Facing the Dragons

Facing the Dragons

In an emotional and heartfelt pitch to the Dragons Sharon Keegan, founder of support wear brand Peachylean secured £100,000 (circa €115,000) investment on the BBC’s Dragons' Den

Sharon Keegan has had more than her fair share of life’s challenges, emerging from postnatal depression, losing five stone and determined to get her life on track she launched her own fitness brand. The fearless founder entered the Den to grow her business even further. Sharon’s is a very human story of triumph over significant challenges and coming back from a low point in her life. After her weight loss journey and coming back from depression, with her two boys, Liam and  Bob, Sharon was compelled to help other women going through similar experiences and support them to gain confidence and self-esteem. And so Peachylean was born, a brand for all shapes and sizes with an all female design and management team that now sells worldwide.

Sharon pitched to the Dragons a few weeks ago and was successful in her bid as three of the five Dragons offered cash investments on the night. Sharon’s self-described ‘dream team’ of Dragons include Touker Suleyman, Sara Davis and Tej Lalvani who now share 30% equity for 100,000 pounds and bring experience of ecommerce, retail and lifestyle business to the table.

‘Pitching to the Dragons’ on the BBC was greatly symbolic, and a big turning point for me as I had to battle my inner dragon first. The battle to believe I could achieve such a momentous win, was, in itself a breakthrough. Having to Pitch to my own inner critic first, insuring her that I was good enough, brave enough, strong enough, and I could do it,’ said Sharon.

Here she is in her own words...

Tell us a bit about you , your early life, what you wanted to be and what you ended up doing?

Growing up I always wanted to impress my Dad, he was a businessman and an entrepreneur. I would sit and watch him as he did his paperwork in the evenings stapling invoices and dockets together and neatly piling all his stationary and papers on his desk. I was intrigued by the word entrepreneur. I loved the idea of business, I often played office with my toy typewriter and mini stapler in our garden shed while all my other pals were playing mammy's with their dollies and toy prams. I dreamed and visualised myself as head of a company, managing people. I was a bossy little madam, as least I was told I was by everyone around me, but this was a natural characteristic, a personality type, I was born bossy or some might say a true leader.

You’re a mum of two and you went through some significant changes in your life, you’ve been candid about postnatal depression, what happened to you and where did you get help?

I became a new mum late in life, I was 33 giving birth to Liam now six years old, and 35 having Bobby who is now two. I found it difficult to transition from busy business women and entrepreneur to a stay-at-home mammy. So much of who I was, which I now know to be my ‘ego’, connected with my role and my title as go getter business women. I found the transition to mammy a difficult one. I missed my title, I found it difficult to say I was at home with the kids, even though I understood I’d been given the most important title of my life -  ‘a mother’. I felt overwhelmed, sad, anxious and guilty for not being the best mother I could be. I fell ill with postnatal anxiety and depression. This is where my journey to self-love began. I built up the courage to ask for help, and over the past six years I have worked hard to understand my emotional intelligence and more about the ‘self’.  I think many people never really get to know their true self and they live in the shadows of others. They never get to achieve their ultimate dreams and goals as they believe that they are not enough.

You embarked on a significant weight loss journey, was that the first time you tried to tackle your health concerns around weight, what was different this time?

My journey of self-discovery led me to fitness, which helped me so much with my depression and also helped to shift my weight. I joined a local gym which had a crèche and for one hour a day I gifted myself ‘movement’. Movement of whatever weight I was carrying both physically and emotionally. Lifting the heavy weights in the gym was lifting my anxiety and stress, and in turn shifting the burden of five stone in emotional weight.

What was your motivation at that time?

My depression and anxiety was my motivation, I wanted to be a happier mammy for my boys. I was overworked, overweight, sleep deprived and full of anxiety and sadness. The only source of relief was lifting these heavy barbells increasing my feeling of confidence and achievement. I enjoyed it so much I took up Olympic weightlifting and CrossFit. This was truly a sport where you could only live in the moment so it became my mindful moment of the day, the one hour gifted to myself to lift the weight I'd been carrying for so many years.

Did these life experiences kickstart your entrepreneurial journey – or were you always keen to start your own business?

I started my first business when I was 19 importing spray tanning products from the UK and selling them at parties all over Dublin. This led me to a role with a large tanning company St Tropez Tanning UK as their tanning representative in Ireland. I went on to run an Irish subsidiary of a well known UK food company, Pieminister, selling food at events all around Ireland, this was so much fun!

I have always had an eye for business and had a couple of failed attempts along the way. Like a vitamin D skincare range that was a bit before its time. I needed millions to get it tested and trialled. I also needed quick cash to feed my boys, so went back to the drawing board a couple of times. One of my dreams was to create a community where people supported each other on their journey to success. A space where people could say out loud what they wanted for their life without fear of judgement and the network around them would encourage them and maybe even make things happen. Something I needed and wanted so badly in my darkest days. I thought if I can get women into the gym with a product that makes them feel good we can get them moving for their mindset and then the community will follow, so that’s where I started. Peachylean was born!

What’s different about what you do – have you found a niche in the market?

Our Peachylean collection offers support like shapewear giving women the confidence they need to just start on their movement journey. Like spanx for the gym. Our brand speaks to the women who the bigger brands seem to have forgotten about. Some brands don’t even cater for women over a size 16, we cater from 6-26 empowering women of all shapes and sizes to get moving for their mind! Our community of 37k women are all achieving momentous goals and dreams meeting lifelong friends and increasing their self-confidence along the way. At Peachylean we teach women it's ok to love yourself first, we support the everyday everybody.

When the pandemic hit what happened to your business?

Back in April 2020 our sales went crazy, we increased our turnover by 300% year on year. This year we will do five times last year’s revenue so Covid  restrictions have been good for our business. We sell online, have next day delivery and very low returns. Our biggest problem is accessing enough stock. We sold out very quickly so we had no stock for a few weeks in May.

When the pandemic hit what happened to you?

I tragically lost my little brother Alan in March 2020, two days into lockdown. It was the most horrendous and heart-breaking situation to try to deal with a business that was exploding. Everyday tasks were like climbing a mountain and I had my two young boys to home-school. To say it was challenging would be an understatement. Looking back it’s such a blur. I am so grateful to two incredible women Carol Mahon and Fiona O Carroll who stepped up and turned the business into a machine as they knew I needed added support at this time, without the support of these incredible women I don’t know what would have become of Peachylean.

So what was it like to enter the Den – and were they as tough as they appear on TV?

The Dragons were so lovely, I was a little afraid of Peter going in, as he has a history of being a little harsh. But the whole team at the BBC are lovely and so positive about the brand. The team all ensured we were safe and covid guidelines were met, we had to stay in bubbles and keep our distance. Pitching was the easy part, it was dealing with my inner dragon first that was the struggle, My inner voice telling me I was crazy to do such a thing. Once I overcame that I was good to go, I felt my brother gave me strength on the evening, I was so calm, emotional but calm.

My dad was waiting in the dressing room for the news. It was so bitter sweet to come out and tell him the news we laughed and cheered and then cried, we both wanted Alan there with us.

Where to now for the year ahead?

We have now launched into the UK market and I am in talks with Australian distributors. Our Dream is to conquer the US market and we think that timing is everything with our mission. After the wrath of a global pandemic we are better placed than ever to teach women to face their fears, move for their minds and achieve their ultimate goals and dreams. Visit peachylean.com. WW