In this week’s episode of 40 Minute Mentor, host James Mitra is joined by Grace Beverley, CEO and Founder of sports tech brand, SHREDDY, and TALA, a clothing brand specialising in sustainable sports fashion.
At just 24, Grace has achieved so much already, from founding her two massively successful businesses to writing her book “Working Hard, Hardly Working”, which was the subject of a nine-way auction with publishers champing at the bit to get their hands on it.
And it’s easy to see why. Grace is the epitome of the modern entrepreneur – she understands the new business landscape and how you need to think quickly to adapt to it, and to be unafraid of making big changes to move your brand forward.
Speaking about where her strong work-ethic began, Grace shares why studying music at a young age taught her about hard work vs talent: “My background is heavily in music, and I think that’s probably what taught me a huge amount of discipline, and hard work. In music, you hear about talent, but in order to pursue excellence at any point within music, hard work beats talent over, and over.”
She explains that going into the specialist environments, such as the Royal Academy of Music, and Oxford, she had to learn to fight because there were far more talented people than her. However, she acknowledges that it comes down to hard work to prove yourself.
Sharing the ambition behind starting her fitness brand SHREDDY, and explaining why there is no place for brands that aren’t purpose-driven in today’s society, Grace says: “Our core purpose was to simplify the fitness model, make it applicable to everyone, and allow it to be something that people can pursue.
“I feel the importance of having that greater drive and value is twofold, it’s internal and external. Externally, there is now no place for brands that aren’t purpose driven.
“There are so many ways to consume out there, so why would you be consuming something that doesn’t resonate with you on a wider background? Whether that’s humanitarian, or it pulls at your heart strings, or it actually has a niche. There are a variety of different ways of looking at it, but what I’ve learnt fundamentally is that the WHY has to be translated internally in order for it to be translated externally.”
40 Minute Mentor is available on Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, and all major podcast platforms.
