Honest to Gob

This week’s episode of Honest to Gob with me, Gemma Ray, comes to you straight from my headphones on the drive to Liverpool Women’s Hospital. No video version this week! My house is currently a DIY war zone, and recording at home aint happening as the windows get changed, the roof is completely off, and the builders are taking a sledgehammer to multiple walls. It's fine... this is fine... it...

Drills, Drama, and Milking Cows on a Digital Farm: My Mental Health Meltdown Ever found yourself catastrophising over everything in your life, crying over a broken nail, and farming digital cows at 2am? Same. In this week’s episode, Gemma gets brutally honest about a full-blown mental health wobble triggered by building work, social services delays, sleep deprivation, and one highly addictive mobi...

Gemma manifested going viral… just not like this. One vegan café, one potty-training toddler, and one silicone toilet brush later, she became the internet’s latest cautionary tale.  Three million views, a Radio 2 feature, and a lifetime’s worth of trauma (and Dettol). Gemma's mum’s always telling her to wash her potty mouth out, and apparently, the universe decided to get involved and help he...

Eight weeks ago, Gemma left her job with 24 hours’ notice, expecting to take on another child through kinship foster care. That didn’t happen (for reasons she can’t go into), but what did happen was a huge wake-up call. She realised she couldn’t go back to the way things were. In this episode, Gemma talks about taking the scariest risk of her career - walking away from a job and colleagues she ado...

This episode wasn’t planned. It started as a simple mic test during the first time I tried my camera and audio setup. It turned into a full-blown rant about perfectionism, procrastination, and getting in my own way. Filmed at home at 10 pm with bad lighting, a snoring dog, and my husband watching conspiracy docs in the background, it was meant to stay on my laptop. But when my friend Zoe listened,...

I didn't know whether to be appalled or over the moon that I made it to the telephone audition stage of Stacey Solomon's TV show, Sort Your Life Out. Sadly, the TV appearance was not to be. However, I did do my own version of the show on my patio with a bajillion Barbie shoes and a shit load of patience. Because clutter was ruining my life. Clutter isn’t just “stuff”. It’s stress, guilt,...

If you have ever thought “I cannot do this parenting sh*t anymore” or found yourself Googling “is it bad to hide from your children in the shed” this episode is for you. Author and kinship foster carer Gemma Ray did not exactly choose Non Violent Resistance parenting, now often called New Vision for Relationships , out of curiosity. She arrived at it like most parents arrive at desperate solutions...

What happens when you think your family is complete, your husband’s had the snip, and then life hands you two more children overnight?  In this deeply personal episode, I open up about the unexpected journey into kinship foster care from the trauma, the family politics, the social worker chaos, to the moments I thought I couldn’t go on. It’s also a story of resilience, love, and learning. From new...

We’re back after three years away… and honest to God, it feels like we’ve lived a whole other lifetime since you last heard from us! In this comeback episode, we catch you up on everything from broken bones to bonus kids, vasectomies that didn’t do the job, and why Claire got so furious about empty toilet rolls that she packed her bags and moved out (before running off to India, catching typhoid,...

In this episode Claire & Gemma talk about breath, not only does it keep us alive – no shit Sherlock... Once we are aware of our breath and work with it in different ways, we can begin to explore how it can help us with the following:  • Aid positive self-development  • Processes emotions  • Heals emotional pain and trauma  • Develops our levels of self-awareness  • Improves relationships  • En...

In this episode, Claire and Gemma talk about Values. Personal, human values and corporate values too.   A juicy conversation  - What are Values? Do you know what your Values are? Where do they come from? How do we display them?   We also explore an amazing tool called ‘Values Jam’ – a set of cards to help you discover and question yours.   Lots of laughs, insights and take-aways.   Also catch our...

The power of reflective practice, vision boarding and how to use identity-based goals to achieve your dreams in 2022 is the topic of this Honest to Gob podcast. Claire and Gem talk in this episode about the power of reflection and how to look back over the difficult year that has been 2021, achievements and challenges, vision boarding, boredom, work, books and retreats. Where are you with your ref...

Zoë Dew is the operations manager for Lisa Johnson the online business strategist and passive income expert. She left running her own business to become a very happy employee, working in a team she adores. As Lisa's business has grown at an exciting and impressive rate, Zoë finds herself acting as the gatekeeper and gets inundated with voice notes, Facebook messenger messages and Loom videos....

In this episode of Honest to Gob podcast, Claire opens up about having a crap week. Imposter syndrome had crept in and she'd been comparing herself to others. It isn't something she usually does but everyone falls victim to 'mind monkeys' at times. In this episode we discuss authenticity and the masks we wear in our work and our real lives. We also talk about the struggle many...

This episode is all about sobriety and in particular the issues that people have with the word ‘sober’. No, it doesn’t mean you’re an addict but it does mean you choose to turn your back on substances that you know aren’t helping you live your best life. In this extremely open and honest podcast, Gemma opens up about the reason she became sober curious in the first place “I thought I’d killed my s...

Dani Wallace is a powerhouse of positivity and authenticity. She's the self-proclaimed 'Queen Bee' because "When I learned the Queen was born the Queen I was like WTF?"  and she teaches other people to show up, wise up and rise up in their lives and business. A former professional vocalist turned corporate leadership trainer, Dan experienced her fair share of heartbreak an...

Ellen Murray had plan A, B and C boxed off when COVID hit and the pandemic closed the venues she used for her well-renowned boutique female fitness and nutrition business. She pivoted quickly to take her fitness classes online and learned new things about tech, marketing and teaching remotely. Ellen tried to be strong for everyone else; her full team of staff, her husband who also worked full time...

Are you a good sleeper or are you a revenge bedtime procrastinator like Gem and Claire's husband Mark? In this episode we discuss our relationships with sleep, why we seem to not get enough of it, the impact it can have on our mental state and how we are tracking it to try get more of it! In this episode, we mention Matthew Walker's book Why We Sleep and Gemma chatted about her Oura ring...

In this episode Getting Honest About Manifesting –  Claire & Gem talk about all things meditation and manifestation.  Both of them are keen on the subjects of the 2 MM’s,  they decided to give themselves homework to study, the work of Dr Joe Dispenza –and his book called ‘Becoming Supernatural’ Gemma talks about how she manifested a Juice retreat into her universe, whilst Claire joins in to di...

This week's episode is dedicated to the life changing magic of PLANNING! This could possibly be one of Gemma's ultimate favourite topics as you'll often see her with her Best Self Co planner and erasable pens, planning out every minute of her life. Claire also loves to plan, she's just not that great at implementing the plans as she admits in this episode. Thankfully, the girls...

Claire & Gem talk about managing life, as a mum, wife, daughter, friend, sister, business woman, puppy nan, motorcross mum and much more. In this episode Claire & Gem share their experiences of how they manage their time or not!!  Sometime you just have to let the plastic balls drop and keep the glass ones going. Not everything is a priority so why do we treat it like it is?  Why do we not...

Rachel Winstanley is a teacher who wants to see a change in our schools in terms of personal development for children and teens. Working in schools in Merseyside and teaching and mentoring children from all walks of life, Rachel can see major flaws in the way children are supported for life. She’s on a mission to motivate other teachers, policy makers and parents to realise there can be another wa...

In this weeks episode we talk boobs and botox! Gemma and Claire discuss the delights of boob jobs, big boobs and boobs that look like envelopes. They also have a heart to heart on the subject of beauty and what it means to each of them. Why do they feel so happy in their own skin yet conflicted at their love of looking better? In this laugh out loud and honest episode the girls get super honest ab...

Yve Gibney had been married to her husband for 18 years when she made the shocking discovery on Facebook that he'd married another woman while working abroad.  If that wasn't bad enough he falsified documents to get married in the first place and then falsified financial statements that affected Yve's divorce settlement. In a quest for justice, Yve has encountered the unfairness of...

Do you find it easy to forgive ?   How often do you forgive others?   What about forgiving yourself?   In this weeks episode Claire and Gemma are chatting honestly about forgiveness, kindness, compassion, confession, shame, guilt and how we as humans either let it go or hold on to it.   They share their honest views and stories about this topic as it is their hope that they bring some insight, enl...