Natasha Jonas MBE: Boxing, Motherhood and Community Impact

In this We Are PoWEr podcast episode, we sit down with Natasha Jonas MBE, world champion boxer, trailblazer and proud Liverpudlian, to explore the mindset behind success, resilience and creating lasting impact beyond sport.

Natasha reflects on the highs and lows of an extraordinary career, from becoming one of the most influential figures in British boxing to receiving an MBE for her contributions to both the sport and her community. She shares how motherhood has reshaped her perspective on winning and losing, the importance of setting boundaries and why success means more when it can inspire the next generation.

The conversation also explores Natasha’s deep connection to Liverpool, her passion for improving access to sport for young people and the progress still needed to ensure women’s sport receives the visibility, funding and recognition it deserves.

Natasha offers powerful insights on dreaming big, embracing challenges and doing the work required to achieve your goals.

You'll hear:
➡️ What receiving an MBE meant to Natasha and her family
➡️ How motherhood changed her approach to success and setbacks
➡️ The mindset needed to adapt, grow and keep moving forward
➡️ Why representation and access matter in sport
➡️ The progress and challenges facing women’s sport today
➡️ Advice for young people with big ambitions
➡️ The role Liverpool and community have played 
➡️ What’s next for one of British boxing’s most influential figures

Find out more about We Are PoWEr here.  💫

Transcript

Welcome And Natasha’s Return

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome to the We Are Power Podcast. If this is your first time here, the We Are Power Podcast is the podcast for you, your career, and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As We Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and We Are Power.

unknown 0:39

Never imitated, never replicated, singularly wonderful. Everybody's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Well, I am delighted to be joined on the couch by Natasha Jonas, MBE. Now that's changed in the last two years. Two years since the week, I think, that you came into our fine office to have a good old chat.

Travel, Training Camps, And Mum-Life

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Tell us about everything you're up to, and then you were hot footing off to Thailand with your daughter, Mila, because you just had a hell of a time. Chase, doesn't it? It seems like only yesterday. Can't believe it. So how was Thailand, more importantly?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

No, you won't be able to remember it. Thailand was amazing. I've had a few holidays since then, but um no, it was a it was a good time. I think I'd just because what we kind of do is we go on a holiday after a fight. So I think I'd just have a fight or been preparing for a fight. And then she I let her pick the holidays because obviously when I'm in camp, she's in camp with me. She comes to the gym. She sometimes is she's definitely on a diet when I am on a diet, so there's no sweet to allow it in the house. So like that's our like thing to do together afterwards. Seemed like that though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:46

So what holidays is is Mila's holidays of choice?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Oh god, she I'm not gonna lie. If if if I was looking at her when I was a kid, I'd be thinking she's the posh kid. Um so she this yeah, she wants to go to Fiji. Um Fiji, or I don't I don't know where the other one was, but yeah, she's uh since to Thailand, she's chosen um Tahiti. Oh, what was this? Yeah, um where else did we go? We've been to Australia. Um, Philippines is the other one she wants to go to. Oh my life.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

What are you not off in a flipping all inclusive to Tanae? I don't know. Please, please, please, can we go to Wales? Now tell me, you got your MBE.

Receiving The MBE And Ceremony Moments

SPEAKER_02 2:33

How exciting is that? How did you feel when you got that brown envelope? Or was it emails these days?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

No, it does get sent for your door, and I see like the Queen's like or the Royal Stamp Mark. I was like, what's what's that? And then obviously I opened it and I'm ready, and I was like, oh no way. Like, um, and I think you know what, like the MBE obviously it's got comes with a like a lot of status and and and everything else, but I think it was more that what I got it for weren't just for boxing. I think for the stuff that I do for the community, which like boxing is personal and private for me, but things I do for the community is is for like the impact on everybody else, and I think that meant more than than getting it for boxing.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

So and when you went, because I think it was just before Christmas, wasn't it? Yeah, that you were half down. I think last time our Anna, we were arranging today's uh today's couch, couch recording, and you were you were going to have your hair done, uh, you were going to get it all it was only time, and then you were going on the Thursday. So, who did you get? Who gave you the gong? Uh we got Anne. Oh, and she has a dry sense of humour.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, she's funny, and um and she was like asking me loads of questions, and for to to go and get it, you have to there's like a strict like rule thing that you'd have to go through. So you have to like go your shoulder in the heart centre of the person that's standing there, then you have to walk two steps forward, turn to a bow, and then walk to it, and then certain signals as the signal that's done, you need to leave, and then you have to go off the same way. And as he's telling me all this, I'm thinking, oh my god, this is too many things, this is too many things. Um so yeah, that was it was it was like a little mad thing, but you know what? For me, Nan and Minan loves Anne. Um, and and obviously she's uh she's an Olympian herself, yeah. So to speak to another sports person was was really good, and she knew about you, don't they?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's always the thing. I think when someone says to me, Oh, I've been and but they knew they knew what I'd done. Not all of them, not you know, only the good stuff, yeah. Obviously, you have had an extraordinary couple of years since we we last chat. You've new weight class, new titles, new responsibilities. I mean, it's hard to say, isn't it, what you're most proud of? But what are you most proud of?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

You know what? I'm most proud of putting up a smile on my nan's face. That that's it, that's what I'm most proud of. It's not like everyone always thinks it's gonna be something to do with sport or whatever, but they're like, they are personal, but like just seeing like the glow on my nan's face when she's going to London when I give me nan the MBE, I said, Go ahead, you can have that. So she's she takes it, she keeps it in a little bag and she shows this is it. It's on the shops, yeah, yeah, in the bingo. So

Pride, Family, And What Truly Matters

SPEAKER_00 5:13

it's it's them little moments that like and we got our we got our pictures literally about two days ago. So I mean there was certain picture of me nan wanted where obviously she's in the background and stuff, and give give her that.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Did you go to Windsor?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

St. James's oh yeah, St. James's Palace.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Oh, lovely. Oh, oh, what's your name called? Esther. Esther. It's for you, Esther. Look after that medal, look after it at the bingo.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah, she's got all the good ones here between her and me mum and my dad, they all they all have all the good ones off me and keep them.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

But you moved up well to weight, becoming two-way, unified champion. That's a massive, that's a massive deal, isn't it? It's not just something you do overnight. What what was the biggest sort of internal because you talked about earlier boxing's very personal, but what was that biggest internal shift that you had to make?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

I think in in the boxing, in the boxing sense, I think um still like I I still think there's like things to achieve. So like and getting your mindset from from these good like I was doing a lot of stuff outside of boxing, which I really enjoy, like going to schools and working with community groups and stuff, and then getting it's the mind shift of getting yourself back to to to the job, which is totally different, and and people say, Oh, you know, it's selfish, but it's okay to be selfish in boxing because it is all about you and it's all about like your dreams and your desires, so it's not a bad thing, but then obviously that impacts on everybody else, and you and it's not always plain sailing,

Moving Weight Classes And Mindset Shifts

SPEAKER_00 6:43

you did have a defeat last year, didn't you, to Lauren Price?

SPEAKER_02 6:45

So, how do you deal with that?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

How do you come back from that? I think I've said this before, one of the biggest shifts in my life obviously was becoming a mum. Um before I was a mum, the results and everything, and and I'm not saying that they don't matter now, but they're just in a different context. Like in in my work, the results matter that's all about the results, that's that's the only thing that matters. But then in my life, it it's not as big a thing, and I think when I was on GB and stuff, and it was all about the results, and I used to stress, and every time I'd lose or thing, I'd be like, I'd be obsessive until the next spa, until the next fight, until the next tournament, and then I had the baby, and like she just doesn't need that, she just she just needs mum. So I I I I I I managed to be in work when I needed to be in work, but as soon as I opened the house door, then I'm back to being mum. And I think that shift stopped the stresses of bringing the boxing and the work because it is technically work, even though it's something I love doing, um it it it stopped that that stress boiling over into like literally like my life because it is so stressful.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

And you talked about one of the things you got your MBE for was for the work that you do in the community in schools. Is that is that shift that must help as well, you know, sort of being able to go in in front of these young faces who are like, oh my god, I've got an Olympian in here, and she's local and oh my god, she's amazing. What it's a two-way reaction, it must be when you go in there. They go in there in order to see you, but you must be like it must be like it must fill your cup as well when you go in.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, I think they call me miss. I'm like, no, I'm not miss, I'm not miss. Um I don't know who made me responsible either, but um I I sort of am. And to be fair, I a lot of the stuff that I do is in primary schools, some senior schools, but a lot of it is in primary schools, and a lot of them weren't born in 2012. So I oh my goodness. And and I literally the other day, I I I have this medal. That's my first ever medal that I ever won. That's from like 94, I think. And some kids was like, Oh miss, this medal's older than my mum. I was like, Oh, cheers for them. Yeah, but you know what it is? It's the I I've I remember being a little kid, and and you know, when you sports, or going to senior school sports day, we used to have a guest, and there'd always be a sports person, and um they'd go away, you'd never hear from them, but and you had this one picture, but it was always like yeah, we

Handling Defeat And Motherhood Perspective

SPEAKER_00 9:20

see them there, but they're never here. Yeah, and that it was so the relationship was so distant. And I I wanted someone to be there. I I that's what I needed to to see. I needed someone to look like me, I needed someone to like the things that I do, and I I don't think I could see a whole package, and if that's what I try and do within my community. Like, I if I go as far, I go as far as Wales for as for some stuff, but um like in Liverpool mostly I just want that the there not to be a disconnect. Is that look, I am from here, this is where I grew up, which is which most people know it's only around the corner, and like yeah, I'm not that person that you just see on telly. I'm in your school, you know, I'm here, I'm I'm I'm available, I'm approachable, I'm reachable. And you can too, right? Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Whatever it is that you want to do, you can do when you go in. Is it like a talk? Is it like more interaction, or do you have a do you do various things when you go into the schools?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I think it's it's whatever the school thinks they need at the time. Um mostly it is like a motivational talk, or or and we we do do some boxing sessions. There's there's some schools that have got like they have um uh uh famous people in Liverpool that they have their class named after them. So there's a an atasha Jonas class that are in Anfield that I go and come and pop to and I'll do a little session, I give a little talk, I hand out prizes. So um, yeah, you know what I mean? It's that I'm I'm there, I can be accessible.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

And what what's is there a piece of advice that you give these gorgeous young faces?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Um no matter how big your dream may be to your parents, to anyone around you, don't let that put you off. Don't just because no one's done it doesn't mean it can't be done. If you work hard, believe in yourself and and um try your best. Anything's possible, and I truly believe that.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

So And what are that you must get some cheeky little questions as well. What's the what's the best questions you get asked?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

So I there's there's like part of my story where I say, Oh, you know, I wanted to become a millionaire and and have a house like they do on Cribs and and you know, a Bentley and and you know, and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

And then Oh, we know Bentley, I'm sure we can make that happen. Gemma, yeah, Gemma is just for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Um so yeah, so the kids will all say, Missa, you're a millionaire, or um but then some ask really, really like deep questions. It I it it it's it's mad, like it can be a range of like quite silly to like really deep, and I think, wow, like no adults ask me that question, and then I have to like stop and think about it and and and say so.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

And when you go, because you do quite a lot of motivational speaking as well. In fact, uh previous guest that we've had on the podcast this morning Renee Press, and she was like, We're saying Natasha Jonas, M B E coming in, and she's like, Oh my god, I saw her speak, she's just phenomenal, just so real, just lifts the room. Is that what you want when you go in?

School Visits, Role Modeling, And Access

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Because it's sometimes it's hard, isn't it? Come and do a motivational speech, but who you're doing it for? Do you prefer to do we like you do you like doing it for female audience, for business leaders? What's your do you have a um a preferred audience that you like to inspire?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah, I think young young people is is the like kind of like my niche. Yeah, I've got like a I'm I'm I'm the biggest kid in our family. Like I'm one of the oldest, but I'm I'm literally the biggest kid. Um so I I do like the interaction with young people, and I think they keep you young and you know, just the energy that they've got. Um but at the same time, who's probably you when I do go into schools, I was always the one that was sent to the head's office. So even now when I go in, I still get nervous going to meet the head, even though I'm there for all the right reasons, I'm still like oh and I can't look them in the eye or anything. So um I just I just I think people can consensor faith. So I who how I I say the message might be different, but it's always the same message, it just might be, you know, I might use a bit sometimes a bit bigger words if I'm talking to bigger people.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

And what makes you the big kid at home?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

How does that manifest? Oh god. So in in our family, I am the strict one. Like I'm the one that people's parents phone to tell their kids off, but I'm also the one that when they do something good or when they want to challenge, um, they they'll phone me. So regularly, you might have seen it on my socials. I can have like 18, 19 kids staying in mine, bed in a man. Man's only two bedroom flats, uh, there's just bodies everywhere. But that's how that's how we grew up. And I remember like my some of my best times. Yeah, some of my best times as like five or six of us in the bed, and we were in my nan's, and and like we we just got up to whatever we wanted to get up to. Um so I try and replicate that. Obviously, it's a bit of a different world, so um it's not quite as free, you know, you know, but yeah, I just like I'll have like I've we'll go on hikes, we'll go on walks through the woods, we'll go and I'll have the um like like a circuit, but like a bounty castle like thing, so it's got like a course on it, and obviously Yeah, you've got to be compatible. We're Jonases, like when you finally beat a Jonas adult, that's your like right of patches, like, well done. You you have been knighted.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Mila beaten you at?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

No, not yet. Not yet. But I remember the first time I beat my mum. I remember the first time. What age were you? I was about it was so in running, um, she was really, really good long distance runner, and she always used to go about how she'd done this half marathon, whatever, whatever. And then I got on GB, and obviously a lot of runners were quiet anyway. So I got really good at running. She was like, Come running with me, thinking that she'd still win. And then at the end, she like kind of sprinted off thinking that I wouldn't go with her, so I just overtook her and she was like, I can't believe you did that. Like, there's no way, like six six months ago you'd have been able to like road running. Yeah, yeah. So it's like I was like, Finally, finally. Oh, is it cap down for me later? I know, I know. I'd be gutted when she wins. She'll never let me at the end of it.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Esther, Esther's probably got a, you know, there'll be no one against getting her to that right table. I bet if someone sits me a table at the bingo, there'll be murder.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Listen, on that table, I sometimes go with a bingo with my nan, and on that table, there's like a table of two, one that's hard, one that's hard, one that's hard, one that's hard. And she on that cash quick bingo, she knows every board. So like she's 80, 85, meaning 86 this year, and like I you can't do it because like red, red, red, red, twenty-five, five. It's like, have you seen that in the um the thing where they go, yeah, it's like that, and they're going red 20, it's red, yellow 20. And I you can't keep on she goes, it's on yours, it's on yours, it's on yours.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

And I'm like

Speaking To Youth And Finding Your People

SPEAKER_02 16:12

you were let down at the bingo.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I mean, I'm okay at the other bingo now, like the proper bingo, like the slow one, but the the fast bingo, I just can't do.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

And you have coming back to the the world of boxing, you've broken so many barriers and you've achieved so many milestones, but you uh become the first woman to win the British Boxing Border Control's Boxer of the Year to being the first black woman to earn a manager's license. I mean, these are major milestones. It is, it it it's like that, yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

I know, because like one, it's quite sad that it's took to 2023. I think I became a manager in 2022. Um, so it's quite sad that it's taken that long. Um, but again, like I do these things kind of for me, and I don't I don't realise the impact that they have on everybody else. It's not something I don't set out to be the first bar manager or you know boxer, I mean best best boxer to do. But um when you when the accolades come, like you've gotta take them. But I don't set out to do that.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Is this something like a mantra or a quotation or just something simpler that that you live by?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

So my granddad used to say there's you've got three names in life, one you're given, one you're inherit, and the other you make for yourself. And I I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Yeah, I love I've got a bit of a tingle. Got a tingle over that one. And Liverpool is just a huge part of who you are as an athlete, as a person, as a family member, as a mum. How has this city shaped you outside the ring? It's outside the ring, because it's clear that it pulls you in. You're pulled into those classrooms, right? Yeah, yeah. But this is a city that has its own power, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, no, we are like, I mean, you can say what do you want about us, but everyone loves a scalser. Everyone loves a scalar set, and we love us too. Um I think we are.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

That's a t-shirt, right? There, there's the tote bag moment right there.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Well, just a little bit different. I mean, uh to be fair, if I go anywhere on holiday, there's always Irish Geordies and maybe Scottish people that like you always end up in the same place, but um, we are like a little bit different from the rest of the country. Uh we we do stick together, we have like a camaraderie between just us. Um life is different here, and there's so many mixes of you know, I I lived in Toxdorth, right down literally at the bottom one way, you've got the oldest Chinese community in in Europe. To the left of me, I think you've got the second oldest mosque in in Liverpool, you know, behind me. You've got you've just got everything, you've got a mix of everything and everyone, and I think that makes us a whole heap of different and just the people in itself. Everyone wants to see you do well.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

And the city loves you, and so much so. There is a mural of

Family, Community, And Growing Up Liverpool

SPEAKER_02 19:04

you, isn't there? Or is a mural, as my nan would have said. Um mural of you, isn't there? Um feel way, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

No, it's in um High Parky by where I used to go. Um by where by where I used to play by um Toxdow Sports Centre, so it's at the back of one of the streets there.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

What does that feel like when you go past it?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

It's so my little girl used to go to the nursery in St. Silas. Um so all the like sometimes when I'm walking past people there and doing double ticks as it says that is that you or like have you done a selfie next to it? I have, and my little girl has as well, and she's doing my pose, which was quite cute. And I think I've been told that the bus stops there now. One of the buses stops there, so you can get out and take a picture with so you can just get on the get on the bus, just keep riding around.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

It's like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

So the little tour bus, you know that like um if you're not from Liverpool, you get on them little tour buses and they take you to like John Lennon's house and whatever. I've heard that one of them stops at the to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

What keeps you grounded? And I think we your family, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah, definitely. Like I would could never get above myself. They'd bring me down quick time. If I tried, so yeah, and and and to be fair, like I just I don't want to like I say, I don't want to be seen as as up there or as as someone a bit someone different. I'm I'm I'm just the same as everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

And if you were to look back or when you look back at your career like a decade or so from now what do you want them to say about you?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Um she was a great boxer. She was a great boxer.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

But you've got this MBE now right and do you feel a sense of responsibility with it? Because you've got it for what you've done but it doesn't want to make you do more Yeah I think I I don't think it's the MBE honestly that that that does that.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

It's just me personally. Sometimes you you go to places and and not just here in the UK even though that's that's like my main focus. I I went to uh Tanzania not not too long ago I think it was two years ago as well after Thailand it was um and I I went to a local boxing gym there and I see now they train in someone's back garden with no equipment and once the floodlights go off that was the end of as once the sun goes down there's no lights so that that's the end of like training people playing on football pitches with with card lights and I was like wow I I think sometimes you know certain clubs here or whatever that might have it hard but this is a different kind of you know these these kids are coming here and I got a load of gloves I was sponsored by Everlast at the time so I've got Everlast to send a load of gloves and equipment to them so um you know it's it's it's that like and it does make me feel better but that's okay I it makes me feel good to do to do good things and it's okay I think people have a thing of oh they're only doing that to to get filmed and well if it's doing good I I feel and it makes me feel good. Why can't I do it anyway? So what do you think your superpower is um oh god I don't know I don't know if I've got one you know you know um someone asked me did I want to be on gladiators

Firsts, Barriers, And Making A Name

SPEAKER_00 22:20

and be a be be a gladiator and they give me an application form I was like okay let's let's see and better amanda I haven't had to I haven't had to fill an application form out for about 20 years. So chat GPT is for now right yeah yeah and I and one of the questions was what is your superpower and once I got to that question I was like oh I'm not doing it don't you be walking out of this oh that's a superpower if we asked Mila what would she say? What oh God she'd probably say something bad I'd I'd say positivity.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah I was gonna say you live and lead everywhere you go with a smile and the smile's not just from your mouth your smile is your whole face and I think that takes people with you right and if you had like you know you talked about the the boxing gym in Tanzania the boxing gyms locally the the work that you do in these schools you've got right now a magic wand okay and you've now got limitless resource and budget okay it's only made belief like literally no but you have what would be like the the couple of things that you would do with that three things because you've got family in there as well right but what would be uh I think I would bring like opportun more opportunities in sport because I I genuinely and it's not just because I'm I'm an athlete but I genuinely think there's a sport for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

You've just I never wanted to be a boxer. I just happened to do other things and then I fell into boxing and now I love it and I were training in America weren't you I was playing football yeah and before that I was like netball before that I was at track before that I was like doing I've always I've always done something um but I I genuinely do think there's a sport out there for everyone and I think we've got uh Usain Bolt somewhere in the streets of Liverpool that just doesn't have the opportunity to to run um I I was really really good at tennis growing up but I just couldn't afford to go um so I think a pot of funding for everybody to do whatever sport they want or to try them all and and see which one they like I think definitely bring back youth provisions like there's literally I remember we was lit I was talking about it with my cousin the other day we had the rods we had the action we had the Methodist we had the unity we had so many things that we could go to as kids and it's gone it's gone we had we had um the pleasure pleasure pleasure zone or whatever it was called the Ferzi Festival

Liverpool’s Power And The Mural

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Gardens down on Oswald Prompt yeah we had that and and I'm not how that ever how how that ever failed I'll never know because the whole of the roller ring you had the bowling you had that it was just like you just hit the bottom you didn't even touch the go straight to that yeah my nan on roller boots can I tell you was immense in that roller ring oh listen and we had the fastest inline skater didn't we so he used to always be the one ticking everyone so we they they'd like who wants to be on and it he'd always be like me and so but how that failed I'll never know but yeah just bring back there's there's literally we we moan about you know sometimes the you know disruption that kids and the gangs and the and the this and the that but there's literally nothing for them to do so that's your magic wand.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

That is your magic wand. I love that and what does athlete Natasha 3.0 football boxing I'm not not discounting all the other millions of things maybe paddle paddle's massive right now that could be your next one I'm going to play my first game a paddle on Mindy. It's massive isn't it no I know I've I've I've I've got the gear just no idea okay I've probably got the will but no skill yeah look at us both of us poets I can see is the next pod we'll do at the paddle I'm not sure how that'll go I can feel myself getting a ball in the eye very fast um but what do you think it will be?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Because you you're always an athlete it's it's in you so um I'm a ambassador for Intry um and the jockey club and they want this job at the Navy was it? Yeah love that place so they want me to do uh or they've asked me to consider doing an amateur horse race now my little girl of course they have horse riding and I was like I don't know um is it Vicki Pendleton?

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yeah she's done one and one and I was like hmm so if she can do one and win maybe I could do one and win so I I'm not writing that off I'm not writing that off and the fact that my little girl can do it with me and I I literally Rachel Blackmore is her hero and she came what role model right she came and met us in Ireland when we went over to Ireland a couple of weeks ago and my little girl I've never seen her so it and all she was like and I was like she's like she gave her a book she was like going home she hates school hates reading she's like going home reading the book I was like oh my god if I told you to do that you wouldn't and it and it's interesting because I love sports personality of the year and there's been a couple of years where it's been not so much this year that but um obviously we've got the rugby and the football in there but the the big prize was taken by the boys but we've had a good couple of runs haven't we a couple of years on amazing just spotlight of women's sport it's it's fantastic isn't it yeah and I think with commitments like um and I'm only saying Sky I'm not it's not that I work for Sky but I'm saying Sky because I I know that it is there's a big commitment on um equality within the exposure of sports and I think that makes all the difference no one knew who we were until 2012 like we we were um European champions

Giving Back Locally And Abroad

SPEAKER_02 28:20

we were world champions we were world medalists we'd done all these things and had all these accolades and no one literally knew who we were until 2012. Wow but that's it you need the support you need to be seen but also need the funding that's a massive piece as well isn't it from the ground up yeah from the ground up then this is where you start with the opportunities so you with your magic wand you go sprinkle that everywhere do you sprinkle the magic wand we do know anyway you do know yeah but that's what we it starts with the opportunity but then it takes the funding as well doesn't it but that visibility you're right 2012 uh what did the Olympics do but you know you you that it was groundbreaking wasn't it yeah even the way the Olympics set out to recognise um the way the Paralympics were also run in the same space amazing format you know the profile it gave to that as well but it does it's but money talks right yeah of course it does no one's asking for like anything different other than just equality yeah and be but but equally it is the ripple effect that that takes the schools you go into the things that we can grab our young people into to get them focused in and and stuff you have to ride the quest of the crest of the wave so once you've got this big all of a sudden you know the eyes are on you or your sport that you have to keep doing things to push it in a in a good light so when you win your first amateur jockey race right okay what will be the other way around if you walk out music into the ring what will be the music that they play when you're riding in and I know it's not the Grand National because it's just the the the kind of bugly thing but what will he play?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

I'd have to I'd have to keep with girls run the world I'd have to stay stay with but you'd have to change the lyrics girls ride the world yeah yeah sort of like that Natasha I'm gonna ask you to dive into our power jar we didn't have this last time this is new this new okay so it is a question from one of our previous guests dive in a question specifically for me or just and so you'll be writing one of these for someone else so yeah someone has left a question unknowing who it's for if your phone only let you keep three apps which wait there actually which ones are making the cut oh that's a good question three apps on your phone I'm now challenging myself on that one to be honest calls and stuff can go I'll I'll I'll keep WhatsApp yeah because that's probably you get calls on there anyway you get you happily get FaceTime on there and you get your messages yeah all my groups on on there I'm in about you she's efficient this one if I showed you the amount of groups I'm in I'm in a million groups so I'm keeping WhatsApp I'm on it just because I've always been on it but X is

Superpowers, Smiles, And A Magic Wand

SPEAKER_00 31:15

toxic as hell um so I'm keeping I'm keeping Instagram I haven't got TikTok and I don't really go on Facebook so I'm keeping Instagram surprise your Milo hasn't got you on TikTok oh we do little things off it but only because it's been shown on Instagram but we do a lot of things off we've got little dance little dance routines that we do and stuff um but yeah I'm keeping Instagram that can that can take up my time and I can still nose out the world so what else am I keeping one more might be a guilty pleasure trying to think of which one photos you can do that on WhatsApp can't you can do that on WhatsApp this is not meant to be a difficult question is it'd be timer I knew it'd be something I knew me boxing interval timer so I can do me stuff.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Still what does the year ahead hold for you?

SPEAKER_00 32:10

What are you excited about? Um do you know what for the first time in a very long time there isn't a plan so I'm excited that there's no plan. I'm just like a bit laissez-faire and just going with the flow and seeing what comes and you know what's gonna happen with that then don't you element within two weeks it'll be like how did it end up in August?

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Yeah did we year go?

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yeah no but but I haven't literally there's no plan people are asking me am I gonna box again I don't know I haven't I haven't decided people are asking me are you gonna do this are you gonna do the horse race I'm like I don't know and do you need that are you someone who needs that you know some people start the year off doing vision boards doing detoxes doing year-long plans doing you know sort of resolutions are you that person? I always thought that I hated structure always like I am quite laid back in everything that I do but like when I don't go the gym so I I still chain like almost every day because if I don't go the gym I can't regulate my day I can't like structure my day properly because it's just something I've done for the last 20 years. So after the the Lauren Price fight um that was on the the Saturday I got to like the Wednesday of doing nothing and I thought this is this was my day I'd get up I wouldn't even get fully dressed I'd just put on like pants so I weren't walking to school in my pyjama bottoms and like put a coat over my pyjama top I'd take the baby to school at like nine o'clock quarter nine come back I'd watch Judge Study till 12 o'clock then I'd watch Lord and Order till three o'clock and then I'd go and pick her up and then come back watch the rest of Lord and Order till six o'clock and then she'd be able to do what she I'd run around and do her stuff then. And then that was my day and I got to the Wednesday and I thought if I carry on doing this that's my life forever. Yeah so like and then by the so by that Thursday after the Lord and price price I was back in the gym because just for simple structure and I always thought the first thing I'm gonna do when I retire from boxing I'm gonna throw the scales out I'm gonna do this I'm never gonna go to the gym again and but really and truly that's the bit that that that I need that's the that's probably it's the glue isn't it yeah yeah that that like gels me together.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Or be with that TV habit I can see you having a stint on goggle box. I can see it right now can't you I can see you you and Milo you and Esther on there you and your sister maybe on there like that yeah doing the more in the world sorry as we as we watch along uh Natasha Jonas

Funding, Visibility, And Women’s Sport

SPEAKER_02 34:45

MB thank you so much for coming on the teal couch thank you for coming back in to chat to us you're always so generous and lovely with your time um and thank you for just being awesome subscribe on YouTube Apple Amazon Music Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts leave us a review or follow us on socials we are power underscore net on Insta TikTok and Twitter or we are power on LinkedIn Facebook and we are underscore power on YouTube