Verity Bowditch | Extraordinary Life Stories

0:11Verity. John. I've been looking forward to this. Yeah, me too. Really excited to be here. Tell me, who is Verity Bowditch? That is such a hard question. And I don't think I can really define myself in a few sentences. I also think I've been on such a rollercoaster of a journey that I'm still really carving that out and defining myself. But my core values of things that I always have been and things that will never change is health and wellness enthusiast, Pilates lover, animal lover, really passionate about animal welfare, um a problem solver an opportunist in a good way entrepreneur entrepreneur i kind of hate that word you know entrepreneur but i would say hand in hand with opportunity yeah i guess like just putting things together and making something happen um yeah i make things happen um and i don't take life too seriously i'm here for the journey love that is there a destination is there a dream gosh is i mean yeah my dream sort of changes every year depending on what opportunities I have in front of me and what actually is going to be realistic.

1:16Yeah, there are a few dreams in there that I will make happen. But yeah, as I said, dreams change. Like when I was younger, all I wanted to do was just make a load of money. And then you go through and experience life and death and everything. You're like, actually, no, no, no, it's not just about money. Of course, you need to be like settled, but it's about happiness. It's about freedom. So well put. I think money is such a driver. And then if you achieve it, or even if you haven't achieve that you start to realize along the way and that comes with maturity and perspective right that there's so much more to life who and what were early influences for you growing up so i grew up as an only child i was raised by au pairs my mom was working a lot so i became really like independent um also french au pairs like i'd watch the dalmatians in french so i never got to like watch anything in english at all so really became independent um and did a lot of i guess play on my own.

2:10So I guess my own influence was myself and just figuring things out. And I think that's why I became such a good problem solver, is I went into school being like, well, I can do that. Why can't you do that? And when people ask me for help, I'm not the best at giving it. I'm not patient. I'm like, you should just figure that out yourself. That is really one of my downfalls. So I guess my mum was a big part of my life. She would just be like, you know, you can do anything. actually my first ever boss out of university which is if you ever listen to this he'll be like what why am I an influence but he taught me that anything was possible and if you want to get it was a sales job selling like event production if you want to get to the CEO of Yahoo actually then invested in clean kitchen later you can do it if you want to get to the MD of Twitter you can get it like you can reach anyone and I was what 21 years old at this point so I think that was a big in my life like literally if you put your mind to anything like you can do it I love that and you don't learn that in school right you learn that from your mother and obviously from a working point as well so she was leading by example which is interesting because you're now an opportunity creator entrepreneur there's a there's a key thing we talked about off off camera where there's less than two percent of VC funding goes to female founders right yeah and that's going to bring into a key part of what you're doing how much of knowing that your mum was was out there working and which built that independence for you and that desire to how much of that do you think influenced that like goosebumps actually I think like massively and I think I always had to be the best at anything I did so I therefore became like an all-rounder I was all good but never like amazing at anything um so yeah I had a huge part and I think I always wanted to achieve but I also don't think I'm naturally intelligent.

3:59I think I just worked so hard. I got this really massive work ethic from my mum and I think she'd be proud of me if I was working but she didn't tell me to work. The only thing I wouldn't do is practice any instrument. I couldn't do that. I hated it. I'd rather be working than hanging out. But you've kind of done both, actually. You've kind of combined it. I was going to ask a different question but in terms of working, hanging out, that actually kind of almost brings Made in Chelsea into play and not so much the hanging out but being yourself lifestyle yeah so actually that that workaholic side to you i mean yeah i want to know how that came yeah yeah you embrace it you do embrace it and you use it really well but tell me how maiden chelsea came to be because there's there's an academic side you went that route oh yeah if you fast forward to then yeah and my dad i remember he being like you cannot go on that show i was like and he'll still call it the only way to Chelsea or something.

4:55I'm like, guys, come on, like, get a grip. Like, really disappointed in me, like, going on the show. Like, I don't understand, like, there's opportunity there. That's why I'm doing it. Because, and actually, I wish when I went into it, anyone doing reality TV now, it's like, know your goal before you are into it. But I really was just, like, riding the wave of a new experience. But it was new. I mean, I bought a life. Like, how cool was that when you were, what, I was 23 when I started doing that. Because your dad you know I'm going to kind of be the same in context of you know they grew up with no social media so tv was just a box with channels and it was it was entertainment there was no major influence out of it you can build you can use that word influence right you can build a career around it now he wouldn't have necessarily known that whereas I guess there was enough you grew up around to know this is an opportunity yeah exactly he's very old school like doesn't like tattoos etc that kind of like vibe but traditional very traditional where reality tv now is i guess this is kind of reality tv like we're living it um i think reality tv is great i really do um but i think having given that platform like i didn't earn those followers a lot of people really work hard to do social media i think a lot of influencers from reality tv took that for granted and you can earn a lot of money through brand deals so i sort of achieved that money thing by not really working hard for it.

6:13So I felt a little bit like a fraud. I'd say your core message that unites everything I've seen you put out is authenticity. It's verity, being verity, even to the point where there's some really natural kind of selfies. I think too much sometimes. But it's you. And you might be promoting a skin product, you know, you might be a skincare product or something, but it's still you being you. And that, you kind of said that there was this instilled belief from you in a young age I've got two daughters 13 and 15 growing up now in a world where they don't want to put anything out on social media yeah but I went through that I went through this this is what I was going to ask you right cool so I to start off I was like I don't care like I don't care that I've now I had 20 ,000 followers didn't care I'd put anything out and then only not that recently maybe like two years ago I don't know what happened maybe it was because I was building a business and there was a way more like press eyes on me because it mattered industry perspective yeah and i had i had something to lose maybe that's what it was yeah i would then go oh maybe i shouldn't put that off and then maybe close down my authenticity a bit more that's really interesting so having a purpose so like a teenage girl that's just putting herself out there to potentially be bullied to potentially um troll like people aren't nice out there no and a lot of that comes from jealousy right so this is where for sure yeah but if you've got a purpose if you've got a mission, if you've got a reason to post, I guess you cut through that.

7:41So let's bring up Pilates. Yes. Because it's a passion of yours, right? So passionate. And so when you put out your posts and anything on social media about that, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks as far as you. Am I right in saying? Because it's just you and you're putting out what you... Yeah, and I guess it's got like scientific backing behind it. People can't really judge. Yeah, people can't judge it because it's my business that I've created. And I know that that is it. Yeah. yeah i guess i'm very confident in that yeah so tell me about pilates i've got reformer at home which i don't even know how to use um but i know and and it's why my wife got it in the first place you know she was enjoying uh going to pilates classes getting the benefits from it it's just not something that i've got involved in what are the benefits and you know tell me i think everyone will end up being addicted to pilates no matter how old you are like it's just vital like you go to the doctor and you have an injury they say do pilates like it's a natural progression from it's like it's just self-made medicine really but I got into it so my mum's been a plastic instructor like on the side for years so I would go to classes when I was like 12 thinking it was the most boring thing in the entire world so you haven't always loved it no I'd be like oh can you like speed it up a bit more because I was into like I'd run loads and I'd just take everything to an extreme in life okay so that's my experience you do some stretches change the bands and it's like and i've got my weights over there because i've got a gym at home and other things i'm like surely i just need to get over there so there's a patience element to it right well you're not doing it right clearly clearly if people say that pilates doesn't work they're not doing it right i didn't say that okay definitely not i just i patience better yeah i guess it's patience but i think also my mom's classes were from an older generation and the pace was just too slow for me I thought, I'm not working out here, I'm not breaking a sweat, like this is a waste of my time and time is precious.

9:31But I really got into it actually when I was doing Made in Chelsea and you had a lot of free time when you were filming. So I thought, well, I'll just, you know, I have a background in like human biology. Surely I can just take this test and become a Pilates instructor. And where I used to, I'm really into like looking after myself and health and wellness and exercise, always have just absolutely loved it. But I used to, as I said, run loads, like do like Barry's boot camps, do HIIT workouts. And it would spike my cortisol, my stress hormone level so much that I have a completely different physique to now than I did then.

10:06Now I'm so much leaner. I've got less water retention because I'm looking after balancing my hormones. And Pilates is the best thing to settle your hormones. so like obviously we have like a cycle as women and when you're in your luteal phase that is when you should not be spiking your cortisol so you shouldn't be stressed at work you should be really looking after that because it just doesn't go together so pilates is great for that especially hormone balancing um it's great for your posture of course you're targeting your micro muscles not you know you so you're still sculpting your whole body but you're not sort of like building yourself up people sort of want a different physique and also it's going to prevent injury so I'm never going to have back pain in my entire life for fingers crossed um because I'm looking looking after my body I'm nourishing it and nurturing it not hammering it in the gym and I don't have to leave the house to work out so true so someone watching listening to this now is like that sounds amazing I've never heard of this or I knew about it but didn't know it did all that how do they connect with you and my point being that you've got actual classes do you have an app Do you have some way that, because you come at it from a passionate point of view, your own lived experience, but also a scientific point of view, because that's part of your academic, you know, your chemistry, if you like.

11:23Yeah, doing Pilates is because I can bring in, I'm probably one of the only people that uses their degree. And I use it a lot during Pilates and talking to people about how they can improve their health and well-being. But I guess connecting with me, I do amazing classes in the coolest locations, like Sunrise Pilates at the Sky Garden, where I'm teaching like 150 people and just like creating the energy and people going, that was really cool. I love creating that experience and people understanding their bodies and also like correcting people's technique. And they go, oh, yeah, I feel that now.

11:53like thank you or even teaching a client who has back pain now has come so far i get a lot of reward out of that but then fulfillment fulfillment yeah and also i think i've been through a real big career journey but i think a big thing is when you're deciding what you want to do is lifestyle obviously what you're passionate about but what lifestyle do you want i've had a career where i had to stay in london but now i have an app where i can film classes globally travel i mean that's the dream right you can make money wherever you are and i'm looking and you can bring an engagement engaged audience wherever all over yeah i love that exactly there's a lot you said there that isn't just physical it's mental so like you talked about running and all things you've done and pilates is clearly locked in as a as a constant made a business out of it yeah but in terms of practicing the mental fitness if you like you know you seem super present super positive yeah does that come from pilates as well or do you do other things as well do you get out for walks do you kind of meditate you know me in meditation i wish i could do that though not a chance i think exercise is just the best natural medicine ever and i think that is probably why i'm such a positive person because i try and work out even if it's for 10 minutes i think just reconnecting with your body realigning yourself i restructure my goals i rewrite my lip i always write lists like what i need to achieve that day physically write them down yeah every morning i'm in my notes all the time are you morning routine do you have a do you have a set kind of i try yeah it's a challenge right no it's literally whatever's in front of me i'm like go let's just let's go but i mean routine wise i will always do pilates even if it's like i'll be like on my phone doing glute lifts working at the same time but so that's probably yeah i just i think pilates really is addictive because and also running i do really love running so apparently i think this is right 80 people 80 percent of people after 30 don't sprint and sprinting is so important because you're working your cardiovascular system you're stopping these things called free radicals going around your body like harming you and aging you so everyone listen to this start sprinting um so i will sprint for like 20 minutes like hang on you can't sprint for 30 seconds this is really interesting so in lockdown i got back into running yeah and i read about this whole sprint thing and i felt amazing for it's really annoying because you reminded me I actually went out of my life but you're right as a kid you sprint to do stuff as an adult you don't.

14:18And how amazing do you feel when you're sprinting? When you say you sprint for 20 minutes where? Because like and what I and you go for bursts right so you're running but then you build up to a sprint and you get and you feel every you feel your strides get longer you feel every posture go up and yeah exactly and you just build so many endorphins and you really feel like you can achieve anything after sprinting. I remember that feeling, I've got to get back to that. I've totally dropped it. And I get that with running. And if I'm then going to sprint, I would be concentrating on my next sprint.

14:44And God, that was hard. But I'm going to do it again when I get to that tree sort of thing. And then that's good because it keeps me present in the moment, but I stopped thinking about other things. So it's just that whole juggling, keeping it all going. Exactly. And I think with Pilates, there's so much to think about. You need to be thinking, there's like principles of Pilates, like flow, concentration, core, breath, precision of movement, all these different things that if you have a good teacher, you physically cannot be thinking about anything else. Like it is therapy. Yeah. So when we first started talking, there was this whole kind of opportunity creator entrepreneur.

15:20Being an opportunist, is that a bad thing? 100 % not. No, if you're an opportunity creator, which probably is what aligns us, you're curious. You're looking, you're talking to people, you're seeking knowledge. I mean, that's that's that's interesting for other people not just for myself i'm thinking actually you can do if you meet this person you can create this whole new business or why don't you try doing that so it's not just always for myself so what are you doing to satisfy that because you've got pilates which is obviously like a really important kind of baby you've created but what other things are you doing yeah so i used to have a business i've walked with start the year called clean kitchen which was vegan fast food long story they ended up um putting meat on the menu i guess that was a whole other conversation um but through this journey i had of three years of starting a business raising five million working with some of the best brains in the world like we have the exeo of mcdonald's involved we have one of the biggest rock stars who i can't say someone dendena involved and you brought these people into the ecosystem exactly you did all that as the entrepreneur yeah like brilliant opportunity creator yeah i know didn't really work out that well but um but you But you've proven concept.

16:28You did all that. Yeah, of course. So I can tell there's a negative of frustration there from it. But you've built a platform and you've built a personal brand as Verity to do that again, right? So what do you want to do now? Yeah, and I think from that experience, I thought, I need to tell the people that they can do this. And if you're at school, I never really knew I wanted to be at school. That really bugged me when other people knew. I can parallel that. it's like this actually does exist like pure success and is having your own freedom and being your own boss and starting your own business I mean it's not hard if it was easy everyone would be doing it of course but I really want to empower especially females to just go for it and there's so much so basically I started a founders club to answer your question um where I get bring people together create opportunities for them and help them maybe raise investment put their pitch date together help them with their business plan and ultimately just give them the confidence to just go for it and most of my calls and chats with people they go yeah like thank you so much for that I didn't really believe in myself that I could do that but I don't know why we have these like negative self-thoughts that we can't do something so you're connecting all sorts of people and ultimately building opportunity on from that so that's a that's a business that could flourish into all sorts of other areas right is that what you want to do you want to be known as someone that's connecting and building opportunities.

17:53Yeah, exactly. And as you said at the start, like 2 % of VC funding goes to females. Like, why is that? That's like kind of an embarrassing stat. But I also don't think that that's being done in the industry in purpose. It's because, you know, a lot of males have these leadership positions. A lot of them are, you know, the decision makers in VCs and there's more and more female entrepreneurs coming through. And I'm just so passionate at telling people, like, you can do that. like go for it like anything is possible is there a confidence issue there so i'd love to know from like almost uh uh if you sort of added up all the conversations you'd you you've had are they lacking confidence because i wonder whether there's an archaic broken system that means that that's why less than two percent of female founders get funding which you could point at but then is there also um a lack of confidence from females that can back themselves and they need and want someone else to tell them they can do it that's been there done that yeah absolutely I think confidence is a huge thing but I also think having been in business with a lot of males like females can't not by everyone they can be undermined so when you think that you're not good enough at doing something or it's you know suggested that confidence gets knocked so it's not you know it's not an innate thing it happens because of you know your life experience and what you've been through so it's all about building these females up being like no no you can do that you know just because you're a female doesn't mean you can't do that just honestly go for it and I think negative self-talk as I said like as females that we shouldn't be good enough or you know we can't do that and yeah I'm just I just love pushing people and then and people say thank you so much you're great at that and you've got you've got a twinkle in your eye of drive um enthusiasm passion yeah with your own lived experience what's the one piece of advice you give them first of all go for it if you keep putting it off and wait for perfection it's never going to happen um i think launch when you're like 80 ready with a business sometimes you never know when you aren't ready um actually the one piece of advice has to be passion like if you're not doing a business that you're not passionate about you're never going to get through like everyone has highs and lows in businesses but when you hit those lows in business because you're so passionate about that thing you just have that drive and determination to get through it so people who but also you might not be passionate about software but you could be passionate about who you're working with or you could be passionate about the problem it's solving so find a reason for that passion like so my clean kitchen was saving animals like so passionate about that and where did that come from animals yeah so my mom used to rescue all different kind of animals what off the road oh yeah everything like my dad carried a sheep home once i was like people didn't think I'm absolutely nuts.

20:38So I always had sheep and the sheep would like, they'd leave the back door open, the sheep would be in the house. So you lived on the farm basically? Well it wasn't even a farm, it was like, the farm was like inside the house, I had a Shetland pony in the dining room once. I was like, this is just totally nuts guys. Where was this? In a place called Oamoyne in Dorset. By the sea, lovely, but I think that's where I really grew my compassion towards animals. So Dorset's beautiful right, so actually there's a whole probably love of nature there as well that goes hand in hand. Oh yeah, exactly. Yeah, really passionate about nature, sustainability.

21:09But most of the sustainability reasons is because I don't want all the animals to suffer in the Arctic when the ice caps are melting. Like that's where it comes from. For me, it's like the biodiversity that's suffering. Yeah. There's a drive in you that tells me that there's all sorts of parts of your life that you haven't even begun yet that are going to be successful sitting here now because there's a lot of things you've already achieved and done that anyone would call a success. Yeah, people have said that to me and I'm thinking I don't feel like super successful yet. I feel like I'm just getting started.

21:41So how would you define success? Well, yes, when I was younger, it used to be I just want to earn over 100k a year, which is kind of crazy like success. Honestly, I think as a driven, aspirational person that didn't know what I wanted to do, I'm just paralleling. Yeah. Because I don't think there's anything to be ashamed about it. 100 % and I had material things that were actually part of that as well. I had posters on the wall of stuff I wanted to get. So I don't think, and yeah, but I want to know against, again, against all that we've been talking about, like all those things suddenly become really not so relevant.

22:15And so like, I want to know what you think is success. But I think when you were two, that's what cool did that. But then things in life happen. Like I lost my dad this time last year. I left my business that was like part of my identity this year. And having gone through, like I was really, really like, I think I was depressed and for me saying that like I'm such a positive optimistic I can't imagine you being depressed. Yeah me neither it was really tough times and I think the one thing I really like wouldn't sleep at night because I thought what was everyone going to say about me walking away from my business I feel really bad on my investors like that was really tough to get through and like failure I just felt like such a failure like lost confidence um so then having gone through that success honestly it's like it sounds so like cringy but it's just to be happy to be happy to be healthy and to have freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want that is that's success i don't really care how much money i do care because i'm so ambitious but and a lot of that sounds really harsh to deal with right a lot came to you once from your dad to then the business side of things but sitting now you probably can at least acknowledge you're a stronger more resilient version of verity you would love to have not gone through any of that I wouldn't pay like no one could pay me to go through 20.

23:30Totally. And I think but do you kind of get that you're actually you are in a stronger position. You are, you know, able to take on more challenge and be a better mentor. Absolutely. Because you've actually got this rather than someone that could say, well, what do you know? Well, let me tell you. Yeah, I think I've got a lot more fight in me now. I feel like people cannot tell me who I am, who I know, I'm what I can do, I can't do. beforehand I think I was maybe a little bit more controlled or like didn't know what you know what I was really good at or yeah I just wasn't so certain and now I'm like super certain so yeah I mean I've really have come so far in this last year and I guess if it wasn't for the last year then I wouldn't appreciate life as much as I do now and I really want to make the most of it now yeah like life is so precious no totally and so there's there's a few plates spinning there right So you've got the Pilates.

24:23Yeah. You've got the female founders. Yeah. And actually, we haven't covered that because you said the founders club, but it is very much female led, right? So can a guy get involved? Oh, yeah, of course. Anyone. I love it when the guy gets involved. And I bring people together. That's necessary. I don't think it works when, you know, look at the construction industry that suffering from mental health. There's not enough women in it, right? So it doesn't work when sectors become dominated by one sex. Yeah, it's working all together. and how can we, you know, you as guys, you have qualities that maybe we don't have as girls and like vice versa.

24:54So how can we really use that building it all together? But it's mostly female driven just because I've been through that process of raising investment, finding it really hard, being a woman in business, finding that hard, also coming through and enjoying it at the same time because there's perks of that. But it's, yeah, that's why it's mainly driven through the female led thing. I get that, which is super mission aligned with me, like I said, dad of two daughters and want them to be able to follow their passions and their dreams and have role models that they can look to and go, she's killing it and she's killing it, so I'm going to go.

25:25I'm going to give it a go. There's not enough education at school as well about being an entrepreneur and starting your own business. Why are we not taught all these basic things? We all get taught how to use a Bunsen burner. We're not taught financial literacy and entrepreneurship. With AI coming in that's taking away potentially so many jobs, you've got to start thinking the way that you do. And everyone will be working for themselves in the future because we're sort of brainwashed at school to just have a job. And, I mean, if you're going to get a job, doing something like, you know, having a skill like a plumber or being a carpenter, I think that's the coolest thing to do because that can never be taken away from you.

25:58But I think naturally as I feel like a lot of people want to be founders now. We've like glamorized this founders thing where actually it's bloody really hard to be a founder. It is. Let's open that up, right? because you're so raw and authentic on your social media which is where people can really kind of see you and see what you want to put out right the reality of insta versus so the reality of insta versus reality is that it's some hard graft right you know so whether it's me you or anyone that's putting it out there and kind of sort of making it look like it's not a lot of sweat and effort it's hard harder than working in a job because you could argue you just go at nine and you leave at five that's not my day but yeah business isn't for everyone you've got to really want it and you really as i said there's less serious lows like you'd be faced with serious serious challenges the bigger you get as well and when you start raising investment you need to be really like you really have to want that that's why my one piece of advice is you've got to be super passionate about it because that will help you get through anything yeah um yeah but it's starting a business for everyone but it gives you that you know that freedom and who wouldn't want to be able to do whatever they want whenever they want wherever in the world maybe some people don't but to me that's heaven yeah i get it freedom is is everything right yeah and they make your own decisions and i've got one final thing i want to ask you which is um something we've talked about off camera an aspiration of yours a dream of yours that you now want to put into reality yeah tell me what that is it's acting so I've secretly I also live by this thing we don't tell people things if you haven't done it yet you just so I've been secretly taking acting classes which was you know who's watching and listening right let's talk more about it and I but I used to be I was on my casualty when I was younger like people don't know that about me I was a childhood actress and obviously went into reality and stuff but that must have helped with reality TV right?

27:55It wasn't a massive... Oh yeah. Because you went academic but you had that experience as well. So they married. Exactly. And I just love acting. I come out of an acting nest and I'm just like, oh my God. It's the same as like running really. It gives me that adrenaline. And life is so short. So even though I'm maybe the third away through my life, like I'm going to do it and nothing is going to stop me. 100%. And I know you're making... Dream role. Dream kind of acting role. Oh God. It's got to be like a big old feature film, hasn't it? Yeah. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Well, I want to see that happen.

28:24All right, let's do it. Let's make it happen. I could talk to you for a lot, lot longer. That went so quickly. I know, but you're awesome to talk to. Yeah, thank you for having me. Looking forward to staying in touch as well. Thank you, Virati. Yeah, big things coming. Definitely.

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