Transcript
Brett Cooper (0:00)
Imagine going online to share an announcement about your dream business, a women's only gym in London, and also being brave enough to address the elephant in the room that we all have to address because it is 2025. Going online and stating that this women's only gym will be for biological women and biological women only, while also acknowledging that at one point in time you had been wrong about the trans inclusion issue and that you had changed your mind and that this gym would be tailored to women and women. And immediately upon posting this video and making this announcement, you are shattered by a flood of death threats and attacks aimed directly at destroying you and destroying your business because you were brave enough to draw a line in the sand. That is what happened to Natalie Barnett this week. And unfortunately her story is one that we are now very well acquainted with. Radical trans activism is still hell bent on forcing men into women's private spaces, whether that be gyms or social networking apps or spas, or even into Title ix. And from across the world are desperately fighting to protect what is ours, often at an incredibly brutal cost. And today we actually have one of these women here to share her story. But before we dive into this story, make sure that you are following our podcast page and that you leave a rating if you're enjoying the show. And if you want ad free episodes and access to an exclusive newsletter and weekly Dear Brett advice videos, make sure to check out my subscriber only platform called Cooper Confidential. The link is right here, or you can click the link in the description to check it out. So by now I'm sure that many of you all have seen Natalie's viral video. I'm sure many of you guys have been following her story, but if you have not, I'm going to kind of set the scene here and give you some context. So back in 2021, Natalie announced that she wanted to create a women's only gym in her hometown of London. And she has spent the last four years working towards that goal. Crowdfunding, trying to get investors, building the site, creating the business plan, branding. She literally turned herself into a fitness influencer so that she could crowdfund and raise the money and make the money so so that she could build this dream business of hers. And just last month she announced that finally her gym, the Girl Spot, had secured a location and was closer than ever to opening on LinkedIn. Last month she shared this. She said the Girl Spot women's only gym has landed in southwest London. Here is my journey to raising 100 grand. Every single investor said no or left me out to dry. I went to endless networking events, sent daily cold emails and got countless rejections. Trying to raise money from investors is not for the faint hearted. So I took matters into my own hands. And then she lists how she was able to raise over £60,000. And then she goes on and says, I then decided to become my own investor and invest £50,000 from my job as a full time social media influencer. So why am I opening a women's only gym? And this is important. 71% of women are being harassed in the gym on a regular basis. A recent survey by Run Repeat found that 70% of women have experienced some form of unwanted attention while working out in mixed gender gyms. 79% of women said that they would transfer to an all women's gym to avoid sexual harassment. These are alarming statistics. And there's more. So today we are one step closer to tackling the issue that women's face in mixed gyms. Watch this space. The girl's spot will shift the narrative. So from all angles, this is an incredible story. This is a woman who had a dream and within the last four years has built that into a real business, who found a way to raise the money, who saw a real issue that she had experienced in her life as a woman that she saw plaguing her community and wanted to solve the issue. And obviously we should commend that at every level. It is incredible watching people build the things that they dreamed of. And at this point, after her LinkedIn announcement, everything was great. Her online community of millions and millions of fans was thrilled. People could not be more excited for this gym to open. People who lived all around the world were cheering her on because this was so important and so exciting until she made that video last week on March 9th that changed everything. And that was the video where she told the world that because this gym was specifically designed to protect women and keep them safe and would be tailored to their needs, men and trans women would not be included. Just take a listen.
