Joe Wicks on Addiction, Childhood Trauma, Depression And World Domination

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
This is the first podcast I've done this year where we had tears, and not just once, and I don't really know how to introduce this conversation. I guess the thing I want you to know is that things aren't always what they seem, and really that humans all feel the same. We all feel the same emotions, the same peaks, the same troughs, and no matter what it looks like on the outside, things aren't always what they seem. I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary Of A CEO. I hope nobody's listening. But if you are, then please keep this to yourself.
Visualisation, that's a very relevant word, I think, to start this conversation, because in our last conversation last year, when I asked you what you wanted to be remembered for, what you wanted to do next in your career, you told me that you wanted to have a legacy for getting kids all across this country up, exercising and really into exercise. Sort of similar to how Jamie Oliver completely changed the way we view like school dinners and things. And I remember Jamie Oliver was the reason I was eating apples instead of Mars bars when I was younger. And then, just like a couple of months later, the pandemic happens and you're getting millions and millions of kids in this country up dancing and into exercise. Only a couple of months later, it like boggles my mind. I've never seen someone say something so big, such a big ambition. And then only like a couple of months later, do it on a scale which nobody has ever done it before.

**Joe Wicks** (1:42)
That's what happened. I remember when we met and we talked about that moonshot thing, the idea of like having a goal so big and so out of reach that you feel you can never, you know, almost never attain it. And that was my vision. It was to have that legacy of making an impact, you know. And I do think about Jamie Oliver. He's had amazing success as a chef, as a, you know, an author. But I think about the Jamie school dinners, the man who went into the schools all over the UK and said, look, this isn't this isn't enough. Our kids can eat healthier. And I feel the same about school fitness and exercise and PE. Not just about obesity and the diabetes thing, but I think about our children's mental health. And I said to you that I want to have a legacy where I can create absolute, you know, national change and national create awareness around fitness. And, you know, lockdown happened. And within, you know, 18 weeks that happened. So it was almost like a 10 year dream happened in 18 weeks. And I'm so proud of that, that I've reached that many people.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:34)
Take me to the start. So lockdown happens. Where does this idea come from? Like what happens? How does and then I want to hear like when you saw the numbers, the amount of people tuning in every day and the impact it was having. How did all of that feel?

**Joe Wicks** (2:46)
It was an intense moment in time, but it was also something I did visualize and I did had been working on. So I'd been visiting schools and on the UK tour. I went to Ireland, Northern Ireland. I'd visited schools. I'd worked out with hundreds of kids in these schools. That Monday, I was supposed to go on another tour. Me and Nicky were going to take the camera. You know, it's my brother Nicky. And I've always said there was no TV show. There was no money. There was no budget. It was just me and Nicky going and doing what we love, which is connecting and I suppose reconnecting with the mission and purpose that I have. Because when it's all digital, I do sometimes feel like it's just numbers. And is it real people? So I have to go and visit the schools and actually meet the kids and do it. So on the Monday, I was supposed to go out on the road. We had about 15 schools chosen. And Boris announced, you know, there's going to be this lockdown. So it was 12, 15 a.m. I was laying in bed on the Thursday night. And I text Nicky because I looked at my WhatsApp the next day. And I text Nicky saying, I've got this idea.
And honestly, I saw everything. I saw a hashtag, I saw a logo, I saw the name. I said, it's going to be called Pee With Joe every day next week. Let's just try it for a week. 9 a.m. Monday to Friday. I announced it and loads of PR, you know, loads of school newsletters, you know, school newsletters were tweeting it. And I was doing ESPN, CNN, like global PR. And I thought, this is going to be really big, but still had no idea how many people would tune in on the Monday. And on the Monday, we went live. I stepped in front of that camera and I was really nervous. And 850,000, I think it was, live streams. And I thought, wow, if you think about how many kids that could possibly be. And then day two was the biggest one. So day two was 954,000 live streams, which is a world record, it turns out. Yeah, concurrent.