Emily to Gremily

He Proposed In Front Of His Side Chick And Other Tales We Can’t Put Down

• Emily Hogan

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A spilled pear martini, a rebellious mic, and a promise to do hard things anyway. That’s where we start before leaning into wins that feel personal: a year-end wrap that shows this scrappy show now streams across 17 countries and 131 cities. Those analytics aren’t vanity, they’re fuel, and they set the tone for a bigger commitment: a tailored 75 Hard that prioritizes discipline without denying real life.

We walk through the original rules and the honest edits: no alcohol, all meals cooked at home, two 45-minute workouts Monday to Friday with a lighter Saturday and a true rest from workouts Sunday, plus a gallon of water every day. The nonfiction reading piece gets swapped for cutting doom scrolling and pouring that time into meaningful creative work and behind-the-scenes content. It’s accountability by design, shared out loud to make quitting harder and progress visible. You’ll hear where the workout content lives, where the podcast BTS will show up, and why sustainability beats strictness when life, and relationships, need space.

Then the stories take center stage. A Gremlin Story captures the sting of a bad week and a drunk voicemail to an ex, equal parts cringe and compassion, with a reminder to forgive yourself and learn forward. In Gremlin Guidance, we separate confidence from self-worth: confidence can be faked until it sticks; self-worth is the line you don’t cross. It’s the difference between chasing approval and choosing partners who show up. And yes, there’s Gremlin Gossip: a Tahoe trip, a fireside proposal, and the mistress in the room. We talk about the ethics of telling the fiancée, why credibility matters, and how “doing the right thing” isn’t always obvious when you’re on the edge of someone else’s story.

Stick around for community CTAs, true crime and ghost story episodes are on deck, and send your takes, stories, and guest ideas. If this mix of honesty, humor, and real-life structure hits home, follow, share, and leave a five-star review so more listeners can find us.

If you've got a story, question, or secret that needs a home, my inbox is always open, anonymous is welcome. Email the podcast at EMILYTOGREMILYPOD@GMAIL.COM or send a DM to @emilytogremilypod on Instagram or TikTok.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, cheers guys. Okay, Emily, Emily to Gremily here with another solo episode. I want to welcome back all returning listeners. And if this is your very first time listening, welcome. Thanks for tuning in. I okay, I have an episode drink today, but it's a whole thing. Okay, so last week I had said I was thinking about possibly starting to do mocktails because I might do a dry January, or I was gonna do the 75 hard. So I made up my mind. I'm gonna do 75 hard. I'll talk about that in a minute. But right now, episode drink for the week is a pear martini because I've been wanting to try one ever since I saw it. Where I don't even know where I saw it. It had to have been on like maybe like below deck or something. I don't know. I saw someone make it, it looked good. It kind of looks like a really, really, really dirty martini, but it's not. It's pear juice. I did have some technical issues. Actually, this whole day has been a technical issue day. There has been construction here on the building again. So it was super loud. I was supposed to film this hours ago, but I couldn't because the outside noise would have just totally infiltrated the podcast. And I didn't want to, I don't know, try to battle with that, trying to take it out. Then I was finally ready to film. The noise died down, and I made my martini, and I was like, ooh, so excited. I was walking into the studio and I was wearing my, you know, little Nike slides, and I skidded a little bit, like I just almost like tripped over my own feet, and martini went everywhere, like all over the floor. Thankfully I didn't drop the glass, but what a waste of vodka. Like, such a bummer. So I had to clean that up. Whatever. And then I finally get in here, I set everything up, make sure everything's working properly. And then my microphone decided to fall off its stand. I jerry-rigged it a little bit. I don't know. I have to wait for assistance later because I'm not the one that set this up. I'm not a handyman. I don't really know how to fix things. I'm sure it's super simple to fix this. I just don't have the time or patience to figure it out. Let's hope it doesn't fall down on me while I am recording. Otherwise, you might hear me have a mini meltdown. So I kind of wanted to do like a little mini shout out. I didn't know that the server I upload all of my episodes onto does like an end-of-the-year wrap-up. Kind of like how Spotify does their end-of-year wrap-up. You can see like the top artists you listen to, the top five songs you've listened to, like that kind of thing. I didn't know I use Buzz Sprout to submit all of my episodes and get it's just a bunch of technical stuff. Anyway, we use Buzz Sprout. And I didn't know that they do an end-of-the-year wrap-up. So I was, I got an email earlier in the week and I clicked on it, and it was like this whole cute little slideshow. And it was telling me kind of like a wrap-up of the year for of like my analytics. And you guys know I'm like crazy about my analytics. But I thought it was pretty cool. It told me, I already knew how many episodes I did. It told me how many minutes I had recorded for. I didn't write that down because I was just like, who cares? But I did write down, it told me that I am being listened to in 17 different countries and 131 cities. And I know in the grand scheme of things, like in the world, there's a lot more countries and a lot more cities, but I thought that was cool. Like this is like really just a grassroots podcast that I'm doing myself. I not signed with the network yet, but this is just me out here, you know, peddling away. And to know that it's reached that many countries and different cities. It told me my top three countries were the United States, which I assumed mainly because I live here, but the other two were Germany and Singapore. And I was like, hmm, that's like so cool. And I just wanted to thank you guys for listening and downloading, and I'll be excited to see next year how many more countries I'm being listened to in and cities. That's it. I just wanted to say thank you guys so much, super exciting. Let's keep it going, let's build the momentum. All right, episode drink is a pair martini. Now, last week I was I said I was flirting with the idea of dry January or 75 hard. And then I did a date night and I had a cocktail, so I was like, well, that's out the window. But I had already kind of decided I wanted to do 75 hard-ish. So I was gonna do like a little segment just about that because I know if I say it out loud to the masses, it's gonna hold me accountable. If I tell no one and just like say I'm gonna do it like to myself, I will probably end up pooping out at some point. So I'm saying this to you guys, so I'm held accountable. Also, I already said part of my New Year's resolution was to be more intentional about content creation. So this is gonna help that. So I wrote down the original rules for 75 Hard, and then I kind of adjusted them for myself. The original rules state you have to follow a diet plan with no cheat meals or alcohol, complete two 45-minute workouts daily, one of them being outdoors, drink one gallon of water per day, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, and take a progress picture daily. So I'm cool to do most of it, but I am amending some of the stuff. I am gonna, I'm not gonna follow a diet plan per se. I'm just gonna make like I know what I should and shouldn't be eating. I'm gonna make sure that I'm cooking all my foods, all meals at home, no takeout, and I am gonna be alcohol free for the whole time. So for the next few weeks, we're gonna be seeing some ocktails. And then I'm I am gonna do the two 45-minute workouts Monday through Friday. On Saturday, I'm gonna do one workout and Sunday, I'm gonna take a rest day. But it's just resting from working out, not from anything else. Like I'm still gonna, you know, follow my diet plan, still gonna be alcohol free. The only reason I'm doing that is because Saturday, I really only have like kind of one full day to hang out with my boyfriend, and I don't want to spend an hour and a half of that working out, and then like I have to like shower and get ready and do this, and if we're gonna go somewhere. So that's gonna be my rest day. And one workout Saturday, I only see him half the day on Saturday, so I can work out in the morning, and then when he comes home, I can, I don't know, we can do a date night that will involve no drinks, I guess. Ugh, whatever. Anyway, um, I am gonna stick with drinking the one gallon of water a day. That'll be easy. Um, I don't really drink anything else other than water. I will keep drinking my Alani's or Celsius because I'm gonna need some energy. So that will be easy. The 10 pages of a nonfiction book. I don't think I'm gonna do this because I'm planning on just focusing on working and getting content out and getting the podcast out. And I'm really putting myself on a very like strict schedule. I've already made out my schedule because if I don't have one, it I'll fall apart. It's just it's just my the way my brain works. So instead, I said I'm going to replace Doom Scrolling with productive work, i.e., working on the podcast and content creation. And I will not be taking a daily progress picture. I think I'm gonna do a picture every Monday. Yeah, I think that sounds about right. By the time you guys are listening to this, I will be on day two of this. So I am starting this Monday, January 12th. Pray for me, and it will be ending Saturday, March 28th. So yeah, I'm saying this now because that way I can't back out of it, and then if I back out of it, I look like a big old loser. So that's what I will be doing. And this is my farewell drink. It's my farewell martini, but she's good, so I just wish I didn't waste the other one. What a waste of vodka. It's so upsetting. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. And I don't know if I'm gonna post the workout content on the podcast page because I feel like I it's just kind of two separate things almost. I think I'm gonna post, you know, the day in my life and that kind of thing on my personal page of TikTok, which is my name. So it's M Alyssa Hogan. So it's E-M A L Y S S A H O G A N. Why was that hard to spell my own name? Anyway, um, I will be posting that on my personal TikTok. But I will be taking content of like doing like day in my life as a podcast creator, podcaster? I don't know. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna do a little bit more like behind the scenes stuff. That will go on the podcast socials on Instagram and TikTok. But I think like the workout stuff and that kind of thing, it'll be on my personal account, just because I don't know. I just don't think they meld together. And like some people, I'm sure, are like, who cares? Like, I'm just here to listen to the funny stories. So they will be separate, but I will still, I'm gonna really try hard to do like behind the scenes day of my life as a creator, this and that. That way you guys can kind of see how putting together an entire episode goes. It's a lot more labor intensive than I ever thought it would be, but I digress. Okay, so I also chose. We have one of each again today. We have one gremlin story, one gremlin guidance, and one gremlin gossip. So let's start with Gremlin stories, and this one is anonymous, and now that I'm looking at it, I remember what happened. Let's take a drink for anonymous. Okay, my dear sweet baby. All right, Anonymous says I was having a particularly bad week. I said that weird. I'm not gonna keep saying it. Though I've I keep saying it over in my head, and the word now makes no sense. It's lost all meaning. Okay, let's restart this. Anonymous says, I was having a very bad week. So one Saturday night, I decided to be depressive and drink wine at home alone. I had about three bottles at my house and ended up finishing all three by myself. The next morning I wake up, my head is pounding, and I'm dying of thirst. I find my phone in the living room and I see I have a few text messages. I should tell you that the reason I was having a bad week was because I was broken up with on Monday out of the blue. But after finishing three bottles of wine, I must have forgotten, I'm not sure. But I had called him multiple times the night before and left him a voicemail breaking up with him and calling him an ass. Why I would break up with a guy who was no longer interested in me, I have no idea. Maybe I thought I was saving face. My ex texted me multiple times to ask me if I was okay. I have no idea what exactly I said in the voicemail, and I told him I didn't want to know. I explained I had had some drinks and told him sorry. Then I collapsed with embarrassment and hangover. It's been almost a year since it happened, and I still cringe thinking about it. Anonymous. I'm so sorry. That is terrible. Um, I mean, sometimes I drink wine at home alone. Is that depressive? I guess I'm not finishing the bottle by myself. I could, but I can't now. So um I'm so sorry that happened to you. I um I mean, I guess at least he was nice enough to just like check on you as opposed to thinking you were crazy. That yeah, that's that's that's a bummer, honey. I'm so so I'm so sorry. I I I don't have it, I've never done this. I hope not. I feel like I would have been told like if I acted some kind of way, but um yeah, I don't need anyone to come out of the woodwork and tell me I've never done this, and I'm so sorry that happened to you, my love. I have nothing else to say. I feel so bad. I don't know. I'm just like, I've I I I feel like I can feel your like cringiness about this, where you're just like, oh god, like for why? Um, I'm so sorry. But I hope you know you're coming up on almost a year of it. I hope that um you are feeling much better about it. Obviously, you are if you can talk about it, right? Okay, um, let's head on over to Gremlin Guidance. This is from Harper. Harper says, Hi, I have a question regarding a previous statement you made. In the episode Holiday Chaos and the Blunt Advice You Asked For, you are advising Anonymous to not chase after a man who doesn't see her worth. My favorite line was, Quote, why isn't he proving to you that you should be with him? Why is he so goddamn special? I just want to know how I can gain this confidence that you possess. Harper from Brisbane, Australia. Okay, a couple things. So when I first opened this email, I kind of just really really quickly skimmed it before I read the entire thing. I got nervous when you said, I have a question regarding a previous statement. I was like, oh great, what the hell did I say? Like I got nervous, like, oh no, like I said something like really bad. And then I was nervous giving this advice because I didn't want to upset Anonymous and make her ups, you know, make her cry. I don't know. I was just nervous about it. Um, they're not you guys aren't in front of me. I can't tell how you're reacting to what I'm saying. I'm just, you know, sending it out there and hoping for the best. Also, it's so weird to have myself quoted, like to read my own lines back to me. I gotta say, when I put these episodes out, I end up listening to it like, I don't know, maybe like five times, like in the editing process and going through everything. You know, it's like a whole big deal. But after I put out the episode, I have to like go back and remember what was what I said in that episode. I completely like right now, I don't remember what I said last week. I would have to go back and listen and be like, oh yeah, that's what that was about. I like I put it out of my mind. I don't know why. But yeah, being quoted was pretty funny. Okay, so you said, I just want to know how I can gain this confidence that you possess. Okay, so what I I sat with this for a moment. What I think it is, I don't think it's a confidence thing. I think it's a self-worth thing because I don't see myself as an extremely confident person. I may portray that outwardly because who doesn't want to appear confident? But I mean, I have my extreme insecurities. I'm that person that I'll talk up my friends and I'll build her up and I'll tell her she's amazing, this and that, and like she's the best thing in the world. But then I'm very mean to myself because I have a lot of insecurities just like everybody else. So I'm kind of like my own worst enemy in that case. The self-worth, I kind of think it comes from I was an only child, so I was always told I'm the best and the brightest and the most talented. Of course, when I, you know, became an adult and entered the real world, uh, life kicked me down a few pegs, that's for sure. But, you know, I feel like I always kind of held that with me where I felt I was worthy of the best, and that includes relationships. Now, that is not to say that I have taken my own advice for all these years. There have been times where I have been treated really shitty by men, been in toxic relationships, I've, you know, been verbally, mentally abused by a narcissist. I I have allowed myself to be treated in a way that I would, if I saw my friend being treated like that, I'd be like, Are you fucking crazy? Like, leave his ass. I think we all do have a self-worth. It's just we have to find it again. You know, it when we're young, we're always told, like, you can be anything. And then you enter the real world and you're like, oh my God, what am I doing? I think you lose a little bit of that self-worth, which is, you know, when she I think, if I remember correctly, Anonymous was saying in that episode she was 24. When I was 24, I wasn't in a very healthy relationship. So I think that's something that we kind of lose a little bit when we are in our early 20s, and then we regain it back after having some life experience. So for the confidence part, I don't know. I guess it's kind of like a fake it till you make it, and that's kind of what I'm doing here. I love that you think I'm confident. Sometimes I am, I don't know. Sometimes I think I'm the shit. That happens, I don't know, like every once in a while. But um, you know, I think you know, we do we always have that in us to feel like we are amazing and we should keep that. Like, you know, life gets so hard to where we kind of forget it almost. So, you know, the the answer, I'm 32 right now. I wouldn't understand any of this back when I was 22. And possibly when I'm 42 in 10 years, I will have a completely different answer. I just think this is more kind of like a life experience thing. Um, Harper, I don't know. You didn't say your age. You did say you're from Australia, so that was cool. Um, but yeah, Harper, I don't know how old you are. Um, I think it's just you have to remember who you are, and you're the fucking best. We're all the fucking best. Some of some people aren't. But you know, those people aren't listening to this podcast, so psh, forget them. Um, yeah, you just I think it's a self-worth thing. And the confidence, just fake it, and then people will believe it. I don't want to like give away my secret sauce, but that's kind of what I'm doing. Um, so Harper, I hope that answered your question. Okie dokie, and we have a piece of gremlin gossip. I gotta say, the way you wrote this, this was submitted by Taryn. You the way you wrote it, I felt like you were sitting in front of me telling me the story. All right. Taryn gossips and says, OMG, do I have a story for you? Hi, my name is Taryn, and I recently found your podcast and have been binging it. By the way, thank you for binging my podcast. Okay, so this story is a couple years old. I had been dating this one guy for like six months, and I was invited to go snowboarding with him and his friend group in Tahoe. I had met a majority of his friends and their significant others, and everyone seemed cool. So on night three of the trip, we are all sitting by the fire, and his best friend, let's call him Todd, stands up to A toast. He then proceeds to get down on one knee and propose to his longtime girlfriend. I, of course, am so excited for her, even though I've only met her like twice. The guys shake his hand in congratulations, and the other girlfriends are all crowding around to see the ring. All the girls except one. Let's call her Carol. I noticed Carol stay there stiff as a board and stone faced. She then got up, walked to her room, and was gone for the rest of the night. I thought it was so weird, but I didn't know the history of the group, so I waited until I was alone with my boyfriend to ask what the deal was. He says, quote, Oh yeah, you saw that? Well, Todd and Carol have been sleeping together for like the past year or so. I was shocked. All capital letters. I asked if they had prior history together. They didn't. I asked if the now fiance knew she was being cheated on. She didn't. My mind was blown. I asked why Todd would propose in front of basically his mistress, and he just shrugged and said, That's Todd. Ugh. I wish I would have stuck it out in the relationship a little longer just to watch it all fall apart, but I ended things with my boyfriend about a month later. All I found is what I've been able to find through Instagram stalking, and I have to assume the girl found out she was being cheated on because all her pictures with her former fiance have now been deleted, and she now has pictures with a new man. Good for her. Also, P.S. I have gone back and forth on whether or not I should have told her, but I never did. I didn't really feel like it was my place. What do you think? Anyway, love your podcast. Taryn. Girl. I love gossip like this. Like, this is the shit I fucking live for. God, it's so good. Like, I don't ever want to be involved in the drama. I just want to be around it. I want to like be a spectator. Like I'm watching a movie. But I don't want anyone I know to like actually get hurt. I don't know what I want. Anyway, Taryn, thank you so much for that. And like I said, I felt like you were sitting right in front of me telling me the story, and I was like, oh my god, really? Okay, do I think you should have told her? See, the the hard part is, is that you didn't really know her. I mean, it's let me see. Yeah, you said you had only been dating that guy for six months and you had met them, but you didn't know them. Like, you don't really know like the ins and outs and of someone's like relationship or the dynamics, and you know, obviously your ex-boyfriend knew. And he said, that's Todd. You know what? Someone named Todd would do some shit like that. Like, I think I don't know. I'm assuming that's not his real name. You said, let's call him Todd. I totally see a Todd doing that. Sorry to if there was any Todd's out there listening, but you know, do better. Yeah, I don't if I would have known the girl better, I would have, but at the same time, it seems like you had only known her or like met her a few times. Oh, like yeah, you even said, of course I'm excited for her, even though I've met her like twice. See, that's hard. Like, what if you would have told her and then she doesn't believe you, and then she just like thinks you're some like weird crazy girl? That's what I would be worried about. Like, I don't want someone to think I'm being like maniacal or like evil for no reason. Like, you know, anyone who knows me knows, like, I'm not gonna lie about something because I may be a lot of things, but one thing I am not is a liar. But this girl doesn't know you, so she could have possibly thought you were crazy and not believed you. So I yeah, I probably wouldn't have told her. I don't know. But at the same time, that kind of like goes against my beliefs. Like, if so if you know someone's being cheated on, you would want to tell them. I don't know. Maybe it's just like if you were in that position, what would you do? Like, I wait, wait, there is actually that show. It's called What Would You Do? It's on um friggin' ABC 7. Well, for me it's ABC 7. I don't know what it is for everybody else. It's ABC, and it's that guy. Um, he's got a funny last name. It's not funny, it's just fun to say. Oh, uh Kinonis. John Kinonis? Anyway, but they put out situations like that where it's like, what would you do if you saw a said situation? I always think about what I would do in situations. I'd like to think I would do the right thing. I would think I would do the right thing. But okay, in a case like this, like this is really, really personal. And yeah, I don't know if I would have told her, but I I don't I guess I'd have to be in the situation. I hope I'm not. Even though I just said I love shit like this. But yeah, I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone I know and love, basically. It's a better plot for a movie, I guess. So yeah, how about this? I'll kick it off to you guys. You can let me know what you guys would do in this situation. Taryn obviously did not tell the girl, and I don't think I would have, just based on the context of the story. But what do you guys think? Maybe you guys have a totally different take on this. I'm down to hear everyone else's opinions. Let me know. Email me or DM me. So that's pretty much it. That's our episode. If you want to follow myself and the podcast on social media, you can Emily to Gremlin Pod on Instagram and TikTok. You can also watch this episode and almost all the past episodes on YouTube, Emily to Gremlin Pod on YouTube. If you have your own Gremlin story, you need Gremlin guidance, or you have a juicy piece of Gremlin gossip like Taryn did today, you can email myself and the podcast, EmilyTogremlaypod at gmail.com, or you can message me or DM me on social media. Reminder for everyone if you guys have any suggestions on future guests that you want to hear and see on the podcast, let me know your suggestions. I do have a list of you guys have sent in professions for the most part. Was there any people? I don't think there was any like specific person that you wanted to see. You just like sent in profession ideas. Love that. Working on it. We already do have a call to action from Sarah. She said she loved the true crime episode, so she wanted to hear another true crime episode, as well as if anyone had any ghost or spooky stories. I have already decided, I was debating it last week. I've decided already. I am going to split those up into two different episodes. There's going to be a true crime episode and there's going to be a ghost spooky story episode. And that'll be coming up in the next two weeks. I don't think I'm going to do it next week. I'm going to be doing it the week after. So make sure to send in those all your stories. I'm not sure which one I'm doing first. So make sure to send those in. If I get some after I have already done the episode, I'll do another episode afterwards. No worries. And yeah, make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things, tell your friends. And yeah, we're trying to bump up those downloads and get more countries to listen in. We're already at 17 countries and 131 cities. Let's let's get the numbers up, guys. All right, and we are going to cheers out with the pair martini, the last martini you will see on this podcast until I guess April. Oh, okay. Well, cheers to you. Cheers to me. Cheers to this very last para martini. She will be missed. And I'm gonna have to come up with some really fun mocktail ideas to show you guys. I don't know. If you guys have suggestions, send those in. Okay. Cheers. Bye.

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Emily Hogan

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