Today we’d like to introduce you to Tally Bevis
Hi Tally, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m originally from Springfield, TN, a small town just north of Nashville, and I graduated from Belmont University in 2019 with a Bachelors of Business Administration. I was a Music Business Major in Curb College. As a 19 year old, I co-founded an event production company called Octo Music Group with a friend of mine. We produced EDM and Full Band shows ranging from 50 friends in a basement to 1,400+ attendees at a 3-stage music festival at the Nashville Fairgrounds. We learned a ton, grew a bunch, and failed forward. Through my tenure as Managing Director of Octo, I secured sponsorships, curated marketing campaigns, managed volunteer groups, and negotiated contracts. I laugh now at our absolute hustle. I use the example often that at 20 years old we were legally selling drinks at our shows with ABC bartenders and police force present. We couldn’t buy a drink from our own show’s bar, but it didn’t matter.
We were so proud of what we had built, and we knew we had struck a chord with Nashville college students in a town that is very 21+ focused. Our goal was to promote rave culture without drug culture, and to create a safe space for under 21’s to have have fun. I’m proud of what we created. While my journey has shifted since selling the business to my partner in 2019, I consider my college entrepreneurship era as a massively important foundation to the success I have today. We were told no, and so many doors were closed in our face. Plus, we were very often not taken seriously simply due to our age. Sometimes that’s just the fuel you need to do it anyways — to do it in spite of.
Since graduating from Belmont, I’ve been a freelance marketing professional, and worked as a billing administrator for a law firm north of the city during the pandemic. COVID-19 undoubtedly played a huge role in so many of my peers’ careers and experiences. In an effort to earn scholarships to pay Belmont student loans, I also started competing in the Miss America Organization. I didn’t grow up in the “pageant world,” so it was a big shift and learning curve. On July 3, 2021, after many years of competing, growing, and earning scholarships in the process, I was chosen as Miss Tennessee 2021. The job of Miss Tennessee was a full-time, incredible opportunity. I earned over $36,000 in Academic Scholarships and competed at the 100th anniversary Miss America competition. I drove over 20,000 miles in my trusty red jeep across the Tristar State working on voter registration and civic literacy efforts. After a year of memorable appearances, building organization sponsorships, and serving as Miss Tennessee, I stepped into a new chapter. Like Octo in college, being Miss Tennessee honed skills and built confidence in me that set me up for a season of entrepreneurship, professional development, and a really exciting journey ahead.
Now, I’m the founder of Electrofy, a marketing agency for mission-driven brands and people. My life is unrecognizable in the best ways, and I’ve grown tremendously in the process. My gratitude is overflowing, and it’s an exciting, exhausting time to be alive as an entrepreneur.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
During a recent coffee catch up, I had a college friend ask me if things “just go my way.” Honestly, I took it as a compliment (after laughing because it couldn’t be further from the truth). In a digital world, people often share the worst of days online. You see it all – their biggest valleys, setbacks, and challenges. While that’s okay, I find that I face struggle and challenges best in private until I come to the surface once I’ve faced adversity, failed forward, and I’m on the other side with a lesson learned. When my friend asked me that, it was a good reminder that it’s okay to share the down moments! Vulnerability coming from a woman has been historically seen (in a man’s world) as weakness. Now, there are incredible leaders in the female founder space that have proven that wrong.
Being an entrepreneur comes with a boatload of risks, setbacks, and challenges. Starting a business took tenacity (and to be honest WAY more paperwork that one gal has the bandwidth for lol). I leaned on mentors, asked for help, hired a bookkeeper, met with my accountant and definitely gave her a headache on more than one occasion. I scraped together the LLC fees, pitched to my warm market to find my first couple clients, and I got better at asking for support and help from friends. After 18 months of development and growth, I came out on the other side with a business I’m proud of and my last two brain cells intact (for the most part).
I say this to say — just because you don’t see someone’s trials online, doesn’t mean they aren’t having them. Give people grace, and just go for it. If you don’t know the answer to something, find someone who does. Not great at something? Delegate it. Have no idea how to start an LLC? Call someone who has one! Obstacles will hit you right when you least expect it. So, challenge yourself to EXPECT setbacks, and decide how you’re going to work through them. You are a bad*ss, and I believe in you.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At Electrofy, we believe that social media is more than just a collection of platforms – it’s a way to connect with your audience and drive real business results. We are a Nashville-based, full-service marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing, events, communications, content creation, and intentional influencer and brand collaborations. Our approach is human, high-touch, and personalized. Electrofy serves a diverse range of industries, including real estate, retail, food, fashion, tourism, music, politics, healthcare, technology, and entertainment.
At Electrofy, our mission is to empower brands through innovative marketing and event solutions, while fostering genuine connections, and prioritizing sustainable growth. We provide a human-centric, concierge experience to find the best fit for your brand and business, and we have a lot of fun while we’re at it!
We also are VERY excited to be developing The Electrofy Effect. I recently completed a Harvard Business School Sustainable Business Strategy certification and just got back from a summer in the Energy Field School at the Iceland School of Energy. As someone who believes green can be good for business, we are meeting clients at the cutting edge of sustainability and marketing. We wholeheartedly believe that for-profit is not a dirty word, and that incremental change can be good for business and our planet. Our mission is to help companies Get Good Press for Doing Good.
A company’s reputation with consumers and clients matters, and we’re thrilled to be expanding our offerings in this space! It’s an exciting time to develop relationships marketing campaigns as a way to see the return on investment of sustainability goals and environmental shifts in companies around the world. Consider us the translators between big business and environmental scientists that also know how to reach customers through marketing.
We’re anti-greenwashing, and we’re pro-business. It’s an exciting time at Electrofy, as we grow our Nashville HQ team and look to the future. While we already serve Nashville and beyond, we plan to expand client services to the UK in 2025. I can’t wait to see what we become, and the impact we can have in both traditional marketing services as well as in the consulting space through the Electrofy Effect.
If you have any interest in what we do, and are mission-driven, we’d love to hear from you. You can email electrofyagency@gmail.com for internship or team openings.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Entrepreneurship is a challenge worth facing. I can’t imagine a life now that didn’t look like this. While working for others is a valuable tool to learn what you like and don’t like, I encourage you to see it as the first step. Or, if you’re in a corporate or in-house role and enjoy being in a more stable position, my advice is to approach your work with an entrepreneurial spirit. The second you start taking ownership of the success of the business you work for, you become indispensable to the founder. Intrapreneurship exists because people take initiative and offer solutions. Be a solution-oriented, gritty go-getter in whatever role you’re in. It will serve you well, and you’ll learn a ton.
And by the way, have fun. Americans live to work, but a lot of the world works to live. Even as a founder, my goal is to build a life I love, not a business that takes OVER my life. Take time for little joys, small hobbies, physical activity that doesn’t make you miserable, and people you love. In a world in which you truly are the sum of the people you surround yourself with, I implore you to only take advice from someone you would trade places with.
My last thought is this. When I was 15 years old someone told me to treat a mentor the same on the first day as the hundredth day. Never take those relationships for granted. Express gratitude, ask questions, and listen with intention. It will take you to places you could only dream of.
Pricing:
- For more info about Electrofy’s services, or for speaking engagements, please email us! electrofyagency@gmail.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.electrofyagency.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenashvilleblondie
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/electrofyagency
Image Credits
Liz Courtney Photography
