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Beautiful Misfits

“I felt I could handle it…” with Jane Shepherdson

Beautiful Misfits

Mary Portas

Society & Culture, Business

4.5834 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest this week has been called “the most influential woman in fashion”. We both met starting out at Topshop in our 20s, before Jane Shepherdson went on to put Topshop at the beating heart of cultural relevance in a way no other high street brand had been before. But then – to the surprise of the outside world – she walked away from it all. To me, Jane is a beautiful misfit because we share something very important – she was not driven by money, or growth, but instead by creative instinct. As fast fashion grew, and the internal culture of the company under Philip Green became too much to bear – Jane needed to find distance from the machine she now saw as a monster, and sought out a new way to channel her creative energy.   She explains the anger she felt at having to let go of her “baby”, the protection she had to put around her team, and why she’s dedicated her career ever since, to doing fashion differently.  Follow Mary Portas on: Instagram: @maryportasofficial Facebook: Mary Portas And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: beautifulmisfits@portasagency.com and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Running a small business can be tough. I mean, you're not just the CEO, you're also the marketing, the finance manager and everything else in between.

0:08.5

Technology, however, and digital tools can play a big part in taking on some of these tasks, giving you that much-needed headspace to focus on running your business.

0:19.5

But it's hard to know where to start.

0:21.7

Which tools are right for you?

0:22.9

How do you go about integrating them?

0:24.6

And when is the right time to make the investment?

0:28.0

MasterCard's Strive UK programme has been set up to make it easy for small business owners

0:33.1

to access the support needed to digitise,

0:36.1

whether that's incorporating accountancy tools

0:38.5

or new digital payment methods.

0:41.3

Through free guidance, helpful tools

0:43.4

and personalise one-to-one mentoring,

0:46.2

Strive is empowering small business owners

0:48.4

across the UK to succeed.

0:51.5

For more on how Strive UK could help your business,

0:56.2

visit mastercard.com.com.

0:59.9

Dot UK slash drive. Okay, here's a show.

1:11.6

It took until I was 37. Yes, 37 to realise one thing. I was a misfit. Before then, I'd always felt kind of out of step with the world.

1:16.6

At school, you know, when everyone was towing the line

1:19.6

and wanting to achieve high academic results, I actually didn't care about that.

1:23.6

And I was the naughty one.

1:26.6

As a teenager, I lost both my parents at a time when I didn't

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