Founded in the summer of 2013, The Beach People are sisters Emma Henderson and Victoria Beattie from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Inspired by their family, friends and seaside lifestyle, and their passion for creating beautiful and iconic products, their first collection of round towels sold out in weeks.
A few short years later and now they are building a globally admired brand of seaside luxe essentials to enhance one’s living spaces and life experiences from the beach to home.
Q. WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?
Victoria: There is inspiration everywhere, but for me and the fast-paced life I live, I need space to see it. Space that usually comes from a dip in the ocean or a walk in the hinterland with some time away from the hustle and bustle.
I find travel and getting offline the most inspiring of times for me. When I am completely unplugged and away from home, I often see clearly the things I want to create. Once I have that picture, I am able to work with Emma in creating a range for The Beach People. Our Community of sea lovers.
Emma: I’m always inspired by nature. My family and I recently travelled to New Zealand and I found the scenery breathtaking. A high light was Milford Sound, I found the colour and textures in the scenery inspiring. I take the time to switch off and let my mind be free and live slow, and then inspiration always flows. Travel, art and music always inspires too.
Q. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE PRODUCT TO DEVELOP?
Victoria: Emma and I usually talk first about the story we want to unfold and the product we want to include… My favourite project so far would be The Bedouin Journey. I was so inspired after reading an article on a Bedouin Women from the early 1900’s that we started looking into the colours, textiles and patterns of this culture and The Bedouin Journey was birthed… The Nomad Roundie from this collection would have to be my favourite piece I’ve worked on so far.
Emma: The Roundie for sure. It was our first product. I have loved watching the Roundies journey. It’s the best seeing people all over the globe enjoy something you put your heart and soul into designing. Everything Vic and I design, stems from our everyday life. What you see is practical, home and lifestyle products that we designed for ourselves and hope that you all enjoy them as much as we do… In the four years we have gone from designing seawares to entering into the home category with our bath collection, linen tabletop and bedding all in our signature coastal style. We have so many ideas in the pipeline I can’t wait to bring more to our sea loving community.
Q. WHERE DID YOU FIND THE INSPIRATION TO REVOLUTIONISE THE HUMBLE BEACH TOWEL?
Emma: Sitting on the beach one afternoon, watching our husbands surf I looked at all the things I had around us and I said to Victoria “Let’s do something. I think we should make round beach towels, want to do that with me?”. It was such a simple thought that came out of our everyday life. I noticed that no one was doing luxury seaside essentials. We wanted to put our style into the beach basics and we’ve expanded The Beach People brand to include bed and bath now. So fun!
Q. HOW HAS YOUR VISION FOR THE BUSINESS/BRAND EVOLVED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS?
Victoria: It’s blown us away, the public reaction to our business. In the beginning we were just happy to have some extra pocket money but we quickly learned we had to dream bigger. We are forever pushing ourselves and evolving our business to think bigger.
Q. HAS BEING IN BUSINESS TOGETHER CHANGED YOUR RELATIONSHIP AS SISTERS?
Emma: Yes, early on we learnt how to put boundaries in place so that we can switch off on weekends to enjoy each other’s company as sisters and friends. For example we only talk about fun things and we don’t talk about things like “how on earth are we going to fit all our stock in the warehouse”.
Victoria: I’ve learnt so much more about Emma since working with her and it’s so fun working with my sister. It has made us closer as we are on this crazy journey together.
Q. GREATEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR MOTHERS KEEN TO START THEIR OWN BUSINESS?
Victoria: Work will always be there but your children are only little once, take every opportunity to engage with them when you are with them and then don’t be too hard on yourself when you’re not.
Q. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT IN BUSINESS?
Victoria: I also love that we have made a place for people to enjoy coming to work. The flow on effect that has had on their families and the community is lovely.
Emma: Seeing people all over the world enjoy our product.
Q. HOW DO YOU PERFORM THE GREAT BALANCING ACT BETWEEN WORK COMMITMENTS AND MOTHERHOOD?
Victoria: I just do my best to try to enjoy each moment, if I am at work. I am at work and if I’m with Ted, I’m with Ted.
Emma: The ol’ balance game. I think when you stop worrying about balance you start to achieve it! From 5pm-7:30pm every day I’m with my children. No phones, no emails. I cook dinner, I jump on the trampoline or we all walk on the beach. Then dinner, bath, bed and I’m all theirs for that time. There are weeks when I have sick kids and balance goes out the window or I have a big campaign to shoot and I don’t have as much time for Josh and the girls but it all evens out and I know I just have to go with the flow.
Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY RITUALS?
Victoria: Absolutely. I journal, pray/meditate in the morning before anything else. It sets my day off on a good path. No devices in the bedroom, I put my phone/laptop down around 5pm and don’t look at it again until after my morning quiet time which is usually around 6am.
So I have 12 hours digital free a day. I have regular date nights with my husband and don’t work on weekends. In saying that when I am travelling on business it all goes out the window as it’s all work, work, work. So I just set these as more guidelines than rules and I keep them maybe 90% of the time.
Emma: Similar to Victoria’s. Vic is really passionate about limited screen time so I tend to do the same. We have really enjoyed this way of living.
Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY PERSONAL GOALS YOU ARE WORKING TOWARDS?
Victoria: I am hoping to spear my first fish this summer and also get Teddy on his first stand up wave on his own.
Emma: I’m big on “living the life you want to live now”. I’m working on doing more of the things that make me and my family happiest. More holiday and fun this year.
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