Grace Beverley: How To Build A Multi-Million Pound Empire At 24

Feb 22, 2021 1h 58m 18 insights
Grace Beverly, CEO and founder of two multi-million dollar companies, discusses her journey as a young entrepreneur, the personal costs of success, and struggles with mental health and burnout. She shares insights on navigating business challenges, prioritizing self-worth, and finding balance in an all-consuming career.
Actionable Insights

1. Prioritize Self-Worth Over Validation

Focus on building internal confidence and self-worth rather than relying on external validation, especially from social media, as external praise can act as a temporary bandage for deeper insecurities.

2. Treat Mental Health Like Physical Health

Take mental health seriously and address issues proactively, rather than waiting for physical manifestations like seizures, and extend the same compassion to yourself that you would to others facing similar struggles.

3. Business Owners Should Get Therapy

Engage in regular therapy to process the constant chaos and pressure inherent in running a business, as you are not designed to endure such stress without support, and it prevents issues from accumulating.

4. Recognize and Respect Your Limits

Acknowledge that working hard does not mean working all the time; learn to identify when you need rest, when creativity is low, and construct a working week that allows for a livable pace, as even machines have limits.

5. Hire People Better Than You

Recruit individuals who are experts in their specific disciplines to avoid being a bottleneck and to allow the business to grow beyond your individual capacity, overcoming the ego-driven urge to be involved in everything.

6. Integrate Productivity and Self-Care

Avoid binary thinking about work and self-care; recognize that sometimes self-care is the most productive thing you can do, and conversely, completing a long-delayed task can be an act of self-care.

7. Focus on Doing Existing Work Well

Resist the urge to constantly pursue more new businesses or projects; instead, focus on executing current ventures with patience and excellence, as growth can be achieved by deepening existing efforts rather than always expanding.

8. Empower Your Team as Founders

Encourage employees to act as founders of their specific projects, giving them responsibility and decision-making power, as this empowers them and often leads to better performance.

9. Rationalize and Process Criticism

Learn to rationally evaluate criticism, deciding whether it’s justified and requires a change in behavior, or if it’s an opinion that can be dismissed, as humans are not designed to process constant feedback without a rational filter.

10. Maintain Diverse Friendships

Surround yourself with friends from various backgrounds and career stages to stay grounded, gain different perspectives on workplace issues, and ensure you receive honest feedback rather than constant praise.

11. Monetize Free Content Gradually

Start by monetizing content you are already giving away for free, such as through an ebook, and allow your business to grow gradually from residual income rather than expecting an immediate ’eureka’ moment and massive scale.

12. Test Business Ideas Incrementally

Before fully committing to a business idea, test it out gradually, perhaps through surveys or small-scale launches, to validate its potential and build confidence in its viability.

13. Embrace Imperfection in Early Stages

Don’t strive for perfection in your initial products or branding; accept that early efforts may be ‘crap’ but are necessary steps in a gradual process of learning, improving, and replicating what works.

14. Outsource Early and Strategically

Delegate tasks early in your entrepreneurial journey, especially those that others can do better, to free up your time to focus on the unique contributions only you can make to your business.

15. Avoid Instant Online Reactions

Resist the pressure to react instantly to feedback or criticism on social media; take time to process emotions and thoughts before responding, as immediate reactions are often regretted and lack nuance.

16. Define Your Own Life Balance

Understand that ‘balance’ is not a fixed 50/50 split but rather a personal assessment of what makes you happy and fulfilled at a given moment, even if it means a heavy focus on one area like work.

17. Leverage Audience for Idea Validation

Utilize your audience or community to gauge interest in new product ideas or initiatives by simply asking them, which can provide valuable insight and validate concepts before significant investment.

18. Contextualize Personal Success

Acknowledge the various factors contributing to your success, including privilege, the unseen hard work, and coping mechanisms, to foster humility and provide a more realistic perspective for others.