In Conversation with Verity Park of TALA X WILSoc
By Emma White
Having followed Grace Beverley since the days of GraceFitUK, the announcement of her new fashion brand ‘TALA’ back in 2019 came with great excitement. A similar sense of
excitement came with the announcement that TALA would be visiting our university as part
of Women in Leadership Society’s [WILSoc] ‘Empower Conference’. The society, which
prides itself in diversity and inclusion, holds the conference once a year to inspire the next
generation of graduates.
Grace Beverley is the founder and CEO of three brands: TALA, Shreddy and B_ND. All of
which have proved greatly successful for the Oxford University graduate. Grace has used her platform (which originated from YouTube) for positive change that is imperative to spark
the interest of our generation. Not only has she begun to challenge the stereotypical
content of ‘YouTubers’ by consistently producing content that is productive and informative
for young women, but she has done so whilst fully engaging in such side hustles!
Verity Park has not only worked alongside Grace on the launch of TALA but is also very
importantly a Leeds alumna herself! Verity has worked closely with Grace as a friend and
colleague, as a member of the ‘Gleam Futures’ management team. After graduating in 2016,
she has worked within Marketing and PR teams from Leeds to London and is now working
as a Talent Manager at Gleam Futures, whilst overseeing the development strategy of
TALA as an exciting start up.
Who are TALA?
TALA pride themselves upon the core values of diversity, inclusion and sustainability and so
were the perfect fit for an afternoon aimed at motivating like-minded women. Transparency
and honesty are unique to TALA’s business plan, and they very clearly have the figures to
supplement their sustainability practices. An incredible 92% of their products are upcycled
and all of their packaging is made from recycled material which is even further recyclable
after use!
TALA mean business when it comes to sustainability, and the closure of the website for
‘Black Friday’ evidences how serious they are about their customers making conscious
fashion decisions. Similarly, their use of Instagram as a platform to educate consumers is
revitalising its purpose as a marketing tool. Not only are TALA’s customers aware of the
positive impact their choices are having on the environment, but they’re doing so whilst
looking bang on trend too!
The brand provides a refreshing sense of hope amongst a market otherwise saturated in fast
fashion. Such hope is very easily submerged in negativity surrounding the fears of climate
change and global warming; TALA could not have come at a better time! Even further, their
high levels of Instagram engagement would suggest they’re becoming an ever-growing
leader in the market for sustainable activewear!
A Conversation with Verity Park
At the conference, Verity gave a very insightful presentation on how herself and Grace built
TALA from an idea to the business it is today. Afterwards, questions were presented by both
WILSoc’s President and then later, the audience. Below are a selection of Verity’s intuitive
responses on working for TALA and further advice on how you can build your own social
media brand, just like Grace!
What does your day to day look like?
“It literally never looks like one thing! I do different things every single day which is one of
the things I love about my job because I’ll be with different clients or I’ll be working on long
term career strategies for them. I might be going to shoots, attending press interviews,
putting pitches together or negotiating long term partnerships. Like I say, it really varies,
and that variety is what myself and I’d say most of my colleagues at Gleam love about the
job”
Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years…what’s the dream?
“I would like to think that by that point TALA will have expanded and hopefully will be
reaching a much bigger audience, and I’ll be able to help harness the direction of where this
goes/what this looks like. Similarly managing Grace’s career and profile as this develops is
something I feel really excited about”
What advice would you give yourself as an undergrad… what do you wish you would have been told?
“You’re probably going to get imposter syndrome with whatever you do, so feel confident
and know that what you have to say is valuable and don’t second guess yourself. I’ve found
that anybody at any level will feel like this, even Grace! Everyone would look at her and
think she would never feel negative or feel imposter syndrome, but it’s something she
speaks about regularly, so back yourself and know that sometimes you’re going to feel a bit
out of place, but actually you are valuable and that’s the reason you’re in the room”
As you said, TALA has more engagement on social media than any other leading brand in the field, why do you think that is and how is a relationship like that built with the consumer?
“Good question… why do I think that is? Well, we are really on our brand and tone of voice
on Instagram. You know what you’re going to get from us. We do a lot of work with
Instagram about how to best engage your audience as a brand using Instagram. Off the back of this we do lots of videos explaining our products and Instagram stories taking people
through features of our products. That kind of insight into the brand narrative is something
that people really want, and have been found to really engage with, I think that is one of the
things that sets us apart. Also, we were born a digital brand, so we started on Instagram and
that’s how we primarily did all of our marketing. I think that gives us an edge as well
because people know where they can find us.
Aside from Grace’s following, what strategies did you use to build your Instagram
community? Or could you recommend/ give advice to a smaller brand hoping to build their community?
“Yeah absolutely! So, there are a few things that are best practice. You should be posting
every day and you should ideally be posting more than once a day. The reason for that is we
see so many ads per day. Apparently, we scroll the length of Big Ben on our phone every
day, which gives you an insight into how we are bombarded with content, so you need to
get in there amongst the noise!
Give Instagram exclusives if you can, people are really moving away from curated content
and now want to see ‘the real stuff’. People want to see the people behind the brand, they
want to see how that product came to be and why it came to be, so build commerce into
the narrative on your stories.
Also, video is a huge priority for Instagram at the moment so make sure that you’re posting
lots of video content and don’t feel as though your IGTV has to be really beautifully edited
or beautifully shot. Film it on your phone and upload it there and then, like I say people
want to see things that are real. Use all of the features, as they are here to help you engage
with your audience. By that I mean stuff like polls, questions, music… all those things!”
I would like to give huge thanks to Verity for an absolutely invaluable conversation which
has given great insight into the world of social media marketing and the future for
sustainable businesses.
You can check out the TALA brand using the link below:
I would also like to thank everyone at WILSoc for your efforts to put together an inspiring
afternoon and comprising some great, informative questions!
Find more information on how to join Women in Leadership Society below:
https://www.luu.org.uk/women-in-leadership/
Join their Facebook group here:
https://www.facebook.com/luuwils/
And lastly, make sure to attend the conference next year!