The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 14 - Grace Beverley On What It Takes To Build A Business

Episode Date: July 15, 2021

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

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. You've got, you know, two businesses, two key businesses and um when you run a business when you're young irrespective of age you you undergo a couple of things real like 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. I think that at the same time as I kind of benefited hugely from the you know 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 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 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 profile-ness, 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, kind of I guess you know something that I really did want for myself I didn't get but I also got um you know a lot more in another way I guess. What did you want for yourself? 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 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 going to concentrate on this I'm going to grow the businesses I'm going to all of that and then I think as well I saw the deadline for that as my end of university because 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 going to choose, I was going to 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 23, like, you know, 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. 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 1am 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 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 and the buck stops with you right yeah and and and that's you know it's it's it's an important one do you sometimes i reflect on uh 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 it's almost like masochistic yeah like 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 lock down things we'd agreed to watch a movie on a Sunday night and then the sink came up and I was just like, you know what? I'm going to like, I'm going to do this. I'm just going to work harder. So it's just going to 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 and 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 going to do it. But like, you know, you're not wrong. Like'm still gonna do it but like you know you're not wrong like it's what is the answer to that question though so say because I've muddled

over this as well if I'm working obsessively every day at what point does is enough 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 realized 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 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 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. 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 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 where did that come from though I I think probably a few things I know that everyone in my family is a very hard worker and that is very it's kind of almost like an 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 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 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 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 but I also think that there is this like it's a flow state isn't it like you have something that matches your 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 I think it was like when I was like 15 16 and I would take like work experience from anyone every single holiday and every single school holiday and I remember my teachers saying like you should probably choose one of the avenues and then you can do like more within that or something and I 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. 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 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 like yeah you get it right what's the uh going back to the business and the chaos and the sacrifice is there one day in your business career over the last couple of years which was your worst day um i mean or your toughest challenge 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'm right. And I the beginning of May the 7th of May if I'm right um and I started 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 um but I persuaded people as well i'd persuaded people to spend money on this launch i'd persuaded people to you know so i was going to 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 were 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 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 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, cause I was in the library at 3 a.m. And I was also on the phone with the suppliers at 7 a.m. 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 or some 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 also the epitome of not being productive like that's like completely unproductive um 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 and you were broadcasting that 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 of 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 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