock up. It's actually causing other people
28:10
Speaker 1: from lower socioeconomic backgrounds not to be able to get
28:13
Speaker 1: things that they actually need. Like if we all start
28:15
Speaker 1: hoarding tuna or nappies, there's going to be none for
28:18
Speaker 1: everybody else. I think a lot of people are feeling
28:21
Speaker 1: a bit uncertain at the moment because there were media
28:24
Speaker 1: reports that people could be ordered to work from home
28:27
Speaker 1: in response to the fuel crisis. So it's almost like
28:29
Speaker 1: we're getting a flashback to 2020 and all of the
28:32
Speaker 1: changes that took place then. Now, despite Ashley asking her
28:37
Speaker 1: followers to send in their thoughts about her food prepping,
28:40
Speaker 1: she seemed to be quite taken aback when she received
28:43
Speaker 1: some negative responses. So she claimed that it was only
28:46
Speaker 1: two or three followers who had a problem with with
28:49
Speaker 1: her Instagram stories saying they'd written in saying they were
28:52
Speaker 1: upset that she was sparking panic buying. Now she defended
28:55
Speaker 1: her actions by saying this.
28:58
Speaker 4: I don't think there's anything wrong with being a little
29:01
Speaker 4: bit prepared. I didn't go excessive. I bought one thing
29:04
Speaker 4: of toilet paper. I bought some tin foods, some dry foods,
29:07
Speaker 4: some extra rice crackers and an extra jar of peanut butter.
29:10
Speaker 4: Like it wasn't anything excessive. I don't think there's anything
29:12
Speaker 4: wrong with doing that. It's just like an extra shop,
29:14
Speaker 4: an extra grocery shop really. And Tiana did the same thing.
29:17
Speaker 1: So each to their own.
29:19
Speaker 4: But when you've got children, I don't think there's anything
29:21
Speaker 4: wrong with just making sure that you're a little bit
29:23
Speaker 4: prepped because the last thing you'd ever want to do
29:25
Speaker 4: is like run out of food and supplies. And unfortunately,
29:29
Speaker 4: all this is a possible thing that could happen and
29:32
Speaker 4: it's not to make anyone fearful.
29:34
Speaker 1: Ashley then went on to say that unfortunately, a lockdown
29:37
Speaker 1: is a possibility. And while she's not trying to make
29:39
Speaker 1: anyone fearful, she wants her fellow mamas to be prepared
29:42
Speaker 1: and have enough food for their kids. She also dropped
29:45
Speaker 1: that when COVID first hit, she had to give other
29:47
Speaker 1: families on their street food because they weren't prepared and
29:49
Speaker 1: it broke her heart. She also admitted that she knows
29:52
Speaker 1: the topic can be controversial and super triggering. Again, I
29:56
Speaker 1: don't think that this was helpful information to put out
29:59
Speaker 1: to her followers. I just found Ashley's response, again, incredibly unhelpful.
30:04
Speaker 1: And again, she was just pushing panic buying. I mean,
30:06
Speaker 1: have we not learned anything from the pandemic? I feel
30:09
Speaker 1: like this whole episode is giving a 2020 flashback. I
30:11
Speaker 1: feel like we're in this really weird stage at the
30:14
Speaker 1: moment where it's a bit of a dicey time for influencers.
30:18
Speaker 1: They're being called out left, right and centre. I mean,
30:20
Speaker 1: it makes sense because when things are taken out of
30:22
Speaker 1: our control as humans, we grasp for that control back
30:26
Speaker 1: and we want a place to direct our anger and
30:30
Speaker 1: our frustration. So when influencers go and post tone deaf
30:34
Speaker 1: things or do stupid things in regards to this very
30:37
Speaker 1: hot topic of fuel prices, then we pounce and we go,
30:41
Speaker 1: oh my God, can you believe they did that? And
30:43
Speaker 1: it actually brings everyone together in this weird way. I mean,
30:47
Speaker 1: it's not nice for the influencer. The thing with Ashley
30:50
Speaker 1: is she has admitted that she knows that this is
30:51
Speaker 1: a controversial and triggering topic, yet she's clearly chosen to
30:55
Speaker 1: speak about it. I think it is an attempt to
30:57
Speaker 1: gain back some relevance and to pick up her engagement
31:02
Speaker 1: because she literally said, let me know your thoughts on
31:04
Speaker 1: the food prepping that I'm doing. Obviously, she knew people
31:07
Speaker 1: weren't going to be happy about it. But I also
31:09
Speaker 1: think it's a case of documenting it. So say something
31:13
Speaker 1: does happen and worst case scenario, she binds us right
31:16
Speaker 1: and all of our food supply is cut off. Is
31:19
Speaker 1: she then going to go, well, on March 24th, I
31:22
Speaker 1: documented on my TikTok and I'm correct. Well, on that note,
31:27
Speaker 1: we are going to leave things there. If you do
31:29
Speaker 1: enjoy the podcast, we drop a subscriber episode every Thursday
31:33
Speaker 1: for Outspoken Plus subscribers. All the details to sign up
31:36
Speaker 1: are in our show notes. Also, if you are a parent,
31:39
Speaker 1: we have actually launched another podcast called The Mums Group.
31:44
Speaker 1: It's exactly what the name suggests. It's basically a virtual
31:46
Speaker 1: mums group where we talk about motherhood. We have a
31:49
Speaker 1: bit of a laugh in there. We don't take things
31:51
Speaker 1: too seriously. It's a judgment-free zone. We have been dropping
31:54
Speaker 1: episodes in Outspoken's feed, but we really need to move
31:58
Speaker 1: all of you across to The Mums Group's separate feed
32:01
Speaker 1: so we don't have to clog up Outspoken's feed. So
32:04
Speaker 1: if you can go and follow the Mums group on Apple, Spotify, iHeart,
32:07
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your podcasts, that would be amazing.
32:10
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
32:13
Speaker 1: Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to
32:16
Speaker 1: elders past and present.