Working Hard with Grace Beverley

Latest Episodes:

Ep.19 Gang Leader Turned Venture Capital Investor - Karl Lokko On How He Turned His Back On Crime. Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

Karl Lokko is an ex-gang leader turned activist, campaigner, influencer and entrepreneur. Growing up on a tough estate swarming with gangs, Karl's childhood was far from plain-sailing, witnessing his first shooting when just 12 years old.

Though at the time this had felt shocking, within four years Karl found himself behind the trigger, eventually becoming the ringleader of his own notorious gang. Before he was even 16, Karl had already been shot at, cut on his face, stabbed in the chest and watched one of his best friends get killed.

Karl finally pivoted when he met Pastor Mimi Asher, the mother of a fellow gang member, who showed him a way out. Resulting from Mimi's courageous counselling and mentorship, Karl was able to gain perspective, zoom out on his situation, and turn a life of crime into a life worth living.

Since then, Karl has dedicated his life and career to helping others do the same. Karl also leads the vision for Black Seed, a community and seed fundraiser to exclusively support black-led start-ups. With an embarrassing 0.24% of venture funding reaching black founders, Karl is leading the Black Seed team to tackle the systemic racial disparities in investment, their vision to find the next black unicorn and transform Brixton into Silicon Valley.

Today’s episode will completely blow your mind. As he describes it, Karl’s story reflects the journey of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly - the complete transformation of his life into something utterly unrecognisable.

- Karl's childhood in South London

- Where Karl's involvement in gangs began

- When Karl couldn't join a gang, he created one

- The problems within the system perpetuating gang culture

- How and why Karl eventually turned his back on crime

- The beginnings of Karl's first business - a rehab centre.

- The initial idea for Black Seed

- The horror show that are Black Founder statistics

https://www.instagram.com/blackseedvc/?hl=en

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Ep.18 Courtney Black: From Personal Trainer To Multi-Millionaire Nov 07, 2022

Show notes

TRIGGER WARNING

Courtney Black is the 26-year-old serial entrepreneur and 2x Sunday Times Bestselling author who transformed her personal training career into a multi-million-pound fitness business during the pandemic.

Courtney is the founder of the Courtney Black App, an online fitness platform she launched just two weeks before the lockdown with every penny in her savings. Initially launched as an app to be used in tangent with equipment found in a gym, Courtney was devastated when COVID closed sports centres nationwide, forcing her to rethink her business. At a time when people were looking for ways to stay healthy while locked away, Courtney began posting a series of live home workouts on her Instagram, for which she received unplanned media attention and conversion to her app.

As her workouts went viral, Courtney also used her platform to expose fitness fads and myths bred online that she, sadly too, had once fallen for. Having suffered through a vicious cycle of restrictive dieting and undereating, Courtney understands what it means to have an unhealthy relationship with food, an obsession that left her dangerously underweight and still haunts her today. In today's episode, Courtney shares her story of how she went from barely surviving, to thriving. She has not only overcome and recovered from a lingering eating disorder but has grown and scaled a business amidst a global pandemic.

Topics:

- 'The restriction cycle' and Courtney's personal battle with an eating disorder.

- The story of how she built the Courtney Black App and made it worth millions.

- How can drowning in hard work often act as a detriment to success?

- From founder to leader: Courtney's entrepreneurial journey.

- What's next for Courtney and her app?

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Ep.17 'Failure Was New To Me, I Wasn't Ready For It' - Fisayo Longe On Forging Your Own Path To Success. Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

Fisayo Longe is the founder and CEO of Kai Collective, the womenswear brand offering attainable clothing with luxury aesthetics. A brand crafted intentionally to make women feel their most confident Kai Collective is one of London's 'most talked-about online boutiques, Fisayo was personally recognised for her success on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Art & Culture list in 2021.

Fisayo launched Kai back in 2016, a time when her popular fashion and travel blog 'Mirror Me' gained popularity and simultaneously began to attract large brand partnerships. Exchanging accounting for fashion and entrepreneurship, Fisayo went on to focus on Kai full time, her iconic Gaia collection her main product for growth. Still a bestselling print to this day, the Gaia dress went viral in after Fisayo wore it to a BAFTA party in January 2020. Despite the pandemic, the Gaia dress sold out immediately with thousands left waiting, ending up in the wardrobes of several A-listed celebrities including Saweetie and Jackie Aina.

Recently, rather than forcing herself to continue running the business, Fisayo took the brave decision to publicly step back from Kai to get herself a break and add a little work-life balance. Reconnecting with her business, Fisayo realised that taking care of herself meant she was also taking care of your business, as her break sparked inspiration, creativity and productivity. As result, Fisayo's brand continues to evolve and flourish - I can't wait to see which celebrities wear Kai next!

Topics:

- Self-doubt and imposter syndrome in an industry with no experience

- Fisayo's inspiration and concept for Kai Collective

- 'I was on Right Move looking for the house I was going to buy the next day in cash' : Fisayo's initial misconception about business success.

- The power of limited edition products and community in business

- 'Copycat culture' in the fashion industry

- Burnout and business breaks

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Ep.16 How Finding Your Niche Will Help You Defeat The Odds, with Sharmadean Reid MBE Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

Sharmadean Reid MBE is a leading entrepreneur and beauty visionary on a mission to digitally connect like-minded females. She is the founder of The Stack World, an exclusive platform for female founders, leaders and entrepreneurs to connect and share experiences.

Sharmadean is a serial entrepreneur with three impressive startups. Before launching The Stack, Shamadean first took the beauty industry by storm with her business WAH Nails, which featured in collaborations with global brands including Nike and Marc Jacobs. A beauty enthusiast at heart, Sharmadean also developed 'Beautystack' - a booking platform for beauty professionals to gain clients and show off their unique style.

Expanding her life-long mission for female-driven empowerment Sharmadean then launched the Stack to connect like-minded women. With gender equality and female entrepreneurship at its core, Sharmadean started The Stack to provide exclusive business opportunities, education and networking for business-minded women at the cost of just a small monthly fee. Sharmadean stands up for all females and has also expressed her concern over the lack of diversity in investment funding, among just 1 of 10 female founders to receive venture capital funding in the UK in the past decade.

Topics:

- Founding the trendiest nail bar in London WAH Nails

- The story of BeautyStack and the jump to tech.

- The Stack World: the exclusively female portal for business

- How the odds are stacked against female founders in business

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Ep.15 Why Stress Is Your Superpower, And How To Cut Out The Bad Bits - The Science-Backed Method with Physiologist Oli Patrick Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Oliver Patrick is a leading physiologist, entrepreneur, and expert in lifestyle management who is on a mission to teach others the skills required to build stress resilience. A multiple business owner, Oliver is both co-founder of the world’s most advanced health evaluation service Viavi and founder of the first lifestyle medicine gym, Viavi:be. He is also an admirable public and keynote speaker for functional and lifestyle medicine, for which he has extensive clinical experience.

Prior to entrepreneurship, Oliver was Head of Physiology at Nuffield Health, where he helped to set up the largest team of applied physiologists, well-being advisors and nutritionists in the UK. So far Oliver has already completely revolutionised the concept of traditional health screening frameworks - his primary aim to contemporise the delivery of well-being services within the corporate and hospitality marketplace for all levels of access.

In Oliver’s words as a society we are in the midst of a stress epidemic, and though largely considered a psychological problem, unknowingly, prolonged cognitive strain is one of the most significant contributors to ill physical health. Oliver suggests that our ability to mentally flourish lies in our lifestyle choices and the personal routes we take – on reflection this episode communicates a powerful message that I personally consider very important, making it a gracious addition to my podcast.

Topics:

- Early career, experiences and education.

- How he helped to develop the World's Most Advanced Health Evaluation Service.

- The Fight vs Flight response to stress.

- Hustle culture and stress at work

- When does stress become detrimental to our health?

- A lesson on how to reset and recalibrate.

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Ep.14 'I wanted to hold a pen, not a gun' - Activist Jaz O'Hara on the Reality of The Refugee Crisis Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

Jaz O’Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, an organisation and online community committed to supporting refugees and asylum seekers globally. The platform uses methods of innovative storytelling to share the narratives of refugees embedded in the crisis, inspiring others to get active and inform a new lease for change. Since its founding in 2015, The Worldwide Tribe has been met with overwhelming love and support by its followers, physical and monetary donations inundated by concern and care for the refugee crisis.

Jaz’s devotion to The Worldwide Tribe is inspired penultimately by her adopted younger brother Mez, an Eritrean who made a dangerous voyage across the world to flee compulsory military service. Amazed by her brother’s story, Jaz made a life-changing visit to a refugee camp in Calais, where she saw first-hand the terrifying conditions and extreme challenges that she realised all refugees have in common. Arriving back in the UK Jaz quit her job in fashion and devoted her career to the refugee crisis, intending to raise awareness, share stories and encourage people to help in any capacity.

Now a Human Rights Activist, Ted X and United Nations Speaker and Podcaster, I am blown away by the process of advancement Jaz has made to the global refugee community. Because of this, I have decided to donate all streaming revenue from this episode to The Worldwide Tribe. I urge you to go and see what they do, and if you’d also like to donate yourself please use the link below:

https://www.justgiving.com/prism-worldwidetribe

Topics:

- Introducing her refugee foster brothers - 'My adopted refugee brothers; the inspiration for everything I do'

- Jaz's life-changing trip to the notorious Calais 'Jungle' - a refugee camp in a humanitarian emergency.

- Making the switch to the charity sector from a career in fashion.

- Founding The Worldwide Tribe: a space for refugee storytelling.

- Hindering misconceptions of refugees and how we can help.

https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

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Ep.13 From 'Uncool' Niche to 9 Figure Business with Simon Mottram, Founder of Rapha Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

Simon Mottram is the Founder of Rapha. Hailed as one of the greatest marketers and business innovators in modern cycling; he made cycling cool. Having founded the brand in 2004, Rapha has transformed the industry and blurred the lines between fashion and cycling through its stylish, high-quality performance products, creative and engaging storytelling, direct to consumer model and innovative approaches to physical retail and membership.

Simon has been a passionate cyclist for more than 30 years and has successfully transferred his passion to the Rapha brand and internal culture. Prior to setting up Rapha, Simon specialised in brand strategy and marketing and worked for various firms and agencies - experience he later utilised to attract attention to his own brand. Rapha has since been deemed a ‘marketing machine’ and over the years has mastered the art of community marketing, reliant on a strong membership programme that connects over 17,000 cyclists worldwide.

After an exceptional decade of sales Simon sold the business for a cool $200 million to the heirs of America’s retail giant, Walmart. Though he remains active at Rapha as a shareholder director and founder, in December 2021 Simon stepped down as CEO to allow his business to excel and be taken to the next level. I am also pleased to have him on board my own vision for TALA as an investor.

Topics:

• Early years in finance and experience in branding

• Start-up years at Rapha and finding the niche

• Building authenticity and exclusivity into the brand

• Maintaining brand culture in the face of growth

• The future for Rapha and ‘semi-retirement’

• How to succeed as an entrepreneur

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Ep.12 'I would much rather a 5-figure guy who's going to exalt me than a 7-figure guy who's going to oppress me' - Candice Brathwaite gets real on female breadwinning. Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

Candice Braithwaite is the Sunday Times best-selling author, presenter, journalist and founder of Make Motherhood Diverse: an initiative fighting for equal representation for mothers and parents. Initially a content creator and 'mumfluencer', Candice began posting on her socials in 2015 to document her journey of motherhood, keen to disrupt the flawless 'yummy mummy' facade online. The authenticity of her account resonated with thousands online, empowering her to write her first of three bestseller books.

During the episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Candice about her revelations about being a black woman and mother. She shed light on a shocking statistic; that black women are 5x more likely to die in childbirth than white women. Candice herself went through a particularly turbulent first birth experience, meaning she could not be present in the first six weeks of her daughter's life.

Throughout Candice's story, there is grit, courage and perseverance. Her experiences of systemic racism, her concerns as a black woman, and her view as to what must now be done are told with light-hearted humour and energy. Candice also speaks for the first time about an online public attack from a fellow mumfluencer that forced her to 'go mute' online.

Topics:

- From marketing to mumfluencer: a whistle-stop tour of Candice's career

- Candice's mission: to make motherhood more inclusive

- The Instagram trolling scandal (an inside scoop)

- Systemic racism in healthcare and the inadequate care of black mothers

- Breaking the stigmas surrounding motherhood and abortion - 'I don't need your abortion story - your body your choice'

- The #1 problem with maintaining transparency online

- Dating and relationships

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Ep.11 Michelle Kennedy: From Billion Dollar Deputy-CEO to Raising Millions whilst Pregnant Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Michelle Kennedy is the founder and CEO of Peanut, one of the fastest-growing social networking apps for women focusing on fertility, pregnancy, motherhood and menopause, which has raised $23m to to date. Peanut was founded in 2017 when Michelle had her first baby, serving as a gift to like-minded mothers during their most uncertain and uncanny moments. Women now use the Peanut app for all sorts of reasons, whether that be trying to find a playdate for their children or networking with other working mums.

Having worked as Deputy CEO of dating behemoth Badoo, Michelle has extensive experience using swipe-right technology to match people online, her expertise invaluable to Peanut. While Peanut continues to flourish, Michelle has joined the chase for the next unicorn brand and is now a strategic investor in several early and late-stage start-ups including TALA.

While the internet is full of advice for women, in this episode Michelle shares the prestigious tale of how Peanut changed the female demographic forever. Michelle talks candidly about the importance of surrounding yourself with other great women, both in business and personally, being open to new experiences and knowing how to fail fast without getting broken by it. Michelle stands out as a true example of how to be a respected leader in today's society: ambitious and driven yet taking challenges with a heart and passion unlike no other.

Topics:

- Whistle-stop tour of career: tech and the dating industry

- Building and expanding the concept for Peanut

- The personal toll of entrepreneurship

- The beauty of making business mistakes

- 'Women making products for women' - it just makes sense.

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Ep.10 Everything You Need To Know About Raising Investment From Top Investor Jason Mahendran (Soho House, Rapha, Honest Burgers) Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

Jason Mahendran is a Senior Investor at Active Partners, one of the UK’s leading investment firms committed to the search for the next prosperous unicorn brand. Through his venture capital and investing experience, Jason has helped to build several outstanding consumer-based, founder-led brands including the reputable LEON, Honest Burgers and Rapha. Active Partners have also recently invested in my own brand TALA in our $5.7m seed round, Jason himself joining the board.

While getting your head around investment may seem like a minefield, obtaining funding could be the difference between making one's business a success, or having it never take off the ground. Investors like Jason offer so much more than just funding - they also provide founders with business advice, industry contacts and innovation, riding all the highs and lows along the way.

Today I get the inside scoop on entrepreneurship from an investor's standpoint, including the process of securing investments, marshalling resources and utilising opportunities to achieve the unicorn.

Topics:

• Early years in the retail sector at the Woolworths Group

• Investible businesses and their equally investible founders

• Should I seek funding for my business?

• 'The reality of pitching is NOT Dragons Den'

• Investment in TALA (I get roasted)

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