Moment 14 - Grace Beverley On What It Takes To Build A Business

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Grace Beverley has built two multi-million pound businesses but what did it really take to get there? We see all the good stuff, the instagram posts, the headlines but we never hear this side. Building a business isn’t always as glamorous as everyone makes it out to be. In this candid clip from the podcast Grace reveals what it truly takes to build a business. Episode 69 - https://g2ul0.app.link/6yLwQhfZShb Grace: https://www.instagram.com/gracebeverley/?hl=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Steven Bartlett?

  You've got two businesses, two key businesses. And when you run a business, when you're young, irrespective of age, you undergo a couple of things, real unexpected chaos at any given moment. Then also a tremendous amount of sacrifice. I actually wanted to start on the sacrifice piece because I don't think people, as you said earlier, get to fully see the full picture of sacrifice and cost, both personal and professional, whatever. So talk to me about some of the sacrifice that even you didn't expect before you got into business and before your business grew.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  I think that at the same time as I benefited hugely from the having money at university, for example, I also went to university expecting one thing and then actually spent it. Essentially getting up at X hour, working on university stuff. Because I never, ever, ever wanted to give them an excuse to think that I wasn't concentrating fully on my university and then working all the way essentially way into the night to get the other stuff done. And I also, you know, that comes with being high profile. That comes with all of these things. So I guess one of those things was very much like there was the time and the life experience

• 1:18Speaker 01

  and all of that, that because things took off quickly at one stage, even if it wasn't like, it wasn't that the businesses took off, you know, the businesses have done much more over the past year and a half or whatever, when I haven't been at uni. But at that point, you know, the high profileness, all of that, that came with, I guess, different to what I was expecting and, or not what I was expecting, I wasn't expecting it at all. And therefore there was kind of, I guess, you know, something that I really did want for myself, I didn't get, but I also got, you know, a lot more in another way.

• 1:53Steven Bartlett?

  What did you want for yourself?

• 1:54Speaker 01

  Well, I just wanted the university experience really. And I think that I was so, once this took off, I'm a very determined person and I get, I get a vision and I'll work for it day and night. And I think that I actually got to.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  I think in that instance, you it's kind of like a fork in the road and you decide, okay, well, I'm taking this one and I'm gonna concentrate on this. I'm gonna grow the businesses. I'm gonna all of that. And then I think as well, I saw the deadline for that as my end of university. Cause if I had to, if it wasn't as big as I wanted it to be by that time, or if it wasn't, you know, whatever it might be, I was gonna choose, I was gonna go into a normal career. And I think that so I was so dedicated to making that happen rather than, you know, I wanted to grow up too quickly, essentially. I'm twenty three, like I, you know, I'm, and I think that a lot of that has been, I guess, in terms of people's, whether, when it's people who meet you, their kind of perception of you or whatever it might be.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  And so I think that was something where it was a choice I'd make again and again. But it was, I guess, a sacrifice that I wasn't expecting to make. And I guess that comes with everything that comes with, you know, relationships, with friends, with time in general, with, you know, time to yourself, time to whatever. I think having a business in a way, and I'm sure some people will disagree, but I'm having a business in a way is like having a baby. And you can't just, you can't just like up and do whatever. You can't, you can't say no when a crisis comes in at one AM. You can't like, that is what it is. You get all the other benefits with those conditions. And so I think that, you know, that's kind of a constant one. Like you can't,

• 3:36Speaker 01

  you can't say, oh, I'm gonna quit this and go and do this for two years because especially when you've got X amount of people working for you, you've got all of their salaries, you've got all of their pensions, you've got, you know, like, it's, it's a huge responsibility.

• 3:49Steven Bartlett?

  And the buck stops with you, right?

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and, and that's, you know, it's, it's, it's an important one.

• 3:55Steven Bartlett?

  Do you, sometimes I reflect on the business journey and just how like obsessive it is and all consuming it is. And I think it's a bit of a disease. I'm like, why did I choose this to like?

• 4:06Speaker 01

  It's almost like masochistic.

• 4:07Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  Like, because obviously it's got the most amazing benefits, but it is also like, I remember what, I remember my friend, I can't remember, I think I really, we'd agreed to just, just lockdown. Things we'd agreed to watch a movie on a Sunday night and then the thing came up and I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna like, I'm gonna do this. I'm just gonna work harder. So it's just gonna be easier for this week. And it was like tiny sacrifice. And my housemate turned around to me and she was like, what is the point of were you working this hard for this many years? If you can't watch a movie on a Sunday night? And I was like, yeah, fair. Like, as in, like, you're not wrong. Like, I'm still gonna do it. But like, you know, you're not wrong. Like, it's.

• 4:48Steven Bartlett?

  What is the answer to that question? So say, because I've muddled over this as well. If I'm working obsessively every day, at what point does is enough?

• 4:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I think that it all comes with what you want. And I think that, you know, I've I've listened to you before and I've listened to you kind of saying that, you know, there came a point that you realised that it wasn't about money. So like, what was it about? And I think for me, there's the kind of aspect of it's it's for the businesses. And I have these really clear dreams for the businesses that result in dreams for me as well. Sure. But I think that that is, I think I'll come to a, you know, if I decide to sell a business or whatever, I'll come to that road there where I'm like, okay, what is it for now? And I think that knowing myself anyway, I know pre-business, post-business, I'm sure I

• 5:36Speaker 01

  am like that. So whether it's this or whether it's something else, or, you know, and I hope I can channel that into something else at some point that doesn't require every inch of your being. And I know I'm like that. So it's kind of like, yeah, sure, it might be for nothing, but it's I'm gonna do it anyway. Like, there doesn't need to be reasoning behind the fact that this is how I am. I have always been. I've always, yeah, I've always been like this. I've always been kind of like, I'm gonna make this happen. Like, whether that's kind of through like coordinating all the babysitting jobs that you got in one night and allocating them out to your friends and stuff. And or, you know, like, taking essentially like any

• 6:16Speaker 01

  job ever that like that I could, then, you know, that's all, that's what I'm like. So I kind of know that.

• 6:23Steven Bartlett?

  Where did that come from though?

• 6:25Speaker 01

  I I think probably a few things. I know that everyone in my family is a very hard worker and that is very.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  It's kind of almost like an anxiety to do well, even though like my parents were not pushy at all. I think people assume, you know, especially if you go to Oxford or like whatever. But the least pushy people ever, I think that actually it all, I kind of was discussing this with my sister the other day. I was like, where does it come from? It doesn't come from our parents. Like it comes from them clearly because they had it in themselves. But you know, like they, both my parents had careers when I was growing up. I lived with my mum, just me, my mum, and we had a tenant who lived in

• 7:15Speaker 01

  my mum's house and my mum was working pretty much all the time incredibly. Like I respect her so much for it because I also never grew up thinking like, oh, it's weird for a woman to have a career and have four children and like whatever. She just, you know, she worked all the time. And, um, and she loved it. She loved it. And she gave her like everything to it. And so I, I think I spent a lot of, I spent a lot of time kind of in that situation, knowing that I also wanted to love what I do. And I think there is this misled like perception that, you know, like if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, but I also think that there is this, like, it's a flow state, isn't it? Like you have something that matches your

• 7:59Speaker 01

  challenge and your skill level and you get more fulfillment than you'll get from anything. And I think I was so, I used to say, I remember saying like, that I, I think it was like when I was like fifteen, sixteen and I would take like work experience from anyone every single holiday and every single school holiday. And I remember my teacher saying like, you should probably choose one of the avenues and then you can do like more within that or something. And I remember just saying to them like, I'm so terrified that I'll be stuck in something that I hate. And it was like a constant like, and I don't think it's necessarily good. I don't think it was necessarily healthy. I was constantly so terrified that, you know, the same was for university, the same was for whatever. Like I didn't get into Oxford the first time I applied.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  I, I, I, and I went again, like I literally that same day, I went online and I found out what I could do for a year that would earn myself some money to be able to not be, I guess, studying that year. And went to and applied for the IBM Future Scheme, which is the one they do for gap year students, that that literal same day and then applied again the next year. And like, as in, I was, I'm very like that. It's very set on kind of one thing. And if that thing then doesn't work, I either want to do it again. Like, it's really clear to me. I either want to do it again, or I'm like, that wasn't right. And then I move on. But I know that I'm very straight out and very, like, I will not stop until I.

• 9:28Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, you get it. What's the, going back to your, the, the business and the chaos and the, is there one day in your business career over the last couple of years, which was your worst day?

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Um, I mean.

• 9:40Steven Bartlett?

  Or your toughest challenge?

• 9:42Speaker 01

  I think my toughest challenge in general was, there was this stupid, stupid time that I'm constantly praised for, that was the worst decision I've ever made in my life, which was that I was coming up to my university finals. I was launching a business to, I think it was a month before my university finals. Yeah, I was launching a business, beginning of May, the 7th of May, if I might. And I start, I finished my finals on the 6th of June. Now, that meant that 40,000 words were due and five three-hour exams within the space of two weeks. And I also wanted to launch my business and I also wanted to do well at university. I'd been working with that for three years. But I persuaded people

• 10:25Speaker 01

  as well. I'd persuaded people to spend money on this launch. I'd persuaded people to, you know, so I was gonna do it right. People were like, you're amazing. Like, this is so great. Like, how can you do this? And I'm like, you are, like, it's not wise. It's not smart. Like, it's not, like, this isn't a competition for how many boxes you can tick within a small space of time. That is like a fast track towards burnout and either something going incredibly wrong or whatever. And I think that that, you know, like, as I've said, work was always a coping mechanism for me. So it's always kind of like, well, if we, if we have to do it now, or we like run out of money before launch and we're doing it now, and I don't care. Like, I can work X, Y, and Z. And I actually have like a whole, like, chapter in a book where I'm essentially talking about, like, that was the time that I felt most validated in being a hard worker. And I felt like, because I

• 11:10Speaker 01

  was, I was in the library at 3am and I was also on the phone with the suppliers at. You know, seven AM the next morning and all of X, Y and Z and people could see it and I was living it. I was like hustling the hustle. And that was when I was like, wow, like this is it. Like, I am the hard worker, like with capital H and W. And like, this is me. And I think that that is like, that kind of like sums it all up in the way that that was a huge challenge, also an incredibly unwise challenge at the time. And yet, why did that feel like the time I was doing it right? So that's actually, that's a lot of what spurred on essentially why I was writing the book, because it was kind of like, how can that be the epitome of hard work when that is

• 11:53Speaker 01

  also the epitome of not being productive? Like, that's like completely unproductive and not useful for anyone. You're not going to be nice with the people you deal with at the time. You have a higher chance of actually like messing things up and all of that. And yet, why was that the one time that I felt like truly validated for what I was doing?

• 12:13Steven Bartlett?

  And you were broadcasting that?

• 12:14Speaker 01

  And I was broadcasting that. And there'll be people, I'm sure, who see me now, who are like, but she, you know, did this and that. And like, yeah, sure, I work really hard. I really do. But there are some things that it's kind of like, I address that. And what, like, as I said to you, while I was writing the book, there were so many things that I noticed. I was like, I'm the problem here as well. I perpetuate this. How can I criticize a culture, the hustle culture, that I benefit from at the same time? How can I do that? And I think that, I think that that's what made me, you know, that's why I say that this book was such like a soul searching process for me. Because I was like, you know, what is that? Why is that? Like, is that because I need the validation? Is that because we all need the validation now? Because hard work has become so

• 12:57Speaker 01

  unobtainable? Because it has to be doing this job, that job, like everything in between, also being amazing at self-care, also doing like X, Y and Z. And I think that that's when I was kind of like, okay, this is a challenge. But it's not only a challenge, it was a silly thing to do. So it's not even like a, you know, there are things you have to do, there are crises you have to deal with and all of that, that will be a challenge and will also be incredibly rewarding and all of that. And most of them are. But I think there are other things that you look at and you're like, yep, this was a challenge and it also didn't have to happen. Let's not do that again.