Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Janell Beacham. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Janell, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I came up with the name of my company because I was brainstorming ideas on what’s important that I want to convey to my women community, and the first thing I thought of was I want women to feel confidently who they are in their skin no matter what they are doing and that’s what Real Athletic Womens wear stands for (RAWW), feeling empowered, bold, worthy and RAWW through athletic wear.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Janell Beacham and I am from Dallas, Tx. I grew up being extremely active and being around sports. Therefore, naturally, I was drawn to anything sports oriented. I began playing basketball at a very young age which led me to a collegiate full ride basketball scholarship. With basketball being apart of my DNA, it was natural to stay active after college, on top of the fact my undergrad degree being in exercise science, it kept me in the athletic field by becoming a personal trainer. I always looked for comfortable, stylish, quality, and affordable athletic wear and sometimes it was difficult to find exactly what I had in mind, and as a woman I wanted something to make me feel confident from the inside out because we have our days where mentally we’re in a place it feels almost impossible to do anything active at all, and sometimes we just need that extra push to get us going, and for me that was athletic wear that made me feel confident and bold. So I wanted to intertwine the two by sending a message to my fellow women community that emphasizes the importance of self confidence and building it up through athletic wear. We are excited to move into some new phases within our brand by partnering up with womens organizations and giving a percentage of sales to those organizations to support the well being of women holistically. Also, we are looking to start speaking at local schools about total physical health from the inside out and how, we as women, are strong and empowered in every way. The discipline it has taken to not only start my business, but to keep it going has been a journey that I wouldn’t take back for nothing. It has taught me so much about myself. There is no easy way to achieve your goals, so you MUST sit down and get real with yourself and decide what do you want for yourself. That means I have to organize my thoughts, write them down, and focus on each goal at a time, rather small or big, and achieve them. What I am most proud of is women coming to me saying they feel so comfortable, stylish, and confident in my athletic wear. That is what I want to achieve through my brand, and to be able to see it come to life before my own eyes, means everything. The problem I solve for my customers is that they can have full confidence while they are working out that they are wearing quality materials that will support them through their workout routines and in everyday life activities. They can trust our products will be affordable, while not compromising on quality. What I want potential clients/customers to know about my brand is that we are dedicated to meeting your needs from the inside out and we want you to feel like you are apart of a women tribe that will support you through your journey, no matter what stage your are in life.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
The initial capital I used to start my brand was from my full-time job. Every time I got paid I bought a few items at a time for everything I needed to start my business. Then I was able to get a small business grant that provided additional help.
How did you build your audience on social media?
How I built my audience on social media is by word of mouth and using my main social media pages to have them follow me on my business page. Also, using the social media marketing tools by creating Ad’s is a great resource to use for audience growth. Another thing that helped me grow my audience is going to networking events and vendor shows. My advice when it comes to building your social media presence is to be consistent and repeat the same steps above over and over again. Finding a system that you see works to grow your brand is the key. Don’t stop till you see movement; then when you see movement, keep going.
Contact Info:
- Website: Realathleticwomenswear.com
- Instagram: Realathleticwomenswear
- Facebook: Realathleticwomenswear
Image Credits
Kharishma Patel