Savannah Louie on Winning Survivor 49, Haters, and Owning the Edit

Hey, Obsessors. Let's get one thing straight. Winning is not always pretty because sometimes the edit does not tell the whole story. Sometimes you're painted as the villain, the mastermind, or the one we love to hate. And sometimes those haters, they're the fuel that get you to the finish line. Today's guest didn't just survive the chaos, she leveraged it. She navigated misread moments, twisted narratives, and the kind of social pressure that would break most people. Instead of shrinking, she owned it. Every side-eye, every whisper, every... She's going home next. Then she proved them all wrong because winning survivor isn't just about fire making or alliances. It's about emotional control, mental endurance, and knowing exactly when to let people underestimate you and then knowing when to strike. What does that mean? What does that mean to really take it to winning status and allowing your story to be told? Even if you did not write it yourself, we're going to learn that today with someone very special, someone very amazing that you're going to get obsessed with, Savannah Louie. She knows how to turn criticism into her greatest advantage. Let's get into it with Savannah Louie, the winner of Survivor Season 49. Right here on Get Obsessed. Welcome, Savannah. I'm so excited. Oh my gosh, you guys. I am so thrilled to be here. Julie, talk about obsessed. I'm obsessed with all of your intros ever. I get goosebumps when I hear you talk about me like that. It's all you though, Savannah. You are so fascinating. You're multifaceted. It is a really a story that everyone is going to get obsessed with. If you haven't watched Season 49 or 50, we can talk about 52, but it is such a roller coaster, but it's something I forgot. I'd love to indulge in the whole Survivor Series. Speaking of indulging, right before recording, we got to let the audience know that you too were talking about the Verl Housewives franchise and how. Yeah. Obsessed. You all are about the franchise. And so that is like your guilty treat, your guilty pleasure. Like you all know so much and I'm out of the loop because I haven't watched it forever, but you both were like talking about Rhode Island and Utah and all these other different franchises for the Verl Housewives. And yeah, some spilling the tea, but you both have to admit. This is confession hour now. I love everyone know that's tuning in. I mean, and I get it down how Julie is down with the real house. I take pride in being a Real Housewives fan because there's something about getting home after a long day. You turn your brain off and you're able to watch some of the drama and the social dynamics. Like you talk about Survivor as being like this big strategic game. It'll lay Real Housewives is kind of like a strategic social game in and of itself. Right. There's so many different dynamics. It's entertaining to just sit back and kind of absorb other people's drama as you recover from whatever crazy day you've had at work or whatever you have going on. Oh, they helped me feel better about myself as I'm. Would you ever consider being a housewife? How old you're right in Atlanta? Oh, I would. I don't know if I can sit in with those women though, because they have such an incredible amount of wealth and I just want a million dollars, but they've got like a lot more than and I do. Their net worth, I think sometimes is just insane. But overall, like I have so much respect for those women because for as much criticism and critique as they get from fans all over only the country, but like the world at times, like they are tough women. They are strong women and they have this really unique community. And I think there's something so fun about reality TV where you really get to open up and be yourself. I used to work as a journalist and when I was working in broadcast news, it was a very filtered part of myself. Right. It was like maybe you're seeing five, 10% of my personality there. But when I did survive or like you're seeing a lot more to my personality, maybe not the whole 360 degree view, but you're seeing a lot more authenticity and there's something so freeing about that. I can feel that I can relate to that, but it may say one or those Savannah, who did you have to become like on and off camera to win survivors? Season 49, you want it. Like you just said it, you got a million dollars. That was your compensation. Congratulations. Thank you. Right. My boy, but who did you have to become on and off camera to one survivor? And do you actually like the version of yourself that you saw like on screen? You know, that's such a good question. And it's such a layered question, right? One of the things about survivor is they are filming constantly. Even when you're asleep, there's like a little camcorder that's recording you just in case something crazy happens in the middle of the night. So when you're out there on the island and you're playing the game, you might be able to filter part of yourself for maybe a couple of days. But once you're starving out there, you're not sleeping. It's really hard to put a mask on and to keep that mask on through the duration of the game, especially if you're like me and you're out there for almost a month on the island. And so the pieces of me that you're seeing on the TV, like that's 100% Savannah for better or worse. You're seeing me at my best moments, my funniest moments, my most charming moments, but I'll be honest, you're also seeing me in moments where, yeah, I'm very hangry and I'm a little grumpy or I feel like I've gone back stabs and I'm taking it personally. Like you're seeing me at my worst and my best. Oftentimes parts of me that only a very small group of people, you know, my best friends, my boyfriend, my parents get to see of me and to bear that all in front of the world, like part of it is a little daunting at times. And it's very easy to take things personally, but at the same time, when I look back at this entire experience, it has been so freeing, right? And, you know, I talked a little bit about, you don't see the full 360 degree view of me out there, but you see enough of me to where I feel really proud at how I was able to see how I'm coming across, but also understand and own how I'm coming across. I'm not going to be the sweetest girl on the block. I've never been that. And that's okay. I don't need to be that, but I can be this player who is bold and who can be aggressive at times. And yeah, who might be a little abrasive, but that's okay. We all have our flaws and I can still be a winner because of it. You get the call that you are actually going to be on the show, survivor. And it's an iconic show that we've been watching for 20 plus years. What you have to do to get prepared because not everyone is that ideal, archetype of the strong, strong muscular male or female. Everyone is so different in their personalities, which is so intriguing to me. But what does Savannah Louie have to do? Once you get the call, you're on the show. Are you freaking out? Are you ready to just start lifting weights because you're obviously a strong swimmer, you're athletic, but how do you get your mind ready to do something like this and know that it's actually a game? It's a game. And people don't remember it's actually a game. Dude, I was doing the most to get ready for this. And so just a little background here. I applied for the show in December and I didn't get confirmed that we were going to be, that I was going to be playing the game until maybe about a month, a month and a half before I actually went out to Fiji. And so pretty much as soon as I applied, I'm like, okay, I got to operate with the mindset that I am going to go and be competing and get on this island, even though I'm competing against, you know, 15,000 other people for a spot on the island. Right. Except how many people apply. And so I'll break it down into different like categories as far as physical and social strategic and a preparation. Physically, I thought to myself, okay, I need to get my butt in the gym. I'd already had like a pretty good foundation, but I did things like I incorporated hot yoga for my balance and for my endurance. I did things like Pilates or liqueur workouts a couple of times a week. I started doing these boot camp classes here in Atlanta. And I would do all of these workout classes without having any water. Because in my mind, I know that sounds crazy, but in my mind, I'm like, okay, when I'm competing out in the game during these physical challenges, I'm not necessarily going to have time to take a little water break. You know, we're going to be going straight through this. So I want to get my body used to working hard without any recovery, so to speak. Another interesting thing I did to prepare as far as the food situation goes, because I don't know about you guys, but I don't have a ton of experience operating when I'm not fully fed two to three meals a day. And so one of the things I did was I started fasting pretty regularly. So once a week, I would do maybe a 24 to 72 hour fast, which like again, like I'm not a doctor. I don't know if anyone should be doing this in their real life, but this is what worked for me as I got ready for the show. And as I was fasting, I would have water and everything, but I would also do some of these workouts. So again, I could get my body used to not having a lot of nutrients and being able to replenish itself, but that way I was hoping it would kind of mirror what I would experience when I got out there to the island. And then as far as anything social related, I tried to talk with as many random people as I possibly could. So that's people in line at the grocery store. That's people who I might meet out at a restaurant or in the elevator. And I would try to have conversations and try to make connections pretty quickly with these different types of people. Just because when you're out there on the island, you know, you're going to be meeting so many different random people from different walks of life. You might not necessarily meet in your typical circles, or at least for me here in Atlanta. And so getting used to connecting with others and flexing some of those communication muscles, that was super useful for me. Although I will say in a lot of ways, working as a reporter and a journalist and being a former competitive athlete in high school, those are things that really laid the foundation before I even got out there to Fiji in the first place. So you can really say I've been preparing for a survivor for like decades, years, you know. Oh, wow. Look at that. I'm preparing for the real housewives. What is the cast number preparing for survivor? I mean, everyone listening, Savannah's given us a blueprint. So get your notebook out. Take these notes. Savannah's giving them to us. I love it. It's so funny that you say that too, that you became like self-aware that you just have to build up your social skills to be able to talk to different people of different walks of life and people that you normally don't typically go out of your way to talk with, but to familiarize yourself with that and to regulate yourself, your nervous system around these different personalities and different backgrounds and being able to just be sociable with them. Because it's something that I am actually doing not that direct, like not that intentional. I love it, but I am doing some different things because I'm an introvert and I love being, you know, you love your solo time. But then when you get into social settings, you realize, oh, I need to tune up. Yeah, I'm a total introvert too. See, really, I'm too with two introverts right now. Yeah, that's pretty much. Well, this interesting that, for example, like I know Mika, I've been besties with her for a really long time, but you guys put yourselves out there. How do you do that as introverts? Because I'm just like, whoa, and then I get exhausted. But I'm always fascinated by the introvert because I think the introvert always gets a bad rap. It's being pulled or icy or unengaging. How do you guys do that and successful? Or I'll ask Savannah that since I'll interview Mika next time for Savannah's here. I mean, I'll be real with you. It was really hard on the island just because in real life, I can go out, have a social experience and my boyfriend is a total extrovert. So he will in some ways be encouraging me to go with him to certain events. And I want to be a fun partner. So we'll go together. I'll have fun, but then I'll also make sure like I got to have my recharge time, my self care time the next day. But out there on the island, it's hard because you don't have any recharge time to yourself. You're constantly with other people, which is like the craziest thing. If you go off by yourself, people might accuse you of looking for an idol or doing something very suspicious. And so you're constantly surrounded by people, always interacting. And for me personally, like my social battery was like put by like day eight. Wow, Savannah, you said the right thing though. Like as an introvert, we do because I'm a lever and with social butterfly. So I love to engage, but then I love to, you know, you go back and you do need to recharge your battery. You do need that space to like decompress and just, okay, that was great. But you didn't have that moment. Cameras in your face all the time, right? You have calendars in your face, people in your face. There is no recharge time. I'm so curious just before the island, did they do personality assessments? They must do assessments on you guys. What did they do? And what did you find out about yourself? Oh my gosh. No, that is like the best question. I don't know how much I can get into it, but I'll tell you, like, I wish I could spill all the tea, but here's kind of the very general breakdown that I'll give you. So yes, there is a psych evaluation and a personality test is part of that. And they do like the psych evaluation to make sure we have a bunch of personality out there on the island. We kind of want to profile how they might interact together. But I also think they want to make sure none of us are like too crazy to be stranded on an island in infigy, right? They want the good personalities, but not the crazy, crazy over the top. Right? There is a fine line between reality star, like you got to be a little crazy in a good way. And then there's that fine line between, you know, have you touched my banana, but I just found you might get cut. So there's a fine line. So they want to make sure. Insanity is insanity, legally insane. But that's a thousand and eight. Yes. And so to kind of give you like an example of how this would go, because you talk about, like, you know, don't touch my banana or I'm going to go crazy. So they would have, they had a ton of questions, like hundreds of questions. And the questions would range from sometimes I get so mad that I imagine myself punching someone to sometimes I get so mad that I have before punched someone in the face and then I want to kill them. So, you know, it gives you like a spectrum of just how angry you might get in some of these situations, which is so fascinating. But when I took my test, they give you, they said, you down afterwards, and they kind of give you a little breakdown of your results. And the way that I was described is someone who is a female, but who has a lot of masculine, typically masculine traits. And so when you see me play in the game, you'll see me playing in a way that is pretty aggressive. It's bold. Those are words that I love to use to describe my gameplay, because it's accurate and what might be considered things that are mean, I think for women are characteristics that are considered assertive and aggressive for men. And so that's pretty much what my personality test will be. I acted my normal life and you really see it come to play in the game as well. Wow. That's really interesting though, that masculine version of Savannah and feminine version. So that was what they said. Okay. They kind of after doing the assessment and then assessing you to go, that's a stamp. Was masculine Savannah? Well, they basically said you have a lot of typically masculine trade. When you think of maybe like a male CEO for a big company who is a leader and who might be very assertive and who might be pretty tough. A lot of those not, and that's not to say women can't be tough whatsoever, but a lot of these stereotypically male traits, those are also traits that I carry. It's so interesting. I'm sure that the experts would explain it a lot better than how I'm doing it right now, but that's, yeah. The masculine traits, I bet, and I'm guessing I'm just maybe putting words into your mouth, the masculine trait seemingly bold and confident that people perceive you in a different way that you don't think you're being perceived as, I'm guessing. Yes. Yeah. I actually just pulled up some typically masculine versus feminine traits, which is really interesting. Like masculine traits might be logical, confident, focused, strong, stable, whereas women are more intuitive, gentle, caring, nurturing. So that's what I mean when I say masculine versus feminine traits. I might not be the most gentle or nurturing person out there, but you know, that's all right. Mika, I think Mika would say I'm more masculine and she's more feminine, I'm guessing. Yeah. Like a batter in the car. Yeah. The positive will know positive, negative, because Jules is very positive. I don't want to say that, but yeah, the masculine feminine Jules, when, what was it? The numerology, we had the numerologist, she did your reading and then she did mine. And we're both six, it's dominantly a six. And it gives a trait when you're regulated, your balance. All right. She's trying to say I'm bossy is what she's trying to say. Well, yeah, yeah. When she is not balanced and yeah, she's bossy. So, so funny. But a cool thing is Savannah, our relationship works because what she's like, and we need to do this and we need to do that. And I don't want to see the other and I'm on the phone. Okay. Let's talk about. I know, no, a virgin I'm getting right now. But yeah, so it was all cool when the numerologist, Sylvia, what she was giving us the background, I was like, Oh, that's what it is. I'm like, okay, Sylvia, I am taking notes. But because you're obviously beautiful, Savannah, how did that play into anything? Cause we're talking about feminine and masculine. And was that an asset? Because everything, cause we're taking into account personality. We're taking into account our endurance. We're taking into account all these factors and you're having to use your brain a lot. You're having to think ahead. You're relying on so many different parts of your body and your faculties and beauty and some social settings, beauty does play a part. Was that a benefit? Just like being able to rep 15 pounds. I don't know. That's such an interesting question. And I mean, we've seen survivor be around for like 25 years. And there are plenty of examples of women who have leveraged their looks into doing really, really well on the show, which I think is like incredible. For me though, personally, I don't think my looks helped me at all. If anything, I think in some ways it may have made my journey a little bit more difficult. And I don't necessarily want to say that this particular thing happened because I look a certain way, but during my season, I got labeled as a mean girl. And it was for behaviors that again, in the context of survivor, I do not think they are mean. I think their behaviors that are, I'm going to do what it takes to win. I am going to maybe smack talk a little bit because I'm a competitor at heart. And I don't think I'm doing anything that's crazier than what you might see an NFL player doing when he's at a championship, you know what I mean? But their behaviors and things that are okay, maybe when men do them. But when a woman does them, it is labeled as bitchy, mean girl, scary and a lot of negativity associated with that. And so that was really an interesting, it was really interesting. And, you know, I got that from people who I played the game with like during my season, but I got a lot more of it from people who watch the show and who were seeing a very filtered, again, I said, I'm proud of my edit on the show. I think the producers did phenomenal job showing me as a strong woman. But it's again, just one side of me. And a lot of the fans of the show would talk about how I just gave mean girl energy and how it just seemed like I thought I was better than other people, which is not the case at all. I think there's a way where I can think that I rock, but I also think everybody else rocks too. You know, I don't think I'm higher or better than anyone else out there. But I think a big part of that way that people may be perceived me, not just on the show, within the context of the show, but the fans, I think it does have to do with the way that I look and the way that I present. And I think that if I was a man acting the same way, I don't think it would have been labeled as a mean girl or as a bitch or anything like that. I see that. And like, it's always going to be unfair, men versus women. It's always going to be unfair. Obviously you are beautiful. You are strong. You have a quiet strength about you. I think you need, and I hope the producers know this, that you have to be well equipped before walking onto the island to take what you get after you leave the island. Because I can't imagine you coming off here in La Land. I just, yeah, I just scored a million books. I'm amazing. People forget it's a game. They forget that you've only known each other for less than a month. They think you're lifelong friends and you're backstabbing these people. It's a game. And then you come home and I'm guessing your social media, I'm putting words into your mouth, but maybe you can walk us through that. What it's like to receive, I'm sure, adulation and congratulations, but the ugly side of fame that you weren't probably used to. It's crazy. It's literally insane. And I say this as someone who has always been fairly active on social media, right? So I'm used to getting comments from when I worked in journalism from fans to maybe liked me on TV or people who hated me on TV. And I might get those comments, you know, every once in a while. But when you are on a national TV show like Survivor, it is just that times 10,000. And I mean, I still get positive and negative comments every single day. There was a lot of positivity, but the negativity for some reason, I don't know why, but it just hurts and it hits so much harder. It is honestly overwhelming to respond to everybody. I tried to respond to everybody when the show first started airing and then quickly realized like that is not possible if I want to stay sane. But for some reason, whenever I see the negative comments, like there's something in me where I don't know what it is, but it's this poll to feel like I have to defend myself or address the weird comments. But overall, people are not meant to hear. About themselves as much as what we're hearing about ourselves when we step into the limelight for like this, even if it is just for a season or two. It is the craziest feeling. And I will say, although the negativity has been really tough, I'm so grateful that my story has touched people in a positive way for all the negativity I heard from parents and moms, especially who have said to me, Savannah, your story is resonating with my daughter. She was so nervous before her soccer game. She said she's going to act like Savannah. And then she played that soccer game and played it with confidence. And like, that's why I'm doing this. That's what I'm doing this for, you know, like I wanted to play survivor for myself today, but also for the Savannah who fell in love with the show when she was just seven years old. So hearing those stories, especially from those young kids, like it makes this whole journey worth it. I love that. I really, really love that because you put yourself out there, all of you, all the cast members, and then you get back home, back to your environment. And then you said that you are quite familiar with social media, with doing the journalism, and then you get this, the hate. And I don't know, did it ever make you wonder, is some of that true? Because when one person says that, you're like, huh, okay. Because we're talking about worldwide syndicated. So, and so translated and probably German, France and French and all these other in Spanish, you're like Pablo and Spain just said, go yourself. Now I've got Jake in Australia saying, I'm a this and that. Is this true? Did you ever start to go like, wait a minute, but did I really come up? Like, is that, did you start to like question yourself? Yeah, 100%. And I think there's so much truth to what you just said, right? If you're hearing it from one person, okay, like maybe they're wrong, but when you're hearing it from all sides, you have to reflect on it, right? And I'll be real with you. I had confessionals that were very cutting towards some of my caskmates. I do think that there is grace that should be given, especially when you're starving and you're frustrated and anything is going to annoy you. And I implore anyone who thinks otherwise to reflect on plans where they've skipped a meal or two and they're feeling a little grumpy, right? Okay, imagine skipping meals for an entire week. And at the end of the day, what I really did was I reached out to people who know me very well in real life. And these are people who are not going to kiss my ass and who are not afraid of me and who will tell me what they think and be like brutally honest with me in every area of life. And I asked them about my behavior on the show and they said, no, so then we know you, like we know you are not a mean girl. This is within the context of the game when you might be a little grumpy, but overall that your gameplay isn't mean. It's behavior that looks aggressive and that looks strong and that might look scary, but it doesn't reflect your heart or how you treat people or how you talk to people at all. And then the other thing that I did too was reach out to people on my cast just to make sure that we were cool. Even if we didn't necessarily work together in the game, and even if I was responsible, powerfully for them going home. At the end of the day, I had some important conversations with people that maybe may have felt like I was mean when they watched the show that. And you come to a place of understanding and you come to a place of, hey, we're good and, you know, we had this crazy experience together and maybe we don't always see eye to eye, but we can respect each other. We can respect each other as people and as people who went through this crazy experience together and move on. Yeah. And the cool thing is I love that you reached out to them, even the ones that you may have directly or indirectly been responsible for them, leaving a show, leaving a game. And it is a game. It's a game to win a million dollars, right? And it's a platform that you're able to use for, if you're going to be an entrepreneur or you've got some other endeavors in your life or some causes. Like winning season 49 of Survivor or any season is a platform to bring light to your causes, to bring light to what is it you want to bring into the world or product. So I love that you reached out to them and be like, are we good? Because I would assume because they know the game and sometimes we don't play a game as well as we should, but we will reflect back on it. We go, oh, I could have did that different. Oh, I could have did this different. Then when they look back and watch that episode that season with you, they could probably go what that you both had together that you shared. And then they can kind of go, oh, you know, it is a million dollar game. I don't hate her for doing that because had I played it a little differently, then I probably would have done the same thing that she did, or I would have done the same thing to another cast member. So I could have stayed in the game longer or ultimately win the game because we're not just playing it, just to like play and to go through all this experiences of like being, you know, hungry for a week and being sunburned, you know, so we're playing this game. So I'm thinking that they would have played the game differently. Had they known, had they adapted some of your tactics, really smart tactics, by the way. They would have played it differently. I love that the feedback that moms were giving you with the soccer that she said her daughter, I want to play like Savannah. That is so cool. Yeah, it's like the biggest compliment ever. If I can, you know, I grew up watching the show. There are women who I looked up to when I was that age. And so to now realize I'm that woman for some of these young girls like that, it feels incredible. It's really neat. I feel the energy that you are. I'm picking up what you're throwing down. The energy. Yeah. Honestly, just as someone that I'm a mom to four boys, I've been a young woman who silenced herself just to try to fit in and near proving something so huge. What are those lessons that you've learned and how are you going to ignite and change the world going forward? Because you can't have a viral platform like this and not be thinking about what the next step is. I know. And I kind of already touched on this, but the best part about this process is realizing that my story is inspirational to a lot of people out there. I feel like I just have like almost this natural high. Whenever I hear from people who say, Savannah, you being so vulnerable and cheering with me has helped me and it will help me change my life or it will help me change my daughter's life or my son's life, anything like that. And so when I look to what I want to do next, I want to figure out a way where I can continue to spread that, that confidence and that self love and that strength that so often we struggle to find. I think especially as maybe young adults. So if there's a way to do that with a speaking platform or even just using my own social media platform to do that, I'm like, that's what I need to be doing. And there's so many different lessons from my survivor experience. I think perseverance, especially when it looks like the odds are stacked against you, I think that that's something that I can absolutely speak to. Or at the end of the day, just owning who you are and not feeling like you have to bow down to someone else's opinion of you, feeling confident in, you know, your positive traits, sure, but also some of your traits that, that might not be always the best well received, you know, I think that's another lesson that can be learned. And if there's a way that people maybe feel a little more empowered just by listening to my story or, or sharing what I have to say at the end of the day, if it helps one person, if it helps five, 10, 20 people, then, you know, that's why I'm here. That's amazing. Each step you're taking, you're changing the world. I can't imagine what's next for you. You've already pushed yourself to the limit. So what is next for Savannah Louie? Okay, I wish I could give you a better answer because I'm working through a few things right now. So that's a very limited way of saying stay tuned. But I have a couple of projects that are in talks and in the works right now. It might already be out there by the time that this comes out. But yeah, I'm very excited. And that's incredible because to know Savannah Louie is to love her through the roller coaster, through the surviving. This has been a conversation. Guys, we will put every, and maybe she will tip us into what's next and you'll find that in the show notes. So make sure you check out the show notes because if you took anything away from today, I just want to say that winning isn't clean. It's not always understood. And it's definitely not always celebrated the way you think it will be as a winner. Savannah didn't just play the game. She navigated it with keen perception that is cultivated and the edits, the assumptions, the noise, the people who thought that they had her figured out are the ones who rooted against her. And look who is standing here with such grace and with such benevolence and understanding her legacy. Here's the truth that most people don't want to admit in my mind. Sometimes the very things people criticize you for are the ones that set you apart. Savannah has found her voice. We cannot wait to find out what she's doing in the future. She is using it. She is a survivor that has not been misunderstood. She is miss amazing. We are obsessed with her. Everybody I want you to go right now, check out the show notes because there are going to be tons of links just to follow her. Become obsessed with her like, Meek and I are. If you love this episode just as much as we did and you are really wanting to just tap in more to the obsessed community and get to know people like Savannah. Louis. Don't forget to share this podcast, great review and subscribe to the Get Obsessed podcast. We love you until we meet again. Keep getting obsessed with your life. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.